Day 39-40: Sibu, Bus Stations, and Kuching

I know it's a bit premature. I know I have many more to go. I know I've just got to get better at it.

I hate waiting for buses & bus stations. I'll explain in a bit.

We arrived in Sibu, which is the Midwest of Sarawak. Literally, it is middle west in Malaysia Borneo. It's also right on the Rajang River, which is both a gateway for transportation into the Borneo tribal villages and for trade. They have these boats that we have read are called "flying coffins." I'd say its a pretty accurate representation. These coffins are flying off at all times and the ferry terminal is continuously chaotically active, and, given that its the equivalent of Thanksgiving weekend, its more so than usual.

Additionally, I believe every city has a sound. In New York and Delhi, its the sound of the car horn. In Chicago, its the sound of sirens. In Melbourne, its the sound of the tram bell. In Sibu, its the sound of poultry! Never have I seen so many different modes of poultry transport. Poultry wrapped in paper like fish & chips; poultry in traditional crates; poultry in plastic mesh carry on bags; poultry just roaming in the middle of the market; and poultry being carried in serious pet transportation devices. Poultry everywhere!

Summary thus far: Sibu = flying coffins & poultry.

We had expected more.

The original plan was to come to Sibu, chill for a bit, find a way to get to a tribal longhouses, and enjoy Gawai Dayak. We showed up in Sibu and immediately wanted to leave. The longhouses were a bit too expensive for us, poultry everywhere, etc. The place is not our cup of tea; hence the bus stations.

The public transportation runs from 6 a.m. until 5 p.m. Our bus to Kuching was meant to be at 8 p.m. and arrive at 3 a.m. We figured it'd be better to split the wait time. Now, its also getting to be the cusp of the monsoon season. Around 3 p.m., we saw the storm clouds coming, so we hustled to get to the bus station a bit early to avoid the clouds. Then our bus was delayed until 11:15 p.m. We had to kill 6 hours in a bus station! How? Here's just a small list:

* Walk around and see what is available to do
* Sit on a bench in the bus station and chat
* Find a place to sit and eat
* Change locations and find a place to sit and have a drink
* Ask the local bus station's branch of the hotel you stayed in the night before if you can sit in their air conditioned lobby and watch a movie
* Walk around again to see what is available to do, with great hope that you missed something amazing like public karaoke. Generally this is false hope.
* Sit on a bench and read articles if we have wi-fi access
* Stay seated, close to giving up hope of ever getting a bus, and try to play some games on any device we have that we aren't afraid is going to get stolen if we take it out
* Continue to stay seated in silence, all hope gone that the time will ever pass and the bus will come.

(You also have to understand that the day before when we were coming from Brunei, we had ended up waiting for about 5 hours at the bus station in Miri before we could take our overnight bus as well. Same level of chaos, same lack of entertainment, different day.)

When the bus to Kuching finally came and we got in, we both ended up freezing in over air conditioning despite having sweaters and a blanket to share between us! We finally were delivered, blue lips, goosebumps, and little sleep to the bus station in Kuching at 5:30. From there, we just needed to wait until 6:00 a.m. so we could take a public bus into the city. We went to leave the station post coffee at 6:05. It was 5 minutes too late. The storm had arrived! This storm was one of those great teasers - the kind where it continuously looks like the sun is fighting to pop through but never does. We said, well, we'll just wait. We've no plans today. Let's just wait a bit to see if the rain passes.

(See list above for things to do to entertain ourselves for the not 1...not 2.... not 3... not 4.....5 - that's right 5 hours we had to kill in the morning. Only this time do it on no sleep and fear of turning into the Wicked Witch of the West if rain so much as touched us).

Finally, at 11:00 a.m,, we caved and decided that we had at least until after we reached the bus stand across the road before we melted. We've gotta brave the rain and just get across the street to the bus!

Buses are great. They get you where you need to go. Good enough for the environment, etc. But seriously - I want it to be like Singapore airport .I want movie theatres. I want a VIP waiting room. I want entertainment! Too much to ask? Okay - maybe it is for just 50 MYR. Minor detail.

We arrived in Kuching and basically slept! Hopefully no more buses for a while. 

Day 38: Transit to Sibu, Malaysia

Brunei is nice, but man is it expensive! The Brunei $ is almost a 1 to 1 with Australia and you certainly don't get value for money when it comes to accommodation. We were happy to leave it, but sad to leave the rain forest.

