Not KL’s fault.
last night most of my cash was stolen from my locker in the hostel, about $500 NZ. All the small denomination USD and some local currency. I am not blaming anyone but myself but I am pretty down on it 😦
Starbucks for coffee and muffin to cheer me up.
Edit…..
3 months later I found the money tucked inside my UK Passport for ‘safe keeping’ ! Apologies to KL for doubting that you are a lovely city !!!!
Day 30, Thursday 26 Jan 2012, Kuala Lumpur
Up at 6.15 to get the highly expensive van out to the airport, onwards and upwards ! Uneventful flight from Sandakan to Kota Kinabalu, 45 minutes – so up, shaken about by turbulence and down again. I had a much needed morning coffee fix at Kinabalu between flights.
I had not left enough time between the flights to do a free check in so had to pay 10rm ($4 NZD) for the pleasure of getting my boarding pass printed. The woman at the counter basically suggested I was an idiot for disturbing her slumber with the audacity to want to make a connecting flight. I am going to say it “Sabah – you are beautiful (apart from the friggin palms), but you need to sort your shit out, with a couple of exceptions your customer service SUCKS !”
The two and half hour flight to Kuala Lumpur was dull but also uneventful, my favourite kind of flight, I would like to add, plus we had the bonus of getting to KL early, awesome.
I caught the airport bus to KL Central, I did not realise but the airport is about 70k from town, the bus was 9rm (under $4 NZD), beats the $20 or so at Auckland ! We were less than 100metres from the airport before the palm oil plantations kicked in, a major disappointment for me. The ride to town was OK, not a lot to see and I was gagging for my first view of the city and the towers, it is a nice looking city when I got my first view.
I got a bit lost in the Central transport plaza till I found my way to the LRT (light rail) section and caught the train one stop to the Pasar Seni station near to the hostel I was recommended. I had a rather vacant walk around the neighbourhood using a totally useless map until I found the Travellers Home hostel. It was crap ! seemed to be above a prayer room and was mainly populated by men from the sub-continent, i do not want to appear racist, but it was not my kind of place. I left! Out on the street I took a wrong turn and immediately had no idea where I was. I wandered blindly around for a bit and came across the Explorers Homestay, the front door had a “Trip Advisor” recommendation sticker so I decided to check it out. Waaaaay better. They had no dorm rooms available tonight so I have taken an expensive single and have got a dorm for the following two nights. I plan on a couple of days here and then onto Melaka, though my timing again sucks as I think this will put me in Melaka over a weekend, which is apparently as very busy time with people vactioning there from KL.
It was mid afternoon once I had sorted myself out, so I went for a walk around the area, it is sort of on the edge of Chinatown and close to little india, I had a couple of very vacant hours wandering around and realised I really do need a better map or I am going to get really lost. I enjoyed snapping photos around here, lots to see, not just touristy things!
Reggae Mansion, the big Kahuna of hostels, there are also Reggae guesthouses 1 and 2 close by.
I have not seen much graffiti in my travels, not sure if this is good or bad, it can be a curse but good street art is great.
The flag in Merdaka Square (sorry if this is spelt wrong, it is too dark for me to see clearly 🙂 )
I did not get the name of this Chinese temple, but loved these burning incense coils, with names inside.
Sri Maha Mariamman Temple – the oldest Hindu temple in KL
I had dinner at a local Indian, followed by a colour of beers in front of the laptop in the common room before bed.
Today I followed some very wise advice from my very experienced travelling friend Alex. He told me to take every new challenge as a series of small steps, to not look ahead too far. I am going to say I was a bit daunted when I got up this morning, I had to get two flights to a strange city, find my way via public transport to a hostel I had no idea about based on a map on a business card. A huge part of me wanted to arrive at KL airport and get a cab to a hotel, just like millions of other tourists in their forties do everyday. But that would be a cop out ! so i broke the day up into sections, each a small challenge to complete, each entirely simple in its own right, get a plane, get a bus, get a train. Easy !
