Welcome to Borneo! Home of world famous headhunters (thanks for the warning Ling but i don't think i'll be coming in contact with any of them), long houses, bloody hot jungles, the highest peak in SE asia (Mt Kinabalu) and Pulau Sipidan!
Will i have enough time to go see all these wonderful things? Well, more like will i have enough money? I think so. We'll have to see. I'm coming to the end of my lovely SE asia tour. Its been over 6 months since i left home. I was suppose i was planning to be back in Van a few weeks ago but I have yet to materialized at YVR. Alas, i will come home eventually, DO NOT WORRY! Ha!
KL to Kuching was, by far the roughest plane ride i've had in many years. We took off 2 hrs late (due to weather i believe) in what appeared to be an air worthy craft of some sort. It had two mismatched engines, a few ragged seats, some rope (aircraft grade i suppose), tape, and a wing, if you can call it a wing, of some sort. As we rose off the tarmac, i saw we were heading into some dark, thunderous clouds. Perfect, just perfect, of course was my initial thought. The journey to altitude of course was nothing short of an adventure.
Of course i'm over exaggerating this story just a little, its not like i almost died or nething but its still worth mentioning. Anyways, the air was rough that evening my readers. The plane bounced around like a plastic toy tossed into a wind tunnel. I'm surprised the rope held the wings to the fuselage for the entire flight! If i had a drink, it would have ruined my pants for sure, not that they were still clean, i had ruined them after the first wave of turbulence. I was waiting for people to start screaming but cooler heads prevailed. So since no one understood the danger that we were in, i had to start things off. I started screaming at the top of my lungs "we're all gonna die!!!!" and "i'm too young and beautiful to go this way!!" Of course no one understood the gravity of the situation we were in and the flight attendant/captain came out of the cockpit and gave me some kinda pill.
After that, everything was good. I'm not sure what was in the pill, but it made the ride a lot, lot more pleasant. Even when the lightning started to spark around the craft, i was unafraid. I just sat there lazily in my seat with a dopey smile on my face all the way to Kuching. Its interesting to see lighting up close. It really looks different when it encircles your entire craft. Either way, i'm never flying with Budget Borneo ever again. Or with any airline that has check-in personnel, flight attendants and crew, as the same person.
 In transit to Borneo
Anyways, upon my happy arrival in Kuching, I lept from my tattered seat which now was completely soaked through with my sweat, to the tarmac and kissed the ground for sheer joy. A happier moment, i have had not. Of course this joyous occasion was quickly ruined by the fact that there were no buses from the terminal to the city. How stupid was that? So i had to hop into a taxi and head into the city. Complete waste of money, thank-you Sarwak Tourism Board.  Classic Kuching waterfront
Kuching is a surprisingly beautiful city. At least in comparison with the rest of Malaysia. I wonder where they get all their money from? Maybe from off-shore oil? Or logging of their rainforest? Either way, its a nice place. Not too much life, as with any smaller city, but still nice to poke around. The city's symbol is the cat for some reason. I have yet to find a proper answer as to why, but for now, i'll just let things be. At first i thought Ling's love with tigers was just b/c tigers are tigers, but now i know its a bit deeper than previously though. Hahaha!  City lights
First things first, the crocodile farm! As suggested by my good mate Mr. Ling, i headed out to Jong's Croc Farm out in god knows where. Took about 1 hr on a rough local bus but eventually got there in one piece. Arriving a little early, i found myself caught in, of course, another thunderstorm. And of course, i left my umbrella back at the hostel. So trudging along the highway, i find a nice small supermarket and buy myself the manliest looking umbrella. It was pink, with little flowers. Of course, heading back out to the farm, it stops raining and out pops the sun. Its too late now, everyone has seen me with my loser umbrella so i just keep it up to block out the sun. Whatever.
 Damn bus!  Mmmm, food...  Oi, what is that? Chicken?  Its mine!  More chicken?  Thank-you sir! i will have another!
The crocs themselves were very cool. One massive croc in a tiny pond (probably so that it would look just that much bigger!) really impressed me. The pic of course does not do it justice. Along with a host of other furries around the farm, all in all, i had a good time.
 Now that's a mean looking crocodile!  Furries!  More Furries!  Get me out of here Furries!  Sleeping Furries!
After spending too many days here, i finally got off my ass and took a bus to Bako National Park. Famous for its unique monkey, rainforests and beautiful scenery. Of course, after 1 hr on a hellish local bus, i arrive way too late, and find out all the accommodations are full. Great. Now all the way back to Kuching. Fortunately for me, i met a cool Iranian dude along the way and we ended up drinking away the rest of the night.
So forced to stay in Kuching another night, i decided that i would visit a few local caves to pass the time. Packed with my flashlight, umbrella, water, camera and other misc gear, i headed out. Now i've been caving before. In water caves, bat caves, giant caves and little ones. But i neglected to realize, i've never been caving alone. Of course the entire trip there including the hike/climb up to the entrance, this idea never crossed my mind. However, standing at the mouth of a dark, long tunnel that appeared to decend into the depths of the Earth, one quickly loses all confidence and reverts into a quivering little boy thinking of monsters and other such evil beings.  You've got to be kidding me? Screw it i told myself. It was a decent scramble to get up to the mouth of this cave in the first place ( about 15 m up loose slippery rocks) so i'm going in. Monsters on not! My weakass flashlight will fend of the unknown!  It doesn't seem to get any bigger...  Yep, its just a dark hole Going in was slow. It was steep, slippery, dark, and just plain scary. C'mon, i was on my own! If i got trapped in there no one would find me for probably centuries! But at least then i'll become famous! Hhaha. But i did make it in there. Eventually, after about 30 min of slow, slow going, i was forced to turn back. Not by some scary monster waiting to eat me, but by mud. I'm not cleaning these shoes again! Well, thats more of an excuse. But still, its hard to clean them you know! Either way, it was a wicked adventure. Next day, this time with accommodations booked, i headed back to Bako. It was a nice ride in with an Aussie couple who've just started their SE asia tour. Stored my junk in my room in the camp hostel and immediately i went off on a nice short trek. With great luck, i immediately came across the monkey that this park was famous for! What a wonderful monkey! Very active, leaping through the tree tops, unafraid of ppl, making this growling sound as it went, and of course my favorite thing, were very stupid looking!  Silly chinese ppl and their umbrellas!  Bako beach   Now that's a stupid looking monkey!  And that's an even stupider pose! Hahahaha! After taking a through amount of photos, i headed to the little cove area about 0.8 km away. Great view and a nice place to relax. Especially after hiking 1 hr through the jungle with sweat literally pouring out of every pore. Of course the dark clouds started rolling in cutting my time there a little short but i made it back to base camp without a drop. It never really rained that day. Just lightning in the distance.    Night time was another spectacular show. Out in the mangroves were trees covered in fireflies. Not as many as Selangor, but still, a nice place to sit, listen to music and chillout. On my way back to my room, i even found a very tame one on a leaf. Picked him up, brought him back to my room and took some pics, vids and jsut had fun. So strange to see them up close. They are really tiny insects and strangely, only one segment of their abdomen glows. I just love fireflies. Why doesn't someone make a firefly farm?
 Hello there!  Fear me insignificant little ants!  Stupid sock tan!  And sandal tan! -bk |
1 comment:
damn ur tanned!
i have to catch up!
dont worry! I'll be there soon! woooo!
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