Totally shocked by Borneo

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Borneo was not a place I planned on going. No particular reason, but originally we just figured that after we got to Singapore we'd wind up heading back up through Malaysia on the way to Thailand. There were a few things we could have checked out - Melaka, the Cameron Highlands, Penang.... but the reviews we got from other travellers didn't have us itching to go there. Not that they sounded bad, but we decided that we should be going to places that we were really excited about. So the idea of Borneo was proposed. What's in Borneo? Truthfully I had no idea. I didn't even know that Borneo refers to an entire island consisting of parts of Malaysia and Indonesia, and the whole of Brunei. We decided to go to Malaysian Borneo. I knew it was big on Orangutans and other wildlife but really knew nothing else. And maybe that's why it sounded so intriguing. So a few hours after the decision was made, we bought our plane tickets and the next thing I knew I was on an Air Asia flight looking down at the city lights of Kuching as we were about to land. I can't remember ever being so unsure of what I'd find in a city. If anything, I was expecting very meager accomodations, simple food and overall, a relatively undeveloped place.

We wound up being completely stunned. First of all, our hostel (which was arbitrarily chosen based on an internet search) was unbelievable. Possibly the nicest hostel I have ever seen, and definitely the cleanest. The decorations were so cool, and the fact that it had a rooftop bar complete with pool table, lounge area, and TV showing the World Cup games every night was awesome. The people who worked there were amazing, and it was so comfortable that it almost felt like a home, especially the way we were welcomed there. We arrived in the city at night and when we went for a walk to find some food, we couldn't believe what we found. It was very clean, there were tons of good (and mostly cheap) restaurants, a beautiful waterfront promenade, and a great energy. Everything was lit up and looked really nice. And the people are incredibly friendly. It's a totally laid back city, nobody acts shady or hassles you to take a taxi or buy something stupid. They all just go about their business and the culture is there for you to experience at your own pace. Aside from our 6 nights in Kuching, we took a day trip to see an Orangutan feeding and a 3 day trip to Bako National Park where we saw tons of monkeys and did some cool jungle hikes.

This was very different than our travels in mainland Malaysia since my last entry. I had mentioned the jungle train we took from Kota Bharu on our way to Taman Negara National Park. It was horrible. Hot, sweaty, crowded, 10.5 hours, and swarming with cockroaches. But we finally got to the city of Jerantut and left for Taman Negara the next day. We were really excited to see some wilderness and wildlife. To get there we had to take a 3 hour boat ride on these really cool longboats. It was beautiful out, they put me and Bryan in the front seats, I broke out my iPod and speakers, and we totally chilled as we sped up the river listening to Sublime. Then, about 30 or 40 minutes later our boat broke down. The engine just stopped working and we were in the middle of nowhere. The driver pulls out a 2x4 and splashes around for a few minutes trying to get us to shore, but that accomplished nothing. So we floated around for awhile, then fortunately another boat that was heading downstream passed by and we performed a mid-river switch of people and backpacks. So in the end, it's just another funny story.

Taman Negara itself was a bit rough around the edges. Immediately we noticed the garbage all over the place as if nobody has cleaned up for a very long time. Then we finally found our cabin which was kinda out of the way, but turned out to be pretty cool and I liked it a lot. But then we had another problem. We were still travelling with our Swedish friends Petra and Lisa from the Perhentian Islands, and apparently Bryan and Lisa both got a wicked case of food poisoning at the same time. So they were out of commission for the duration of our stay. Petra and I spent a day doing a canopy walk and another small hike. The next day Bryan was sick of lying in bed and forced himself to come out on the night jungle safari with us, where we all piled into the back of a 4x4 pickup and drove for 2 hours through the jungle looking for animals. It might have been better if we found some, but we didn't. What a rip. But driving through the jungle at night on that truck was pretty cool by itself.

Anyway, we wound up leaving there after 2 nights and then took an overnight train down to Singapore. We ran into these Christian missionaries on the way who tried to convert us, and that was really annoying. We disagreed, then they told us they'd pray for us. Thanks guys. No sleeper cars were available, but at least we didn't get stuck in the same train car with them. We did get stuck with more cockroaches though, tons of them. Literally they were crawling on us.

Bryan and I had such a good time in Singapore. Their reputation for strict rule is absolutely true, passing through customs was more intense than usual, and we were afraid to jaywalk for fear of the death penalty or something. We found a great hostel, went out every night, the World Cup had just started, and it was a lot of fun. It's a very westernized city, less culture shock than other places we've been in Asia, and really expensive. But we stayed there fore 5 days, and then decided to go to Borneo instead of travelling back up through Malaysia on our way to Thailand.

We left Kuching this morning and are now in Kota Kinabalu (eastern Malaysian Borneo), and tomorrow we catch a flight to Bangkok. I can't wait, and I'm especially excited to see my mom who will be visiting me there for 10 days. PEACE!

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