Month: January 2012

Miri

Day 14 – Tuesday 10 2012 – Miri

Another fairly late night with loud karaoke bars nearby (as I found out later, one was actually downstairs), they love their karaoke bars here. I was then awoken at 4:50 by the call for prayer from the local mosque.  Oh well, sleep is over-rated and think I am going to have to get used to that !

I was up early for coffees and breakie with the other guests, most who are moving on today, it was nice to eat fresh fruit and toast for a change.

I had planned a day in Miri, so left the hostel after 9.00 to get out for a walk before the worst of the heat of the early afternoon. It was still hot and humid though !  Miri is a fairly new town compared to some of the others I have visited, so the old town areas were not that interesting, and there was not a whole lot else to look at really. I wandered around for a couple of hours and then went to a local food court for lunch.

After lunch I wandered up to the Petroleum Museum, the museum is about a 2km walk up a hill and it was pretty tough in the heat, lots of people driving past in cars gave me funny looks as they drove on by. If this had been Auckland I would have run up there in minutes, but this was a bit of a mission.

I think Vicki is the only person I know who would have appreciated the museum for its sake, I enjoyed it for the air conditioning and the view of the town was OK.

For Vicki !

One of the walking tour highlights 🙂

I arrived back in the hostel in the early afternoon to cool down and chill for the rest of the day. It was a quiet hour on my own before the new round of travellers arrived. I soon get chatting to an English guy and girl travelling together and an American guy living in Japan. The poms were planning on visiting Niah Caves tomorrow which is what I want to do as well so we will all go together in a car organised by Mrs Lee who runs the hostel. This will be cheaper and easier than us all using the bus, assuming one actually runs.

I hung around the hostel for the rest of the afternoon catching up on some emails and blog reading while the others had a late lunch. When they came back we sat around and chatted over a beer with a couple of Swiss guys who had just arrived. The six of us went of dinner to Mings Seafood Cafe and I ate the most food since new year – fantastic, BBQ’d fish, calamari, okra, native ferns and bamboo clams ( a long thin shellfish). It was a good night, moderately expensive as beer is a horrendous price in Miri.  We bought another big bottle of beer each and went back to the hostel to chat till quite late. It was a good night.

 I regret not taking my camera (or even my phone) for dinner as the food porn was great!

Miri is the border town with Brunei, Brunei being completely alcohol free, everyone comes to Miri to drink – and they know how to make a buck here   The beer in Kapit was half the price and Kapit was 200km up a river.

8 hours on a bus, Sibu – Miri

Day 13 – Monday 09 Jan 2012 – Sibu / Miri

I am going to attempt to start a post and maybe edit yesterdays photos while having my spine pounded and my body shaken as we travel on the Pan-Borneo Highway, typing is very slow !

Last night was the worst of the trip so far, I would have expected Sunday night to be reasonably quiet in Sibu, but there was at least two karaoke bars and a nightclub within hearing distance of my hotel room, it took a while to isolate the sounds over the noise of another heavy downpour and the noise finally stopped about 1:30am. At 5:30 the cafes over the road opened up and a large generator kicked in as well. As I was planning on leaving the hotel at 7.00, there was no point in attempting more sleep so I gave up and went to see if I could breakfast at 6.15. I could ! more eggs on toast.

I got a cab from the hotel to the bus terminal which was a good 10km away. When i arrived at the terminal I was surrounded by touts flogging their bus company but had elected to stick to the main ones and got the 7.30 Bus Asia to Miri.  The price is fixed at 40 ringit for all companies so the choice was made on the state of the bus, I must say the “VIP” buses all looked fine. The ride is supposed to take 7 half hours. There were only three passengers so I took the pack on with me.

The first thirty minutes were fairly smooth on good roads, but once we had passed the far outskirts of Sibu the ride got very rough. After about three hours on the road we stopped to pick up a load of passengers from a competitors broken down bus and all of a sudden we were full. My decision to take the pack on with me backfired as I now had it under my legs for an hour until Bintulu. My neighbour was a nice young Malay man names Faz Wan, who spoke Ok English, so we chatted in a rather stunted fashion for the remainder of his journey to Bintulu where he works.

