All the Many Roads I've Travelled, Come so Far and Done so Much

I'd like to consider myself someone with a reasonable sense of direction, even in a place I am unfamiliar with. Although my navigational abilities can somewhat send me awry, I am pretty good at memorising landmarks or remembering specific things which I have passed before. I also make sure to remember that three lefts take you back to the place you most likely went wrong.

I certainly consider myself to have a better sense of direction than some of my friends.

There was an instance in a 2005 holiday to Prague when my friend James took charge of map reading and after a frustrating afternoon of looking for Wenceslas Square, he went up to ask one of the many touts on the street where abouts it was, only to be told that we were standing in it......

Another instance of navigational brilliance can be attributed to my friends Tom and Mike who whilst at the World Cup in Germany in 2006 attempted to take us on a road trip to the Brandenburg Gate, which mistakenly they thought was actually in the city of Brandenburg.

After discovering that we were about an hour shy of Berlin where one of the country's most famous landmarks is, we then drove for at least 90 minutes without finding it before making a five hour drive back to Dortmund where we were staying.
Tom, who now lives in Germany, sent me a picture of the Brandenburg gate in 2012 with the caption "Finally found it....only took me six years!"

I can't pretend to be faultless when it comes to directions though as coming back from London once to attend my Grandparents 50th anniversary party in St Neots, drove as far down the M1 as Doncaster before realising that I needed to turn off onto the A1 about 100 miles previous. It happens to the best of us!!!

Each one of the above tales could probably have been avoided if we A; weren't male and had an aversion to asking for directions, and B; used signposts slightly or a map slightly more affectively to point us in the right direction. What happens though, when signposts are either in a different language, or non-existent.

These are two issues I have been battling today.

Let's start with yesterday though, and a 14 hour day of travelling to my current location in Jimbaran Bali.....

This harrowing tale began at 12pm yesterday when I checked out of my hotel in Pontianak and made my way to the city's hotel after my one night stay on the equator.
The same guy who'd driven me to the Equatorial Oblique the previous day as also in charge of taking me back to the airport, and unlike when I first arrived I was slightly more awake on the return journey.

It took about 30 minutes to get to the airport meaning that I had around two and a half hours or so to kill before my flight was due to take off at 3pm.
Now I've been to a few small airports in my time, but Pontianak airport was minuscule. There were only about five or six check-on desks, and before going through security I think there were two restaurants, one shop and absolutely nowhere to sit.
As much as I love embracing Asian culture, I don't think I would have been able to squat for that long, so I got some revenge on my rucksack for all the pain it has caused me over the last three weeks and used it as a makeshift seat until check-in opened for my flight.

It appears that Indonesians have developed that very Asian habit of not being able to queue very well as there certainly was an air of 'free-for-all' about attempting to get my plane tickets, though once I eventually reached the front of the line it didn't take too long for me to be on my way through security and into the airport lounge. It appears that the government, or perhaps even the airport here, have decided to charge a fee for everything here as I had to pay 40,000 Rp for a domestic departure. International departures had to pay 120,000 Rp so I have that little treat to look forward to in a week or so.

Following on from how small the check-in area of the airport was - the departures area wasn't exactly spacious. There were a couple more shops (one of which I brought a strawberry fanta in - somebody please let me know if this is such a thing in England yet...) a gift shop, and a magazine stand. Most of the seats downstairs were taken so I sat in an area upstairs until about 2.30pm when my flight was called.

I had a little bit of trouble booking my flight from Pontianak to Denpasar. It appears that Lion Air, the company I am flying with, had some issues with their website on the day I was trying to arrange my itinerary. It would let me get as far as the payment screen, and then just cancel my transaction and go back to the original page. I got my mum to try from England, and the same thing happened so it must have been an issue on their end.
When I arrived at Pontianak for my long sitting session in the airport, one of the things I did was book myself a flight at the desk in the terminal building, but the original flight I wanted was sold out so I had to get a later plane. This meant arriving into Jakarta at about 4.30pm, and then waiting until 7pm to get my connection to Denpasar, Bali.

Due to the fact that I didn't get to put the booking through myself, I ended up sitting in the isle, which is the seat I really despise. On a long haul flight I dislike it because I usually use the long flight times to sleep, but it's really annoying when the people on the inside of you keep wanting to get up and go to the toilet, or you get bashed into by the air hostesses as they push the trolley up and down the isles.

I can't remember where I was flying to, or from, but I remember being really annoyed with these two old ladies who first of all stole my window seat saying "It doesn't really matter to you, does it". Before then spending pretty much all of the flight being up and down like a yo-yo chatting to their friends in the seats behind them. After about four hours of non-stop disturbances I remember turning to one of them and saying "This is why it matters.....!" Grumpy, lack of sleep Ben is not a monster that you want to awaken.

Thankfully this was only a short flight so I thought being in seat 'C' wouldn't matter too much... I was wrong.

The two people next to me rock up with their three month old baby, who was slightly grizzly and undoubtedly confused by the whole affair so that wasn't a great start. Then, before we've even taken off, I notice that the lady next to me has a plastic bag in front of her which at random intervals she is either being sick, or attempting to be sick into. Cranky baby, and vomiting mother were both being looked after by a doting father who didn't know which one to deal with first.
Just before the end of my flight some guy burst down the isle to go to the toilet, but didn't quite make it in time and ended up being sick all over the floor at the front of the plane...

I'm not one of those people who stands up immediately after the plane has landed and grabs their bag in preparation to disembark, but anything I could do to get away from this nightmare was clearly going to be good for my psyche. 

On to Jakarta then, and after following some very bad signs which directed transit passengers in a different direction than the exit, I stopped to ask somebody where to go and they said that I needed to be in a different terminal building. I had read on the Internet that there was a shuttle bus between each of the airport's terminals (are you reading this Manila?) so I stepped outside to try and find where it set off from.

It was at this point that I had a strange feeling that maybe I'd made a mistake by not collecting my bag as everyone else had.

I spoke with someone at the information desk, and he said that I needed to because I was going to a different terminal. Upon asking a security guard to let me back into the building so I could do so he checked my luggage label and said that I would be able to pick up my bag at the Denpasar terminal when I arrived there.

