Next Stop: Unknown

From everything we’ve read, Sipadan is supposed to be one of the 10 best dive sites in the world. Since we were close in proximity, it would be a shame not to go.  Supposedly the marine life here is unlike anywhere else in the world, both in the number of varied species, and the frequency of seeing them.  We looked around at many different dive shops, and finally settled on Seaventures.  Basically, it’s an old oil rig that was moved from Panama to Malaysia, and then privatized.  The owner originally wanted to make a casino out of it, but that didn’t go over too well. Instead, it is now a fully operational dive shop.  The place is a a bit pricey, but the experience was top notch.  They actually have an elevator/lift that will take you down right into the water to the boat, or to jump into the water for diving under the rig itself.  I’ll save you all the full details and just say we had an amazing time, with amazing food, and met some incredibly fun people.  (Be sure to ask Jenn about the two models that we dove with… sadly for me and the rest of the male dive crew, they were men)

Anyway, on to the pictures!

Sunset from the upper deck of the oil rig.  The whole top level was open to the sun with nice chairs to lay out on and enjoy the views. 

This was a MASSIVE grouper that likes to hang out in some abandoned scrap metal / fake reef they have put out near one of the dive sites.  This thing was nearly as big as Jenn!

Beautiful Nudibranch.  Jenn and I have fallen in love with the little Nudies of the sea.  They are typically hard to spot, even though they are so brightly colored.  They are snails that have decided to evolve into a creature with no shell.  They come in so many shapes and sizes, and the colors are so vivid and bright.  The biggest one we have seen so far is probably about 3 inches long…

Massive school of fish just off “barracuda point” in Sipadan.  The current here was pretty strong, so we found something to hang onto, and just watched the fish swim around us for half an hour.  I’m not sure what this fish is, maybe a Jack fish?  But we also saw thousands of meter long Barracudas as well, and they would get so close… you could reach out and grab one!

This turtle had 3 guys along for the ride!

There were hundreds and hundreds of turtles here… so many in fact that you got bored of seeing them.  I had to restrain myself from settling down on top of one and taking it for a ride… the dive instructor likely would have iced me.  This one I got super close to as he was taking a nap on the ocean floor.  He woke up and gave me a look that was priceless.  I think his head looks a bit alien like, it must be the big eyes!

No story is complete without finding Nemo

These are white tip reef sharks which were lounging around on the ocean floor.  Not dangerous, unless in mating season.  I’m not sure when that is, but they didn’t seem to mind me sneaking up on them.

This is the old oil rig where we stayed.  We had a private room with attached bathroom.  It’s really an awesome place, they even have some “VIP” rooms, but I didn’t get to check them out.  The food here was always buffet style with so much… breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I ate myself sick at each meal.  The locals who work here also play live music on some nights, and they really jam. 

We’d seen pictures of the Pinnacles online, and they looked awesome!  So, we decided we’d take a walk in the forest to go find them.  Turns out, it’s not quite that easy!  We managed to join a crew of 6 others who were going to attempt the trek, and crossed our fingers that the weather would be ok for us.  The plan was: 

Day 1 – boat trip, show caves and 8.8km hike to Camp 5
Day 2 – hike 2.4km to the Pinnacles view point
Day 3 – return

The first day wasn’t so bad… we left at 8am and took a scenic boat ride upriver to visit a local longhouse, and two caves.  The caves were very cool, and got us warmed up for the first part of the trek.  The little boat we were in had a small motor, only 15hp… but anything bigger and we would have been too heavy to make it upstream.  Several times we scraped along the bottom, and one of the boatmen would have to get out and push.  He told us we were lucky, as it had just rained and the river was ‘high.’  I had to laugh, as most of the time the water was less than 2 feet deep.  After a couple hours, we made it to a place where it was obvious the boat wasn’t going any further, and we got out and started our 8.8km trek to Camp 5, the base camp for the Pinnacles.  About 10 minutes in, we ran into someone we had met previously who was on his way back.  He warned us to watch out for leeches, as he had two already.  Sure enough, a quick check turned up one leech on our party already… a tiger leech.  Thankfully, it wasn’t on me or Jenn!  But, it did set in paranoia, so every few minutes I had to look down at my legs to make sure the creepy crawlies weren’t sucking me dry.  It started to sprinkle a bit, and then the skies opened up.  For the next 2 hours, it poured down rain.  We arrived at camp 5 without a dry spot on us.  Fortunately, our bag held up, and all our stuff inside was dry.

