Whirlwind Borneo
My time in Borneo ended yesterday as my plane landed in KL. Borneo really is a fantastic place, and I'm sorry to have had to leave. Unfortunately I don't have any really brilliant photos, but I did post (in the usual place: My Photo Albums) a few shots I took.
Here's a quick run-through of what I did:
I flew into Kuching, on the West End of Borneo, and spent a day hanging out there. The next day I took a boat ride into Bako National Park.
Beautiful place; really liked it. After that I hopped on a boat and went out to sea for a bit, and then up the Rejang river to Sibu. From there got another boat to Kapit and then onwards to Belaga, deep into the heart of Sarawak. This took two days. Going upriver was a lot of fun. I was one of three tourists that headed into Sarawak past Sibu. The boat would stop at longhouses to let people off, and would be flagged down by other smaller boats selling durian.
From Belaga I rode in the back of a 4WD pickup truck over an old logging road back to the coastal city of Bintulu. This ride was very interesting. I saw lots of great, interior Bornean jungle, but also extreme deforestation. Also on this road we passed a guy with a gun slung across his back, dragging (maybe a 15-20ft) beheaded python behind him.
From Bintulu I got on a bus to Similajau National Park intending to see some crocodiles, but no such luck. The beaches there, however, were very nice.
I then got on a bus to Niah Caves National Park where I was lucky enough to see a swiftlet nest harvester. These guys climb bamboo poles to get to the top of the cave (sometimes, over 30m up) and collect these nests. The nests are made from the saliva of the birds, and sell for a fair bit of $$. Soup is made out of them.
From Niah Caves, I took a bus to Miri and then got on a plane to Mulu National Park.
I hung out in Mulu for a few days, doing some trekking and some adventure caving. I was a bit claustraphobic in the caves at first (when we lost the light from the mouth of the cave and only had our headlamps to light the way), but got over it quite quickly. It was my first time going into a dark, unlit cave for a few hours. We saw some snakes, bats, spiders the size of my hand, and crab. Also in Mulu, I watched bats leaving a cave at sundown. They leave in a long stream, swirling across the sky. There are approx 2 million of them that live in the cave and they continue to come out of the cave, steadily, for over 1/2 hr.
From Mulu I took a flight into KK (Kota Kinabalu). Here I spent a few days taking an open water dive course. As part of the course I did 4 dives. I saw all sorts of marine life which I didn't recognize and mostly have forgotten the names. A few things I do remember: blue-spotted stingray, lionfish, jellyfish, eel. But the coolest thing by far, was a school of over 30 squid that swam by.
After that I headed for Mt. Kinabalu, the tallest mountain in Southeast Asia. Climbed the mountain (2 days) which was really great fun.
I was blown away by some of the women porters who were carrying gigantic packs on their backs. They were making their way up the mountain with these packs while people half their age, carrying nothing, were struggling.
After climbing the mountain, I got on a bus to Semporna and spent a couple days diving at Sipadan Island. Unfortunately the visibility was poor, 10-15m, as it had poured rain the last few days and the waters were perturbed. This is in a place (allegedly one of the top dive sites in the world) where the visibility is 60m on a good day. I still got to see some cool things.
The island itself is awesome; it just drops straight down to the bottom of the sea. The marine life was very cool. I saw so many giant turtles I lost track. I got within a half-metre of a shark that was resting on a ledge on the coral. I saw loads of other amazing marine life as well -most of whose names I can't remember. The plan is definitely to make a few more dives there before I leave SE Asia.
After my diving I got on another bus to Sandakan, and then off to spend a few days in the jungle on the Kinabatangan river. This was very cool. The camp was very basic. Simple huts; no running water; I slept on a thin foam pad on the floor, under a mosquito net. We saw tons of wildlife while on treks through the jungle and on safari on the river: eagle, hornbill, stork, owl, flying fox, proboscis monkey, organutan, kingfisher.
Possibly the most memorable will be falling asleep listening to the rain on the roof of my hut, and the chorus of sounds from the surrounding jungle. It was really fantastic.