Waiting in line for the bus, I was almost immediately bugged by a taxi driver who was trying to offer me a lift. Now being from Yorkshire, and also a pretty tight budget on this trip, I'm up for anything that's free. He tried to spin me some line about the shuttle bus being every two hours - even though the sign said it would arrive every twenty minutes, and inched ever closer even though I kept telling him that I wasn't interested. Considering I had three hours between flights it wouldn't have made any difference if it took two hours anyway! 

Despite constant protests for him to leave me alone and stop offering me a price that was anything but free, I moved to a different part of the airport where the shuttle bus picked people up, and thankfully there was a security guard there with the boring, but essential job of waving taxi drivers on past the people waiting for the shuttle.

It took some time, but eventually arrived, and the ten of us waiting crammed ourself onto the bus and set off towards terminals two, and three. When I eventually got off at the right terminal, it was a bit of a relief as it was massively rammed on there with everyone carrying their luggage and barely any spaces to sit down.

I went through security, which in Asia seems to be at the entrance to the airport as well as before you board, and checked the flight times to see if there was any information about my journey to Denpasar.
I was really confused to notice that my flight number was attached to a flight to Yogajakarta, but I asked at the information desk and the woman said that was an error. 

I brought myself a snack and then went to the departure lounge where I was met my another chaotic scene of this time a huge departure lounge with seven gates, but no information to let you know which one applied for which flight. Instead, I had to listen out for a half Indonesian-half English tanoy message which eventually let me know that my flight was going to be 'forty-five minutes from one hour late'. Puzzled I put my headphones back in and continued to use the sub-par wifi service to send messages home.

There appeared to be loads of flights heading to Denpasar which made the sporadic information messages very nerve-wracking, as with each one that wasn't my own, I saw a huge rush of people flood their way in an incredibly disorganised manner to the gate to try and squeeze themselves through onto their flight. When it eventually came time for mine to board I had to box a couple of people out using my basketball smarts to ensure that I actually got my ticket seen. We boarded a bus to get to the plane which went round for, no exaggeration, fifteen minutes before we eventually go to the right one. I genuinely thought it was lost at one point as I'm pretty sure we circled back around the same area three times.

On this journey I had managed to luck my way into a window seat, and after telling the person sitting in it to skedaddle, I was happily asleep, and only woke up once I heard an announcement that we were shortly landing. I was moderately confused as I knew I had to add on an hour due to the time-zone difference, but that still meant we were way earlier than planned, and had set off about an hour late. Only once we touched down did I realise that the earlier signage I'd seen to Yogajakarta was actually correct as we were stopping there first to pick up some more passengers before continuing to Denpasar. Some information on this would have been fantastic, but I didn't let it concern me too long and went back to sleep.

Eventually at about 12:30am we arrived into Denpasar after a farce getting extra passengers on, and a seemingly endless wait for the doors to open. Thankfully I didn't have to ride a bus this time, and although I was a little worried having been given two pieces of differing information, it was good to see my bag rolling round towards me on the luggage conveyor. 

I spent a bit of time haggling with the taxi drivers to get a decent price upon exiting the airport. I guess, like in the Philippines, people assume you will just accept their 'generosity' at any price, but having read that it would cost me 70,000-100,000 Rp to get to Jimbaran where I'm staying, I flatly refused to even bother negotiating with the people who offered to take me for 200,000 Rp.

I eventually managed to haggle someone down to 100,000 Rp, which considering it's after midnight probably wasn't too bad. 

My hotel was in a bit of a difficult to find place, so the taxi driver had to call the telephone number included in my reservation to find out at which part of the unlit street we'd driven down the place I'm staying as hiding in, and after been given my key by the owner of the place it was about 2.30am.

Needless to say I had a bit of a lie-in this morning, checked in properly and was given some information about what is around the area I'm staying in. This area of Bali, the southern region, is mostly known for it's beaches, so anyone who doesn't want to know the results had better look away now, and stop reading my blog until at least Tuesday.

My 'hotel' actually not really a hotel at all. It's a cross between a villa and a guest house as the owner of the place has six separate rooms all within this piece of land, each of which is self-contained with a bedroom and bathroom. Outside there is a miniature terraced area which I sat at this morning in the sun whilst my body woke itself up.

As with any good island resort, particularly in this part of the world, the most effective way to get around is by moped. My one experience with a moped came in Thailand when my friend Kevin and I bravely rented scooters from our hotel and spent the week riding around from beach-to-beach whilst trying not to completely blend in by driving offensively!
The owner of the hotel said that he could lend me his as it was the best way to see Bali. Considering it's been almost five years since I rode a moped I was a little nervous, but a couple of runs up and down the road I'm staying and I was good to go.

There are four or five different locations here that I've planned to visit so I thought I'd go and try to find two of them today, one was a local beach, and the other, the main one in Jimbaran. 

The owner had drawn me a map, and I planned to head towards the local beach first, as he'd given me three choices of places to head to. I immediately changed my mind as having to turn right out of the road junction I am staying on could have meant the end of my life, so instead I went left and picked up my moped-legs along the way. I found a roundabout to negotiate and then managed to set off back in the direction I had first intended to go and eventually I was on my way on Balangtan Beach - or so I thought. 

The map I'd been given showed me turning right after a bank and opposite the supermarket, but I must have driven round for about twenty minutes with no success. Thanks to my excellent navigational skills, I managed to make it out of whatever horrendously confusing non-beach-based maze, I'd made my way into. Feeling bold, I made my first right turn and was set for the rest of the day having navigated my way through the endlessly on-coming traffic. 

I stopped to grab a drink at a local convenience store and decided to continue up the road a little further where I eventually found a sign for Balangtan so I followed it round and down expecting that I would very soon find myself on the sandy shores of the beach....

Half an hour later, and still riding I hadn't seen any further signage to let me know I was going the right way, and although I kept seeing people with surf boards heading the opposite way to me, there was no sign of the sea as yet. I started following people who looked like they would be fellow beach-goers, but to no avail as each one of them ended up going down a very windey street which I presumed was the location of their house. Along the way I also had to navigate stray dogs, livestock and chickens all of which apparently roam free in this part of Bali.

Several wrong turns later and I was started to get a little ancey about finding the water until eventually I came upon what actually looked like a car park. Paying 2000 Rp (one pound) to get in I parked up and started to walk up towards a large hill where there were a few people taking pictures. Only I would walk away from the beach towards a good photo opportunity after spending so much time to get to where I'm going.

