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Stumbling through Asia (was Rainforest)

Hi everyone.

Being stuck in a town called Kuching on Malaysian Borneo, in a long sought-after Internet cafe, I thought I'd share some of my experiences of my trip sofar.

First, meeting Maharlika in Bangkok was a lot of fun. Thanks, Mahar, it was a blast. Bangkok is a really nice place, but had I not have had a "local" guide, I would probably have been to enfuriated to notice. To give you a hint: My friend Andy and I went to the desk of our hotel, a semiposh place in the centre of Bangkok, and we asked if they could recommend us some nice quiet bar that doesn't promote prostitution (Yes, it is really a major problem there). I accentuated the later, and rephrased it a couple of times, to not be misunderstood in this regard. Well, the guy says, no problem, use our hotel car and it will take you there safely. He tells the driver something, and off we go... to nothing short of a brothel! Well, after telling the driver again what we wanted, he drove aimlessly through the Nana district (yes, I guess the name does say it all), and we ended up waking up Mahar to get him to tell the guy where to go.

In short, avoid the "Indra regent", but be sure to visit Maharlika.

Going south from Thailand, passing through Kuala Lumpur, Im now on Borneo. I've been walking through a lot of rainforest in a national park not far from Kuching the last few days, and seen some spectacular animals. Like proboscis monkeys, for instance. After about 25 km's of walking, I saw one tiny little snake scurrying of into the underbrush, so to all of you who think rainforests are like in Indiana Jones, think again. It's a really beautiful habitat, and has an enormous variety when it comes to tree's, plants, animals and insects. The later are by far the most common (well, that's true planetwide), and they're generally larger in the rainforest. I saw some large ants, some huge larvae, beautiful butterflies and some beetles. I haven't seen any caterpillars yet, but if I do I promise I won't pet them (here, they're probably the most poisonous thing around).

The sad part is, that rainforest such as the one I've seen is largely available in parks. Sure, there's lots of forest on Borneo, but by cutting down the tall tree's (commonly used for furniture, floors and decorative woodwork in most of the (especially rich) world), you end up destroying the unique environment that lives under them. Some plants thrive, others die out, a lot of animals loose their homes. As far as I know, Malaysia are following world regulations on cutting down rainforest, but it is quite possible to get illegal wood with certificate and all, from countries in this region as well as from South America.

Going here was a great experience (and still is). Tomorrow I'm heading up river into the central parts of Borneo on a boat. It's not so much of an adventure as it sounds. It's not a tourist route as such, but it is a eco-tourist route, which means it's safe and a bit organised, although pertains some element of adventure and "untouched" wilderness. When I manage to get back to civilisation, I aim for two other parks, Mulu and Kinabalu, both world heritage sites, which makes them terribly organised. It is impossible to walk by yourself up on, for instance Kinabalu, without a guide. That in itself wouldn't be so bad, but from what I've heard, they have this specific routine that takes two days and gets you to the top by torchlight just before sunrise. I just have to talk my way out of that, if for no better reason than not having to get up before sunrise.

Cheers everyone. I won't be following up on this thread for a while, since my connectivity will be fairly close to nil. Still, when I get the chance (say, 6-7 days from now), I'll post an update.

You seem to have really enjoyed yourself! Keep it up and be sure to post that update

Currently in a small town called Kapit. It would easily fit inside your average American mall, but guess what? Two Internetcafe's. And cell phone coverage. If you manage to find the place on a map, one of the more interesting traits is that there are no roads of any kind to this town. It's only reachable by riverboat. Being stuck here waiting for a permit to go upriver, I figure I might as well fill out some space at GB.

Not much has happened since yesterday, except me not following my own most often given advice: don't eat seafood in hot countries, and especially not schrimp or prawns. Well, I did, and ended up paying for it on the porcelain throne at the hotel. The food was fantastic though, so Im calling it even Spent ten hours of today on a boat, and ended up in Kapit. I walked the town, all of it, in about 30 minutes flat, an had more sensible foo for dinner.