I have actually never gone through a serious country border crossing by land. The last time I did a border crossing by land was going to Windsor in Canada, and that was when all you needed was a driver's license and not even a passport. That and they just got on the bus to make sure you were legit. This border crossing certainly took way more effort and it wasn't even a hard one! It was a simple stamp out, get on a bus, stamp in kind of thing. I am not looking forward to when we have to actually do a more serious one once we head up towards Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.

We decided to tough it up and continue on from the bus stand in Miri and overnight bus it to Sibu. There is a major cultural festival that is happening right now in this state, Sarawak. They celebrate a festival called Gawai Dayak. Gawai Dayak is a huge indigenous tribe celebration that occurs starting on 31 May. The people get 2 public holidays following it. From what I can tell, its a bit like a Thanksgiving Harvest Festival. People all go home to be with their families. There is singing and dancing. There is cultural costumes and rituals. People have their weddings around this time.

I figured it would be cool to see. That's how we ended up here... I didn't realize it's a HUGE deal here. When we rocked up to the bus stand in Miri to get our tickets to Sibu, the market was in chaos. We got there at 6:00 and they only had a few tickets to the 9:30 p.m. buses - and those buses were extra buses. We were charged high season prices. Everybody is taking the Friday off so they can have a nice long 5 day weekend and try to get home. This is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving! I had no idea!

Of course, now we are a bit stuck in high season. We better see this darn festival. I don't care if its touristy or not. I want blowpipes (at least to try it out, as long as I don't end up like Elmer Fudd in a bad Looney Toons episode where he ends up swallowing it instead of blowing it). I want rice wine. I want to see longhouses. I want dances. I can't wait!

Let's see if we stay in Sibu or start making our way down to Kuching.

Day 37: Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

Brunei is surprisingly different than its Malaysian Borneo neighbors, but it is really quite simple in terms of tourism. Let’s be honest: when you have oil money, do you really need tourism dollars? It has two fascinating elements:

• Sultan
• Kampong Ayer Water Village

Let’s start with the Sultan. Most people tell you to go on the water to go and see the Sultan’s palace. We decided that anybody could do that –we’re going to take the bus! Apparently nobody takes the bus. We asked our hotel, we asked the tourism office beneath us, and it was only the other bus driver we asked at the station who actually told us the right number. Did we see the Sultan’s palace from a better angle via the bus? Not really; however, anybody can see the palace; not everybody can see his driveway and his gate! The grounds are really quite incredible. From what we could see, one border of his property stretched at least 1-1.5 kms. As you walk along, you can see there is a freakin’ water park inside the palace gates. Why not? If I was Sultan and had some odd bazillion dollars and my grandkids wanted to go to a water park, I’d build them a water park. This ain’t no Duck Dynasty!

We then decided to go to the Royal Regalia museum. This museum shows just some of the trinkets that have been gifted to the Sultan over the years. By trinkets I mean gold stuff. As we looked at the various gifts, we judged the gifting countries just a little bit. I mean, who wants a photograph (ahem, Australia – bad gift!) when somebody else can gift you a replica of a some odd BC emperor’s terra cotta chariot (well played China, well played). However, it wasn’t just gifts that were there – they also had all of the Sultan’s coronation & 25^th Jubilee adornments as well. Now we are talking gold! Gold everywhere! Not only does he have the usual golden scepters, the golden hand to hold up his head during the ceremony, the golden spears, umbrellas, throne with tiger skins, gold embroidered clothing, etc; but he also has a man-powered, gold painted chariot that is used to pull him through the street afterwards. Plus his 24-36 nobles who follow him dressed in very specific attire, carrying very specific items (swords, shields, spears, weird golden box for bettle nuts) and having to walk on foot. Oh, did I mention there isn’t just one of these in this museum. Oh no – there are two! They built a second one just for his 25^th Jubilee. Why not?

Afterwards we decided not to go over to Kampong Ayer but rather just watch the water taxis go to it. Kampong Ayer is a 1000 year old stilt village. It is also the largest stilt village in the world. It is directly across from BSB, separated by a river. The water taxis must be able to spot my reflective white self from across the river, because we must have had at least 10 come up to us and ask if we were going to go over. It is really quite charming to look at, although we’ve read that the buildings are all modernized on the inside. Supposedly this village has its own mosque, fire brigade, school, etc. It’s probably one of the nicest things to actually see within Brunei.

It was 5 p.m. by the time we decided “Brunei – check.” The country is pretty amazing in both the Sultan’s wealth and its ability to survive. Not sure what the future holds for this country once the oil money runs out. Glad we came, but we are looking forward to heading back to Malaysia.

