16.10.2012
Hello World
I'm sitting in our hostel/hotel/fucking-nice-place in bangkok.
yes, we're here again. and having the right kind of room in a much better part of town feels a lot better. oh and yes... we might be hammered too :-)
So i left you with our plans for the next two weeks and we actually did just about what we planed to do. we left langkawi for kuala lumpur, where we arrived like 4 hours early at 3 or 4 in the morning. rats, stink, dark, weird people.... it sucked. we had a flight the same day, but considering the early arrival we decided to find a place to crash for a few hours. around lunchtime we got up and went to the airport. it remains the same: we're not fans of big cities. so heading for the airport was nice...
we flew to kota kinabalu in sabah, the malaysian part of borneo. not such a nice city, mainly because it was bombed twice in world war 2 by the allies and is now a city made of square concrete blocks. we stayed there 2 nights to sort out things and get an idea of what we want to do in sabah. we decided to rent a car, cause it is not much more expensive then public transportation for two and we would be a lot more flexible. and so we got it... our beloved kancil. a shoe box with wheels. fucking awesome!!! and here is what we did...
Hello World
I'm sitting in our hostel/hotel/fucking-nice-place in bangkok.
yes, we're here again. and having the right kind of room in a much better part of town feels a lot better. oh and yes... we might be hammered too :-)
So i left you with our plans for the next two weeks and we actually did just about what we planed to do. we left langkawi for kuala lumpur, where we arrived like 4 hours early at 3 or 4 in the morning. rats, stink, dark, weird people.... it sucked. we had a flight the same day, but considering the early arrival we decided to find a place to crash for a few hours. around lunchtime we got up and went to the airport. it remains the same: we're not fans of big cities. so heading for the airport was nice...
we flew to kota kinabalu in sabah, the malaysian part of borneo. not such a nice city, mainly because it was bombed twice in world war 2 by the allies and is now a city made of square concrete blocks. we stayed there 2 nights to sort out things and get an idea of what we want to do in sabah. we decided to rent a car, cause it is not much more expensive then public transportation for two and we would be a lot more flexible. and so we got it... our beloved kancil. a shoe box with wheels. fucking awesome!!! and here is what we did...
- mount kinabalu (only at the foot of it)
- poring hotsprings (jo jäggi, Po Ring)
- telupid (we slept there)
- proboscis monkey sanctuary (monkeys that look like my former boss lamotte)
- sandakan (couple of nights in a nice hostel)
- sepilok (orang utan rehabilitation centre)
- sukau (kinabatangan river)
- semporna (diving and snorkeling at mataking)
- bilit (by chance)
- gomantong caves (fucking awesome)
- ranau (slept there)
- tip of borneo (well it's... uhm... the tip of borneo)
- Longhouse homestay (we slept there)
- monsopiad cultural village (with real skulls harvested by traditional head hunters)
- donggongon (yes, that's the name of a town. we slept in a nice place outside the town)
- kota kinabalu (bye bye kancil)
- bangkok the 2nd
so here some more details and pictures to each place. feel free to skip a section if your not interested... and you are a wanker :-)
-- will finish writing
tomorrow cause i want to sleep after a day travelling and a couple of
good old sangsoms on khao san road. --
-- it's now the next day, feeling good, writing on. --
-- it's now the next day, feeling good, writing on. --
market in kota kinabalu:
kota kinabalu sunset:
kancil power!!!
mount kinabalu
we were only at the foot of it. it's to bloody expensive, at least 700 ringgit per person. but even at the foot of kinabalu (which is high too) we felt cold for the first time.
we were only at the foot of it. it's to bloody expensive, at least 700 ringgit per person. but even at the foot of kinabalu (which is high too) we felt cold for the first time.
sabah tea at the foot of kinabalu:
poring hot springs
hot springs... it was shit! except for the skin eating fishies....
telupid
we just slept there for the night and met a really weird waiter in a small restaurant.
hot springs... it was shit! except for the skin eating fishies....
telupid
we just slept there for the night and met a really weird waiter in a small restaurant.
