Travel home day

After 4 hrs of sleep it was time to get a 4am taxi to airport.

We got to the airport 15 mins later to find our flight had been cancelled and we would miss our KL to Sydney flight.

As a result we got a flight from Kuching to KL at 7:30am and had to kill 13 hours waiting for the overnight flight.

Malaysian airlines kindly put us up at an airport hotel and provded b'fast, lunch and dinner.

The air con temp in the KK airport terminal was set at 10 degrees (the windows were fogged up at 4am).

We were both freezing, but found a spot where we the a/c wasnt working, so we got some relief.

The buffet at the KL airport dinner was unbelievable. The biggest buffet I've ever seen.

huge cauldrons of meat, veges, fish, rice etc + sushi, loads of seafood, salads, soups, deserts. WOW!!!

I wish I'd taken a photo of it!

Kuching, Bako Nat Park

We had dinner on the foreshore of the Cat river at the centre of town.

24/8/10 Bako Nat Park

We left at 8am for a trip to Bako NP. 30min drive thru the industrial part of Kuchin, then a 30min boat trip down the rivermouth to the open coast.

Beautiful Ranges to the NW, similar to the Coromandel Ranges near the moehau, but much larger!

Once ashore we saw Proboscis monkeys in trees near the cafe.

We walked up to the plateau, thru thick jungle back to the plateau where we saw pitcher plants. It was very hot up here on the small tree rock plateau.

We made our way back down and over to a neaby bay. We only walked 4km all day, but it took 2 hours. Very rugged and our slow coaches struggled... It was very sweaty work...

Some of us had a swim in tepid water in a rock fringed small bay.

We then took a boat out to see fantastic sandstone rock formations and look for sea snakes and then back to the cafe for a buffet lunch incl apple + cake!

3 of us went to the Kuchiing Museum. It was pretty good - similar to KL, but lots of stuffed critters from Borne.

We had a farewell dinner that night at a rooftop food court on a high rise with a full yellow moon behind us.

The beer drinkers stayed out till 3:30am with some singing thrown in.

25/8/10

8am departure for the Organutan rehab centre. Took 45 mins to get there (20km away) due to heavy traffic to get out of town.

We arrived just in time for feeding and upon arrival saw Ritchie the 29 yr old BIG dominant male eating fruti on the platform.

He was 3 times as large as the orangutans at Sepilok and looked like a big wooly carpet from behind.

Head on he was gorilla like, with the bull head and big cheek bones.

Longhouse, Headhunters trail, Mulu NP incl caves

We took 3 longboats 1.25 hours upriver to a Longhouse where we stayed overnight.

Next day we went 2.5 hours further upriver and did a 12km jungle walk along the headhunters trail to Camp 5 at Mulu Nat Park.

It was a very simple bunkhouse on a fabulous fast flowing river edge below a fantastic sheer limstone rockface, with jungle all aruond.

Next day we walked 9km downriver thru jungle and connected with more longboats to take us into the Mulu Nat Park into a fantastic resort that we were upgraded to due to construction - what a bugger!

All rooms and walkways were 10m above the ground level. Next day we found out why. The water level was 2.5m higher and the whole town was somewhat flooded.

The grass was 1m below the water level.

We saw two superb ginoroumous caves (Deer + Lang) that hold 3.5 million bats + the resulting guano and cokroaches etc.

We got drenched on the 4km walk back from the caves. fortunately the poncho from Kathmandu was excellent.

Shoes on the other hand were waterlogged after 500m....

Next day we went upriver and took in Clearwater + Cave of the Winds. Clearwater has a large river + massive sinkholes feeding into it.

Cave of the Winds had 100's of columns + stalagmites/tites . I've never seen a fraction of this number of columns!!!

Near dusk we climbed a nearby lookout to get views of the bats streaming out of the caves. We could only see the bats when the became visible over the mtn range. Its pretty subtle stuff... the bats gather in groups and circle around in a defensive formation. clever nature!!!

On Monday we flew on a turbo-prop Embrasur(sp?) (Brazilian) from Mulu NP to Mirri and a 737 on to Kuching after lunch in town at Mirri.

Sabah section of tour (Limbang - travel day)

We went overland thru Brunei due to a broken ferry.

We had to bribe and negotiate visa payments in US$'s for the Ausseis in our group to get thru the 3 border crossings - Sabah, Brunei, Sarawak.

It took approx 8 hrs of driving, short ferry river crossings and 3 borders (1 exit and entry per border).

Seaside Resort just south of Kota Kinabalu

We had a couple of days at a beachsize resort to recover.

We also took in a visit to the KK Wildlife Centre - Borneo critters incl ranga's, Samatran Elephants, Rhino, Tigers, Sun bears, Honey Bears, snakes, birds etc.

The Proboscis monkeys noss were huge and esp the males - very spongey and large!

The beach was OK, but v.shallow and full of plastic bags, bottles etc. Not well looked after.

The restort itself was simple, had a pool and free wi-fi & fantastic food at a reasonable price.

MT Kinabalu

We walked from 9am to 5pm to walk the 9km - bloody steep + slow group.

Walk thru trees - not much to see until we popped out from the trees late in the day and the sun came out.

We stayed at 3300m on the 1st night and got up at 2am to stand in a superslow queue for 1hr +. I should have slept in till after 3.30am and then had a good walk/climb for 2hrs to the summit.
Seven of our 13 person group got to the top of Mt Kinabala (4100m) over 2 days with 19 hours on the trails.

