Muddy Estuary? Confused? Muddy Estuary means Kuala Lumpur in Malay, a city that grew from a tin mining village into the metropolis it is today. It now has a population of 6.5 million and is an astonishing city where every corner brings a new surprise. Before all that though I must finish the entry that has now been broken up into 3 separate parts:
Kota Kinabalu - Holiday in Borneo Pt. 3
So the final part of this entry concludes the visit of my parents and my time in Borneo. The entire week was so very different to what I have experienced in my travels in the last 15 months and I have drawn up a few conclusions on this. Firstly though, our last day together in Borneo was an excellently chilled out affair which included a nice stroll around the city. We stopped for lunch at the seafront for Thai food, which was easily as good as the food in Thailand. It rained heavily for quite a while but when it ended we had time to walk around a bit and make sure dad had plenty of pictures to go back home with. Mum and dad packed everything in the evening and had to get up at 4am the following morning to catch their flight home. It was a hurried goodbye to ensure they didn't miss the flight and it felt almost like I was saying goodbye to guests visiting my home.
During the day me and Briony watched a film and finished off the Pimms by the side of the pool before catching a taxi to the airport to fly to Kuala Lumpur. We arrived at about half 11 and had no idea where we were staying. We made our way to the Chinatown area and bumped into, none other than, Andy! He had booked us in for a night in a hostel and even though it was very late none of us were tired so we stopped for a drink until 2.30am when the bar shut.
- End of Kota Kinabalu - Holiday in Borneo -
Okay so I mentioned a few conclusions I had drawn in relation to travelling and holiday-ing and the differences between the two. So the first is the very obvious comfort vs. cost. Your on holiday, why sacrifice comfort for just a few extra ringgits? (Malaysian currency) It all makes sense but it did take me a few days of adjusting to not break down everything we did in costs and compare it to other experiences. Travelling is a different experience altogether here. If you want to be away for a long time you have to stretch every rupiah, ringgit, dollar, baht, etc, etc. This is most often achieved by hunting for the cheapest places to stay, which often leads to staying in some awful, awful places. The other way is to eat where the locals eat; the food is good and you wont get sick - normally. However you can get bored of this. Noodles and rice as a staple can get a bit bland so trying different food stalls or restaurants mixes things up a bit. Another stark difference is sweat and cleanliness. I very much enjoyed being able to wear jeans inside restaurants and being able to take a hot shower whenever I wanted. That was the well to tell the backpackers from those on holiday - make-up and smell.
Another obvious difference was to be able to get around easier and stress free. Organising trips away from the hotel meant pick-ups, drop-offs and English speaking guides all along the way. Along with this comes a greater sense of safety and security compared to taking local transport. I have just read a responsibletravel.com magazine in which one article advises travellers to reduce their carbon footprint by travelling overland and not by plane. When holidaying in lands afar this is obviously impossible but do I travel overland to reduce my carbon footprint or is it to save money? I would be lying if I said the former.
A few more differences in favour of holidays:
> Better service
> Better Western food
> Cool down in a swimming pool
> Faster and better transport
> Stay right on a beach (or other place of interest)
> Free toiletries
> Nice room with TV, etc
And some in favour of travelling:
> Greater sense of experiencing culture
> Stay right in the middle of town
> Getting lost and discover more in exploration
> Meet more locals and travellers
> Your money goes to help local communities and businesses
> Easy to change plans
On top of all this I have found it very interesting to watch someone who has never been to the far east seeing it for the first time. When you have spent so long travelling it is easy to see past what newcomers see on first arrival. While this can be advantageous (such as how dirty some places can be) it also means you forget how people might see the locals and what their day to day lives consist of. Transferring back to travelling from this holiday has encouraged me to want to speak to other people more and to realise that each place is so completely different to the last. Plus we stole all the toiletries!
Back to Kuala Lumpur
The area of Kuala Lumpur we stayed in was just south of the Chinatown block. Chinatown was mostly filled with markets very similar to those in Bangkok's Khao San road. On our first day we explored the city by walking to the famous KL TV Tower. The TV Tower stood tall in the center of the city and was lit up at night so it can be seen by those at ground level (and probably those at plane level). The tower is nested in a forest sanctuary at the heart of the city. In this "forest" it is quite easy to forget you are in a huge city. We didn't go up to the top of the tower as the weather wasn't great and we knew we could go up the even more famous Petronas Twin Towers for free instead. So we walked off to find a bookstore to discover what else is recommended to do in KL. The bookstore was situated on one of KL's many massive shopping centers and we found out there was another shopping center which sounded worth seeing. Why? Because it had a theme park. Yes, a theme park inside a shopping center!
The theme park was ridiculous. I did not expect it to be so big, but it was decked out with a massive roller coaster and several other thrill rides dotted around it including one similar to Ranger on Brighton Pier and one much like Rameses Revenge. It was a very funny few hours and we did not expect it at all. We strolled back in another direction as it got dark and saw the TV Tower lit up like a beacon.
On the Saturday we walked to the Merdeka Square. Merdeka means Independence and the square has a massive flagpole to commemorate Malaysia's independence from Britain in 1957. We were very intrigued on arriving at Merdeka Square as some sound testing was going on and a huge stage had been erected in front of the flagpole. We spoke to an old Indian man who told us to come back in the evening as there was going to be a festival of some sort. We then carried on our walk to the National Mosque - a very new building which we weren't allowed inside of - and to the Kuala Lumpur National Museum. The museum was really good and gave a good (if slightly biased) account of Islam history in SE Asia and in particular Malaysia. After visiting the museum we walked over to the Twin Towers to get a look of it. On the way we accidently found the Little India Saturday Market. A bustling and colourful market which sold a variety of foods and clothing. We came back here for dinner and tried all sorts of things including a sort of egg wrapped samosa and sweet spring rolls. We hooked back round to the Merdeka Square to watch some of the concert. It was packed out and looked really stunning.
The following morning we got up really early so we could queue for tickets to go up the Twin Towers. We took the train there and got to the building at about 8am only to find that we were about 1100th in the queue. We were quite lucky actually as an hour and a half later we finally got our tickets to go up later in the afternoon with very few tickets left. We took the train back to the area we stayed in for breakfast and took our time trying to plan where we wanted to go next. In the afternoon we went back over to the Twin Towers where we watched a short film about the building and architecture of the buildings before taking the super fast lift to floor 41 where we walked along the sky bridge that links the two buildings together. The views weren't all that incredible as the city is always shrouded in cloud at that time of day but it was brilliant to look down from the height.
We stayed around the towers as it got dark so we could see it lit up at night. When we had taken our fill of photographs we caught the train back and watched some football before heading to bed. The following morning we checked out and jumped on the bus to the Cameron Highlands. We are now in the Tanah Rata town and are having a great time. I will tell you all about it soon!
About Me
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Monday, 21 June 2010
Kota Kinabalu - Holiday in Borneo Pt. 2
Kicking it straight off with part 2 - my birthday. (For those of you confused check the entry before this - 'Kota Kinabalu - Holiday in Borneo Pt. 1'). We got up and had the usual breakfast in the room but with a cake mum had brought from England. We then spent the morning relaxing in the pool area. It was a great day for it too. For lunch we stayed in the pool at the bar for burgers and chips! The waiter (who was enamored with me the entire time I was there) found out it was my birthday and came back with a mug of beer with some cherry's on the glass! After lunch and another swim we went out of the resort for a short jungle trek. It was a very hot and sweaty climb up to the top but we were awarded with some great view of the bay. We took our time to catch our breath and talk to our guide Anna. Anna was nice though didn't seem to know and awful lot about the jungle and there wasn't really much to see. When we got back to the room we found a cake! We never found out if it was from my waiter friend or just from the hotel.
After showers we got ready for dinner, another barbecue. There was an incredible amount of food and apart from the chicken sausages it was all amazing. The hotel band came over and sang me a beautiful rendition of happy birthday. There was no way we could eat all the food that was there but we made a good go of it. I was then awarded with yet another birthday cake, bringing the total count to 3! When we finished eating, having also been eaten by many mosquito's, the band came back and played mum and dad's song - aw. It was a brilliant evening but I wasn't going to get drunk on my birthday for tomorrow was to be a big day!
So we woke up at 2.30am for the England match, not that it was really worth getting up for seeing as we didn't go to bed until past 12am. After the match was over we showered and got ready for my big birthday day out. For my birthday my parents had arranged to go to one of only four Orangutan rehabilitation centers in the world. This meant a short flight to Sandakan on the east side of Sabah and Borneo. This was a very scenic flight as we roamed over the islands and back around towards Mt. Kinabalu. It was an awesome sight as Kinabalu is only seen early in the morning before it is completely shrouded in cloud. Arriving in Sandakan airport we met up with our guide for the day, Zul. Our first destination was the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center. When we got there we were ushered into a cinema to watch a 30 minute video on the work that the center had done and information about some of the Orangutans past and present. It was very informative and the UK charity fronting it sounded very interesting. After the film it was nearly time for the 10am feeding. This meant that everyone - in their hundreds - piled onto the viewing platforms to see if any orangutans would show up from the jungle for some bananas and milk. During the wait we saw a hornbill fly from tree to tree.
When it came to 10am the guide went up to the platform with some bananas, which were quickly seized upon by the noisy makak monkeys. Since the whole platform was completely taken by the monkeys we knew it very unlikely that the orangutans would be interested in heading there. However, some made it down the the platforms we were standing on, one of which was very interested in a small child roughly the same height, until the guide snatched the child away. That orangutan was happy to play around the platform performing roley polies for attention and swinging around the base. Another much older male orangutan strutted along the hand rail toward us with everybody surrounding it to get a good picture. A couple more younger ones were playing around the platform as well, all keeping well away from the annoying makak. When the orangutan left we made our way along the boardwalk toward the screeching cacophony of the makak and ring tail monkeys soaring along the plane. They were clearly in gangs, screaming at each other. It was incredible to see so many jumping around on the trees all about us. For lunch we were taken to an English tea house. The food was great but we all agreed that for a day of doing Malaysian/Borneo tourist things it would have been good to try some local foods. After lunch we were taken down to a water village. This was made up of houses on concrete stilts of which Zul maintained were much nicer inside that out. It was interesting to see two completely different celebrations across the same waterfront. One family was celebrating the loss of a loved one whilst another was celebrating a marriage. We were taken into one woman's home which was very well decked out. She was very pleased to show us around and sold a couple of bracelets to mum.
We were then taken into Sandakan for a look around the markets but they were starting to close. We then visited the Buddhist Puu Gih Jih Shih temple on top of a hill offering great views over the city and its harbour. The temple was covered in the usual gold leaf and housed 3 large Buddha statues. There were a number of pillars all with dragons embossed around the edge. Back into Sandakan we went into the memorial park to see what the city is most famous for. In 1945 Sandakan was used by the Japanese to housed2400 prisoners of war; 1800 Australians and 600 British, and forced them on one of the infamous death marches across Sabah. Of the 2400 only 6 survived and the memorial park gave a very intelligible insight into how the prisoners were treated and how the 6 escaped. The pictures depicting how the town was destroyed and how it grew back up again were very interesting as well. So after all this we were feeling very tired and depleted after a long, but fascinating day. We flew back to Kota Kinabalu and got back to Nexus early evening.
The following day was a very good day for relaxing. We had excellent weather and spent loads of time swimming in the sea and the pool. In the afternoon we took to making a piece of batik art. We were shown how to merge the colours together and all of us really enjoyed it! It was great fun especially as it was raining in the afternoon - as it often does - and it was a definite must-do rainy-day activity. We had dinner at one of the resorts restaurants for some Indian/Malaysian food. It was brilliant and the band came back over to sing us more songs. I tried a prawn sambal, which was like a sort of spicy curry with big tiger prawns.
