Kinabalu National Park (5th March 2010)

The Mountain!!




Father Christmas orchid

I had a lovely early night and even woke before the alarm (!). So I’m heading off to Kinabalu Park today with all my gear and the plan is to spend the day at the park walking some trails and then stay nearby before heading back to Kota Kinabalu on Saturday. Now perhaps if you look at a map you would see that this isn’t really making sense as I would be going to the park for one night to go back to KK for two nights to then go back past the park again to head off to Sandakan. The problem lies in that I couldn’t get too much info about trying to get a bus from Kinabalu Park to Sandakan, four hours away and my next destination. And I still have memories of when I was in Ecuador and having started out on a journey couldn’t get to the end and the only option was a very expensive cab ride :-)

So this seemed the safer option, of course hind sight is a wonderful thing and something I wish I had had before I made my decisions for today’s activity. I finally set off from the hostel around 8.30 and made the short walk with all my gear to the minivan terminal. It’s at this point that I praise my hind sight in packing light, or at least relatively light. My rucksac weighed just 12kg at Gatwick which I thought was pretty impressive, usually my crew bag weighs more than that. So 12kg and a lot of that is toiletries which as they get used will get binned. Anyway back to the trip. So I headed out with all my gear and found a minivan which was leaving in 5 mins to Kinabalu Park, the fare was RM16 (£3.00) not bad for a three hour journey I thought.

A nice plant!

My plan for leaving KK relatively early was to get to the park in plenty of time for an 11am guided walk and a tour of the botanical gardens. Now this was to be the first time I had really been in a rainforest and I didn’t really know what I was supposed to wear (another reason for bringing all my gear) I turned up in shorts, vest top and Tevas (as usual) and planned to change into long shirt and long trousers, trainers, leach socks, rain coat etc. But when I got there and paid my fee to enter I asked the staff what I needed and was told I didn’t need to change.

A birds nest fern

I hurriedly changed my shoes though (after their price and the drama in getting them I’ve got to use them!) and made sure I had my leach socks handy if needed and headed off to the start point. I had asked someone about where to leave my big bag and ended up leaving it in the front of their office, they said it would be safe and I sure hope so as I left the laptop in it.

After all that time of hiking with a laptop in NZ I decided that this time a raincoat and leech socks should come first, I’m insured against the laptop being stolen (I think) but not against getting eaten by leeches! These are the leech socks I might point out that cost £17 in the UK and £3.80 in KK. There’s gotta be an importing opening there somewhere, I could sell them to all the other leech nervous people heading over to Borneo.

As far as leeches are concerned in this park there’s nothing at all to worry about, it hasn’t rained here for 5 weeks and apparently the temp is around 5 degrees higher than it normally is a this time of year. From a totally selfish point of view its great in one respect not so great in another, its great as there’s no leeches (so far) but not so great cause it is sooooooo hot!!

A pitcher plant

Anyway I digress, so I head off in search of the start of the guided walk and eventually found it with a few mins to spare! The Lonely Planet says its a two hour guided walk but in reality its about a 40 min stroll, nothing strenuous at all and more than anything we kept bumping into coach loads of Chinese, Japanese and Korean tourists! Anything that may have been living in the little part of the forest we visited was long gone or just camera shy perhaps. After the stroll there was a guided tour of the Botanical Garden which was more interesting and of course we saw more. We saw tiny little pitcher plants and one which is reported to be the biggest species in the world but because they’re growing it in a pot it’s not very big. I was really tempted to point out that if it was in the ground they could lay claim to the largest in the world but I guess they’re the experts huh?

Orangutan fern

After all the guided tours I remembered that I didn’t have any accommodation for that night, the LP (two years out of date) says that dorm accommodation inside the park is RM45 per person, now it’s RM120! Fortunately though there seems to be quite a few places just outside the park so think I’ll take a look at those when I leave.

After a quick spot of lunch in the restaurant opposite the park I set off on some trails on my own. When you go into the park they give you a hand drawn photocopie

d map of all the trails around the area but apart from that you’re pretty much on your own. All started ok, I had asked the office what time I needed to collect my bag and as long as I was back by 4.30pm I’d be able to get it, ok good, and off I went. I did a couple of short trails which then joined with slightly longer trails and although nice to be out walking in places I could hear the phones ringing from different offices around the park as well as the constant drone of construction traffic for the new 5 star hotel they’re building at the park entrance, and as a result there wasn’t too much to look at to be honest, I managed to find a few of the things that were pointed out to me earlier but apart from that nothing spectacular.