I will strive to do the same tomorrow!
Day 29, Wednesday 25 Jan 2012, Sepilok
I took half a pill last night as I had had a couple of bad nights in Semporna, trying to sleep on the bed of rocks and was subsequently very tired. I had a good eight hours sleep and after a warm (but pathetic) shower I was feeling much perkier. I have a small sweat rash which developed a few days ago and was fine while diving but it has gotten worse again on the bus trip to Sepilok, I will have to take some care over the next few days. (is this too much info ?)
I had an omelette and loads of coffee for my included breakfast then headed over to the Seplilok Orangutan Research Centre, (SORC). The reason I stayed at the resort is due to its location next door to SORC and I can go to both feeding sessions on the one day entry – which, I will say, was four times the price of Semmengoh, near Kuching – Sepilok is a rip off ! As an aside in no way does the resort resemble what I would call a resort, I would post a picture of my room, but will save the photo upload time for more important things ! so if you think I am staying in the lap of luxury, think again.
I got to SORC just as 5 buses dumped their load of mainly bewildered, mainly elderly and mainly European tourists off. Bugger ! The walk to the feeding area was long and slow and I will say for captain impatient here, very painful, as the oldies staggered their way along the slippery boardwalk. However I did get an OK spot to take photos and now know where to go for better photo opportunities at thr afternoon session.
We saw two female orang-utans with their babies which was pretty cool, they came to the station one at a time and fed themselves. One of them also fed her baby. I took a lot of photos, most of which were rubbish, but a few keepers ! It is hard to shoot with a long lens at slow speeds in a crowd !
Once the orang-utans had left the feed station was invaded by a troop of monkeys who amused the reducing crowd with their antics, great fun.
After an hour I wandered back to the entrance, grabbed a shot of a nice sized spider and a tree viper (not its head) sitting in a tree.
As I left this little guy popped up for a wee snack.
I went back to my room for a lie down and to wait for the three pm feeding, which I will go to early to secure a better spot!
Just as I was about to head off at two for the feeding the heavens opened ! with umbrella in hand I walked over anyway and secured a reasonable spot, much nearer to the platform. There were significantly less people this afternoon which was great as the orang-utans didn’t really play ball to start with and hid away from my perfect possie. The rain stopped for a brief minute as the first two came out and then started again for the remainder of my time there. It is quite hard to take photos while
holding an umbrella, the light was pretty bad so lots of noise in the afternoon shots. The two orang-utans from this morning were back again this afternoon along with a young male. They were a lot less active this afternoon and I am putting it down to the rain. Just before I left I knocked my glasses from my pocket over the edge and had to get one of the guides to go down and get them , Doh !
As in humans, the young male was impatient for his food…
I had to skip lunch today as I am running out of cash. Last night I was told the fare to the airport is 18rm, but….. I was told this morning there is a two person minimum and as I am the only one it will be 36rm – I call rort, AGAIN !
After my dissatisfaction I still ended up drinking three beers, eating a plate of chips and then a calamari curry and having to use the credit card. But at least I got to use heaps of free wi-fi, it doesn’t work in my hovel room.
Day 28, Tuesday 24 Jan 2012, Semporna – Sepilok
It was pouring with rain again when I woke up so decided to stick with my plan from yesterday and move on up to Sepilok on the 7.30 bus. Jay (Jerome) and I said our farewells and he went back to bed. I enjoyed travelling with Jay, nice to have some company for a few days even though his English was not good. I think he appreciated having me listen to the instructions from the dive masters and then repeat to him more slowly, we have swapped emails and he has offered me a bed in Toulouse if I make it there. I now hope to pick up someone else to travel with, though have been disappointed on my first day in Sepilok.
I used the same Dyana bus company to catch the bus to Sandakan, Sepilok is nearby and just off the main road. The bus was full again, but I secured a window seat on the right hand side, for some reason the right hand seats have significantly more leg room ! It makes a huge difference after five hours with no stop.