Complaints first. The cabdrivers in Malaysia suck. They're pretty much the same type of con artists I found the hotel drivers in Bangkok to be; give them half a chance and they'll rip you off. They are supposed to use the meter. Well some do and still try to charge you a million surcharges for things like them wearing clean socks, dry weather wears the tires more, etc (well. not exactly, but you get the idea). Others don't even bother to use the meter. I've had to fight with the driver on every trip I've made here. Quite different from Bangkok, which is a much more chaotic place, but where the drivers used the meter 99% of the time. Mind you, this is not really about the money. I just hate con artists. Needless to say, I walk a lot here. Probably need it.

Kuala Lumpur dissappointed me a bit at first. I guess coming from the messy, chaotic turmoil called Bangkok and landing in KL, where in the center of the city just before midnight you could hear crickets and not a person in sight, gave a dull first impression. After a few days, I liked it better, although it's obviously the shopping town of choice for the filthy rich and for high tech geeks (or a combination). I did feel a bit out of place with hiking boots in some of the more fashionable areas, and I got my share of odd looks.

In KL, theres a very nice English pub called "The Green Man". It's run by two expats, one Englishman, Kev, and a Scotsman whose name eludes me at the moment. If for nothing else, it's worth visiting to hear the two owners quarrel over Scotland vs England, or to have to see the commercial for Petronas that the Scotsman was part of a few dozen times. There's also the bartenders Tony and Dennis, who gave us a lot of very useful information along with a lot of the local guests. Also, they serve Guinness on tap.

Never managed to go up on the bridge between the Petronas towers. It's free, but they only accept a certain number of visitors every day. The KL tower however, gives a magnificent view. Andy and I had a, by local standards, stupendously overpriced dinner in the rotating restaurant there. I still say it was worth it, but the food had absolutely nothing to do with it.

What else about KL? Well, there's shopping, more shopping, phony rolexwatches, more shopping, hilarious soap operas on the tv, but not so many copied VCD/DVD/etc any more since the police have been raiding lots of illegal copying houses. I guess the Malaysian government is flirting with the media industry, who hasn't been entirely happy with one of the regions better selling products. There is some cultural stuff too, but I missed that. Apparently, the national mosque (yes, it's a mainly muslim state) is spectacular if you like that sort of thing.

Time to go. Next update will probably be surprisingly soon. Im guessing there's Internet in Belaga too... although I do not intend to spend time in front of a computer there.

This is fascinating, @Silur, not only for the information, but because you really express yourself well. Please keep going.

Nice to hear from your exploits again, Silur.

I was more than happy to show you the other side of BKK, which really is the much better side.

Send my regards to Andy. I hope he gets to go with you this time should you decide to do some serious trekking.

@Mhar: Sure will say hi to him, right after I kick him! It took him two days to regress into his old lifestyle, the one he swore he'd leave behind.

Still in Kapit. I got my permit, but the boat to Belaga got cancelled. The waterlevel in the river is too low, apparently. I was planning on doing some trekking in the rainforest in Belaga, something that isn't quite possible here. The only other local attraction that tourists come here for is to visit a Longhouse. A Longhouse is a very long house (duh!), usually housing the entire village. They show you their lifestyle, handicrafts, etc and you get to sleep there for a night. I feel a bit uncomfortable about visiting local people as if they're a tourist attraction, so I'll pass, but I'm told it is a really interesting experience. Insted, I'll set my sight on getting to Mulu a bit earlier. There's a fantastic bat cave there, where three million bats fly out every evening. I saw that on National Geographic channel a while back, but never expected I'd be able to go there.

Arriving in Bangkok, at 7 am in the morning, roughly two weeks ago, tired from the almost eleven hour flight, neither Andy nor I heeded the well known principle of never accepting a taxi inside the airport. Always go outside and check with either a taxistand or ask around. We got trapped by a lady from the airport limousine service, and got a comfortable but slightly expensive ride in to our hotel. No matter, for once I didn't sleep that well on the plane, so I was hallucinating beds in all kinds of shapes and sizes. The hotel gave us our room instantly, which probably is the only positive thing you'll get me to admit about the place.

There has to be this strange attraction between geeks and computers, because on our first stroll through the area near the hotel we ended up walking straight into a huge mall full of computer stores. Now, hardware and stuff isnt worth buying in Bangkok, but they still have the cheaper versions of well known programs and movies available. When it comes to software, you might end up with something different than you expected, and as for movies the quality is roughly the same as that of a vcr tape - after you've rinsed it in cold water a few times, not counting the three layers of subtitles. In short, you get what you pay for.