It was worth it though as there were several excellent viewpoints down onto the white sandy beach which appeared to be fairly quiet. On the opposite side of the land which jutted out there was another excellent looking piece of beach which featured some of the clearest blue water I'd ever seen. Strange as it sounds, it reminded me of Durdle Door in Dorset which is the place in the UK which I'd visited during the summer which had a very tropical feel about it.

After taking some picture I decided to wonder down to the beach itself where I was greeted by the tingle of red hot sand, and the sight of some very bright sun rays bouncing off the water - good job I had my authentic Ray Bans to block them out. 

I walked down the beach a little, dipping my feet in the water. It was actually cold, but quite refreshing all the same, and eventually I found a rock a perch on where I watched the waves lap the shore. Balangtan Beach isn't the best I've even been on by any means, but it was pretty beautiful, and the perfect place to relax for a couple of hours before hitting the road again and looking for another one along the trail.

Instead of going back to Jimbaran Beach where I intended to watch the sunset, I moved along to the next one on my hand drawn map which was called Dream Beach. Turns out it was more of a nightmare as I turned off where I thought it was supposed to be according to my piece of paper, but I drove round for another frustrating twenty minutes before eventually deciding to give up, and head back towards Jimbaran instead. Is it really that hard to put a sign up which says: "Hey foreigners, this way to the beach"

Heading back on myself I eventually found my way back to the roundabout I had earlier gone round, and headed down towards the main centre of Jimbaran. One thing I have particularly noticed whilst I have been here is that some of the architecture on Indonesian temples is fantastic. I saw a particularly impressive one earlier which had black stones on the outside and was then decorated with lots of different patterns in white brick. I've always loved the architecture of Japanese and Chinese temples, but some of the ones I witnessed to today were equally brilliant. 

Sadly I didn't get to take any pictures of them, and it's at this point I have to re-pitch my idea for a type of contact lenses which can take photographs when you blink as I think those would have come in very useful today!

It looked like I was starting to go off track with the route again as I appeared to be heading back to Denpasar, as the loud roar of aeroplanes and the sight of a runway indicated that I had missed a turning somewhere so I went back on myself and headed onto a little side road. I could see the water, but couldn't find anyway to access it, until I went down a path which looked only wide enough for pedestrians and eventually came out at a place where a lot of bikes were parked. I was pleased to have somehow once again navigated my way to the beach.

Jimbaran Beach was nothing spectacular, but it was a beach all the same. I came out in what seemed to be the middle with a bunch of restaurants in both directions, but the majority of people and landscape to the left so I chose to walk in that direction.
The beach itself wasn't that great to walk on. There was a little pier with lots of litter washed up on it, and there were plenty of stones to step across too. I found my way to a decent spot though near where a couple of people were fishing, and away from all the people taking selfies in front of the water and pitched up to watch what little of the sun that could be seen set.

It actually looked more like a storm was coming as the waves started to crash against the shore, and as it started to get a little bit dark I felt a few spots of rain on my legs. I couldn't decide whether to dash into a restaurant nearby and wait it out, but instead I decided to hop onto the bike and look for somewhere a bit closer to my hotel.

About half way back I had to dip into the pocket underneath my set to find the poncho which had very kindly been put there for me, and as I looked super cool in what was essentially a bin bag with three holes in it, I stopped at a restaurant just down the street from where I'm staying.

I never thought I'd say this in this part of the world, but I think Indonesia needs more neon signs....
It's really hard to tell what is what in the fading light, and whether things are open or not. I managed to find somewhere that was, with a neon sign up, which was a restaurant called the Warung Station; rather novely it was a restaurant in the carriage of a train, with the section for the dirty smokers being the platform. I grabbed some spicy noodles with chicken for dinner, and although I tried my best to wait out the rain, I could have been there all night. Despite only being a minute from my hotel, I missed the damn turning once again and had to make a manoever in the road that there's no way I would have done hours earlier.

I pulled into the hotel just as a few loud claps of thunder and a streak of lightning lit up the sky, glad that I'd made it home before a storm of about thirty minutes or so battered my poor windows and doors.

So despite a few directional mis-steps, not entirely due to my own incompetence, I managed to successfully reach a couple of the many beaches here on Bali. The experience of having a moped made things interesting if nothing else, although I am really glad I took out health insurance which included cover for any injuries which I may obtain from riding one.

Searching
China Black (1994)

Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right

Three nights after originally planned, my stay in Kuching came to an end this morning as I bid Sarawak farewell and prepared to move onto the next unexplored lands on my itinerary.

My experience in Kuching was a fantastic one, particularly the first two days when I visited the national parks and I think that the fact I decided to stay for an extra three days demonstrates the importance of flexibility when you go travelling for a long period of time.
Obviously this creates its own problems - as I am discovering, there is a constant need for me to be on my laptop every evening booking flights and hotels, but it completely changes your outlook on the trip giving you a feeling of greater freedom and more choice as the journey develops.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned it before, but slightly before arriving in Kuching, I compared and contrasted the list of how many days I expected to be in each place against the actual total of how long I have spent in each location. I tried to do this to give myself an idea of how I was getting along, and at the moment I am about six days ahead of where I thought I would be. Apart from in the Philippines where I ended up staying a day extra, I have been slightly under by one or two days in each of the other places. My most significant difference was in Sabah where I was going to stay for six days in three different locations but ended up changing to just a single location for two nights.
This isn't a problem however as there are some countries coming up where I have given myself a lot of locations to visit, but not a great amount of time to do it in - these extra days should help me find some balance.

The other reason for me checking my dates is because last weekend my girlfriend Sarah booked some flights out to come and see me in Hong Kong.
This is the fourth last stop I will be making on my trip so I calculated what day she will arrive (115th day in the total of 181) so as the time when she is due to arrive gets closer I can try to make sure that I am on track. Not sure she'd appreciate spending a couple of days without me in Hong Kong whilst I finish off elsewhere....

I felt like I had a fairly disturbed sleep last night.
Thankfully the firecrackers which woke me up in the early part of the week have now ceased, but I suffered an even more dreadful issue of being irritated by the sound of mosquitoes buzzing around my ears in the middle of the night. Anyone who had heard the high-pitched piercing sound of these serial biters will know exactly what I mean.
I thought I'd managed to catch the few of them that somehow escaped into my room, but turns out there was one left who felt like torturing me a couple of times on Monday night before I eventually resorted to sleeping with the air conditioning on, and freezing him out.
The last two nights I've slept with my ear-bud headphones in and with the covers over my head to prevent having to suffer the trauma in the middle of a peaceful sleep. It worked on Tuesday night, but last night I still heard the sound that nightmares are made of so I spent five minutes trying to catch the little bugger before eventually resorting to the A/C again.