The bus dropped me at the end of Sepilok Rd and I got a “pirate” (unlicensed) taxi down to the “resort” I chose to stay at. The Sepilok Jungle Resort. It is pretty run down, the staff, of which there seem to be dozens are not the happiest or helpful bunch, service is crap ! I was going to make this a base for some day trips around the place, but everything is expensive, tours, water, beer, food everything and I have little cash. I was told the wi-fi cost 5rm for 30 mins so was not going to use it much, but subsequently found out it is free and unlocked, frustrating.
Anyway, I have had enough of Borneo so have decided to move on, I am going to take the expensive option, (about twice the price of the bus) and fly from Sandakan to Kota Kinabalu and an hour later to Kuala Lumpur. I get to KL a week earlier than planned so will head to Melaka and maybe the Cameron Highlands for a couple of days each, not sure will see what the haps is when I get to KL, maybe I will meet someone to travel with again as I am enjoying things a lot more with company.
Day 27, Monday 23 Jan 2012, Semporna
Day two of diving started off with a massive downpour ! fortunately we were waiting for a hungover graduate from the day before school to turn up, which she never did, so we left late and the worst of the rain had subsided so we didn’t get soaked walking to the boat. It was probably good to have a cloudy day as I have a wee bit of sunburn from yesterday.
Today we are diving Mantabuan Island, again about a 45 minute boat road from Semporna town. This island is inside the marine reserve and normally has a resident guard on it to watch for illegal fishing, however the island was in between guards and there had been reports of dynamite fishing on the reef (also known as reef bombing), so Kyle our English dive master took the camera to photograph and damage. There was three divers and three snorkelers today. Mantabuan is surrounded by a reef so we will be doing three boat dives today as our boat is too deep to get to the beach.
Our first dive was on a reef called black coral garden and you could easily see why, the water was clearer here and I think if we had a sunny day the visibility would have been incredible, as it was it was still 15-20 metres (much better than the 1.5 in Lake Pupuke!). About twenty minutes into the dive there was a loud BOOM under water, we all instantly knew what it was, reef bombing ! Kyle made sure we were all calm and we carried on our dive as it was not the close, soon after there was a second BOOM, a bit further away but still a wee bit scary. Kyle, was fairly cool with it all so we trusted him and carried on with the dive. We soon started to come across the odd dead fish and then more and more, culminating in an area that must have had thousands of small fish, all dead, surrounding damaged coral. This was probably the epicentre of the explosions. As we were running low on air we surfaced here. Kyle and Egdar, the Malay snorkel guide were incensed at the reef bombing. Not so much for our safety, though the bombers knew we were down and dint care less, but because of the damage to the reef system. They tried to call the army out but we had no cell reception, but soon after we saw an army patrol vessel and managed to hail them over and point out the offending vessel.
The army went after them, but as their boat was too deep to go through the reef, they had to catch a ride in a local canoe !
The second dive on Sham Sham and the third on The Channel were a lot less exciting than the first, no one was trying to kill anything ! We saw a lot of marine life, three great turtles a couple of snakes, one very close up. We also saw a lot of damage, huge swathes of destroyed coral and I found a dead turtle, its shell had been split, it was so sad. Just as we were wrapping up the dive, a school of 100 or so barracuda swam past, awesome !
Kyle our dive master and Jay
Apart from the obvious the dives were great, good visibility, plenty to look at, both good and bad. Another good day.
A passing storm
I spent an interesting couple of hours chatting with Kyle when we got back on shore, he has been in Semporna for 18 months now and is very passionate about the reefs and the water that surrounds them.
In our dorm are two guys who I met at the Pinnacles walk at Mulu, they did the walk the day before I did. At the local Indian tonight they introduced us to banana roti, my God, they are absolutely delicious ! The roti’s not the two guys, I have not crossed over!
Day 26, Sunday 22 Jan 2012, Semporna
I am going to start by saying today was pretty awesome !