After we got settled into dorm style rooms, we went to the common area to cook our dinner and talk to some people.  A large group of organized and experienced trekkers were gathered around talking about their attempt on the Pinnacles.  Everyone looked like hell.  One guy had a 2-inch gash on his leg that was gushing out blood and very obviously needed stitches.  Everyone else was soaked, scraped up, bruised, aching, and generally not in a good mood.  Come to find out, several of their party hadn’t made it back yet.  It was already dark, and they were getting worried.  The last person finally made it back to camp at 10:30pm.  (they started at 6am!)

Holy crap… This was getting pretty scary, and I was starting to doubt our decision to attempt the summit!  Evidently, if it rains, then it’s bad news and slow (or no) going.  And it had poured that day.  So, our decision to go would be based upon the weather the next morning. 

Fortunately, we woke up to mostly clear skies, packed our stuff, and started off.  (One of our group changed his mind and wimped out… his wife was not happy, and she went on without him!)  I won’t kid you, after about 1km, I thought my heart was going to beat itself out of my chest.  I was considering turning back, but I didn’t want to be a wimp either!  It was a nearly vertical climb straight up… anywhere from 45 to 90 degrees.  Parts of the trek had ropes where you had to rock climb up up portions of the wall.  And the rocks were WICKED sharp.  Limestone that had slowly dissolved away at the tops, leaving pointy jagged, poke you through the shoes sharp. 

At the halfway point, our guide informed us that we were making excellent time.  The remainder of the trek up somehow didn’t seem so bad.  It was more steep, and slower going, but the knowledge that it was more than half over willed us forward.  When we finally got to the top, all I can say is WOW.  It was so worth it.  The view was fantastic, and you could see forever.  We totally lucked out with weather!  And, all 7 of our group that started, made it to the top!

We ate our packed lunch, took some pictures, and then started the return leg.  About 2 minutes into the trek down, I realized why you start at 6am.  Going down the mountain in reverse is WAY more difficult that going up it!  The rocks were slippery, you couldn’t see your footing, and our legs were already worn out from the trip up. 

It was a slow, miserable descent.  And, the downhill portion took twice as long as the uphill.  Thankfully we didn’t have any rain, and no severe injuries.  Everyone in our group had at least one small injury, but nothing severe.  Mostly just scrapes on the extremities from slipped footing. 

The next day, we hiked the 8.8km back to the boat on extremely sore legs.  And, since it hadn’t rained… we got our opportunity to push the boat down the river after all.

The perspective on this shot makes the pinnacles look puny… but, maybe Jenn ate a jungle bug that turned her into a giant.  Temporarily of course.

Wider angle view of the Pinnacles.  Each one is between 45 and 60 meters tall.

One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.  At least, it looks like I could make it in a leap. 

Say Pinnacle-cheese!

One of our first “adventures” at Mulu was the Canopy walk.  It  started bright and early at 7am, which kinda sucked because we wanted to sleep in.  However, little did we know that our homestay has a 4:30 alarm clock in the form of a resident rooster.  Unfortunately, this rooster doesn’t have a snooze, and he proceeds to tell us it’s time to wake up about every 3 minutes between 4:30 and 6:30.  Needless to say, I’ve never wanted to choke a chicken so much in my life. 

The canopy walk was pretty cool, we got to go up into the 3rd or 4th level of the canopy.  Each level has a technical term, but I can’t remember any of them.  I think there are only two levels above us (the treetop level, and the above the tree level).  This particular canopy walk would never pass any kind of safety inspection back home, which make it even more fun as we didn’t know if we’d actually survive it.  It was beautiful scenery!

Later that evening, we went on a night safari.  This was particularly cool because all kinds of interesting stuff comes out in the jungle at night.  Jenn had a blast doing macro photography, and she got some really excellent shots!  The highlight for me was a tree viper… but the photos didn’t come out too well.  Jenn fell in love with a white bug with iridescent wings.  The sounds were pretty awesome too, but they aren’t too easy to show in pictures!

Lucas enjoying the view at one of the canopy rest points.

Jenn making her way across one of the long suspensions between trees.

Pitcher plants!