We lost most of the new passengers at Bintulu and I got my double seat back which was a relief to my legs.  The low lands area we are driving through has been largely deforested, though there is a bit of secondary growth. It was not till after Bintulu that we started passing large palm oil plantations, these were massive, strecthing for tens of kilometres.

Miri is an ‘oil’ town, near the Brunei border and has a population of around 270,000.  We arrived in town just after 4.00 and I got a taxi to a randomly selected hostel, which appeared to be closed. I then tried my second choice, The Dillenia Guest House, which is a bit further out from the centre of town then I wanted as I will be here for four nights. I planned on booking for one night and checking it out first before committing to the full four, but it had a single room available and such a good vibe I took the full four. Hopefully that vibe was the right one !

Once I checked in I went an introduced myself to some of the other guests, it is a small hostel so only a few people and most appear to be checking out tomorrow, and most going up to Brunei and onto Kota Kinabalu like I am.  I went out and had dinner and a beer with a Canadian girl, Jessica, she reminds me a lot of Meliesha and had been staying in NZ since Feb and now returning home. Nice evening, enjoyed having company again.

As an aside, photo editing is fairly basic,  I am just running a few basic steps in Lightroom, contrast, sharpening, noise reduction. I am shooting GF1 and I cannot be bothered converting them first.

Long houses and old heads

Day 12 – Sunday 08 Jan 2012 – Kapit / Sibu

Saturday night in Kapit was a quiet one ! The rain really came down around 8:00 and didn’t let up for hours, this seemed to clean the stragglers from the street, so apart from the sound of rain it was a fairly quiet night. Glad the Fox movie channel was available on th rather small TV.

I was awake around 4am and sort of up around 6.00 when the town started to wake up. I wasn’t meeting Joshua (the Iban guide) until 9.30 so I kind of hung around till 8.30 and then went and hunted down coffee and noodles for breakfast at the cafe I was to meet  Joshua at. He arrived early and we shared a couple of coffees and talked for an hour or so – and he chain smoked the entire time, must have had 6 smokes, all stubbed out on the floor of the cafe.  You are not in NZ any more Phil ! No more tourists had arrived in town so it was not worth him, or definitely me doing an overnight trip up river, he said the market had been badly down for the past two years, his usual market is Europeans. However, he did arrange a trip to one of the local Kapit Longhouses – Sebabai.

The Iban bring in jungle and garden fruits from the longhouses to sell in the market.

Even the visit to Sebabai was expensive, costing me about $100NZ, payment has to be made to the driver, the guide (Joshua), the headman and a wee bit to the warrior chief if you want to see the heads… Normally of course this can be split amongst a group, but I was a group of one.

Joshua met again at the jetty with the longhouse car and a cold can of beer. The longhouse has a number of old Toyota Hiace vans and this one was full and had no aircon and little suspension. Joshua smoked his way to the longhouse.  The trip took about forty five minutes about 50% on sealed road, though the unsealed road I think was in better condition. I was sitting in the middle of the back seat and was unable to photograph two guys on a scooter carrying a foam double mattress!! Even the local girls were laughing.

Sebabai long house sits above a small stream used as the communal wash house.

My chain smoking friend Joshua, crossing the swing bridge to the longhouse.The Iban Sebabai longhouse is one of the few remaining old long houses left, a huge number have been replaced with new concrete ones, some of them look very nice too. At Sebabai they are building a new brick house as well, but will keep the old one for a while longer. The house has some very old ironwood sections but a lot of the roof has been replace with corrugated iron. The long house sleeps 42 families, some quite large. The house is in two rows, with a ‘street’ in the middle. Each house has separate homes and a long common area where people hang out together.

The street in between, the boards were quite dodgy in some places!The still being built new longhouse, with a proper bridge.Sunday morning is market day so the house was fairly quiet when we arrived, but over the couple of hours we were there a large number of people arrived, and a massive amount of kids. Of course these days everyone wears western clothes, lots of football shirts on the boys. The house has fallen off the tourist trail in the last couple of years so some of the younger kids were very fascinated by me.

The common area where I was allowed to go.The young boy could not keep his eyes off me, good to see kids the world over love the same toys.

