The island-hopping has started!
Door: loesenerno
16 Maart 2011 | Maleisië, Kota Kinabalu
Sin Ciao!
Hereby an update before we travel to Mulu NP (read: we had some delay posting this story, so meanwhile we already visited Mulu... Mulu-stories follow next time). The last story ended in Luang Prabang, Laos.
Because Luang Prabang was only 35 degrees and sunny we decided to do a trekking. We could choose between a 4 and a 7 hous trek, so we chose the 7 hours to practice for Mulu NP. This was a mistake. The Lao people cut down a lot of trees on our route (and everywhere else), so after two hours of climbing in the sun we were dehydrated and boiling. It was nevertheless a beautiful trek. The minority villages we visited were really poor, so we brought a book for the children of each village (three in total).
This was our last day in Laos. 28 february we flew to Hanoi, Vietnam to see the world heritage site Halong bay. Halong bay was quite nice, but we've seen too many beautiful limestone cliffs, so we were not as amazed as some others (the rain didn't help either...). After another trekking (our guide wanted to get rid of us because he had a hangover which resulted in him walking 20m ahead of us the whole day) we went on to Borneo, Malaysia.
Though we were only three days in Vietnam we noticed a big difference between the Lao/Thai/Cambodian people and the Vietnamese people. The vietnamese are not so smiling and overly friendly, but they work very hard and are very good in organizing and promoting/selling things. for example; in Laos people say 'Buy something'. In Vietnam they say 'have a look at these beautiful pearls.'
On our way to Borneo we met Bjorn, a friend from university who lives in KL, and his girlfriend. And now we are finally in Borneo!! The land of the biodiversity and the Orang Belanda (named after the colonial Dutchmen with their big noses and bellies). The first days we spent in Catcity (Kuching means 'cat' in bahasa malaysia). Kuching is not on the regular backpackers trail, but we included it in our trip because we really wanted to visit the catmuseum (just like everybody should visit the bee-keeping museum in Radovljica, Slovenia). Culturally engaged as we are, we even visited a second museum that day, the Sarawak national museum.
You cannot go to Borneo without seeing the Orang Utang, so we went to a orang utang rehabilitation centre where they live semi-wild in a small strech of jungle. Erno's Orang Utang imitation attracted several orange apes, so we could make some nice pictures of them. to practice again for Mulu NP, we did two more trekkings, one in Bako NP and the other in Lambir Hills NP. We can be short about Lambir Hills, there is a reason why they call it Lambir HILLS, and we were not too happy with that. But we did see a very rare flying lizard! (or as Erno likes to imitate sir David Attenborough: 'a marvelous tree dwelling reptile'). Bako NP was amazing; the jungle was beautiful and we saw a lot of animals. For anyone who is still reading this long story this is what we saw (without guide): bearded pigs, flying snake (not flying), non-flying snake (flying... or more accurate; falling straight down), proboscis monkies (orang belanda), food-stealing macaque. and just for the record, they were not in cages :-)
Meanwhile we crossed Sarawak by bus and boat. So now we know that the national parks are beautiful, but they are tiny islands of jungle in the sea of palmoil. We'll leave you with this sad thought and we're off to Mulu NP! Enjoy your meal. We're sure it will contain palmoil:-)
Loes and Anderno
Hereby an update before we travel to Mulu NP (read: we had some delay posting this story, so meanwhile we already visited Mulu... Mulu-stories follow next time). The last story ended in Luang Prabang, Laos.
Because Luang Prabang was only 35 degrees and sunny we decided to do a trekking. We could choose between a 4 and a 7 hous trek, so we chose the 7 hours to practice for Mulu NP. This was a mistake. The Lao people cut down a lot of trees on our route (and everywhere else), so after two hours of climbing in the sun we were dehydrated and boiling. It was nevertheless a beautiful trek. The minority villages we visited were really poor, so we brought a book for the children of each village (three in total).
This was our last day in Laos. 28 february we flew to Hanoi, Vietnam to see the world heritage site Halong bay. Halong bay was quite nice, but we've seen too many beautiful limestone cliffs, so we were not as amazed as some others (the rain didn't help either...). After another trekking (our guide wanted to get rid of us because he had a hangover which resulted in him walking 20m ahead of us the whole day) we went on to Borneo, Malaysia.
