Blogs from Sarawak, Malaysia, Asia - page 55

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Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak » Bario June 25th 2006

Okay well the last 2 weeks have been quite adventurous and full of fun, a special thanks to the comrades I’ve met along the way. I think I left off in Brunei where I had met again with Desi, the Swiss girl. From Brunei we bused it to Miri and shacked up in a really nice little hostel, The Highlands, where we ran into 2 more Swiss, Steve and Christoph, and ended up spending about 5 pretty full on days with them. Christoph only spoke French so it was pretty hard to communicate with him but Steve turned out to be quite a good translator making it bearable. They had energy in almost too high of a dosage for us to keep up with. A relaxing day on the beach, with massage, which I personally was ... read more
Bario
Miri
Bario

Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak June 22nd 2006

Borneo was not a place I planned on going. No particular reason, but originally we just figured that after we got to Singapore we'd wind up heading back up through Malaysia on the way to Thailand. There were a few things we could have checked out - Melaka, the Cameron Highlands, Penang.... but the reviews we got from other travellers didn't have us itching to go there. Not that they sounded bad, but we decided that we should be going to places that we were really excited about. So the idea of Borneo was proposed. What's in Borneo? Truthfully I had no idea. I didn't even know that Borneo refers to an entire island consisting of parts of Malaysia and Indonesia, and the whole of Brunei. We decided to go to Malaysian Borneo. I knew it ... read more
Longboats
Front seats
In the park

Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak June 17th 2006

It takes four hours to get from Kuching to Batang Ai. This was once a valley that has now been flooded to make way for an artificial lake and dam to produce hydroelectricity. It's in the middle of the jungle and close to the Indonesian Kalimantan border. There is not much wildlife to be seen here as, according to one of the Iban (the local tribe native to this area) guides, they are afraid of people as the Iban in the past have hunted them for food. We could have trekked into the jungles or gone to visit a nearby longhouse but we are taking it very easy here. Two weeks of getting up at 6 a.m. every day to go diving, to catch a flight or to go on a boat trip has taken its ... read more
Longhouse corridor
Batang Ai lake
Batang Ai dam

Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak » Kuching June 15th 2006

Yesterday was a long travelling day: boat trip from Pulau Mabul to Semporna, then a mini-bus ride to Tawau airport followed by a flight to Kota Kinabalu and finally a flight to Kuching. We had a few hours in Kota Kinabalu and because Sean wasn't feeling well we killed time at the shopping malls. We had our heavy bags with us so I "borrowed" a supermarket trolley to cart our bags around the mall. Today we went to Bako National Park in the morning. Our guide meticulously pointed out all the plants that were especially good at providing aphrodisiacal qualities - for both men and women. She was quite obsessive about the whole thing. The local press here quotes a report that Malaysian men have sex, on average, 3.6 times a month. Perhaps that's why she ... read more
Mangroves
Sean at Bako
Proboscis monkey

Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak » Kuching June 11th 2006

I'm across the sea from peninsular Malaysia on Borneo! It's not like the other islands I've been catching some rays on. It's huge and it's rainforest. This is the closest to the Equator I've ever been....it's pretty freakin hot. I guess when I'm in Indonesia I'll be in the southern hemisphere for the first time. I'll definatley be watching which way the toilet flushes. Borneo is a nice place with lots of national parks and cool animals to see. It's famous for having tons orangutans so I'll probably go see some of those bastards. But they also have a lot of oil and timber and I haven't seen that side of things yet. The food is amazing. ***Lindsay and Emily remember me saying I didn't like Indian food? I was wrong! I love Indian food. I ... read more

Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak May 18th 2006

BORNEO We flew into Sabah, Borneo on the 9th of April, its a stunning area of the world and we really loved it! Ben did some great dives in the marine park (TARP) off the coast of Kota Kinabalu, then we flew to Sandakan to see the Orang Utans. The Orang Utans were awesome we managed to see babies, teenagers, and older adults playing, feeding, swinging from the trees, play fighting and showing off their young. In the quieter afternoon session one mistook Ben for an Orang Utan (easy to do considering the hair style and beard!) So he jumped from the trees onto the viewing platform right beside us! They are sooo human like with facial expressions and mannerisms!! After the Orang Utans we were lucky to get a cancelation to go to Turtle Island ... read more
No need for the tusk in the eye!
Cricket
Crusaders Dan Carter

Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak » Kuching May 11th 2006

That bang-ups and hang-ups CAN happen to you. That little diddy from everyone's favourite doctor (seuss of course) was certainly true of the few days following my last blog entry. After a final enjoyable day at the temples of angkor, I said goodbye to khawp, my sole companion for my time in siem reap, and flew to kuala lumpur. On arrival at my hostel (red palm backpackers - i'd recommend it) I decided that now was about the time to dive into the depths of my pack and get the US$500 cash i had hidden in the "secret" compartment at the back of my pack, only to find the envelope open and the cash gone. I found this odd because I've been quite obsessive about locking my pack whenever it left my sight, and i never ... read more
Mummy and Baby
Playing Darts with a blow pipe
My Score

Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak » Kuching May 6th 2006

After two fantastic days in Bario we were back at the wee airport for our journey to Miri and then Kuching, the capital city of Sarawak. There are only two planes a day here so no need for things like boarding passes or seat allocations. There is however the need to be weighed.... I guess because the planes are soo small they have to know there exact weight.. and maybe cause they they can then caculate how much freight (read bags of rice!) they can also transport... but once your bags have been weighed you too have to hop on to the scales and be weighed!! The first time it happened we wondered if we might regret those extra spring rolls we'd had back in KK......but fortunately there's no charge for you being overweight ;0) In ... read more
Me in Kuching
Sam in Kuching
Dragon boat training....altho some were chatting up the ladies on the bank more than they were paddling!

Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak » Bario May 2nd 2006

Headhunting was undertaken by a number of indigenous Borneo tribes, particularly those from the interior of the island..... but is thankfully now an illegal activity ;0) Why heads were taken is a point of conjecture....sometimes it was during war, sometimes as part of a ritual ceremony... the head was revered and perhaps believed to contain the soul-like matter of the deceased, maybe it was a trophy to show courage.... The Singapore Museum has an example of an engraved skull from headhunters... but no-one knows why it was engraved. Hair from the severed head was used to decorate the shield of the warrior... I guess it looked rather more intimidating in battle! Bario is a small village in the Kelabit Highlands, home of the Kelabit people - a tribe of headhunters that lived isolated in the jungle ... read more
Bario
Bario
Bario

Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak » Bario April 29th 2006

Again it's been a long time since I did this and I have loads of stuff to catch up on so I'll keep this as short as possible. The last weekend I was in Bario I went away with Yara and a guide called Mado, who we met in Pa'Lungan the weekend before to do some jungle stuff. The guy knows his stuff and has done courses and stuff to back up his existing knowledge. We went away for 4 days and spent 2.5 of them in the jungle with him. My accomodation was a hammock tied between two trees with a basher over my head and all our food came from the jungle. We spent our time in the day trekking around being shown various plants that are used for food, poison medicine, building etc. ... read more
Basher
I+II+III=4
lunch




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