Borneo

Despite the fact that it was monsoon season and I spent 90% of the time at varying different degrees of dampness I had an absolutely fantastic time. I first arrived in Kutching, Sarawak, Malaysian Boreno where I spent a few days and made friends with an Irish lad and 2 English girls (Danny, Niva and Stacey) who I spent the next 3 weeks traveling with. Stacy and I decided that despite the weather (although it was only slight drizzle at this point) we wanted to visit Bako National Park (which can only be accessed via boat) so reluctantly Danny and Niva agreed to come along so after a very early start and some trouble with a missed bus we arrived at the boat pier to be told that they weren't sure whether it would be possible to make the crossing today as the tide was very low, after an hour of waiting the boatmen finally decided that they would take us but with only 3 to a boat as the water was very shallow. I paired up with a Swiss lad who was also waiting (Patrik who subsequently joined our little travel group for the next 3weeks too) and we set off. At first we were a little skeptical that they were just trying to make more money from us by making us pay for 2 boats but it soon became evident that this really wasn't the case as after only 5 mins in we had already got stuck in the mud and the water was in places just a few centimeters high. Fortunately for us we managed to get unstuck and made it out into the sea which as the weather was now full on torrential downpour was very rough and we spent the remainder of the journey rolling around the bottom of the boat as it was so rough it was totally impossible to stay in your seats. However, the other guys hadnt been quite so lucky and their boat had also got stuck in the mud but hadnt been able to free itself (even after the boatman made Danny get out and push which he wasnt very happy about as we had been just reading an article about a small boy who had been eaten by a crocodile in that river just the week before!) and they had to wait 2 hours (in an uncovered boat in the heaviest rain you can imagine) for the tide to rise sufficiently for them to continue. As you can imagine after basically bullying Danny to come in the first place when they finally arrived 2 hours later to find me and Patrik nicely dried out drinking coffee in the park cafe I wasnt their most favourat person (a situation not helped by the fact that I couldnt look at them without laughing!) The day didnt really progress that well either, after deciding that the rain just wasnt going to ease up we bit the bullet and headed of into the jungle where only after about 100m into the trail we were attacked by a devil possessed, evil incarnate monkey which just wouldnt let us pass it. Every time we took a step forward it would fly through the trees at us bearing its 2 inch long pointed fangs and making the most horrific noises Ive ever heard! We tried everything, we tried not looking it in the eye, pretending it wasnt there, but every time it flew at us we all ended up huddled in a group screaming like girls and where only eventually rescued after a local guide who could hardly walk for laughing at us scared it away. But on the positive side after these unfortunate incidents we did manage to see the rare Proboscis monkeys that we had come to see so we were all happy about that.

The monsoons were particularly bad throughout Sarawak (so much so that the floods were making headline news) but despite this we were still having a great time and had even seem Orag-Utans at another national park which was absolutely amazing. We had waited for about 40mins without the slightest trace of anything to be seen and just as we were giving up hope we heard crashing in the trees and at first all we could see were the trees swaying from side to side (some of the thinner ones were practically bending in half) then pinging back up as something was moving from tree to tree. Then to our delight the biggest, hairiest, big daddy, alpha male came into a clearing about 100m away from us and made his way down to the ground to eat. Once he arrived he also brought the rest of the group with him and there were Orang-Utans in every tree that you looked in including mothers with tiny baby's which were so cute! This has has to be one of my highlights so far as it was just fascinating being that close to them and watching them playing and eating.

After to Kutching we headed up to Sibu on the bus and on route we passed so much flooded land there where even places where the water was coming half way up the houses. The bus however was not to be deterred and continued despite the fact that Im quite sure it was actually floating at times! But all was well any we made it through to Sibu unscathed... that is until we remembered that all our backpacks were in the luggage compartment under the bus and yes, everything we owned was absolutely soaked through with stinky, filthy flood water. So due to the fact that it was still torrential rain and no-one on Borneo has ever even heard of a tumble dryer I had to spend the next 4 days wearing the same clothes that I had been wearing on the bus (including to sleep in) was I tried desperate to wash and dry every other item of clothing that I owned!!

