Today was our big lion day. We had booked the GPS lion safari through the lodge for our morning game drive. The lion families are fitted with GPS collars, which makes them easy to find. A researcher joined us in the vehicle to direct our driver. I had imagined the researcher with a fancy iPad app with the locations of all the lions plotted on a map. Instead he had a three-foot long antenna that he pointed around through the sunroof until he heard beeps. The closer we were the faster the beeps, just like in the movies.
Just inside the gate we came across our first group of seven lions, eating from a fresh kill! Then we found out the best part of doing the GPS lion excursion - having a researcher in the vehicle allows you to off-road. While a half-dozen other safari vehicles parked on the dirt road with a limited and obstructed view of the lions and the dead buffalo (they were behind a large bush), we drove around to where the lighting and viewing was best, within 60 feet of the lions. It was really cool. The lions were still in tall grass so the pictures aren't that great, but it was really cool to watch. You could hear the bones crunching as they ate.
We didn't think anything could top that, but we were wrong. We came across another group of six lions also eating from a kill (it was too deep in grasses for us to see which animal). Something disturbed them when we arrived, and they scattered around and started playing! One of them climbed a large anthill which was perfect for pictures. It was almost like a photo shoot - okay Mr Lion, you climb that anthill over there, turn your face towards the sun, chin up, perfect!
We watched this group for about 30 minutes and then carried on. We saw a couple more solitary lions before stopping for breakfast overlooking a salt lake.
In all we saw 14 lions in the morning safari. The weird part about the GPS lion trek is that it's the same cost as a regular safari from the lodge, but you get to off-road. There were two other groups from our lodge who had just booked a regular safari and they were stuck on the road with the limited views.
We had lunch overlooking the channel. We noticed that there were fewer hippos because it was an overcast and cooler day. (The hippos are more likely to come down to the water to cool down on hot sunny days).
So we decided to switch the leopard safari which we had booked tomorrow with the Kazinga Channel boat ride.
Leopards are solitary animals and very shy, which makes them tough to spot. They also don't wear GPS collars. We toured around from 4:30 - 8:00pm looking for leopards but no luck. We did see dozens of kobs, eight lions, some elephants, and an owl, but no leopard. By this time in our trip the other animals weren't as exciting to us, but it was still a cool drive.
All the early morning wake ups for game drives, along with dusty and bumpy roads finally caught up with Heather and she was a little under the weather, so just Marissa and I went down for dinner. Tomorrow was the first day we didn't have to wake up early so we had big plans to party it up, except I was really tired so went to bed early anyways.
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Friday, December 19, 2014
Queen Elizabeth NP, Uganda - Day 2
We were at the main lodge by 6:15 for tea and muffins and headed out for our chimp trekking at Kyambura Gorge at 6:30am. We had pre-booked the permits, but likely didn't need to as it doesn't look like it's a popular excursion, although it should be on people's lists.
There was an Australian couple that joined us for the trek. After registering, we drove to about midway parallel to the gorge. The guide got out, listened for the chimps talking, and then we drive a short distance further before starting the trek.
Our guide gave us a quick briefing - most importantly, stay together to avoid being killed by lions, chimpanzees, elephants or hippos.
It was an easy five minute walk down to the river that bisects the gorge. The guide pointed out chimp droppings, half-eaten figs and footprints that he used to locate the chimps. There's also a fermented fruit that makes the chimps drunk and disorderly, and more dangerous.
We crossed a bridge over the river and then walked a few minutes south, at which point we had our first spotting of chimps. Unfortunately they were in the treetops crossing over to the opposite side of the river. Our guide said we could try to backtrack to the bridge, but then the chances were that the chimps would then just cross over again. He thought the bridge was our bet so we hurried back and then walked south to the chimps.
We were in luck as the chimps stayed on the same side of the river as us. We almost immediately spotted the dominant male on the ground, on the path in front of us! Then there was a big commotion and chimps making loud noises to figure out where they were going to feed today. They burst right past us on the path - we stepped aside and stood still and they ignored us - but it was very cool and a little scary for some to have the chimps so close! They are much bigger than I had imagined - upright they would be about as tall as me, with more weight. In the trees they look small and cute, but when they're whipping past you and talking to each other at a high volume, they look much bigger.
We tracked them to a fig tree where we observed about 6 - 10 chimps in the tree branches above us over the next 90 minutes. There's no time limit - it was based more on our arms getting tired from holding a camera up for that long :)
The pictures were just as challenging as taking pictures of gorillas. It's low light, with a bright sky in the background, and manual focus is a necessity.
On the way back out of the gorge we saw a red-tailed monkey and some olive baboons. It was a much easier trek than the gorilla trek - I'd rate today's as easy.
It's an hour drive back to Mweya and along the drive we saw elephants and other game, but no leopards or lions. Also got some cool pics of fishermen as we crossed the Kazinga Channel.
We had no other excursions today, and spent the afternoon relaxing, our first down time in a while. Saw some hippos and crocodiles across the channel, and some pretty birds (Heather may become an ornithologist yet).
There was an Australian couple that joined us for the trek. After registering, we drove to about midway parallel to the gorge. The guide got out, listened for the chimps talking, and then we drive a short distance further before starting the trek.
Our guide gave us a quick briefing - most importantly, stay together to avoid being killed by lions, chimpanzees, elephants or hippos.
It was an easy five minute walk down to the river that bisects the gorge. The guide pointed out chimp droppings, half-eaten figs and footprints that he used to locate the chimps. There's also a fermented fruit that makes the chimps drunk and disorderly, and more dangerous.
We crossed a bridge over the river and then walked a few minutes south, at which point we had our first spotting of chimps. Unfortunately they were in the treetops crossing over to the opposite side of the river. Our guide said we could try to backtrack to the bridge, but then the chances were that the chimps would then just cross over again. He thought the bridge was our bet so we hurried back and then walked south to the chimps.
We were in luck as the chimps stayed on the same side of the river as us. We almost immediately spotted the dominant male on the ground, on the path in front of us! Then there was a big commotion and chimps making loud noises to figure out where they were going to feed today. They burst right past us on the path - we stepped aside and stood still and they ignored us - but it was very cool and a little scary for some to have the chimps so close! They are much bigger than I had imagined - upright they would be about as tall as me, with more weight. In the trees they look small and cute, but when they're whipping past you and talking to each other at a high volume, they look much bigger.
We tracked them to a fig tree where we observed about 6 - 10 chimps in the tree branches above us over the next 90 minutes. There's no time limit - it was based more on our arms getting tired from holding a camera up for that long :)
The pictures were just as challenging as taking pictures of gorillas. It's low light, with a bright sky in the background, and manual focus is a necessity.
On the way back out of the gorge we saw a red-tailed monkey and some olive baboons. It was a much easier trek than the gorilla trek - I'd rate today's as easy.
It's an hour drive back to Mweya and along the drive we saw elephants and other game, but no leopards or lions. Also got some cool pics of fishermen as we crossed the Kazinga Channel.
We had no other excursions today, and spent the afternoon relaxing, our first down time in a while. Saw some hippos and crocodiles across the channel, and some pretty birds (Heather may become an ornithologist yet).
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Queen Elizabeth NP, Uganda - Day 1
We had a quick breakfast and were on the road by 7:30am, headed for QENP. Our driver had a mix up and had gone to the Gorilla Safari Lodge in Buhoma, a five hour drive at the other side of the park. He had planned to get in the night before and rest, but instead spent half of it driving to our lodge in Rushaga.
It was a long bumpy and dusty six hour drive to Isasha, en route to QENP. In Isasha we picked up a ranger and drove to see the tree-climbing lions. They're GPS'd so easy to find, but also seemed to be cheating. The collar also takes away from the pics.
Another bumpy and dusty four hours brought us to QENP and Mweya Safari Lodge. It's on the tip of The Kazinga Channel, with great views of the hippos, crocodiles and buffaloes on the opposite shore. They're further away than we had thought, but with our binoculars and fancy cameras we were able to see them.
The Bradt guide refers to Mweya as the Sheraton of safari. We're here for four nights and it's a nice place to relax after being on the go for the past week.
It was a long bumpy and dusty six hour drive to Isasha, en route to QENP. In Isasha we picked up a ranger and drove to see the tree-climbing lions. They're GPS'd so easy to find, but also seemed to be cheating. The collar also takes away from the pics.
Another bumpy and dusty four hours brought us to QENP and Mweya Safari Lodge. It's on the tip of The Kazinga Channel, with great views of the hippos, crocodiles and buffaloes on the opposite shore. They're further away than we had thought, but with our binoculars and fancy cameras we were able to see them.
The Bradt guide refers to Mweya as the Sheraton of safari. We're here for four nights and it's a nice place to relax after being on the go for the past week.
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda
We were up for breakfast at 7:00 and on the way to the park entrance by 7:30. The lodge manager walked with us to the gate and helped us register with our permits. You need your passport to sign in (the limited permits are sold in advance), and the manager took them back to the lodge so we didn't have to lug them around on the trek.
We each hired a porter to carry our daypacks. It helps contribute to the local economy and at $15 USD a pretty good deal, what with 2L of water in addition to other gear in our packs.
Our guide gave us an intro briefing, and then we were off. It was pretty warm even at 8am -- about 18C. We wore our base layers and rain jackets - we had to prepare for both a downpour in the undergrowth, and the hot sun in open areas. There was a ranger at the front and back with AK47s (to protect us from unhabituated gorillas and other game), the guide, our porters and us. There were trackers out in the field to search for the gorilla family that our guide was in contact with so we knew where to head.
The trek started off easy enough, along a path used by villagers. Then it became more difficult, single file with the forest growth twice our height in both sides. Then we started going up and down inclines, sometimes with the guide hacking the path with his machete.
About an hour in, our guide got word from the trackers on the gorillas' location. It was about 90 minutes from us. The path became even more challenging. It was an uphill climb for 45 minutes and then along a ledge, with the path cut into a 60* slope. The path encouraged you to slip or step in the wrong place and send you falling down through the undergrowth.
We reached the trackers and then our guide gave us another briefing on how to behave around the gorillas. There's no food or drink allowed and so we had some water and then left our porters and carried on with guide and trackers.
We then pretty much crawled over top of the undergrowth for five minutes to reach an area to view the gorillas. It was the most challenging portion I've ever done.
Finally we could see the gorillas! Although, we were on a steep slope with lots of undergrowth between us and the gorillas. It was a family of ten, and we think we saw about six or seven of them. At first they were moving about in the low light, which didn't make for good pictures. The silverback had climbed up a tree with the bright sky in the background which made even worse pictures.
The gorilla visits are limited to one hour and our guide gave us updates as the visit proceeded. After 30 minutes the gorillas became accustomed to us and came down from the trees which made for better pictures. Then a year-old gorilla scampered over to Heather, touched her knees and then held her hand! It looked like the gorilla might hug her too, but then it went over to Marissa, touched her knees, and then did the same with me. It was almost like the baby gorilla was greeting the newcomers, because it only touched us and not the guide and trackers that it would see frequently. It was really cool.
We sat precariously perched on the slope for the remainder of the hour taking pictures and watching the gorillas. Finally the hour was up and we made our way back to the porters, had our packed lunches, and then started the trek back out.
We walked a different route on the way out. At points there wasn't even a path - we were walking through undergrowth twice our height and so thick I could barely see the person in front of me.
It took us over two hours to walk out. In all, we were trekking for 4 1/2 hours plus the hour with the gorillas. On a scale, I'd rate the trek as difficult, but it just depends on where the gorillas are that day. When Marissa and I saw the gorillas in Rwanda in 2005, it was a trek through a bamboo forest which I'd rate as easy to medium. I'm glad I had my new camera with manual focus, because the auto-focus picked up branches and leaves instead of the gorillas. The low light also needed a longer exposure and for the gorillas to stay motionless.
It was nice that our lodge was just a ten minute walk - we were tired and dirty and in need of a shower and food.
We had an early start the next day for our drive to Queen Elizabeth NP so we were in bed pretty early at 9pm.
We each hired a porter to carry our daypacks. It helps contribute to the local economy and at $15 USD a pretty good deal, what with 2L of water in addition to other gear in our packs.
Our guide gave us an intro briefing, and then we were off. It was pretty warm even at 8am -- about 18C. We wore our base layers and rain jackets - we had to prepare for both a downpour in the undergrowth, and the hot sun in open areas. There was a ranger at the front and back with AK47s (to protect us from unhabituated gorillas and other game), the guide, our porters and us. There were trackers out in the field to search for the gorilla family that our guide was in contact with so we knew where to head.
The trek started off easy enough, along a path used by villagers. Then it became more difficult, single file with the forest growth twice our height in both sides. Then we started going up and down inclines, sometimes with the guide hacking the path with his machete.
About an hour in, our guide got word from the trackers on the gorillas' location. It was about 90 minutes from us. The path became even more challenging. It was an uphill climb for 45 minutes and then along a ledge, with the path cut into a 60* slope. The path encouraged you to slip or step in the wrong place and send you falling down through the undergrowth.
We reached the trackers and then our guide gave us another briefing on how to behave around the gorillas. There's no food or drink allowed and so we had some water and then left our porters and carried on with guide and trackers.
We then pretty much crawled over top of the undergrowth for five minutes to reach an area to view the gorillas. It was the most challenging portion I've ever done.
Finally we could see the gorillas! Although, we were on a steep slope with lots of undergrowth between us and the gorillas. It was a family of ten, and we think we saw about six or seven of them. At first they were moving about in the low light, which didn't make for good pictures. The silverback had climbed up a tree with the bright sky in the background which made even worse pictures.
The gorilla visits are limited to one hour and our guide gave us updates as the visit proceeded. After 30 minutes the gorillas became accustomed to us and came down from the trees which made for better pictures. Then a year-old gorilla scampered over to Heather, touched her knees and then held her hand! It looked like the gorilla might hug her too, but then it went over to Marissa, touched her knees, and then did the same with me. It was almost like the baby gorilla was greeting the newcomers, because it only touched us and not the guide and trackers that it would see frequently. It was really cool.
We sat precariously perched on the slope for the remainder of the hour taking pictures and watching the gorillas. Finally the hour was up and we made our way back to the porters, had our packed lunches, and then started the trek back out.
We walked a different route on the way out. At points there wasn't even a path - we were walking through undergrowth twice our height and so thick I could barely see the person in front of me.
It took us over two hours to walk out. In all, we were trekking for 4 1/2 hours plus the hour with the gorillas. On a scale, I'd rate the trek as difficult, but it just depends on where the gorillas are that day. When Marissa and I saw the gorillas in Rwanda in 2005, it was a trek through a bamboo forest which I'd rate as easy to medium. I'm glad I had my new camera with manual focus, because the auto-focus picked up branches and leaves instead of the gorillas. The low light also needed a longer exposure and for the gorillas to stay motionless.
It was nice that our lodge was just a ten minute walk - we were tired and dirty and in need of a shower and food.
We had an early start the next day for our drive to Queen Elizabeth NP so we were in bed pretty early at 9pm.
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda
We were up and ready for our driver at 9:00am as planned. He was still a no-show at 9:30 and we were planning when we should start to panic. The receptionist came by concerned and asked how she could help. We didn't have the driver's number but he was booked through the previous hotel, so the receptionist called the Karibu and in her telephone voice asked if they could contact the driver. It turns out he had a flat tire in the morning and showed up a few minutes after we called.
And so we were off for Rushaga, our entry point to Bwindi to see the mountain gorillas. It was market day in a few towns we passed through and they were bustling. There was even a livestock market at one. We did some drive-by touristing, taking pictures through rolled-down windows from the moving car.