And now I'm back at work. Not that I dislike it, but it will be a long while before I find something that can compare to some of what I've seen and done during these last 25 days.
The above has been the short version. I kept a journal while I was away, and have typed it and you can access it below if you like. It really is just a more wordy account of the above-described events; details are filled in and there is a more narrative aspect to some entries; but not much more.
Borneo Dec2006 Journal
Here's a quick run-through of what I did:
I flew into Kuching, on the West End of Borneo, and spent a day hanging out there. The next day I took a boat ride into Bako National Park.
Beautiful place; really liked it. After that I hopped on a boat and went out to sea for a bit, and then up the Rejang river to Sibu. From there got another boat to Kapit and then onwards to Belaga, deep into the heart of Sarawak. This took two days. Going upriver was a lot of fun. I was one of three tourists that headed into Sarawak past Sibu. The boat would stop at longhouses to let people off, and would be flagged down by other smaller boats selling durian.
From Belaga I rode in the back of a 4WD pickup truck over an old logging road back to the coastal city of Bintulu. This ride was very interesting. I saw lots of great, interior Bornean jungle, but also extreme deforestation. Also on this road we passed a guy with a gun slung across his back, dragging (maybe a 15-20ft) beheaded python behind him.
From Bintulu I got on a bus to Similajau National Park intending to see some crocodiles, but no such luck. The beaches there, however, were very nice.
I then got on a bus to Niah Caves National Park where I was lucky enough to see a swiftlet nest harvester. These guys climb bamboo poles to get to the top of the cave (sometimes, over 30m up) and collect these nests. The nests are made from the saliva of the birds, and sell for a fair bit of $$. Soup is made out of them.
From Niah Caves, I took a bus to Miri and then got on a plane to Mulu National Park.
I hung out in Mulu for a few days, doing some trekking and some adventure caving. I was a bit claustraphobic in the caves at first (when we lost the light from the mouth of the cave and only had our headlamps to light the way), but got over it quite quickly. It was my first time going into a dark, unlit cave for a few hours. We saw some snakes, bats, spiders the size of my hand, and crab. Also in Mulu, I watched bats leaving a cave at sundown. They leave in a long stream, swirling across the sky. There are approx 2 million of them that live in the cave and they continue to come out of the cave, steadily, for over 1/2 hr.
From Mulu I took a flight into KK (Kota Kinabalu). Here I spent a few days taking an open water dive course. As part of the course I did 4 dives. I saw all sorts of marine life which I didn't recognize and mostly have forgotten the names. A few things I do remember: blue-spotted stingray, lionfish, jellyfish, eel. But the coolest thing by far, was a school of over 30 squid that swam by.
After that I headed for Mt. Kinabalu, the tallest mountain in Southeast Asia. Climbed the mountain (2 days) which was really great fun.
I was blown away by some of the women porters who were carrying gigantic packs on their backs. They were making their way up the mountain with these packs while people half their age, carrying nothing, were struggling.
After climbing the mountain, I got on a bus to Semporna and spent a couple days diving at Sipadan Island. Unfortunately the visibility was poor, 10-15m, as it had poured rain the last few days and the waters were perturbed. This is in a place (allegedly one of the top dive sites in the world) where the visibility is 60m on a good day. I still got to see some cool things.
The island itself is awesome; it just drops straight down to the bottom of the sea. The marine life was very cool. I saw so many giant turtles I lost track. I got within a half-metre of a shark that was resting on a ledge on the coral. I saw loads of other amazing marine life as well -most of whose names I can't remember. The plan is definitely to make a few more dives there before I leave SE Asia.
After my diving I got on another bus to Sandakan, and then off to spend a few days in the jungle on the Kinabatangan river. This was very cool. The camp was very basic. Simple huts; no running water; I slept on a thin foam pad on the floor, under a mosquito net. We saw tons of wildlife while on treks through the jungle and on safari on the river: eagle, hornbill, stork, owl, flying fox, proboscis monkey, organutan, kingfisher.