Day 34-36: Movies in KK & Transit to Brunei

We spent 2 days just relaxing in Kota Kinabalu (KK). The backpackers we were staying at was super comfy. They had a whole bunch of relatively new DVDs you could borrow. Local food was good. Plus we know we are going to Brunei next, which is going to be pretty hectic. As a result, we just chilled around.

We got to explore the Sunday Market and the Night Market in KK. The Sunday Market is fairly normal as far as street markets go. You have the usual bath soaps with breast milk (rose breast milk that is), frog purses, live turtles for sale (not sure whether they are for eating or for domestic pet purposes), honey comb with the bees still on it, and dried fish everywhere. Oh, and some fresh vegetables – just to keep you regular.

The Night Market was really similar to Labuan Bajo’s night market. Only this time, we were on our own to try to select our own fresh fish. We must have circled the place multiple times trying to remember what the Italian Thomas had told us in Labuan Bajo. Look for the clarity of the eyes. Check the gills and make sure they are pink. Round and round we went until finally we selected our very own white snapper. It was super yummy going down and it never came back up – so I’d call that a great 1^st selection by Sarah & Pallavi (mostly Pallavi).

We finally made our way over to Brunei. We’d heard Brunei really has little to do, but we figured, when are we ever going to be so close to Brunei as we are here on Borneo? We’d never go out of our way for it, so might as well go for 2 days in transit, see what there is to see, and get out of there. We took a series of ferries, had an easy enough customs experience, and got on the bus from the ferry into BSB (the name for the capital I can never remember).

This is what we had expected from Borneo. Rainforest everywhere! Brunei is such a funny little country. It had the foresight to preserve the rainforest, has a per capital GDP of $55K USD because of its oil wealth, and has sharia law. The best way I can describe Brunei is like rainforest meets Arab oil meets Asia. When you look around, you can see the wealth on the road and in the housing. You can see that the infrastructure is there.  The streets are super clear, with signs warning against the financial penalties of littering. Plus, as Pallavi hypothesizes, because they have a ruling Sultan, it looks like there is minimal corruption and stuff actually gets done.

We arrived in the afternoon, took a nap, and only made it out for the small Night Market (where all of the women in various stalls seemed to have a television set up and were captivated by some sort of Japanese soap opera. Not sure what was happening, but everybody, including the maid was crying, so it looked like a real tear jerker). Even the food names are slightly different.

We have only one full day tomorrow to explore Brunei. Here’s what I expect to see/experience:

·         A 1,000 year old stilt village

·         A boat ride on the ‘Venice of the East’ river

·         See the Sultan’s gold car. I will also accept an entire room filled with gold trinkets.

·         The Sultan’s palace

Day 33: Taxi 797 in Kota Kinabalu

The first thing that came to mind when we woke up was "we lost the ukulele!" Pallavi, eyes on the prize, determinedly said, let's go and find it!

Sarah: "Find it?! There are a bazillion cabs in this city. How to find it?"
Pallavi: "Well, let's go back to the intercity bus station where we arrived last night. Most taxi drivers have a certain spot, and let's go and see if they know who it is."
Sarah: "But how will you know which cab it is?"
Pallavi: "Don't you remember what the taxi driver looked like? He had a mustache, was of medium height, slightly frail, older, had gray hair and his back left door didn't shut properly." (No! I do not remember any of this! Did you not hear the story about the time I was a witness in a car accident and completely negated my grandmother's testimony because I'm a crap witness!)

So, Private Investigator Pallavi and me, the sidekick in the story normally used for either comedy relief or to help show how wise the PI actually is, went off to the bus station with this basic information to try to get our man.

We showed up at the station at 2 p.m., found a taxi driver who spoke English, who asked us all sorts of questions. Where did you go? What time did you arrive last night? What did the guy look like? Was he a big guy or a small guy? What did you lose? With each question, one more taxi driver came over into the conversation. All of them were talking to each other and you could clearly see they were trying to figure out who we were talking about, each of them gesturing with a small air guitar. By the end of this interrogation, we were marched over to the "manager" who looked into some book which appeared to be a record of all cabs, all routes, and he looked at us and said, right, this guy won't be here until 5 p.m., taxi number 797.

Slightly hopeful, we said, we'll wait. And we waited; And we had lunch; And we waited; And we walked around the mall; And we waited; And we sat at the bus stand; And we got a coffee; And we waited. Of all of the days when I didn't bring some sort of book to read! Finally, after what felt like an eternity of boredom, 5 p.m. came. Our driver didn't!

