Berestagi

There is a volcano in Berestagi which is very accessible, a few hours to climb up and down, so, after stocking up on chocolate and peanut pancakes, that is what we did. The trek to the top is a simple if tiring route to the crater where yellow sulphurous vents make the air smell, but look like something from another world. There are thousands of bowling ball sized stones in the crater which had fallen off the cliff face which surrounds the crater. People had arranged them to spell out messages, so we resolved to make the largest message in the whole crater, perhaps I am biased but it must have been 4 metres tall and almost 20 wide.
The trek down was far more difficult, it was slippery, rocky, steep, and in places it was difficult to find the path.
The end was rewarding however, we found a hot spring on the way down, nothing could possibly have been more welcome than some time on the hot water, although we did smell a little of sulphur for a while afterwards.
We got a cab home and spent the evening eating and watching rubbish films.
The following morning we sought started the trip to Lake Toba which entailed changing buses twice, and driving at break neck speed down some of the worst roads I had ever seen.

Sandakan-Medan-Beristaggi

We arrive in Sandakan that evening and need some money, so we set out to the cash machine only for it to start raining leaving us stuck in supermarket. While not ideal, this did give us a chance to really survey what this particular supermarket had to offer. Turns out this place had a bit of a cash and carry style section where we bought plenty of chocolate straws, and about a million packs of popcorn for about 1 pound, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
That evening we had a nice meal with Tiffany on the waterfront before heading back to the guesthouse to watch Slumdog millionaire. The following morning we were forced to leave very early in the morning back to KK by the bus schedule. Despite the fact that we only needed to be there for about 6 that evening, the only buys that would get us there left at about 7.30. Unfortunately it turned out that bus wasnt in perfect health, and after spending about an our breaking down roughly every 5 minutes we were all shunted onto another bus, which meant sitting on the stairs as you enter the bus, this wasnt too bad in comparison to our previous experience of sitting on the floor on buses.
We still arrived in KK very early and so spent a few hours sitting in a cafe eating roti, drinking the cheapest drinks, and eventualy eating dinner.
At the airport we bumped into Ulrika who was on her way Bali, turns out Amelie had had a passport related nightmare and was stuck in KL.
We were on our way to KL, to spend a night in a cold, bright airport on a bench that simply was not designed with sleeping in mind. Having said that, I slept surprisingly well, and not even with the help of sleeping tablets.
The flight that followed was a bit of a sleepy blur but before we knew it we were in Medan, with a lovely new visa in our passports. We decided to take a hike to find an ATM, that was an error. Unfortunately a combination of a map with few road names, roads with few road names, and sleep deprivation lead to us walking in circles for what felt like hours until finally finding a ATM by complete chance, not the one we were looking for. We spent some time chatting with a guy who told us we were 'his teacher' before eating an unbelievably cheap meal.
There is virtually nothing to do in Medan so we got a tuc-tuc to the bus station and then for a bus to Berestaggi before sitting down in our guesthouse for a well deserved rest, non stop traveling for near enough 2 days had taken its toll.

Sepilok Orang-utan sactuary

Unfortunately Sepilok proved the most expensive place so far for both sleeping and eating. That said, i would definitely recommend it to anyone. Watching the orang-utans swinging from trees and eating bananas with amazing dexterity is something you really have to see with your own eyes. Perhaps the funniest moment was when one of the younger orang-utans pushed his bowl of milk off the platform and then after staring at the point where it had fallen for a while, turned to the feeder, gave him a classic shrug of the shoulders and then belly flopped into the rainforest below in search of the bowl. I think perhaps Robbie's highlight will have been when one of the smaller monkeys who roam the sanctuary fearlessly decided to make a jump for me and landed on my back, i immediately flung it off, in my opinion quite gracefully, this didnt stop robbie laughing all the way home.
We saw Tiffany at the sanctuary, still stiff, almost unable to walk from her climb. She was however very proud of herself, and very pleased that she had done it, good for her. Unfortunately her hostel was a bus ride away so we spent a an hour or so with her before going our separate ways. However we resloved to meet in sandakan that evening. Sandakan is only a short local bus journey away and we were there by late afternoon.