So there I was wandering the trails of Kinabalu National Park having a nice little time, there were a few signs here and there which was fine and a few missing signs as well, now that should have been a clue I guess, anyway before I knew it and almost without me noticing the forest sounds soon overtook the sounds from the park and all of a sudden I realised I was no-where near the park and time was ticking on before my bag was locked away for the night and apart from being in the Kinabalu NP I had no real idea where I was. So I did what any good traveller and intrepid explorer would do and checked the signal on the phone! :-)

Anyway needless to say I made my way out and even got back to park HQ in time to get my bag back, I then set off in search for a bed for the night.

My bed for the night is at Rose Cabins, I just wish it smelt of roses instead of mould and didn’t have unwelcome giant moths taking up residence in the bathroom next to my bed!! Oh well for £3.80 a night you can’t expect miracles.

The monster moth

Some of my other room mates were attempting to climb the mountain the next day, it’s something I would really really love to do but I think to be fair I’m just being realistic and honest with myself when I say there’s no chance really, I just don’t think I’m strong enough! I mean fair enough never say never but it is 6 hours min straight up on the first day then another few hours the next day then all the way down again the same afternoon, it’s the downhill that’s a killer. I am disappointed of course but think perhaps I’m just being wise. I have another week or so here in Sabah though so I’ll see, hopefully I’ll meet people who have done it and get to hear their take on it and maybe if I meet someone who’s really unfit I’ll just go for it, I’ll let you know.

For now though an early night.

I've found him, I've found Nemo! (4th March 2010)

Mamutik Island

Allana wanted to get to the islands early as she was leaving on a plane back to KL in the evening, that sounded good to me cause that way we would hopefully get there before it gets too hot however when it got to 10.30 and we still hadn’t left I was beginning to wonder who’s version of early we were talking about!

We finally got to the island of Mamutik around 12 midday and to get there we had to pay and hire everything on offer it seemed. We had to first get the boat ticket for RM12, then you have to pay a national park departure fee of RM6, then I hired a snorkel and mask for RM15 and a towel for RM10, then we had to pay another RM10 to actually enter the island. Finally after all of that we just had to wait 10 mins before more tourists turned up so we could head out. Mamutik is one of five islands that make up the Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park off the coast of Kota Kinabalu. Mamutik is a nice little island but quite restricted on where you could snorkel. They do a lot of PADI courses (scuba diving certificate) in the area and like to keep certain areas free for them. I know it’s certainly not the best place around Borneo for diving and it was nice snorkelling but that’s all really. I saw some very vicious looking black spiky things, I have no idea what they were but I’m don’t doubt for one minute that they’re gonna hurt if you get too close! I also saw some Nemos and at one point they certainly saw me, I think actually I might have got too close to their home cause the big chap was definitely seeing me off. I managed to get a few decent pics though of the fish I did see although I do wish they wouldn’t move when I’m trying to get award winning shots! You would have thought they would have got used to it by now huh?! Perhaps it was the lack of food for them that put them off, seems to be the thing to do there :-(

Back on the island and I realised I had burnt the whole rear side of me! I think I was too eager to get in the water that I forgot the sun screen. As I was swimming around I did think about it but by then of course it was too late. How I manage it every time I really don’t know, you would have thought that by now I would have learnt that my skin just doesn’t do sun! Obviously not! And why does it always hurt so much and why do I always do it when I’m somewhere where cooling down is never an option?? Oh well onwards and upwards.

Fish

Once back at the hostel I attempted a cool shower to cool down a little and then headed out to the night market for dinner, now beat this, a can of coke and a plate heaped high of fried noodles for 95p, in some shops at home I don’t think you can get a can of coke for less than that, let alone as much as you can eat plate of noodles. I even got some company thrown in, a group of Malay girls had come for dinner as well and the stall I choose was their favourite so they joined me and we chatted a little before the food arrived. I think having a decent meal in Borneo is going to be the last thing to worry about, the food is yum!

Finding Nemo

Tomorrow after a lot of working out I’m going to head off to Kinabalu National Park. Now I really want to climb the mountain but I’m also pretty realistic about the possibility of making it! We’ll see.