Our last day out was to spend the day out in the Mt. Kinabalu National Park and the Poring hot springs. The drive there was long but definitely worth it. We stopped in a nearby town on the way where we got some amazing views of the mountain with the sun shining on it, making the clouds look very silvery. After a little hunt around the market we got back in the car to head to the hot springs. When we arrived we managed to tick off one of the things mum really wanted to do alongside seeing orangutans, walk the canopy bridges. She was mostly fascinated by this because it was designed by the same person who designed the one at Q Gardens in London. Apparently this one was more scary. Briony didn't help by jumping up and down on the boardwalk and swinging it, even though I told her not too .. .. .. and the pictures came out brilliantly! The walk itself was on shaky bridges connected by trees overlooking the jungle. I'm not sure anyone else noticed the view but it was quite amazing. After the walk we went up to the Kipungit waterfall. A large waterfall that was freezing cold.
When we were refreshingly chilled we headed for the hot spring baths. These were made up of large tiled concrete baths, some in segments for individual baths that took forever to fill. The hot water came straight from the ground and the cold from the waterfall. We also tried the very very hot and relaxing foot bath. We thought this was the end of the day but as we got back in the van our guide told us that a rafllesia plant was blooming near where we were. The rafflesia plant is the largest plant in the world and blooms just once in its lifetime for just a few days. After it has bloomed it turns into a dark grey sludge. Nice. So we went to where the plant was, which was essentially in someones back garden. It was a hilarious walk as it was so wet and muddy there was no way we could get up and down the steep slopes with our shoes on! We were slipping about all over the place and I'm sure we'll remember the walk to the plant as much as seeing the plant itself! After another exhausting day we were all very sleepy once back at Nexus but there was time for a relaxing dip in the pool before it got dark.
And that concludes part two. Sorry I have to keep doing this in segments but I really don't want to miss out any details lest I might upset somebody and the internet place is now closing. I'm not too far behind now so look out for another update soon!
After showers we got ready for dinner, another barbecue. There was an incredible amount of food and apart from the chicken sausages it was all amazing. The hotel band came over and sang me a beautiful rendition of happy birthday. There was no way we could eat all the food that was there but we made a good go of it. I was then awarded with yet another birthday cake, bringing the total count to 3! When we finished eating, having also been eaten by many mosquito's, the band came back and played mum and dad's song - aw. It was a brilliant evening but I wasn't going to get drunk on my birthday for tomorrow was to be a big day!
So we woke up at 2.30am for the England match, not that it was really worth getting up for seeing as we didn't go to bed until past 12am. After the match was over we showered and got ready for my big birthday day out. For my birthday my parents had arranged to go to one of only four Orangutan rehabilitation centers in the world. This meant a short flight to Sandakan on the east side of Sabah and Borneo. This was a very scenic flight as we roamed over the islands and back around towards Mt. Kinabalu. It was an awesome sight as Kinabalu is only seen early in the morning before it is completely shrouded in cloud. Arriving in Sandakan airport we met up with our guide for the day, Zul. Our first destination was the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center. When we got there we were ushered into a cinema to watch a 30 minute video on the work that the center had done and information about some of the Orangutans past and present. It was very informative and the UK charity fronting it sounded very interesting. After the film it was nearly time for the 10am feeding. This meant that everyone - in their hundreds - piled onto the viewing platforms to see if any orangutans would show up from the jungle for some bananas and milk. During the wait we saw a hornbill fly from tree to tree.
When it came to 10am the guide went up to the platform with some bananas, which were quickly seized upon by the noisy makak monkeys. Since the whole platform was completely taken by the monkeys we knew it very unlikely that the orangutans would be interested in heading there. However, some made it down the the platforms we were standing on, one of which was very interested in a small child roughly the same height, until the guide snatched the child away. That orangutan was happy to play around the platform performing roley polies for attention and swinging around the base. Another much older male orangutan strutted along the hand rail toward us with everybody surrounding it to get a good picture. A couple more younger ones were playing around the platform as well, all keeping well away from the annoying makak. When the orangutan left we made our way along the boardwalk toward the screeching cacophony of the makak and ring tail monkeys soaring along the plane. They were clearly in gangs, screaming at each other. It was incredible to see so many jumping around on the trees all about us. For lunch we were taken to an English tea house. The food was great but we all agreed that for a day of doing Malaysian/Borneo tourist things it would have been good to try some local foods. After lunch we were taken down to a water village. This was made up of houses on concrete stilts of which Zul maintained were much nicer inside that out. It was interesting to see two completely different celebrations across the same waterfront. One family was celebrating the loss of a loved one whilst another was celebrating a marriage. We were taken into one woman's home which was very well decked out. She was very pleased to show us around and sold a couple of bracelets to mum.
We were then taken into Sandakan for a look around the markets but they were starting to close. We then visited the Buddhist Puu Gih Jih Shih temple on top of a hill offering great views over the city and its harbour. The temple was covered in the usual gold leaf and housed 3 large Buddha statues. There were a number of pillars all with dragons embossed around the edge. Back into Sandakan we went into the memorial park to see what the city is most famous for. In 1945 Sandakan was used by the Japanese to housed2400 prisoners of war; 1800 Australians and 600 British, and forced them on one of the infamous death marches across Sabah. Of the 2400 only 6 survived and the memorial park gave a very intelligible insight into how the prisoners were treated and how the 6 escaped. The pictures depicting how the town was destroyed and how it grew back up again were very interesting as well. So after all this we were feeling very tired and depleted after a long, but fascinating day. We flew back to Kota Kinabalu and got back to Nexus early evening.
The following day was a very good day for relaxing. We had excellent weather and spent loads of time swimming in the sea and the pool. In the afternoon we took to making a piece of batik art. We were shown how to merge the colours together and all of us really enjoyed it! It was great fun especially as it was raining in the afternoon - as it often does - and it was a definite must-do rainy-day activity. We had dinner at one of the resorts restaurants for some Indian/Malaysian food. It was brilliant and the band came back over to sing us more songs. I tried a prawn sambal, which was like a sort of spicy curry with big tiger prawns.
Our last day out was to spend the day out in the Mt. Kinabalu National Park and the Poring hot springs. The drive there was long but definitely worth it. We stopped in a nearby town on the way where we got some amazing views of the mountain with the sun shining on it, making the clouds look very silvery. After a little hunt around the market we got back in the car to head to the hot springs. When we arrived we managed to tick off one of the things mum really wanted to do alongside seeing orangutans, walk the canopy bridges. She was mostly fascinated by this because it was designed by the same person who designed the one at Q Gardens in London. Apparently this one was more scary. Briony didn't help by jumping up and down on the boardwalk and swinging it, even though I told her not too .. .. .. and the pictures came out brilliantly! The walk itself was on shaky bridges connected by trees overlooking the jungle. I'm not sure anyone else noticed the view but it was quite amazing. After the walk we went up to the Kipungit waterfall. A large waterfall that was freezing cold.
When we were refreshingly chilled we headed for the hot spring baths. These were made up of large tiled concrete baths, some in segments for individual baths that took forever to fill. The hot water came straight from the ground and the cold from the waterfall. We also tried the very very hot and relaxing foot bath. We thought this was the end of the day but as we got back in the van our guide told us that a rafllesia plant was blooming near where we were. The rafflesia plant is the largest plant in the world and blooms just once in its lifetime for just a few days. After it has bloomed it turns into a dark grey sludge. Nice. So we went to where the plant was, which was essentially in someones back garden. It was a hilarious walk as it was so wet and muddy there was no way we could get up and down the steep slopes with our shoes on! We were slipping about all over the place and I'm sure we'll remember the walk to the plant as much as seeing the plant itself! After another exhausting day we were all very sleepy once back at Nexus but there was time for a relaxing dip in the pool before it got dark.
And that concludes part two. Sorry I have to keep doing this in segments but I really don't want to miss out any details lest I might upset somebody and the internet place is now closing. I'm not too far behind now so look out for another update soon!
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
Kota Kinabalu - Holiday in Borneo Pt. 1
This entry will probably sound different to previous ones since it hasn't really been traveling so much whilst in Borneo. No, I didn't twiddle my thumbs for a week - it was way more exciting. Whilst in KK me and Briony rented a motorbike and drove down to the airport to meet my parents! Yep, since I don't plan to come home any time soon and I have been away for 15 months now (hard to believe it's been that long) they decided to come on holiday to the far east and see if they could meet up with me. It has been an incredible week and I have done a lot of things I can honestly say I am not particularly used to.
Before all that though I had a few days in Kota Kinabalu before they got there. We used our time well and had a real explore of the city. We fancied a day out to one of the islands but decided that since we have a couple of days to kill we could rent a tent and camp out at one of the nearby islands within the Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park. We chose Mamutik since the Lonely Planet hyped it up to have the best coral garden of the lot. So we got our tent, got our provisions, got our ticket and jumped on a boat. The boat trip was fast and it was surprising the whole thing didn't tip right over. At the island we rented out a couple of snorkels and masks and looked for the best camping spot. We followed the walking trail around the whole island (it wasn't a very big island) until we found the best spot for camping nestled in the corner of the beach by a cliff. Feeling very hot and sweaty I went straight into the water to cool off. Cooling off in the South China sea north of Borneo is completely impossible! It is incredibly warm and unbelievably relaxing. After the swim we donned the snorkels and set out to this coral garden. We saw loads of brilliantly coloured fish and corals, of which I recognized a good many from the days at home visiting fish shops with dad. The vibrancy of the fish was amazing, even though some evil fish did bite me! We came to the island prepared and had our dinner of crisps and Pop Mie (pot noodle) for dinner. When it started to get dark we got our survival skills on and made a fire.
The fire wasn't going overly well as the wind started to pick up. Then it started to rain. Rain in a rainforest is quite rainy. So when the storm started we grabbed our tent, which so happened not to be waterproof and the peg bag held just a single peg, and it sort of snapped in two as it was pouring down with rain running across the island looking for shelter! We found a large shelter on a concrete plane and it even had a light! So we sat down in this shelter watching the storm pelting down all around us. It was very funny and although sleep came very fitfully I did get some in. The following morning we got up and put our snorkels back on for a long swim. This took us all the way around the island, taking about 2 hours. It was incredible and everytime it started looking samey suddenly something else would pop out at you. We saw clown fish, moray eels, puffer fish, and loads more that I have no idea what their names were. I really wish I had an underwater camera!
Back on land on the worlds 4th biggest island we spent a whole day walking around a few places around KK. First we trekked up the steep road going to the Signal Hill lookout point. This lookout point gave us a great view of some buildings... but that was about it. Following the road around we got to the KK Wetland Center and bird sanctuary. Not as exciting as it sounds. We snuck in without paying and strolled around in the baking heat seeing nothing at all but some tiny crabs in the marsh. The walk took us up to the main harbour and down back to the city center where we stopped for ice cream on the way - needs to be done.
