Jim and Aya
we've just left japan after working there for 4 years, and are currently on a 10 month trip around Asia.Horizontal Travel
http://www.horizontaltravel.bravehost.com
Travel Blog Posts
April 17th 2005
Driving into Kota Kinabalu two things struck us most, the silence...no car horns, and the greenery. Even outside the airport the potted plants and roadside bushes looked aggresively healthy, vines and fan shaped ferns sprouted out the joints of trees. KK is a small city, very long but seems only a few blocks deep before giving way to riotous green forested hills. We had a great few days planning onward tickets, reservations and the like and enjoyed the good eateries. Stayed in a chinese hotel over a packed cafe or kedai, called Ang's. After traveling with only one pair of pants and one pair of shorts figured i'd better stock up on a waterproof, Green binbag looking poncho, and a spare pair of trousers..which I got altered in a no fuss fashion at Pretty Good Tailors. ... read more
June 16th 2004
We finally got to have a day touring around the chocolate hills with some independance - in a jeep driven by local character Ismael - the jeep was needed to get us around the dirt track and by-roads interlacing the rice paddies and the psychadelic landscape. Ismael entertained us with local stories - how the hills are actually the tears of a heart broken giant who fell in love with a local girl but when he snatched her from ther village she died in the palm of his hand - there is a row of 14 hills in a perfectly straight line that showed the path the giant took, spilling his tears along the way before lying down to die and becoming the nearby mountain. Between stopping for pictures, walks around rice paddies, watching the water ... read more
June 13th 2004
Got a great 360 degrees view across the surreal chocolate hills landscape from the official lookout and tried to look further and have a bit of a hike but the staff looked at us stupid when we asked, no maps, no trails, no idea. Our friendly S.U.V driver threw a fit at the prospect of driving us down a few dirt roads for a look around the area so we gave up on the idea and got him to drop us off at Nuts Huts. We were recommended to stay there by Sarah and George and were forewarned that it was probably named after the fragile mental state of the woman who runs it. The location was superb, and in a steep jungle clad ravine with the wide loboc river running through it. The huts ... read more
June 13th 2004
The flight to Cebu was good fun with the attendants keeping everyone happy with in flight Karaoke competitions....kind of like Name That Tune with them taking turns singing over the PA system...mostly Philippine Pop so we didn't win the free key-ring goddmammit!!. Someone said they sometimes play basketball!!...save that pleasure for a future trip. Cebu's the usual grime and bustle of Manilla but on a smaller scale, lots of decaying old buildings gone to seed a long long time ago and years of monixide fumes dusting everything in sight (and shite). In the bit of travelling we've done we've quickly realised that Filippino towns and cities look a lot better if you just focus on the people going about their day to day, a fair amount of smiling faces and waves and a lot of looks ... read more
June 5th 2004
Well, the story so far is that after a few days in Manila getting money and visa extentions sorted we flew straight over to El Nido in northern Palawan. Manila was as rough as I'd imagined..our day involved getting to immigration and all the hours that took but the weird thing was that it was in one of the better parts of town but that the building around it were heaps of rubble with the facades still standing...we realised that a lot of this damage was done in World War II!!!...but the ruins are still standing around waiting for renovation...Went to the Santiago Fort, one of the few "sights" and that was more WW II damaged buildings...left as an historical reminder it was poigniant..but as the city's major tourist draw it was pretty desperate. Still, the ... read more
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