Iain Plank

My initial plan before coming to Australia was to fly into Darwin travel down to Alice Springs / Uluru etc then fly to Cairns, travel down the east coast and finally fly out of Melbourne. Total travel time – 6 weeks. I ended up being in Darwin for 5 weeks, I just couldn’t get away from the place. I detected that a subtle change of plan may be required…. and then decided to simply throw away the old plans and to start again. What about the west coast ??

Go west young man…
I got a lift, heading west, with an English girl called Ally, a Swiss girl: Ramona and an other brit: Adam. The plan was to spend 3 to 4 weeks driving down to Perth.
We left around midday on the Monday and got to a small town called Kununurra at Tuesday lunchtime. There Ramona and I did a 2 hour scenic flight over Lake Argyle, the Argyle Diamond mine and the Bungle Bungles a strange collection of sandstone rock formations. We’d wanted to do a trip to the Bungles but the cost was prohibitive and also a lot of the tours had already finished for the wet.
In Kununurra, as we made enquiries about the flight I noticed an ad asking for volunteers to help a tour company dismantle their camp in the Bungle Bungles – 3 to 4 days in the Bungles with free food,
accommodation and a chance to see the infamous rocks close up. It was too good to be true. After much debate Adam and I took the last 2 places. We left the following morning.

The Bungle Bungles
There turned out to be 7 of us all together: Katy and Pauline, two English girls that were travelling together, Shelley another English girl, Steve an English guy and Nicole an upbeat Canadian girl with a penchance for saying “Good Job !” and “G-o-o-d M-o-r-n-i-n-g Good Morning !!”. Little did we realise that 5 of us (Adam, Katy, Pauline and Shelley and I) would be travelling together for the next 6 weeks !!
It was along journey to the Bungles with over 3 hours of 4WD but we had quite a laugh and the work was fine. As well as seeing the Bungles generally we got to go to Cathedral Gorge (names for good reason) where two German girls decided to sing “Hallelujah” – sounded amazing! We stayed in the Bungles for 3 days.

Broome & Bush
After Kununurra we went to Broome with its infamous Cable Beach -kilometer after kilometer of white sand and turquoise water. Time for a top up to the tan ! Whilst there, we also visited Eco Beach (“Echo beach, far away in time…” I know that it doesn’t match – I just couldn’t get the song out of my head) which is a set of amazing beaches about 130km south of Broome. Just Beach after beach of beautiful white sand and absolutely no-one around !! On the way there, we had our first experience of bush fires. The road passed through bush and we could see clouds of black smoke off to one side. On our way back the bush that we had seen that morning was a mass of charred trees and some fires were still raging as we drove passed. The colours, as the sun set, were amazing – the photos don’t do them justice as all.

Exmouth
Exmouth is a paltry 1200km (750 miles) south of Broome. The road in-between in amazing because it isn’t. Long straight sections of road with nothing to see except bush and scrubland. The distances in Australia are beginning to become clear. Everyone says that its big but until you start travelling around you never really appreciate just how big !!

Exmouth is famous for a couple of things: one was being destroyed by a Cyclone early last year and the other is for its diving. In season there are Whale Sharks and Hump Back Whales but the dozen.
Unfortunately the season wasn’t when we were there ! Katy and Shelley wanted to do their Open Water Diving Certificate and the rest of us wanted to chill (yes, it was still possible to be even more chilled than we were) and so we ended up staying a week. The diving on the Ningaloo reef was quite amazing. Turquoise bay, on the other side of the Cape, was not only beautiful but had some amazing snorkeling: Sharks, Turtles, Stingrays etc just 20m off shore !! At night, the beaches around the Cape became the nesting grounds for turtles. Amazing to see.
For a couple of days Exmouth became Hollywood !! The place where we were staying consisted of an Hotel, Backpacker place, Dive centre etc and had decided to have a TV ad done to inform Western Australia of its services. As Backpackers we were all asked to take part and to behave ‘normally’ in one of the shots. We weren’t too sure about it but the free beer helped to make the decision that little bit easier. The next day myself and Pauline were asked to be a ‘couple’ in another shot advertising one of their apartments. All we had to do was to sit on a sofa and chat ‘naturally’. I don’t know if we made it to the final cut but it was a good laugh.

Australian Advertising
Australian TV advertising is actually quite amazing. Some of it is quite brutal, like Drink Drive adverts: “If you Drink and Drive then you’re a bloody idiot”. They also sometimes have wrecks of cars by the side of the road with signs saying “Don’t drive if you’re tired” and markers to show where accidents have occurred: red for injuries, black for deaths.
At the same time, though, some of their adverts are classic. Many of them appear to be “Home made” and advertise individual shops. They say things like: “For all your sporting needs come to Sports World, High Street, Broome.” The fact that Broome is over 1000 miles away doesn’t seem to bother them.
The best adverts, though, are the Toyota ones. They seem to have popularised the word “bugger” with millions of everyday Australians. It’s so big now that other companies are making parodies – even McDonalds has an advert where the dog says “bugger” at the end. Toyota win the day, though, with their end of year sale called, unsurprisingly,: “Toyota’s Big Bugger of a Sale !!” – Inspired !