Closer to Rushaga, the road was signposted with the hotels and lodges. There were a couple forks that weren't marked and unfortunately we chose poorly both times.
We arrived at the Gorilla Safari Lodge around 1pm. Once again we were the only guests. The lodge was okay - not as nice as Apoka, but prices are inflated around Bwindi. The whole area is very hilly and it's at least a 50m vertical down the path from the main lodge area to our cabins.
Electrical outlets are only in the main lodge and so first on the agenda was recharging phones, iPad and camera batteries. Good thing we were the only guests!
We took a walk along the road to warm up for the next day's trek, as we had been very inactive since we arrived, sitting in safari vehicles for most of the day. We saw the locals farming in 45* slopes, school kids playing soccer and goats and sheep herded along the road.
We cleaned up and then met up in the main lodge for a few Clubs (a pilsener that's our favourite local beer). We had dinner around 7:30pm and then went to bed early, with our big adventure tomorrow to see the mountain gorillas!
And so we were off for Rushaga, our entry point to Bwindi to see the mountain gorillas. It was market day in a few towns we passed through and they were bustling. There was even a livestock market at one. We did some drive-by touristing, taking pictures through rolled-down windows from the moving car.
Closer to Rushaga, the road was signposted with the hotels and lodges. There were a couple forks that weren't marked and unfortunately we chose poorly both times.
We arrived at the Gorilla Safari Lodge around 1pm. Once again we were the only guests. The lodge was okay - not as nice as Apoka, but prices are inflated around Bwindi. The whole area is very hilly and it's at least a 50m vertical down the path from the main lodge area to our cabins.
Electrical outlets are only in the main lodge and so first on the agenda was recharging phones, iPad and camera batteries. Good thing we were the only guests!
We took a walk along the road to warm up for the next day's trek, as we had been very inactive since we arrived, sitting in safari vehicles for most of the day. We saw the locals farming in 45* slopes, school kids playing soccer and goats and sheep herded along the road.
We cleaned up and then met up in the main lodge for a few Clubs (a pilsener that's our favourite local beer). We had dinner around 7:30pm and then went to bed early, with our big adventure tomorrow to see the mountain gorillas!
Monday, December 15, 2014
Kabale, Uganda
We took a special hire (a long-distance taxi) to Kabale. The road is newly paved and was quite comfortable. Our driver has said it was a five-hour drive but it took us nine hours, including a stop for lunch. The countryside was lush and green, and there were little produce stalls on the side of the road selling potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions and fresh fish from Lake Bunyonyi.
We stopped at the equator for a touristy pic. There's a restaurant that sits right on the equator, and you can get a table with people sitting in different hemispheres.
Kabale has limited tourist options. We had booked into Cepha's Inn, a mid-range place rated highly in the guide books but not so great on tripadvisor. We debated on the drive about upgrading to a nicer (more expensive) hotel in the nearby Lake Bunyonyi but decided to stay at Cepha's because it was just a transit stop and more convenient to get to Bwindi.
We liked our driver so arranged with him to drive us the next day to Bwindi.
We found out we've been mispronouncing 'Bwindi' - we've been saying b-win-di but it's actually bwin-di with a consonant blend on the 'bw' similar to 'tw' in twin.
Cepha's was okay, but there are two wings - the newer wing is what was reviewed in the guide books, and the older wing got the bad reviews on tripadvisor. We were in the older wing. It was clean and had hot water, a mosquito net and a comfortable bed so it was good enough.
Dinner was pretty good again. We've been surprised at the great meals we've had so far in Uganda. Marissa's vegetarian and there's been good options for her too. At Cepha's I had the 'fish allachef' which tasted great. We finished up our beers and called it a night.
We stopped at the equator for a touristy pic. There's a restaurant that sits right on the equator, and you can get a table with people sitting in different hemispheres.
Kabale has limited tourist options. We had booked into Cepha's Inn, a mid-range place rated highly in the guide books but not so great on tripadvisor. We debated on the drive about upgrading to a nicer (more expensive) hotel in the nearby Lake Bunyonyi but decided to stay at Cepha's because it was just a transit stop and more convenient to get to Bwindi.
We liked our driver so arranged with him to drive us the next day to Bwindi.
We found out we've been mispronouncing 'Bwindi' - we've been saying b-win-di but it's actually bwin-di with a consonant blend on the 'bw' similar to 'tw' in twin.
Cepha's was okay, but there are two wings - the newer wing is what was reviewed in the guide books, and the older wing got the bad reviews on tripadvisor. We were in the older wing. It was clean and had hot water, a mosquito net and a comfortable bed so it was good enough.
Dinner was pretty good again. We've been surprised at the great meals we've had so far in Uganda. Marissa's vegetarian and there's been good options for her too. At Cepha's I had the 'fish allachef' which tasted great. We finished up our beers and called it a night.
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Kidepo Valley National Park, Uganda - Day 4
For our last game activity we tried out the game walk. We drove out to an area that giraffes frequently graze, and then started the game walk, joined by an armed ranger.
Our guide went through some pointers: walk in single file, some hand signals, and what to do if an animal charged us (hide between the guide and ranger).
We saw the usual animals, but the giraffes were in a distant field and so we didn't get close. Apparently the giraffes just ignore people and you can get within a few feet. A selfie with a giraffe would have been cool.
On the drive back we saw a large group of 35 elephants.
For the record, over our time at Kidepo we saw:
Reeboks, Cape buffalo, vultures, waterbucks, Patas monkeys, jackals, Jackson hartebeest, absent brown hornbills, Rothschild giraffe, oribi, lion, warthogs, Marshall eagles, Abyssinian rollers, storks, kobs, leopard and Abyssinian ground hornbill.
At the lodge we packed up, had lunch, and then departed for the airstrip. Zac took us on a fly-by of the lodge and then flew low over the park so we could see the game from the air. It was really cool.
We were whisked immigration and security by the Aerolink staff, continuing the VIP experience. We had had a private plane to Apoka, and then the lodge and national park to pretty much ourselves for three days.
Back in Entebbe we watched another beautiful sunset and had dinner. We were all tired (probably catching up from the lack of sleep) so had an early night.
Our guide went through some pointers: walk in single file, some hand signals, and what to do if an animal charged us (hide between the guide and ranger).
We saw the usual animals, but the giraffes were in a distant field and so we didn't get close. Apparently the giraffes just ignore people and you can get within a few feet. A selfie with a giraffe would have been cool.
On the drive back we saw a large group of 35 elephants.
For the record, over our time at Kidepo we saw:
Reeboks, Cape buffalo, vultures, waterbucks, Patas monkeys, jackals, Jackson hartebeest, absent brown hornbills, Rothschild giraffe, oribi, lion, warthogs, Marshall eagles, Abyssinian rollers, storks, kobs, leopard and Abyssinian ground hornbill.
At the lodge we packed up, had lunch, and then departed for the airstrip. Zac took us on a fly-by of the lodge and then flew low over the park so we could see the game from the air. It was really cool.
We were whisked immigration and security by the Aerolink staff, continuing the VIP experience. We had had a private plane to Apoka, and then the lodge and national park to pretty much ourselves for three days.
Back in Entebbe we watched another beautiful sunset and had dinner. We were all tired (probably catching up from the lack of sleep) so had an early night.
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Kidepo Valley National Park, Uganda - Day 3
I was finally able to sleep through the night, but then it seemed like more effort to get up at 5:45am for the morning game drive.
Day 3 was similar to The previous day - a morning game drive from 6.30-10:00am, an evening game drive from 4:30-7:00pm and in between watch the game from the main lounge.
For the morning game drive we were joined by the pilots, Zak and Roman, (we had started hanging out together at the lodge), and a new guest, Tamden, who arrived the previous night.
The guide said that a lion had been through the lodge grounds overnight and had let out a big roar at 5am. We tried to track it but no luck. We saw a lot of zebra, buffalo, waterbucks and hartebeests, and towards the end saw a giraffe.
Marissa jumped in the pool after brunch, along with Zak and Tamden. It's built into a
natural rock basin beside the main lounge. The waterbucks will sometimes drink from the pool (I guess because they're last in the queue for the watering hole) and don't mind people lounging on the other side.
It was hotter today - about 33C, but it was nice in the lounge with a breeze going through.
Had our high tea and then went for the evening game drive. Saw another group of 20 elephants. Then our guide tracked a leopard! They are shy animals, so we took some pics from afar and then slowly approached. The leopard detected us when we were still 200m away and disappeared into the underbrush. Oh well.
The staff had a special dinner as it was our last night, with tables set up on the rocks under the stars. We even saw a couple of shooting stars!
We stayed up and had a few beers after dinner, making it to bed around 1am.
Day 3 was similar to The previous day - a morning game drive from 6.30-10:00am, an evening game drive from 4:30-7:00pm and in between watch the game from the main lounge.
For the morning game drive we were joined by the pilots, Zak and Roman, (we had started hanging out together at the lodge), and a new guest, Tamden, who arrived the previous night.
The guide said that a lion had been through the lodge grounds overnight and had let out a big roar at 5am. We tried to track it but no luck. We saw a lot of zebra, buffalo, waterbucks and hartebeests, and towards the end saw a giraffe.
Marissa jumped in the pool after brunch, along with Zak and Tamden. It's built into a
natural rock basin beside the main lounge. The waterbucks will sometimes drink from the pool (I guess because they're last in the queue for the watering hole) and don't mind people lounging on the other side.
It was hotter today - about 33C, but it was nice in the lounge with a breeze going through.
Had our high tea and then went for the evening game drive. Saw another group of 20 elephants. Then our guide tracked a leopard! They are shy animals, so we took some pics from afar and then slowly approached. The leopard detected us when we were still 200m away and disappeared into the underbrush. Oh well.
The staff had a special dinner as it was our last night, with tables set up on the rocks under the stars. We even saw a couple of shooting stars!
We stayed up and had a few beers after dinner, making it to bed around 1am.
Friday, December 12, 2014
Kidepo Valley National Park, Uganda - Day 2
I was still jet lagged and was awake at 2am, so I just lazed in bed until our alarm went off at 5:45am. It was much quieter at night in the savannah than the Borneo rainforest, just the occasional grunts.
It's chilly in the mornings so we layered with our mid layers for the morning game drive. First a quick snack of freshly baked muffins and tea, and then we were off on the game drive at 6:30am.
We saw three giraffes and hundreds of zebras, Cape buffalo and Jackson hartebeest. We spent a couple hours looking for lions and elephants. There are anthills dotting the savannah which look very similar to sitting animals at a distance, which make it harder to spot game. After a few false alarms from us (our guide didn't have any issues recognizing anthills), we saw an anthill beside the dirt road, which turned out to be a lion! Spartacus (the staff name the lions) walked a few metres and then settled into the shade of a bush. We offroaded to get a good angle for pictures and then watched the lion for about 10 minutes.
We got back to the lodge about 10:00, and had a big brunch. Then there was free time until high tea at 3pm and the afternoon game drive at 4:30pm. We spent most of the time in the main lounge area watching the animals taking turns at the watering hole. There's a pecking order - the buffaloes are at the top, followed by zebras and then waterbucks. The warthogs jump in whenever they can.
It was still quite warm when we headed out for the evening game drive (about 30C). First we tracked some elephants -two groups of 10, and then a smaller group of 5. We waited about 100m downwind and let the elephants walk past. It was pretty cool. Next we slowly drove through a herd of over 2,000 buffalo.
For the sundowner we drove to a rock promontory overlooking the park and watched the sunset while having our drinks.
Back at the lodge, cleaned up and had a yummy dinner. Another great day at Apoka!
It's chilly in the mornings so we layered with our mid layers for the morning game drive. First a quick snack of freshly baked muffins and tea, and then we were off on the game drive at 6:30am.
We saw three giraffes and hundreds of zebras, Cape buffalo and Jackson hartebeest. We spent a couple hours looking for lions and elephants. There are anthills dotting the savannah which look very similar to sitting animals at a distance, which make it harder to spot game. After a few false alarms from us (our guide didn't have any issues recognizing anthills), we saw an anthill beside the dirt road, which turned out to be a lion! Spartacus (the staff name the lions) walked a few metres and then settled into the shade of a bush. We offroaded to get a good angle for pictures and then watched the lion for about 10 minutes.
We got back to the lodge about 10:00, and had a big brunch. Then there was free time until high tea at 3pm and the afternoon game drive at 4:30pm. We spent most of the time in the main lounge area watching the animals taking turns at the watering hole. There's a pecking order - the buffaloes are at the top, followed by zebras and then waterbucks. The warthogs jump in whenever they can.
It was still quite warm when we headed out for the evening game drive (about 30C). First we tracked some elephants -two groups of 10, and then a smaller group of 5. We waited about 100m downwind and let the elephants walk past. It was pretty cool. Next we slowly drove through a herd of over 2,000 buffalo.
For the sundowner we drove to a rock promontory overlooking the park and watched the sunset while having our drinks.
Back at the lodge, cleaned up and had a yummy dinner. Another great day at Apoka!
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Kidepo Valley National Park, Uganda - Day 1
Our friend Marissa arrived in Entebbe later the same night as us. She's joining us for the Uganda part of our trip, to see the gorillas and all the other animals.
Breakfast at the Karibu Guest House was pretty good. At first we thought we had a choice of fruit salad and pancakes, or an English breakfast, but it turned out that it was a listing of the courses - it was a big breakfast.
We took a taxi to the airport for our charter Aerolink flight to Kidepo at 12:30pm. We arrived just before 11am, and the lady at the Aerolink counter asked us to wait as she had to announce that the counter was open for check-in. So she made the announcement and then checked us in. It turned out we were the only three passengers on the flight; but I guess she had to follow procedure. The whole rest of the process was the same, with everything announced over the PA before she did anything. We half-expected her to open boarding to business class passengers first.
So Marissa, Heather and I boarded the 11-seater single prop Cessna. The pilot made the safety announcements over his shoulder from the cockpit; and then we were off.
The 90-minute flight was pretty smooth. The fields below gave way to unfenced national parkland, and then the airstrip was visible. We signed the guest registration book at the airport and then boarded the safari vehicle that came to pick us up. The pilots joined us - there are no other passengers until we leave, so they're staying at the lodge until then.
We saw a lot of animals on the five minute drive to Apoka Safari Lodge - zebras, waterbucks, warthogs. Apoka is the only lodge in Kidepo National Park, and we were the only guests at the lodge - an entire national park to ourselves!
Apoka was ranked by CNN as the 2nd best safari lodge in the world - it's very nice. We had a lemon and ginger drink on arrival which helped to calm stomachs upset from the flight. Then we were shown our rooms - they blend right into the landscape and have screens but no glass windows - so you feel like you're sleeping out in the savannah.
We had a high tea and then were off for our first game drive. It's amazing that 36 hours after leaving Toronto, Marissa was on a game drive. We saw dozens of zebras, waterbucks and Cape buffalo up close, and some elephants off in the distance. The drivers are allowed to off-road so you can get the right lighting for pictures. At 6pm we stopped in the middle of the savannah for the "sundowner" - a drink while we watched the sunset. They make a big deal at the lodge about having your favourite drink for sundowner, but we all went with a local pilsener, Club, which was great. A Rotchschild giraffe wandered by as the sunset. It was an excellent day, one of Heather's favourite vacation days yet.
We drove back to the lodge and cleaned up before dinner, for which we had selected our menu options prior to the game drive. Dinner was great, served in the open air main hall overlooking the savannah. Surprisingly there were no bugs either.
Breakfast at the Karibu Guest House was pretty good. At first we thought we had a choice of fruit salad and pancakes, or an English breakfast, but it turned out that it was a listing of the courses - it was a big breakfast.
