Blogs from Sarawak, Malaysia, Asia - page 40

We landed in Miri and headed for the long distance bus station, where we caught a night bus to Kutching, the capital of Sarawak. Kutching means 'cat' in Bahasa so I had high hopes for some kind of feline paradise. It turns out that while there once was an abundance of stray cats littering the Kutching streets, they have since been 'relocated' and all that is left in there wake is a few strange cat monuments and a cat museum. Still, it's more than can be found in most cities!... We arrived in the very early morning and wandered Little India and Chinatown before finding a gorgeous little home-stay to check into. After a quick nap in air-con bliss we hit the streets and explored the town. Kutching it turned out, is a really lovely city ... read more

Beste blogbezoekers, het is alweer ruim een maand geleden dat we elkaar nog eens tegenkwamen op dit kruispunt der virtuele snelwegen. Hoog tijd om jullie op de hoogte te brengen van wat we in die tijd zoal uitvraten. Een relatief korte busrit (5 uurtjes) bracht ons van Vang Vieng (alwaar de laatste blogpost eindigde) naar de hoofdstad van Laos, Vientiane. Wetende dat het onze laatste stop in Laos was deden we ons meermaal daags tegoed aan sticky rice, de landelijke specialiteit, bestaande uit zeer kleverige rijst en lekkere currietjes, meestal gegeten met de handen. Een gehuurd brommertje bracht ons naar het compleet bizarre buddha park, waar de meest vreemde boeddhabeelden en rikwisieten in een eclectisch allegaartje bijeen waren gebracht door een goed bemiddelde fanaticus. Beelden gaande van enkele decimeteres tot meters hoge giganten maakten van het ... read more

Rice Wine - Blowing Through my Mind Thurs 27/03 - 29/03/08 *Authors note - I´d like to extend thanks to all my jungle buddies, without whose contributions this blog would not have been possible, due to the booze sodden state of my poor, forgetful and badly damaged brain. Oooo-haaaa. We set off in the afternoon for our second trek. A short journey down the river takes us to the start of the trail; a steep climb up through the jungle. The clouds above speak of rain, and soon the droplets filter down through the trees. We walk for around half an hour. Although somehow I survived last night´s drinking without serious injury or morning hangover, I wasn´t able to stomach much breakfast, so I utilise my newly learned jungle skills, bending down to pick up green ... read more

This blog is dedicated to all the primates, living and dead, who made our trip to Sarawak so memorable! We arrived in Sarawak on THE most environmentally unfriendly flight. There were only 9 passengers on the entire plane as Air Asia had just started flying the route that day. It did mean our luggage came out quickly though! We found a great hostel in Kuching after escaping an older man who had latched on to us on the plane and spent the whole trip talking about himself. We should have known he was bad news when his opening line was "I was travelling before you were born" and the conversation continued along the same vein for the next few hours. We use the word "conversation" losely as it was more of a monologue with questions inserted ... read more

On our second week in Borneo we had planned to stay in another National Park in the Kuching area. However when we went to the Tourist Information we realised none of the other parks had restaurants which put us off. Instead we decided to stay in Kuching and do day trips to the attractions, as they were all quite close. Our first day trip took us to The Wind Cave, which was a 2hr bus ride from Kuching. We were very unprepared that day and forgot a torch so had to rent one from the little office, unfortunately it was running out of battery so wasn’t very bright. The closer we got to the cave the more it smelt, we could tell there was going to be a lot of bats! There were 3 cave ... read more