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Published: October 25th 2006
SIgn in Kota Kinabalu
Hmmm....hope I'm not in the need of a doctor while here.The Journey
Well, after 45 hours of straight travel I finally made it to the island of Borneo, none the worse for wear. And I must say the whole journey went quite smoothly, unless you count me almost missing my flight from Bangkok to Borneo. Here's the story:
A 10 hour bus ride from Princeton, BC to Seattle, WA. Uneventful. A one hour public transit bus ride from Seattle bus station to Sea-Tac airport. Quite eventful if you are a small town girl like me. For city folk I am sure what I saw and heard was normal everyday occurances. 6 hour layover in Sea-Tac where I met Crazy Dave who jumped out of planes for a living (very cool) but who was also drunk drunk drunk and incredibly 'friendly'. Managed to weasle my way out of sitting next to him on theflight. 13 hour never ending plane ride from Seattle to Taipei. Uneventful. 3 hour layover in Taipei. Met up with crazy Dave again, who apparently hadn't stopped drinking, as he was now slurring his words even more. 1hour delay in Taipei. Stressful, as this meant my connecting flight from Bangkok to Borneo had to be done in
just under 1 hour. Ask the stewardess for help, get bumped to first class for last five minutes of trip ( I didn't realize how lucky those bastards reallywere!), unboard early, RUN to customs to be first in line, get turned back as customs form not fully filled out, finish filling out form, butt back in line, get stamp, only 40 mins till flight leaves, run to baggage claim and wait 5 mins for bag, realize I'm at wrong baggage claim, go to right place and get bag, RUN through the HUGE Bangkok airport from arrivals to departures, elbow my way through throngs of people, find airasia terminal, 30 mins till flight leaves, get boarding pass too late to check my luggage have to carry it with my, RUN to departure customs, can't get through need to pay exit tax, go to pay booth, nope they don't accept American dollars, run to money exchange, back to pay booth, pay departure tax and don't get slip (I asked for one, she said I didn't need it!), go to departure gate, can't get through because no slip for departure tax, 20 mins till flight leaves, get slip RUN through throngs of people
Baby turtle
Okay, it's not real. But still kinda neat, yea? (Excuse me pardon me) and run and run and run some more, finally get to gait to see....
A delayed sign! Hurry up and wait.
So, made the flight, and am now in Borneo!
Kota Kinabalu
So much to say about the city! It's chaotic, confusing, dirty and smelly. The people are more than friendly and willing to help out, even if you don't need it. And it's wonderful!
Got in at 7pm yesterday, and after a quick (cold water) shower, went for a short walk about town. One thing I learned very fast is to really watch where I am going, as the sidewalks here are shit. Gaping holes perfect for ankle breaking, and all the curbs are different sizes, so one time you step off a 1/2" curb and the next a 12" curb. Imagine that when you are going UP the curbs! Needless to say a fair amount of tripping and stumbling. There are millions of places to choos from to eat, all of them basically open air roadside restaraunts that are busy busy busy and a little intimidating the first time. The nice lady myust have seen my wrecked condition and
Pulau Mandakan
Beautiful, hot and sunny. Perfect conditions for snorkelling and a very bad sunburn thought I needed a refreshment, so brought me the biggest bottle of beer I ever saw; 691mls. And I drank the whole thing. hahahaha Should have seen me getting back to dingy hostel, drunk, tired, and tripping up curbs.
Ahhhh....the hostel. Recomended by Lonely Planet as the best value for your dollar in KK. Hmmm...I'd hate to see the other ones, then. One toilet leaking, flooding the other two, so every time I pee I have to wade my way through yummy toilet water. Two out of three showers don't work, and one out of two sinks don't work. Dead spider on my bunk bed, and lizards on the wall. (Actually, I love the fact there are lizzards on the wall!) Lady who runs the place is super nice though, and they picked me up from the airport out of the goodness of their hearts. Also lent me 100MR so I could eat the first night, as I hadn't had time to change any money over.