Very warm dorm room in Semporna, but I slept OK, I must be getting the hang of hostel living. Up at 7.00 for what must be one of the better hostel “free” breakfasts, as well as the normal fruit and toast we had boiled eggs, yum. Bread in Borneo – and I am kinda guessing all SE Asia, is white and has as much body as a size zero super model. Unlike NZ, you cannot have a meal based around toast…
The Scuba Junkies shop was full of keen divers and snorkelers when we arrived at 7.45, along with the shop guys, the group going out Sibuan Island had three snorkelers, three dive trainees and Jay and I. It was a 45 minute fast boat to the island and it was beautiful, if the day had been sunny and still you would have said a tropical paradise ! The island is inhabited by twenty families of sea gypsies and they pretty much ignored us when we wandered about between dives taking photos. Our boat
The island is quite narrow.
Soon after we arrived a number of other tour operators turned, including this Malay group, I was surprised the muslim women swam in their clothes and headdress, I guess it is obvious when you think about it, but it must be dangerous !
From what the dive guys said the sea gypsies are primarily of Philippine origin, but have been in local waters for a long time. As they are not Malay they are not allowed to set foot on the mainland so mainly live on stilt houses off shore. About 10 years ago they were allowed to live on some of the small islands and apply for citizenship, so there are a number of families living on the smaller islands.
We did three dives, all on different reefs around the island, one from shore (left shoulder) and two from the boat (Froggies Blvd) and Hawksbill Highway) . The dives were all around fifty minutes and each dive had a slightly different seascape, therefore some variation in sea life. The highlight was the second dive where we saw two turtles up close and quite a large sea snake swimming in the other direction. Seeing turtles swimming was pretty damn cool ! Along with some pretty awesome coral and a few moray eels, we saw an abundance of fish – too many to remember all the varieties we saw, but at least a tropical fish shop worth. We had a Malay dive master with us and he could spot fish and other life amazingly well, far better than the English guy we would have tomorrow.
We dived till about 3.30 and then had a quick ride back to town for a beer or two and a bit of story telling. Saw this awesome bit of transport on the way back.
I went for an late afternoon walk and saw this guy frantically paddling while sucking down a ciggie. I am (not really) amazed at how many people smoke, ciggies are cheap, 20 for NZD$4 and the majority of men and a lot of boys smoke constantly.
The water is foul here, I cannot believe they swim in it, there is a lot of garbage plus all the garbage. I heard that when they built the fixed jetty here, they started at low tide and then carried on. The boys are sitting on top of it at high tide !
Great day, night not so good, the mattress is made from two pieces of shaved paper I think. I can feel every slat.
Day 25, Saturday 21 Jan 2012, KK – Semporna.
Mildly whisky induced sleep and mild whisky induced hangover when I got up at 6.00 to get the bus to Semporna. Jay and I got a taxi to the bus terminal and chose the Dyana Express bus company for no particular reason. We grabbed a takeaway coffee from one of the terminal vendors, takeaways come in a plastic bag and a straw, awesome ! 
I have just got the photo fro Jay, 3 days later. Note the mis-matched pants and shirt combo. Awesome!
The journey to Semporna took almost 10 hours with only one stop where we could get off on the way. The bus was full and I was jammed into my seat with no legroom, by the time we arrived my back was killing me. It was a very boring journey and for most of it I was not able to take photos, highlights were;
I was glad to get to Semporna ! one of the guests at the hostel last night told us to not get a taxi from the bus terminal as the hostels are a 10 minute walk. It was good advice as we were mobbed with taxi drivers when we got off the bus. In some towns, like KK for instance the inter-city terminal is a 15 minute drive from the centre. I don’t think I am being unfair when I say semporna is a bit of a dump, “run down” was how it was described in one of the guide books.
I was keen to get checked into some accommodation and had settled on Scuba Junkies before I came down, they have dorms in town as well as out on Mabul Island. Sadly the island is booked out so I am staying in the dorm in Semporna. I have also booked 2 days them of diving with as well, though they are booked to mid-feb for Sipidan dives. Jay wants to check out other dive operators first so we may part ways in the AM
Dinner, shower – bed, a non-day !