We checked out of the hostel the following morning and hired out the motorbike to drive down to the airport. Originally my parents coming to Borneo was supposed to be a surprise for me, but with obvious 'where in the world are you!?' difficulties that wasn't to be. So it was excellent to surprise them at the airport as they thought I'd be meeting them at the hotel resort. After saying our long awaited hello's we bid them goodbye as we hopped back on the bike for a 45 minute drive to the Nexus resort north of KK city center. On the way the rains came very heavily and we got drenched! We very nearly beat them to the hotel too but they edged in front at the final hurdle. We got checked in, which was a bit of a mission and involved much confusion in trying to change rooms. Thankfully we confused them enough to sneak Briony into our room without any notice. (It feels like we've done a lot of sneaking recently!) After we got in we had to take the bikes back to the city. When we got to the bikes we realised we had made a very foolish error in forgetting about how it's kind of rainy in a rainforest and we left our helmets upside down on the bikes. Needless to say they were full to the brim with rain water! It took much deliberation but we had to take the bikes back so we squeezed out as much water as possible and braved the dampness. When we got back to the shop the guy there joked about us smelling bad... I think it was a joke anyway!
So we got some lunch, grabbed our bags and caught a taxi back to Nexus. The Nexus resort by the way is absolutely amazing. We have stayed in some pretty cool places but obviously at as low a cost as possible so we've never experienced anything like this! There were pools, with pool bars! And it had a 6km beach. And 8 restaurants. And it was quite stunning! So after much catching up and gossiping about news at home we went for a walk along the beach as the sun was setting. It was really nice and we watched some local teenagers hauling in a fishing net. Didn't look like they did too well though, just a few little crabs. It rained a bit but there was a huge rainbow as well so we didn't mind. When we got back mum and dad took us out for Chinese at one of the resorts 8 restaurants. It was nearly as good as Chinese food in China! We stayed up until the early hours of the morning drinking imported wine and Pimms, telling Briony many "when Ian was little..." stories. My favourite.
The following morning we got up and went into town on the shuttle bus. The first port of call was to stop in a local restaurant me and Briony enjoyed before for laksa. I think they were quite astonished by the price, especially after the cost of last nights Chinese. We had a walk through the handicraft market along the waterfront and bought some strange looking fruit, which turned out to be pretty horrendous. After buying supermarket supplies the rain started coming down hard again. I thought at this point mum and dad might be wondering why the hell they came to this place when it just rains all the time anyway! Thankfully they knew that you can't have a rainforest without rain and the landscape wouldn't be so green were it not for the copious amounts of rain. The rain died down in time for us to go and catch the bus back.
The following day we got up early to get to the town for a day trip back into Tunku Abdul Rahman national park. We chose Sapi island to visit this time, Sapi means cow though I'm not clued in to it's significance. Mum was amazed as to the heat of the water and proclaimed in excitement that it was hotter that some baths she has had. We had a swim for a while and then stopped for a barbecue lunch. While we were waiting to eat a large crowd amassed close to where the barbecue'ers were barbecue'ing. We quickly realised it was a monitor lizard and seeing how I've already seen plenty of those I wasn't too fussed at running over, camera armed. However there wasn't just one, there were at least half a dozen going after scraps of food. Shortly after we got over there two of the lizards started wrestling! It was quite a sight to see the lizards get right up on their back legs holding each other up with their strength, almost like they were dancing. They then proceeded to throw each other about trying to get an upper hand.
Back to lunch and there was an incredible amount of food with just about everything ou can barbecue except burgers. After food we rested for a while before taking mum and dad out snorkeling. It was really exciting to be able to show them something like that. I felt like a kid again - "Mum! Dad! Come look at this!" - and until they both managed to get injured I think they really enjoyed it. Injured snorkeling..? Yes. Mum got bit/suckered by a huge fish she had to rip off her leg and dad managed to cut himself on coral. I'm sure there are many out there, mostly surfers, who can attest to how sharp coral is. We got the boat back to KK and decided to stop for a coffee. This somehow transcended into cheesecake and iced coffee with ice cream! Not too sure how that happened but we were definitely all glad for it! As the sun was setting we walked through the night market area. Having visited a lot of night markets I was expecting to see all the same things. However, this market was huge! It had all the usual stuff plus loads of fruit, vegetables, meat and fish. We stopped for dinner and for 4 people to each and have a drink it cost less than 5 pounds. A true traveling experience.
I'm afriad I have to wrap this up as it is taking a LONG time for me to play catch up here! So I will get Part 2 up as soon as I can. I'm not too sure how many parts there are going to be just yet. It will all depend on how much I can get on the internet in the next few days! I am currently slumming it in Kuala Lumpur which is an excellent city to explore - more to come.
Before all that though I had a few days in Kota Kinabalu before they got there. We used our time well and had a real explore of the city. We fancied a day out to one of the islands but decided that since we have a couple of days to kill we could rent a tent and camp out at one of the nearby islands within the Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park. We chose Mamutik since the Lonely Planet hyped it up to have the best coral garden of the lot. So we got our tent, got our provisions, got our ticket and jumped on a boat. The boat trip was fast and it was surprising the whole thing didn't tip right over. At the island we rented out a couple of snorkels and masks and looked for the best camping spot. We followed the walking trail around the whole island (it wasn't a very big island) until we found the best spot for camping nestled in the corner of the beach by a cliff. Feeling very hot and sweaty I went straight into the water to cool off. Cooling off in the South China sea north of Borneo is completely impossible! It is incredibly warm and unbelievably relaxing. After the swim we donned the snorkels and set out to this coral garden. We saw loads of brilliantly coloured fish and corals, of which I recognized a good many from the days at home visiting fish shops with dad. The vibrancy of the fish was amazing, even though some evil fish did bite me! We came to the island prepared and had our dinner of crisps and Pop Mie (pot noodle) for dinner. When it started to get dark we got our survival skills on and made a fire.
The fire wasn't going overly well as the wind started to pick up. Then it started to rain. Rain in a rainforest is quite rainy. So when the storm started we grabbed our tent, which so happened not to be waterproof and the peg bag held just a single peg, and it sort of snapped in two as it was pouring down with rain running across the island looking for shelter! We found a large shelter on a concrete plane and it even had a light! So we sat down in this shelter watching the storm pelting down all around us. It was very funny and although sleep came very fitfully I did get some in. The following morning we got up and put our snorkels back on for a long swim. This took us all the way around the island, taking about 2 hours. It was incredible and everytime it started looking samey suddenly something else would pop out at you. We saw clown fish, moray eels, puffer fish, and loads more that I have no idea what their names were. I really wish I had an underwater camera!
Back on land on the worlds 4th biggest island we spent a whole day walking around a few places around KK. First we trekked up the steep road going to the Signal Hill lookout point. This lookout point gave us a great view of some buildings... but that was about it. Following the road around we got to the KK Wetland Center and bird sanctuary. Not as exciting as it sounds. We snuck in without paying and strolled around in the baking heat seeing nothing at all but some tiny crabs in the marsh. The walk took us up to the main harbour and down back to the city center where we stopped for ice cream on the way - needs to be done.
We checked out of the hostel the following morning and hired out the motorbike to drive down to the airport. Originally my parents coming to Borneo was supposed to be a surprise for me, but with obvious 'where in the world are you!?' difficulties that wasn't to be. So it was excellent to surprise them at the airport as they thought I'd be meeting them at the hotel resort. After saying our long awaited hello's we bid them goodbye as we hopped back on the bike for a 45 minute drive to the Nexus resort north of KK city center. On the way the rains came very heavily and we got drenched! We very nearly beat them to the hotel too but they edged in front at the final hurdle. We got checked in, which was a bit of a mission and involved much confusion in trying to change rooms. Thankfully we confused them enough to sneak Briony into our room without any notice. (It feels like we've done a lot of sneaking recently!) After we got in we had to take the bikes back to the city. When we got to the bikes we realised we had made a very foolish error in forgetting about how it's kind of rainy in a rainforest and we left our helmets upside down on the bikes. Needless to say they were full to the brim with rain water! It took much deliberation but we had to take the bikes back so we squeezed out as much water as possible and braved the dampness. When we got back to the shop the guy there joked about us smelling bad... I think it was a joke anyway!
So we got some lunch, grabbed our bags and caught a taxi back to Nexus. The Nexus resort by the way is absolutely amazing. We have stayed in some pretty cool places but obviously at as low a cost as possible so we've never experienced anything like this! There were pools, with pool bars! And it had a 6km beach. And 8 restaurants. And it was quite stunning! So after much catching up and gossiping about news at home we went for a walk along the beach as the sun was setting. It was really nice and we watched some local teenagers hauling in a fishing net. Didn't look like they did too well though, just a few little crabs. It rained a bit but there was a huge rainbow as well so we didn't mind. When we got back mum and dad took us out for Chinese at one of the resorts 8 restaurants. It was nearly as good as Chinese food in China! We stayed up until the early hours of the morning drinking imported wine and Pimms, telling Briony many "when Ian was little..." stories. My favourite.
The following morning we got up and went into town on the shuttle bus. The first port of call was to stop in a local restaurant me and Briony enjoyed before for laksa. I think they were quite astonished by the price, especially after the cost of last nights Chinese. We had a walk through the handicraft market along the waterfront and bought some strange looking fruit, which turned out to be pretty horrendous. After buying supermarket supplies the rain started coming down hard again. I thought at this point mum and dad might be wondering why the hell they came to this place when it just rains all the time anyway! Thankfully they knew that you can't have a rainforest without rain and the landscape wouldn't be so green were it not for the copious amounts of rain. The rain died down in time for us to go and catch the bus back.
The following day we got up early to get to the town for a day trip back into Tunku Abdul Rahman national park. We chose Sapi island to visit this time, Sapi means cow though I'm not clued in to it's significance. Mum was amazed as to the heat of the water and proclaimed in excitement that it was hotter that some baths she has had. We had a swim for a while and then stopped for a barbecue lunch. While we were waiting to eat a large crowd amassed close to where the barbecue'ers were barbecue'ing. We quickly realised it was a monitor lizard and seeing how I've already seen plenty of those I wasn't too fussed at running over, camera armed. However there wasn't just one, there were at least half a dozen going after scraps of food. Shortly after we got over there two of the lizards started wrestling! It was quite a sight to see the lizards get right up on their back legs holding each other up with their strength, almost like they were dancing. They then proceeded to throw each other about trying to get an upper hand.
Back to lunch and there was an incredible amount of food with just about everything ou can barbecue except burgers. After food we rested for a while before taking mum and dad out snorkeling. It was really exciting to be able to show them something like that. I felt like a kid again - "Mum! Dad! Come look at this!" - and until they both managed to get injured I think they really enjoyed it. Injured snorkeling..? Yes. Mum got bit/suckered by a huge fish she had to rip off her leg and dad managed to cut himself on coral. I'm sure there are many out there, mostly surfers, who can attest to how sharp coral is. We got the boat back to KK and decided to stop for a coffee. This somehow transcended into cheesecake and iced coffee with ice cream! Not too sure how that happened but we were definitely all glad for it! As the sun was setting we walked through the night market area. Having visited a lot of night markets I was expecting to see all the same things. However, this market was huge! It had all the usual stuff plus loads of fruit, vegetables, meat and fish. We stopped for dinner and for 4 people to each and have a drink it cost less than 5 pounds. A true traveling experience.
I'm afriad I have to wrap this up as it is taking a LONG time for me to play catch up here! So I will get Part 2 up as soon as I can. I'm not too sure how many parts there are going to be just yet. It will all depend on how much I can get on the internet in the next few days! I am currently slumming it in Kuala Lumpur which is an excellent city to explore - more to come.