Coral Bay
Coral Bay is a bit further down the coast and also has some good snorkeling. There’s a natural lagoon, which acts as a shark nursery. When we were then there were over 30 small black tip sharks just 5m off shore in the knee deep water.
Here’s one for the divers and biologist amongst you. Did you know that Trigger Fish if stressed can give off quite powerful electric shocks ?? Neither did I – I do now though !! Whilst snorkeling we found a small (30cm) Trigger Fish that has become ensnared on a discarded fishing line and hook and decided to try to rescue it. I gently held it while Adam tried to remove the hook. I was just about to say “Be careful they have teeth” when Adam screamed in pain, too late – Oh well !! Whilst removing the hook the fish gave of several electric shocks – I was more surprised than in pain. Unfortunately for the fish though they didn’t have the desired effect. We managed to cut the hook and release the fish virtually unharmed.
So if you happen to be snorkeling in Coral Bay and meet an extremely pissed off Trigger Fish – thats the one.

Kalbarri
A good few hours down the coast and you come to the small town of Kalbarri. It’s a nice, relaxing place with Pelicans – not much more to say really – a good place to relax after the strains of travelling.

Pinnacles and Stromatolites
Even further down the coast is the small town of Cervantes which is just outside the Nambung National Park. The central point of the park is the Pinnacle Desert.
The Pinnacles are columns of limestone that emerge from the desert floor creating an almost surreal landscape – almost like gravestones in a cemetery of sand. They were formed on the ocean floor in the dim and distant past, then the sea level slowly lowered, the elements eroded the soft rock leaving the harder limestone and voila – a tourist attraction. They were pretty cool actually and we watched the sun go down behind this bizarre landscape.
Other bizarre ‘things’, also just outside Cervantes, are Stromatolites. Huh ?? For those of you not in the know Stromatolites are, and I quote:

“Rocks made of layers of calcareous material formed by the prolific growth of microbes….Their evolutionary history spans 3.5 billion years – right back to the dawn of life on earth”

Impressive stuff huh ?? Unfortunately, during those 3.5 billion years it never occurred to them to evolve into anything approaching interesting (I know, I’m a philistine). In fact after going to see them, we had to find a photo to make sure that we actually had seen them and not missed anything. – We hadn’t.

Perth & Freo
We reached Perth on the 26th November just under 4 weeks after leaving Darwin. Perth is the capital of Western Australia and has 80% of the states population. It’s very clean city with a good feel about it and is on the shores of the Swan River, which at Perth is more like an enormous lake. The views from Kings Park, which overlooks the city and water, are stunning.
It was Adams birthday the day that we arrived and so a perfect opportunity to dress up and check out the nightlife which around Northbridge consists of an abundance of good restaurants and bars. A good time was had by all.
We spent a few days there catching up with post, email and friends and then moved on to Fremantle, or ‘Freo’ as its known locally.
Freo is an extremely laid back port that was redeveloped for the Americas cup a few years ago, when Australia were hosting the event. Again, it’s got a nice feel to it and was a good place to walk around, go
water-skiing and to generally relax.

What next ?
With Christmas and the New Year approaching time was of the essence for our further travels before everyone headed off for their seasonal rendezvous. What did we do ? Read the next update and find out.

Take care and I’ll talk to you soon.

Iain

On 27th September it was finally time to leave Indonesia and to fly to Australia. I would have liked to have stayed longer but I’d left it as long as I’d dare as my ‘initial entry’ date for my Australian visa was fast approaching. I walked through Passport Control at Darwin airport at 5am and emerged an Australian Resident.

Darwin
Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory (NT), which stretches from Darwin in the north to Ayres Rock in the Red Centre, and is basically as far north as cities go in Australia. It was named by John Lort Stoates whilst on the ship “The Beagle” after a former shipmate – Charles Darwin.
It’s a small port city (the British ship HMS Gloucester was in while I was there – a reminder that Timor isn’t so far away) and was almost completely flattened by Cyclone Tracey on Christmas Day 1974 and subsequently rebuilt.
From that you can probably guess the weather conditions in the NT are pretty variable with Wet and Dry seasons as opposed to Summer and winter. The Wet lasts from Oct-Mar and has some of the most powerful and spectacular thunderstorms on the planet with the Dry running from Apr-Sep. Year round it’s hot (30-40 degrees C)- with variations with the humidity increases dramatically from Oct-Dec in what is called the “build up” I.e. Before all hell is let loose in the Wet season proper. It was at the beginning of this time that I was in Darwin.

The National Parks
In the northern part of the NT (the Top End as it’s called) are several National Parks the most famous of which is probably Kakadu which is a World Heritage Area of Natural and Cultural importance. It’s bigger than Wales and is renowned for the variety of its plant and animal life. It is separated from Aboriginal Arnhem Land by the Arnhem Escarpment which at a height of between 100 to 200m forms a natural boundary over which flow some spectacular waterfalls during the wet. The wet has a dramatic effect on the landscape with the previously bone-dry river flood plains becoming submerged by up to 3m of water. As the waters recede during the dry the pockets of water that are left, the Billabongs, attract an amazing array of bird life which becomes more concentrated as the dry continues.

Other parks in the area include Nitmiluk – also called Katherine Gorge – a series of 13 water filled gorges; and Litchfield which has some nice waterfalls and lot of Termite mounds. There are two main types: Meridian (or Magnetic) which are like large solar panels orientated North / South so that their flat sides capture the sun during the day to regulate their internal temperature; and Cathedral which are basically like giant Heat sinks up to 3m in height.

