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Published: February 1st 2009
Butanding!
Two very stoked snorkellers after hanging with whale sharks!Hi folks! After having spent almost a month in the Philippines(with a brief stop in Tokyo,Japan) backpacking with my good friend Trevor I have now embarked on the cycling aspect of my trip! Had an amazing time hiking, boating along a subterreanean river, snorkelling reefs,and YES snorkeling up very close and personal with the mighty butanding(whale sharks)!! The Phillipines is definitely a special place which I enjoyed immensely and have even had thoughts about spending part of my retirement there each year. I know, I know-it's a little early for that-lol! Although I'm bunking in the same dorm with Larry from Arizona who retired 20 yrs ago at the age of 36! An interesting character with long hair and beard who lives very simply and travels around with only a very small daypack and has been doing so for many years. I'm at present in Sandakan city in Sabah,Borneo(Malaysia). I arrived on Jan.23/09 after having flown into Kota Kinabalu from Puerto Princesa on the island of Palawan in the Phillipines. Hung out for a day there and then began cycling towards Sandakan. Just a note before I continue: My blog last year had quite regular updates including information for cyclists etc.
El Nido, Palawan
Chilling out in the Bacuit Archipelago,Palawan Phillipines This year I think there will be less frequent updates intended mostly for friends and family to have an idea of what I've been doing. For anybody else checking the blog out, you are of course welcome to peruse! I'm logging some statistical info. specifically about the cycling and would be happy to share it, so drop me a line if like! So, I left Kota Kinabalu(K.K) early-ish on Friday morning without very much topographical information but realizing that I had some climbing to do. And climb it did! Much more challenging that I'd anticipated. The hardest part I think was the OPPRESSIVE heat! By my thermo it was 30 deg. C in the shade! The first 30km or so heading north was relatively flat and easy but I was already losing more water(perspiration)than I was used to. After starting to climb for for a few km I realized that I was going to have trouble keeping up with replacing the water that I was losing. I had hoped to maybe make it to Ranau on my first day(117km) but quicky revised my plan-lol! I climbed for about 15km and found a restaurant where I had a nice long chat
Legaspi,Bicol Phillipines
Having fun with some kids... with the local schoolteacher owner--practicing my few newly learned Malay phrases with some success! Had a good meal and lots of water and re-filled my camelbak and off I went with a re-newed but short-lived burst of energy. Having not done any cycling since early November combined with the ridiculous heat and steep climbing I was crawling along at between 5-7km/hr. feeling like someone could probably walk faster! After nearly another hour and only 5 more kms I made a decision to camp for the night as I was almost out of water again and completely out of food and was developing a bad headache. I laid under a covered bus shelter for almost an hour before setting up my tent in a nearby clearing. I literally just got the thing up and my stuff and self into the tent before it started pouring rain. I took some tylenol, drank a small ration of my remaining water and spent the next 16hrs in my tent(as it was only 3p.m). I felt much better in the a.m and got off relatively early to avoid the heat as much as possible. I biked for nearly 2hrs (all slow climbing still) and hadn't
found any food and was almost out of water. I reached a point where I had to pull over. I was really feeling rough and found some concrete posts stacked on the side of the road in the shade that I could lay on. I soon realized that I had strategically mis-calcalculated the availability of food and that I was completely out of gas. My headache started to come back and I was feeking dizzy and very nauseous. I somehow managed to come up with a brave smile for all the passers by who would wave and beep-lol! There was a lot of traffic on the road-mostly families travelling for Chinese New Year. Everything was a chore--just getting up and finding an energy gel in my front-bag felt like an almost impossible task. I took it and and added an energy drink powder to my remaining water. I lay there fighting my nausea and seriously contemplating how on earth I could get back up and on my bike. I weighed my options(one of which was trying to flag down a bus or mini-van etc. for a ride) and decided that I'd give the cycling a try and if it didn't
Bacuit Archipelago,Palawan Phillipines
Camping out on a remote island after being dropped off...... go well I'd flag someone down(something that I really didn't want to do). Anyway, after an hour and a half of laying there and despite being a little worried that I was a little too dizzy and nauseous to safely ride I somehow got back on the bike and spun in my easiest gear. I'm not going to lie folks--it was probably the hardest day of my life! Five mins. later it started raining and just stopping and putting all my rain covers on felt like a momentous task--afterward I just sat down in the rain for a couple of mins. before re-mounting my steed. Luckily about 10km later I found a store--what a beautiful,beautiful site! I pulled up and just lay in the shade on their front bench for a half an hour before someone in back noticed me. I remember thinking that there was food and water here and that I could/would just stay/camp there and had a little internal chuckle at the fact that the shopkeep probably had no idea that he was 'stuck' with me! They only had junk food but I really didn't care. I bought two small bags of peanuts, a small package of
Lunch
Eating en-route between Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan, Malysian Borneo crackers, some chocolate biscuits, and some water. I tried eating the nuts first and realized that not only did I not feel hungry but that eating was making me feel like vomiting. I tried the biscuits and they were worse--the strong chocolate taste was just too much..I ate half of one and gave the other half to the little puppy that was hanging out with me. I went back back to the peanuts and crackers and just picked away really slowly. It took a while but it eventually started to go down more easily and in no time at all I started to feel a LOT better. The quickness of the transformation was amazing! At this point it had been almost 24hrs. since I had eaten(lunch the previous day)! Anyway, after that I tucked into a couple of wafer bars, a big bag of corn chips, and an orange crush! Junk food had saved me! Eventually I felt good enough to go! I was stocked up with water and apparently wasn't far from food and restaurants. I continued climbing on to just past the entrance to the Mt. Kinabalu park entrance and found a lodge with a good dorm and
Snack Time
Snacking at a family run muslim restaurant en-route from K.K to Sandakan, Malaysian Borneo more importantly a restaurant! I had only biked 45km today and averaged 9km/hr, compared to 50km the day before at 16km/hr. The bulk of the day had been climbing but there were a few decent descents near the end. I had a good meal and shower, studied a little Malay, and hit the hay happy knowing that I'd made it and having learned a valuable lesson to ALWAYS have extra food on hand! The next morning I had a 22km mostly downhill ride(38mins. or so at an average of 34km/hr and a max. speed of 69.6km/hr with some drafting and passing of cars--woohoo!!) to Ranau where I decided to have a rest day and hit the local hot springs and hiking trails. Ended up having a lot of fun with the locals at muslim restaurant number 2( number 1 was around the corner). Every town has at least one muslim place where you can get really cheap eats(roti telur and tarik tea being my faves). I hit the Poring hot springs in the afternoon and ended up doing a canopy walk(41m above the rainforest floor-very cool!) and a hike to a waterfall and foregoing a dip in the springs themselves.