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Indonesia: A Summary
Easily one of my favorite South East Asian countries (so far!) Indonesia has been absolutely incredible. The country is simply massive and considering I visited just 3 of the 6000 inhabited islands within Indonesia I feel like I have seen and done so much in just one month. It would be so easy to travel Indonesia for a year and not get bored. Each island that I visited was so different from the last, almost like stepping into a new country; different languages, religions, architecture. I've witnessed various traditional arts including lessons in shadow puppetry, Batik artwork and seen performances of 'gamelan' (a traditional Indonesian orchestra) accompanied with Batak dancing. After Bali we got around using just local transport. Public buses, coaches and trains were really cheap and not too uncomfortable even though the seats aren't designed for Western (tall) people. One thing I noticed is that every man in Indonesia chain smokes all day long. Cigarettes are really cheap and I don't think I met a single guy who didn't smoke. It didn't bother me so much except for on the public transport. When you get on a bus or train it waits until it is full before heading off. The longest we had to wait was 2 hours and when the entire bus is smoking it actually becomes quite hard to breathe!
It rains often and the landscape is inevitably the greenest I have seen. Although much of the countries rainforests has been razed for logging, there are expanses of national parks dotted all over the country making for unbelievable viewing. The majority of travelers in Indo are Dutch but we also met a number of people from the UK, America, Australia, France and Germany as well. Despite this, Indonesia is the least 'touristy' country I have visited in South East Asia and although some cities have their tourist zones (Kuta Beach in Bali, Sosrowijayan area in Jogjakarta, Masjid Raja area in Medan, to name a few) it is not on the scale of that in Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia.
A conversation with a local tends to go as such:
Local: Hello mister!
Me: Hello
L: Where are you from?
Me: England/Ingerris
L: Ahh, David Beckham!/Wayne Rooney!
Me: Yeah. World Cup?
L: Ahh, yes
Me: Abu Kabaarh? (meaning: how are you?)
L: confused look (I can't roll my R's)
Me: Bagus? (meaning: good?)
L: Ahh, ya. Married?
Me: Tidak (meaning: no), We're just friends
One conversation ended with a bus driver thinking that I am a piano teacher somehow. The locals love to practice their English and most who try received some sort of high school education in English. Some actually spoke very good English and would strike up a conversation in any situation, be it on an opelet (local minibus) or just passing in the street. A Batak man named Gom-Gom in Medan even gave me his e-mail address to add him on Facebook after a conversation about University life in Indonesia. Some locals only know how to say 'hello mister!' and will do so whenever we pass by - even to Briony! Learning the Bahasa language isn't too difficult for the basics e.g please, thank you, yes, no, counting, etc, and a lot of the words come from variations of English, Dutch, German and Latin.
I really enjoyed Indonesian food as well. The basics were simply fried rice/noodles/thin noodles with veg, egg and chicken, which you can eat breakfast, lunch or dinner. The best food was in Pangandaran for its fish. Barbequed fresh fish, such as red snapper, and fried prawns were really tasty and really cheap. The local beer is called Bintang and you can find it everywhere you go. It is taxed quite heavily though. The other popular drink is Arak, a rice wine. Arak goes into every cocktail and can be very deadly.
I just realised I havn't mentioned Lake Toba in my blog yet. Toba, one of the worlds largest and deepest fresh water lake was really cool. The island (that isn't really an island) in the middle of the lake is huge and it would be possible to explore it for weeks. It was very chilled out and although we were only there for 3 nights we managed to see a lot of the Tuk-Tuk village where we stayed and the villages to the north and south. We stayed in a traditional-styled Batak house with a pointy roof and low ceiling. We spent one day on mopeds speeding around the villages. It was really fun and we found a place with a jetty that had a long diving board into the water (see the picture below). There were some fantastic views of the mountains that surrounds Toba and the climate was very different to that of the rest of Indonesia. It felt much cooler and fresher.
Me and Briony left Tuk-Tuk on Thursday afternoon and went back to Medan. We arrived quite late but managed to find a cheap place to stay and a cheap place to eat. Because we were flying out early we needed to get up at 5am to catch our 8am flight to Kuala Lumpur. We got into Malaysia and waited in the airport for our next flight to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, northern Borneo (I must be one of AirAsia's most valued customers by now!). We arrived in KK late afternoon yesterday and after getting on buses having no idea where they were going we found our way to the northern part of town where the cheaper hostels are. There are more backpackers here than I expected and virtually no motorbikes. It's actually quite a culture shock after Indo with its large un-congested, clean roads, the high rise buildings, KFC and Pizza Hut down every road - you could be in Australia or America and not even notice were it not for the people and the Japanese cars. It is a cool city though and being right on the sea it looks very pretty. From the seafront you can see the off-shore islands and I am looking forward to visiting those. I have already tried laksa, a great Malaysian coconut/prawn/chicken/tofu curry dish that left me stuffed.
That's it for now. Hope you have had as much fun reading this is I have had writing it. Also, I want more comments on my posts telling me how much you are enjoying it!! Now I get to spend some time in Malaysia. Hurruh! x
It rains often and the landscape is inevitably the greenest I have seen. Although much of the countries rainforests has been razed for logging, there are expanses of national parks dotted all over the country making for unbelievable viewing. The majority of travelers in Indo are Dutch but we also met a number of people from the UK, America, Australia, France and Germany as well. Despite this, Indonesia is the least 'touristy' country I have visited in South East Asia and although some cities have their tourist zones (Kuta Beach in Bali, Sosrowijayan area in Jogjakarta, Masjid Raja area in Medan, to name a few) it is not on the scale of that in Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia.
A conversation with a local tends to go as such:
Local: Hello mister!
Me: Hello
L: Where are you from?
Me: England/Ingerris
L: Ahh, David Beckham!/Wayne Rooney!
Me: Yeah. World Cup?
L: Ahh, yes
Me: Abu Kabaarh? (meaning: how are you?)
L: confused look (I can't roll my R's)
Me: Bagus? (meaning: good?)
L: Ahh, ya. Married?
Me: Tidak (meaning: no), We're just friends
One conversation ended with a bus driver thinking that I am a piano teacher somehow. The locals love to practice their English and most who try received some sort of high school education in English. Some actually spoke very good English and would strike up a conversation in any situation, be it on an opelet (local minibus) or just passing in the street. A Batak man named Gom-Gom in Medan even gave me his e-mail address to add him on Facebook after a conversation about University life in Indonesia. Some locals only know how to say 'hello mister!' and will do so whenever we pass by - even to Briony! Learning the Bahasa language isn't too difficult for the basics e.g please, thank you, yes, no, counting, etc, and a lot of the words come from variations of English, Dutch, German and Latin.
I really enjoyed Indonesian food as well. The basics were simply fried rice/noodles/thin noodles with veg, egg and chicken, which you can eat breakfast, lunch or dinner. The best food was in Pangandaran for its fish. Barbequed fresh fish, such as red snapper, and fried prawns were really tasty and really cheap. The local beer is called Bintang and you can find it everywhere you go. It is taxed quite heavily though. The other popular drink is Arak, a rice wine. Arak goes into every cocktail and can be very deadly.
I just realised I havn't mentioned Lake Toba in my blog yet. Toba, one of the worlds largest and deepest fresh water lake was really cool. The island (that isn't really an island) in the middle of the lake is huge and it would be possible to explore it for weeks. It was very chilled out and although we were only there for 3 nights we managed to see a lot of the Tuk-Tuk village where we stayed and the villages to the north and south. We stayed in a traditional-styled Batak house with a pointy roof and low ceiling. We spent one day on mopeds speeding around the villages. It was really fun and we found a place with a jetty that had a long diving board into the water (see the picture below). There were some fantastic views of the mountains that surrounds Toba and the climate was very different to that of the rest of Indonesia. It felt much cooler and fresher.
Me and Briony left Tuk-Tuk on Thursday afternoon and went back to Medan. We arrived quite late but managed to find a cheap place to stay and a cheap place to eat. Because we were flying out early we needed to get up at 5am to catch our 8am flight to Kuala Lumpur. We got into Malaysia and waited in the airport for our next flight to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, northern Borneo (I must be one of AirAsia's most valued customers by now!). We arrived in KK late afternoon yesterday and after getting on buses having no idea where they were going we found our way to the northern part of town where the cheaper hostels are. There are more backpackers here than I expected and virtually no motorbikes. It's actually quite a culture shock after Indo with its large un-congested, clean roads, the high rise buildings, KFC and Pizza Hut down every road - you could be in Australia or America and not even notice were it not for the people and the Japanese cars. It is a cool city though and being right on the sea it looks very pretty. From the seafront you can see the off-shore islands and I am looking forward to visiting those. I have already tried laksa, a great Malaysian coconut/prawn/chicken/tofu curry dish that left me stuffed.
That's it for now. Hope you have had as much fun reading this is I have had writing it. Also, I want more comments on my posts telling me how much you are enjoying it!! Now I get to spend some time in Malaysia. Hurruh! x
Tuesday, 1 June 2010
Java and Sumatra (worlds best coffee!)
Where were we then? Ah, Jogja. Fascinating place. First time in a while we saw tourists in this chilled out and quiet part of town. We stayed in the northern part of the city known as the Sosrowijayan area (it took a lot of effort to remember how to say that). The narrow alleyways filled with plenty of restaurants, shops and batik galleries were really nice, especially once I found my bearings (again, took a fair amount of effort). We jumped straight into being a tourist on the second day of being in Jogja and visited the temple complexes of Borobudur (Buddhist) and Prambanan (Hindu).
We got up early to ensure that we had the whole day to visit the temples but when I woke up I realised I had somehow got conjunctivitis! This didn't stop me from going to see the temples though. Both temple complexes had a very Angkor Wat feel to them and being as they were both built in the 9th century it wasn't suprising that they were mostly either in ruins or rebuilt.
Borobudur is made up of 6 square platforms and three circular platforms that you can climb to, to reach the top. It has over 2,500 bas relief panels and over 500 Buddha images - so you can guess the scale of this monument! The relief panels depicted many stories and myths, one of which was about a Prince who having been brought up in the palace had not seen the outside world. When he saw death and poverty outside the palace he decided to become a hermit and was taught about the world, eventually achieving enlightenment. We took our time in climbing to the top, encircling the platforms as we went up. When we eventually reached the top, which comprised of a huge dome in the middle and many more bell shaped stupas protecting Buddha images inside, we were greeted with loads of groups of students from a nearby school who were learning English. The idea was to introduce themselves and ask us questions about us, even giving some information on the monument and Indonesia itself. It was great and really good fun to talk to them at first, but with my eyes playing up and after finding it very difficult to get some space I decided to scarper. I did get some good pictures though and from the top you can see surrounding volcanoes which look spectacular.
The minibus man was waiting for us to have breakfast and take us to Prambanan. It didn't take too long to reach there and it was a lot quieter than Borobudur. Prambanan was made up of one main temple complex with images of Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma inside, the Shiva temple being the tallest at 47m. There were many more temples around the main site but most (similarly to the temples around Angkor Wat) were still in ruins and awaiting redevelopment. Having seen mostly Buddhist temples in South East Asia, it was really interesting to see a Hindu temple and to learn about the struggle between the two religions vying for their dominance.
Back in Jogja for the third day there we decided to explore the city some. The 'kraton', which was the sultans palace in Jogja was nice though there wasn't much to see. The guide though was very interesting and taught us a lot about Indonesian family life. He also showed us a good place to buy batik art. We learned about the laborious making of batik art and I even bought some. Later on we walked the the water palace. It was being completely re-done and so there wasn't much to see. It will be very interesting to see the completed palace though. We also got taught about the making of Javanese marionettes and how they are used in performance.