You can’t be in the Top End without being aware of Crocodiles – it’s simply impossible !! There are two types: Salties, who wouldn’t think twice about having you as a variation to their diet; and Freshies, who are considered “generally harmless”. Bit of a bugger though if you’re the person that made them “generally” harmless as opposed to “completely” harmless.

Whilst in Darwin I took the opportunity to do a 6 day camping tour of the parks: 1 day at Litchfield; 1 canoeing at Katherine Gorge (we sank – twice ! Toll for the day: 2 t-shirts, 2 paddles, a hat and a pair of sunnies !!); and 4 days in Kakadu.
It was a great experience and some of the sights were breathtaking. We had really good time and had a good group but it was “Hot, real HOT, DAMN HOT” to quote ‘Good Morning Vietnam’.

Cycads
Another excursion that I undertook was doing some voluntary work for the Parks and Wildlife Commission counting Cycads. Cycads, for those of you that don’t know, are palm-like plants that have been pretty much unchanged in 240 million years. They occur as distinct male and female plant and are a protected species.
The work involved camping out in the Bush for 5 days and assessing the Cycads at several pre-marked sites. There were 5 of us that went: Dave our scientist (of the big beard variety); Marleen and Veerle, 2 Belgian girls and Phillipa (Pip) an Australian girl. We all hit it off immediately and basically had a ball. The work wasn’t the most interesting that I’ve done (after the 50th Cycad it looses something) and being out working in the Bush in 39 degree heat wasn’t easy but we made it good fun. The camping was pretty basic – trekking in Sumatra had fortunately prepared me for shitting in the open, although this was a bit more up-market: we had a hole and a trowel (no pigs to clean things up). Great fun though and a chance to do something useful for a change.

Language
Being in Australia also involves learning a bit of the lingo – “It’s English Jim, but not as we know it”
Words like Esky. I had to ask about this one. I saw a sign at the entrance to a bar saying “No Eskies”. I wasn’t sure if I unwittingly had one or not – or maybe I was one ??! Turns out its a cool box !
A few more examples are:

Moving On
Dame Edna Eve ridge once said:

There is a lot of truth in that. I ended up staying in Darwin 5 weeks (seems to be a bit of a record with non-working backpackers) and even then found it hard to leave. I appear not to be alone. Most of the Australians that I met in Darwin came from elsewhere. They were just passing through and never got around to leaving !!

So why did I stay so long ? I think partly because I suddenly had no imminent deadlines to meet. Through
Asia and particularly in Indonesia, I was always very conscious that I had to be in Australia by the beginning of October because of my visa. Now that I was here, all urgency and motivation to move on left me – my only other deadline in life is getting to South America by mid-April 2000, when my round-the-world ticket expires.

The other main reason were people. I met and re-met quite a few people in Darwin from different places in Asia, including Manoj (it was great to see him after 4 months and good to see that he was getting on well), importantly though, I met some locals with whom I became good friends. I love travelling and meeting lots of people but the downside is that shortly after every “Hello” is invariably a “Goodbye”. People become friends very quickly – there is no time to loose – and you very quickly feel close to people, but just as quickly as you get to know each other your time together ends and you go your separate ways.
After 6 months of traveling I guess that it was staying in one place with people who would still be there the following week and with whom to go to BBQ’s and restaurants; to drink nice wine with and just to do normal things. Basically to break out of “Backpacker” mode and to be a “Normal” person for a while. Well, as normal as I could ever be.

Apart from that they were special people who I’ll keep in touch with for a long time. (You know who you are – I love and miss you loads) !

Eventually, though, it was time to move on. My Ozzie tour starts with the west coast from Darwin down to Perth – but that’s for another time !!

Take care and I’ll talk to you soon.

Iain

View Australia – The Top End in a larger map

So here we are again – doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun ?! It’s been six weeks since I last updated you on the travels. Thanks for the emails in that time and keep writing and letting me know how things are your end. Now sit back, grab a beer, put your feet up, relax and if your sitting comfortably ?…then I’ll begin.

I was in Indonesia 3 years ago and flew east from Bali to Maumere on the Island of Flores. I then headed back through the eastern islands to Bali. This time I wanted to approach Bali from the west: through Sumatra, and Java.

Indonesia is wonderful !! It’s truly a great place and extremely beautiful and varied. The people are also probably the most beautiful that I have ever seen and so friendly – its hard to reconcile them to recent events.

Compared to Thailand and Malaysia traveling in Indonesia is extremely hard work, especially if you move off of the beaten track and try something different. Times become extremely fluid: an 8hr bus ride could end up taking 13hrs (and frequently does) and the word “maybe” is heard frequently: “Is there a bus ?” – “Maybe”, “Will it be coming soon ?” – “Maybe”, “I’ve heard the journey takes 8hrs” – “Maybe”. I’m sure you get the idea.

Indonesia has also been a time of learning and there have been many interesting experiences such as:

Learning to ride a motorbike – Somehow in life I seemed to have missed the learning to ride a motorbike stage. In Lake Toba I was given a thorough 2 minute course and given the bike for the day. It was great – feeling the wind in your hair (they didn’t understand the concept of crash helmets), it was only 100cc but good fun. Thanks to Alex and Nadine for making it special.