I kept hearing noises outside of my window last night, but I wasn't sure if that was just the usual loud zipping of motorbikes as they fly down the main road where I'm staying or something else. Upon opening my curtains this morning it turned out that it might well have been the rain lashing on the road that made things not quite so enjoyable in bed last night - that and the fear of sleeping through my 5.30am alarm and not making my flight I guess.

I'd asked the owner of the guesthouse if they could very kindly wash some clothes for me to be ready for heading out this morning, and they'd obliged with a black plastic bag full of stuff left outside of my door. Unfortunately due to the earliness of my flight there wasn't time to even sneak in any breakfast this morning, but I did hope to be all checked in and ready to go, giving me time to grab something to eat if I needed it before my flight at 8:15am.

Bidding my farewells to the couple in charge of the Marco Polo I headed out onto the main road in a bid to flag down a taxi who would take me to the airport. Typically, whenever you don't need a taxi, they seem to be readily available, but I must have stood on the corner of the main road for about twenty minutes this morning before deciding to head to a slightly busier junction where I might have a bit more luck as traffic came from different directions.

By this point the rain had stopped, but none of the cars which splashed through the puddles on the road appeared to be taxis as I started to consider whether or not walking away from the town was a wise move. Eventually having walked for a good 400m or so, a driver heading the right way was willing to pick me up and drop me off at the airport.
Kuching International Airport was only about twenty minutes from where I was staying, but with the additional morning traffic it took us about 40 minutes to arrive. As is customary on this trip, I paid way less for a return to the airport than I did to depart from there in the first place, but I managed to check-in with no problems and arrive at my gate with plenty of time to spare.

Even though it's called 'International Airport' there are only a handful of international destinations to fly to from Kuching. Much of it's traffic is domestic from Sabah or the Malaysia peninsula.
I looked out of the window whilst waiting in the airport lounge and saw no sign of a plane as 8:15 ticked by.
Eventually we were called to board our plane, a tiny little jet propelled vehicle which I felt wouldn't survive very well in a strong wind - no wonder I hadn't been able to spot it through the window.

My flight to Pontianak in Indonesia was only 45 minutes long, and due to the time difference between the two locations, it was actually a journey of minus 15 minutes as the plane was due to land at 8am local time.
To say it was a short flight the crew still managed to dispense a couple of drinks and some snacks before we eventually landed on the outskirts of the city

If you Google Pontianak, one of the first things that comes up is the history of where the word comes from, and there are some rather scary looking pictures of a spectre of some kind. My stay of one night here was much less supernatural and more self-fulfilling as I was stopping her to visit the Equator Oblique.
With the heart of the city around 5kms shy of the Equator, Western Pontianak where I am staying is just in the northern hemisphere with other parts of the region below the famous dotted line.

Stopping at the sight at which the Equator Monument in Pontianak sits on was my sole reason for visiting this area. I felt like it was a good opportunity to do something cool, and tick off another item on my traveller's bucket list.

Having taken such an early flight this morning, I had to do the same as I did in Brunei and spend some painful hours in the airport this morning waiting until around 12 when there might be an opportunity to check-in a little bit early. I sat and finished off my book (the excellent 'The Kite Runner'), and I also had to work out how to take some money out. Indonesia is the first country that I have been to on this journey where I have needed a visa to enter; thankfully the process was relatively easy though, and the US $s that I brought with me proved to be very useful in paying for the required documentation.

I kept feeling like I was nodding off in my chair sitting in the arrivals area of the airport so I went for a walk to try and work out how much money to withdraw for my stay in Indonesia. I have decided that this is definitely one of my least favourite parts of travelling as it's so hard to know how much to budget for. Having juggled so many currencies in my head in the last couple of days, I'd forgotten to find the rate from pounds of Indonesian Rupiah so caused all types of hilarity when I went up to the money exchanging counter in the airport to find out what they'd offer.
The women I'd spoke to initially had no idea what I was on about and called someone else over to see if they could help out. Neither of the people understood what currency I was referring to when I said 'Pound Stirling' and then after calling a third and fourth person over I tried to give a visual demonstration of what I was talking by showing them a ten pound note I had tucked away in my wallet. All four of the people looked at it memorised as if I had just pulled a gold bar out of my bag, and eventually the initial women I spoke to gave me a rate, and therefore an idea of how much to withdraw.

One of the other things I dislike to much about having to change money is the constant calculations you have to do in your head to convert prices back to your local currency. Denominations of Indonesian Rupiah are quite high (I withdrew RP 1,200,000) making it unbelievable complicated to work out how much you're spending on things like a taxi or some food. Considering I have spent the last few weeks working stuff out in Pesos, Ringits and Dollars, it is certainly not what my poor little brain needed.

At this point it was about time to book myself a taxi so I went up to the counter and managed to get a coupon to head to my hotel. Going through the swarm of drivers, I found my way to the one who was at the front of the queue, and began making my way to the Transera Hotel Pontianak. I didn't pay too much attention to the sights and sounds of Indonesia on the way from the airport to my hotel as I kept drifting in and out of sleep, but I do vaguely remember seeing some elements of both Malaysia and the Philippines here.
I don't know a great deal about Indonesian culture, but if you remember this was one of the three places that I'd considered not visiting at all because of how complicated it all appeared to be.

It's always a bit of a relief when you arrive at your hotel I find and it was even more relieving to find out that I was actually going to be able to check-in early.
My room here is on the fifth floor of an eight story building, and after the surroundings of the guesthouse in Kuching it was nice to be able to have the freedom of my own bathroom. I took advantage of this by having a shower as I didn't have time this morning, and then proceeded to have a bit of a lie down hoping that it would make me less liable to keep falling sleep throughout the day.

Waking up around 2pm I went down to reception to ask about borrowing the services of an international adapter for the plug sockets, and also enquired about the best way to get to the Equatorial Oblique which was my sole stop for the day. The lady behind the desk advised me that the best way to go about doing this would be to get in a taxi and pay for a round trip - thankfully they said they'd organise all of this for me whilst I waited in the lobby.
I'd read online that the other method of getting to the museum was by using the public bus, but I was quite glad they suggested booking a taxi because as it says on wikipedia..."Public buses are sometimes unsafe and you may be threatened with a knife and asked to hand over your valuables" Goodness me...
I look forward to this being my old method of transport at some point later in the journey.