But diving tomorrow – YES !
Day 24, Friday 20 January 2012, Kota Kinabalu
I had an ok sleep, for the first time in a few nights the room was quite, no snorers and no squeaky beds. It seems Lucy is quite a grump ! and the ‘free’ breakfast is restricted to 1 cup of instant coffee, 2 bananas and 4 slices of toast. While I don’t normally eat 4 slices of toast I do like more than 1 cup of coffee of a morning ! Also discovered wifi is not available till 8.00 am and the showers are not only cold (not unusual, and i can live with it), but they are just not nice showers. The hostel has the potential to be awesome, I like the decor, but frankly she is a bit bitchy ! Plus it was full of some very unsociable northern Europeans ! J and I got our money back and moved out.
We ended up down the road at the Akinabalu youth hostel which was also recommended to me by Lizzie and Dave, should had listened to them in the first place, Akinabalu is waaaaaaay better. Much nicer atmosphere and i hadn’t even walked in the door when I ran into my first kiwi since I left home, chat city in this place, so different to Lucy!
J and I have decided we are going to head down to Semporna tomorrow on a 9 hour bus ride and try and get some diving in.
I am so glad we moved out of Lucys, while I liked the physical space, the atmosphere was just all wrong and after the relaxed and comfortable feel to the hostel in Miri I was having some doubts as to whether I could carry on if this was a ‘typical’ hostel environment. I am not sure what I am expecting from hostels, I guess a lot of people travelling are not travelling to meet people and share experiences, but I need those experiences to guide me on my travels as real information is hard to get. Anyway…….
Spent a fairly unproductive day in Kota Kinabalu, J and I went for a walk around town for a while and then settled for a hugely expensive (by local standards) Italian restaurant for lunch – lasagne, ice cream, chocolate – pig out for $20. Much needed respite from noodles and rice, and for me, meat that was not chicken and fish. KK was pretty much totally destroyed by the Allies (twice) and the Japanese during the war so it is quite a modern town and i guess lacking in some sort of character that has made things interesting in Borneo. It has the same highlights as other towns, like markets and boats, but very little to make it stand out. It is a fish town though
The Atkinson Tower from 1905 is one of the few strutures to survive the allied bombing during WWII.
I went back to the hostel for a lie down and an enjoyable Skype session with a friend in Auckland. I have decided that after Borneo in a couple of weeks time I am going to take some time out on a beach for a few days and recharge – take a holiday from holidaying.
With little else to do I wandered down to the night market in the very early evening, got soaked in a downpour and went back to the hostel to internet and suck down a whisky or two. 
Not too many, up at 6.00 tomorrow for the bus trip !
Tonights post is bought to your courtesy of Grants Whisky and Therapy? from the awesomely good 1994 album Troublegum, Nowhere. Somedays this is how I feel.
Day 23, Thursday 19 January 2012, Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei) / Pulau Labuan / Kota Kinabalu (Sabah, Malaysia)
Woke at 3.30 am to the loud, proud and constant snoring of the third person in our four bed bunk room, surprisingly up until that point I had slept OK. We were up at 6.00 a quick, cold shower in the rather dodgy bathroom and then a walk down to the bus station to find a bus to the ferry terminal to get the 8.45 ferry to Pulau Lubuan, which is a Malaysian island. From there we get another ferry to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, which is our final destination for the day. It appears we missed the express bus, though it was a bit hard to tell as no timetables were in existence ! We decided to get one of the local buses for the princely sum of $1 for the 25km journey (Eat that Auckland Council !) The bus took 50 minutes to get to Maura , where we were directed to get on another bus that went to the ferry terminal, this bus was possibly the slowest in SE Asia and seemed to take every possible back street in Mauru. We were getting a bit tense as it was now 8.30 and we had no idea of the immigration and ticketing process at the ferry. If we missed this one then we may not make the final ferry from Pulau Labuan and be stuck there for the night, which doesn’t sound appealing ! Once we made it to the terminal it turned out our taxi driver was wrong and the ferry was at 9.15, whew !!