We took a taxi to the airport for our charter Aerolink flight to Kidepo at 12:30pm. We arrived just before 11am, and the lady at the Aerolink counter asked us to wait as she had to announce that the counter was open for check-in. So she made the announcement and then checked us in. It turned out we were the only three passengers on the flight; but I guess she had to follow procedure. The whole rest of the process was the same, with everything announced over the PA before she did anything. We half-expected her to open boarding to business class passengers first.
So Marissa, Heather and I boarded the 11-seater single prop Cessna. The pilot made the safety announcements over his shoulder from the cockpit; and then we were off.
The 90-minute flight was pretty smooth. The fields below gave way to unfenced national parkland, and then the airstrip was visible. We signed the guest registration book at the airport and then boarded the safari vehicle that came to pick us up. The pilots joined us - there are no other passengers until we leave, so they're staying at the lodge until then.
We saw a lot of animals on the five minute drive to Apoka Safari Lodge - zebras, waterbucks, warthogs. Apoka is the only lodge in Kidepo National Park, and we were the only guests at the lodge - an entire national park to ourselves!
Apoka was ranked by CNN as the 2nd best safari lodge in the world - it's very nice. We had a lemon and ginger drink on arrival which helped to calm stomachs upset from the flight. Then we were shown our rooms - they blend right into the landscape and have screens but no glass windows - so you feel like you're sleeping out in the savannah.
We had a high tea and then were off for our first game drive. It's amazing that 36 hours after leaving Toronto, Marissa was on a game drive. We saw dozens of zebras, waterbucks and Cape buffalo up close, and some elephants off in the distance. The drivers are allowed to off-road so you can get the right lighting for pictures. At 6pm we stopped in the middle of the savannah for the "sundowner" - a drink while we watched the sunset. They make a big deal at the lodge about having your favourite drink for sundowner, but we all went with a local pilsener, Club, which was great. A Rotchschild giraffe wandered by as the sunset. It was an excellent day, one of Heather's favourite vacation days yet.
We drove back to the lodge and cleaned up before dinner, for which we had selected our menu options prior to the game drive. Dinner was great, served in the open air main hall overlooking the savannah. Surprisingly there were no bugs either.
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Entebbe, Uganda
We arrived in Entebbe a couple hours ago, 12 hours from Toronto to Addis, and then two hours to Entebbe. It was our first time flying with Ethiopian Airlines and we were suitably impressed.
There was screening for Ebola in the airports at both Addis and Entebbe. In Addis, there was a body temperature scanner; in Entebbe there was a separate form to fill out, and then a temperature scan. We also had our hands sprayed with something as we entered the Entebbe airport which I suppose is good for overall hygiene but is probably not very effective at stopping Ebola.
Although as I like to point out, it's just about the same distance from Monrovia to St. John's Newfoundland as it is from Monrovia to Djibouti (6060km vs 5844km).
We are staying at the Karibu Guest House near the airport, as we fly out tomorrow morning to Kidepo National Park. Right now we're enjoying a Ugandan chai tea with fresh banana bread, sitting on the veranda, watching the sun slowly set over Lake Victoria. So far a good start to the trip!
There was screening for Ebola in the airports at both Addis and Entebbe. In Addis, there was a body temperature scanner; in Entebbe there was a separate form to fill out, and then a temperature scan. We also had our hands sprayed with something as we entered the Entebbe airport which I suppose is good for overall hygiene but is probably not very effective at stopping Ebola.
Although as I like to point out, it's just about the same distance from Monrovia to St. John's Newfoundland as it is from Monrovia to Djibouti (6060km vs 5844km).
We are staying at the Karibu Guest House near the airport, as we fly out tomorrow morning to Kidepo National Park. Right now we're enjoying a Ugandan chai tea with fresh banana bread, sitting on the veranda, watching the sun slowly set over Lake Victoria. So far a good start to the trip!
Monday, December 01, 2014
Toronto, Canada
This trip is to Uganda, Ethiopia and Djibouti.
Heather's been suggesting Ethiopia for a trip for the past couple years, primarily to see the churches in Lalibela. Once we started googling we realized there is a lot of really cool stuff to see in Ethiopia. There's more rock hewn churches 200m up the side of cliffs in Tigray, a lava lake at Erta Ale, the Danakil Depression, and bands of gelada baboons while trekking in the Semien Mountains. Ethiopia is where coffee originates. It's a fairly mountainous country -- most of the time we'll be above 2,000m, and the highest camp of the trek is over 3,600m.
We added Uganda to the trip when I was looking at our world map in the basement, and realized Uganda was relatively close to Ethiopia. The mountain gorillas are high on Heather's list of things to see. Our friend Marissa, who introduced Heather and me way back when, is joining us for the Uganda part of the trip.
We have a short side trip to Djibouti to snorkel with the whale sharks.
Similar to our last trip, we've pre-booked most of the hotels and excursions. Ethiopia has really cheap domestic flights, available to foreign non-residents if you book your international flight with Ethiopian Airlines. We replaced a lot of 10 hour bus rides through winding mountain roads with 45 minute flights for about $40.
Unusual for this trip is the number of highlights. On most trips there's two or three highlights, and the rest of the sights are more "while you're there" types of places. On this trip they're almost all highlights.
We have a bit more planning to do and then we take off on December 9th!
Heather's been suggesting Ethiopia for a trip for the past couple years, primarily to see the churches in Lalibela. Once we started googling we realized there is a lot of really cool stuff to see in Ethiopia. There's more rock hewn churches 200m up the side of cliffs in Tigray, a lava lake at Erta Ale, the Danakil Depression, and bands of gelada baboons while trekking in the Semien Mountains. Ethiopia is where coffee originates. It's a fairly mountainous country -- most of the time we'll be above 2,000m, and the highest camp of the trek is over 3,600m.
We added Uganda to the trip when I was looking at our world map in the basement, and realized Uganda was relatively close to Ethiopia. The mountain gorillas are high on Heather's list of things to see. Our friend Marissa, who introduced Heather and me way back when, is joining us for the Uganda part of the trip.
We have a short side trip to Djibouti to snorkel with the whale sharks.
Similar to our last trip, we've pre-booked most of the hotels and excursions. Ethiopia has really cheap domestic flights, available to foreign non-residents if you book your international flight with Ethiopian Airlines. We replaced a lot of 10 hour bus rides through winding mountain roads with 45 minute flights for about $40.
Unusual for this trip is the number of highlights. On most trips there's two or three highlights, and the rest of the sights are more "while you're there" types of places. On this trip they're almost all highlights.
We have a bit more planning to do and then we take off on December 9th!
Saturday, January 04, 2014
Toronto, Canada
We arrived back home in Toronto on one of the nicest days so far this winter -- it was 1C and clear skies. The days before and after it was -20C with a lot of flight cancellations so we were lucky.
It was an 8 hour flight from Singapore to Beijing. Even in winter, the air in Beijing was really polluted. We couldn't see the control tower from the airport, it was so bad. We had a 5 hour layover between the flights. We looked around at the lunch options. The wait staff were surprisingly active in their sales pitch, with menus thrust into our faces as we walked by. I've seen that in streetside restaurants, but never in an airport!
Then it was a 13 hour flight to Toronto. After the efficiency of Singapore's airport, Toronto's Pearson looked downright bad. In Singapore, it took us 20 minutes from landing to being in a taxi. In Toronto, it was a 20 minute walk from the plane to the arrivals terminal! Then a bottleneck going through immigration and customs. And then it took 90 minutes for the first bag to appear on the conveyor! (this was in good weather too). It might almost be faster to fly into Buffalo and drive to Toronto.
Overall our trip was great. We really enjoyed the adventure stuff in Borneo: trekking through the rainforest in Danum Valley, diving in Sipadan, and exploring the caves at Mulu Park. The wildlife was more difficult to spot in the rainforest (say compared to a safari in Africa), and while we did see proboscis monkeys and orangutans, it was from a distance. It was still really cool though. The food wasn't as great as the hype we had read - maybe because in Toronto it's pretty easy to get the same variety of food and so we weren't easily impressed. In the smaller towns (Ipoh, Penang) we had some really great food, using food bloggers for suggestions. In the big cities (KL, Singapore) it was more hit-and-miss.
The big cities also weren't as photogenic as I had thought. On the other hand, Penang was great for pictures - I have a separate album just with the street art in Penang.
It was an 8 hour flight from Singapore to Beijing. Even in winter, the air in Beijing was really polluted. We couldn't see the control tower from the airport, it was so bad. We had a 5 hour layover between the flights. We looked around at the lunch options. The wait staff were surprisingly active in their sales pitch, with menus thrust into our faces as we walked by. I've seen that in streetside restaurants, but never in an airport!
Then it was a 13 hour flight to Toronto. After the efficiency of Singapore's airport, Toronto's Pearson looked downright bad. In Singapore, it took us 20 minutes from landing to being in a taxi. In Toronto, it was a 20 minute walk from the plane to the arrivals terminal! Then a bottleneck going through immigration and customs. And then it took 90 minutes for the first bag to appear on the conveyor! (this was in good weather too). It might almost be faster to fly into Buffalo and drive to Toronto.
Overall our trip was great. We really enjoyed the adventure stuff in Borneo: trekking through the rainforest in Danum Valley, diving in Sipadan, and exploring the caves at Mulu Park. The wildlife was more difficult to spot in the rainforest (say compared to a safari in Africa), and while we did see proboscis monkeys and orangutans, it was from a distance. It was still really cool though. The food wasn't as great as the hype we had read - maybe because in Toronto it's pretty easy to get the same variety of food and so we weren't easily impressed. In the smaller towns (Ipoh, Penang) we had some really great food, using food bloggers for suggestions. In the big cities (KL, Singapore) it was more hit-and-miss.
The big cities also weren't as photogenic as I had thought. On the other hand, Penang was great for pictures - I have a separate album just with the street art in Penang.
Friday, January 03, 2014
Singapore, Singapore
We flew from Ipoh to Singapore on Firefly. We had wanted to take the train but it's a 11 hour journey that arrived just before midnight, and that didn't sound like a good time to arrive on New Year's Eve. So we booked online for the flight.
The Ipoh airport was only a 15 minute drive from our hotel. The airport was new and very clean. On all the internal Malaysian flights we were able to take water through security but this was an international flight and so we had to toss our waters. They also gave more scrutiny to the wooden souvenirs that we had taken as carry-on on previous flights without problems.
The flight actually took off 5 minutes early! We arrived in Singapore 90 minutes later around 11am. The Singapore airport was very efficient - we were in a taxi about 20 minutes after landing, which included taxiing to the gate, disembarking, retrieving our luggage, going through immigration and customs, changing ringgit to dollars, and getting through the taxi queue.
We thought about taking the MRT, but it wasn't too much more ($18 for a taxi, $5 for MRT) and more convenient with a taxi.
We're staying at Wanderlust in Little India. The room was bigger than we expected - Singapore hotel rooms are generally on the smaller side. (They actually list the square footage on hotel websites when you browse for hotels).
The hotel had given us a little map with restaurant recommendations in the area. We tried one out for lunch. It was very busy. The food was okay.
We had an unexciting NYE dinner in Bugis Market just outside Little India. Went for beers at a small café near our hotel. They had 85 bottles on hand from around the world - including Moosehead. We just had Tiger, as we were in Singapore after all.
We made it to about 10pm and then called it a night, and year.
...
I had a bit of a slow start the next day. Breakfast at the hotel was excellent - pancakes with real bacon and real maple syrup! Most places in Malaysia had served beef bacon or other non-pork substitutes, and honey or jam. We also ordered the fruit salad (it was a choice, so we paid extra to have the fruit too) which was really good.
Started the day at the Singapore Art Museum. We really like the art exhibits. Then we walked over to Gardens by the Bay. Walking there was a bit off a challenge as they hadn't yet taken down the barricades to control the NYE crowds that came to watch the fireworks. We finally made it down there, stopping for lunch at one of the many malls along the way.
Gardens by the Bay is pretty cool. The highlights are the supertrees that you've likely seen pictures - they look like metal frames of trees. It was really hazy so I didn't bother taking pictures - night time is better for pics I think.
The Gardens are representative of the various landscapes around Malaysia - the rainforest, caves with rock formations etc. It was well done, but we were fortunate enough to be able to see the real thing so didn't bother to pay to enter any of the ticketed attractions.
Walked all the way home, about 5km. Singapore has nice big wide walkways under building overhangs on all the major streets, so it's easy as a pedestrian. The only part I didn't like is that the pedestrian crossings aren't synchronized, so it can take two full light cycles to cross an intersection.
We wanted to have dinner at our hotel restaurant but it was closed, and so instead went to Mustard, a little Indian restaurant that Heather found on the web. They were full with reservations but took us in. Dinner was okay.
...
The next day we started at another museum, the National Museum of Singapore. It was well done and is a good historical account of Singapore. It tries to be more interactive (I suppose it's what the kids want) but we found it a bit too much.
The museum is close to the east end of Orchard Rd which was our next stop. Orchard Rd is the main shopping street in Singapore. It's lined with malls full of high-end stores. They're all interconnected with escalators running all over, inside and out. There's no doors at the entrances, just open space, so air conditioning is pouring out all the time. The whole street reminded me of those futuristic cities where you can't tell where "ground" level is, and in fact inside and outside lose all meaning. There was one intersection that pedestrians had to use an underpass. Normally these are straight forward. However this one routed through a mall and it took us about 10 minutes to figure out how to get out on the other side.
We had lunch at Tonkatsu by Ma Maison in Mandarin Gallery, based on the recommendation of our favourite Ipoh blogger. Fans of Japanese food will know the food - it's panko crusted pork served with shredded cabbage, miso soup and rice. The food was most excellent.
Continued walking down the length of Orchard Rd, to the Singapore Botanic Gardens. This was very well done, and the paths well-marked. However, again, as we'd just come back from the real rainforest it wasn't as exciting. It was nice for a walk, and a nice break from museums and malls.
Took the MRT back home. It was one of the cleanest subways I've been on.
We had made reservations for dinner at our hotel. The breakfasts were quite good and we thought French food would be a nice for a change. The food was pretty good (we shared the pork collar) but nothing I couldn't cook at home. But it was conveniently located, and after another big day of walking (about 12km today) we didn't feel like going too far.
...
Started off our last day in Singapore at yet another museum, the Asian Civilizations Museum. This museum gets our vote as the best in Singapore. It really does require a couple visits to do it justice.
Had lunch at an arts centre of some sort just near the museum. It was a $15 set lunch and it was really good, Vietnamese inspired.
We were travelled-out by this time and so just walked back to our hotel.
Grabbed our books (meaning, iPad and iPhone) and went to a nearby restaurant to read. We're sitting at a sidewalk table catching up with our reading and me with our blog.
The call to prayers just started. I forgot to mention in Ipoh, because the room wasn't too sound proof, and with the mosque very nearby, it was the loudest call to prayers we've heard. They also had a pretty decent sound system, with no clipping. Most sound like a high school PA speaker, but the one in Ipoh sounded really good.
We've been checking the weather forecast in Toronto and when we return, it will be -20C, and feel like -30C with the wind chill. The temperature today in Singapore was 31C and with humidity it felt like 40C. That's a 70C swing in temperatures for us. I just turned off vacation mode on our thermostat, which gives our house 36 hours to heat up. Hope that's enough time!
The Ipoh airport was only a 15 minute drive from our hotel. The airport was new and very clean. On all the internal Malaysian flights we were able to take water through security but this was an international flight and so we had to toss our waters. They also gave more scrutiny to the wooden souvenirs that we had taken as carry-on on previous flights without problems.