Spiky things

My first day in Borneo (3rd March 2010)

I had a great nights sleep which was lovely and after a bite to eat for breakfast headed out to find my bearings and locate the ferry terminal. There are some islands off the coast of KK which are reported to be great for snorkelling, I think today though I’m gonna take it a bit easy and think of a plan for the next week or so.

Tomorrow I’ll go snorkelling.

I’m in a 6 person dorm here with air con which is feeling like a bit of a must still at the mo. One of the guys in the room is here doing his Phd on birds and climate change and is planning on heading up to Kinabalu national park in a couple of days. Another guy is just here resting at the mo having picked up a bug in India, he assures us its not contagious, I’ll let you know, also as far as the dengue fever is concerned no sign yet! :-) Although the bird watching Phd student (Bert) has been telling me how one of his friends nearly died recently from it!

The others in the room are all from Sweden, two guys who are out all partying all night but very quiet when they come in and Allana who Bert and I went out for a beer with tonight and who’s joining me on a snorkelling trip to the islands tomorrow, not actually snorkelling to the islands of course, getting a boat there and snorkelling once we’re there! :-)

Arriving in Borneo (2nd March 2010)

Fortunately last night I was soooo tired I slept anyway or at least kinda did.

One of the guys I shared the room with is riding a motorbike across Asia so we chatted a bit over breakfast, I had heard him chatting to an American guy the night before and they were both pretty gung hoe and trying to out-do each other about trying to save the world and how they would go about it. Now I don’t mean to sound unkind here and as you all know I’m very interested in our planet and the people and wildlife in it and I do believe that everyone needs a little help at times but personally speaking I think everywhere and everyone could do without the help of either of these two, they made it sound like without their help we were all doomed! Mmm I wasn’t going to point out to them the obvious flaw in their plan.

Fortunately Mick came and met me at 10am and we headed off on the monorail to get a connection on to the express train to the airport. It was sad to say good bye to Mick as it’s been a great few days hanging out and spending time together and of course having my own personal tour guide was fantastic. Now I have to make it on my own! :-) I’m sure I’ll survive!

I arrived in Kota Kinabalu around 4pm and made my way into town to find the hostel, this I had booked yesterday so a little forward planning, not bad huh?
Kota Kinabalu is well known for the food and night markets so after dumping my bag I headed off in search. The market areas are huge and, I think probably, you name it they sell it, it’s incredible.
They do say South East Asia markets are amongst the best in the world and I’m inclined to agree and always so fantastically displayed and so much of it. Each area of the market sells something different, so you have the fish section, the vegetable section, the eating section etc. I only had a bit of a wander around but saw all types of fish and squid straight out of the sea, vegetables and fruit that looked so yummy and fresh. The Filipino BBQ area looked the most yummy, but only if you liked fish!

This aspect of Borneo I think I’m going to have to miss out on!

Malacca (1st March 2010)

My reason for staying another night in KL was in order to visit Malacca which is around a two and a half hour journey down country but I’m assured is a well worth visit as very interesting and very colonial.

To be able to make the most of the time we would have in Malacca Mick thought it best to leave on the 9am bus. In addition Pete wanted to do a video chat with Mick and I, him and the girls sometime while I was in KL and this morning seemed to be the best time, in addition, because I hadn’t planned very well in advance the hostel where I was staying had no beds available for the last night so I would have to move somewhere else, in addition, I had a really bad night for some reason and ended up with just four hours sleep.

So we had arranged a video chat over Skype with Pete at 7.30am, the time difference between him and us is 16 hours and as far as Skype were concerned this was almost on their limit, I mean, of course it’s not but as far as ease and quality were concerned this time, you would have thought so. We had the usual ‘can you hear me are you there’ conversations, of which Kate soon got bored of and went off to play. Natalie hung around better but I think more because she was on daddy knee rather than wanting to chat! We even tried to go with goggle chat at one point but neither of us had downloaded it so we attempted a hurried version before returning to Skype. After several attempts we finally managed to have a chat with Pete and Natalie and Kate came back at the end to say bye! It was great to see them and chat and fun being in another country with Mick and chat to them.

We had a good 15 min chat before we had to sign off and I had to hurriedly move my stuff to the hostel office for safe keeping until after we got back from Malacca and make a bit of a dash to the bus station.