The hotel managed to sort me out with a driver - I think it was actually someone from the staff rather than a local driver, and he explained in pigeon English which direction he was going to be headed in.
I kept my eyes on the road a little more this time around and saw a variety of sights that would be enough to give even the most studied traveller sensory overload.
Not to re-kindle my obsession with traffic, but there sure were a hell of a load of mopeds on the road. They were almost overpowering, coming from every direction, dipping between traffic, hurtling the wrong way down the road to avoid congestion, and even at one point taking to what I figured was a pedestrian pathway whilst travelling across a bridge.

You'll be pleased to know that the use of the horn is back in full force here - except more often than not it was necessary as mopeds paid little or no attention to the cars coming behind them. It took about thirty incredibly entertaining minutes before we eventually bore left into what looked like a car park which played home to the Equatorial Oblique Museum.

I know being on the Equator isn't the most exciting thing, but I was amazed by the lack of ceremony of the whole place. I've been to museums about mundane artefacts which celebrated their nothingness with greater vigour than a location which is only found around twelve times across the world.

Upon entering the gentleman explained to me in his best English that this was a monument which was laid in 1921 to signify that this point in Pontianak is at the centre of the earth. He also explained to me that due to global warming, and the repositioning of satellites that the point at which the museum dissects the Equator is actually about ten metres to the west of where the museum currently sits.

I took a few minutes to wander around and look at the exhibits, the descriptions for most of which were written in Indonesian. After taking half an hour or so to walk around the main museum, I headed over to the souvenir shop, and then back the car where my driver was patiently waiting for me.

Traffic was starting to pick up and go into 'Filipino mode' as at one point we were stopped in the road and what seemed like an endless stream of bikes poured past us. It was like water speeding down a plug hole as all manor of vehicles left us behind to continue their journey.
I won't bore you with all the varieties of moped riders I saw on my return journey to the hotel, but a few of my favourite are:

- Man with lady friend on the back, sitting sideways so as not to get her dress into an awkward position.
- Man with no helmet driving, women with helmet on appear to be holding the phone to the driver's ear.
- Man with no shirt on riding across the across the grass to cut out traffic on one particular corner
- Family clearly going for a day out with a pattern of (from the front) - Child standing up, adult driving, child, child, adult
- Woman driving with man on the back holding two cages with pigeons in
- Man standing up whilst wearing a backpack and driving with child balanced against the backpack and mother supporting them

After a couple of near misses, and what looked like a scene from a Formula One race with all the mopeds in a grip formation at the traffic lights  I made it back safely to the hotel feeling like today had been a successful accomplishment. This evening I ate on the top floor of hotel which is a lovely roof top restaurant which had an excellent view out over the city. Even at 8pm it is still very warm, and slightly different to the experience of attempting to do this in England during late February.

One thing I feel like I haven't pointed out enough is how fortunate I have been with my hotels, and the general helpfulness of the people in them. I recognise that it is their job to be informative and pleasant, but one particular server this evening was particularly nice and jogged my memory to write something very positive about these types of experience I've had whilst in South-East Asia. I'm partly convinced that this is due to the 'magical foreigner' factor that people from the west have in these countries where people are always seemingly intrigued about what you're from, and what you're doing in their country. I also feel like the environment they live in is also less pressured than the one back in England so it seems less likely that you're going to be dealing with someone stressed who you catch on a bad day.

My stay in Indonesia is just beginning to take shape, and I really hate generalising about a country seems, but from first impression I feel like this may be an interesting stay here. Each of the three islands I will be visiting seem to be comprised of different activities and I feel like for a country where I am visiting a number of cities, this could certainly be the most diverse of all.


Stuck in the Middle
Stealers Wheel (1972)

We've Come a Long, Long Way Together, Through the Hard Times and the Good

I was hoping to be able to write an exciting story in my blog today about something fun which I did, but a bit like yesterday, events appear to have conspired against me on my final day in Kuching.

Woke up early to grab breakfast this morning with the intention of heading out to Kubah National Park which is around 30 minutes away from Kuching. It's not quite as prestigious as Bako which I visited on Sunday, but I'd read there were some really good trails including one which leads up to the top of the mountain the park sits on, and another which passes by four or five waterfalls.

As I have begun to learn here in Malaysia, the bus system isn't always the most intuitive, so I prepared myself about 10am for the walk to the bus stop. The only bus before that was at 8am which I never would have made as I was still snuggled up in bed after another late night. The only one after that was at 2pm and the last one back from Kubah aren't the best either as they're at 3:30pm. Departing at 11am, didn't mean it would be full day's trekking but one of the people where I'm staying in said that I would easily have enough time to complete one, if not both of the trails in that time.

I got to the bus station at about 10:30am giving myself plenty of time to catch the K21 to Kubah. I mentioned before that when I got here we were given a piece of paper with the bus timetables and a map of Kuching on it, but one thing I forgot to mention was that in big letters at the top it says - 'THIS BUS TIMETABLE IS FOR ILLUSTRATION PURPOSES ONLY - BUSES ARE NOT RELIABLE AND OFTEN LATE'.

Time ticked on towards 11am as I strolled through the station to see if my bus was here yet. The station in Kuching is basically a lay-by on the road, and even though there is often room to pull forward and let their colleagues out of the way of traffic, the drivers for some reason love to only move and fill up the space when they're about to set off. No sign of the bus ten minutes later, and I started to get a little concerned. I went to ask at the ticket office and they said that it should have been there already.
I waited until about 11.30am, by which point I'd been stood there an hour, and it appeared that a couple of the other people waiting at at the same place as me got into a taxi instead. I didn't fancy the expense so decided to have a bit of a lazy day today and try to prepare myself for the arduous task of travelling through Indonesia in the week or so.

I feel like I have constantly been on the go since coming to Kuching, I have really enjoyed myself, and it has been a fantastic experience here in Borneo, but I can't help but feel like I have somewhat been neglecting my body. A combination of late nights, early mornings and searing heat throughout the day seem to be taking it out of me - and whilst I don't expect that to change any considering I'm going to be slightly closer to the equator, the pace at which my journey might well slow down when I get to the picturesque island of Bali.