The flight actually took off 5 minutes early! We arrived in Singapore 90 minutes later around 11am. The Singapore airport was very efficient - we were in a taxi about 20 minutes after landing, which included taxiing to the gate, disembarking, retrieving our luggage, going through immigration and customs, changing ringgit to dollars, and getting through the taxi queue.
We thought about taking the MRT, but it wasn't too much more ($18 for a taxi, $5 for MRT) and more convenient with a taxi.
We're staying at Wanderlust in Little India. The room was bigger than we expected - Singapore hotel rooms are generally on the smaller side. (They actually list the square footage on hotel websites when you browse for hotels).
The hotel had given us a little map with restaurant recommendations in the area. We tried one out for lunch. It was very busy. The food was okay.
We had an unexciting NYE dinner in Bugis Market just outside Little India. Went for beers at a small café near our hotel. They had 85 bottles on hand from around the world - including Moosehead. We just had Tiger, as we were in Singapore after all.
We made it to about 10pm and then called it a night, and year.
...
I had a bit of a slow start the next day. Breakfast at the hotel was excellent - pancakes with real bacon and real maple syrup! Most places in Malaysia had served beef bacon or other non-pork substitutes, and honey or jam. We also ordered the fruit salad (it was a choice, so we paid extra to have the fruit too) which was really good.
Started the day at the Singapore Art Museum. We really like the art exhibits. Then we walked over to Gardens by the Bay. Walking there was a bit off a challenge as they hadn't yet taken down the barricades to control the NYE crowds that came to watch the fireworks. We finally made it down there, stopping for lunch at one of the many malls along the way.
Gardens by the Bay is pretty cool. The highlights are the supertrees that you've likely seen pictures - they look like metal frames of trees. It was really hazy so I didn't bother taking pictures - night time is better for pics I think.
The Gardens are representative of the various landscapes around Malaysia - the rainforest, caves with rock formations etc. It was well done, but we were fortunate enough to be able to see the real thing so didn't bother to pay to enter any of the ticketed attractions.
Walked all the way home, about 5km. Singapore has nice big wide walkways under building overhangs on all the major streets, so it's easy as a pedestrian. The only part I didn't like is that the pedestrian crossings aren't synchronized, so it can take two full light cycles to cross an intersection.
We wanted to have dinner at our hotel restaurant but it was closed, and so instead went to Mustard, a little Indian restaurant that Heather found on the web. They were full with reservations but took us in. Dinner was okay.
...
The next day we started at another museum, the National Museum of Singapore. It was well done and is a good historical account of Singapore. It tries to be more interactive (I suppose it's what the kids want) but we found it a bit too much.
The museum is close to the east end of Orchard Rd which was our next stop. Orchard Rd is the main shopping street in Singapore. It's lined with malls full of high-end stores. They're all interconnected with escalators running all over, inside and out. There's no doors at the entrances, just open space, so air conditioning is pouring out all the time. The whole street reminded me of those futuristic cities where you can't tell where "ground" level is, and in fact inside and outside lose all meaning. There was one intersection that pedestrians had to use an underpass. Normally these are straight forward. However this one routed through a mall and it took us about 10 minutes to figure out how to get out on the other side.
We had lunch at Tonkatsu by Ma Maison in Mandarin Gallery, based on the recommendation of our favourite Ipoh blogger. Fans of Japanese food will know the food - it's panko crusted pork served with shredded cabbage, miso soup and rice. The food was most excellent.
Continued walking down the length of Orchard Rd, to the Singapore Botanic Gardens. This was very well done, and the paths well-marked. However, again, as we'd just come back from the real rainforest it wasn't as exciting. It was nice for a walk, and a nice break from museums and malls.
Took the MRT back home. It was one of the cleanest subways I've been on.
We had made reservations for dinner at our hotel. The breakfasts were quite good and we thought French food would be a nice for a change. The food was pretty good (we shared the pork collar) but nothing I couldn't cook at home. But it was conveniently located, and after another big day of walking (about 12km today) we didn't feel like going too far.
...
Started off our last day in Singapore at yet another museum, the Asian Civilizations Museum. This museum gets our vote as the best in Singapore. It really does require a couple visits to do it justice.
Had lunch at an arts centre of some sort just near the museum. It was a $15 set lunch and it was really good, Vietnamese inspired.
We were travelled-out by this time and so just walked back to our hotel.
Grabbed our books (meaning, iPad and iPhone) and went to a nearby restaurant to read. We're sitting at a sidewalk table catching up with our reading and me with our blog.
The call to prayers just started. I forgot to mention in Ipoh, because the room wasn't too sound proof, and with the mosque very nearby, it was the loudest call to prayers we've heard. They also had a pretty decent sound system, with no clipping. Most sound like a high school PA speaker, but the one in Ipoh sounded really good.
We've been checking the weather forecast in Toronto and when we return, it will be -20C, and feel like -30C with the wind chill. The temperature today in Singapore was 31C and with humidity it felt like 40C. That's a 70C swing in temperatures for us. I just turned off vacation mode on our thermostat, which gives our house 36 hours to heat up. Hope that's enough time!
Wednesday, January 01, 2014
Ipoh, Malaysia
We had the day to tour around Ipoh. There's a couple walking tours of historical buildings published by the tourist board, and we figured that would take up most of the day.
Tour 1 starts off pretty nicely, with the train station, city hall and post office, all built around the early 1900's. Then we went off-tour to visit the museum, but it was closed for renovations. Back to the tour.
The buildings became less impressive (although historically cool) and it was very hot and humid, and so we gave up on Tour 1 about 75% of the way through. Looked quickly at the map for Tour 2 and it continued the downwards trend in importance of buildings. We were very close to our hotel, and so that was the end of our touring of Ipoh.
The food blogger we followed in Ipoh recommended Thean Chun which is right beside our hotel, so we went there for lunch. We got help from how to order from the couple that were seated at the same table. I walked to the stall up front to order the chicken kuey teow soup, ordered the caramel egg custard from the lady who took drink orders, and the satays were placed on the table and you eat what you want, and then they count your skewers at the end to see what you owe. These were the three items that locals come here for, according to the couple. They actually pulled up the same blogger to refer us to a coffee place. At least we were reading the right blogs! They asked us where else we had eaten in Ipoh and they gave nods of approval for each, in particular for yesterday's dim sum place.
All the food was excellent. The satays were really moist and tender. The soup broth was amazing, and the noodles perfectly silky. The bean sprouts fat and tasty. And the custard was really yummy, one of the best I've had.
Fortunately the hotel was next door because the most we could do after all the food was roll into the room and crash. Got up enough energy to walk down the street for the best white coffee in Ipoh, at Sin Yoon Loong. The couple from lunch had told us we had to order it with toast, so we did, not sure what we'd get. Turns out it is toast. Two pieces of wonderbread equivalent, toasted, with margarine and something sweet and jam-like. We were still stuffed from lunch so just nibbled it to try it out. The coffee was very smooth and slightly muddy, with no bitterness. I'm a tea drinker but could drink coffee like this.
Later in the afternoon went to Burps and Giggles (around the block from our hotel) to read and have a beer. We were still full from lunch and so just stayed there for dinner and split a fish burger - it was pretty good.
Tour 1 starts off pretty nicely, with the train station, city hall and post office, all built around the early 1900's. Then we went off-tour to visit the museum, but it was closed for renovations. Back to the tour.
The buildings became less impressive (although historically cool) and it was very hot and humid, and so we gave up on Tour 1 about 75% of the way through. Looked quickly at the map for Tour 2 and it continued the downwards trend in importance of buildings. We were very close to our hotel, and so that was the end of our touring of Ipoh.
The food blogger we followed in Ipoh recommended Thean Chun which is right beside our hotel, so we went there for lunch. We got help from how to order from the couple that were seated at the same table. I walked to the stall up front to order the chicken kuey teow soup, ordered the caramel egg custard from the lady who took drink orders, and the satays were placed on the table and you eat what you want, and then they count your skewers at the end to see what you owe. These were the three items that locals come here for, according to the couple. They actually pulled up the same blogger to refer us to a coffee place. At least we were reading the right blogs! They asked us where else we had eaten in Ipoh and they gave nods of approval for each, in particular for yesterday's dim sum place.
All the food was excellent. The satays were really moist and tender. The soup broth was amazing, and the noodles perfectly silky. The bean sprouts fat and tasty. And the custard was really yummy, one of the best I've had.
Fortunately the hotel was next door because the most we could do after all the food was roll into the room and crash. Got up enough energy to walk down the street for the best white coffee in Ipoh, at Sin Yoon Loong. The couple from lunch had told us we had to order it with toast, so we did, not sure what we'd get. Turns out it is toast. Two pieces of wonderbread equivalent, toasted, with margarine and something sweet and jam-like. We were still stuffed from lunch so just nibbled it to try it out. The coffee was very smooth and slightly muddy, with no bitterness. I'm a tea drinker but could drink coffee like this.
Later in the afternoon went to Burps and Giggles (around the block from our hotel) to read and have a beer. We were still full from lunch and so just stayed there for dinner and split a fish burger - it was pretty good.
Monday, December 30, 2013
Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
We had a day trip today to Cameron Highlands to visit the BOH Sungei Palas Tea Estate. It's not common as a day trip from Ipoh - most people stay in Cameron Highlands for a few days cause at 1500m, it's a nice cool break from the rest of Malaysia. There's no fully organized excursions from Ipoh - we had to organize our day trip the old fashioned way, on our own (cue the grumpy old man, and we liked it!).
Took a two hour bus ride from Ipoh to Tanah Rata. The road climbs up pretty sharply, our ears were popping most of the way. We then hired a taxi to take us to BOH estates, 75 ringgit round trip including the wait at BOH. Our taxi driver turned out to be very knowledgeable about BOH - his parents worked on the estate for many years, and he knew more about tea than most tour guides!
We stopped at a couple vantage points for pics of the tea plantations - the view of the tea plants growing in uneven rows is one of the reasons I originally wanted to come to Malaysia. Our driver explained how the leaves were picked in the old days (two leaves and a bud) nowadays it's all automated. I also didn't realize that if left unpruned, a tea tree will grow more than 20ft tall.
It was drizzling and misty and droplets were getting on my lens as I was taking pics :(
The road up to BOH Estate is narrow and single car width at times. This caused large backups especially as it was the weekend and there were day trippers unfamiliar with the road etiquette. Took us almost an hour for a 8km drive.
Normally you take an organized tour that lasts an hour, but our driver pointed out how to visit the factory on our own. It was really cool, they still use the original equipment in the various stages of tea leaf production.
Had a pot of tea and scones at the very busy restaurant. Took many more pics of the tea plants on the hillside. Bought a souvenir mug (it seemed appropriate to buy a mug from a tea plantation :) ).
We took the taxi back to Tanah Rata, and then walked down the main strip. It's a covered sidewalk (so we didn't need to worry about the rain) with many restaurants and shops.
Had tandoori chicken and roti made to order in a real tandoor. It was excellent. Had a mango lassi too, which was also good. We thought lassis would be more prevalent in Malaysia but we've only seen them in Indian restaurants.
Caught the 3pm bus back to Ipoh. With all the traffic it took us an hour longer to get back, at 6pm. The traffic is mostly local day-trippers, coming up to buy fresh fruits. Only strawberries grow in Cameron Highland's climate, the rest of the fruit is trucked in - but still people come all the way up here for the fruit markets!
After the full day at cooler temperatures (about 24C) we could feel the heat and humidity back in Ipoh as we descended. We looked like locals getting off the bus early, as we passed our street a few minutes before the station.
We weren't motivated to walk too far for dinner because it was pouring rain, and also almost everything was closed on Sundays. So we ate at Plan B, part of the hotel complex. It was really good fusion. Caught up a bit in my blog, had a couple beers, a relaxing evening.
Took a two hour bus ride from Ipoh to Tanah Rata. The road climbs up pretty sharply, our ears were popping most of the way. We then hired a taxi to take us to BOH estates, 75 ringgit round trip including the wait at BOH. Our taxi driver turned out to be very knowledgeable about BOH - his parents worked on the estate for many years, and he knew more about tea than most tour guides!
We stopped at a couple vantage points for pics of the tea plantations - the view of the tea plants growing in uneven rows is one of the reasons I originally wanted to come to Malaysia. Our driver explained how the leaves were picked in the old days (two leaves and a bud) nowadays it's all automated. I also didn't realize that if left unpruned, a tea tree will grow more than 20ft tall.
It was drizzling and misty and droplets were getting on my lens as I was taking pics :(
The road up to BOH Estate is narrow and single car width at times. This caused large backups especially as it was the weekend and there were day trippers unfamiliar with the road etiquette. Took us almost an hour for a 8km drive.
Normally you take an organized tour that lasts an hour, but our driver pointed out how to visit the factory on our own. It was really cool, they still use the original equipment in the various stages of tea leaf production.
Had a pot of tea and scones at the very busy restaurant. Took many more pics of the tea plants on the hillside. Bought a souvenir mug (it seemed appropriate to buy a mug from a tea plantation :) ).
We took the taxi back to Tanah Rata, and then walked down the main strip. It's a covered sidewalk (so we didn't need to worry about the rain) with many restaurants and shops.
Had tandoori chicken and roti made to order in a real tandoor. It was excellent. Had a mango lassi too, which was also good. We thought lassis would be more prevalent in Malaysia but we've only seen them in Indian restaurants.
Caught the 3pm bus back to Ipoh. With all the traffic it took us an hour longer to get back, at 6pm. The traffic is mostly local day-trippers, coming up to buy fresh fruits. Only strawberries grow in Cameron Highland's climate, the rest of the fruit is trucked in - but still people come all the way up here for the fruit markets!
After the full day at cooler temperatures (about 24C) we could feel the heat and humidity back in Ipoh as we descended. We looked like locals getting off the bus early, as we passed our street a few minutes before the station.
We weren't motivated to walk too far for dinner because it was pouring rain, and also almost everything was closed on Sundays. So we ate at Plan B, part of the hotel complex. It was really good fusion. Caught up a bit in my blog, had a couple beers, a relaxing evening.
Ipoh, Malaysia
We booked the train from Penang to Ipoh for a change of transportation. I also like taking the train in different countries.
I finally figured out where to buy tickets online on the KTM website, rather than try to navigate I just googled for the page. Once there it was pretty easy to book out seats from Butterworth (the town on the mainland across from Penang).
We took a taxi from our hotel at 6:45am to the ferry. It was only a 10 minute walk pretty much down the street but it was really humid so I didn't want to walk with our packs. However we didn't tell the taxi driver which ferry we wanted, and as we found out there's a different dock for the ferry to Langkawi than Butterworth. So we ended up walking in the humidity anyways about 10 minutes.
We just missed the ferry, and then because it was Saturday they didn't run every 10 minutes as the LP stated. Our ferry left at 7:35, arriving at Butterworth at 7:50. The train station is only a five minute walk and people were very helpful in pointing the way. Caught our 8am train with three minutes to spare!
We had a nice air conditioned train in 1st class to Ipoh. Even got served tasty banana bread, and I bought some teh tarik from the food car.
The train station in Ipoh is the top rated sight in the LP, it's a nice old building.
We walked to our hotel, about 10 minutes. One of the nice things about train stations is that they are very centrally located, unlike most bus stations and airports.
We stayed at the Sekeping Kong Heng. Sekeping runs a series of artsy boutique hotels in the region. At first we had trouble finding it, for the 2nd time this trip the LP had our hotel marked incorrectly on their map. We asked a shopkeeper and then we found it easily.
It was only 11:30am and our rooms weren't ready so we checked our big packs and took off for lunch.
Ipoh is known for several foods, one being dim sum. The food blogs we read in Penang said don't bother with dim sum there, go to Ipoh instead cause there are more people of Cantonese ancestry.