Running the risk of bankrupcy from our shopping spree in Bangkok, we fled to the mountains. More specifically, Chiangmai in the north of Thailand. Going by train is comfortable if you can sleep, since it runs all through the night, stops everywhere and arrives early in the morning (well, at least according to the timetable ). You instantly notice that this place aims for a different kind of tourist. There were lots of tour operators doing hiking, rafting, etc and my trekking boots weren't so awkward any more. I booked us on a light trek so that Andy would be able to keep up (he has one or ten pounds extra to carry around).

I ended up going by myself. It was a sort of everything-you-can-do-in-one-day kind of tour. The forest was beautiful, walking in it for just 40 minutes felt much too short. After that I got an elephant to do the walking for me, but considering the speed and comfort of those animals, I prefer my own two feet. Next was going down river on a typical local raft made of bamboo - a comfortable transport, nothing close to white water rafting. In short, getting a glimpse of the surroundings with all the comforts of home.

Well, time to catch a different boat. Stay tuned for the next installment of "Stumbling through asia", soon at a GB near you

This is fun. Maybe I should start writing for travel guides...

Sibu is a much larger town, but not very interesting. The main theme seems to be "coming from" or "going to". I got here at three, it's now seven, and I'm doing my best to get out of here. Fortunately, there's a buss going straight to Miri at midnight. Gets me there by six tomorrow morning, and with some luck I may even catch an early flight to Mulu. Miri is supposed to be a much nicer place, but that bat cave seems much more spectacular place to go. Im going to be feeling fresh as yesterdays spring rolls tomorrow afternoon

Leaving Chiangmai and returning to Bangkok, Maharlika gave us some hotel recommendations. Starting from the bottom of the list with "Royal River" I thought he must have been joking when we got there. I asked for "nothing special" and found myself at a really exclusive looking hotel. Fortunately for us (sadly, very unfortunate for the entire region ) SARS had forced many places to lower their prices, so we ended up staying there at a much lower rate than the crappy other hotel. It's also very close to where Maharlika lives, so if you want to stalk him, this is the place to go

Shopping in Bangkok is different. Both Andy and I ended up buying tailor made suits and a bunch of shirts to go with them. I had considered getting one suit before coming down here, but ended up with an entire wardrobe. In a few months or so I'll know if I want to recommend the tailor or not, but sofar it looks good. Another thing that you find is silk, and lots of it - Thai silk with or without printed designs, or chinese embroidered silk. My wife is going to be swimming in silk cloth when I get home. Not much else she can do with it since neither one of us know which is the useful end of a needle, much less a sowing machine Besides clothing, which is both cheap and abundant, Thailand is also known for it's gemstones, especially rubys and saphires. Had a look at some, and although no expert, the stones were spectacular to look at.

What is less known is that there is a group of Kashmere refugees in Thailand. They fled Kashmere, since buddism is banned there, so now they're making Thai Kashmere carpets! Thai silk and Kashmere wool does make a good combination, I can tell you. I'm such a sucker for carpets, I almost bought one. Still got the guys phone number, so I'm not home free yet...

Another thing related to shopping is Tuk-tuks. They're a kind of taxi, a cross between a rickshaw and a moped, and they're absolutely lethal. If you have an accident in one of those, then assuredly, the fat lady is going to be singing. What has this to do with shopping? Well, these guys will drive you around for almost nothing IF you just make one stop at this particular shop that sponsors them with either food, fuel tickets, etc. The trick is that one stop may turn into two, three, and just this last one that happens to be on the way to where you're going. Oddly enough, they're all on the way to where you're going!

The next installment of "Stumbling through asia" will touch on the subject of food and drink. This time it will be a while until I write, that is, if they don't have an Internet cafe at the Mulu national park. I doubt it though, since Baku didn't.