Possibly the most memorable will be falling asleep listening to the rain on the roof of my hut, and the chorus of sounds from the surrounding jungle. It was really fantastic.
And now I'm back at work. Not that I dislike it, but it will be a long while before I find something that can compare to some of what I've seen and done during these last 25 days.
The above has been the short version. I kept a journal while I was away, and have typed it and you can access it below if you like. It really is just a more wordy account of the above-described events; details are filled in and there is a more narrative aspect to some entries; but not much more.
Borneo Dec2006 Journal
posted by Leon at 8:28 PM
9 Comments:
Wow! Sounds amazing, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who's completely jealous about what you've seen in the last 3 weeks. I'm so interested, in fact, that I was actually going to read the extended diary version, but the link wasn't working, so you might want to look into that. I would also like to mention my annoyance over the fact that I reccommended you buy this fabulous camera, and you are now using it to take way better pictures than I do...it just doesn't seem fair. Anyways, glad you made it back to KL safe....can't wait to read the next installment of your adventures!
told ya borneo was great.
it must be hard to blog about it without making the post ultra long.
and your journey seems like very well planned.
oh well, i might as well just share the same sentiment with you going back to college.
laziness.( but wait, no,no, no,.. mr varga is NEVER lazy)
Looks like you had an AWESOME vacation! Back to college tomorrow! oh well. Happy New Year anyways! =D
oh, and i think i forgot how to say 4, 8 and 10 in romanian. =(
was looking through your albums.
the sunrise and sunset pictures are really nice!
Fantastic!
Oh, Merry Christmas, Happy Hari Raya (?!?!), Happy New Years, Happy Start of CIMP/Teaching, and even more "Happy's" to come!
=D
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Leo! Sounds like you had an amazing time and I love your pictures! I thought it was the camera but Cheri seems to think it's you. ;)
On the Canadian front, things are going well. No snow...well it just started yesterday. Celebrated my 27th birthday last week and got to see lots of people. It was a blast. I might be going to Gran Canaria for two weeks in March with Jim's cousin but that's yet to finalized (might happen or it might not). Our house has been delayed so now it's 5 months and 18 days instead of a month but who's counting? :)
Anyways it was great to hear about your trip! Keep us posted.
Hey Leo! sounds like such a good time. The pictures are stunning. Not only am i jealous that you get to see all this stuff but you have awesome pictures of all of it as well! I actually just got back from HK a few days ago....my pictures from HK are nowhere near this good ..too much smog :P
Hey Leo,
Sounds like you are making good use of your time off in Malaysia. I too, am amazed by your pictures. Perhaps next time I go on vacation I'll bring you to do the photo taking!
I got to see Marianne just before New Year's, which was great... but too short. The girls threw a surprise Lingerie Wedding shower for me, which was loads of fun. Wedding plans are trucking along... there is so much work involved with planning a wedding, I sometimes wonder how I'll manage! Just 4 months to go....
David's doing well too. He's super busy with work during what is normally his "quiet" season. I've been seeing him less and less as he can barely keep up with the demand.
Got to see lots of folks at New Year's at our place, good times... Also got to see some old faces recently at Ryan and Lori's wedding.
Miss you lots! Keep up with the blog, you're showing us all with your stick-to-it-iveness ;)
Hey Leo - Sounds like you are having a fabulous time out there in Malaysia - glad to see your camera has been getting a workout. I'm totally jealous. It was nice to see Marianne at Jane's lingerie shower - if we can't have you in North America, at least we have your super-great girlfriend. :) Anyway, hope to see you sometime in the next while... In the meantime, I can't wait to see your next post about your adventures...
Erin
Brother Leon. does nobody in this family know how to post? amazing galleries. some sweet photos man. and the two or three that you're in, those are good too. muhaha. i feel like visiting! well, i'd go just about anywhere right now. its ridiculous. the fact that you've kept this blog going is also ridiculous.
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