We left Jogja for Pangandaran (still can't say it right) by public bus despite the insistence of tour agencies to take us by minibus. It worked out a lot cheaper though we did get stranded in a place called Cilicap for a night. It wasn't bad though. There wasn't anything there but we did get a chance to try deep fried catfish! Yum. The next morning we went to Pangandaran, a place famed for its beaches and the nearby national park. We had learned that there had been a few drownings in the sea recently and once we went for a swim it was very easy to see why. The current is the strongest I've been in and the waves get very sizable. We hitched a boat to the white sand beaches, where we were attacked by wild monkeys trying to snatch our bags. Other than trying to keep our belongings away from monkeys it was an incredibly beautiful place. The water was so blue and the beach lined with the edges of jungle.
We stayed in Pangandaran for a few days, relaxing and soaking in the sun. Briony's surfer friend from home joined us as well and the four of us shared a really nice room near the beach. It was nice having a few days of not worrying about getting up early and filling the days with activities. We had one very funny night out with one of the locals we made friends with - Cornea. We went through a lot of the local favourite - arak (rice wine) - and beer. From Pangandaran we got a bus up to Jakarta where we went straight to the airport for our flight to Sumatra.
Medan in Sumatra was our next destination though we didn't stay there. I am very glad we didn't because it was extremely busy and the roads very polluted. We got across the other side of town and got a bus to Bukit Lawang. BK was an incredible place. Little more than a village with a wide river running through the middle, BK's residents were really fun and it was funny watching the kids jumping off rocks and playing in the river on large rubber tubes. We were greeted in BK by some of the many trekking guides that the place offers. Amar convinced us to take a 3 day trek into the jungle and the trek itself was absolutely brilliant! The orangutans we saw were semi-wild and brought there as orphans or from captivity and nursed back to health.
As we were getting reading in the morning before we left we foudn a scorpion in our room!! It was pretty big as well and moved very fast. It stayed by the wall with it's tail up in the air ready to strike if we went near. It was really scary and we had to keep a constant eye on it as we packed our stuff up. We left around 9am on the first day and within an hour we caught sight of our first orangutan. Sandra (the orangutan) and her baby came down to greet us as the guide gave her some food. It was quite incredible to see the great ape and you could simply watch them for hours. That isn't advisable to do so, especially if you have food on you! We saw one of the male orangutans soon after. The guide told us it was one of the biggest in the jungle. He didn't come down as the other one had but we watched him high up in the canopy, languidly moving form one tree to the next. On the first day in the jungle we spotted 12 orangutans in total, which we were really lucky to do so, giant ants and monitor lizards. The walk on the first day totaled around 6 hours and we camped the first night by a really nice waterfall and played card games until we eventually decided to sleep on the hard ground. In the morning with no one getting much sleep we took our time in getting ready, having a shower in the waterfall and watching one of the orangutans as it came down to see if we had anything for her. She stole someones tea and gave the empty cup to her baby, who played with it like a human child would.
On the second day the walk was shorter though a lot harder involving almost vertical climbs and descents. I had a lot of fun on this walk and when we found some vines we started copying the orangutans and leaping about on them. The walk took us to the big river where we swam about and jumped off a huge rock. We then walked up river, crossing it 4 times which wasn't easy! We arrived at camp for the second night at about 3pm which gave us time to explore along the river for a bit where we had a swim and found another, smaller waterfall. Dinner that night consisted of fern leaves and banana tree with tempe, tofu and sardines. It was really nice, though it didn't look too appetizing. The third day we 'rafted' down the river back to BK. The raft was 6 tubes tied together with one guide on the front and one on the back wielding big sticks to guide us over the rapids. It was great fun but not very comfortable!
Back in BK we stayed another day to recuperate and explore a bit. After that we went back to Medan to get on a bus to Lake Toba. We arrived in Lake Toba yesterday where we got a ferry across to the huge island that sits in the middle. Toba is a volcanic lake and all around us are huge mountains. It's very pretty and although the sky is quite gray, I am very much looking forward to exploring it!
We got up early to ensure that we had the whole day to visit the temples but when I woke up I realised I had somehow got conjunctivitis! This didn't stop me from going to see the temples though. Both temple complexes had a very Angkor Wat feel to them and being as they were both built in the 9th century it wasn't suprising that they were mostly either in ruins or rebuilt.
Borobudur is made up of 6 square platforms and three circular platforms that you can climb to, to reach the top. It has over 2,500 bas relief panels and over 500 Buddha images - so you can guess the scale of this monument! The relief panels depicted many stories and myths, one of which was about a Prince who having been brought up in the palace had not seen the outside world. When he saw death and poverty outside the palace he decided to become a hermit and was taught about the world, eventually achieving enlightenment. We took our time in climbing to the top, encircling the platforms as we went up. When we eventually reached the top, which comprised of a huge dome in the middle and many more bell shaped stupas protecting Buddha images inside, we were greeted with loads of groups of students from a nearby school who were learning English. The idea was to introduce themselves and ask us questions about us, even giving some information on the monument and Indonesia itself. It was great and really good fun to talk to them at first, but with my eyes playing up and after finding it very difficult to get some space I decided to scarper. I did get some good pictures though and from the top you can see surrounding volcanoes which look spectacular.
The minibus man was waiting for us to have breakfast and take us to Prambanan. It didn't take too long to reach there and it was a lot quieter than Borobudur. Prambanan was made up of one main temple complex with images of Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma inside, the Shiva temple being the tallest at 47m. There were many more temples around the main site but most (similarly to the temples around Angkor Wat) were still in ruins and awaiting redevelopment. Having seen mostly Buddhist temples in South East Asia, it was really interesting to see a Hindu temple and to learn about the struggle between the two religions vying for their dominance.
Back in Jogja for the third day there we decided to explore the city some. The 'kraton', which was the sultans palace in Jogja was nice though there wasn't much to see. The guide though was very interesting and taught us a lot about Indonesian family life. He also showed us a good place to buy batik art. We learned about the laborious making of batik art and I even bought some. Later on we walked the the water palace. It was being completely re-done and so there wasn't much to see. It will be very interesting to see the completed palace though. We also got taught about the making of Javanese marionettes and how they are used in performance.
We left Jogja for Pangandaran (still can't say it right) by public bus despite the insistence of tour agencies to take us by minibus. It worked out a lot cheaper though we did get stranded in a place called Cilicap for a night. It wasn't bad though. There wasn't anything there but we did get a chance to try deep fried catfish! Yum. The next morning we went to Pangandaran, a place famed for its beaches and the nearby national park. We had learned that there had been a few drownings in the sea recently and once we went for a swim it was very easy to see why. The current is the strongest I've been in and the waves get very sizable. We hitched a boat to the white sand beaches, where we were attacked by wild monkeys trying to snatch our bags. Other than trying to keep our belongings away from monkeys it was an incredibly beautiful place. The water was so blue and the beach lined with the edges of jungle.
We stayed in Pangandaran for a few days, relaxing and soaking in the sun. Briony's surfer friend from home joined us as well and the four of us shared a really nice room near the beach. It was nice having a few days of not worrying about getting up early and filling the days with activities. We had one very funny night out with one of the locals we made friends with - Cornea. We went through a lot of the local favourite - arak (rice wine) - and beer. From Pangandaran we got a bus up to Jakarta where we went straight to the airport for our flight to Sumatra.
Medan in Sumatra was our next destination though we didn't stay there. I am very glad we didn't because it was extremely busy and the roads very polluted. We got across the other side of town and got a bus to Bukit Lawang. BK was an incredible place. Little more than a village with a wide river running through the middle, BK's residents were really fun and it was funny watching the kids jumping off rocks and playing in the river on large rubber tubes. We were greeted in BK by some of the many trekking guides that the place offers. Amar convinced us to take a 3 day trek into the jungle and the trek itself was absolutely brilliant! The orangutans we saw were semi-wild and brought there as orphans or from captivity and nursed back to health.
As we were getting reading in the morning before we left we foudn a scorpion in our room!! It was pretty big as well and moved very fast. It stayed by the wall with it's tail up in the air ready to strike if we went near. It was really scary and we had to keep a constant eye on it as we packed our stuff up. We left around 9am on the first day and within an hour we caught sight of our first orangutan. Sandra (the orangutan) and her baby came down to greet us as the guide gave her some food. It was quite incredible to see the great ape and you could simply watch them for hours. That isn't advisable to do so, especially if you have food on you! We saw one of the male orangutans soon after. The guide told us it was one of the biggest in the jungle. He didn't come down as the other one had but we watched him high up in the canopy, languidly moving form one tree to the next. On the first day in the jungle we spotted 12 orangutans in total, which we were really lucky to do so, giant ants and monitor lizards. The walk on the first day totaled around 6 hours and we camped the first night by a really nice waterfall and played card games until we eventually decided to sleep on the hard ground. In the morning with no one getting much sleep we took our time in getting ready, having a shower in the waterfall and watching one of the orangutans as it came down to see if we had anything for her. She stole someones tea and gave the empty cup to her baby, who played with it like a human child would.
On the second day the walk was shorter though a lot harder involving almost vertical climbs and descents. I had a lot of fun on this walk and when we found some vines we started copying the orangutans and leaping about on them. The walk took us to the big river where we swam about and jumped off a huge rock. We then walked up river, crossing it 4 times which wasn't easy! We arrived at camp for the second night at about 3pm which gave us time to explore along the river for a bit where we had a swim and found another, smaller waterfall. Dinner that night consisted of fern leaves and banana tree with tempe, tofu and sardines. It was really nice, though it didn't look too appetizing. The third day we 'rafted' down the river back to BK. The raft was 6 tubes tied together with one guide on the front and one on the back wielding big sticks to guide us over the rapids. It was great fun but not very comfortable!
Back in BK we stayed another day to recuperate and explore a bit. After that we went back to Medan to get on a bus to Lake Toba. We arrived in Lake Toba yesterday where we got a ferry across to the huge island that sits in the middle. Toba is a volcanic lake and all around us are huge mountains. It's very pretty and although the sky is quite gray, I am very much looking forward to exploring it!
Monday, 17 May 2010
A Re-Introduction to Asia: Bali and Beyond
Welcome to an exciting new edition of my esteemed travel blog. Esteemed by me because I bloody love it. Flying in to Denpasar airport, which incidentally is no where near Denpasar, I got to Kuta beach. Kuta is what Khao San road in Bangkok is to Indonesia. Chock full of tourists piled up on beaches, wearing t-shirts with the Indonesian beer on it, buying all sorts of crap from the markets ranging from postcards to massive wooden penis shaped bottle openers. While Kuta lacks any sort of charm it was a useful re-introduction to South East Asia; there are a lot of tourists who roam these places on their holidays and these are the places to stay clear of! On the other hand, the Westernised Indonesian food was delicious and I had a good wander along the beach front.
From Kuta I selected to go North to Ubud. Famed for being the cultural heart of Bali and it was very apparent that we were out of the tourist center. Ubud is a very small town built up over the years around what they dub the 'Holy Monkey Forest Sanctuary'. I was quite dubious when I went to visit the monkey forest being as it is plastered over all the tourist pamphlets and pictures of monkeys all over the place didn't seem likely. I was proved very wrong, however. There were monkeys everywhere! And cheeky bastards they are too! If you have any food on you they know about it and they want it. It was really good fun and the complex/forest was surprisingly big and full of mini-temples and waterfalls.
Ubud market was another fascinating experience. Being as I have seen many markets it all seems a bit samey, especially as the markets all sell the same crap all over SE Asia. Again, I was proved wrong in Ubud's market. It was a crazy place with very narrow pathways packed with stalls, then suddenly you find you've gone up 2 flights of stairs and are looking over the the multi-leveled mayhem below all out in the open. Obviously the sellers are still as pushy as the all other Asian markets.