The ferry was a standard small car ferry, similar to the one that travels to Waiheke, unlike the sleek speed machines I caught in Sarawak. Before we started the staff put an Islamic prayer on the DVD, hopefully that was not a sign of the state of the vessel ! we had a quite and uneventful hour fifteen trip across to Pulau Labuan in Sabah, Malaysia.
J – my French travel buddy for a few days.
Sea Gypsies
We had a two hour wait until the ferry to Kota Kinabalu (KK) so had lunch and a walk around the shopping area. The island of Pulau Labuan is entirely duty free so I could not help myself and bought a 500m bottle of Grants whisky for about $ 8NZD. There was a great range of single malts and ridiculously low prices, but seeing as I had little space and was not planning on carting booze around I went for the smallest bottle I could find.
The ferry to KK left at 1 oclock for the 3 hour trip and was one of the sleek racing machines where you had to stay in the cabin. The movie that was played was Titanic 2 !!!! Inspirational stuff…
Another uneventful (thank goodness) ferry ride, a boring run as the windows were too high to see out of without really straining the neck so I just put the head phones on and completed three days of blog entries till the battery expired in my laptop.
We arrived in KK at 4.15 and thanks to the Canadians I met at Mulu, had a map of the town and could find our chosen hostel, Lucy’s Homestay where we checked in to a dorm for two nights. First impressions? KK looks nice, cleanest place I have been to in Malaysia…
Mooched around the hostel for a couple of hours then went out looking for some food. We wandered the night market for an hour so, definitely the biggest market I have been to so far, lots of pairs of $10 Nike and Adidas running shoes – this is the first experience of knock off on a reasonable scale.
We found a seafood hawker market down by the wharves and selected a fish for dinner, which was BBQ’d and served with rice and vege. Extremely fresh – very nice.
Had my first child beggar experience at dinner, that it was a very half hearted effort, a young girl walking past tables with her hand out. Sad.
Day 22, Wednesday 18 January 2012 – Miri / Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei)
J is also going to Brunei today so Mrs Lee from the hostel organised a private car to take us for 60rm each. The car takes us through the border and will drop us off at our accommodation. While this cost is quite high it is an easy way to get from the border to Bander Seri Begawan (BSB) the capital of Brunei, plus it gets around the uncertainty of bus timetables – or lack thereof. I have found that all the inter-city buses are at bus terminals are away from the town centres. This means having to get a local bus to the terminal, though these are very cheap when you are new in town with no map and no plan, it can be difficult to work out how to get the bus to where you want to do. Just another thing to get used to I guess.
No great rush this morning as the car wasn’t arriving till 9.00 so did some more photo uploading and a blog post, after a few days away from the laptop there is a bit of work in updating the blog.
Mr Foo picked up on time and we left Miri, I enjoyed my stay at the hostel, met some good people, had some good experiences and learned a lot more about travelling, hostel life and eating. Mr Foo seems to be a courier as well as a people transporter as we made our way around a variety of back streets in Miri picking up parcels he would later deliver in BSB. He also spent about two of the three hour trip on the phone, seemingly making deals. It was a slow journey, the roads are not the best and until we hit the outskirts of BSB (when we were doing 130km) we bounced along at a fairly solid 80. There is not a lot of interesting things to see on the journey either..
Crossing into Brunei
I am not sure what I was expecting of Brunei, as it is an oil rich, strictly Islamic nation (alcohol is banned in the country) , I had visions of splendour in the desert. It is nothing like that ! it is just like the rest of Borneo, jungle, palm oil plantations and a mix of poor and expensive housing. The capital BSB (pop, 300,000) had some huge buildings and was mostly tidy, the CBD was small – even Auckland is bigger! The Sultan and his family have built some huge buildings though, palaces and mosques that cost significant millions.
