Bako National Park

There must be easier ways to get to a beach than an early morning taxi ride, preceding a journey by bus, followed by a boat ride, and a 1.5hr walk through the jungle. However, Telok Pandan Kecil beach at Bako National Park was certainly worth the effort.

After a short taxi ride to the city bus station we boarded a public bus (which looked like it had been built from Lego) for the hour long ride to Bako National Park. The bus ride was nothing special, but the following choppy speed boat ride in the South China Sea, which takes you to park headquarters, was a highlight in itself.

The beach at Bako was our ultimate destination, so after a quick breakfast, during which we encountered some of the wild boar and monkeys which roam around the national park, we started our trek along the path to Telok Panadan Kecil. It is only a 2.5km path but when negotiating mud, rocks, tree roots, climbs and descents in the tropical heat it took about 1.5 hrs to complete. Although we didn’t see any wildlife on our walk, at one stage a strange grunting/howling noise coming from inside the jungle was able to scare us sufficiently.

The track finishes at a cliff face which gives an awesome view of the beach below, and the surrounding National Park. The descent from the cliff was the trickiest part, but most certainly worth it as the picturesque beach was one of the most unique ones I’ve seen. Apart from looking like a postcard, there is plenty to explore around the area, with a few caves and waterfalls, and a couple of small rivers leading to the sea. There are also heaps of creatures we spotted including lots of crabs, lizards, fish and even a strange sort of jumping fish/frog thing (later discovered to be called mudskippers).

On the whole, Bako provided an excellent day trip from Kuching.

Mudskippers in Bako National Park - up close

Weekend in Singapore

It was my fourth visit to Singapore (I think) so I knew what to expect. Singapore is a really cool city, and this time I experienced Sentosa Island and the nightlife at Clarke Quay for the first time.

The night life was amazing, and rivals any city I have previously seen. Sentosa Island is a bit tacky, but still a good place to visit. It’s largely still under construction (with casinos and other things on the way) and I image it will be awesome when finished. The highlight of the island had to be the downhill luge track which was fast enough, but a little too short.

The hostel we stayed at was good enough. It was a bit strange that you had to take your shoes off at the front door. The whole place was a bit short of space, and as a result the staircase leading to our room would be a candidate for steepest staircase in the world. But the facilities were clean enough and the vibe not too bad.

Food was more expensive than expected, and as a result ended up trying some of the strange offerings at Singaporean McDonalds, including the “Double Wasabi Fish-o-Fillet,” the “Oriental Spicy Chicken Burger” and the “Seaweed Shaker Fries.” All were decent, but for me the shaker fries were the standout. Never eaten so much Maccas in one weekend, but still did manage to sample to local hawker food outlets.

Other than that Singapore gets a little less cool each time I visit. The outdoor markets were slightly disappointing, and all other shopping was quite expensive (especially the electronics at Sim Lim).

I think I’ll just do my shopping in Malaysia.

Kuching - driving

Public transport in Kuching consists of a handful of busses which run irregularly. As such everyone in Kuching drives (Malaysians don’t walk because they don’t like to sweat). This doesn’t mean that they are good at driving. In fact most seem to be quite average drivers. Traffic here is less chaotic than other parts of Asia, but it is not uncommon to experience traffic jams at peak times of the day. Lane markings on roads mean little as drivers tend to drive wherever they like on the road. Seatbelt wearing, although legally required (I think), seems largely optional.

I’ve witnessed a few near misses, but in general the speeds travelled at are low enough to permit crazy driving. Also, drivers on the road expect other drivers to behave erratically which also helps.

However, I was a passenger in a car crash. On the way to the airport, in wet conditions, our taxi driver wrote off his car. The traffic on the main highway was clogged that day so our taxi driver decided to take the back streets to avoid the congestion. As he was driving along a white van did a right hand turn in-front of us (when he shouldn’t have). With the reflexes of an ailing 80 year old man the taxi driver slammed on the brakes, but we skidded into the van as it was turning at about 30-40km/h causing the van to go spinning off the road. “Sorry la, sorry la” were the words uttered by the Chinese taxi driver just after the collision. All were unharmed in the taxi, but the driver of the van seemed to have hurt his leg. Bystanders gathered around as expected including a bunch of army guys who were nearby and the taxi driver’s big boss (who showed up in a shinny new Mercedes minutes after the collision).