This is great, Silur! And re the reams of Thai silk, you could always find a dressmaker when you get home

Originally posted by Silur
Shopping in Bangkok is different. Both Andy and I ended up buying tailor made suits and a bunch of shirts to go with them. I had considered getting one suit before coming down here, but ended up with an entire wardrobe. In a few months or so I'll know if I want to recommend the tailor or not, but sofar it looks good. Another thing that you find is silk, and lots of it - Thai silk with or without printed designs, or chinese embroidered silk. My wife is going to be swimming in silk cloth when I get home. Not much else she can do with it since neither one of us know which is the useful end of a needle, much less a sowing machine

I met Andy for a coffee the day after he had come back to Sweden, and believe me, I have heard everything about your shopping sprees! I also understand I will have to find a tailor here somehow...

As for the rainforest, that particular area of Malaysia is very heavily logged, unfortunately for both the natives and the fauna of the region... I've been to KL two times but on both occations I only stayed one day, getting out in the wilderness as soon as possible. I made a trip to Malaysian Borneo to take the hike up Kinabalu about 9-10 years ago, and I also stopped over in KL 4-5 years ago when I was in Thailand. We should go visiting Mahar together this winter or next year! For this years summer holiday I have choosen something completely different from Silur namely East Greenland. So I'm going to Kulusuk

Before embarking on the subject of food, I must say Mulu National Park was both a wonderful experience and a great dissappointment. There are numerous caves in the park, and five or six of them are easily accessible and open to the public. The Wind cave is a fairly long cave with beautiful formations. The Lang cave has, in my opinion, even more beautiful rock formations, but I may be biased since I saw that one first. It's located in a different place, near the Deer cave. The Clearwater cave is a huge cave, and among the longest in the world (some 75 km long, numbers vary). There is a crystal clear river running through it, thereof it's name. Going to those caves on foot, you need to go through a small cave passage through the mountain. Bring a torchlight, or your head will suffer. The Deer cave is to me the most fabulous. It's really an enormous cave passage into a small valley, only accessible through the cave - popularly known as the valley of Eden. The cave in itself is very beautiful, but what's so wonderful about it is that it's the home of more than 3 million bats, and they fly out every evening like a huge trail of smoke. I saw it twice, so all in all, I've seen 6 million bats If nothing else, it is worth going there for the bats, and if you have some time to spare, the adventure caving. A local told me that especially the very tricky and narrow cave crawl between the Wind and the Clearwater cave is worth doing. If you have claustrophobia, you won't.

The dissappointment was that to go anywhere outside the vicinity of the park HQ, you needed to hire a guide. Now, if you go exploring caves when you're not a cave dweller or whatever you call cave explorers, that makes sense. In some mountain regions, it would also make sense. Here, they have paths that would constitute as four lane highways in other parts of the world, and you need to be either completely blind or completely dumb to not find your way. For instance, going up Mount Mulu there's first a boardwalk for three or so kilometers, then a path that passes two cabins that never exceeds 20% inclination for another 15 kilometers. Approaching the top, the inclination goes up a bit, with some fixed ropes for assistance, from what I understood no more than 50% inclination. The path is also marked with colourings on trees and rocks. All in all 24 kilometers. For this, you have to have a guide with you, and the cost is roughly $250, plus you need to buy food and water. Water was by Malaysian standards insanely expensive - roughly 6 times that of the price at a supermarket anywhere else. The same rules applied to most other long walks in the park, that is, guide mandatory and expensive. If you needed to use a boat, which was nescessary for some treks, that would cost you your other arm and maybe parts of your remaining leg too. The Unesco world heritage status has turned the place into a luxury resort for fat, stupid tourists with the same security measures and precautions as those of an American theme park, that is, trying hard to compensate for and safeguard against human stupidity. Well, unfortunately I can currently only think of two things that are inummerable, and that's the number of moskitos on East Greenland and the extent of human stupidity.

Another thing to be aware of if you decide to go there is that there is a four star resort there called "The royal Mulu resort" or something. I would recommend against staying there, since it is built on land stolen from the local Penan tribe. The dispute is not settled, and since it's only Penan people that complain, who cares, right? Well, I care. Check the status in this regard if you still want to use the place.