Once we had sorted ourselves out and we ready to move again we jumped on a local ferry and headed down the Batang Rejang into the heart of Boreno. Our first stop was Kapit which is a small market town on the river where it was great to just sit and drink coffee by the docks and watching all the 'up-river' people doing all their buying and selling. After an overnight stop here we then headed off again down river to Belaga were we met a local man (Daniel) who had appointed himself tourism minister/tour guide / foreign ambassador etc for the town (when I say town I mean it in the loosest sense of the word as it only had 2 streets and a population of about 200!) We stayed with him and his family and were treated to such delights as snake (which his son had run over and was still half alive when brought home), freshly caught wild bore, and copious amounts of home made firewater! As you can imagine we had great fun!!! With Daniel acting as our guide we spent an amazing 3 days traveling down the river, stopping off at tribal longhouses to eat and sleep, we also visited local community schools and went on an amazing 10 hour jungle trek through pristine primary rainforest where we learnt about native birds, plant life and wildlife which unfortunately included a whole lot of leeches! And if you are ever unfortunate enough to get savagely attacked by leeches take it from one with experience, running around with you top over your head, screaming like a big girl is not an effective leach removal method!!!

After traveling down the river we then had to head back to civilization so we hired a 4x4 and driver to drive us 6 hrs to the nearest road where we were dropped on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere to wait for a bus that passed by "every now and then"! We did eventually make it to Miri where we stayed for a few days to plan our next move. We decided to visit Mulu National Park which we had to get to by a tiny little 20 seat 'Fokker' plane. We stayed in a jungle lodge in the national Park and we went on many treks to view the amazing cave systems which Mulu is famous for (one of them is home to 3 million bats which at nightfall each night have an amazing mass exodus!) We went adventure caving which was awesome although slightly terrifying not only did we have to scale vertical walls and squeeze through the most minute gaps but just before we started we were informed that the particular cave we were in was called the 'racer cave' after the racer snakes that lived in it- a pleasant though to be going on with as we are crawling through tiny pitch black holes! Although for me the worst bit was when I was going trough a very narrow vertical 'squeeze' and looked up to see the biggest spider I've ever seen (literally the size of my hand) on the wall about an inch from my face! Although apparently I neednt have worried as it was just a huntsman spider and would only jump at you if it thinks that you are pray!!!

On the way over to Sabah (another Malaysian state on Borneo) we spent a few days in Brunei which was a very surreal experience. Its on the whole a very rich country due to it being an oil producing nation so in the capital city Bandar Seri Bagwan where we stayed literally everything the glittered really was gold! For example for the Saltans 68th birthday he built a huge themepark as a gift to his people the entire way around the 'playground' as it is called are railings and each meter wide section of railings has a foot high horses head which is made out of solid silver! Also the biggest Mosque (of which there are many) has 29 domed turrets all of which are made of 24 carat gold! Having said this despite first apperances there is a lot of contrasts to all this opulence and wealth the most stricking being the stilted water villages which are home to about 30,000 people. Another quite amusing hypocrisy in a totally dry, strictly Muslim state is that we managed to inadvertently spend our first night there in a brothel which was fronting as a hotel!! Unfortunatly I didnt run into any any of the Saltan's batcholer sons so I had to leave my fantasies of becoming a very pampered princess behind and get back to the real world!

After Brunei we moved on to Kota Kilabalu in Sabah which is a lovely city with some really great markets and very friendly people. Whilst we were in KK it was Chinese New Year and with a really large Chinese population the whole city just turned into one giant street party. We were lucky enough to be staying in a hostel owned by a Chinese family and we were invited to spend the New Year celebrating with them and their family which was really great as they just treated us as part of the family, there was a feast, dragon dances, gifts and enough free flowing alcohol to put even the most hardened drinkers into a coma! The New Year Celebrations around town went on for about a week and there were lots of street performances and carnivals and loads of fun all round, so this quite made up for the slightly dull Xmas!!

I would have liked to have been able to spend more time in Sabah but I had to make a dash for Thailand to go and meet my Mum and Dad who were coming out to see me and generally check that I was still alive and well!

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