The place to have dim sum is Ming Court, so that's where we headed. Luckily they were still serving when we arrived (dim sum is very much a morning meal more so here). The dim sum was excellent, the best we've had.
Walked back to the Kong Heng and checked in. The rooms are pretty out there, probably not a place I'd stay in more than once. The shower is a glass cube and the toilet has just a sheer curtain separating it from the room. Not much for privacy!
The hotel is the centre of a complex that reminded me of the Distillery. Little arts and crafts shops, cobblestone walkways, art exhibits, newlyweds having their pictures taken, cozy little cafés.
For dinner we headed to Onn Kee for another Ipoh specialty, tauge ayam (chicken bean sprouts). Onn Kee and Lou Wong's are the two best places and are kitty corner to each other, and their outside seating spills out into the street and closes the street at night. The two restaurants are really popular.
The food was amazing. Dinner is served in three dishes: bean sprouts, boiled chicken, and rice noodles.
The bean sprouts are short and fat in Ipoh, and taste really really good. They're not part of a salad or stir fry, you get an actual plateful of bean sprouts. Yummy. The rice noodles were also amazing. The chicken was good, but the real attractions are the bean sprouts and rice noodles.
We walked through the night market that was just setting up and then walked back to our hotel.
So far, an excellent start to the food of Ipoh!
I finally figured out where to buy tickets online on the KTM website, rather than try to navigate I just googled for the page. Once there it was pretty easy to book out seats from Butterworth (the town on the mainland across from Penang).
We took a taxi from our hotel at 6:45am to the ferry. It was only a 10 minute walk pretty much down the street but it was really humid so I didn't want to walk with our packs. However we didn't tell the taxi driver which ferry we wanted, and as we found out there's a different dock for the ferry to Langkawi than Butterworth. So we ended up walking in the humidity anyways about 10 minutes.
We just missed the ferry, and then because it was Saturday they didn't run every 10 minutes as the LP stated. Our ferry left at 7:35, arriving at Butterworth at 7:50. The train station is only a five minute walk and people were very helpful in pointing the way. Caught our 8am train with three minutes to spare!
We had a nice air conditioned train in 1st class to Ipoh. Even got served tasty banana bread, and I bought some teh tarik from the food car.
The train station in Ipoh is the top rated sight in the LP, it's a nice old building.
We walked to our hotel, about 10 minutes. One of the nice things about train stations is that they are very centrally located, unlike most bus stations and airports.
We stayed at the Sekeping Kong Heng. Sekeping runs a series of artsy boutique hotels in the region. At first we had trouble finding it, for the 2nd time this trip the LP had our hotel marked incorrectly on their map. We asked a shopkeeper and then we found it easily.
It was only 11:30am and our rooms weren't ready so we checked our big packs and took off for lunch.
Ipoh is known for several foods, one being dim sum. The food blogs we read in Penang said don't bother with dim sum there, go to Ipoh instead cause there are more people of Cantonese ancestry.
The place to have dim sum is Ming Court, so that's where we headed. Luckily they were still serving when we arrived (dim sum is very much a morning meal more so here). The dim sum was excellent, the best we've had.
Walked back to the Kong Heng and checked in. The rooms are pretty out there, probably not a place I'd stay in more than once. The shower is a glass cube and the toilet has just a sheer curtain separating it from the room. Not much for privacy!
The hotel is the centre of a complex that reminded me of the Distillery. Little arts and crafts shops, cobblestone walkways, art exhibits, newlyweds having their pictures taken, cozy little cafés.
For dinner we headed to Onn Kee for another Ipoh specialty, tauge ayam (chicken bean sprouts). Onn Kee and Lou Wong's are the two best places and are kitty corner to each other, and their outside seating spills out into the street and closes the street at night. The two restaurants are really popular.
The food was amazing. Dinner is served in three dishes: bean sprouts, boiled chicken, and rice noodles.
The bean sprouts are short and fat in Ipoh, and taste really really good. They're not part of a salad or stir fry, you get an actual plateful of bean sprouts. Yummy. The rice noodles were also amazing. The chicken was good, but the real attractions are the bean sprouts and rice noodles.
We walked through the night market that was just setting up and then walked back to our hotel.
So far, an excellent start to the food of Ipoh!
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Penang, Malaysia
We spent the next three days touristing around Penang. We'd have breakfast, see some sights in the morning, have lunch, relax back in a/c in the mid afternoon, see some more sights in the evening, and then have dinner and drinks.
The first day we had lunch in Little India at Sri Ananda Bahwan, roti with a chicken curry and mutton curry. The mango lassies we had to start sort of filled me up. It was a good lunch, although pretty filling.
We had dinner at a random place just outside the UNESCO protected area, Hon Kei Food Corner. It was very busy with locals (or at least, non-western tourists). The laksa was pretty good, we also tried the deep fried specialties, and the hundred year egg (tasted like a boiled egg).
The second day we had lunch at the LP recommended Sky Hotel. There were only two options, siew bak (bbq'd pork belly) and roast duck. We ordered one of each. It took a while for the food to arrive as there was only one guy who does all the chopping up of the meats, and the restaurant was packed and there was plenty of takeout. Despite all the positive indications about the food, we found it just okay. Our lunch the day we arrived at the place next door was much better.
So we decided to change our approach to finding good restaurants, as our random picking and LP suggestions weren't always great. Instead, as it is 2013, we used google to search for food bloggers.
From a recommendation on travelfish we had dinner at Chuan Bee Cafe. We had to use the pic that was posted to find the place - it's not signed very well. We were a bit dubious about the place at first, as it was empty and didn't seem to be open for food. We ordered based on the blogger's recommendation (otherwise we would have got some interpretation of what locals think westerners want). We started with roti babi, and then had joo har char and kam heong (see the link for explanations and pics). It was amazing, the best food we've had so far.
Based on dinner, we tried a couple more of the same guy's recommendations on our third day. Lunch was at Joo Hooi Cafe, a Penang institution. We again ordered based on the blogger. All Penang staples: asam laksa, char koay teow and then cendol and ais kacang. All great, although the ais kacang is probably an acquired taste.
We had dinner at a touristy place just up the street, Muntri Mews. We had had a couple drinks mid-afternoon on their patio, and got lazy and decided to eat there too. (Our favourite Penang food blogger had also given it thumbs up so that helped convince us). It was really good, sort of a modern take on Malaysian classics.
In between the eating and surfing for the next place to eat, we did do some touristing. The Penang Museum was well presented, and at 1 ringgit a great deal. We also checked out the Camera Museum (recently opened, and very good), the Chocolate and Coffee Museum (more of a sales pitch for a chocolate company, but it was free and included lots of yummy sampling), Khoo Kongsi (an old clan house beautifully restored) and the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (apparently in the LP's top 20 mansions, but we didn't find it that special, except for the most excellent tour guide who reminded me of my Aunt Brille).
Overall a very relaxing (and filling) stay in Penang.
The first day we had lunch in Little India at Sri Ananda Bahwan, roti with a chicken curry and mutton curry. The mango lassies we had to start sort of filled me up. It was a good lunch, although pretty filling.
We had dinner at a random place just outside the UNESCO protected area, Hon Kei Food Corner. It was very busy with locals (or at least, non-western tourists). The laksa was pretty good, we also tried the deep fried specialties, and the hundred year egg (tasted like a boiled egg).
The second day we had lunch at the LP recommended Sky Hotel. There were only two options, siew bak (bbq'd pork belly) and roast duck. We ordered one of each. It took a while for the food to arrive as there was only one guy who does all the chopping up of the meats, and the restaurant was packed and there was plenty of takeout. Despite all the positive indications about the food, we found it just okay. Our lunch the day we arrived at the place next door was much better.
So we decided to change our approach to finding good restaurants, as our random picking and LP suggestions weren't always great. Instead, as it is 2013, we used google to search for food bloggers.
From a recommendation on travelfish we had dinner at Chuan Bee Cafe. We had to use the pic that was posted to find the place - it's not signed very well. We were a bit dubious about the place at first, as it was empty and didn't seem to be open for food. We ordered based on the blogger's recommendation (otherwise we would have got some interpretation of what locals think westerners want). We started with roti babi, and then had joo har char and kam heong (see the link for explanations and pics). It was amazing, the best food we've had so far.
Based on dinner, we tried a couple more of the same guy's recommendations on our third day. Lunch was at Joo Hooi Cafe, a Penang institution. We again ordered based on the blogger. All Penang staples: asam laksa, char koay teow and then cendol and ais kacang. All great, although the ais kacang is probably an acquired taste.
We had dinner at a touristy place just up the street, Muntri Mews. We had had a couple drinks mid-afternoon on their patio, and got lazy and decided to eat there too. (Our favourite Penang food blogger had also given it thumbs up so that helped convince us). It was really good, sort of a modern take on Malaysian classics.
In between the eating and surfing for the next place to eat, we did do some touristing. The Penang Museum was well presented, and at 1 ringgit a great deal. We also checked out the Camera Museum (recently opened, and very good), the Chocolate and Coffee Museum (more of a sales pitch for a chocolate company, but it was free and included lots of yummy sampling), Khoo Kongsi (an old clan house beautifully restored) and the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (apparently in the LP's top 20 mansions, but we didn't find it that special, except for the most excellent tour guide who reminded me of my Aunt Brille).
Overall a very relaxing (and filling) stay in Penang.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Penang, Malaysia
Had a quick breakfast and then checked out. We had a 11:40am flight to Penang flying out of Subang, a closer regional airport. We reached in plenty of time (KL traffic is pretty bad).
Our flight was on time. We got a tasty gingerbread man as the in-flight snack - it was a very nice seasonal touch.
As we disembarked at Penang it felt like we had arrived at an island in the Caribbean. The architecture, relaxed feel, humidity and sea air, and British influence all reminded me of the Caribbean.
Took a taxi to our hotel, Coffee Atelier. It's built into a former shop house, and it's kept the old charm and quirkiness. Our bathroom is outdoors - it's covered, but the room itself is open air. I thought there would be bugs but there weren't any.
Had lunch at a little place on Lebuh Chulia. The only menu option is Hainan chicken rice, either steamed or bbq'd. You wouldn't think chicken and rice could taste this good. It was a successful start to eating in Penang, which is supposed to be a great foodie town.
Walked around random streets in the old part of Penang. It's a UNESCO world heritage site and has great looking colonial buildings. Plus the town sponsored a couple street art works in recent years. The last one in 2012 was a series of interactive murals by Ernest Zacharevic. He combines paintings with real life objects like motorcycles - and now people line up to take pictures with them. I had to wait almost 10 minutes for my turn to take a picture at the most popular ones.
We had dinner at Red Garden, a touristy night market. I tried the fish head curry. It was rather large, and tasted okay. It's a Carlsberg sponsored market, and so we celebrated Christmas Eve with some Asahi's. They serve the 660ml bottles in ice buckets, which serve as the equivalent of pitchers - you share the bottle, in smaller glasses. The waitstaff was too attentive -- after every sip they'd top up your glass.
The heat and humidity were a bit draining and so we went home and were in bed by 10pm. We should have kept our leech socks from Danum Valley - they're the same size and shape as Christmas stockings. But we didn't, so Santa didn't leave anything for us overnight.
Our flight was on time. We got a tasty gingerbread man as the in-flight snack - it was a very nice seasonal touch.
As we disembarked at Penang it felt like we had arrived at an island in the Caribbean. The architecture, relaxed feel, humidity and sea air, and British influence all reminded me of the Caribbean.
Took a taxi to our hotel, Coffee Atelier. It's built into a former shop house, and it's kept the old charm and quirkiness. Our bathroom is outdoors - it's covered, but the room itself is open air. I thought there would be bugs but there weren't any.
Had lunch at a little place on Lebuh Chulia. The only menu option is Hainan chicken rice, either steamed or bbq'd. You wouldn't think chicken and rice could taste this good. It was a successful start to eating in Penang, which is supposed to be a great foodie town.
Walked around random streets in the old part of Penang. It's a UNESCO world heritage site and has great looking colonial buildings. Plus the town sponsored a couple street art works in recent years. The last one in 2012 was a series of interactive murals by Ernest Zacharevic. He combines paintings with real life objects like motorcycles - and now people line up to take pictures with them. I had to wait almost 10 minutes for my turn to take a picture at the most popular ones.
We had dinner at Red Garden, a touristy night market. I tried the fish head curry. It was rather large, and tasted okay. It's a Carlsberg sponsored market, and so we celebrated Christmas Eve with some Asahi's. They serve the 660ml bottles in ice buckets, which serve as the equivalent of pitchers - you share the bottle, in smaller glasses. The waitstaff was too attentive -- after every sip they'd top up your glass.
The heat and humidity were a bit draining and so we went home and were in bed by 10pm. We should have kept our leech socks from Danum Valley - they're the same size and shape as Christmas stockings. But we didn't, so Santa didn't leave anything for us overnight.
Friday, December 27, 2013
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
We started the day at Thean Hou Temple, near the new Little India in Brickfields. It was a little more difficult to get there than the Lonely Planet suggests - without Google Maps, we wouldn't have found it. (I discovered that without wifi, Google Maps will still plot your current location using GPS on an cached map).
It was a nice looking temple, but probably not worth the effort to get there. Instead of walking back in the heat we took a taxi back to Chinatown for lunch.
After lunch we took the LRT back to KLCC, with intentions to visit Galerie Petronas. However, it ended up being closed on Mondays :(
So we relaxed back at Traders Lounge with free food and drinks.
For dinner we went back to Jalan Alor, and tried the LP recommended Kedai Makanan. The Sichuan food was excellent. We watched the chef afterwards, he was very meticulous. All the sous chefs were studying his every move.
It was a nice looking temple, but probably not worth the effort to get there. Instead of walking back in the heat we took a taxi back to Chinatown for lunch.
After lunch we took the LRT back to KLCC, with intentions to visit Galerie Petronas. However, it ended up being closed on Mondays :(
So we relaxed back at Traders Lounge with free food and drinks.
For dinner we went back to Jalan Alor, and tried the LP recommended Kedai Makanan. The Sichuan food was excellent. We watched the chef afterwards, he was very meticulous. All the sous chefs were studying his every move.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Our day started a bit slowly after our festive Saturday night. We finally made it out around noon, and caught the LRT to Masjid Jamek for the Central Market. It was touristy, but we did find some cool souvenirs from Borneo, including a blow gun, which is surprisingly easy to use and aim. They let me try it out in the store after I bought it, it comes with a wooden dart.
Had lunch in the food court in the central market (it was so-so) and a refreshing coconut water just outside. We walked around some more markets in Little India and Chinatown but these were selling mostly knock-offs. It was cool to just walk through them though.
Got back to Traders around 5pm, in time for Happy Hour. We relaxed with the views of Petronas Towers, had enough food to call it dinner. I wanted to see the night market at Jalan Alor to take some pictures - it wasn't raining so I though it would be a good chance. The hotel staff were surprised that we wanted to walk - they were suggesting a taxi. It was only a 20 minute walk, and the streets were so crowded I'm sure the taxi would have taken longer. We cut through the Pavilion, which is a shopping mall but has a cool pedestrian court with restaurants spilling out into the patios.
We reached Jalan Alor through crowded streets. Pedestrians take over the streets but somehow taxis and trishaws still crawl through, slightly slower than we were walking.
We finally tried durian. One of the stalls sold small pieces, and provided throwaway gloves to eat with. We both thought it was okay, but nothing special enough to put up with the smell. Heather also tried a peanut crusted gelatinous rice dessert (muah chee) that she liked.
Had lunch in the food court in the central market (it was so-so) and a refreshing coconut water just outside. We walked around some more markets in Little India and Chinatown but these were selling mostly knock-offs. It was cool to just walk through them though.