The house shaman was working on some ceremonial clothing when I arrived (not sure if this is staged, but I enjoyed watching him work) and soon after the house hard man came out. We all shared a couple of glasses of extremely potent rice wine and talked a bit about our families. The shamans sons (like a number of the local young men) work overseas, and are not taking on the shaman role, when he dies the house will not have one.

The Iban men are quite heavily tattooed and a number of the women were displaying some tattoos as well. The tattoos all display individuals memories so the shaman had airplanes as he flew on one on holiday. The Iban people are the only indigenous tribe to tattoo their necks and all the older men had them. Apparently the shaman featured in a Nat Geo article in 2002!

The house hard man, he is the warrior chief of the house, as were his father, grandfather etc asked if I wanted to see the heads his grandfather collected, which of course I did. They hang from the ceiling in the common area but are covered up. When he went to unwrap them a number of the kids, and some parents,  came to look. Apparently this is very rare and some of the younger kids were quite frightened by it ! The heads were very old.

After the heads we talked a bit more and then left so I could get the ferry back to Sibu.

A lot of the men in the house smoked, the hard man was coughing up a lung every five minutes, so I imagine he was not well. The other negative to the longhouse was the amount of rubbish underneath, all cigarette butts, fruit peels, other bits of rubbish get pushed the floor boards, it was a shame to see.  Malaysia (the bits I have seen so far) is quite grubby though.

The ferry ride was uneventful, the Rejang river was up significantly on the day before due to the massive downpour overnight. As we were running down river the trip was 45 minutes faster – it is a fast flowing river.

I went back to the Li Hua hotel and managed to get a single room for $20NZ the night, TV, air and wi-fi. I had another night in.

Tomorrow a 7 half hour bus ride – I hope !

News just in, I am the only tourist in town!

Day 11 – 07 Jan 2012 – Sibu / Kapit

I spent the evening last night in my hotel room as it was all so quiet in Sibu when I was wandering around between 5:30 and 7:00. I watched another movie, blogged and turned the lights off about 10.30. At midnight the local karaoke bar really kicked it up a notch and music was blasting till 1 am, and no I did not go down and join in 🙂

In Sibu I finally started taking health precautions, shower in jandals (thoughtfully provided by the hotel), water from bottles, slept in the sleeping bag liner and insect repellent on exposed skin when I went for my evening walk. I am really going to have to make these things habits and do them without thinking. I have also started a habit of storing my laptop and money belt in the hotel safe and bolting my door at night and have split my cash into different piles and storing them in various bags and pockets.

I had breakfast in the hotel, fried eggs on toast – mmmmm, and then re-packed and made my way back to the docks for the fast boat to Kapit.

The boat is just like a water-borne aircraft, a sealed torpedo. I took a business class seat which gave me a wee bit more room for an extra NZ dollar, over a three hour ride it was worth it. The ferry was full which meant I had to stay in my seat rather than bounce from side to side as the views changed. The ferry also had a list to port which was a real hassle as I was on the starboard side so taking photos was a bit harder to do, and I had to shoot through a rather grubby window as well. The drizzle had stopped by the time we left Sibu and it remained mostly dry throughout the voyage. As the bags were on the roof I had used the pack rain cover I got for my birthday, such useful gifts.

The voyage was uneventful though I did see a small crocodile sitting on a log !!! As the ferries move at a supposed 55km hr I didn’t get a chance to photograph it, damnit. Photos all taken out a window so pretty crap.

Chinese cemetery, Christians escaping persecution in Foochow were the first to colonise the interior in the early 1900s.

Riverboat shop

Long house. The are are a lot of long houses up the river, most have been upgraded into modern concrete buildings, most with satellite dishes on the outside. Some are huge !

Kapit

The unloading of the boat. I had to get my pack of the roof and carry it along the side of the boat, while negotiating people coming the other way. I had visions of me ending up on my back in the river !

I arrived in Kapit at lunch time so found myself a hotel, New Rejang Hotel (the roughest yet) and went in search of some snacks and to see if I could find any other tourists in town. I also got the name of a guide from the hotel reception. All I managed to find is some food….

I rang Lion (Leon) the guide and he is busy today, there were no other obvious tourists on the streets or in the cafes and Kapit is a small town. I think I have blundered badly by coming here on a weekend in the rainy season 😦 there is just nothing happening. The regional office is closed at weekend and apparently you need a permit to go up river – though also apparently no one checks. There were no guides at the jetty so I think I am going to be disappointed today.

