Borneo & Malaysia

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We flew from Macau via Air Asia and landed in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysian Borneo around 11pm. Tired, we went straight to bed upon arrival at the hostel. Usually, no matter how tired, we'd normally at least go for one quick drink when arriving somewhere new, however, Malaysia is an Islamic country & none of the bars/restaurants around our hostel served beer!

Got up the following morning and ate breakfast - noodles - a few doors away from the hostel after which we took a sweaty walk into town. I'd been in a state of extreme worry since arriving the night before but and it was with great relief that I spotted several Carlsberg & Tiger beer signs along the way.

Our main reason for coming to Borneo was the wildlife, especially the Orang Utan sanctuary in a place called Sepilok further east. There is very little to see and do in KK (there's no nice way to put this - it's a bit of a dump) and we decided to stay just that night then get the bus to a place called Sandakan the following day.

Dump or not and Islamic or not, you make your own fun and we managed to have a good, not to mention slightly drunken night which ended in a Karaoke bar (did I only say slightly drunk?). Beer, where available, was expensive in most places but could be made more cost effectiv by buying a "set" of bottles which means 4 or 5 that come in an ice filled champagne bucket. After careful consideration we went or this option (several times).

KK wasn't all bad, there were masses of curry houses and restaurants and a wonderful little night market on the seafront with loads of food stalls serving Malaysian food - again mainly curries.

The bus to Sandakan took 6 hours and cost about 4 pounds. Included in this we stopped off about 4 hours in at a roadside restaurant where we got a free meal - curry again.

Again we arrived late here and needed to find accommodation. The place we'd earmarked from the guidebook was full but he sent us round the corner to a friends place at 10 pounds per night that seemed basic but clean enough (until Rachael screamed at the sight of an enormous cockroach). We headed out and found a hotel for only a pound or so more for the following night which was luxurious in comparison (it had a carpet and everything).

Sandakan is only about half an hour or so away from the Orang Utan sanctuary and we headed here after having breakfast in KFC - shameful, I know but even I couldn't stomach curry or noodles again. The Orang Utans here are mainly rescued from captivity & injury with the ida being that they are returned to the jungle in 3 stages which take them further away from the sanctuary and furtherback into the wild. The ones that are still at stage 1 are fed bananas and milk every day at 10 and 3 and make their way via ropes to a feeding platform where we got to watch.

On the night we had a delicious meal on the waterfront. I had beef curry with rice & chips (great chips they were too) and Rcahael had sweet & sour chicken with prawn toast. 10 minutes after we'd finished our main courses and were stuffed, the prawn toast finally arrived in the form of 5 whole pieces of bread in a toast rack rather than the small squares we'd been expecting as a starter. Stuffed, we both managed about half a piece each then gave up.

Food here (and in KK previously) is extremely cheap with curry and rice (and most dishes for that matter) coming in at about a pound a time, if not less. If only the beer was so cheap.....

Sandakan was a smaller carbon copy of Kota Kinabalu and we decided that we'd had enough of dirty cities with not an awful lot to do and desperately wanted some beach time. We knew we could fly to the Philippines for next to nothing with Air Asia and tried to book a flight but Air Asia's website wasn't loading up (we later found out they had a sale on with free flights and it was simply overloaded) so we had to go to bed with nothing booked!
The following morning I finally got on & it turned out it would be easier to go to Malaysia's Perhentian Islands (which sounded like paradise in the guidebook) than the Philippines so I booked two flights to get us here later that day.

Firstly we flew to Kuala Lumpur, arriving at around 8pm. Our next flight was to a place called Kota Bharu the following morning at 7.30am so there seemed no point going into the city so we booked accommodation at a guest house near the airport. It was expensive for what it was at 20 pounds a night but this still worked out cheaper and easier than travelling all the way into KL (about 70km) and paying for a room there that we'd only use for a few hours.

We arrived in Kota Bharu at 8.30am from where we had to get to Kuala Besut to get a boat to the islands. A taxi to here was 10 pounds and the return boat journey was 5 pounds each.

There is a chioce of 2 islands Kecil (Small) and Besar (Big) and we'd decided to go to the small one as it was a bit livelier. The boat took half an hour at high speed to get us to the island. We hit a few large waves along the way and almost took flight which was enjoyable for me but sent Rachael a little bit green around the gills. We had life jackets on and I explained to her that even if we did flip over we'd be fine & get picked up by another boat withing minutes - we'd just lose all our belongings. This didn't seem to reassure her.

Including us there were about 12 people on the boat and, firstly, we dropped 10 of them off at the big island which was slightly worrying (had we chosen the right island?). We were at a jetty right next to the beach there at this point and the water was a beautiful, clear emerald colour. It took 2 or 3 minutes to get to our island but rather than get off at a jetty we had to get into a water taxi a few hundred yards from shore which dropped us right on the shore - we had to actually step out into the water!

The island itself was the most secluded, uspoilt place we've ever been. 5 years ago there was nothing there. Where we were staying was called Long Beach, although it wasn't very long, and there was a smaller beach called Coral Bay on the opposite side of the island a (a 10 minute walk). All that's there is a few places to stay, a few restaurants and a few shops - nothing else.