Got back to Traders around 5pm, in time for Happy Hour. We relaxed with the views of Petronas Towers, had enough food to call it dinner. I wanted to see the night market at Jalan Alor to take some pictures - it wasn't raining so I though it would be a good chance. The hotel staff were surprised that we wanted to walk - they were suggesting a taxi. It was only a 20 minute walk, and the streets were so crowded I'm sure the taxi would have taken longer. We cut through the Pavilion, which is a shopping mall but has a cool pedestrian court with restaurants spilling out into the patios.
We reached Jalan Alor through crowded streets. Pedestrians take over the streets but somehow taxis and trishaws still crawl through, slightly slower than we were walking.
We finally tried durian. One of the stalls sold small pieces, and provided throwaway gloves to eat with. We both thought it was okay, but nothing special enough to put up with the smell. Heather also tried a peanut crusted gelatinous rice dessert (muah chee) that she liked.
Monday, December 23, 2013
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Our flight from Mulu didn't depart until 1:45pm so we had the morning to relax. I finished my first book (Children of Dune) and started reading Tai Pan). I wanted to go onto book three of the Dune series but didn't have web access to figure out which book was next.
We walked across the suspension bridge to leave Mulu Park - it felt odd to leave even though it was just across the bridge, having been in Mulu Park the last few days.
Paid 5 ringgit each for transport to the airport. We were able to check our baggage all the way to Kuala Lumpur even though I had bought the two legs separately on the web.
We waited in departures hoping to see our plane arrive - this was the flight that had been cancelled on our way into Mulu. Finally it arrived about 30 minutes late - we were nervous for a few minutes until they announced (no loudspeaker - just a person talking - it's a very small airport) that it was the flight to Miri and not the next flight to Kuching.
We had enough time in Miri for another 3 ringgit automated massage before the flight to Kuala Lumpur.
There was a distinct feeling landing at KLIA that we were no longer in Borneo. After three weeks of adventures in national parks and small towns, we were now back in the big city - the tarmac was filled with A380s and Dreamliners from all over the world.
It was a long 1 hour 45 minute taxi ride from the airport to the city centre, almost as long as the flight.
The checkin at Traders was very professional (it's a Shangri La hotel). Our room had a great view of the Petronas Towers - we had booked here because it's the best view of the towers.
It was pretty late (after 9pm) so we just ate in the hotel restaurant, and then called it a night.
...
We had signed up for the Traders Club access when we booked. At the time I was wondering if we'd actually use any of the benefits but it turned out to be a great deal. We has a very good breakfast in the Traders Lounge - it's almost at the same height as the skybridge that connects the Petronas Towers and so has great 360* views of KL.
Heather shopped at Suria KLCC, the big mall at the foot of the Petronas Towers. Apparently it has some pretty good stores that aren't in Canada.
Headed to Chinatown on the LRT (very easy to navigate), and had lunch in a street food market. We pointed to order and ended up with some great tasting noodle soups. Another guy came around to take drink orders and we had had a teh tarik each. Overall an excellent lunch.
Walked over to see the Masjid Negara mosque, and then to the Islamic Arts Museum which was amazing. One display was models of significant mosques around the world - I was surprised that I'd only seen one out of the 20 or so displayed. There are some very cool looking ones in Uzbekistan - we'll have to look at that for a future trip :)
We got back to the hotel in time for happy hour at Traders Lounge. It's a great happy hour - free food and drinks from 5pm to 7pm. I had a few Tigers (which I just learnt is brewed in Singapore) and Heather had white wine.
One of the best nightspots in KL is the Skybar at the top of our hotel and it was a Saturday night so we decided to check it out. A few drinks later it was after midnight and we headed off to bed.
We walked across the suspension bridge to leave Mulu Park - it felt odd to leave even though it was just across the bridge, having been in Mulu Park the last few days.
Paid 5 ringgit each for transport to the airport. We were able to check our baggage all the way to Kuala Lumpur even though I had bought the two legs separately on the web.
We waited in departures hoping to see our plane arrive - this was the flight that had been cancelled on our way into Mulu. Finally it arrived about 30 minutes late - we were nervous for a few minutes until they announced (no loudspeaker - just a person talking - it's a very small airport) that it was the flight to Miri and not the next flight to Kuching.
We had enough time in Miri for another 3 ringgit automated massage before the flight to Kuala Lumpur.
There was a distinct feeling landing at KLIA that we were no longer in Borneo. After three weeks of adventures in national parks and small towns, we were now back in the big city - the tarmac was filled with A380s and Dreamliners from all over the world.
It was a long 1 hour 45 minute taxi ride from the airport to the city centre, almost as long as the flight.
The checkin at Traders was very professional (it's a Shangri La hotel). Our room had a great view of the Petronas Towers - we had booked here because it's the best view of the towers.
It was pretty late (after 9pm) so we just ate in the hotel restaurant, and then called it a night.
...
We had signed up for the Traders Club access when we booked. At the time I was wondering if we'd actually use any of the benefits but it turned out to be a great deal. We has a very good breakfast in the Traders Lounge - it's almost at the same height as the skybridge that connects the Petronas Towers and so has great 360* views of KL.
Heather shopped at Suria KLCC, the big mall at the foot of the Petronas Towers. Apparently it has some pretty good stores that aren't in Canada.
Headed to Chinatown on the LRT (very easy to navigate), and had lunch in a street food market. We pointed to order and ended up with some great tasting noodle soups. Another guy came around to take drink orders and we had had a teh tarik each. Overall an excellent lunch.
Walked over to see the Masjid Negara mosque, and then to the Islamic Arts Museum which was amazing. One display was models of significant mosques around the world - I was surprised that I'd only seen one out of the 20 or so displayed. There are some very cool looking ones in Uzbekistan - we'll have to look at that for a future trip :)
We got back to the hotel in time for happy hour at Traders Lounge. It's a great happy hour - free food and drinks from 5pm to 7pm. I had a few Tigers (which I just learnt is brewed in Singapore) and Heather had white wine.
One of the best nightspots in KL is the Skybar at the top of our hotel and it was a Saturday night so we decided to check it out. A few drinks later it was after midnight and we headed off to bed.
Friday, December 20, 2013
Mulu Park, Malaysia - Day 3
It rained heavily most of the night, and it was still drizzling when we walked to breakfast. There are boardwalks to get around to the chalets and restaurant because when it rains like we had the ground gets flooded a couple feet deep. Luckily the 2 million bats keep the mosquitos under control, what with all the stagnant water.
The sun was poking through as our group met at the park office at 9am to start today's trek through Racer Cave. The caves at Mulu Park are categorized as Show Caves or Adventure Caves. The Show Caves were the ones we had done the past two days, and are fully boardwalked and have illuminated pathways inside the caves. The Adventure Caves require prior caving experience or membership in a recognized spelunking organization. Racer Cave (named after the Racer Snakes in the cave) is the only cave that you can do if you don't have prior experience.
We picked our helmets (with attached lights) and then the 7 of us took the 15 minute boat ride to the cave entrance. The other 5 had just completed the 3 day Pinnacle trek so they all knew each other.
The Racer Cave started with a rope-assisted climb up a 15' wall; then a rope-assisted 30' descent straight down; and then squeezing sideways through a very narrow passage in the rock. There were a few more ups and downs using ropes, and other places where we were sliding on our bums because the ground was so slippery. We got very dirty. Occasionally I was able to rinse my hands in the water falling in the cave.
There were no lights inside the cave like in the Show Caves, just the lights from our headlights. Our guide had us turn off our lights briefly after we entered the cave, just to experience the total darkness. We could hear a couple bats flying around us - they sounded louder in complete darkness. By this time we had become used to bats and so neither of us were freaked out.
We saw spiders as big as my hand, crickets with 15cm attenae, swiftlets, bats, and one racer snake.
The 2km walk (1km in, 1km out) took us almost three hours. The cave was as interesting as yesterday's Fast Lane, but we hardly noticed the rock formations because we had to watch where we were walking. When I did stop to look around it looked almost fake - as if someone had taken a bunch of big rocks and arranged them in a warehouse and turned off the lights.
Overall it was a really cool experience. The Show Caves are cool too because you can look around as you walk; but the Adventure Caves really are an adventure.
We arrived back at park headquarters and showered. All of our clothes and shoes were filthy too.
Rushed though lunch because we had the canopy walk booked at 2pm. There's a lot of places that now have canopy walks. The one at Mulu Park is supposedly the longest in the world at 480m. We liked the one at Danum Valley better - it was sturdier, and offered a better chance to see wildlife.
Back at headquarters we had the afternoon to relax, and so hung out in the restaurant from 4pm till 9pm. Luckily we got there early as it poured rain again from 5pm to 8pm. Also lucky we had seen the bat exodus our first day in because it rained the past two days at sunset when the bats come out.
The sun was poking through as our group met at the park office at 9am to start today's trek through Racer Cave. The caves at Mulu Park are categorized as Show Caves or Adventure Caves. The Show Caves were the ones we had done the past two days, and are fully boardwalked and have illuminated pathways inside the caves. The Adventure Caves require prior caving experience or membership in a recognized spelunking organization. Racer Cave (named after the Racer Snakes in the cave) is the only cave that you can do if you don't have prior experience.
We picked our helmets (with attached lights) and then the 7 of us took the 15 minute boat ride to the cave entrance. The other 5 had just completed the 3 day Pinnacle trek so they all knew each other.
The Racer Cave started with a rope-assisted climb up a 15' wall; then a rope-assisted 30' descent straight down; and then squeezing sideways through a very narrow passage in the rock. There were a few more ups and downs using ropes, and other places where we were sliding on our bums because the ground was so slippery. We got very dirty. Occasionally I was able to rinse my hands in the water falling in the cave.
There were no lights inside the cave like in the Show Caves, just the lights from our headlights. Our guide had us turn off our lights briefly after we entered the cave, just to experience the total darkness. We could hear a couple bats flying around us - they sounded louder in complete darkness. By this time we had become used to bats and so neither of us were freaked out.
We saw spiders as big as my hand, crickets with 15cm attenae, swiftlets, bats, and one racer snake.
The 2km walk (1km in, 1km out) took us almost three hours. The cave was as interesting as yesterday's Fast Lane, but we hardly noticed the rock formations because we had to watch where we were walking. When I did stop to look around it looked almost fake - as if someone had taken a bunch of big rocks and arranged them in a warehouse and turned off the lights.
Overall it was a really cool experience. The Show Caves are cool too because you can look around as you walk; but the Adventure Caves really are an adventure.
We arrived back at park headquarters and showered. All of our clothes and shoes were filthy too.
Rushed though lunch because we had the canopy walk booked at 2pm. There's a lot of places that now have canopy walks. The one at Mulu Park is supposedly the longest in the world at 480m. We liked the one at Danum Valley better - it was sturdier, and offered a better chance to see wildlife.
Back at headquarters we had the afternoon to relax, and so hung out in the restaurant from 4pm till 9pm. Luckily we got there early as it poured rain again from 5pm to 8pm. Also lucky we had seen the bat exodus our first day in because it rained the past two days at sunset when the bats come out.
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Mulu Park, Malaysia - Day 2
We were up at 7am for breakfast (I had pancakes which were okay, a bit crepe-like).
Our morning trek was to Wind and Clearwater Caves. It's a 10 minute boat ride to the starting point - and there's also a tourist stop at Batu Bungan, a local village.
Both caves were okay - the Clearwater cave was better, with its long pathway around the perimeter - there's lighting inside the cave so you can get perspective of just how big it is. The lighting just appears as specks of light in the distance and don't light up the cave (it's too big for that), so you can see the bigness but it doesn't come out in a pic.
Outside the cave it's possible to swim in river, we waited while some of the other tourists took a quick dip.
Back to park HQ for a rushed lunch, and then on to our 2pm trek, to Fast Lane Cave. I think this tour could be an hour, but it's a bit Disney-fied and catering to the slow walkers, so it took us 3 hours.
The cave itself is really cool and worth walking slowly through to appreciate all the stalactites and stalagmites. (It's the 1km walk to the cave at a crawl that was tedious).
As a bonus, the guide couldn't get the cave lights to switch on, so we just had the lighting from 8 flashlights, which added to the adventure.
At one point the formations were as thick as a forest - the walkway was built around stalagmites sticking up the middle of the path.
Back at the chalet, we showered and then waited out the evening rains - good thing we weren't trying to see the bats tonight.
By 7pm the rains let up a bit and we headed over to the park restaurant for dinner. We were running out of things to try on the menu, plus there were more insects with the fewer bats out. We tried a couple different dishes that were okay, and then called it an early night.
Our morning trek was to Wind and Clearwater Caves. It's a 10 minute boat ride to the starting point - and there's also a tourist stop at Batu Bungan, a local village.
Both caves were okay - the Clearwater cave was better, with its long pathway around the perimeter - there's lighting inside the cave so you can get perspective of just how big it is. The lighting just appears as specks of light in the distance and don't light up the cave (it's too big for that), so you can see the bigness but it doesn't come out in a pic.
Outside the cave it's possible to swim in river, we waited while some of the other tourists took a quick dip.
Back to park HQ for a rushed lunch, and then on to our 2pm trek, to Fast Lane Cave. I think this tour could be an hour, but it's a bit Disney-fied and catering to the slow walkers, so it took us 3 hours.
The cave itself is really cool and worth walking slowly through to appreciate all the stalactites and stalagmites. (It's the 1km walk to the cave at a crawl that was tedious).
As a bonus, the guide couldn't get the cave lights to switch on, so we just had the lighting from 8 flashlights, which added to the adventure.
At one point the formations were as thick as a forest - the walkway was built around stalagmites sticking up the middle of the path.
Back at the chalet, we showered and then waited out the evening rains - good thing we weren't trying to see the bats tonight.
By 7pm the rains let up a bit and we headed over to the park restaurant for dinner. We were running out of things to try on the menu, plus there were more insects with the fewer bats out. We tried a couple different dishes that were okay, and then called it an early night.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Mulu Park, Malaysia - Day 1
Our flight was delayed slightly from Miri but eventually our flight was called for boarding. Yay!
It's a short 30 minute flight to Mulu. Mulu's airport is one of the smaller ones I've seen. There was transport of sorts for the 5 minute drive to Mulu Park - a single Land Rover that took people 4 at a time. We had to wait for the 3rd trip.
More line ups at Mulu Park HQ - we had to register for the park and our walks, check-in to our chalet, and reschedule the canopy walk, which we were supposed to be on this morning but missed because of the cancelled flight.
Our chalet was pretty nice, an even had air conditioning. We had lunch at the open air restaurant beside the park office - nasi goreng, it was really tasty.
We geared up for our 2pm trek to Lang's Cave and Deer Cave. We had way over-geared - the trek is a boardwalk the entire way, and in fact is wheelchair accessible for almost the whole walk, including partially into the caves.
Lang's cave was okay; Deer Cave was amazing - 2km long and 174m high at its maximum. Because it's so big it seemed more like a big tunnel than a cave, but it was still really cool. It's also home to 2-3 million bats - you smell the guano well before you see the cave.
The cave is open on both ends, so there was a cool breeze blowing through. Our dork lights came in handy to watch where we were walking, and also to see the crickets with 15cm attenae.
In the piles of guano there were mongoose footprints - I can safely say I've never seen that before.
The panoramic view near sunset (the sun shines into the cave at this hour) is an amazing view - it makes my list of top things to see in the world.
After Deer Cave we waited at the "Bat Observatory" - just a couple benches in a semi circle facing Deer Cave. Around 6pm, the 2-3 million bats fly out in a spiral. The bats don't come out if it's raining (cause their echo location doesn't work as well in the rain) so we were lucky to have a blue sky as we waited.