I had a good walk around the town centre, visited the market and temple, the old White Rajah era Fort Sylvia was closed (supposed to be open) and had run out of things to do by 2.30. Hotel room, Tsing Tao beer, blogging and dozing was it for a few hours.

Fort Syliva (1880) – note the high tide marks, in 1932 it was 62ft above normal.

Cock fighting is a very popular form of entertainment in Borneo, I haven’t seen or heard it though, but these are fighting cocks for sale.

I headed out for some food and the hope of finding some entertainment at 6:00, however, the town is almost deserted now with most of the shops and a lot of the cafes closed or closing. I was walking past the water front and was hailed by a local man, I went over to say hello and it turned out he is Mr Joshua, the Lonely Planet recommended guide. I talked to him about a longhouse visit and how much money I had. He said unless the last boat brings someone in I am the only real tourist in town ! I am going to meet him for coffee tomorrow morning and he will see what he can do for me, but I cannot afford a trip on my own.

A wee snack – please note I am using the can and not the (very tempting) ice filled glass !

[Edit] – Obviously in honour of my visit to Sarawak, for the second day running I have seen a movie with a NZ actor, on the ferry this morning was Cliff Curtis’s latest movie Columbiana.

Kuching to Sibu

Day 10 – 06 Jan 2012 – Kuching / Sibu

Up early and finished packing my life into my backpack and messenger bag, it just fits, not much room for too much shopping though. The day was overcast and drizzly, but calm enough for a boat trip. Alex dropped me off at the jetty and I was solo and on my way !

The ferry seats about 100 people but there was only a dozen or so on board.  I was so pleased yesterday to read it was air conned, but man, it was absolutely freezing inside, the first thing I did was get my polyprop on. The boat made its way up the Sarawak River which is quite brown from the amount of soil that gets washed into it from the rain, there was a lot of tree and plant material and sadly a fair amount of rubbish floating by.

Out in the open waters of the South China Sea there was a reasonable swell which we ran across for a couple of hours so it was a rolling ride for a while.

Sibu is about 130km up the Rejang River, the river is the main highway into this part of the country and up into the highlands.   Logging was the primary activity up river for many years and this has now (apparently) been restricted somewhat for more sustainable activities. However, there were masses of logs stacked up along the river bank near the mouth of the river and at many stations as we travelled up river.  The rain really started to pour heavily as we neared Sibu and for a while visibility was almost non-existant, though it settled to a mere downpour as we arrived in town.

I chose the Li Hua hotel as recommended by the Lonely Planet, I had to take a twin single room, as that was all that was left. A bit more than I wanted to pay but still cheap, plus it was easy to find and close enough that I did not get soaked. I had to stay the night in town as the boats on to Kapit only go in the morning, the hotel seems Ok, TV and air con, all the key ingredients.

I spent some of the afternoon wandering around town, through the markets and by the port, there in this not a heck of a lot to see so I went back to the hotel for a snooze and watched “the marine 2” with Tem Morrison as the lead bad guy on TV. Yes it was crap.

The market had a stall selling live chickens, ducks and geese, individually wrapped in newspaper, i didn’t see this in Kuching.Wrapping the chicken, she was quite gentle, though practical !

I headed out again about 6.00 for a feed and to see if any of the local bars were open and packed with other tourists. None of the bars in the guide seemed to exist anymore or were closed and I have not seen one other westerner all day ! Hope there are some in Kapit as i do not have enough cash to hire a guide to go further upstream myself.  I bought a couple of beers and went back to my room.

Like Kuching has the big cat, Sibu has the big swan.

Just discovered free wi-fi so blogging time 🙂 and here it is.

Final day in Kuching, rain rain go away, no Bako

Day 9 – 05 Jan 2012 – Kuching

After a bit of research over the past few days I have pretty much finalised the next phase of my trip so last night I booked a return flight from Miri to Mulu and some accommodation for three nights in Mulu National Park. I am hoping that they are the only things I am going to need to book ahead, or it could be a night in a doorway somewhere!