We had no accommodation booked and I hastily checked into the nearest place - Moonlight Chalets - while Rachael waited on the beach with our bags. In my rush to get changed and hit the beach I hadn't noticed the place stunk of piss which Rachael pointed out to me as she entered the room. Oh well, it was only for one night.

The sea was perfectly calm and just cool enough to give some respite from the 30+ degree heat. After a couple of hours on the beach we headed off to found somewhere else to stay the following night and opted for Bintang View Chalets which were cheaper than the other place and perfectly clean.

There were only 2 bars along the whole beach, neither of which were open until after 4pm. At 4.01pm I sat down to a lovely, ice cold can of Chang beer at just over 1 pound. We then spotted a couple of people drinking from what looked like a half bottle of rum so I went ot investigate. It was actually local 25% alcohol rum called Orang Utan amd was 3 pound 50 a bottle and was lovely mixed with coke.
To eat we had a BBQ set meal sat right on the beach (in fact, everywhere was right on the beach, there was only beach then forest behind it). We had a choice of several different fish, seafood or meat options, 5 different sauces - curries & Malay specialities - chips or rice & a soft drink all for 2 pound 50! I went for Blue Marlin Curry (Blue Marlin for 2 pound 50 - woohoo!) and Rachael had Prawns in Coconut sauce.

The following day we spent on the beach. There were big waves today which were great fun until they started dragging people out and under - us included - and heralded the world's most pathetic ever attempt at being a lifeguard from Rachael! Upon hearing a young Japanese girl crying for help Rachael, in a scene straight out of Baywatch, sprung into action and swam to the rescue. The girl grabbed hold of Rachael and subsequently dragged Rachael under aswell at which point Rachael started crying for help aswell! The worlds second worst lifeguard - me - arrived on the scene and also ended up with a few lungfulls of water at which point a girl with a rubber ring and a bemused expression turned up to save the day! Funny now but scary at the time!

The next 2 days we spent eating, drinking and lazing around in the same places at which point we headed back to the mainland.

From Kuala Besut we shared a taxi with a Dutch bloke and a French bloke back to Kota Bharu which was again a carbon copy of KK and Sandakan so we booked the next bus out of there to Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately the next bus was 7 hours away so we spent all day in an air conditioned shopping mall. This is the most strictly Muslim area of Malaysia and, despite my best efforts, I couldn't find a single place serving beer.

The bus got into KL at 5.30am. This time we'd booked a hostel and hung around there until about 7.30am when we headed to the Twin Towers of the Petronas Building where you can get a free tour of the Sky Bridge that links the two - as seen in one of the Bond films.
Tickets for this are free but only a certain number per day are available and the queue was huge. We started queuing at 8.15 and took our tour at 9.45. I wish I could say it was worth queing but I can't and I'll never get those 2 hours of my life back.

We ate at a curry house right next door to our hostel and then had a few hours sleep before heading to Chinatown on the night.
The curry house was enormous with a huge choice of dishes - food for both of us and a soft drink each (no beer available) came to just over 2 pounds! Chinatown was suprisingly low on eating options and consist mainly of a street market selling every fake item you can imagine. I had beef with spring onion and ginger and Rachael had Sweet & Sour Chicken - both were OK but about 4 times the price the curry house was earlier in the day. A 660ml bottle of Tiger beer was just over 2 quid.

The next day we headed to Kuala Gandah elephant sanctuary - similar to the Orang Utan place in Borneo but for elephants (believe it or not). We got to feed them, ride them & watch them shit. Mainly watch them shit.
Down the road was a place called Deerland where they had deers, a tarantula, a Macaque monkey that tried to eat our bag and a Sun Bear we got to feed monkey nuts and honey to.

In the early hours of the following morning I watched the first half of the Champions League final outside a Muslim restaurant sipping can of Sprite and the second half in a Reggae bar surrounded by Malaysian United fans paying 4 pounds a pint to ladyboy waiters/waitresses. Different.

The following day, hungover, we ate in Little India. Had the most delicious garlic nan with 3 different curries to dip it in, keema curry, mutton curry and chickpea curry with rice followed by an early night split evenly between bed and the toilet. I'm never eating curry again.

Next day we went to Batu Caves which are huge caves housing Hindu Shrines and inhabited by loads of wild Macaque monkeys.
This is a very sacred place for Hindu's and it was a bit embarrassing how all the tourists, ourselves included, were much more interested in the monkeys than the religious stuff.

We got back into KL around 1pm and, you've guessed it, went for a curry. The rest of the afternoon was spent dashing around KL on a combination of the elevated Monorail and the Metro style train system trying to book tickets out of here to Thailand. The train was full for the next 4 days as were most of the buses but we eventually found a bus which leaves tonight at 10.30.

Today has been spent doing nothing around the hostel - excellent hostel BTW called Hostel Cosmopolitan. They have a huge DVD collection and we watched Gone Baby, Gone this morning which is very good (though not as good as the book) and we've just had a gorgeous lunch - can you guess what we had?

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