We had no internet access at our rainforest inn, and although we carried Dave's laptop in one of our bags, I found myself too exhausted every evening to bother turning it on. We've taken pictures, which I will post upon my return to Shanghai. But while it still resides in my head, I wanted to post a quick recap of the weekend.
Friday:
Dave and I left home by 7:30am - an astoundingly simple feat, when you needn't drag along any sleepy children. We made it to the airport in plenty of time, sat through a horrible China Eastern flight for 5-6 hours, and then hung out in Singapore's Changi Airport. Now, if one is going to hang out in any airport worldwide, Changi is the one. This place is huge, with gardens and waterfalls, pools, movies, restaurants, internet access, plenty of shopping, and certainly more. A simple place to wile away hour upon hour, we kept ourselves amused until our Air Asia flight left at 8:20pm for Kuching. Upon arrival an hour later in Kuching, we were met at the small airport by a taxi driver with our names on a sign. One dark hour later, we arrived at the Permai Rainforest Resort. We have discovered that our favorite hotels are those of the eco-tourism variety, and this one fit the description perfectly. We slept in a treehouse, with a fan rather than air conditioning, only a few meters away from the beach, beautifully obscured by a few layers of rainforest.
Saturday:
As we only had 2 full days in the jungles of Borneo, we had to get right to the jungle hiking. After a tasty breakfast, we set out to climb Mount Santobang. Just to be smart, we asked a few questions at the front desk. How long would this hike take? Probably 5 hours or so. We were leaving at 10:30, so this should be well timed. How difficult is this hike - what should we wear? Not too difficult - you should be fine in sandals.
Either our informant was poorly informed, or Dave and I proved to be miserable hikers. We did not heed her advice on the sandal hiking, and rightfully so. This hike delved straight into the jungle, where the path was generally made up of roughly piled boulders or of twisted roots gathered overtop of one another. Often the path could only be followed by holding tight to a rope and scaling a short length of sheer rockface. What we should have deduced ourselves was that a hike to the top of anything titled "Mount" would be a steep one. But we turned around when he path became nearly vertical, the steps more like ladders, and the assent entirely impossible without a handhold. We reached this point about halfway to our destination - and 4 hours into the hike. What we had expected to be 5 hours roundtrip turned into 6.5 hours, having turned around halfway through. We arrived back at our treehouse physically exhausted, and headed straight to the beach. We ate an early dinner and somehow managed to keep ourselves awake until a mildly respectable bedtime, and then crashed.
Sunday:
This day we began better informed, and better led. We signed up for a boat trip to Bako National Park. As our hotel sat on the end of one peninsula, and Bako National Park makes up the neighboring peninsula, a simple motorboat is the quickest route between the two destinations. Our captain dropped us near the park headquarters, promising to meet us at a beach a few kilometers hike away. He kept our lunches in the boat, and headed off. We hiked along Telok Paku in search of proboscis monkeys, found in the wild here in Bako. With or without monkeys, the trail was amazing, displaying the amazing colors and layers of a protected rainforest. My words simply can not describe how amazing we found this place, and I only hope that my photos will do it some justice. Luckily, we did have the chance to watch some of the monkeys as they swung through the trees over our heads. And although I'm not an avid wildlife watcher, standing on a path in the jungle and watching monkeys swing and dive through the tops of the trees is really something worth marveling at. Our second hike was along Telok Pandan Kecil, a walk described so well on the website that I'll simply steal their verbage:
The trek to Telok Pandan Kecil is one of Bako's most popular. It ascends the
forested hills overlooking Telok Assam, reaching a plateau covered in scrub
vegetation, and continues along a sandy path lined with carnivorous pitcher
plants, before reaching a cliff top with stunning views of the secluded bay
below and the famous sea stack just offshore. A 10 minute descent through cliff
vegetation brings you to one of the best beaches in the park.
And although they're right about the descent taking only 10 minutes, this was a steep descent ending with something near repelling by rope along a huge boulder. But the beach was a beautiful place for a picnic. Again, we ended our day exhausted - this time from the sun as much as the physical exertion, as part of this hike had been in the scrub vegetation on top of the plateau. This time we managed our evening better, fitting in time at the Sarawak Cultural Center and at the beach before a long, relaxing dinner.
Monday:
We revisited the Sarawak Culture Village on Monday morning. The rather pricey museum employs local members of Sarawak's indigenous people to organise a daily show, display traditional housing and show Malaysian artwork. I do not do the museum justice in this quick write-up. It is quite an interesting place, giving a wonderful glimpse into the lives of many people in Borneo, even to this day.
After the Cultural Village, we moved onto Kuching. This sleepy town in the capital of Sarawak, and a lovely little city of 500,000. Located on a pretty river with the backdrop of the jungle surrounding, this colonial town made for lovely walks. The city is full of museums, all with free entry. We checked out the textile museum and the ethnographic museum. And I tell you what - if any region needs an ethnographic museum, its Borneo. The tribes, local cultures and history of the area are astounding, and although the museum was not remarkably displayed, I couldn't help but find most of its subjects wildly interesting.
We ended Monday with another Air Asia flight, returning us to Singapore and a good, hot shower. Air Asia certainly earned its bragging rights as the best low-cost carrier in the world. I haven't flown them all, but Air Asia really blew my socks off.
I realize that although I've mentioned a number of places in this post, I've been sadly vague about each of them. Borneo, Malaysia is such a rich landscape and culture that I couldn't possibly write it well in only a few paragraphs. I should have taken the time to write each day as we were there - my mind would have retained all of the details that have not gelled into a general vision of Borneo as beautiful, wild, rugged and amazing. Well worth a trip of 2 days - we could have spent a month here.
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