One thing a much quieter day does do is allow me to put into perspective what an immensely enjoyable part of the world this is. I felt like I've had some really good experiences in both Kota Kinabalu, and particularly here in Kuching where I think part of my enjoyment factor has come from how easily accessible things have been.
I always thought of Borneo as uninhabited jungles, but the two areas I have been to have certainly been very well developed; saying that, neither has lost their touch with nature. It's really funny because sometimes I get really skittish walking down the street when I hear a strange noise or when I see a creature I don't think I have encountered before. Yesterday I'm pretty sure I saw a small monitor lizard nipping into an open drain, and I came across a bug on the path yesterday that was the size of a large pebble which had wings and what looked to be a really hard shell. I'm so fascinated by everything.

When I first looked at coming to Borneo, one thing I did notice, and add to my list of places to go were the national parks for any one of the many animal encounters there were, but having not done much research I didn't feel like these would be things that I would actually end up doing. It was amazing that in the first two days I was able to get to go and see some orang-utans and then follow that up with a few varieties of monkeys. I think these are experiences will stay with me long after some of the memories of other things I've done here have faded. It's been a good contrast to the concrete cities I am likely to experience in the Hong Kong and Japan, and I even though I had some initial scepticism as to whether I would be entertained enough here, I think my decision has been justified.

One thing I also must celebrate my enjoyment of is the guest-house where I have been staying. As I mentioned in a previous post, I thought I'd push the boundaries of my comfort a little bit by not staying in a hotel and I think I have been very fortunate to stay here. Once you get used to the fact that you don't have your own bathroom, and that it's a pain in the backside to get up and walk down the creaky corridor when you need the toilet in the middle of the night, it's fine.

The one particular feature of the Marco Polo where I have been staying which deserves a mention is the service and the friendly welcome of the two people who are in charge. I still haven't caught their names (but will before I leave) and from the moment I walked in they have made me feel welcome. Obviously owning a guest-house rather than say being employed in a hotel, you're more invested in the care and service element of the business and here it has been top-notch.

Willingness to offer help to their guests, provide useful local information as well as generally just be pleasant and take an interest in the people staying here is something this couple have got 100% correct in my eyes. The place is well run, has some good facilities and excellent rooms. The way in which the owners treat their guests with respect, and take an interest in their travels is fantastic. The guy who sat me down for half an hour when I arrived at first is always asking what we're up to or is suggesting ideas for restaurants or places to visit. The personal touch is very much in effect here, and if I were to come back to this part of the world then I would definitely consider staying here first before anywhere else. I cannot recommend it highly enough and I think it deserves praise for the feelings of enjoyment I have had since arriving.

Whilst the days have been full, I feel like my time here has zipped by, and having extended my stay by three days I feel I have been able to gain the most out of the experience. Tomorrow I will be leaving early in the morning to head to Indonesia, and the beginning of another adventure. I will look back on my time in Borneo fondly and will definitely recommend this as a place to visit to anyone feeling adventurous enough.





Praise You (One of the best music videos ever!)
Fatboy Slim (1998)

Can't Wait to Get Out and Move Forward With My Life

In life, whenever you tell stories about your past or your experiences, there are always those 'You had to be there' moments which indicate that no matter how much you'd like the listener to understand, there is just no way they can comprehend the situation involved unless they were there with you at the time.

I think today might be one of those occasions, but I'm going to try to explain as best I can because it will be a good demonstration of the fact that try as you might, you will always have some slight mis-steps along the way whenever visiting a foreign country. As I discussed in a previous blog about the Philippines this is often because of the difference in the two cultures (with a little help from the language barrier).

The plan for today as to head out to a place about 20kms from Kuching where there is an old gold mining town which has a couple of highly explorable caves in it. The first is called the Wind Cave, the second, the Fairy Cave. I had read about them online, seeing that they were very accessible and after avoiding all the bats and climbing up through them you'd come upon some spectacular views which would provide you with a look out over much of the region. Having brought myself a headlamp before coming here, I figured this might be an excellent moment to use it, and after studying the bus schedule I set off at about 10am in the direction of the bus.

On my way to the station, I needed to pick myself up a pair of sunglasses. Can't remember if I explained or not, but during the great bus crush of Brunei, someone was launched backwards into me and ended up crushing one of the legs of my previous ones which were tucked into my t-shirt meaning that they no longer actually stay on my face. Considering they cost me $1 from a gas station three years ago, I wasn't too bothered, but since arriving in Kuching I keep forgetting to pick up a replacement pair. Knowing that I was going to be out in the sun for a fairly substantial amount of time, I figured it was a good opportunity to do so.

I'd had a brief look the other day, but to no avail, today though I managed to find a shopping street called "Little India" and picked up a pair of Ray Bans for the equivalent of three pounds - not even going to pretend they're likely to be legitimate, but at least they would stop the sun from shining in my eyes....maybe.
It was a little bit of a confusing journey today; first I had to ride the bus from Kuching to Bau, and then once in Bau I had to take another bus towards Krokong which would stop along the way and provide me with access to either of the two caves.

The bus we were piled onto looked like it had seen better days. There were some loud crunches with the transmission whenever the driver attempted to change gear, and it felt like being in a sauna because there was no air conditioning and the minuscule crack in the windows barely let anything close to fresh air through them. I kept having to drink water to keep myself from feeling like I was about to pass out, and when after about an hour, we eventually arrived there I was pretty delighted.

Bau seemed like a small place, but there was a place to get some food before making the second part of the journey. After a very cheap meal of chicken and rice, I went back to the bus station to ask what time the bus would be arriving. It was just after 12pm at this point, and so I figured there would be one soon. Enquiring with the lady in the ticket office she said that there were no more buses until 3pm today. I told her where we were going and she said that it was possible to walk to one of the caves but it would take about half an hour. It seemed a shame to have gone through all the dramas of the bus journey not to make it so she pointed me off in the direction of the main road and said that I should follow it along, then go left and then to the right.

Immediately I knew there was some sort of breakdown in communications as I walked out onto a t-junction where there was no option to go straight.... I asked another lady at the Shell petrol station, and she pointed me down another road and said that it was pretty much a straight road from there until we got to the end of the lake and then we'd take a left and carry on going straight.
I felt slightly more confident with her directions although when nobody gives you a point of reference of how long to go straight for, or when the left or right is coming up, you do feel slightly dubious.