We decided the best way to see places around Ubud was by use of a rental motorbike. It was brilliant being back on bikes again, especially as we got lost a couple of times as well! Our destination was Gunung Kawi, but we had more fun on the bikes driving on roads through dense forest that would suddenly open up to huge rice terraces. Gunung Kawi was hyped up a lot in the Lonely Planet as one of Bali's top sights. It was interesting seeing the temple that wasn't really a temple. It was a bunch of 20' shrines cut into the wall along a valley and was actually quite impressive.
Following day we opted for a visit to one of the volcano's for a night time trek. We opted for Mt. Batur. We had a guide, Madé. He was a really funny little man and he had a driver take us to the base of the mountain, which he couldn't find. We asked him if we were lost and his reply was "Um, yes. We are a little bit lost" and he was distraught that we might be unhappy. We thought it was hilarious that we couldn't find the giant mountain in front of us! Eventually he got going in the right direction and we started to ascend the mountain. The walk in the dark was quite tough and mostly uneventful. That was until we heard music coming from somewhere. Some sort of electro, rave stuff. Next thing I know we are walking through a rave full of drugged up, zombie looking hippies at 4am with pounding rave music in our ears! At first it was funny and very surreal but I was actually quite annoyed at the whole thing, mostly the music kind of messed up the ambiance of the place. It took about an hour and a half to get to the top and it was still dark. Mt. Batur is some 1700 meters above sea level and being as it is a volcano we were sat by the giant crater that dropped 100 meters below us. As it got a bit lighter we could see the steam rising from the crater and in some places you can feel the heat coming out of crevices in the rock. Just about when the sun came up the whole place was suddenly swarming with wild monkeys! The sunrise was impressive even thought it was quite cloudy. And with the light and the mist around the volcano it looked stunning! It took an hour to get back down and when we met up with Madé he wanted to show us more.
Madé took us to a plantation of coffee, chocolate and various fruits. We tried a few different things and watched them grind the coffee into powder to be packaged and sold. Bali coffee is great! He also took us to a really good view from the top of a set of rice terraces where we got some very postcard-esque pictures.
The following morning we left for Lovina at the north coast of Bali. On the way there we stopped at Bali's biggest waterfall, the Gitgit waterfall. There was a lot of rain around the mountains and because of that the waterfall was a raging torrent and some of the paths incredibly slippery. I couldn't get many good pictures because of the rain but it was quite a sight! Lovina is a nice place but the beach isn't too great. It is made up of black sand, presumably because of the volcanic rock. Lovina is very quiet but we still found a bar with some cheap cocktails and a local band. On one morning we went out to see the famous Lovina dolphins. The boat that took us out to sea was basically a canoe with a motor on the back and some poles out to the side to keep it balanced. When we got far enough out to sea it was a little disappointing to see that there were about 100 other boats doing likewise. It made the dolphin watching experience a bit less magical since as soon as someone spotted any dolphins, all the boats suddenly hurtle towards them. We still saw a fair number of them so I was happy enough!
We got a minibus back to Kuta and stayed in possibly the worst guest house I have ever seen! We stayed in Kuta a couple more days for Briony's birthday. It was a funny night in a club that advertised a 'snow party' but it was a lot more like a rain party. I thought there must have been a fire or something with the water coming down from the ceiling! Needless to say we were all soaking wet and very drunk!
We left Kuta for Gilimanuk to get the ferry across to Java. The intention was to go to another volcano, Mt Bromo, but when we got to the town near there the rain was so bad that all the roads were completely flooded. It didn't stop people trying to drive almost waist deep through it on there motorbikes, until of course the motorbikes stopped working! So we cut out losses and headed for the next major city, Surabaya. Surabaya is a stark contrast to Kuta. We didn't see a single white person the entire time we were there! It also meant no western restaurants so we had lots of delicious street food. I watched the FA Cup final in a really expensive hotel and since the place we were staying in was such a dive it was quite nice pretending to be rich!! The hotel we were staying in doesn't have a shower, just a trough of cold water and a small bucket.
Catching the train from Surabaya to Yogyakarta (or Jogja as it's called here) was somewhat reminiscent of the train rides in China. The 'ekonomie' class meant little leg space, lots of people goggling at us, tons of hawkers walking up and down the train and of course a very lengthy ride! It was worth it for the price - under 2 pounds for a 9 hour ride - but there's no way I could do that overnight. I am in Jogja now and it's a really nice city from what I have seen so far.
Looking forward to the rest of Indonesia and beyond.
From Kuta I selected to go North to Ubud. Famed for being the cultural heart of Bali and it was very apparent that we were out of the tourist center. Ubud is a very small town built up over the years around what they dub the 'Holy Monkey Forest Sanctuary'. I was quite dubious when I went to visit the monkey forest being as it is plastered over all the tourist pamphlets and pictures of monkeys all over the place didn't seem likely. I was proved very wrong, however. There were monkeys everywhere! And cheeky bastards they are too! If you have any food on you they know about it and they want it. It was really good fun and the complex/forest was surprisingly big and full of mini-temples and waterfalls.
Ubud market was another fascinating experience. Being as I have seen many markets it all seems a bit samey, especially as the markets all sell the same crap all over SE Asia. Again, I was proved wrong in Ubud's market. It was a crazy place with very narrow pathways packed with stalls, then suddenly you find you've gone up 2 flights of stairs and are looking over the the multi-leveled mayhem below all out in the open. Obviously the sellers are still as pushy as the all other Asian markets.
We decided the best way to see places around Ubud was by use of a rental motorbike. It was brilliant being back on bikes again, especially as we got lost a couple of times as well! Our destination was Gunung Kawi, but we had more fun on the bikes driving on roads through dense forest that would suddenly open up to huge rice terraces. Gunung Kawi was hyped up a lot in the Lonely Planet as one of Bali's top sights. It was interesting seeing the temple that wasn't really a temple. It was a bunch of 20' shrines cut into the wall along a valley and was actually quite impressive.
Following day we opted for a visit to one of the volcano's for a night time trek. We opted for Mt. Batur. We had a guide, Madé. He was a really funny little man and he had a driver take us to the base of the mountain, which he couldn't find. We asked him if we were lost and his reply was "Um, yes. We are a little bit lost" and he was distraught that we might be unhappy. We thought it was hilarious that we couldn't find the giant mountain in front of us! Eventually he got going in the right direction and we started to ascend the mountain. The walk in the dark was quite tough and mostly uneventful. That was until we heard music coming from somewhere. Some sort of electro, rave stuff. Next thing I know we are walking through a rave full of drugged up, zombie looking hippies at 4am with pounding rave music in our ears! At first it was funny and very surreal but I was actually quite annoyed at the whole thing, mostly the music kind of messed up the ambiance of the place. It took about an hour and a half to get to the top and it was still dark. Mt. Batur is some 1700 meters above sea level and being as it is a volcano we were sat by the giant crater that dropped 100 meters below us. As it got a bit lighter we could see the steam rising from the crater and in some places you can feel the heat coming out of crevices in the rock. Just about when the sun came up the whole place was suddenly swarming with wild monkeys! The sunrise was impressive even thought it was quite cloudy. And with the light and the mist around the volcano it looked stunning! It took an hour to get back down and when we met up with Madé he wanted to show us more.
Madé took us to a plantation of coffee, chocolate and various fruits. We tried a few different things and watched them grind the coffee into powder to be packaged and sold. Bali coffee is great! He also took us to a really good view from the top of a set of rice terraces where we got some very postcard-esque pictures.
The following morning we left for Lovina at the north coast of Bali. On the way there we stopped at Bali's biggest waterfall, the Gitgit waterfall. There was a lot of rain around the mountains and because of that the waterfall was a raging torrent and some of the paths incredibly slippery. I couldn't get many good pictures because of the rain but it was quite a sight! Lovina is a nice place but the beach isn't too great. It is made up of black sand, presumably because of the volcanic rock. Lovina is very quiet but we still found a bar with some cheap cocktails and a local band. On one morning we went out to see the famous Lovina dolphins. The boat that took us out to sea was basically a canoe with a motor on the back and some poles out to the side to keep it balanced. When we got far enough out to sea it was a little disappointing to see that there were about 100 other boats doing likewise. It made the dolphin watching experience a bit less magical since as soon as someone spotted any dolphins, all the boats suddenly hurtle towards them. We still saw a fair number of them so I was happy enough!
We got a minibus back to Kuta and stayed in possibly the worst guest house I have ever seen! We stayed in Kuta a couple more days for Briony's birthday. It was a funny night in a club that advertised a 'snow party' but it was a lot more like a rain party. I thought there must have been a fire or something with the water coming down from the ceiling! Needless to say we were all soaking wet and very drunk!
We left Kuta for Gilimanuk to get the ferry across to Java. The intention was to go to another volcano, Mt Bromo, but when we got to the town near there the rain was so bad that all the roads were completely flooded. It didn't stop people trying to drive almost waist deep through it on there motorbikes, until of course the motorbikes stopped working! So we cut out losses and headed for the next major city, Surabaya. Surabaya is a stark contrast to Kuta. We didn't see a single white person the entire time we were there! It also meant no western restaurants so we had lots of delicious street food. I watched the FA Cup final in a really expensive hotel and since the place we were staying in was such a dive it was quite nice pretending to be rich!! The hotel we were staying in doesn't have a shower, just a trough of cold water and a small bucket.
Catching the train from Surabaya to Yogyakarta (or Jogja as it's called here) was somewhat reminiscent of the train rides in China. The 'ekonomie' class meant little leg space, lots of people goggling at us, tons of hawkers walking up and down the train and of course a very lengthy ride! It was worth it for the price - under 2 pounds for a 9 hour ride - but there's no way I could do that overnight. I am in Jogja now and it's a really nice city from what I have seen so far.
Looking forward to the rest of Indonesia and beyond.
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Back on the Road
Where to begin!? I am in Perth right now having just met up with Briony for the first time since she left Bundaberg about 5 months ago. I have finished working and have saved enough money to travel now so let me fill you all in on my happenings since my last blog nearly 6 months ago (hard to believe it has been that long).
November and December passed with little note. Christmas was fantastic. Had a brilliant lunch out and some drinks on the beach. We got really lucky with the weather as it rained for about a week before and after Christmas day, but not on Christmas itself. We had a game of football between all the lads in the hostel: France vs. Rest of the World. France think it finished [FR 7 - 6 RotW] and Rest of the World think it finished [FR 6 - 7 RotW]. This caused arguments-a-plenty and towards the end of the game was rather vicious. All was forgotten after as we sat on the beach and into the night drank the many eskies of beer we brought along. New Years was excellent also. Had a party in the hostel involving drinking games that originated practically all over the world. This led to no-one knowing the rules of any game and proceeded to just drink a lot anyway.
January took its course and created possibly the best room friendship the hostel has ever known. Room 9: Ian, Andy, Bernie, Matt, Mark and Krystiana. I don't think we really left the room throughout most of January and I don't think one group has ever had so many inside jokes! Late January I got bored of my "Jenga stacking" job and worked on a mango and lychee farm for a short while. Soon enough a permanent job came about and at the start of February I was working on a sweet potato farm for the nicest farmers you could ever meet. The work, though difficult, was very rewarding and at points very fun! Occasionally they would give us a post-work beer or pie, while talking about football and the hostel.