We were in plenty of time but once at the bus station it turned out our bus wasn’t able to get into the station and was parked somewhere else, the only problem here was finding the ‘somewhere else’. After waiting in the wrong place for 10 mins we saw our bus and hopped on board, it was a double decker coach which was a treat and which also afforded us a pretty much unrestricted view along the journey of all the palm-oil plantations on both sides of the road, in some places for as far as the eye could see.

Mick enjoying the views on the journey down (don't think hes gonna thank me for this one!)

Malacca was once under Dutch control as well as English (although not at the same time!) and is a world UNESCO site, it has some great architecture and a lovely little fort and church on the top of a hill. It’s great coming somewhere like this with Mick cause he knows all the history behind it all and knows his way around almost blindfolded.

The church at the top of the hill and a Chinese temple

After visiting the fort we headed for a bit to eat and a coffee at which point I remembered I had no accommodation booked for that night and no flight booked for the next day, but hey that was ok cause just yesterday I boug

ht a local SIM card just for this reason, first I managed to book the room without too much trouble, next though came the flight. When I called Air Asia back their flight had increased by RM235 which made the flight £40 more than it was the night before!!! This is apparently due to less than 24 hours before departure! You would think working in the travel industry I would have this kinda info all wrapped up by now......mmmm it appears not, how totally annoying! Oh well, all was not lost cause I still had Malaysian Aiways number. Or at least I thought I did, it seems the number they list on their website isn’t actually valid, well that would have been too easy I guess.

So the options were like this, I could book for a flight with Air Asia for the Wednesday and pay the lower price or I could try and get to an internet cafe and book with Malaysian Airways for slightly more than I was hoping. In the end I opted for the latter and after wandering around trying to find perhaps the only internet cafe in Malacca I booked a flight for 2pm the next afternoon. I think Mick thought I was mad, to be fair at times I think I’m mad but hey in the end I’ve got a flight to Borneo and a bed for the night. With all that sorted out we headed into the town of Malacca and the Chinatown area which was very colourful still from Chinese New Year and very interesting with some great little shops dotted around. To finish off our visit we headed off to a little river side cafe for a coffee and a coke before heading back to the bus station.

It’s been a long day but an interesting one and we now had a two hour journey to get back to pick up my gear and head to the new hostel. The bus from the bus station to the centre of Melaka took 25 mins in the morning, in the afternoon it took almost an hour so we had to dash through the station to buy some tickets after standing in a long queue and jump on the bus, we weren’t the only ones in this position but I doubt the bus would have waited if the queue had been much longer.

The journey back was through a pretty heavy thunder storm and took just over two hours. We then needed to get a bit to eat and get my gear. By the time we got to the new hostel it was 10.30 pm, we had been on the go since around 7am and we were both shattered. I was hoping for a good nights sleep, instead my room was a dorm right at the front of the property facing onto probably the busiest street in the city which never sleeps nor do the lights ever seem to go out.

I’m hoping Borneo is going to be a little more quieter, I don’t mind rainforest and wildlife sounds but all night parties I think I can give a miss for a while.

A trishaw decorated with flowers (they're all over the square here although Mick didn't fancy a ride!) and the fort in Melacca

The stamp fair! (28th February 2010)

This morning was a real treat! :-)

Mick had a stamp collectors fair and stamp auction that he wanted to go to (!) so I went along too (!!), the fair was a 15 min walk, a few train stops away and another 20 min walk. He wanted to be there for 9.30 and the auction started at 10.00. For someone of 65 Mick certainly doesn’t believe in taking it easy!

We arrived at the stamp fair way ahead of time where Mick was greeted like a long lost friend, and a special welcome was made to him, ‘Mr Michael from England’. Over the years Mick has got to know a lot of people here and they him, it was one of these people that put him on to the stamp fair.

Admittedly all the people Mick knows here are to do with stamps and Post Offices or people that can get him stamps or direct him to a stamp fair or post office. Although that said I think he probably knows every Post Office in the country and over the years has probably visited them all. It was really nice to get more of an insight into his bi-annual holiday; one which he’s implied may become annual since he’s now 65.

The next challenge would be getting him to go somewhere else other than all the places he’s already been. I’m under strict instructions about stamps while I’m over in Borneo as he’s never been, so maybe once I report back, he might make it part of his itinerary for next year.