Following the road straight, I continued round a rather large lake and then when I got to the end I turned left, and then carried on going straight. This led me to a narrow looking path, and I considered whether or not a bus would be able to go down here. It seemed fairly flat and I thought that it was more likely to be a minibus than an actual bus that would take you to either one of the caves.
I followed this road for about twenty minutes, passing houses, and seeming like the whole time that I was on a windey road up towards the beautiful rocks that I had seen when walking by the lake.

All of a sudden the path turned to being stones and rocks - at this point I should have got slightly suspicious - but I continued on as the path rose up leading me closer towards what I presumed would be the entrance to the cave. It turned out to be the entrance..... to a quarry which then led into a national park which made me feel slightly more comfortable. That was until I reached another quarry and a sign saying "No Trespassing".

Thankfully there was a gentleman standing there who I asked about the cave and he kindly explained that I had taken a wrong turning somewhere along the way. As far as I could understand, I had taken the wrong right turning so I turned around and went back in the opposite direction. It was getting really hot by this point, and the sun was beating down on me, even through the trees. It was like being back in the Bako National Park again walking through the jungle with only the sound of insects for company.

Eventually I found my way back to the road that the guy near the quarry had indicated, but walking down it, I started to feel like this wasn't at all what he was talking about. After a five minute walk until I could find someone to ask, a woman said that I needed to take the previous road, then then turn right at the end of it and I would find the cave.
Coming out on what appeared to be a bit more of a main road, I stopped to ask someone who was driving down the road to check if this was indeed the correct place to be, and third time lucky he mentioned that it was, and that he was heading that direction back to his work as a teacher and would be able to give me a lift.

He drove down towards the park, explaining that I needed to be at a certain entrance and after about two minutes he dropped me off at the information centre. Everything seemed to be very closed, but I presumed that it was just because it wasn't a weekend and there probably weren't that many people wanting to access the cave. I walked back down to where I had seen an entrance earlier on, but to my surprise (not sure quite why I was so surprised) the gate to the cave was padlocked shut with a sign stating... 'Due to flash flooding, both the Fairy and Wind Caves have been closed. Any inconvenience is regrettable'.

My first thought was, "I've been here a week and seen no rain, where has this flash flooding come from", but then more concerning I thought about the fact that I'd interacted with about ten people along the way when enquiring about the cave, but not one of them had mentioned that it was closed! That included a teacher who worked down the road from there, and also a couple of local people who probably go past the place on a daily basis.

I walked back to the bus station and enquired about when the next bus back to Kuching would be, and was greeted by the same lady who'd told me earlier on that there would be no more buses today. I mentioned to her that the cave was closed and she said, "Yes, for many days the cave has been closed now, because of flooding.....".
I couldn't help but laugh and think that sort of information might have been useful to know about three hours before when I came in asking for a bus ticket. It's not like I was going to a town or a city, but a specific place, and it turned out she knew all along that it wasn't open.

I managed to get back on the 3.20pm bus to Kuching thoroughly entertained by the whole thing, and thinking that at least I had managed to get out for the day and have a walk, even if it hadn't turned out quite how I planned.

This provided me with a delicate reminder that I am far away from home, where customs might not be in place to give out useful information such as the status of a tourist attraction in the nearby area! In England I feel like someone definitely would have mentioned it along the way, and perhaps saved me from myself, but here in Malaysia that didn't seem to be the case. It's one of the few differences you have to consider when coming to a different part of the world, I felt I definitely learned my lesson about that today - or at least had the lesson reinforced.

Locked Up
Akon (2003)

This is Pain, This is Love, This is Sent From Above, This Was a Gift From the Gods It Was Meant to Be

I can't pretend to know too much about the celebrations involved in Chinese New Year, but being in Kuching for the last couple of days I have certainly picked up a couple of pieces of information.

First of all, it lasts for six days - the shops all around me were a bit more open today, but there are still some which say they will return to work in the middle of this week which means that I have to stroll past a bunch of buildings with their shutters down just got get a bottle of water.
Secondly, I know that it is it the Year of the Sheep, and that for some reason yesterday that the Chinese people close to here were setting off fireworks in the middle of the day to celebrate this momentous occasion.

Thirdly, and most importantly, I know that I woke up this morning to the sound of about two minutes worth of firecrackers going off at 5am. It honestly sounded like I had accidently set them off in my room, either that I was in the middle of Harlem during a late-night shoot-out.
Sometimes when things wake you up early in the morning, you can turn over and go back to bed, but after being extremely startled my eyes were wide open until it was time to get up.

Mercifully this wasn't too much longer afterwards as I was planning to spend the day out in the wilds of Borneo once again, this time going to Bako National Park which is one of Sarawak's most celebrated attractions. The other major site known is known as Mulu World Herritage Area is extremely popular due to the fact that it falls under all four categories of a World Herritage sight - one of the only places to do so in the world.

Bako is popular with visitors in the area, and it is widely recommended that people visit the park over two days, staying for one night in the lodge and then being able to go out on different trails on the days either side. Unfortunately with it being Chinese New Year and also the weekend, the park accomodation was closed up, but I decided to make a day trip of it, catching the bus at about 8.10am just across the way from where my hotel is.
I felt a few spits of rain which worried me slightly, but it eased off as the journey began towards Bako.

As yesterday there were a few other 'foreigners' on the bus, waiting to pay twice as much as a native to get into the attraction!
I'd heard various things about Bako itself - it's famous as a sight for Proboscis monkeys, but I'd also read that there was a chance of seeing other monkeys, and also wild boar too.

When we arrived at the visitors centre we paid for our tickets (20RM) and then for a boat journey which would actually take us to the park. The place we'd got the bus to was essentially a jetty where you would actually then get taken over to the national park. After about ten minutes or so of waiting for a bunch of boats to show up to escort us, we were given a life jacket and boarded into a speedboat.
I was a little worried having seen a sign just before I got into the vessel which said "BEWARE ALLIGATORS RECENTLY SEEN IN THIS AREA", and I spent pretty much most of the journey wondering if the bits of driftwood and fallen coconuts in the water were actually going to turn out to be something which would decide it wanted a human for a snack.
The boat ride itself was pretty exhilarating. I know I went on a boat in Brunei across to the water village, but that was only about forty-five seconds or so, where as this was an actual proper boat ride which lasted twenty minutes.