Kinabalu National Park

The minibus to the national park from kk is only a few hours so we were there by lunchtime and ready to spend a day walking. Unfortunately the privatisation of the park meant that we would have had to pay about 20 pounds for a dorm bed, and the cheapest meal in the cafe was 10 pounds, we quickly turned our backs and went to find one of the hostels just outside the park set up for people just like us who are apauled by the park prices.
The place we found was nice enough, and the staff couldnt be more helpfull, so we ate quickly and set out for a walk in the park. It was far from strenuous, but fun enjoyable none the less. That evening we spent playing cards and watching BBC world news, mainly interested in the sports headlines. We spent plenty of time chatting with the hostel's newest imployee, a young indonesian guy who was very friendly.
Imagine our surprise when we wake the next morning to find that our beds have been sold to someone else and we have half an hour to leave. In our indignation two chocolate bars miraculously appeared in our pockets, no idea how that happened.

The hostel we found was a much longer walk from the park and after spending a hour or two walking backwards and forwards between place we were finally ready to go. Unfortunately disaster hit. We were walking along the side of the road, facing the oncoming traffic as just the way you are meant to when a taxi behind us tried a risky overtaking manouvre which resulted in Robbie's elbow making contact with the cab's wingmirror at high speed. How he got away with only a few cuts and grazes I have no idea. With blood running down his arm we decided to go back to the guesthouse to clean up his arm. All said and done we were in the park about 4 hours after we planned, nevermind i guess.
The walk we selected was only about 6km, but the last kilometre was almost sheer and we were both pretty tired as we reached our destination, a platform for viewing the impressive mt kinabalu. Neither of us were looking forward the walk back home, fortunately we got chatting to a student living in KL who had spent time stundying in the states. He had his car with him and so offered to drive us back to the park headquarters, at least we had some luck that day!
The plan was to flag down a bus heading to sepilok to see the world famous orang-utan santuary, unfortunatley all the busses were full and we ended up sitting on the floor. Personaly I would have prefered robbies seat, facing sideways, with a drip on his head, but at least he had something to lean on. Robbie disagreed saying that my seet facing forward, but being flung around the bus when going round mountain corners due to my lack of backrest.

Kota Kinabalu

Ignoring the fact it took 11 and a half hours, the bus journey to KK was quite exciting. We got I believe 8 passport stamps, the bus went in to Brunei, then back to Sarawak, back into Brunei, back to Sarawak, and then into Sabah. We also made friends with Aidy and Yanis, an English couple in the pus with us. Turns out that I actually had a few drinks with Yanis and some mutual friends back in Cambodia although it tool a while for either of us to remember, that was a strange coincidence.
That evening we managed to meet up with Tiffany again and then allowed Aidy and Yanis to teach us their illegal drinking techniques, for more info please contact Robbie with any questions.

There is depressingly little to really do in KK, but we both felt that we owed it to Anthony to go and see his museum, the Sabah museum. I would be lieing if I said it was the worlds greatest museum, however there were some interesting exhibits and both Robbie and I learned new things about Sabah. Well done Anthony, nice museum.

I spent most of the rest of the evening trawling around shopping centres in the search for flip flops in my size and one again, for the third time in this holiday someone decided to steal mine. The most annoying this was that this time they were rubbish flip flops, I was in need of new ones anyway. Robbie’s are nice and new, much better than mine, the same size, and were right next to mine, why did this drain upon society chose to steal mine despite better options, I will never understand the youth of today.

That evening Robbie Tiffany and myself had a great night out bowling, but we had to get her home early because she was climbing Kinabalu the next day. Kinabalu is SE Asia’s highest peak, we would be going to the national park, but Robbie and I had decided we couldn’t afford the 100 pounds it cost to climb, we were therefore suitably jealous of Tiffany.

Lambir Hills

After spending a single and uneventful night in Miri (during which we managed to see the community shield) we set out for Lambir hills. We had to go via the long distance bus terminal anyway and so decided to book our onward bus ticket to Kota Kinabalu. It turns out only one bus company runs this service and so the price was astronomical. In the search of a discount we tried lying, charming, complaining and flirting as well as offering oral hygiene advice. I am not sure which tac it was, but one of them worked and we were delighted to gain one up on the frustrating Borneo beaurocracy.