Up at 5:30 this morning (wholly hannah that's too early!) for a walk around town. Saw the locals setting up for the markets. Throwing aside old rotten fruit for the new stuff,
Baby Orangu-tan
At Sepilok Orangu Tan Sanctuary letting it rot on the ground for the oh so skinny cats and unusually large rats. Bigger than NYC rats, even. Open air meat markets and fish markets, where workers were chopping up the meat for all the flies and humans to consume. Busy little people running back and forth, making sure their stalls are ready by chassing off the bums who have slept on them through the night. It smelled attrocious, and I couldn't help gagging a couple of times.
I am going there for dinner tonight.
Found a trail that led through the town, and of course had to take it. It was so bizarre. I stepped on to the trail, and in that one step left the city and entered the jungle. Huge freakin' plants with leaves literally as tall as I am. Hordes of bugs and mosquitos just waiting for a white foreigner to enter their domain with no insect repellant. And the cacophony of noise from the bugs! Monkeys flying from tree to tree (and very narrowly missing peeing on me), bugs 1/2" wide and 3" long. I did my best not to act like a typical girl when they were around, though
it was near impossible. And talk about hot and muggy. I believe if I had balls I would have sweat them off.
The afternoon led me to Pulau Msomething (the name escapes me at the minute) for some island walking and snorkelling. Oh the snorkelling! It being my first time around coral and tropical fish, I was awed. Actually, I started crying, which eventually led to mask and mouthfuls of horrible saltwater, that leaves a brackish taste in your mouth for hours. I just couldn't get over how I was swimming in schools of fish of all shapes and sizes and colours! It was truly amazing. At one time I even had a little white fish charge at me three times by swimming as fast as he could right at my face, then turning away last minute. It was really quite funny and I laughed, which led to more mask and mouthfuls of saltwater. The stupid little thing even bit me as I was swimming away. Where upon I screamed, which led to...well, I'm sure you can see where it led to. I got an amazing wicked burn on my backs and legs from snorkelling. I had put sunscreen on, but I underestimated the power of the Borneo sun. The island itself was gorgeous too. Quite literally where the jungle meets the ocean. I am running out of adjectives to describe it all.
Back in the city for a shower and rest, and now out to the market for dinner. (Did you think I was kidding when I said I was eating there tonight??) and tomorrow morning off to Sandakan and Sepilok for Uncle Tan's Jungle adventures and the orangutan sanctuary. Possibly some cave scouting and turtle island too. We'll see how it all goes.
I have rambled on famously here, and those who don't know me I am sure stopped reading eons ago, but I would just like to point out a few (glaring, I am sure) differences between North America, and Asia.
1. At Sea-Tac airport there are sharps conainers in bathrooms for the drug users. In Taiwan there are huge signs stating drug offenses are punishable by death, and in Bangkok the captian kindly informs us of the same thing.
2. At Sea-Tac there was a small army of customs agents and a list of routines passengers had to do to clear customs. In SE Asia there's one person with a stamp and an x-ray machine.
3. They really don't believe in toilet paper in this country. I had heard it, but really hadn't believed it up till now.
4. Umm....I can't think of anything else at the moment, besides for market food, tainted as I am sure it is. Laura, I think of you quite often here, and what your reaction would be to some of the things I have seen.
Love you all soooo much,
Cathy
PS one more thing to keep you reading more. I am loving it here. The trashy hostel, horrible smells, tons of ppl. I was worried I wouldn't be good with it all, but in fact it's just the opposite. I seems natural to me, that I am here. It feels like I was meant to be doing this.
I wonder if I will still feel the same two months from now!
PSS Sorry no pictures. Although I have taken a ton (of course) I couldn't be bothered to figure out how to do that on this computer right now. Besides, this computer is so old, I don't know if I can do it from here. Will update with pictures later
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Giles
Patricia Giles
OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!
You lucky bastard!! I was so excited to see and read your first posting!! I even started crying just because it was you and so far you are safe! (Hey, that's what Mom's are supposed to do so don't go giving me a hard time okay). God how I am going to love reading all of your postings. I am travelling vicariously (sp?) through you! You are going to have so much fun! So keep safe and continue to have loads of fun and doing so many interesting things. I am glad that so far the crowds have not been bothering you - after our two days in small city Kelowna where there were a FEW people I was a little bit wondering how you were going to manage the Asian crowds. LOL. Please take lots and lots of pictures, and don't forget to make sure you are in a few of them. I miss your face already :) Love you loads MOM