Jenn’s cool white bug…someone told us it was a white jumping jack bug… but google didn’t turn anything up with that name.

Obligatory frog shot… we had so many colors to choose from, I think we saw about 10 different species!

Every tourist in Borneo embarks upon the obligatory longhouse overnight. Essentially a very long van ride into the jungle, a boat ride up river and then an evening spent among a family living in the traditional Longhouse style. Our bed in breakfast in Kuching arranged a little package tour for us – two days/one night with an Iban community about 6 hours outside Kuching with a couple of cultural tourist experiences thrown in along the way.

At 8 AM we clambered into a van with four other Dutch folks and headed off. First stop, an Orangutan Preserve about an hour outside Kuching. After seeing the wild Orangutan in Sumatra we weren’t totally psyched to visit the gentle giants in an environment quite similar to a zoo. Feeding platforms are set up, and though there are no bars caging them in, the animals appear to behave in predictable manners. They amble towards food when it’s laid out, and retreat higher into the trees when it’s not. We got lucky though and a mamma Orangutan decided to walk along one of the visitor paths, putting us within 3 meters of her family for an extended period of time. Great photo opportunities! Too bad there were near 100 other people there with us!

After leaving the Orangutans we had two more stops before reaching the river that would take us to the Iban community. The first was a fruit, vegetable and ‘wet’ market (fish and meat market). We’d seen dozens of those and it didn’t hold our interest for long. Next stop – lunch where we also shopped for gifts for the Iban community. Twenty-four families live in one house and our gifts were to be spread amongst all of them. Our tour guide suggested we buy them packages of candy as they are easy to divide up. I didn’t feel that great about promoting tooth decay so I made us add some pencils to the mix!

Around 5 PM – it was a very long car ride – we arrived at the jetty for our ride upriver. The boats waiting for us took me by complete surprise. They are these low to the water skiff sort of things that looked more appropriate for a surfing competition than hauling a van full of tourists around. The ride to the village was fabulous though. Flat boats really haul! Great scenery too, bamboo, tall grasses, rubber trees all in earthy green and brown colors.  The sunlight streaming through the growth and shimmering on the water gave it a surreal feel.

The Long House accommodations weren’t anything to get too excited about, though after our long journey and lack of sleep in Kuching, the beds felt deliciously soft. Basically, they were mattresses set up in cubical type arrangements in with a long hallway down the middle. But now I’m out of sequence…

Lucas tried to interact with the locals by joining in a game of ‘football’… which consisted of 5 or 6 people standing around in a circle and trying to keep the ball in the air while showing off fancy moves before passing it to the next person.  I think he got all hot and sweaty, but he did make friends with one of the longhouse members, who later introduced us to rice wine.  The rice wine is made at the longhouse, and is pretty cheap!  The locals prefer it to beer because it gets them drunk quicker and cheaper… at least that’s what we managed to translate.  A 1L bottle of rice wine cost 5 Ringit, where a single beer costs 6 Ringit.  (7 Ringit is about 2 USD.)  The elixir itself tasted a bit like Sake, and is probably similar in proof.

After rice wine and a buffet dinner, we were treated to a traditional dance.  The men did a warrior dance, and the women an eagle dance.  Then of course we were invited to make fools of ourselves and join them.  We then presented our gifts to the tribe, took some photos, and then finished off with a bamboo hop-scotch stick dance. 

Lucas is a blow dart master – bull’s-eye his second try!

The river was really gorgeous. In some places the water level was so low that we almost had to get out and push.

The big communal living room that connected twenty-four family spaces in the Long House.

We had a great time watching the chickens poke their heads in and out of these windows. Simple fun.

Sunset out behind the Long House.

Reminders of past battles, these skulls hung in the Long House. The tribe used to be head hunters long ago.

The warrior dance. When he turned around around you could see is bare buns!

Pretty short for a warrior tribe, huh?

Welcome to Borneo!  We’d heard so much about Borneo, about how the Rafflesia flower was omnipresent here, and the jungle was rich and alive with cool stuff… we couldn’t wait to explore it.  In my mind, I was expecting something similar to the Amazon river basin in Peru.  Imagine my surprise when we land in a city that could have been Bellevue, Washington.  Brand new buildings, freshly paved roads, clean sidewalks, and brightly colored street lighting.  Hmm, have we come to the right place?  Turns out that Kuching is a pretty modern city of over half a million people, situated on a river that provides convenient shipping and transportation.