Eating dog for the first time – “Sang Sang” is the Indonesian term for a Dog stew. It’s one of those things that you try and think “Great – don’t have to do that again”.

Learning Indonesian – Indonesian is a non-reflexive, indo-European language… Ok, not quite but it’s reasonably straight forward – no verb conjugations for example and plurals are made by using the word twice: anak (child) anak anak (children), telur (egg) telur telur (testicles) !! – Ok, so it’s not sooo simple but it leads to interesting breakfasts !!
Also the Indonesians don’t seem to understand the concept of being “Full”. You’d be on a packed bus, people everywhere and the driver will stop and pick up some more !! You’d think -"That’s it definitely full now”, and then he’d stop and pick up some more. Unbelievable.

Interesting places to stay – When stuck in the town of Sibolga for a night we had to find
accommodation. I can put my hand on my heart and say that its the first place I’ve stayed in where the shared toilets were substantially cleaner than the room !! Also, we wondered why there were lipstick kisses on the door. Didn’t take long to find out – at around 11pm the hotel became a brothel !!

Then there was the Losman on Nias who turned off our electricity and water one night and asked us to leave the next morning. Why ? We’d eaten a meal in his brothers restaurant !!

Interesting bus rides – The one that stays most in memory was a 4hr ride in the evening to Bukkittinggi in the most disgusting bus that I have ever seen. The seats had cloth covers that had years of grime and dirt ground into them, it was totally black inside and wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Adams family movie, the roof was held up by metal poles welded to the floor and ceiling, the exhaust fumes came into the carriage creating a misty aura and as you sat there wishing it would all end you could feel cockroaches crawling over your feet !! I kid you not – the bus ride from hell.

Interesting boat rides – The start of our 5 day trek on the island of Siberut was on an old wooden ferry from Padang. After delays, we eventually left at 11pm and tried to settle down with the cockroaches in our “cabin” (they were big and totally fearless). 4 hours later we awoke to find ourselves in…..Padang, back where we started !! What happened ?? Our guide made some enquiries. Apparently 2 hours out the boat had started taking in water and the people in the cargo area had complained to the captain about the sloshing noise !!! Again no joke. Our guide calmly said “Not to worry – this boat has almost sunk twice already” – he laughed – “Last time they had to throw goods overboard to keep it afloat !!”. My confidence has never been higher !! The following day (after the ferry was refused to set sail by the police and navy) we ended up chartering a boat and had to sit out front on top of the cargo hold. Just before leaving, the crew lowered the tarpaulin cover, effectively hiding us. “What’s going on ?” – “Don’t worry – its just illegal for us to take passengers and we’ve only been able to pay off one of the policemen in the harbour. We’ll raise once we’re out in open water.” – so go things in Sumatra !!

I could go on but I’m sure that you get the drift.

So what did I do…

Sumatra
Sumatra is a massive island that straddles the equator. It is extremely green and beautiful

Medan
I got to Indonesia by boat from Penang in Malaysia to Medan. When asking about Medan people weren’t very complimentary and to be honest I’ve seen nicer places but I met some great people and had a great time.
I was in Medan on the 17th August for Indonesian Independence day and although I was the only westerner at a street party everyone made me feel extremely welcome. The highlight of the party was the local lads climbing a 15m high palm trunk that had been covered in grease, in order to get the prizes at the top.

Berastagi
Berastagi is a cool mountain town dominated by the active volcano Mt Sabayak which we climbed. Great locals: Jani and Ira who were so friendly and insisted on taking me around to the local villages.

Lake Toba
Lake Toba is simply breathtaking and we hired motorbikes for two days. As you ride around, the scenery is reminiscent of the Lake District or Scottish Highlands. Lake Toba itself is in the massive crater of an extinct volcano. To give you an idea of its size: Samosir, an island formed in the lake, is about the size of Singapore. Lake Toba is also the place to try Dog.

Pulau Nias / Lagundri
Nias is off of the west coast of Sumatra and off of the usual traveler trail but as it was hosting the Indonesian Open Surfing Championship we decided to take a look.
This was the low part of the trip. Very hard work traveling (2 1/2 days just to get there) food poisoning and people trying to sell you things and rip you off at every turn. It was a beautiful place and seeing the surfing was great but none of the other travelers that we met thought that the beauty and good surfing justified the hassle.

Trekking on Siberut
In Bukkittinggi I booked a 5 day trek on the island of Siberut with the Mentawai tribe. They are still very traditional in their way of life but are under constant threat from loggers and people who want to destroy the forest to grow palm oil palms.
It was completely different from the trek in Thailand – not better or worse, just different. Due to the ferry almost sinking and lack of boats back our 5 day trek became a 9 day trek. It was fascinating living with families in the jungle. No electricity, only boiled stream water and to go to the toilet you had to walk into the jungle and find a quiet spot. It was advisable to take a stick in case a pig followed you and wouldn’t wait for you to finish !!
At the first family where we stayed a young man was ill and so the Medicine man came from the next village and they sacrificed a chicken and chanted and sang for hours. I think that the photo in the gallery really captures the atmosphere of the moment.
We spent a lot of time soaking wet, wading through streams and knee deep mud, swimming in waterfalls and riding in dodgy dug out canoes. Hunting in loin cloths was also quite an experience.
It was a great trek and something I will remember for a long long time.