The plan is to catch a boat from Kuching to Sibu tomorrow morning, I will overnight in Sibu and then catch a smaller boat up the Batang Rejang (Rejang river) to Kapit. In Kapit I hope to hook up with some other travellers and organise a guided trip further up river to a longhouse for an overnight stay the following day. I am not sure if I will do one or two nights up river will have to see what other people are wanting and what it all costs, apparently it is not overly cheap. The boats from Kuching and Sibu are quite modern, sealed and air conned, yus!  I will then boat back to Sibu for a further night and then take an eight hour bus ride to Miri.

I have to be in Miri for the 12th as I have a 9.30 am flight to Mulu on the 13th. I am planning on staying three nights in Mulu Nat. Park, visiting the famous caves and hopefully doing an overnight walk. From Mulu I fly back to Miri and aim to do a day trip the following day to the Niah Caves. From Miri I will bus to Brunei and in Brunei I will plan the next phase – in Sabah !

So, let the challenges begin, as tomorrow I head off into the unknown by myself !

I have enjoyed my time in Kuching, it has been great to spend a few days with Alex getting to know a little bit about Borneo and Malaysia, sampling different foods, all wrapped in the comforts of a car and a nice apartment to return to each day. Alex has been a great host and I have much appreciated his time and company.

Today was the day we were going to head to Bako National Park, but the weather really did turn to crap last night, I woke up around 5.30 to some heavy rain and some big lightening ! There was no way we were going to make it out to Bako, which is a real sham as I was keen on visiting, but I guess I can always come back again. With the weather so crap, I pretty much stayed in bed reading most of the morning. Reports later in the day from some of Alex’s friends suggested this was a good idea, sounds like there was a fair bit of flooding in Kuching, with many places closed.

I also reorganised my pack – cannot believe it all fits in !

The only activity of the day was a trip to the mall for lunch and I picked up a pair of jandals. I have found it very hard to find anything that fits my feet, and I am only a size 10,  I would hate to have my nephews feet ! The Spring mall is the newest in Kuching and inside I could have been in Sylvia Park, most of the regulars were there.

Found a small bit of NZ in the supermarket !

I guess there are going to be days like this when not much happens as I travel through wet areas.

I have update “the plan” page with more detail for the next week or two.

A tester stroll in the hills

Day 8 – 04 Jan 2012 – Kuching

The weather was a bit uncertain when we got up so we decided to not head out to Bako National Park. So I went for my first run since I have been away, I left at 7:50 and managed about 40 minutes and two and a half laps of the complex before melting completely away in the humidity. I ended my run at the pool, only to find it being cleaned and not accessible, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I was absolutely dripping ! I staggered back to the apartment and had a long cold shower, but it still took a good hour in the air con to cool down.  It was nice to get out and run, though it was pretty slow !

The weather kind of perked up after that so we went and had a very early lunch (10.30) at Alex’s favourite Malay place, Rumah Hijau Cafe. We tried to eat there yesterday but it was packed at 11.00, it is a hugely popular place. I had an Indian Rojak, which was again delicious. I have been loving the food here.  One of the many advantages of staying with someone who knows the town is getting to eat excellent food at places that are outside the usual tourist haunts, its not that food is any cheaper, but I have seen a broader variety of foods and I have not had the same thing twice.

After lunch we took a drive out of town and went to Demai beach and to Mt Santubong, about 30 minute drive from town. There are a number of resorts at Demai at the foot of the mountain and we wandered through one to the beach. It was not a great day for the beach and the weather didn’t show it at its best, but it has lovely yellow sand, palm trees and a never ending view, except when you look to the base of the mountain.

We then headed back to the trail head and did the 45 minute walk to the viewing point at 400 metres up the 1200m Mt Santubong.  We were too late in the day to do the full loop to the summit.

This walk was long enough, I was hot about fifty metres up the trail, it was very humid. The track was steep, rooty, but not too muddy – nothing compared to the Home track run in the Waitakeres a couple of weeks ago!  Getting all that trail running in really helped prepare me for these sorts of walks as, apart from the heat, I found the climb was not too bad, harder than Piha trails and easier than Huia I guess. The key difference is when you are walking the Waitaks you are not checking that you are about to step on a snake with every foot fall:) The bush is totally different as well, no ferns, a lot more primary growth here too.