Although the taxi driver had almost killed us all, he still wanted 10ringitt for driving us this far. After politely telling him that this was not going to happen, we got in another taxi, put on our seatbelts tightly, and proceeded to the airport just before check in closed.

Kuching - First Take

Kuching is a city located on the jungle island of Borneo. You are reminded of this fact as you fly into the city, seeing dense forest in all directions. When you step out of the plane, just as in other Asian cities, you are instantly slapped in the face by the humidity. My first few days here were quite hot as well, although it has cooled down slightly now that rain has become more frequent. Still, the temperature is above 30degrees everyday.

The population of the city is just under a million, and the people are friendly enough. There is quite a mix of people and religions here too. This is good news for food, as there is a fairly large variety of food available.

The city itself is fairly small and quite unhurried, consisting of a waterfront area (where stuff is cheap) and the “big building” (hotels and shopping centres – where stuff is more expensive) area. The people here a super laid back. They always look like they are on holiday. Saying “hello” and waving to foreigners for no apparent reason seems like a popular thing for locals to do. There are not many tourists around though.

It seems like a pretty good place to live. I will put that theory to the test in the coming months.

Orang-utans

Deciding there was a need to see some of the local wildlife myself and three other international exchange students (an aussie, german and swede), headed off to Matang Wildlife Centre. Asking a taxi driver to take us there, we ended up at Semmengoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre. Crazy taxi driver he was too. It was probably for the best that we ended up at the wrong place.

The centre is in the middle of a huge jungle. The centre is not much of a centre really. A couple of buildings, and a couple of cages to keep rescued crocodiles (crocodiles can’t be released into the wild because other crocodiles will eat them, or they will eat people). The stars of the show are the orang-utans which are now completely wild and roam free around the jungle. For tourist purposes only (I think) there are two feeding times during the day where rangers put fruit out to lure orang-utans towards the centre.

We got to the park a few hours before feeding time, so we went on a guided trek through the jungle. Thinking it would just be a leisurely stroll I was a little under prepared. Never have I sweated so much while we climbed through some quite dense jungle. One of the group was bitten by leaches. During the hike (which lasted a couple of hours) we saw a large variety of oversized insects, butterflies which were the size of small birds, pitcher plants (which are able to eat animals), wild boar tracks and lots of jungle.

It was after the hike that the orang-utans turned up though. They are a mix between human and monkey – having the tree climbing agility of monkeys, while still maintaining some human mannerisms. They are able to move with surprising speed through the tree tops while carrying food with their feet.

After seeing the orang-utans getting home proved to be a small story in itself. Our pre-arranged driver back to the city never turned up, so we were stuck waiting out the front of the park. The friendly rangers waited near by for a while, but I think they were waiting for us to leave so they could close the park. One offered to drive us to the main road to a bus stop which was to take us back to the city. Having no better option, we jumped in his car (I have never a seen a car so close to falling apart) and he drove up about 3kms through back streets to a bus stop.

We had no idea where we were by this stage but waited at the bus stop for a while with a local (who couldn’t speak English). After a while the local got up and left, which made me a little nervous, because night was approaching and it didn’t look like this bus would turn up. Eventually we were able to stop a passing taxi, but the driver told us he was going home and the city was too far away for him to drive us. He told us to call a phone number he suggested. After a short argument where I pointed out that we couldn’t order a taxi because we didn’t know where the hell we were, he agreed to order a taxi for us. After another wait, a taxi eventually pulled up and took us back to civilisation – to Top Spot Food Court in fact, where I had one of my best meals since being in Malaysia.

Swine Flu

It has become apparent that the average Malaysian person is paranoid of Swine Flu. I have seen many signs around KL and Kuching warning people of the dangers/symptoms of swine flu. In some department stores staff member’s temperature is measured daily to ensure they don’t have a fever and they wear stickers if they have a clean bill of health.

As a result of this paranoia, saying you are from Melbourne, Australia doesn’t make you heaps of friends. This is so much so that all students coming from Australia to study at Swinburne Uni in Sarawak were required to undergo a period of quarantine. It turns out that the quarantine wasn’t really as serious as expected – the rules being: “do what you want, just don’t come to campus.”

This was easy enough to obey, so during the “quarantine period” I was able to meet some other exchange students, familiarise myself with Kuching and see and taste some of the local sights.