Flying to and from the park was a sad sight indeed. The park with surrounding areas was covered by a beautiful green canape, but as we got closer to the coast, scars from forest machines became apparent and very little of the tall tree's remained. Regarding the plight of the Borneo rainforests and it's people, read this for some background information. For this, I somewhat regret going here, since I don't particularly enjoy supporting a government that promotes such behaviour. At the same time, I missed these facts while reading about Malaysia before coming here, so it has really been an eye opener. When it comes to human rights issues, Malaysia is ok, although I personally find the fact that they fine Malay couples caught holding hands in public objectionable. They're not secularised either, but then neither is Spain, officially (I think).

Politics, religion and highly questionable corporate and government practices really makes my stomach churn, but since I promised food, so here's food.

I have come to the conclusion that everybody in Malaysia loves "Chicken fried rice". You can find it everywhere. Yes, everywhere, even at McDonalds. I purposely checked their menu on my way to the Internet cafe. There's also this local fast food chain that obviously have had a hard time introducing a different cuisine, since they now announce "Yes, now we have Chicken rice" on huge billboards and banners. If that isn't enough, it's available for breakfast, lunch, dinner, late supper and as a snack in the middle of the night. It's not half bad, but you're likely to get hungry again within a couple of hours since the amount of chicken is often close to microscopic. If you want an alternative, theres always Chicken noodles. I doubt I need to expand on that.

It is also very easy to see which crowd a particular restaurant aims for. If they have a huge sign that says "We dont serve pork" they are mainly targeting the Peninsular Malay people of which the majority are muslims. If on the other hand, they're proclaiming "We serve pork", my bet is you will find lots of Chinese customers in that restaurant. The food is generally safe in any restaurant here, but if you're a bit squeamish, more strange stuff is likely to be floating around in your soup at the Chinese places. A slightly fancier restaurant will probably serve Satay, which I haven't tried yet. I never seem to find those places when I'm hungry. Either that, or they also host Karaoke in which case I stay well away. In the coastal cities, there's also seafood. It really is delicious. One would think that I had learned my lesson from last time, but I'm in a coastal city again, and yes, I had fish for dinner. See part on human stupidity above. If this post comes to an abrupt end, you'll know what happened .

Thai food, on the other hand, that is really something to write home about. Or Gamebanshee will probably also work. Just walking through any street of any place in Thailand and you'll be smelling food that makes your mouth water, or your eyes, or both. Green curry, red curry, coconut milk, baby eggplant, and so on, unt so weiter, etcetera, and they can make it so hot you could compete with the space shuttle for making escape velocity in the shortest time. You all know Thai food, right? If not, get thee to a Thai restaurant! Well, it's the same in Thailand. Only better. A lot better.

Drinks, then. Speaking non-alcoholic, fruit juice in Thailand beats most, if not all drinks in all other places I know, hands down. Fruit juice in Malaysia is sometimes roughly similar, but more often watered and not as good. Regular coffee is awful, except maybe if you can stand the anglo-saxon stuff. They are, however starting to serve espresso, cafe latte and other mid-european coffees and like many other things copied in Asia it's actually quite good and sometimes even great. The tea, I only tried it once in each country, and it's hard to believe Malaysia has been under British rule. Even more amazing is that the stuff grows in Thailand, but what they do with it is... oh man, unspeakable.

Beer is bleak but drinkable in Thailand. They have Singha, which tastes slightly more than your average American beer, but just ever so slightly. In Malaysia, they have Tiger, which roughly amounts to the same thing. Guinness is served in very few places in Thailand, more often in Malaysia and in at least one place in Kuala Lumpur, on tap! Whatever local liquor you find, in Thailand Mehkong is simply horrid, and in Malaysia, among other things a rice spirit that is beyond undrinkable. I guess I pickier than most, since I don't drink stuff just to get dizzy.

Tomorrow Im going to Kinabalu park, also an Unesco world heritage site, and Im fearing the worst. I am going to climb the mountain, and I'm not going up with any torches just to see the sunrise. If at all possible, I'm setting out at 6 am, aiming to reach the peak at around 11 am at the latest, since it gets a nice cloud cap at around noon, and then head down. Shouldn't take more than 10-12 hours. It really feels good to be back in shape, if just enough so to walk up a hill. Oh, yeah, the path is used for a race every year, the current record is 2 hours 40 minutes up and down. Need I say that the path is roughly similar to the Autobahn, just without the concrete? And yes, you have to have a guide. You might trip, and may need someone to help you up.