We arrived at the park and, after going through another ‘you really want to camp’ episode, pitched the tent and went to get some lunch. For some reason, and I still have no idea what it was it took us about 30 minutes to be served because every time the waitress looked at us she just burst out laughing, Robbie was convinced it had to be my fault.

It was only a 15 minute walk to a beautiful waterfall with a large pool and a beach. We wasted no time in getting into swimming gear and heading over for a relaxing swim in some of the most stunning surroundings I have ever seen.

It turned out we were the only tourists in the entire park that night, the café closed at 6.30 and there was a power cut soon after. We were forced to spend a memorable evening star gazing and having torches shone at us by Malaysians who had never seen a tent before!

Day 2 in Lambir and we resolve to climb the largest hill in the park in order to see the canopy from above. After about 2 hours of wondering aimlessly in the rainforest we arrived back at HQ, we didn’t really realize how lucky we were until later.

The real disaster was the small shower of rain, while the tent is only semi waterproof to begin with, it is not at all waterproof when the window is left open, my sleeping bag liner was soaked , all or Robbie’s stuff was fine. He informed me that the window was after all my responsibility. Hmm, I don’t remember agreeing to that!

So, undeterred we sat down for some lunch and set out for a slightly smaller hill. This time we found the path without incident. Unfortunately out long climb was not rewarded by clear skies, but we saw enough of the canopy to be satisfied.

After arriving back at HQ we packed up the tent and went to stand by the edge of the road to flag down passing coaches back to Miri in order to spend yet another night there. When we got to the guesthouse Alex was already there, avec new girl in tow. We spent the evening chatting and watching movies. We spent a long time chatting with a man named Dennis Along Along who worked at the hostel. Turned out this bouncy and optimistic man used to do very specialized work on Malaysia’s many oil rigs, being flown all round the country for his expertise. When he got kidney failure the poor man was tied to Miri by 4 times weekly dialysis, I could never have guessed something like that had happened to him, such is his outlook on life.

It was a relatively early as we had an 8 o’clock bus the next morning.

The Niah Caves

The journey to Niah was pretty straight forward and soon after lunch we were there, tent erect and all. When we arrived we had to register, when we asked where the campsite was there was a moment of pure comedy as she stood in disbelief that anyone could be stupid enough to want to camp.

After settling in we set off to the caves themselves. We were hoping to see the much talked about ‘bat exodus’. At dusk supposedly all the bats fly out of the cave, and are replaced by birds going in for a nights sleep. Unfortunately a small mathematical problem reared its ugly head. Our campsite was on the other side of a river, the boats stop running at 7, dusk is also about 7, and it is a 45 minute walk back to the boat. In true backpacker style we cut it as fine as possible, leaving only 20 minutes to sprint back the boat, we managed with moments to spare.

You may think that this meant the trip to the cave that evening had been a disappointment, but nothing could be less true. Who did we bump into but our favourite Dutchman Thierry, a slightly wiser, wittier and less gullible model granted, but Thierry none the less. That evening he came up with great quotes as ‘it is very dangerous to eat fireflies, they are very hot’ and ‘alex, I think 53.2% of the things you say are joking’. Unfortunately he couldn’t quite swallow Robbie’s revelation that locals at Gunung Mulu regularly murder unsuspecting tourists, shame.

The night that followed could never be described as a ‘good nights sleep’, but it could certainly have been worse. We woke surprisingly late, had a bit of breakfast and then head off to see the caves, which not even photos can do justice. We followed through the caves to see the cave paintings. The oldest of their kind in Asia. As you can imagine they were a little faded, but still amazing when it is considered just how long they have been there.

Caves finished we returned to the park HQ, who did we find? The Spanish womanizer Alex, and the two Dutch girls we had met in Kuching whose names I am still unsure about. They told us of the idiots staying in the tent In the middle of the sun, only to learn it was us. We agreed to meet them in Miri in a few days and set off, planning on making it to Lambir hills, home of many a beautiful waterfall.