Long-tailed macaques
Long-tailed macaques at Sepilok orangutan rehab. centre.... I also had a local(for a fee of course-just the way it works) to guide me to where a rafflesia flower was blooming(excited mum?!!). They are the largest flowers in the world and can get up to a metre in diameter! It's hit and miss finding some in bloom. The one that I saw was quite small(maybe 200mm across). After some tough but good-natured negotiating for the 18km ride back to town with Ali I made it back and had a decent meal at the double luck restaurant after hacky sacking with some local performers who were taking a break(although still in costume) from their Chinese New Year's show. I then went by the muslim place and had them make me a bunch of roti telur(roti with egg) for the road the next day--I would not be un-prepared this time! The next day went really well as I had lots of food and water but it was still long(106km) and sort of gently up and down(although I had a suprisingly awesome downhill where I bettered my previous top speed--75km/hr!!). I stopped for some water and a snack at lunch and a couple who I had had a good wave and
More macaques
Mother and child.... honk of my bike horn(that's right horn, not bell-lol!) with earlier were there and refused to let me pay for anything. They were really nice and Enol was very excited to get a pic of him and I and the bike with him wearing the helmet. After exchanging cell. numbers, I set off with lots of waving and beeping! I was really tired by the end of the day but manged to make it to Telupid. After a good shower and rest I headed out for a meal of nasi goreng kampung(spicy fried rice) was invited to sit with a Phillipino guy, an Indonesian guy and a local Malay who had quite a few empty quart bottles of Tiger beer on the table. After having some tiger myself and multiple cries of "amaite"(cheers apparently) later suddenly the staff was around our table and some heated discussions began. Apparently the rest. staff wouldn't serve the guys any more until they settled up for what they had already had and the boys weren't too interested in that-lol! I took the opportunity to take my leave and promised that I MAY come back later! The next day I wanted to get to Sandakan
Orangutan
So human-like. One of only two areas in the world top see these beautiful creatures in the wild..... but it was 132km and I knew that I wouldn't make it in the heat so I negotiated with a bas mini (mini-bus/van) to take me 75km and I'd pedal the rest. I was glad that I had because I was still tired after only 50km of riding! The transformation of the terrain was both amazing and depressing. The whole day was just plantations of palms for palm oil. All the rainforest had been clear cut for these plantations that go on forever and dominate the landscape. There are only swaths of land with jungle left that are being protected and the wildlife is now sort of squished into these areas can't migrate freely as they are surrounded by planatations. Apparently the same is happening in the southern Indonesian part of Borneo rapidly although it's still more wild and has greater areas on untouched areas. Lonely planet calls it "one of the world's last vast wilderness areas, a symphony of natural beauty and indigenous cultures". The last 45 mins. or so it rained really hard and it was SO refreshing! So here I am, after having spent the last few days visiting a local orangutan rehab. centre(up close and personal-it
Hilarious
The female on top jumped on to the platform and the male jumped off and hid from her....she's looking over the edge for him! was awesome!) and taking a trip to a camp for 3 days and two nights along the katabatangan river where we cruised the river a couple of times a day spotting proboscis monkeys(crazy looking things!), long-tailed makaks, and all kinds of cool birds. We stayed in rustic bamboo buildings on the river's edge and there was no running water or cathcment system for some reason so no showers! Actually it rained hard yesterday afternoon so we all stripped down and soaped up in the rain! We also did a night jungle trek sloshing through the mud where we saw some cool birds and a day trek where we got very close to some wild elephants who were really not pleased to see us and were making crazy noises-very cool in a scary let's get the hell out of here kind of way(it's a little concerning when your guide looks scared and hurries you away!)! It rains for at least a little while everyday here so the treks were sloshing through mud and water with leech socks and rubber boots on. Oh, and yesterday in a swamp right behind our camp I heard some splashing around and thought it was just
Night jungle trek
Heading out for a night trek--note the leech socks! a monkey fooling around and lo and behold there was a huge crocodile thrashing it's head back and forth with a catfish in it's mouth! We hadn't even realized that we had him as a neighbour! I was with a couple of English girls and an American and a Welsh guy who I had hung out with my first night in K.K as well as our boatmen and our cool gay cook Sar and his ladyboy friend. We had a blast(ok-one or two quart-sized tiger beer were involved) and are hoping to hook up in Semporna for one of the girl's birthdays four days from now if I can get there in time! Semporna is supposed to be among the world's best dive spots so I should put the snorkelling gear I've been carting around to good use! I'm not exactly sure what I'll do after that...either continue around Borneo for the next couple of months and/or head back to the Phillipines or Indonesia for a while...will keep ya posted!
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