After returning from the trek I spent a few days relaxing in Bukkittinggi and Maninjau before heading of to Java.

Java
With time against me it was a rapid tour through Java. First stop was Jakarta after a 41hr bus ride from Bukkitinggi. I really liked Jakarta, it was polluted and noisy but good for all that. Didn’t experience any trouble although when I first got there as 11:30pm my taxi driver, who’d already tried to triple the agreed price suddenly asked me if I wanted a fight – “You want fight ?”. It was only after much consternation and an increased heart rate that I worked out that he was saying the number of my hotel – “Jalan Jaksa fight (five)”. Thank god for accents !!
After a couple of days in Jakarta it was off to Yogyakarta. Saw the usual Borobodur and Prambanan temples and ate some food that wasn’t fried rice or noodles.
Actually, funny thing in Indonesia. On a Saturday night you can watch English Premiership Football live ! You can’t even do that in England !
After another couple of days in Yogya it was off to Mt Bromo and then to Bali. Mt Bromo is an active volcano and although in itself not so amazing its setting is. See the photo.

Bali
By the time I reached Bali I was running out of time. I stayed in Lovina on the north coast for a few days and went diving at Menjangan – awesome, 40m visibility at times and great fish and coral – saw the dolphins at sunrise and toured with some friends that I’d originally met in Yogyakarta. Then a couple of days in Ubud before flying to Oz.

Politics
Indonesia is very much in the public eye at the moment for all the wrong reasons and being there is was difficult to avoid discussions on the subject.
The Indonesians were let down badly by Soeharto. For the previous 32years they had put their faith in him to do the best for Indonesia only to discover that he had been stealing from them on a massive scale. The elections that took place in June were more than just a token democracy. Talking to the people you discover that they are so proud to have had a vote, that they’ve done their bit for democracy, however small. What it’s given them is very important – it’s given then hope !! The past is the past but the future…. The presidential elections in November are critical to this hope. Although the PDI (the Indonesian Demorcratic Party led by Megawati, Soekarnos daughter) got the majority of the vote they don’t have enough seats to guarantee the Presidency. So there is lots happening at the moment with parties aiming to collude (good word for politicians – I mean, to form coalitions). Megawati is the peoples favourite and she needs a role in the new presidency although not necessarily as President. It’s important to remember that the whole
bureaucracy has been run by Golka for the last 30 odd years and having Megawati as president might not help if she can’t get things changed. Maybe a respected reformist Golka person – there is one, as President with Megawati as vice President would be a good combination for the peoples support and to get things done. A lot depends on whether the parties involved forget their differences and work for their country and not for themselves.
It hangs in the balance. If the peoples hope is realised then the future for Indonesia looks promising, if it’s not then all hell could be let loose – they can’t afford to have their hopes dashed again.

East Timor is obviously a major issue there at the moment. People are wondering what’s going on – they’ve been told that the east Timorese are fighting amongst themselves. The media in Indonesia has a strong hold and seems to pump out propaganda. The anti-Australian feeling is an example of that. It’s very real but the people wouldn’t think it for themselves. They’re fed things like “All Indonesian students have been told to leave Australia” complete lies that stirs up emotion but who’s to tell them differently. No-one should underestimate the power of the media there.

I found Indonesia a wonderful place, so beautiful, with wonderful people and with so much potential. I sincerely hope that Indonesians can start the new Millennium with their heads held high and with their hope intact and growing.

Useless Facts

Things that you didn’t know you didn’t want to know…

1. Been gone now 5 1/2 months (165 days)!
2. Now weigh 86.2Kg (13st 8oz) – honest. I was at the doctor today for another Hepatitis jab and she had some balance scales and weighed me !
3. I got my hair cut !! – Only an inch but…

So I’m off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz

Talk to you soon,

Iain

Here’s the next installment of the Travel Log, Star date 15th August 1999….

I left Manoj on the 21st June and headed back to KL in time to meet a very special visitor….

Tara, whom some of you know, came out to see me for 3 weeks as her summer holiday. It’s hard to express how good it was to see her.

We decided to travel a bit but in the main to simply relax. Although this trip might sound like a continuous holiday, you are always on the go and sometimes you need to simply stop moving for a while, to do absolutely nothing and to recharge you batteries. Otherwise you’d suffer from sensory overload and would stop appreciating your experiences.

Cameron Highlands

We started off spending a few days in KL just looking around, going to the Batu caves, Twin Towers etc, and then headed to the coolness and hairpin bends of the Cameron Highlands in central Malaysia. They were first discovered in 1885 by the British surveyor William Cameron and subsequently considered ideal for the cultivation of tea. At 1,829m above sea level it is pleasantly cool (especially after KL) and an extremely beautiful place with a really different feel from what I’d previously seen. As it is so cool it is ideal for growing those fruit and vegetables that usually have a problem with high heat and humidity and apparently over 70% of
Malaysia’s fruit and vegetables are grown there.