Following the stamp fair we headed to the local mall where on a Sunday they have a bit of a antique / collectors market in the basement, Mick has come here every Sunday since he’s been here and buys more stamps each time so needless to say he’s known here as well, there’s lots of stalls selling stamps but Mick goes to the same guy each time who’s in exactly the same place every week and every year apparently. It’s nice to see we’re all really just creatures of habit.

After a bite to eat and a wander round we headed back to the city centre where I intended to book a flight to Borneo for Tuesday as well as accommodation in Borneo as well as find a bed for another night in KL (another example of lack of planning). This to be honest is where the Emmaisms known from all my other trips begins. I don’t think that’s bad though, three days in the country before my lack of forward planning and lack of urgency kicks in for real!

So, this is how it was, I had no forward flight booked from KL to Kota Kinabalu, Borneo, which really is fine, I have six weeks so of course I don’t want to rush things and I had no real idea beforehand what there was to do in KL and the surrounding area so the plan was to get here and see how it all planned out. Where it all started to go a little be off key is that I couldn’t decide what to do when. I want to see everything but know that’s not possible, I also would like to come back to Peninsula Malaysia at some point but unlikely to go to Borneo again so choices to be made. In the end I decided to spend another day in KL leaving for Borneo on Tuesday.

I looked on-line for flights and found that Air Asia was doing relatively cheap flights but for some reason wouldn’t let me book on line, Malaysian Airways were offering slightly more expensive flights but apparently allowed me to book online. So I thought I’d call Air Asia and try and book over the phone, I finally called them at 8.30 pm on Sunday night while Mick and I were enjoying a beer together and they quoted me the price, plus luggage, plus handling, plus smile (I’m sure) etc which was still cheaper than the other carrier, now don’t ask me why but for some reason I decided not to make the booking there and then despite knowing that their offices shut in 30 mins and despite knowing that I wasn’t able to book online. Mmm the story continues tomorrow.

KL sights

Petronas Towers

KL Tower and Indian market (27th February 2010)

This morning sees the ‘Mick tours’ start out relatively early (9.30) and head for the telecommunications tower here in KL for a swift elevator ride to the observation deck.



The old and the new



To get to the tower we wandered through the cities very own rainforest which had monkeys and squirrels and insects and most annoyingly biting mosquitoes! :-(

Of course I hadn’t put any spray on and of course I was wearing just shorts and a tshirt, so just guess the outcome. On the upside apparently there isn’t Malaria in this part of Malaysia plus it was daytime, on the downside of course, there is Dengue fever and apparently (so Mick reliably informed me) they have been having a problem with them around this area and that 17 people had died of it already this year! Great now I find out! I’ll keep you updated! In the meantime I am going to smother myself in spray day and night and just suffer the consequences of what that may do to me.


At the tower we treated ourselves to a ride to the top and a great view of the city and surrounding area, which Mick has a great knowledge of and was able to point out all the sights. Not surprising really I guess seeing as it’s his eighth visit since 1998! For Mick it seems to be like a home from home here which of course is great for me.









Views from the tower











After out skywards journey and included in the entrance rice was a visit and a show at the cultural village attached. The dancers costumes were very colourful and the dancing and music was nice but neither Mick nor I (for that matter) could see the cultural aspect to it! We had a half hours sit down though but fortunately for us managed to escape before they started to ask for audience participation!


At the base of the tower is a poor little Jelutong tree, although actually it’s not that poor having cost the builders of the tower RM430,000 (about £84,000) to preserve it by building a retaining wall around it and moving the tower from its planned position.




The Jelutong tree with the tower behind





On our way back down the other side of the hill through the remainder of the city rainforest we came across a rainforest museum and information centre which was very interesting and had life size pitcher plants which I’m looking forward to seeing in the flesh, just need to make sure I don’t get too close to them.

In the evening Mick and I headed off to the Indian night market which was very authentic and not touristy at all, it was full of life, smells and colours and if I was feeling more inclined some great tastes I’m sure. We had just eaten so I didn’t fancy anything huge but what did almost tempt me was a lovely sweet smelling pancake type thing, not sure of its ingredients but it almost tempted Mick as well! If we had of found another stall selling similar we would have enjoyed a yumm pudding unfortunately that stall seemed to be one of a kind, an old family recipe I bet! :-)