Karen got as far as the last checkpoint and called it a day. It wasnt too hard from this point on until the final 100m climb that was a scramble. I was 1st of our group to the top and was blown away with the granite, lava-like formations as it came light.
It was a long walk down and our knees were very sore by the end. Next day the legs seized up esp the calves. Sore for a couple of days, but no big drama.

Porring Hot Springs + Mesilau (@ 2000m Mt Kinabalu)

Drove on to Porring hot springs where we had a lovely buffet lunch, a walk around the tree canopy along raised walkways, soaked in the hot springs and onto Mesilau.

our bus spat out its oil dipstick unit and we waited at a nearby cafe before getting picked up by the Mesilau vans to take us to the resort after dark - very poor vis.

Sukau - Kinabatangan River (Sabah/Borneo)

We spent 2 nights billeted out to homestays and 3 river trips to search for wildlife +do a symbolic tree planting.

We saw Raptors, Sea Eagles, Kingfishers, Probiscos& Macau Monkeys in the trees on the rivers edge.

It was bloody hot and the homestay was a little farcical with the usual language barries and little english spoken and not much engangement by those that could speak english.

We had a traditional dancing/music show and had to hance as well.

Orangutan's at Sepilok

Orangutan's

We took an early flight to Sandakan passing by the MAGNIFICENT Mt Kinabalu.
Wow the Mtn looks amazing with saw-tooth features along the top and stunning light granite rock colours above the rain-forest jungle below!

We got started with a visit to Sandakan POW camp where 2,500+ aussies/poms were virtually wiped out at the camp or the resulting 250km death March.
The Aussie Gov General commemorated the 65th anniversary days later on that week.

We did a quick city tour of a grotty looking Sandakan, then to the hilltop Taoist temple with great views of the outer harbour.

We took in the famous Sepilok Orangutan centre. We spent 1hr at the feeding platform where we saw 7 juvenile ranga's ate and played energetically (roughly 6 yr olds).
We did a night walk and saw the amazing flying squirrels, hornbills, raptors, spiders, viper snake, centipedes, leaches etc.
The finale was 2 ranga's sleeping on the boardwalk, so we got to walk right past them!

Return to KL and onto Kota Kinabalu

On Thurs we caught the fast ferry back to Mercing and after an internet session and lunch we caught another VIP bus to KL (2 business class seats on 1 side of bus and 1 on the other). Nice!

I've never seen anything like this before in my travels!

On Fri we wandered around the botanical gardens and associated parks near Central Station.

It was really hot, but quite pleasant in the shade.

We saw the very busy national monument and spent most of the monring enjoying the quiet botanical gardens esp along the lake edge. There were some impressively large fish... As nice as it was, I'd still give Singapore's botancial gardens top marks for OrchidsMarkets etc.

During the evening we wandered up to the Indian Sunday night market. Just another market really. Not much in the way of Indian food stalls and restaurants.

On Sat we got up real early - 6am and caught a train to central (1-stop) and the airport bus to the airport 72km away.

We took a 2.5 hr flight to KK. Entry to town looked very flash, but back streets were somewhat shabby.

Did washing + found a Waggamamma's Japanese restaurant sushi deal. A$4 for 3 courses + Green tea. v.nice!

Took in sights of KK incl lookout at sunset + waterfront + markets.

Tioman Island

Tioman Island

Text written in: English

We planned on getting the 8am bus, but it was full, so we had to wait until 10:30 - bugger! We werent the only ones...

5.5 hr bus trip, mostly on motorways, except for final hr, which was very windey and slow.

We caught the last ferry of the day to Tioman Island on a largely empty fast ferry for the 52km trip.

The seas got progressively rougher as an offshore SW wind got larger as we got further out to sea. A very pleasant trip!

We got in by dark and after going up and down the town we eventually settled on the Coral Reefer hotel on the beach-front. Probably the best location on this island as it turned out. It only cost us RM80/night after some bargaining incl b'fast, though no TV and was a mozzie prone place. Though the whole beach/island was!

Pangkor Island

We caught a bus (after we were switched to another bus co due to our bus breaking down - not that anybody told us...) for the 5 hr trip to Lumut on the West Coast.

We immediately transferred to a fast ferry to Pangkor Island (30mins).

Shared a minibus to Talik Nipir (on West Coast - main backpacker beach).

Decided on the Budget Beachside Resort that had the friendliest manager in Peninsula Malaysia we came across.

We got a great rate for a mid-week stay in a very nice chalet.

We had free wi-fi and cable TV (quite common in Malaysia).

27/7/10 - hired a motor scooter from our hotel for RM20(A$7) and did an anti-clockwise lap of the Island.

Took in Pangkor town + Taoist temple, where we also had lunch at a local chinese budget restaurant.

We had a great red-bean style cold drink. A really authentic experience!

We drove on to the NE end of the island and found the expensive resort Karen wanted to stay at.

Our side of the Island had a nicer beach and more things to do....

We went into Pangkor town for dinner and to fill up the fuel tank (RM1/litre - 2 litres only!).

The restaurant looked out onto the mainland and in an understated, back-street kind of a way looked out on the wharves/boats.

We had a very nice meal also!

Mostly lazed around during the week. I spent quite a bit of time talking to the manager and podcasts from home.