Whilst there we relaxed a lot, did jungle walks and visited a lot of the local attractions such as the Boh Tea plantation, Butterfly farm, Rose Garden (like being in England), Strawberry farm, Chinese Temple etc. The Tea Plantation was absolutely fascinating and seeing the whole process from the leaves being plucked, pounded, dried, crushed and packeted was amazing. You would not believe what your morning cuppa goes through or that if you use teabags then you’ve basically got the ‘dust’ that was too small to be used for ‘real’ tea. I could talk about it for ages but for everything you ever wanted to know about tea but were too afraid to ask…..have a orange pekoe at the Boh Tea Plantation web site and you too can learn to tell your Assam from your gunpowder.

After the Cameron Highlands it was briefly back to KL and then to the east coast town of Mersing to get the boat over to Tioman Island.

Tioman Island

Tioman Island was made famous in the 1950’s as the beautiful Bali Hai of the film South Pacific. Although things have obviously changed since then it is still an extremely beautiful place and perfect for relaxing and topping up the tan. We stayed at Air Batang and to be honest there’s not an awlful lot to say about it. We simply relaxed, chatted a lot, sat in cafe’s, lay on the beach, walked, snorkeled – all those things you do when you do nothing. Actually the snorkeling was pretty good. Saw loads of things including: a Stingray, a Turtle, 9 Humphead Parrotfish together and even a 1.5m Black tip Shark !! I was so excited about the shark that I wasn’t scared – until the adrenalin wore off a bit and I starting wondering exactly how much a
snorkeler looks like a turtle to your average shark. Hmmm.

We ended up staying on Tioman for 8 days and relaxed almost to the point of being inanimate, but all too soon it was time to go back to KL, shop till we dropped and to see Tara off. It had been a great 3 weeks.

The Divemaster

As I said before I’ve been thinking for a long time about doing my Divemaster qualification. I’d thought about it even before I resigned from work and the thought has returned several times during the trip – basically every time that I’d gone diving ! Now it was time to make the dream a reality. Instead of returning to the Perhentian Islands as planned I decided to go back to Tioman as the dive centre there also gives Nitrox (Enriched Air) courses and I wanted to know what all the fuss is about. (If you want to know, then check out the site for IANTD – The International Association of Nitrox & Technical Divers for more info).

This time, instead of staying in Air Batang which is nice but quiet, I decided to go to Salang which is where the main Dive Centres are and where most travelers go to. I did my courses with B&J Diving under the instruction of Jean-Claude Chappuis (a swiss ex.ABB and Alcatel man for those of you at Tosh).

In all I did 5 courses in the month that I was there:

• PADI Divemaster
• IANTD Basic Nitrox
• IANTD Deep Air Nitrox
• IANTD Advanced Nitrox Diver
• IANTD Nitrox Gas Blender

It was great being on the other side of a Dive Centre for a month, working with people and doing your best to make sure that the customers had as much fun as possible but felt as safe as possible. Sometimes the faith that they put in you and your ability to look after them is humbling to say the least.

Working with students or introducing certified divers to new experiences, such as Night Dives, was particularly rewarding. It’s hard to describe the satisfaction you feel when you come up after leading a dive and the divers are really excited about what they saw. Obviously its the dive that was amazing but its satisfying to feel that you helped contribute to it.

Several people suggested I go on to do my Instructor course. I’m not sure yet, maybe…

Actually the people side was both good and bad. I love meeting new people but it was all a little transient. You’d get to know people, feel comfortable and then they’d leave, then you’d meet some more people and then they’d leave etc in an endless cycle. After even a short time you long for a little continuity.

It was difficult to leave in the end though. It had been hard work but a really good month, I feel that my diving has moved to a new level, particularly with the Nitrox courses, and I feel so much more confident about my own ability and from that, my ability to help others. I’d met so many nice people, quite a few of which I consider ‘friends’ that I know I’ll keep in touch with.

Eventually, though, it was time to put my traveling head back on and to continue the journey…

Farewell to Malaysia

As I write this I am sitting in an Internet Cafe in the town of Medan in Sumatra, Indonesia. I’d been in Malaysia on and off for almost the last 4 months and I would really recommend it to anyone. The people are lovely and the country beautiful. There’s something for everyone: the hustle and bustle of KL, the palm lined, sandy beaches of Langkawi, Tioman and the Perhentian, the beauty and refreshment of the Highlands and the jungles, animals and caves of central Malaysia and Sarawak.
Traveling wise it’s a very easy place to get around with good and frequent cheap buses and cheap internal flights. So book your tickets and don’t forget my commission.

Useless Facts

Things that you didn’t know you didn’t want to know…

• Been gone now 4 months (120 days)!
• Have lost 13kg (around 2 Stone) and still going !
• Tans going well !
• Still haven’t got my hair cut !
• Sense of humour still no better !!

So it’s goodbye to Malaysia and hello to Indonesia……this should be interesting !?

Talk to you soon,

Iain

Long, long ago when the universe was still young, Manoj and I flew out of KL to head to the deep, dark jungles of Borneo…..

Yes, I know that its taken me a long time to update this but things have been a bit busy. Excuses, excuses….

Where was I ? Oh yes, flying to the deep, dark jungles of Borneo or, to be more exact, the town of Kuching in the Malaysian state of Sarawak located on the northern coast of the island of Borneo.