Sure enough, around 5:50pm the first waves of bats appeared. They spiraled out (to avoid the hawks that prey on them). After a few waves, a constant stream lasting about 5 minutes came out of Deer Cave - it was pretty cool to see.
It was a bit like watching fireworks or making popcorn - how do you know when it's done? After the interval between bat spirals reached 3 seconds, we headed back to park HQ. (Actually, there's only so many bat spirals you can see before it gets repetitive.).
Showered, then had dinner at the park restaurant. It's a nice place to hang out - the bats keep it relatively insect free, and there's a nice breeze going through. Plus, the kitchen serves up pretty tasty food, and desserts (and beer and wine, although I was still feeling a bit under the weather so did not partake).
It's a short 30 minute flight to Mulu. Mulu's airport is one of the smaller ones I've seen. There was transport of sorts for the 5 minute drive to Mulu Park - a single Land Rover that took people 4 at a time. We had to wait for the 3rd trip.
More line ups at Mulu Park HQ - we had to register for the park and our walks, check-in to our chalet, and reschedule the canopy walk, which we were supposed to be on this morning but missed because of the cancelled flight.
Our chalet was pretty nice, an even had air conditioning. We had lunch at the open air restaurant beside the park office - nasi goreng, it was really tasty.
We geared up for our 2pm trek to Lang's Cave and Deer Cave. We had way over-geared - the trek is a boardwalk the entire way, and in fact is wheelchair accessible for almost the whole walk, including partially into the caves.
Lang's cave was okay; Deer Cave was amazing - 2km long and 174m high at its maximum. Because it's so big it seemed more like a big tunnel than a cave, but it was still really cool. It's also home to 2-3 million bats - you smell the guano well before you see the cave.
The cave is open on both ends, so there was a cool breeze blowing through. Our dork lights came in handy to watch where we were walking, and also to see the crickets with 15cm attenae.
In the piles of guano there were mongoose footprints - I can safely say I've never seen that before.
The panoramic view near sunset (the sun shines into the cave at this hour) is an amazing view - it makes my list of top things to see in the world.
After Deer Cave we waited at the "Bat Observatory" - just a couple benches in a semi circle facing Deer Cave. Around 6pm, the 2-3 million bats fly out in a spiral. The bats don't come out if it's raining (cause their echo location doesn't work as well in the rain) so we were lucky to have a blue sky as we waited.
Sure enough, around 5:50pm the first waves of bats appeared. They spiraled out (to avoid the hawks that prey on them). After a few waves, a constant stream lasting about 5 minutes came out of Deer Cave - it was pretty cool to see.
It was a bit like watching fireworks or making popcorn - how do you know when it's done? After the interval between bat spirals reached 3 seconds, we headed back to park HQ. (Actually, there's only so many bat spirals you can see before it gets repetitive.).
Showered, then had dinner at the park restaurant. It's a nice place to hang out - the bats keep it relatively insect free, and there's a nice breeze going through. Plus, the kitchen serves up pretty tasty food, and desserts (and beer and wine, although I was still feeling a bit under the weather so did not partake).
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Miri, Malaysia
Our flight from Miri to Mulu was cancelled, and MASwings rebooked us for the first flight out the next morning, and then gave us a voucher for a hotel, dinner and breakfast, and taxi to and from the airport. The flight itself cost us $36 CAD so we made out pretty good :)
The hotel was a resort hotel near the airport, with nothing to do except stay in the hotel. Out meal vouchers got us a set meal that sounded not so great, so instead we moved to the lounge (it was happy hour from 5:30pm - 8:30pm), ordered off the menu and figured to pay for it ourselves. However the lounge staff let us use the monetary value of the voucher against our meal so we ate for free.
With most of our trip to date having been organized to the detail (Danum Valley, Sipadan and Mulu Park all had to be booked at least three months in advance), the night in Miri felt like a little adventure from our vacation. It's how we usually travel when not going somewhere in high season.
The hotel was a resort hotel near the airport, with nothing to do except stay in the hotel. Out meal vouchers got us a set meal that sounded not so great, so instead we moved to the lounge (it was happy hour from 5:30pm - 8:30pm), ordered off the menu and figured to pay for it ourselves. However the lounge staff let us use the monetary value of the voucher against our meal so we ate for free.
With most of our trip to date having been organized to the detail (Danum Valley, Sipadan and Mulu Park all had to be booked at least three months in advance), the night in Miri felt like a little adventure from our vacation. It's how we usually travel when not going somewhere in high season.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam
Most people we met here in Borneo, when they found out we were planning a day in Brunei, asked us why? But we enjoyed our day here.
We were staying at Hotel Brunei, very centrally located. Our room overlooked the morning market across the canal. We checked it out before breakfast.
Breakfast was the standard buffet plus eggs a la carte.
We toured around the Omar Ali Saifuddien mosque in the centre, which was okay, in a nice setting on an artificial lagoon. Next was the Royal Regalia Museum, which was mostly a display of gifts to the Sultan for his coronation. It also had original texts of all the documents up to Borneo attaining independence. Heather found these pretty interesting.
For a change we had Korean food for lunch, in the food court at the mall (which is where most of the food stalls are). It was really good.
At 4:30pm we took a water taxi cruise in search of proboscis monkeys. Whereas in Kota Kinabalu it's a two hour drive, here it's a 10 minute boat ride to see the monkeys.
We were lucky both that the rain held off, and then that we saw a family of 6 or 7 proboscis monkeys, including the male, eating and sitting in a tree. Unfortunately the branches and leaves prevented a decent pic, so we just observed them for about 20 minutes.
For dinner we tried a sushi place. At first we were a bit skeptical but tripadvisor rated it #1 in Brunei so we gave it a try. It was excellent.
---
The next morning we were up at 5:30am to catch the 7am bus to Miri. Breakfast started at 6:30 so we had a quick serving of French toast and some fruit, and then walked the 5 minutes to where the bus departed from.
The bus ride was five hours long, including a 45 minute traffic backlog at the border. A 10 minute taxi ride brought us to the airport.
Our flight to Mulu is delayed, so we're hanging out in The Coffee Bean in the departure level, enjoying a tea and free wifi.
We have four days in Mulu exploring the bat caves and spelunking. The Lonely Planet says wifi is spotty in Mulu so the next time you hear from us may be Dec 20 from Kuala Lumpur.
We were staying at Hotel Brunei, very centrally located. Our room overlooked the morning market across the canal. We checked it out before breakfast.
Breakfast was the standard buffet plus eggs a la carte.
We toured around the Omar Ali Saifuddien mosque in the centre, which was okay, in a nice setting on an artificial lagoon. Next was the Royal Regalia Museum, which was mostly a display of gifts to the Sultan for his coronation. It also had original texts of all the documents up to Borneo attaining independence. Heather found these pretty interesting.
For a change we had Korean food for lunch, in the food court at the mall (which is where most of the food stalls are). It was really good.
At 4:30pm we took a water taxi cruise in search of proboscis monkeys. Whereas in Kota Kinabalu it's a two hour drive, here it's a 10 minute boat ride to see the monkeys.
We were lucky both that the rain held off, and then that we saw a family of 6 or 7 proboscis monkeys, including the male, eating and sitting in a tree. Unfortunately the branches and leaves prevented a decent pic, so we just observed them for about 20 minutes.
For dinner we tried a sushi place. At first we were a bit skeptical but tripadvisor rated it #1 in Brunei so we gave it a try. It was excellent.
---
The next morning we were up at 5:30am to catch the 7am bus to Miri. Breakfast started at 6:30 so we had a quick serving of French toast and some fruit, and then walked the 5 minutes to where the bus departed from.
The bus ride was five hours long, including a 45 minute traffic backlog at the border. A 10 minute taxi ride brought us to the airport.
Our flight to Mulu is delayed, so we're hanging out in The Coffee Bean in the departure level, enjoying a tea and free wifi.
We have four days in Mulu exploring the bat caves and spelunking. The Lonely Planet says wifi is spotty in Mulu so the next time you hear from us may be Dec 20 from Kuala Lumpur.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Tawau, Malaysia
I had to wait 24 hours after diving before we could fly, so we spent the extra day in Tawau rather than Semporna.
Tawau is a 90 minute drive along the coast from Semporna. We arrived just before noon, and checked into the My Inn Hotel. I had prepaid $30 on agoda.com and thought it was the deposit, and then realized that that was the full cost. It was a pretty good mid-range hotel.
There's a chocolate factory in Tawau that runs tours, and so we hopped in a taxi for Teck Guan Cocoa.
Unfortunately you need to book the tour in advance, as they then arrange for the staff who run the museum and tour. There was a manager on duty and she was nice enough to give a quick tour, show us the cocoa bean, split to see the inside. I don't the the factory was running because it's Friday (Malaysia is largely Muslim). What we saw was pretty cool, although too bad we didn't know to book ahead.
There's not much else to do in Tawau so we just relaxed and read away the rest of the afternoon.
Had dinner at a place that served mostly pasta, although we had local dishes. (None of the other places looked particularly appetizing to us). Had a couple Tiger beers too.
The next day was a long travel day. We had an early morning flight from Tawau back to Kota Kinabalu and then a six hour layover before flying to Brunei.
We've become addicted to the automated massage chairs that are everywhere in the airports. We took care to save up our $1 ringgit notes, it's 3 MYR for 9 minutes, about $1 CAD.
Finally our flight time arrived, and it was a short 40 minute flight to Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei. Unfortunately the gate got stuck and so we taxied to another gate, which took longer than the flight.
The airport's undergoing construction and they don't have the ATM's hooked up yet. So we grabbed a taxi to the Brunei Hotel, and had the driver stop at an ATM so we could get Brunei dollars.
It was already 8pm by the time we arrived at the hotel, it was pouring rain and I was feeling a bit under the weather so we just ate at the hotel restaurant. It wasn't too bad, actually better than what we'd had over the last few days.
We've been somewhat disappointed by the food on Borneo after hearing lots of good things about food here. We're hoping things will be different back on the peninsula. It could also be that we do get pretty decent Thai, Chinese and Indian restaurants in Toronto, and so we're not blown away by the food here. It's okay, but about average compared to what we can get back home. Or maybe we just don't know how to choose a restaurant here :)
Tawau is a 90 minute drive along the coast from Semporna. We arrived just before noon, and checked into the My Inn Hotel. I had prepaid $30 on agoda.com and thought it was the deposit, and then realized that that was the full cost. It was a pretty good mid-range hotel.
There's a chocolate factory in Tawau that runs tours, and so we hopped in a taxi for Teck Guan Cocoa.
Unfortunately you need to book the tour in advance, as they then arrange for the staff who run the museum and tour. There was a manager on duty and she was nice enough to give a quick tour, show us the cocoa bean, split to see the inside. I don't the the factory was running because it's Friday (Malaysia is largely Muslim). What we saw was pretty cool, although too bad we didn't know to book ahead.
There's not much else to do in Tawau so we just relaxed and read away the rest of the afternoon.
Had dinner at a place that served mostly pasta, although we had local dishes. (None of the other places looked particularly appetizing to us). Had a couple Tiger beers too.
The next day was a long travel day. We had an early morning flight from Tawau back to Kota Kinabalu and then a six hour layover before flying to Brunei.
We've become addicted to the automated massage chairs that are everywhere in the airports. We took care to save up our $1 ringgit notes, it's 3 MYR for 9 minutes, about $1 CAD.
Finally our flight time arrived, and it was a short 40 minute flight to Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei. Unfortunately the gate got stuck and so we taxied to another gate, which took longer than the flight.
The airport's undergoing construction and they don't have the ATM's hooked up yet. So we grabbed a taxi to the Brunei Hotel, and had the driver stop at an ATM so we could get Brunei dollars.
It was already 8pm by the time we arrived at the hotel, it was pouring rain and I was feeling a bit under the weather so we just ate at the hotel restaurant. It wasn't too bad, actually better than what we'd had over the last few days.
We've been somewhat disappointed by the food on Borneo after hearing lots of good things about food here. We're hoping things will be different back on the peninsula. It could also be that we do get pretty decent Thai, Chinese and Indian restaurants in Toronto, and so we're not blown away by the food here. It's okay, but about average compared to what we can get back home. Or maybe we just don't know how to choose a restaurant here :)
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Sipadan, Malaysia
Today was the big dive excursion to Sipadan!
Heather had a 2nd day of snorkeling with Big John's and I was off to Sipadan.
Big John's had booked me through BUMS (Borneo Unlimited Marine Sports) which was conveniently located behind our hotel. There were 6 of us diving, plus a divemaster and a 2nd dive guide.
It was about an hour boat ride to Sipadan. We registered at the office on the island, and then we were off.
Our first dive was from Barracuda Point. We saw lots of green turtles, a couple barracudas and some sharks.
In between dives we went ashore where they have shelters set up, and had our snacks and coffee that the dive shop provided.
The 2nd dive we tracked down the schools of barracuda before jumping in. It was amazing, about 1000 barracuda, each about 6'-8' long, swimming in a tornado pattern. Just after we got back on board, the captain spotted some bumphead parrotfish and so we jumped back in and snorkeled over to see them. That covered of two of the three main attractions of Sipadan!
The 3rd big thing to see is the schools of jacks. For our 3rs dive, again the captain searched out the schools before we dived in. The schools were big, about the size of a house, with a couple thousand jacks (each about 2'-3' long). They swam in slow formation, winding back and forth. I swam slowly right up to the school and then was in the middle! It was pretty cool. We stayed with the school for almost 30 minutes, most of the dive. There were turtles and sharks about too but the main attraction on this dive was the jacks.
We headed back to Semporna after the last dive, a great day of diving. We were lucky to have seen all three attractions! There's also hammerheads at Sipadan but not at this time of year. I'll have to see them elsewhere.
We went out for dinner at a different restaurant, a Chinese one that was pretty good. At least with Chinese food it's easy to get our greens. We had a beer for only the 2nd time on this trip, I had finished diving so could have a drink.
We had a fresh coconut on the way home, I think it was freshly picked because it was still warm, and slightly fizzy.
Heather had a 2nd day of snorkeling with Big John's and I was off to Sipadan.
Big John's had booked me through BUMS (Borneo Unlimited Marine Sports) which was conveniently located behind our hotel. There were 6 of us diving, plus a divemaster and a 2nd dive guide.
It was about an hour boat ride to Sipadan. We registered at the office on the island, and then we were off.
Our first dive was from Barracuda Point. We saw lots of green turtles, a couple barracudas and some sharks.
In between dives we went ashore where they have shelters set up, and had our snacks and coffee that the dive shop provided.
The 2nd dive we tracked down the schools of barracuda before jumping in. It was amazing, about 1000 barracuda, each about 6'-8' long, swimming in a tornado pattern. Just after we got back on board, the captain spotted some bumphead parrotfish and so we jumped back in and snorkeled over to see them. That covered of two of the three main attractions of Sipadan!
The 3rd big thing to see is the schools of jacks. For our 3rs dive, again the captain searched out the schools before we dived in. The schools were big, about the size of a house, with a couple thousand jacks (each about 2'-3' long). They swam in slow formation, winding back and forth. I swam slowly right up to the school and then was in the middle! It was pretty cool. We stayed with the school for almost 30 minutes, most of the dive. There were turtles and sharks about too but the main attraction on this dive was the jacks.
We headed back to Semporna after the last dive, a great day of diving. We were lucky to have seen all three attractions! There's also hammerheads at Sipadan but not at this time of year. I'll have to see them elsewhere.
We went out for dinner at a different restaurant, a Chinese one that was pretty good. At least with Chinese food it's easy to get our greens. We had a beer for only the 2nd time on this trip, I had finished diving so could have a drink.