We checked into our hostel (Tracks B&B, in the Jalan Green Hill neighborhood).   For anyone traveling to Kuching, this neighborhood is packed full of guesthouses. There were probably 10 just in a 2 block radius.  It’s a good location, close to the river, movie theater, and walking distance to carpenter street, little India, the mosques, and museums.

Kuching loves museums, they must have a dozen just in the downtown area, and they are all free!  We spent our first day touring some of them: The textile museum, art museum, Sarawak Museum, a museum of stuffed creatures, and the Aquarium.  We skipped a few that were further out… the cat museum gets special mention.  A museum for cats?  We were confused until we learned that Kuching means cat, and is also known as Cat-City.  That would explain the huge cat monuments all over the place!

We took in dinner at a placed called “The Living Room”, which serves foods from the neighboring cafe’s: Bla Bla Blah, and The Junk.  Turns out the same owner runs them all, and all have terrific food with extremely large portions.  I’d recommend any of them if you are in Kuching.  We ordered this great dish called a Midin salad, which is actually made from baby fern shoots (still curled at the tips), and then tossed in a sesame dressing, and thinly sliced red onions.  It was a tastebud explosion.  The crispy noodles drowned in gravy were excellent as well.  I wish we had taken pictures of the food!

The next day we traveled to Bako National Park.  We missed the early bus, and wanted to get there quickly so we took a taxi to the jetty.  From there it was a beautiful 40 minute boat trip to the island.  Where the boat drops you off depends on the tide, and we got there at high tide, so we could actually use the dock, nice and convenient.  As we were getting off the boat, we ran into a sweaty couple coming our way, and asked if they had seen any monkeys.  They had, and told us which path to take.  Lucky for us, it was the short route to the beach (800 meters), and not the longer 2.5km or 4.5km path to the other side of the island.  We took our time getting there, stopping to look at plant life, and a pack of small monkeys on the way.  The beach was pretty nice!  We wished we had brought bathing suits, as there were many people there swimming.  And, to our luck, two proboscis monkeys were hiding in the tree-tops at the edge of the beach.  We hung around for long while waiting for them to get closer, and relaxed on the beach until it started raining.  On the first rain break, we headed back to the park center to find the ‘canteen’ to get a bite to eat and something to drink.  Luck must have been on our side, because 2 minutes after getting there, a massive thunderstorm came through, drowning the entire area.  We later heard that a local fisherman out tending his nets died from a lightning strike.  Tip: bring your own food to Bako, the canteen food is far from gourmet. 

After the rain let up, the tide was going out, and we’d heard that you could see the long nose proboscis monkeys in the mangrove trees. They eat the leaves exposed only during low tide. Sure enough, the monkeys came down in packs, running along the ground until they could make their way up into the trees. They were eating the fresh buds on the mangrove trees.  We also saw an annoying troupe of small monkeys, which had no fear of people.  One of them even jumped on a lady and ‘attacked’ her trying to get food or drink from her.  It was pretty scary, as they make a horrible barking / growling noise and snarl like an angry dog.  Who knew a cute tiny little 1 foot monkey could turn into a ferocious animal?

The riverfront along Kuching.  They have lots of tall pointed buildings here… not sure what they all are, most likely mosques or temples.

This is a local ‘ice drink’, similar to what we’d call Hawaiian shaved ice.  Lucas ordered the ‘special’ which was random fruits and vegetables covered in hand shaved ice, then smothered in cream.  It was really good, even considering it had corn in it!

The view along the way to Bako National park.

We made it!  You can see how the tide is high, and thus the boat could navigate up the river to the little dock.  When the tide goes out, this is a very tiny stream, and you can’t get a boat up it.  So you have to catch the boat out on the tide planes, and wade out into the water to get back in.

These two pictures were taken on the beach while we were waiting for the monkeys to show up. 

Fat little suckers aren’t they?  I was expecting something Orangutan sized, but really they were only about 1/2 meter tall.  I’ve no idea what evolutionary advantage the weird nose gave them! And these guys had really small noses in comparison to some. I think the older they get, the more gonzo like their honker becomes.

A mama and two babies.  You can barely see one is clinging to the front of the mother, while the other one is doing his best to catch up!

Parting shots from the tide planes, post storm… very tranquil and beautiful.