I worked a lot from this time until the end of April when I eventually left Bundy. Pedro, Carole and Mick took me and Andy out for dinner a couple of weeks before we left, which was really nice of them and they even through a little party on the last day of work. It was a little sad to leave them and disappointing that I hadn't tried to get on that farm earlier on. Having seen everyone I had made friends with in the hostel come and go it was a very strange experience for me to leave also. Matt and Mark had left a week before us, Krystiana a few weeks before that and Bernie a day after Me and Andy. The group had finally been split up. Saying goodbye to everyone at 3:30am with no sleep whatsoever was a very odd experience. Like it was happening to someone else. Even on the bus it still felt like I wasn't actually leaving Bundy.
The bus was taking us to Harvey Bay where we embarked on a 3 day trip to the infamous Fraser Island. We had a fantastic time at Fraser and got to see the best attraction there- Lake McKenzie, the day before it was due to be closed until September. McKenzie is a huge freshwater lake surrounded by the finest, whitest sand in the world. The water is so blue and the whole scene was beautiful. Driving around the island was fantastic fun. I had driven a lot of big 4x4's around Bundy and the farms, but this was completely different. I was a bit disappointed we didn't get stuck in the sand though. Everyone who had been told us you get stuck a lot and that's half the fun! Driving along the beach was cool as well. The east coast of Fraser is just one huge beach that is used as a highway to get to all the attractions on Fraser Island. We stayed at an Aboriginal owned camping ground and had some drinks with a few other groups doing a similar trip. The second day we visited Indian Heads, the highest viewpoint overlooking the sea at Fraser. We caught glimpses of fish, stingrays, jellyfish and just as we were about to leave we spotted a school of about 7 dolphins! The third day we walked over some sand dunes to another lake not quite as exciting as Lake McKenzie but still very nice.
We stayed a night in Harvey Bay before going to Brisbane where we met up with Josh and Paul. It was brilliant to see them and a stark reminder of just how long I have been away from home for. I hadn't seen Paul since the day before I left home a year ago March and Josh a year ago January!! We had an excellent time in Brisbane and visited a couple of art galleries, a Chinese festival, a man-made beach next to the river, and went on a couple of nights out with the boys. It was a really good few days out and a great way to get out of a working mentality and into a traveling mind frame. On Sunday evening we flew to Perth and met up with Briony yesterday. Looking forward to a few days chilling out in Perth (it really is chilly over here, but that could just be because I am used to the heat of the east coast now). We fly to Bali on Thursday and I shall keep all my avid readers continually updated on everything I am doing and seeing. Sorry I have kept you waiting so long, but I haven't had too much to chat about in 8 months of living in Bundy!
Wish me luck!
x
November and December passed with little note. Christmas was fantastic. Had a brilliant lunch out and some drinks on the beach. We got really lucky with the weather as it rained for about a week before and after Christmas day, but not on Christmas itself. We had a game of football between all the lads in the hostel: France vs. Rest of the World. France think it finished [FR 7 - 6 RotW] and Rest of the World think it finished [FR 6 - 7 RotW]. This caused arguments-a-plenty and towards the end of the game was rather vicious. All was forgotten after as we sat on the beach and into the night drank the many eskies of beer we brought along. New Years was excellent also. Had a party in the hostel involving drinking games that originated practically all over the world. This led to no-one knowing the rules of any game and proceeded to just drink a lot anyway.
January took its course and created possibly the best room friendship the hostel has ever known. Room 9: Ian, Andy, Bernie, Matt, Mark and Krystiana. I don't think we really left the room throughout most of January and I don't think one group has ever had so many inside jokes! Late January I got bored of my "Jenga stacking" job and worked on a mango and lychee farm for a short while. Soon enough a permanent job came about and at the start of February I was working on a sweet potato farm for the nicest farmers you could ever meet. The work, though difficult, was very rewarding and at points very fun! Occasionally they would give us a post-work beer or pie, while talking about football and the hostel.
I worked a lot from this time until the end of April when I eventually left Bundy. Pedro, Carole and Mick took me and Andy out for dinner a couple of weeks before we left, which was really nice of them and they even through a little party on the last day of work. It was a little sad to leave them and disappointing that I hadn't tried to get on that farm earlier on. Having seen everyone I had made friends with in the hostel come and go it was a very strange experience for me to leave also. Matt and Mark had left a week before us, Krystiana a few weeks before that and Bernie a day after Me and Andy. The group had finally been split up. Saying goodbye to everyone at 3:30am with no sleep whatsoever was a very odd experience. Like it was happening to someone else. Even on the bus it still felt like I wasn't actually leaving Bundy.
The bus was taking us to Harvey Bay where we embarked on a 3 day trip to the infamous Fraser Island. We had a fantastic time at Fraser and got to see the best attraction there- Lake McKenzie, the day before it was due to be closed until September. McKenzie is a huge freshwater lake surrounded by the finest, whitest sand in the world. The water is so blue and the whole scene was beautiful. Driving around the island was fantastic fun. I had driven a lot of big 4x4's around Bundy and the farms, but this was completely different. I was a bit disappointed we didn't get stuck in the sand though. Everyone who had been told us you get stuck a lot and that's half the fun! Driving along the beach was cool as well. The east coast of Fraser is just one huge beach that is used as a highway to get to all the attractions on Fraser Island. We stayed at an Aboriginal owned camping ground and had some drinks with a few other groups doing a similar trip. The second day we visited Indian Heads, the highest viewpoint overlooking the sea at Fraser. We caught glimpses of fish, stingrays, jellyfish and just as we were about to leave we spotted a school of about 7 dolphins! The third day we walked over some sand dunes to another lake not quite as exciting as Lake McKenzie but still very nice.
We stayed a night in Harvey Bay before going to Brisbane where we met up with Josh and Paul. It was brilliant to see them and a stark reminder of just how long I have been away from home for. I hadn't seen Paul since the day before I left home a year ago March and Josh a year ago January!! We had an excellent time in Brisbane and visited a couple of art galleries, a Chinese festival, a man-made beach next to the river, and went on a couple of nights out with the boys. It was a really good few days out and a great way to get out of a working mentality and into a traveling mind frame. On Sunday evening we flew to Perth and met up with Briony yesterday. Looking forward to a few days chilling out in Perth (it really is chilly over here, but that could just be because I am used to the heat of the east coast now). We fly to Bali on Thursday and I shall keep all my avid readers continually updated on everything I am doing and seeing. Sorry I have kept you waiting so long, but I haven't had too much to chat about in 8 months of living in Bundy!
Wish me luck!
x
Monday, 9 November 2009
Work and Play... and Work
G'day readers. I know you're probably all terribly sick of hearing about Bundaberg and the like but I have some time on the internet and I know you're all missing me so much...! I have a new job. One that doesn't involve having to wake up at stupid o'clock and break my back in the heat. I'm working in a packing shed lifting boxes all day long, a bit like setting up a giant version of Jenga, but you're not allowed to pull it down... unfortunately. It is mightily dull but I'm making a bit more money and I'm not tired all the time now. It can get really depressing too since no one there talks. I don't think it's against the rules or anything but we just listen to the radio all day long. Any of you who have heard Australian radio you'll know it's not a particularly good thing. Lot's of faces have left the hostel now, meaning that Me, Andy and Briony are possibly the longest serving hostel members. This means that we could apply for the night managers position! The job is simply clean the kitchen and lock the doors at 9pm. We get one persons free rent so every third week I don't pay rent.
Some exciting times to share as well. Lee and Amy - remember, the couple we met in Russia who were on the train with us - rocked up in Bundy a few weeks ago. They were only passing through but they stayed a couple of nights and it was awesome to catch up and share traveling stories as well. We had no idea they were coming here and they didn't know we were in Bundaberg either, so it was quite exciting. Also, at the same time, Phil - remember, Phil, the guy who was on the Halong Bay trip with us in 'Nam - also showed up! He stayed for a week but got offered a job up in Melbourne so decided to take that up instead of boring farm work here.
I still don't know what my Christmas and New Years plans are. It'll certainly be strange to have Christmas in Australia. I may still be here. I have decided that I don't want to save money for ages to go and blow it all in a week on booze and expensive accommodation. I'm still having fun here. Works okay. Playing football and basketball all the time is cool. Some of you may have heard that me and Andy are looking into going to South Africa for the World Cup. We havn't got any real plans for what's going to follow Bundaberg but we are hoping that if we get tickets to a game or two, the decision will be made for us. Otherwise we might see more Oz or NZ, or go back to Asia. It's all pipeline stuff for now. We have a mental list of what we want to do and see, so eventually, when we have money, these things may come to fruition. For the meantime, sit tight. Keep following the blog. If you aren't too bored obviously. I hope you are all keeping warm in the harsh weather (for the record I don't think the weathers changed a bit since I got here... in winter! Seriously, it may have got slightly warmer and a bit windier but that's it!) One last thing: I started putting some pictures on Facebook, only done the first month or so but I'll get them all up soon.
I miss and love you all. Especially you.
Some exciting times to share as well. Lee and Amy - remember, the couple we met in Russia who were on the train with us - rocked up in Bundy a few weeks ago. They were only passing through but they stayed a couple of nights and it was awesome to catch up and share traveling stories as well. We had no idea they were coming here and they didn't know we were in Bundaberg either, so it was quite exciting. Also, at the same time, Phil - remember, Phil, the guy who was on the Halong Bay trip with us in 'Nam - also showed up! He stayed for a week but got offered a job up in Melbourne so decided to take that up instead of boring farm work here.
I still don't know what my Christmas and New Years plans are. It'll certainly be strange to have Christmas in Australia. I may still be here. I have decided that I don't want to save money for ages to go and blow it all in a week on booze and expensive accommodation. I'm still having fun here. Works okay. Playing football and basketball all the time is cool. Some of you may have heard that me and Andy are looking into going to South Africa for the World Cup. We havn't got any real plans for what's going to follow Bundaberg but we are hoping that if we get tickets to a game or two, the decision will be made for us. Otherwise we might see more Oz or NZ, or go back to Asia. It's all pipeline stuff for now. We have a mental list of what we want to do and see, so eventually, when we have money, these things may come to fruition. For the meantime, sit tight. Keep following the blog. If you aren't too bored obviously. I hope you are all keeping warm in the harsh weather (for the record I don't think the weathers changed a bit since I got here... in winter! Seriously, it may have got slightly warmer and a bit windier but that's it!) One last thing: I started putting some pictures on Facebook, only done the first month or so but I'll get them all up soon.
I miss and love you all. Especially you.
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Bundaberg Backpackers
Still rocking it out here in Bundy and thought I'd give a quick update. I've finally started making some money by being a world class zucchini picker. So much so that in fact the hostel wont move me to a better job because they are scared off pissing off the farmer since I am "his best picker". My hard work is apparently my own demise. Never mind though since I plan on staying here a while and I am making money - last week alone I earned AU$718! So I'll stick it out and when the job eventually ends I will try and get something slightly less back breaking. I think working from a hostel you often find that people constantly complain. When you havn't got work in a place like this you get bored and frustrated. Yet a lot of people expect to get work and make lot's of money quickly, without having to put much effort in... and when they find themselves on a massive farm where you can't even see the end of the patch of zucchinis you are supposed to be picking, they find the work too hard and quit. It's quite funny really. The place is full of people who simply don't know what it's like to do a hard days work.
Last week was particularly hard. I was working from about 5.15am until 2.30pm every day. I bet none of you believe I am fine with getting up at 4.10am every morning either! Bed by nine... who'd have thought. It's starting to get very hot here, though the evenings/mornings are still pretty cold. I also have the responsibility of driving everyone to work in the mornings. I drive a 10 person trooper with dodgy brakes, terrible steering allignment and a choke so old I have to hold down what they call here a glow plug for 20 seconds before it'll start.