A bit of history….Although originally under the Sultan of Brunei it was given to the Englishman James Brooke in 1838 in return for helping the Sultan quash an inland rebellion. He duly appointed himself Raja Brooke (as I guess you do in those circumstances) and so began a dynasty of ‘White Rajas’ which lasted until after the second World War.

Although previously nothing really to do with Malaya, in 1963 Sarawak, its neighbour Sabah and Singapore joined with Malaya to create Malaysia. Singapore left only 2 years later and became independent.

The first thing you discover when arriving in Sarawak is that your Malaysian visa is not valid. Turns out that a Sarawak visa is valid for the whole of Malaysia but a Malaysian visa is valid everywhere except Sarawak. Even Malaysians have trouble – Sarawakians (for what of a better term) can work anywhere in Malaysia but non-Sarawakians need a work permit to work in Sarawak !!
You soon get the feeling that Malaysia needs Sarawak, with its timber, oil etc, a lot more than Sarawak needs Malaysia. The people in Sarawak consist
of Malays but also the Dayak or indigenous peoples such as the Iban. The Dayaks are a truly beautiful people full of character and with elegant faces.

So where was I ? Oh yes, still on the plane from KL to Kuching. Kuching is the main town in Sarawak and to be honest one of the nicest places I’ve seen in Asia. Its, green, clean and has a nice riverside area. Every second person seems to be in possession of a garden strimmer to keep the grass tidy. My illusion of the wilds of Borneo were finally shattered but the Holiday and Hilton standing proud on the skyline. Oh well.

Spent a couple of days in Kuching gathering information on what there was to do and see and just getting a feel for the place.

Semengok Re-habilitation Centre
Our first excursion was to the Orang Utan re-habilitation centre in Semengok to the south of Kuching. The centre is positioned on the edge of the rain-forest and tries to re-introduce Orang Utans to the wild (from zoo’s or collections) with good success.

We we’re there in the early morning (hard to believe I know) to see them feed the Orang Utans that are being
re-re-introduced to the wild. The wardens started to put some fruit out for them and calling – nothing happened. Then in different parts of the forest there came a rustling and soon you could see the trees shaking, and the shaking coming progressively nearer !!! It was like being in a real life Jurassic Park – you expected a T-Rex to burst through the forest at any moment !! Instead we started to see the Orang Utans moving from tree to tree in the most beautiful and amazing manner. To move to a new tree they start swinging the tree that they are in from side to side until it swings enough for them to reach the outlying branches of the next tree. They then literally ‘reel’ in the new tree and only let go of the first when they are absolutely sure that it is safe to do so. They came really close, some to only 2 metres away ! We saw about 8 in all including a mother with her baby. Amazing !!

Bako National Park
Following that we went by boat to the Bako National Park. This is a huge park to the NW of Kuching which has lots of jungle treks and natural habitats ranging from Beach, to Mangrove, to swamp, to dry lands, to rainforest. One of our treks was a 7hr trek through all of these habitats which gave us some amazing views, good swimming, pitcher plants and finally something quite special. Near the end of the trek we were in forest and hear a tree rustle. We stopped and waited, binoculars at the ready. I saw something move and focused – a male Proboscis monkey compete with big nose and pot belly !! Borneo is the only place on earth were you can see these animals in the wild. Apparently the big nose and pot belly are irresistible to females – there’s hope for us all !

Piece of trivia for you… Did you know that the Malay name for the Proboscis monkey is “Monyet Belanda” which means Dutchman Monkey ? I’ll say no more.

Niah National Park
Our next stop, after an 11hr bus ride in which we were thrown around like ping pong balls in a bingo machine (Advice: never take the last two seats at the back of a bus) was the Niah National Park which again we approached by boat. Niah is another beautiful place and is famous for its caves, the Great Cave being the second biggest in the world !!
As well as cave paintings they have also found human remains here which date from 40,000 yrs BP (Before Present) and are the oldest in SE Asia.

The caves really are huge and the smell of ammonia from the bat droppings sometimes overpowering. The cave is inhabited by literally millions of bats and swiftlets which, at dawn and dusk simultaneously swap positions creating an amazing spectacle.

The other inhabitants are the fearless nest collectors who will climb up to 100m up a flimsy pole with no harness to collect the swiftlet nests that are used in the famous Bird nest soup.

Sometimes when traveling you experience something special and its usually in the most unexpected places. One of these experiences was when we went to the local Longhouse near the caves. A Longhouse is,
strangely enough, a Long House where many different families live together with a large communal area. This one was rather modern but you still got the general idea. We went prepared with Coffee and Sugar in case we were invited inside (never go empty handed). As we walked through we were met by lots of children and were invited by an old man into his home. He shared with us some rice wine that he had made and we did our best to communicate with him and his family – not easy as we don’t speak Malay and they couldn’t speak English – but we managed and as always the children helped. It doesn’t seem to matter what nationality or race you are children somehow bring everyone together. We stayed for about an hour and took photos which we promised to send to them (and did) and gave them our gifts, including a head scarf that I gave to one of the little girls (you can see her in one of the photos).