I'd managed to sit myself at the front which only increased the experience as I could see shadows of what looked like trees in the distance as we cruised along the water to a still seemingly unknown destination. It felt like arriving into Jurassic Park or something as I genuinely had no idea where we were going as the sun started to come up properly and the water glistened with the sun's rays bouncing off it in all directions.
We eventually arrived at the jetty on the other side and were given instructions to head towards the main lodge to pick up a map to begin our day.

Half way there, a group of people were looking into the trees and as I stared up I saw some macaque monkeys who were making a racket and rustling about trying to find food. These are the kind of mischievous creatures that you see, and are reportedly often bold enough to try and steal bags, cameras and food from unsuspecting people.
Continuing on towards the lodge, the temperature was now starting to pick up, and I was reminded by my surroundings that today was definitely going to be a day spent in the tropical heat of the jungle - good job I'd remembered to spray lots of mosquito repellent on myself before leaving.

I was given a map, and the three best trails were highlighted to me, with one to the beach where the proboscis monkeys usually come out and feed, another which had over 100 types of vegetation on it, and another one which leads towards a waterfall. I decided to follow trail three first which was the one with the monkeys, and avoiding the wild pig which had just appeared around the lodge, I headed off back in the direction of where the jetty was to begin the walk. On the way I encountered the macaques again who were just working their way through the trees in an area of muddy ground where we got off the boat. They certainly weren't shy standing about two to three feet away from where I was, probably trying to work out if there was anything loose they could grab hold of and escape with - no such luck my monkey friend.

I continued up until I got to a little work in the trail where I headed left towards the beach which was around 1.2kms away. The trail was fairly rugged with much of it just tree roots and branches which had been stamped down in over to create a path. In other areas there were man made bridges and steps which had been put up over the tops of rocks and hard to climb places. There were a couple of little waterfalls along the way with some very structurally interesting rocks. Eventually I managed to find my way to the beach which opened up at about 180 degrees straight after coming out of the middle of the jungle.
There were some huge rocks which I climbed upon to get a good view from - I forgot to mention yesterday but wise to the fact that views might be a major part of this trip I invested in a cheap pair of binoculars before coming, and they were useful yesterday with the orang-utans, and also came in worthwhile today when I was scouring the trees for monkeys.

Sadly I didn't see any around the place, but I did spent quite a long time looking at the crabs as they moved around on the beach. There were some tiny little ones that scurried off down holes as soon as you got near them, and then there were also a few that were hidden inside shells. These ones were more of a surprise to me, as I was looking at a perfectly round cornet shell thinking, "That looks interesting", and just as I was about to pick it up, I discovered as it scuttled away that actually every single shell that I had looked at and admired turned out to be some

sort of hermit crab's home.

In and around the rocks there were also some fiddler crabs, and some slightly bigger evil looking ones with green eyes.
I sat around for a little while waiting to see if anything turned up, but it didn't so I headed back in the direction I came in. Some people chose to take a boat back to the beginning point for each of the trails, but I quite enjoyed the walk on the way there so decided to go back in the same direction. After about five minutes of climbing up what I'd previously

come down, there were two people standing on a bridge. They motioned up to me that something was in the trees, and sure enough, just above my head were two proboscis monkeys having a little snooze. This particular type of monkey is well known for the distinctive size and shape of its nose, and I could see that despite it deciding to have a little nap in between the branches.
There were three in total, all snoozing, and as a tour guide explained to a party of people who walked past me, due to the heat in the afternoon and around lunchtime, they stop foraging for food and sleep high up in the branches instead. I didn't see much movement, except one who climbed a few branches high after hearing the noise of people walking through towards the beach, but I was impressed that once again I'd seen yet more animals in the wild.

Continuing my walk back I saw a couple of termite nests, as all as a hive for sting-less bees and some wild boars who were rooting around below me in the undergrowth for food. It was like being at a bizzaro zoo with so many animals around, and with the traditional noises of birds calling one another and the hum of insects I felt like I was David Attenborough during a BBC documentary.

The macaque monkeys were still on the move as I went back to the lodge to get myself a well deserved drink and some food over lunchtime. Some people learned the hard way that you always have to be alert to the presence of monkeys as rather hilariously their group meal was hijacked by a pair of monkeys who stole their food off the table and ran back into the forest with it quick as a flash. I was glad by that point that I had finished mine.

After resting for a bit, I found my second wind for another quick walk, and I chose a quick trail which went in the opposite direction from which I had previously headed which was only 400m or so. This one involved some serious climbing, and I was fascinated by seeing what looked like a giant pineapple shaped plant which had some very sharp leaves. As I climbed up towards the top of this particular hill I also discovered a colony of ants which I followed for about a hundred metres as what looked like thousands of them brought food back to their nest.

I eventually reached the top of this path which gave me a fantastic view out over a part of the national park

with the trees seemingly going on for miles and miles in all directions. It was starting to get towards 3pm which is when the last boat left so I followed my trail back down, stopping twice for an encounter with a group of  silvery lutung monkeys which were roaming around in the trees. The first group I only caught a glance of as they disappeared into the trees, and the second who looked like they had just found themselves some fruit were slightly bolder. One particular monkey who seemed to be enjoyed his snack almost posed as if encouraging me too take a picture as he sat at the top of the banister for the stairs. It was once again amazing to be so close up to the creatures, and eventually he finished whatever he was eating, threw the core on the ground and continued along to follow his friends.

It had been an eventual day, and the heat had thoroughly taken it out of me as I slouched against the porch beams waiting for a boat. Eventually a little fleet showed up, one of which I boarded - this time having to wade through the water to get there. I sat at the back this time clearly in the 'splashzone' as I felt a bit like I had swam through the water when I got off the boat at the other end.

A shared taxi gave me a ride back to the hotel at about 4pm, and for the first time since being here I was truly grateful for the air conditioning breaking up the solid wall of heat which is so dominating in this part of the world.

After the excitement of the orang-utans yesterday, this was just as good having felt like I was at a wildlife park with so many species of animals to see and encounter. I was very lucky to have spotted those monkeys on my way back, and it just shows that sometimes it's taking the long route back, as if I'd have taken the boat then I would have missed them. I really enjoyed the national park, and thought that even though I didn't get to stay over, it was still an enjoyable experience.

Animals
Maroon 5 (2014)