The other thing about this hostel is falling into patterns and rhythms day by day. Obviously when working it's a case of up early, breakfast, work, home, lunch, tv, dinner, bed. But we've got a few others thrown in too:
- Tuesday was 'Cheap Pizza Day' and has no evolved into 'Pizza and Horror Movie Evening'.
- Four o'clock in the afternoon is time to go to Coles and find what's on offer (normally donuts and cakes).
- Saturday afternoon we play football.
- A day off will often account to going to the swimming pool, especially if it's a weekend and the inflatables are up.
- Drinking copious amounts of tea.
- Queueing up for the internet (took me the best part of an hour to get on this morning).
As mentioned previously, between all this we bitch and complain about work, bosses, hostel management, sleep deprivation, Bundaberg, locals, prices, crap beer, heat, internet unavailability, etc, etc.
Congratulations are due to Paul and his friends for flying out to India. I am really looking forward to meeting up in Australia. I have finally remembered to sort out my medicare and now have free health care! This is lucky since it coincides with the running out of my travel insurance. Only other news is that I received a parcel from mum with some excellent presents! There aren't any pictures to show you from Bundaberg as we don't have a camera. To be honest there's not an awful lot to see. The beach is nice, but I've still only been there once.
I guess that's all for today. Sorry it's not very exciting. Check out Paul's blog, it's pretty good (though an obvious attempt at plagiarism... hehe). If anyone wants me to ring them, send me your phone numbers and a good time to call. Or just come out to Australia and find me. Take care. x
Last week was particularly hard. I was working from about 5.15am until 2.30pm every day. I bet none of you believe I am fine with getting up at 4.10am every morning either! Bed by nine... who'd have thought. It's starting to get very hot here, though the evenings/mornings are still pretty cold. I also have the responsibility of driving everyone to work in the mornings. I drive a 10 person trooper with dodgy brakes, terrible steering allignment and a choke so old I have to hold down what they call here a glow plug for 20 seconds before it'll start.
The other thing about this hostel is falling into patterns and rhythms day by day. Obviously when working it's a case of up early, breakfast, work, home, lunch, tv, dinner, bed. But we've got a few others thrown in too:
- Tuesday was 'Cheap Pizza Day' and has no evolved into 'Pizza and Horror Movie Evening'.
- Four o'clock in the afternoon is time to go to Coles and find what's on offer (normally donuts and cakes).
- Saturday afternoon we play football.
- A day off will often account to going to the swimming pool, especially if it's a weekend and the inflatables are up.
- Drinking copious amounts of tea.
- Queueing up for the internet (took me the best part of an hour to get on this morning).
As mentioned previously, between all this we bitch and complain about work, bosses, hostel management, sleep deprivation, Bundaberg, locals, prices, crap beer, heat, internet unavailability, etc, etc.
Congratulations are due to Paul and his friends for flying out to India. I am really looking forward to meeting up in Australia. I have finally remembered to sort out my medicare and now have free health care! This is lucky since it coincides with the running out of my travel insurance. Only other news is that I received a parcel from mum with some excellent presents! There aren't any pictures to show you from Bundaberg as we don't have a camera. To be honest there's not an awful lot to see. The beach is nice, but I've still only been there once.
I guess that's all for today. Sorry it's not very exciting. Check out Paul's blog, it's pretty good (though an obvious attempt at plagiarism... hehe). If anyone wants me to ring them, send me your phone numbers and a good time to call. Or just come out to Australia and find me. Take care. x
Friday, 4 September 2009
Brisbane and Bundy, Australia
It has been a while since I've posted anything so sorry for all the avid fans who are crying in desperation to hear the next chapter in the adventures of travels and beyond. I'm sure you've found other ways to amuse yourselves in my absence. So Australia is nice. It's full of Australians though. Never mind.
Flight from BKK to KL to OOL was uneventful. Never been so nervous before a flight before. It didn't help that every day I checked the news another plane somewhere had crashed. When I arrived in Coolangatta airport I got a taste of the overboard customs Australia are known for. They even cleaned my walking shoes! Brilliant. Coolangatta - what a stupid name. Australia is full of stupid names. I swear they just grab 3 or four consonants at random and roll a couple of dice to see how many vowels it needs. Whether you're headed up Yeerongpilli or Moorooka or Wooloowin (real places around Brisbane, check if you don't believe me) you get the feeling that naming places is a bit of a joke to Australians. A very unfunny joke. At the airport we met a man who desperately needed to get to Brisbane so took a taxi for an astronomical price, we told him we'd taxi share if we pay the same as we would if we took the train. It was pretty handy since we got there 2 hours earlier than we would have.
Brisbane is a nice city. It was incredibly sunny and felt like an English summer day. Being as it was winter gives some impression as to how different the weather patterns are over here! We constructed a plan of action: job, car, accomm. This changed to: accomm, job, car, which in turn changed to: job, accomm, train/bus. Eventually we stopped at around plan r1.v2.327a which was to get a train to Bundaberg, find accommodation, stick with it until we find work. After contemplating staying in Brisbane, heading south, heading north, heading inland, and just about every other possible scenario- we had a night out and drunkenly settled on Bundy.
So we got the train there and as we arrived at such a late hour... 7.30pm... nothing was open. It was upon arrival we realised that this town is a little backward and on a Tuesday night, with nothing open except for one hostel, we could be in for a bit of trouble. So we stayed a night in a place called Cell Block. An old converted prison, with a swimming pool. Everyone was absolutely wasted and it didn't take long for us to decide that we didn't want to stay here if we are trying to save money. So in the morning we walked over to another backpacker hostel, which sounded very encouraging the the work line. He told us that soon there's going to be too many jobs for the number of people staying there. This turned out to be a lie.
The hostel is nice enough but there's not a lot to do both there and in town. Things get pretty boring when you aren't working. It took 6 days before I got my first job. During that time I went out on standby a few nights. Going out on standby means waking up in the very early hours of the morning (usually around 3am) to wait until the buses arrive to take people to work. If a farm needs any extra people, or if people don't turn up for work, you get a job. It's freezing bloody cold in the evenings though! I didn't get my first job on standby but being out there does show your intentions and you're more likely to get a job before other people who don't go out. My first job was 2, 9 hour days lifting heavy planks of wood onto a tractor. The work was incredibly tough but at $17.60 an hour was very much worth it. You are so tired and worn out in the evenings that it doesn't matter that Bundy is so boring - you don't have the energy to do anything anyway.
A day off and then my second job, planting courgettes - they call them zucchinis over here. Much easier job but that only lasted one day. My third job was picking zuchhinis, which lasted 2 days and after that I was bucket boy for zucchinis. Bucket boy is a great job because picking is awful. There's not an awful lot to pick at the moment so you get more money being on an hourly rate. It's $2.50 per bucket or $17.60 per hour, so it works out good for me. I did 3 days of bucket boy but then they gave me 4 days off! Not very good seeing as the shifts are really short anyway so not earning very much if it's just 3 days a week.
I've met some great people at the hostel as well. It's crazy just how many backpackers are in Bundy, and funny just how much all the locals hate us! Most of them are on the doll and refuse to work, however some are known to start fights with backpackers. It's best just to stay the hell away from them. So it's been nearly a month since I came to Australia and I am yet to see any popular sights. The beach round here is nice though I've only been once, and I do get to play football here. I bought this laptop to give me a bit more entertainment, so hopefully I wont get too bored being here. I just hope the work picks up a bit.
I miss you all and hope that you are all doing well and that you have had an excellent summer! I'll try and write more frequently though I doubt I'll have much to say at this rate... working... not working... bored... having fun... etc. xx
Flight from BKK to KL to OOL was uneventful. Never been so nervous before a flight before. It didn't help that every day I checked the news another plane somewhere had crashed. When I arrived in Coolangatta airport I got a taste of the overboard customs Australia are known for. They even cleaned my walking shoes! Brilliant. Coolangatta - what a stupid name. Australia is full of stupid names. I swear they just grab 3 or four consonants at random and roll a couple of dice to see how many vowels it needs. Whether you're headed up Yeerongpilli or Moorooka or Wooloowin (real places around Brisbane, check if you don't believe me) you get the feeling that naming places is a bit of a joke to Australians. A very unfunny joke. At the airport we met a man who desperately needed to get to Brisbane so took a taxi for an astronomical price, we told him we'd taxi share if we pay the same as we would if we took the train. It was pretty handy since we got there 2 hours earlier than we would have.
Brisbane is a nice city. It was incredibly sunny and felt like an English summer day. Being as it was winter gives some impression as to how different the weather patterns are over here! We constructed a plan of action: job, car, accomm. This changed to: accomm, job, car, which in turn changed to: job, accomm, train/bus. Eventually we stopped at around plan r1.v2.327a which was to get a train to Bundaberg, find accommodation, stick with it until we find work. After contemplating staying in Brisbane, heading south, heading north, heading inland, and just about every other possible scenario- we had a night out and drunkenly settled on Bundy.
So we got the train there and as we arrived at such a late hour... 7.30pm... nothing was open. It was upon arrival we realised that this town is a little backward and on a Tuesday night, with nothing open except for one hostel, we could be in for a bit of trouble. So we stayed a night in a place called Cell Block. An old converted prison, with a swimming pool. Everyone was absolutely wasted and it didn't take long for us to decide that we didn't want to stay here if we are trying to save money. So in the morning we walked over to another backpacker hostel, which sounded very encouraging the the work line. He told us that soon there's going to be too many jobs for the number of people staying there. This turned out to be a lie.
The hostel is nice enough but there's not a lot to do both there and in town. Things get pretty boring when you aren't working. It took 6 days before I got my first job. During that time I went out on standby a few nights. Going out on standby means waking up in the very early hours of the morning (usually around 3am) to wait until the buses arrive to take people to work. If a farm needs any extra people, or if people don't turn up for work, you get a job. It's freezing bloody cold in the evenings though! I didn't get my first job on standby but being out there does show your intentions and you're more likely to get a job before other people who don't go out. My first job was 2, 9 hour days lifting heavy planks of wood onto a tractor. The work was incredibly tough but at $17.60 an hour was very much worth it. You are so tired and worn out in the evenings that it doesn't matter that Bundy is so boring - you don't have the energy to do anything anyway.
A day off and then my second job, planting courgettes - they call them zucchinis over here. Much easier job but that only lasted one day. My third job was picking zuchhinis, which lasted 2 days and after that I was bucket boy for zucchinis. Bucket boy is a great job because picking is awful. There's not an awful lot to pick at the moment so you get more money being on an hourly rate. It's $2.50 per bucket or $17.60 per hour, so it works out good for me. I did 3 days of bucket boy but then they gave me 4 days off! Not very good seeing as the shifts are really short anyway so not earning very much if it's just 3 days a week.
I've met some great people at the hostel as well. It's crazy just how many backpackers are in Bundy, and funny just how much all the locals hate us! Most of them are on the doll and refuse to work, however some are known to start fights with backpackers. It's best just to stay the hell away from them. So it's been nearly a month since I came to Australia and I am yet to see any popular sights. The beach round here is nice though I've only been once, and I do get to play football here. I bought this laptop to give me a bit more entertainment, so hopefully I wont get too bored being here. I just hope the work picks up a bit.
I miss you all and hope that you are all doing well and that you have had an excellent summer! I'll try and write more frequently though I doubt I'll have much to say at this rate... working... not working... bored... having fun... etc. xx
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