Until next time...

It is clear that Malaysian Borneo, at least the National Parks, have changed since I was there...Gunung Mulu and Kinabalu were made UNESCO World Heritage sites in 2000, and it has obviously brought some changes...perhaps for good and for bad. The area is probably more protected from logging etc now, and with increasing number of Eco-tourism, the mandatory guides may help people to stick to the paths instead of stomping merrily away and destroy plants, litter or cause erosion. Judging from the extremly high prices, I also guess it brings in money - let's just hope the money is spent on nature conservation.

Regarding food, I can only say that I think Malaysia has the best food in the world since it includes Thai, Indian, Chinese, Japanese and several other of the world's best traditions in cuisine Add all the fruit and fruit juices to that!

I never tried the coffee though....

All bureaucrats out to lunch, so I'm taking a break from the permit-hunting. It is next to impossible to go up Mount Kinabalu without a guide. I took that as a challenge, so here I am, dredging through Malay bureaucracy for just the right flavour of paperwork.

@CE: When it comes to guides, I was told a slightly different story by a Penan lady working as a tour operator. Apparently the Malaysian government is scared stiff of having anyone follow in the footsteps of Bruno Manser (both in terms of activism and disappearing, I guess). Thus, they're more likely making sure the tourists come back from the rainforest. You also need permits to go into areas adjacent to any major logging operations. For instance, I have a permit to go to Belaga, and it specifically excludes some regions in the vicinity. As for the price, it's just inflated. The monthly salary for a guide anywhere on Malaysian Borneo is around 500 - 700 RM ( 1 RM ~= 0.22 EUR ~= 0.25 USD ) per month, so 1000 Rm for a three day trip is definitely not justified. Guide fees on Mt Kinabalu are 60 RM for one day, a fee I'd gladly pay to have the guide stay at home by the TV while I walk up the mountain. I still get to pay a 100 RM climbing fee on top of that (and some other fees, and then some, in all around 250 RM or so). As for taking care of the forests, that depends pretty much on what type of guide you get. All the other Eco tourists I met were pretty much as annoyed with the policies as I am, just not as loud about it. We must all unite to preserve our right to get ourselves killed in whatever way we please!

I have found what really scares the park authorities. I've been complaining rather loudly, and said that I will discourage any of my friends from going here unless they feel like being pampered like children. Also, a British man drowned while swimming at some beach yesterday, so I'm asking them if they're about to introduce swimming guides as well. A bit tasteless of me I know, but it works. I really don't want to be herded like cattle up and down the mountain, and I certainly don't want to stand around waiting for a few hours while the guide carries some "old lady" (gender unspecified, mind you!) to the gate at the summit camp.

Another thing that's really inconsistent is that diving is permitted basically everywhere without guide. Now, I havent checked my statistics, but my guess is that diving has a higher mortality rate than do mountain trekking (not counting alpine climbing above 5000 meters) or rainforest hiking. In South America you're lucky if you get a map before going into the forest, and in some areas it is really in your best interest to get a guide. You don't have to, but I would recommend it. Still, the most dangerous animal in the South American forests is man, and those are quite numerous in town too. Besides, traffic accidents outnumber all other accidental deaths by such a margin, it's a wonder cars still are permitted here.

@CE again: Yes, the Thai food in Malaysia is almost as great as the one in Thailand, but even with the mix of people here it pretty much boils down to "chicken rice" outside the larger cities. Oh, Burger King don't have it. KFC does. Don't know about Pizza Hut, they don't have a menu outside. The regular coffee beats the normal stuff we tried in Wales by far, but it's still not very good.

@Mahar: I hope soon what you call the other side will become the regular side, and all the prostitution and strip clubs becomes a very small "other" side of Bangkok. Pretty much in the same way as Thailand, Malaysia has been striking down hard on prostitution, so now they've moved again - to Indonesia. I guess at this rate, they'll all be in your neighbourhood in Manila in a year or so Unfortunately, I doubt Indonesia will do much about the problem.