Oil and petrol are Brunei’s main source of wealth and unlike NZ it’s primary product is sold very cheaply to the local population. In fact gas is cheaper than water , 1 litre of gas is 53 cents, 1 litre of water is $2 !!!!! There is a catch, you can only put cheap petrol in a Brunei registered car, which Mr Foo had. I am not sure of the price to non-locals.
As we arrived in BSB the heavens opened for a heavy downpour of rain, I didn’t see any lightening but the thunder was terrifically loud. As we arrived at our chosen hostel then rain magically stopped. Mr Foo dropped us off at the Youth Hostel, the cheapest place in town, according to “the book” the others are no better, just more expensive. We hung around reception for a while and a guy came out and told us it was full with a local football team staying for 3 months, we were just about to leave when two French guys who J had met earlier in his trip checked out. We managed to grab their bunks – score ! The hostel is the local YMCA and had lot of box like dorms with two bunks in a room. As the rooms were not made up (i don’t think they ever are) we dumped the packs and went exploring.
Not a lot of power points either!
Just down the road is the Tamu Kianggeh (Kianggeh market) where we had lunch of noodles and vegetables and a can of sugar cane juice for the sum of $2.
After lunch we got ourselves a water taxi for a tour of the water villages on the far side of the Brunei river. Kampung Ayer is made up of a number of separate water villages. The villages have been there for a long time and life is quite well established with a number of schools, shops, a mosque and a large number of water bus stops. As the houses are subject to consistent tidal movement and the effects of water they eventually become uninhabitable so new villages are always being built. Our boatman owned a house in one of the new villages, it cost him $168,000. The water village was quite fascinating and I enjoyed the trip.
After a petrol stop our driver asked us if we wanted to go and see if we could find proboscis monkeys in the mangroves just out of town for an extra $10 each, we agreed, though with a small sense of doubt as to whether this was a tourist rip-off. I should have put such doubts aside after 20 minutes of motoring up the Brunei river, J spotted a small crocodile in the mangroves.
And a bit further up we found some monkeys . Awesome, wild proboscis monkeys, I snapped some shots but did not get anything good, they move fast ! I am loving seeing all these real wild animals.
I had been really struggling with camera today, and found out after we had seen the monkeys that I had somehow set it to 4 times digital zoom, once I removed that setting things were back to normal. The GF1 is a small camera and I find I hit the buttons with my hands quite a lot when using the viewfinder in manual mode. Frustrating sometimes.
After the monkey trip we boated back to town and profusely thanked our boatman for a great couple of hours on the river, an unexpected highlight of the trip. We went back to the hostel and changed into long pants to go and check out the two big mosques in BSB. Sadly the guide book was wrong and we missed the visitor time by a few minutes! We had a good walk around the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque mosque.
Then caught a local bus to the Jame`Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosquemosque which is a couple of kms away. This was my first local bus experience, and possibly J’s to as well, I haven’t asked. The bus dropped us off outside the mosque as the sun was setting.
As we were wrapping up our walk and were wondering how we were going to back to town a taxi pulled up to drop off a fair so we jumped in and got a ride to the night market to look for some food. Our taxi driver was a wealth of information about buses and ferries for tomorrow which was gratefully received (and as it turned out completely wrong !). the night market was Ok, but there was no food that really caught the eye so we walked back over to the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque mosque to get some photos of it all lit up.
We found a hawker stall down by the river that sold very nice chicken satay and sticky rice for the princely sum of $4 including a cup of lemon tea, awesome…. after dinner we walked back to the hostel, finally checked in, grabbed some sheets and went to bed, A good day, I really liked BSB.
One thing I can say about the people of BSB, they are the friendliest people, lots of people waved from boats and cars, most people on the street said hello as we passed, and no, no-one appeared to be trying to sell us anything !
More photos here http://www.flickr.com/photos/philternz/sets/72157628946889737/
Where is Phil now? 
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