About half way up the trail I heard a massive commotion in the trees and looked up to see a small group of monkeys, chasing each other around, hooting and barking and jumping from tree to tree, by the time I got my camera out they were out of shot, but awesome awesome to experience !

The lookout proved a real dud and totally overgrownt. I would have loved to have let loose on the way back down but was really conscious of turning an ankle on the wet roots, so took it pretty conservatively, though I did slip at one point and gave the ankle a wee tweak.

The mountain from the road back to town. The walkable side is not so steep!

Malay girls in school uniform from the local Santubong school. There is a version of the uniform without the headdress.

I am also updating “the plan” with the next couple of weeks activities, will add dates tomorrow night when I have booked flights and accommodation.

Please send me emails !  I get some news via FB updates, but always love to hear more detailed news about what is happening with friends and family !

Visiting the orange haired cousins

Day 7  -03 Jan 2012 – Kuching

Ta da – today is the day  – going to Semmengoh Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, Wahoo ! I have been looking forward to seeing orang-utans in the ‘wild’ for a very long time and seeing them was one of the primary reasons for coming to Borneo.

The park has a number of rehabilitated and semi-rehabilitated orang-utans living within its 750 or so acres. The orang-utans are collected from villages where they have been kept as pets and once rehabbed are returned to the wild, and hopefully, unlike  Lyndsay Lohan,  they don’t come back. The park has been going since the 70’s and there have been a number of babies born there. I was really hoping to see a young one. The park has daily feedings at 9.00 am and 3.00 pm when visitors are allowed in to see the orang-utans. Unfortunately it is local fruit season so there is plenty of food available in the forest (probably not so unfortunate for the O’s I guess) so there is never a guarantee that we will see anything at all.

Naturally, when I got up it was pouring with rain, after three relatively fine days it was a bit disappointing, but nevertheless we decided to carry on and head out to the park. We left just after 7.30 for the 20km trip to the park for the 9.00 am feeding session and got there just in time! As today was a work day and the first day back at school for some the traffic was worse than Aucklands!

The rain had stopped by the time we had walked down to the feed area which was great as I really wanted to be able to grab some photos. There was about 30 tourists there, lots of Europeans so hopefully that means plenty of people to hang with when I am out on my own ! We hung around the feeding spot for a while and then got the message that one of orang-utans had appeared at another feed station we (slowly – some old buggers there) made our way over to where the action was. Looking up as we walked we spotted a large hairy orange blob up in the tops of the trees, he moved over to a rope above one of the rangers and hung there for a while, before clambering down a tree and taking a piece of fruit and climbing back up to eat. The O that came to see us was Annuar. He went up and down the tree a couple of times to eat and after about ten minutes climbed back to the tops and swung away on a vine back into the forest – that swinging was so cool. For a large ungainly looking beast they are incredibly graceful in the trees and very quick ! I managed to snap a few photos, I am really glad i bought the long zoom lens as all these were shot on 200mm, the 20mm would have been hopeless.  Naturally Annuar managed to stay in a position where we were all shooting into the light!

It was a great experience and I am so glad I came out, I missed seeing a young one, but you never know on the day how many (if any) will come to feed. When I am in Sabah later on my travels I will also go to the Sepilok park as well, plus real wild ones are seen on occasion, so you never know !

 Also saw this cute little chameleon on a bush !

And my second favourite sites of the day, some awesome toilet signs !

 

After a slooooooow journey back into town Alex and I had mee jawa for lunch at Kopi o corner. (mee means noodles). This was another delicious chicken and noodle dish, the amount of chilli seems to be increasing per meal 🙂

I am really liking the default motor scooter fashion of wearing your jacket back to front, I have been trying to snap a good sample, and this was the best I managed. My favourite one had the hood up over the mouse and nose, but sadly it was coming the other way in traffic so I did not manage to get a shot at it.

Once we got back to the apartment (and after a wee lie down) we popped upstairs to see my old Hudson colleague, Andy’s sister and I delivered the Christmas presents I had brought over from NZ from him for his nephews. Claire and her family have been living in Borneo for a few years now but are packing up and moving to NSW fairly soon. They had an amazing view from their apartment. Claire gave me the phone number of some friends in Kota Kinabalu where I will be visiting in Sabah in a few days or so, which is great !

So, a good day !  I saw an orang-utan !