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Malaysia. A country of smiles, order, great seafood, crystal clear waters and BLOODY EXPENSIVE beer. That is correct my friends, we did 3weeks without a cool alcoholic beverage between us. And what an achievement that was.
We went from the border straight to the prehension islands on the north east coast. The trip on speed boat over to the island was 'interesting'. 12 of us boarded a small speed boat with a small awning just as a storm was approaching. first mistake. we set off at a fair old whack, the wind and the rain started, along with waves which caused the boat to jump off a peak and smack onto a trough, probably not helped by the high speeds we were doing. 50mins of bone jarring jumps off waves, getting soaked by waves and rain and high speed boat driving into ever darkening fog then ensued, until the driver asked for a compass. then we started to worry. it was only when tim spotted land far off to our right side that we did an abrupt about turn and headed to it. apparently they usually have no need for compasses or any such navigational equipment as you can see
the mainland. I hate to think what would have happened if the fog had been any thicker, although the guesthouse owner did tell us that a boat once got lost for 3hrs at sea because they had missed the land in a storm, then run out of fuel. so ours wasn't too bad. i suppose.
The prehensions are 2 small islands ringed by beaches with the centre filled with tropical rainforest. we did some great snorkelling, spotting sharks, swimming with turtles, bumphead parrotfish, rays, and a large array of smaller liddle fishes. We also decided to refresh our diving skills. and also did a deep dive down to 30m where we saw a 6ft barracuda - pretty flippin scary when you're still descending into the dark depths and trying to get the hang of your regulator etc. Enjoy the attached photos to get a taste of it.
From the prehensions we had a much more civilised return boat journey, then overnight bus (of course we were on the back seat - the most uncomfortable place) down to KL. Here i did the deed and CUT MY HAIR OFF. pretty major. then paid for an extortionate haircut, perhaps justified as
i haven't had one in 8yrs. the strangest thing after having it cut and styled was going outside and having it blow in the wind. I haven't had that, well, for 8yrs.
From KL we caught a flight to sabah in the malaysian part of borneo. We spent a few days in the capital of kota kinabalu, eating great fish freshly barbequed, then we headed east to spot some wildlife. We went to the Kinabatangan river, meant to be one of the richest parts of the world for wildlife, something we could well believe, once you get past the miles of palm oil plantations. It seems a real shame that Malaysia has cut down the majority of it's rainforest in order to harvest palm oil, in the process it has pushed much of it's indigenous wildlife to extinction. These palm oil plantations are owned by multinational companies so ordinary malaysians don't benefit, yet still Malaysia tries to portray itself as an 'eco-destination'. A bit of a contradiction methinks.
anyway, we took a 3 day tour on the river and saw some good wildlife - wild orangutan, proboscis monkeys, crocodiles, an array of macaques monkeys, lots of frogs and small
creepy crawlies. A fun time had by all. We then travelled south down to the border with indonesia. on the way we had an 'incident' involving the windscreen of the minibus we were travelling in being smashed in whilst we were doing about 80kms/hr. exciting stuff. not entirely sure what happened, but i assume it was a stone or somesuch hard object. no one seemed very worried, the driver just brushed all the glass out, removed the rest of the windscreen and continued on, this time wearing his sunglasses. when we passed a policeman, all he did was wave and smile.
we crossed into kalimantan indonesia, the bottom half of malaysian borneo, by boat with no problems. we then took a flight organised by our indonesian fixer/travel agent/incredibly helpful cousin, stuart. our sulawesi adventure began.
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crossing to the prehensions
Heather Short
non-member comment
Malaysia and all the fish eating etc
Hi Sarah Lovely to hear from you and glad you are still enjoying the adventure although at times somewhat hairy but so far all is well that ends well. I love the new look, Sarah with no hair, it must have taken quite a lot of courage to go ahead and have your hair cut after it being part of you for the last eight years. Keep the emails coming it certainly brightens up the day. Take care Heather xx