Though we were only three days in Vietnam we noticed a big difference between the Lao/Thai/Cambodian people and the Vietnamese people. The vietnamese are not so smiling and overly friendly, but they work very hard and are very good in organizing and promoting/selling things. for example; in Laos people say 'Buy something'. In Vietnam they say 'have a look at these beautiful pearls.'
On our way to Borneo we met Bjorn, a friend from university who lives in KL, and his girlfriend. And now we are finally in Borneo!! The land of the biodiversity and the Orang Belanda (named after the colonial Dutchmen with their big noses and bellies). The first days we spent in Catcity (Kuching means 'cat' in bahasa malaysia). Kuching is not on the regular backpackers trail, but we included it in our trip because we really wanted to visit the catmuseum (just like everybody should visit the bee-keeping museum in Radovljica, Slovenia). Culturally engaged as we are, we even visited a second museum that day, the Sarawak national museum.
You cannot go to Borneo without seeing the Orang Utang, so we went to a orang utang rehabilitation centre where they live semi-wild in a small strech of jungle. Erno's Orang Utang imitation attracted several orange apes, so we could make some nice pictures of them. to practice again for Mulu NP, we did two more trekkings, one in Bako NP and the other in Lambir Hills NP. We can be short about Lambir Hills, there is a reason why they call it Lambir HILLS, and we were not too happy with that. But we did see a very rare flying lizard! (or as Erno likes to imitate sir David Attenborough: 'a marvelous tree dwelling reptile'). Bako NP was amazing; the jungle was beautiful and we saw a lot of animals. For anyone who is still reading this long story this is what we saw (without guide): bearded pigs, flying snake (not flying), non-flying snake (flying... or more accurate; falling straight down), proboscis monkies (orang belanda), food-stealing macaque. and just for the record, they were not in cages :-)
Meanwhile we crossed Sarawak by bus and boat. So now we know that the national parks are beautiful, but they are tiny islands of jungle in the sea of palmoil. We'll leave you with this sad thought and we're off to Mulu NP! Enjoy your meal. We're sure it will contain palmoil:-)
Loes and Anderno
-
16 Maart 2011 - 09:20
Jaap:
Leuk verhaal weer! Na Vietnam heb je in Borneo weer wat meer vrolijke bevolking toch?:P
Zowiezo even de night marker in Kota Kinabalu bezoeken en vers visje uitzoeken uit het aquarium en eten, of hebben jullie dat in Kuching al gedaan?
Succes met de Trekking! Ik ga even opzoeken waar Mulu NP precies ligt;)
Groeten en genieten!
Groeten, -
16 Maart 2011 - 13:06
Bas:
Hoi Loes en Erno,
Mooi om te lezen (en te zien) dat jullie nog steeds mooie dingen meemaken (ondanks de " uitzicht - inflatie" - overigens erg herkenbaar!!)
En ook leuk om weer eens terug te zien dat ze in Azie inderdaad een hele andere beleving hebben van wat je kan- en mag vervoeren op een fiets/ brommer. Wij bleven opkijken van 6 autobanden en/ of 5 mensen op 1 scootertje en dan tussen de vrachtwagens 80 rijden op een bergweg..
Veel plezier in Mulu NP. Ik heb net als Jaap geen idee waar dat ligt, dus ga het ook opzoeken en ik ben benieuwd of de oefen wandeltochten nut hebben gehad ;-)
groeten Bas -
16 Maart 2011 - 20:41
Kuno:
Ha Loes and Anderno, k heb jullie enorm lange verhaal helemaal gelezen. Leuk! -
16 Maart 2011 - 21:52
Gerrit En Jannie:
Bedankt weer voor het leuke verhaal en de prachtige foto's. Net of we er een beetje bij zijn. Bijzonder om al die dieren in het wild te zien en als orang belanda's daar tussen te lopen. Ga lekker door met ontdekken en genieten. Liefs van ons -
17 Maart 2011 - 19:24
Sari, Leonie En Marc:
Altijd leuk om die verhalen te lezen. Mooie foto's ook! Geweldig om zo mee te leven en voor een paar minuutjes aan de andere kant van de wereld te zijn met jullie.
Groeten! -
21 Maart 2011 - 19:51
Heey:
Heey Loes en Erno,
Ik was alweer een tijdje niet geweest, leuk jullie stukjes te lezen en de foto's! Zo te horen hebben jullie het erg naar jullie zin!
Groeten vanuit Amsterdam.
Hylke en Simone -
21 Maart 2011 - 23:39
Emmy:
Geniet van de laatste maand!!!!!
Reageer op dit reisverslag
Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