proboscis monkey sanctuary
yes, these monkeys do kind of remind me of my former boss. big nose, big belly and they seem to be horny non-stop... the sanctuary is a protected place. there are so many palm tree plantations in sabah so a lot of places have to be protected or private. they feed the monkeys a little bit every day. not enough to fill them up, they are all still wild monkeys in the jungle. but the feeding keeps them close by in this protected area. very professional i found. at the second feeding we were lucky, cause lots of silver leaf monkeys came and joined in, climbing on people. very cool indeed.
yes, these monkeys do kind of remind me of my former boss. big nose, big belly and they seem to be horny non-stop... the sanctuary is a protected place. there are so many palm tree plantations in sabah so a lot of places have to be protected or private. they feed the monkeys a little bit every day. not enough to fill them up, they are all still wild monkeys in the jungle. but the feeding keeps them close by in this protected area. very professional i found. at the second feeding we were lucky, cause lots of silver leaf monkeys came and joined in, climbing on people. very cool indeed.
sandakan
we crashed in a hostel with the most friendly hostess we've ever met. made us feel like home and even invited us to dinner one evening. we stayed there cause sepilok is quite near by and rooms in sandakan are less expensive.
we vistitied a village on stilts called simsim. very poor but happy people. and amazing what they built in the mud! oh... and we went to a chinese temple with bis vases...
sepilok
now this was very cool. this is a rehab centre for the people of the jungle (what "orang utan" actually means). dying orang utans are brought here and basically made wild again. they have the same kind of concept as the proboscis place. there are no cages or anything like that, simply a large piece of protected rain forest, where the orang utans are sent to live. these monkeys also are fed twice a day in order to keep them close, but never enough to fill them up, so they still eat leafs and stuff as totally wild ones would. i must say... orang utans are awesome... and i wanted to teach them how to make fire :-) couldn't get king louie out of my head.
the coolest thing happened at lunchtime. we were having something to eat in the restaurant of the center and a yough orang utan jumped onto the bars of the window. we went out and could get a real close look at him. since they've all been rehabilitated, they are somewhat used to people. so once again bonda has a close encounter with an animal she loves so much. the keeper actually came and took him away, but he just came back and sat next to bonda. awesome!
sukau
sukau is a little village next to the kinabatangan river in the bloody jungle. very cool. because of all the palm plantations around, all wild life is driven closer and closer to the river, where it is still all jungle (and hopefully will stay like that). that gives you the chance to see many wild animals. we took some river cruises and had a jungle trek. we saw pythons, many birds, wild macaques, proboscis and other monkeys and we even saw wild elephants!! now how cool is that??!! forwaaaaard, march! yes... jungle book again.
there's a python there somewhere
semporna
semporna stinks... but the diving around all the little islands off the coat of semporna is very nice. for me it was very cool to dive again. felt great. i did two dives and bonda was snorkeling. for the 3rd dive i went snorkeling with her. we saw 12 turtles, after bonda had allready seen 12 on her first two snorkels. well i saw a wreck under water.
mataking island
bilit
after leaving semporna we were heading back up north to walk through the gomantong caves. we had a flat on our kancil and needed to crash for a night. so after driving on jungle roads with a flat (kancil power indeed) we landed in bilit, also on the kinabatangan river, by chance.
kancil power to bilit!
gomantong caves
we really enjoyed the gomantong caves. we went there without a guide. after walking through the jungle for a little bit you arrive at the first cave. it's huge and had a wooden walkway going around in it. it is however really smelly cause of all the bats in there. batman... not so cool any more. there were also so many bugs which helped us have a real indiana jones experience.
after that we hiked up the hill through the jungle to get to the second cave. it was quite hard work walking up there but on the way we saw a wild orang utan, sitting in a tree and eating his lunch. that was very very lucky and so cool. after an encounter with a 2.5 meter monitor lizard we reached the top cave. huge as well. it leads down the way into the mountain and we walked down. inside there were people living... security they told us. but we thought we wouldn't want to sleep in this cave. they sent us further down and we just followed the cave. one local guy caught up with us and then led us on, round the corner and up again, till we reached an exit somewhere totally different. that was very spooky and cool. then we walked down the hill, through the jungle an other way and drove off with our kancil direction north.