The English speaking taxi driver came over around 5:45 and said, he won't come until maybe 7 or 8. You can take a cab to his house and then into Koto Kinabalu for 30 MYR (~$10). We said, we don't want to go to Koto Kinabalu, so we'll pay 10 MYR to go the 2 kms to the guys house. It cost us 25 MYR to get to 7 kms into Kota Kinabalu. More than fair.

No takers. I started to get a little less hopeful. Plus, what if we'd gotten the description wrong! What if Pallavi's attention to detail had failed. What if she had made up that he had a mustache? What if we've been waiting for hours for the wrong man!

We waited another 45 minutes and finally, by 6:30, our English speaking taxi drivers came over and said, come on, I'll take you for 10 MYR. He drove us to the taxi driver's general area but didn't know where he lived. So we circled the apartment complex looking for a cab. We looked everywhere until finally, we spotted a cab - it was taxi number 797. But where did the taxi driver live? Our man called him up and we waited.

After 5 minutes, we saw a man with a mustache, who was of medium height, slightly frail, older. So maybe he didn't have grey hair, but he held in his hand, my ukulele!!!!!!!

Detective Pallavi solved the case! The ukulele was back in my hands and I swear I'll seriously learn to play it and never let it out of my sight again!

The End. By Sarah.

Day 32: Sakau & Orangutans!!!!!

After a night sleeping through the sounds of the jungle, our alarms and the roosters went off around 4:45 a.m. We got ready, had our coffees, knocked on the doors of the Germans who had insisted we go at 5:30 instead of 6 a.m. but who were still sleeping at 5:30, and at 6:00 a.m. got into the boat with Eagle Eyes for another river safari.

There are not nearly as many mammals to spot alongside the Kinabantangan River as I had though; however, there are tons of different birds. We spotted 4 different species of Hornbills (including some really rare white breasted one), 3 different types of King Fishers, Broad beaks, huge endangered Storks, some tiny bird that was smaller than two finger digits, etc. We saw 2 different species of monkeys. Then, Eagle Eyes spotted our first oranguntan!! I'm not sure what I expected, but this was beyond expectations. Unfortunately, one, this was a male and you only see males in isolation, not surrounded by a troop of orangutans and two, he was high up in the top of a fig tree eating breakfast. 

It was amazing to watch. He is basically a big orange hairy thing on the top of the tree. A bit like how I imagined Big Foot's hide to look. He just sat there, in a more refined way, reaching with his long arms to pluck various figs & eat them. Sometimes he'd walk out on a branch to get the ones that were on the farthest limbs and then retreat back to his tree chair. Once he was hidden from view all we saw was his long arm reaching out beyond the cover of the trees to pluck figs, and then disappear. 

Not only did we see this orangutan, but on our return journey, we saw our 2nd! I certainly have not had my fill of orangutans, but am still fascinated by them. We both want more! However, after our river safari, after much debate (and after the infamous Osman had a family emergency and wasn't taking people on his pygmy elephant safari), we decided lets just get out of dodge. We'll go to a (dare I say it) rehabilitation center, and hopefully we'll be able to see both orangutans and probiscis monkeys up close.

We trekked to town, found a car that would take us to 'The Junction' where lonely planet said we could stand by the side of the road and flag down a bus, packed up in 30 minutes, and went. The Junction is literally a tree-barren area by the side of a round about. My poor vampire skin can't take such intensity. Then I remembered something my friend Kim had given me. It was something that, upon leaving Melbourne, I had debated whether or not to bring with, and figured that although its slightly heavy, I'd carry it and see. It was a sun umbrella from China! Normally, I would have shied away from using it - white tourist who can't take it; however, I had seen some women using them in Sandakan a few days before. When in the jungle..... Out it came! Instant shade. It. was. amazing. Kim - THANK YOU! We took a picture, which we'll have to send you. This moment almost deserves an ode. 

Ode to the Shade Umbrella: 

Oh give me a home, where the sun mostly roams

Where the trees provide plenty of shade 

But when burning outside, sweating and unmade 

The sun umbrella provides plenty of shade

Okay - not my best. I'll work on it! But it deserves it! After standing there for an hour, we had no fewer than 5 people stop and ask us where we were going. Finally, a good Samaritan told us its hard to flag a bus here, he'd take us a bit down the road to a proper bus stand. We jumped in the car, and went about half the distance to Kota Kinabalu (our final destination). I swear, all we passed were palm trees for 200 kms. It was such a sad scene. I'm not a real protester or avoider of products, but seriously, no more palm oil. (Pallavi has since refused to eat Nestle ice-creams and says #SayNoToNestle). 