...and he is victorious! Silur 1, Bureaucracy 0. I now have the explicit permission to go up Kinabalu on my own. I have spent three hours wading through drones stating that it isn't possible since there's a rule that says so. On asking why there is a rule, the answer every time was because there's a rule that says so. After three hours of that, I had a pretty short temper, so when I spoke to the park warden, I lost it and called his park Disneyland and a kindergarden for insecure grown ups. That did however, besides amuse the receptionist listening in on the conversation get me to the next level, where I finally got some answers on what to do. As it turns out, it's all about liability. So if you just sign a paper saying that you are responsible for your own life and safety, and won't hold the park responsible for any accidents or injuries, that's pretty much it. It's a wellguarded secret, though.

I never considered it much, taking the fact that I am responsible for myself pretty much for granted. Now that I had to fight for it, it suddenly feels very important. It's my life. I want to do what I like with it. If that gets me killed, so be it. Too bad I didn't know about this in Kuching, because that's where the Sarawak Park officials are. Next time, I'm going to handle it from home, stating that it's a requirement for me to even consider going there. I'm also sending some emails to a number of officials at the tourism ministry when I get home.

Now that I have what I want, I have been most kind and very polite to everyone that helped me, however unwillingly. I've been told by the board psychologist that it's essential to give positive feedback whenever someone whose behaviour you want to change does something right. Even so, me leaving their office was probably in their opinion their best reward

Currently it's raining here. It's the ten second variety. That is the amount of time it takes until your underwear is completely soaked. The water is warmer than the so called hot water in some of the hotels I've stayed at, so it's quite pleasant to walk around in. You do get one or two strange looks from the locals if you do, though. Carrying a plastic bag to put your cell phone and money in is a very good idea.

Congratulations!

I can't believe things have changed this way, sure Malaysia is a strict society with many regulation and bureacracy, but this concept of overprotecting people not because they really cares but rather, because they can sue you otherwise, is destructive and disgusting. It does not teach people greater responsibiliy and it certainly does not teach people anything about nature and wilderness...

The policy they have on Greenland is totally different - you are out on your own, and it's your responsibility and you can't sue or hold anybody responible for what happens to you, but they Greenland state tourist office provide free advice, weather forcasts, maps, rental of equipment, etc, and they recommend unexperienced people to go with a guide.

At many places I've been to Wards or other responsible authorities (if there were any) are simply there to provide information and for security in case an accident should happen. In Scotland for instance, it is common that you inform them what your planned route is, and when you plan to be back. Then you check in at the office when you are back so they know you have not got lost in the mountains. When I climbed to the summit of Mt Teide for instance, I had to apply for a special permit, read some papers about how to avoid increasing erosion etc and then sign.

Hopefully it will be worth it though, it's a very beautiful area and the view from the summit is spectacular if it's clear

At 4000m altitude, even breathing feels tiresome - especially since you need to do so much of it. I managed to get to the top of Mount Kinabalu. It took me 9 hours to get there, starting at the hostel. That's a 13 km walk up including a starting stretch of 4 kms before the actual trail starts, with an altitude gain of 2400 m. I'm not doing that ever again, or at least not until next time The view from the top was fantastic. I was unbelievably lucky, because usually at 3-4 pm when I managed to drag myself up there, it's a complete cloud cover. Sure, looking at clouds from above while sitting panting on a rock can still be nice. There were a couple of thunderstorms in the valley, and they look very different from above.

Sitting there at the top, sending a message to my wife, I suddenly noticed what time it was. Just past 4 pm, it would be sunset in roughly 2.5 hours, and I'd need to be down by then. Rushing, slipping, falling and rolling down the now very slippery paths, I managed to get down to the 3 kilometer mark before darkness fell. It gets very dark in the rainforest. Very dark. The flashlight I'd faithfully carried everywhere was at this time locked up in a luggage storage room, so I cursed myself and solemnly concluded that the single most common cause of death anywhere is stupidity. I needed a light source, and the backlight of my cell phone gave just enough light to see any obstacles and stay on the track (like I said, it get's dark down here). The nice thunderstorms I had seen from above were now not quite so nice, pouring loads of water on me and the path, making it even more slippery. After stumbling, sliding and tripping around in the dark for another 2.5 hours, I managed to get to the gate. Just when I got there, my trusty phone decided to call it quits and died. Walking the 4.5 kms down to the park headquarters in the dark wasn't as bad since it was tarmac all the way, but for some strange reason a minibuss showed up offering me a ride. Being down, food was first priority since I'd had nothing but powerbars all day, and a place to sleep came very close second. What did I learn from all this? Well, maybe I should get a waterproof phone.