we really enjoyed the gomantong caves. we went there without a guide. after walking through the jungle for a little bit you arrive at the first cave. it's huge and had a wooden walkway going around in it. it is however really smelly cause of all the bats in there. batman... not so cool any more. there were also so many bugs which helped us have a real indiana jones experience.
after that we hiked up the hill through the jungle to get to the second cave. it was quite hard work walking up there but on the way we saw a wild orang utan, sitting in a tree and eating his lunch. that was very very lucky and so cool. after an encounter with a 2.5 meter monitor lizard we reached the top cave. huge as well. it leads down the way into the mountain and we walked down. inside there were people living... security they told us. but we thought we wouldn't want to sleep in this cave. they sent us further down and we just followed the cave. one local guy caught up with us and then led us on, round the corner and up again, till we reached an exit somewhere totally different. that was very spooky and cool. then we walked down the hill, through the jungle an other way and drove off with our kancil direction north.
ranau
we just slept there.
tip of borneo
as you can guess from the name this is the tip of borneo, the point furthes north. if you drive on, you drive into the sea, which is a problem for most cars to my knowledge. we however stopped in time and found it quite a nice (and nicly made) place.
unfortunately the prime minister of sabah was coming the next day. that meant all possible places to sleep at the tip and in kudat close by were booked out. that was shit. specially cause we wanted a nice place to relax for two day since our time in borneo was ending.
so we headed back south, direction kota kinabalu and stayed in a replica of a traditional longhouse.
we just slept there.
tip of borneo
as you can guess from the name this is the tip of borneo, the point furthes north. if you drive on, you drive into the sea, which is a problem for most cars to my knowledge. we however stopped in time and found it quite a nice (and nicly made) place.
unfortunately the prime minister of sabah was coming the next day. that meant all possible places to sleep at the tip and in kudat close by were booked out. that was shit. specially cause we wanted a nice place to relax for two day since our time in borneo was ending.
so we headed back south, direction kota kinabalu and stayed in a replica of a traditional longhouse.
Longhouse homestay
one longhouse used to be a village of the native people. unfortunately for us this was at the site of a tribe that did not hunt for human heads. so we left the next day for a place really close to kota kinabalu to see some real skulls.
one longhouse used to be a village of the native people. unfortunately for us this was at the site of a tribe that did not hunt for human heads. so we left the next day for a place really close to kota kinabalu to see some real skulls.
monsopiad cultural village
expensive but well worth the money to summon it up. this is a rebuilt village of the monsopiadians. we learnt quite a bit about their culture (a dead culture, all remaining decedents are christian now), i could use a traditional half spear, half blow pipe weapon, bonda eat a bug and we saw skulls.
expensive but well worth the money to summon it up. this is a rebuilt village of the monsopiadians. we learnt quite a bit about their culture (a dead culture, all remaining decedents are christian now), i could use a traditional half spear, half blow pipe weapon, bonda eat a bug and we saw skulls.
we stayed in a place called jborneo which had nice chalets for a good price. so we stayed here two nights to relax before going back to kk, then bkk. we did only relax and sing karaoke in the evening. fun last couple of nights.
kota kinabalu the 2nd
not much to say... we gave back our wee little kancil and ate in pizza hut for a change, had a sleep and left early-ish the next day for bangkok.
bangkok the 2nd
we flew here via kl and arrived here in the late afternoon. we had found a nice place on the famous khao san road. as i said before... it's not so bad here if you have a nice room. the surroundings are rather noisy, but at least pretty much cockroach and rat free.
so here we are, organising visas and stuff and taking it easy. cambodia is up next, then vietnam where we will meet my mum and dad. looking forward to that... and swiss cheese they will hopefully bring along.
so long our friend. sawasdee kap bitches.
dee & bonda
