We chose to do the least touristy tour we could find, a 3 day 2 nighter staying in the Bidayuh (that's a tribe) Kampung (village) Semban, perched high in the Bungo range just south of Kuching. According to the tour info "the remoteness and difficulty of the terrain has ensured that the village still maintains much of its traditional way of life. The village is known for its last remaining group of old women who still practice the wearing of brass coils on their arms and legs". We were to be met at the start of the trail to the village by our village host and guide and stay with him like extended family. The tour was limited to 7 people. We were the first to book 2 days before but of course this being peak ... read more

An early start for the 7am bus to Miri 4 and 1/2 hrs away. We left on time with a total of 4 passengers and drove very slowly out of town and along the dual carriageway and to the border. We are guessing there is a speed limit for buses here if so it must be 50, but the slow pace meant we got to take a lot in and we turned off at Seria which is home to Shell Brunei's major installation. The town has low bungalows for the workers and the gurkha troops based there to protect the installations. The oil rigs are quite visible. We swapped buses at Kuala Belait after a 5 minute wait with by now with a total of 10 passengers. The we stopped at a petrol station. The border ... read more

To get to the Nature Lodge in Bilit on the Sungai (river) Kinabatangan we had to get a taxi at 6am from Kota Kinabalu to ensure we got to the bus station early enough to get tickets for the 7am bus to Tawau. An American guy, Colin sat near us and was quick to ask if we were going to the Lodge too. We figured the 3 English girls that got on were also heading there. The journey took 5 hrs 30 and we had a spectacular view of Mt Kinabalu. As we weaved our way up to the National Park's entrance gates the view into the distance was exactly how you'd expect Borneo to look - layers upon layers of mountainous ridges covered in thick jungle. The hour and a half we spent going over ... read more

The bus to Kuala Lumpur took 6 hours. We had expected Singaporean transport to be efficient, but we left 15 minutes late and did a second pick up where we seemed to wait for late passengers before finally hitting the road an hour later. The border crossings were very easy and efficient, we figure that the Malaysian speed limits are higher as the driver seemed to put his foot down after we crossed. That would also explain why the Singaporean Ferrari owners club crossed after overtaking us - we counted 16 in the convoy. We overtook them shortly after crossing, they'd all been pulled over by the Malaysian police and there seemed to be a bit of a discussion going on. The bus dropped us somewhere in the city centre, not where we thought we were ... read more

After the usual breakfast we jumped into the car for Dili via Dare. The fog shrouded the mountains on our way out and the drizzle and cool air meant that we left Maubisse in jumpers. The drizzle was soon behind us though as we lost altitude and by 10:30 the sun was blaring hot and we swapped the thermals for sunscreen. The memorial/museum/cafeat Dare was not as impressive as we had hoped mainly aswe were disappointed about the lack of coffee (ie none) the coffee grown here is strong and black and smooth and we havent yet had a good cup of it – saving it for Dare. But the museum did have a great exhibition about WWII and copies of the flyers dropped from planes by the Australians as they left saying ‘your friends do ... read more