On the way, we had passed one bus going to Kota Kinabalu. Finally, we reached the last point the guy could take us, and we got off, had lunch, found the bus station, and waited for another hour and a half. When the luxury bus finally came, it was the same bus we had passed before!

We finally reached Kota Kinabalu, got a cab, got off near where backpackers are, only to realize that my ukulele had been left behind in the cab! That is how we learned about how easy it is to file an insurance report at the local police station and all about different cab companies. 

Such a up & down day. Loved the orangutans, but am absolutely exhausted and hot from the journey and a bit heartbroken about the ukulele. Hopefully we'll be able to find it tomorrow. 

Day 31: Sakau, Borneo

Today we head off into the jungle to try to see orangutans in the wild. Apparently the best place to see them is near a small village called Sakau, which is on the Kinabatangan River. Tragically, the reason why this is the best place to see them is because the palm oil plantations have deforested so much rain forest that its pushed the wildlife all towards the river. However, this small sliver of rain forest (literally the rainforest stretches along the river for kms, but is only 300 metres deep) is now protected, so off we go.

Lonely Planet is right in that, although you think you might need to book some sort of tour in order to go to the Kinabatangan River, you can do it on your own. It was easy enough to get transportation within the budget we'd expected to the village. However, nothing can prepare you for when we got there.

No sooner than we arrived in Sakau than I started to sweat and had 5 mosquito bites. Thank God for 80% deet. I don't care if its banned in Europe and you need to dispose of it in a plastic bag before putting it in the trash. The container doesn't say it'll give me some sort of disease. The chemist who sold it to me said it wouldn't give me cancer. I say no to dengue & lots of itching. Those mosquitoes can go and f-off!

I swear I'm channeling my Mom's citronella candles. If one candle is meant to give you a 5 ft radius of protection, than en entire seance of candles is clearly going to work even more effectively. My 80% Bushman's deet is my citronella candle seance. (PS - it 100% works. You can practically see mosquitoes die when they hit our protective deet wall.

We also needed accommodation. Sukau is a one street town, but nobody told me it was some odd 10 km street! We had our transport drop us at a backpackers closest to the town (still 1 km away), and Pallavi asked me to go up the road and check out prices. I walked, and walked, and walked, and checked, and walked, and checked, and sweated, and walked, and checked, and sweated. I should have just turned around. So stupid! 50 minutes and a minimum of 5 kms later, I returned and we stayed at this awesome homestay across the road from where we initially had been dropped off.

We asked Ezall, our homestay guide who spoke really great English, who we should go on our river safaris with. He said, I can tell you a lot of groups, but the key is to go with somebody who is good. There are two people I'd recommend. 1. Osman (who we'd heard about and notoriously takes people face to face with elephants and ignores there warning signals ((dangerous!!)) but who has taken David Attenbourgh out a few times and is very good). 2. Eagle Eyes. Alright, old Eagle Eyes it is!

We called him up and went on a night safari. Although we didn't see any night cats, Eagle Eyes spotted amazing colourful tropical birds, a crocodile!, probiocus monkeys, and an owl hunting in the river. Did you know that a crocodile's eyes glow white at night? It looks like a little light on the water. Pretty cool stuff!

Once we finished, we went to Sukau's local night market. It runs Thursday through Sunday. Quite a lot for a small village of 1K. Normally there is music and public karaoke but not tonight. Tonight the local Muslim Imam was speaking to a crowd seated in the square. What was he teaching them? He was talking to them about all the reason why NOT to join Al Qaeda and ISIL

As we sat around eating dinner, Ezall told us about the problems between Borneo & the Sulu people over in the Philippines. Less than 10 years ago, there was war between Malaysia & the Sulu people. Over 300 years ago the Sulu people ruled over Borneo and then the British took over. The Sulu Sultan still thinks it belongs to him, but has only made moves to take it over by force after Malaysia invested in its infrastructure. Apparently, the Sulu's even took over bits of Borneo and Ezall remembers them occupying Sukau for at least 4 months, while he stayed bunkered down in his home stay with his government issued weapon, lights out after 5 p.m. That is why they still have immigration checks here. I had no idea!

Tomorrow, 5:30 a.m., another river safari in search of orangutans!