The rule forbidding anyone to go up without a guide actually worked to my advantage at the top. I had the entire mountain all to myself. Just me and silence, only interrupted occasionally by the thunderstorms bellow. Mount Kinabalu is a really beautiful mountain. Well worth all the troubles I had.

Sticking to the trail was very simple. You'd need to be blind not to, although my guess is most blind people wouldn't have any trouble either. If all else fails, you can always follow the trail of candy wraps, cigarette buds and water bottles lying on the path. The sad thing is, it seems to be the guides and the local people that throw them - something I noticed while meeting all the guided groups going down.

All in all, a great adventure. I'm now back in Kota Kinabalu, looking for a flight back to Kuala Lumpur. My vacation is coming to an end. It really has been much too short a time here, having had barely enough time to see just a few of the main attractions. There are so many more things to do here; visit the Orang Utan sanctuary, numerous beautiful diving and snorkling areas, some that could grant you an encounter with a sea turtle, beautiful nature reserves, some with extremely poisonous animals such as bull frogs, centipedes, millipedes and the occasional snake. During my entire stay here, I have only seen two snakes and they both took off very quickly when I got closer. I heard some things hissing at me in the dark yesterday, but that doesn't really count since it could have been anything.

In KL I'm going to do some more shopping. Hardly interesting, so this is probably the end of this travel journal. Questions are welcome, although I might not be able to answer them - after all I've just been "stumbling through (a very small part of) asia".

Correction then:

Originally posted by Silur
@Mahar: I hope soon what you call the other side will become the regular side, and all the prostitution and strip clubs becomes a very small "other" side of Bangkok. Pretty much in the same way as Thailand, Malaysia has been striking down hard on prostitution, so now they've moved again - to Indonesia. I guess at this rate, they'll all be in your neighbourhood in Manila in a year or so Unfortunately, I doubt Indonesia will do much about the problem.

...the real side it shall be.

As for prostitution, it's been here already particularly the areas where the former U.S. bases in Clark and Subic used to be. Thankfully though, the locals were able to still be productive even after the Americans left for good.

BTW, I was surprised that you mentioned litter found on the mountain trail. If it was a national park or something with guides and all, I assume that measures are taken to avoid littering, particularly those that are non-biodegradable.

Here at Khao Yai National Park, littering is a no-no.

And yes, congrats on your latest exploits. Though I admit that was quite a dangerous thing you did too.

Re: Correction then:

Originally posted by Maharlika

BTW, I was surprised that you mentioned litter found on the mountain trail. If it was a national park or something with guides and all, I assume that measures are taken to avoid littering, particularly those that are non-biodegradable.

It's not just any national park. It's a bleedin' UNESCO World Heritage site! And yes, there are plenty of signs saying "Thou shalt not litter!". Doesn't have a huge impact, what it seems. At some of the shelters there was more junk on the ground than in the waste bins.

And yes, congrats on your latest exploits. Though I admit that was quite a dangerous thing you did too.

No need to be polite. It was just plain dumb. Just like all the dumb things you walk away from alive, I now call it experience! The one particular fear I had was to find one of those really poisonous millipedes with my bare hands on the railings I kept clinging to whenever they were available. The hissing sound spooked me a bit when it happened, but snakes are clever enough to just take off when something big and unsuitable to eat passes by. Same goes for bullfrogs and to some extent spiders. I don't have the same faith in insects clearing off the railing...

Double post...

How did that happen? Oh well, I'll just blame it on the primitive circumstances surrounding my Internet connection.

On the subject of Internet cafes, there are plenty of them here. No need to suffer offline time. There even was one up at the Mount Kinabalu Park, but it had pretty odd opening hours, closing at 6 pm.

Shouldn't the rainforest be dead by now? I remember they were slashing and burning a portion of it the size of great britain every year when I was a wee nipper at school. I suppose its like on Terminator when it says the nuclear war starts in 1997.... hehe, silly scaremongering buggers.