Carrol

Here Kitty Kitty At the western tip of Borneo lies the quaintly modern city of Kuching. Known as the "cat city" I knew I was going to like it before I'd even arrived. We flew in at night, prime prowling time for cats and within minutes of stepping out of the airport taxi we spotted our first cat! A cement block was missing in the sidewalk, exposing the gutter below and here sat a sleek calico peering down, waiting patiently, for tasty rats or mice. Mind you this wasn't really a unique experience, but I remember it vividly being in the "cat city." Daybreak provided more cat sightings: huge cat statues with whiskers made of thick wire were in the middle of round-abouts and intersections. They were hard to miss. We also made a worthwhile trip ... read more

Banana's and Milk From Sipadan we made our way north to Sandakan, a jumping off point to visit the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre and jungle tours. In the morning we caught the local bus just outside the city and were dropped off at the door-step of the Rehabilitation Centre just in time to purchase our ticket, check our bags and reach the viewing platform before the banana's and milk came out for feeding time. In a tree just a few meters away from the viewing platform the big-cheeked dominate male and a young orang-utan sat around lapping milk from a pan and peeling banana's for a mid-morning snack. They're an interesting animal, genetically 94.6% like humans. Females have only 3 or 4 young in their lifetime and babies stay with their mother for 3 to ... read more

We felt we’d been on a rotating rollercoaster of ferries, out-rigger boats, buses, jeepneys, and tri-cycles and it was becoming draining. A relaxing stay on Pandan Island was just what we needed for a vacation from a vacation. Just a short boat ride from the mainland, Pandan Island is a privately owned property with few amenities. Electricity is supplied via solar power and salt water showers are the norm. It’s not a place for people who require air-conditioning and regular pedicures. Just off shore a house reef is home to countless fish, hard corals, and other sea creatures. The reef is separated into two sections by an area of sea grass where at any given time of day endangered green sea turtles can be found savoring a tasty snack. Dusk is the popular meal time where ... read more

The Attic A ferry, jeepney (an elaboratly painted share truck/van with wooden benchs in the back and luggage storage on top), and a huble-huble (older motorbikes equipped with customized racks for larger loads) ride later we had arrived at KooKoo’s Nest near Dumagete on Negros Island. We didn’t have a reservation for a cottage, and they were all full, so we ended up in an improvised room which really was the attic above the bar. Width-wise the attic just fit a mattress and length-wise we had just enough room for our bags. Standing was not an option, but, we've discovered, most things can be accomplished kneeling anyways. Although we were in cramped quarters it didn’t really matter because daylight hours were spent at the beach in lounger chairs reading or in the open sea diving. Turtles ... read more

Bagan was once the capital city of Myanmar at its prime between 1084 and 1286AD. At that time the king started a temple building extravaganza raising nearly 4500 temples over that 250 year period. It is a spectacular view with nearly 2000 temples remaining that speckle the countryside and mountains looming across the Irrawaddy river. For two days we were shuttled around via horse cart. Our first day out we had an "aged" horse who limbered around so slowly bicyclists would pass us. The following day we got a younger, friskier horse named Lucky who pranced around rather quickly. Lucky seemed to be jet propelled by his farts. To get moving some gas had to be released, and once on the dusty dirt trail another round of farts was expelled much to the dismay of Jarrod ... read more