As we were leaving the village we are met by a group of young boys. “Hello”, “What’s your name ?”, “Where you from ?” came the usual calls then “Do you play football ?” – “Er, yes” – “Come on then !” and we were
duly whisked off to the local football pitch where we had to be captains and pick teams – it was like being at school again. We played in the sun for about an hour and picked up lots of new Malay expressions which probably meant things like: “Kick it you idiot !”, “Goal Moocher !!”, “Pass it you selfish git” etc Actually they were amazingly nice to each other and if someone did make a mistake it was soon laughed off. We had such a good time and the children were wonderful. We left smiling from ear to ear.

Brunei
After Niah we continued to head east first to the town of Miri and then on to Brunei, the land with the famous Sultan. Our first problem occurred at the border. There were four of us in the taxi, all with British passports. Three of us they let in immediately, Manoj they decided, wasn’t going to enter and so they made life as difficult as possible until they left him no choice but to say “Ok, forget it”. Strange but true. So Manoj went back to Miri and we arranged to meet there a day or so later.

So what to say about Brunei ? It’s probably well up the list of contenders for the worlds most boring country ! Brunei is a small country mainly covered by, as yet, unspoilt rainforest and whose income is pretty much reliant on Oil and Gas. The Sultan of Brunei is the worlds 2nd richest man (he was overtaken recently by Bill Gates) and the country has many positive aspects such as no income tax, contribution free pensions and medical care, housing is subsidized and education from kindergarten through the university level is free – so far so good. It’s also a strict Muslim country, does not allow alcohol and you can, apparently, be arrested and imprisoned if you are a Muslim couple and are seen holding hands !! What’s worse is that they actually have people sad enough to go around and check !

We went immediately to the heart of this throbbing country: Bandar Seri Begawan or BSB for short. BSB is quite a small place with no high buildings and is nice enough although at night it’s a dead as a proverbial – no bars or clubs, and very few nice restaurants. You can see why the Sultan and his wives spend most of their time elsewhere. As with anywhere where there are strict controls there is a thriving underground culture but I was there too short a time to experience this.

One of the biggest surprises was in BSB. In the centre is a nice new shopping centre and a big white and gold Mosque complete with small lake etc – looks really nice – but if you turn 180 degrees you face a ramshackled wooden stilt village with extremely dodgy walkways built on the mud at the edge of the river. Here there is more rubbish that you would believe possible (See photo). It was such a contrast ! On the one side a nice new Mosque and on the other a rubbish tip. I can understand that if a place doesn’t have so much money then the rubbish takes a low priority but you’d think that someone as rich as the Sultan could pay for someone to keep it clean and to educate his people not to make litter. It’s in the middle of his capital city after all.

There is a fun fair in Brunei (hard to believe) which was given by the Sultan to his people. Apparently everything is free !! I say apparently as it’s closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and I happened to be there Monday and Tuesday and couldn’t feel that I could justify staying another 2 days just to spend a few hours on a roller coaster.

Miri
I left Brunei after a day of looking around BSB and headed back to Miri to meet Manoj. Miri is quite a small and, to be honest, seedy town which makes a lot of its money from the Brunei people who stream over the nearby border to have a good time. We also had a good time there and met a band in one of the bars who we got quite friendly with. We were taken by some locals to a club which was quite a laugh and it was amazing how many people came up to us the next day and said ‘hello’ as we walked around town. We finally got a bus, which broke down 3 times, from Miri to Sibu (Ok place) and then a boat back to Kuching.

Back In Kuching
In Kuching we were lucky enough to get to know a group of locals. They were of Dayak origin and it was
fascinating talking to them about their lives and attitudes. They were fiercely proud of their origins and were “Sarawak first, Malaysian second” and even suggested that Sarawak should leave Malaysia and become independent. They resented Malaysia being a Muslim country (however nominally) – Why should they be restricted by certain pro-Muslim (or pro-Malay) laws it was their country too ? An interesting point. I guess that in most western countries we take for granted that there tends to be a baseline of general moral codes for the good of the country, irrespective of religion. If you personally want to live a stricter code then you are free to do so but not at the expense of someone else. The religion is up to the individual but the country is for all. A country that fashions itself on a religion or race has to be careful not to alienate sections of its society.

I appreciate that this opens up a whole can of worms on the subject and so I’ll stop there but it’s an interesting subject to think about.

The Homestay
One of the most rewarding times in Sarawak was taking part in a Homestay project. For us it involved living for a few days with a Malay Muslim family in the small fishing village of Telaga Air. The idea is that you get to a village that never normally sees tourists and experience being within a Malaysian family and helping out. It was really interesting chatting with the father and finding out a bit about life in the village. Our host was a fisherman and so took us out fishing which was good fun and being out at sea trying to out-run the most amazing lightning storm I have ever seen was definitely an experience.

TV
Whilst in Telaga Air we saw some Malaysian TV. Such as the program that only showed the opening credits before going immediately to the adverts, an advert for “Power Jugs” – a chocolate drink holder (?) and an interesting advert encouraging motorcyclists to wear crash helmets. It consisted of the usual crash test dummy wearing a helmet, riding a motorbike and hitting a car. It showed the head where is landed after the accident, nicely intact because it was wearing a crash helmet. Strange thing, was that no-one seemed to mind the fact that the head wasn’t actually attached to the body anymore !! Maybe I’m just being pedantic ?

At the end of the Home stay Manoj and I finally parted company. No problems, just different ideas and timescales.

I could have happily stayed longer in Sarawak, I loved it but I had other things to move on to……