We had a fresh coconut on the way home, I think it was freshly picked because it was still warm, and slightly fizzy.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Semporna, Malaysia
We had to be at the dive shop at 7:45am so we were up early to catch the start of breakfast at 7am. At first we didn't see the western breakfast buffet and so had served a Malay breakfast. We both changed to scrambled eggs and toast :)
We had prebooked our diving with Big John Diving, run by a local Malay named John who is pretty big. It was one of the few places that took bookings for Sipadan without forcing you to buy a 3 or 4 day dive package. Big John doesn't get allocated any of the 120 permits per day so they booked my Sipadan dive with an operator that did.
Today's excursion was two dives around Mabul and then one at Kapalai. It's a 45 minute boat ride to Mabul, where Big John's has their dive operations. It's a very family-like atmosphere - all the staff and guests were chatting and joking around.
Heather went snorkeling at the same sites that I was diving. They actually had a snorkel guide - to assist with the currents etc.
I had rented a camera for today. I decided not to rent it for Sipadan because I was worried I would be to focused on the camera and not on enjoying the dive.
The two dives around Mabul were okay. Heather saw a few green turtles, about 3' - 4' big. I saw a couple too. With the camera I was mostly focused on the macro - the small little fishies that I otherwise ignore. My divemaster took half of the pictures I posted until he was comfortable with my diving experience, and then he passed me the camera.
I suppose it's just experience, but I found it hard to keep my buoyancy and forgot to equalize at times.
In between each dive we zipped back to the dive shop on Mabul and had yummy snacks and lunch.
The third dive site was at Kapalai. The visibility wasn't as good, and the fish were slightly different. The water temperature was nice, around 29C. Much better than the 24C in the Red Sea!
Back at the dive shop we had the most excellent freshly-made doughnuts! Food always tastes better after diving, but these were especially good.
After the 45 minute return boat ride back to Semporna we showered up and then headed for dinner. We ate at the same place as yesterday, and we both tried the roti, which was great.
We had prebooked our diving with Big John Diving, run by a local Malay named John who is pretty big. It was one of the few places that took bookings for Sipadan without forcing you to buy a 3 or 4 day dive package. Big John doesn't get allocated any of the 120 permits per day so they booked my Sipadan dive with an operator that did.
Today's excursion was two dives around Mabul and then one at Kapalai. It's a 45 minute boat ride to Mabul, where Big John's has their dive operations. It's a very family-like atmosphere - all the staff and guests were chatting and joking around.
Heather went snorkeling at the same sites that I was diving. They actually had a snorkel guide - to assist with the currents etc.
I had rented a camera for today. I decided not to rent it for Sipadan because I was worried I would be to focused on the camera and not on enjoying the dive.
The two dives around Mabul were okay. Heather saw a few green turtles, about 3' - 4' big. I saw a couple too. With the camera I was mostly focused on the macro - the small little fishies that I otherwise ignore. My divemaster took half of the pictures I posted until he was comfortable with my diving experience, and then he passed me the camera.
I suppose it's just experience, but I found it hard to keep my buoyancy and forgot to equalize at times.
In between each dive we zipped back to the dive shop on Mabul and had yummy snacks and lunch.
The third dive site was at Kapalai. The visibility wasn't as good, and the fish were slightly different. The water temperature was nice, around 29C. Much better than the 24C in the Red Sea!
Back at the dive shop we had the most excellent freshly-made doughnuts! Food always tastes better after diving, but these were especially good.
After the 45 minute return boat ride back to Semporna we showered up and then headed for dinner. We ate at the same place as yesterday, and we both tried the roti, which was great.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Borneo Rainforest Lodge, Danum Valley, Malaysia - Day 4
We were up at 5am so that we could get to the canopy walk to watch the sunrise. This really meant watching the day start and burn off the mist, and see the rainforest slowly appear.
It had rained heavily overnight so it was particularly muggy.
Once again it was just the two of us overlooking the rainforest from the canopy walk. It was really cool to see the mist burn off.
We walked back slowly along tr road back to the lodge, on the lookout for a final view of wildlife. Unfortunately, aside from a small squirrel, we didn't see anything.
We had breakfast, served a la carte rather than buffet because there were only 8 guests this morning. The pancakes were excellent.
Relaxed back in our room and packed up to leave. I had to check for leeches in our shoes - as our guide had explained, you stick your hand in the shoe. If there's a leech it will go for your hand; and then you flick it off before it attaches. Lucky for me there weren't any leeches in our shoes.
Had a big lunch, and then we were off, headed for the junction where we'd connect with a prearranged taxi to take us to Semporna.
It takes about 90 minutes to actually exit the conservation area. Just as we had resigned ourselves to the limited wildlife we had seen on our treks, suddenly our driver stopped the vehicle and pointed out a mother orang utan carrying a baby, high up in a tree.
We got out our binoculars and cameras, and watched the orang utans for a few minutes.
I joked that the next stop was the elephants. However we just saw recent elephant droppings, but no elephant. Oh well. We did see an eagle at the side of the road, about 15 feet away.
We changed to the taxi at the junction, as then it was a two hour drive to the Seafest Hotel in Semporna.
We arrived at 6pm, and quickly checked in and then walked over to the dive centre to sort out logistics for our dive excursion the next morning.
Walked ten minutes into the town centre for dinner. It was a bit of a shock seeing so many tourists after being in Danum Valley for four days.
We avoided the tourist-filled restaurants and instead found a local kopi. At first they gave us an english menu but we didn't recognize any of their translations so asked for the malay menu instead. It was mmm good. Finished off with a
teh tarik, which is a pulled tea with condensed milk.
ps I've posted pics from today's dive excursion. I'll write about it tomorrow
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Borneo Rainforest Lodge, Danum Valley, Malaysia - Day 3
We were up at 5:45am for an early morning trek before breakfast.
It was another cool trek through the rainforest, but without seeing many animals. It's very different from African safaris, where you see huge herds of ungulates. A major difference is in Africa you're on the plains of the Serengeti, not the thick jungle. It is much more difficult to spot the big animals in Borneo - a lot of it is luck.
We had another trek after breakfast. We had a couple leeches on our shoes after the trek, but the leech socks did their job and kept the leeches on the outside. (The fabric is dense enough to prevent leeches from passing through).
Our last trek of the day didn't start until 5:45pm so Heather and I walked out to the canopy walk again. Once again we were the only people on it; although there were only 8 guests in total this night at the lodge so we had almost the entire conservation area to ourselves.
The evening walk was cool. We started at dusk, and heard the "6 o'clock cicadas" - they are the rainforest's evening alarm clock. The sounds slowly changed from the day creatures to the nocturnal ones. It was really cool.
The trek then turned into another freaky walk at night. This time we also had little bats flying around. It was very Blair Witch-like. We saw a strange spider that even the guide had never seen before.
Back at the lodge we had another big dinner, and then showered and crashed.
It was another cool trek through the rainforest, but without seeing many animals. It's very different from African safaris, where you see huge herds of ungulates. A major difference is in Africa you're on the plains of the Serengeti, not the thick jungle. It is much more difficult to spot the big animals in Borneo - a lot of it is luck.
We had another trek after breakfast. We had a couple leeches on our shoes after the trek, but the leech socks did their job and kept the leeches on the outside. (The fabric is dense enough to prevent leeches from passing through).
Our last trek of the day didn't start until 5:45pm so Heather and I walked out to the canopy walk again. Once again we were the only people on it; although there were only 8 guests in total this night at the lodge so we had almost the entire conservation area to ourselves.
The evening walk was cool. We started at dusk, and heard the "6 o'clock cicadas" - they are the rainforest's evening alarm clock. The sounds slowly changed from the day creatures to the nocturnal ones. It was really cool.
The trek then turned into another freaky walk at night. This time we also had little bats flying around. It was very Blair Witch-like. We saw a strange spider that even the guide had never seen before.
Back at the lodge we had another big dinner, and then showered and crashed.
Monday, December 09, 2013
Borneo Rainforest Lodge, Danum Valley, Malaysia - Day 2
I had set my alarm for 6:30, but the white noise of the rainforest (crickets, cicadas, river, frogs etc) is so loud that I didn't hear it. Fortunately Heather was already awake and woke me up.
We had a big buffet breakfast with lots of fresh fruit, and then got ready for our trek at 8:30am - sun screen, bug repellant, leech socks.
Today's trek was to the viewpoint 100m high overlooking the lodge. We walked the 3km at a casual pace, stopping to look for wildlife. We saw some birds but no orangutans. The viewpoint was nice, even better with the breeze. There's very little sun at the base of the rainforest because the canopy is so thick but the humidity makes it very warm.
On the way back down we stopped at a small waterfall called Jacuzzi Pool. The water contains those fish that are in some spas that nibble at your dead skin, which costs a lot of money in expensive spas. Here it's free, but having the fish nibble at my feet was a little freaky. (My feet did feel nice after though). I jumped in fully for a few seconds at then got out before the fish came over.
Back at the hotel we had a big lunch, and then had a couple hours to relax. I managed to connect to the wifi but it was flaky and the only time I was able to connect.
We had another trek late afternoon. Saw lots of evidence of the large animals but no actual sightings. Heather and I headed to the Canopy Walk after the trek as we had some time before dinner. The canopy is one of the few walks that they allow guests to do without a guide. It was really cool - we were the only people on the canopy walk, all alone with the rainforest. Heather spotted a group of about 7 red-leafed monkeys about 20 feet from the path, the closest we had seen to that point.
Dinner was great, and then we headed out for a night walk. The night walk is all about the small creatures - insects, frogs, snakes. In addition to all the dayside gear I was also wearing an mosquito net over my head (I forget what they're called), and so the all the flying bugs didn't bother me. We saw a snake slowly slithering up on a couple frogs. We watched for 10 minutes but unlike tv it doesn't fast-forward to the end, so we gave up watching and continued on.
It was a long day, and we fell asleep pretty quickly.
We had a big buffet breakfast with lots of fresh fruit, and then got ready for our trek at 8:30am - sun screen, bug repellant, leech socks.
Today's trek was to the viewpoint 100m high overlooking the lodge. We walked the 3km at a casual pace, stopping to look for wildlife. We saw some birds but no orangutans. The viewpoint was nice, even better with the breeze. There's very little sun at the base of the rainforest because the canopy is so thick but the humidity makes it very warm.
On the way back down we stopped at a small waterfall called Jacuzzi Pool. The water contains those fish that are in some spas that nibble at your dead skin, which costs a lot of money in expensive spas. Here it's free, but having the fish nibble at my feet was a little freaky. (My feet did feel nice after though). I jumped in fully for a few seconds at then got out before the fish came over.
Back at the hotel we had a big lunch, and then had a couple hours to relax. I managed to connect to the wifi but it was flaky and the only time I was able to connect.
We had another trek late afternoon. Saw lots of evidence of the large animals but no actual sightings. Heather and I headed to the Canopy Walk after the trek as we had some time before dinner. The canopy is one of the few walks that they allow guests to do without a guide. It was really cool - we were the only people on the canopy walk, all alone with the rainforest. Heather spotted a group of about 7 red-leafed monkeys about 20 feet from the path, the closest we had seen to that point.
Dinner was great, and then we headed out for a night walk. The night walk is all about the small creatures - insects, frogs, snakes. In addition to all the dayside gear I was also wearing an mosquito net over my head (I forget what they're called), and so the all the flying bugs didn't bother me. We saw a snake slowly slithering up on a couple frogs. We watched for 10 minutes but unlike tv it doesn't fast-forward to the end, so we gave up watching and continued on.
It was a long day, and we fell asleep pretty quickly.
Sunday, December 08, 2013
Borneo Rainforest Lodge, Danum Valley, Malaysia - Day 1
We're relaxing in between the morning and evening treks at the Borneo Rainforest Lodge.
We arrived yesterday, after a very early 6:20am flight from Kota Kinabalu to Lahad Datu. The BRL folks met us at the airport for the two hour drive the lodge, in the middle of the primary rainforest of Danum Valley conservation area. The last 90 minutes is over gravel and was a little bumpy. We spotted a bearded pig on the drive in.
The lodge itself is amazing, a great place to relax and base our trekking and wildlife spotting. And yes, in the middle of the rainforest, they have wifi.
Our room is a cabin reached by boardwalk from the main building. It's amazing how nice it is considering the location.
A stay at BRL is filled with treks. Our guide introduced himself, and then we had the afternoon to relax. The animals are smart enough to not go out during midday sun, and so the treks are morning and evenings.
Lunch was amazing, served overlooking at river that runs past the lodge with a 100m high ridge in the background. The open-air lodge is well designed so it feels cool even though there's no air conditioning.
We met up at 3:30 to start our first little trek. There was a Finnish couple with us. This time of year is low season so it's only four tourists to a guide.
We were suited up in out trekking gear, including leech socks. Leech socks look like Christmas stockings that are worn over your socks and pants, and tie up under your knee.
We had only walked about 50m when we ran into a researcher (there's a research facility in the conservation area) who was tracking a dominant male orangutan. We waited a few minutes but he didn't appear so we carried on.
The short trek on the first day is the canopy walk, a suspended bridge over the valley. It's great for spotting wildlife at tree top level. We saw an adolescent orangutan, and several hornbills.
Back at the lodge we had an hour to relax before heading out on a night drive. There were 10 of us in the back of a truck, with a guide up top with a big search light. It seemed a bit odd and not very sporting. We did see a small cat, a deer and an owl.
We were both exhausted with the day (having started at 4am to catch the flight). Had dinner, showered and fell asleep to the natural white noise of the rainforest.
We arrived yesterday, after a very early 6:20am flight from Kota Kinabalu to Lahad Datu. The BRL folks met us at the airport for the two hour drive the lodge, in the middle of the primary rainforest of Danum Valley conservation area. The last 90 minutes is over gravel and was a little bumpy. We spotted a bearded pig on the drive in.
The lodge itself is amazing, a great place to relax and base our trekking and wildlife spotting. And yes, in the middle of the rainforest, they have wifi.
Our room is a cabin reached by boardwalk from the main building. It's amazing how nice it is considering the location.
A stay at BRL is filled with treks. Our guide introduced himself, and then we had the afternoon to relax. The animals are smart enough to not go out during midday sun, and so the treks are morning and evenings.
Lunch was amazing, served overlooking at river that runs past the lodge with a 100m high ridge in the background. The open-air lodge is well designed so it feels cool even though there's no air conditioning.
We met up at 3:30 to start our first little trek. There was a Finnish couple with us. This time of year is low season so it's only four tourists to a guide.
We were suited up in out trekking gear, including leech socks. Leech socks look like Christmas stockings that are worn over your socks and pants, and tie up under your knee.
We had only walked about 50m when we ran into a researcher (there's a research facility in the conservation area) who was tracking a dominant male orangutan. We waited a few minutes but he didn't appear so we carried on.
The short trek on the first day is the canopy walk, a suspended bridge over the valley. It's great for spotting wildlife at tree top level. We saw an adolescent orangutan, and several hornbills.
Back at the lodge we had an hour to relax before heading out on a night drive. There were 10 of us in the back of a truck, with a guide up top with a big search light. It seemed a bit odd and not very sporting. We did see a small cat, a deer and an owl.
We were both exhausted with the day (having started at 4am to catch the flight). Had dinner, showered and fell asleep to the natural white noise of the rainforest.
Thursday, December 05, 2013
Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
The flight from Singapore to Kota Kinabalu was uneventful. We could feel the heat as we disembarked -- the forecast for the next few days is 34C, which is normal.
We're staying at Hotel Sixty3 in KK. Our room wasn't ready (it was only 11am) so we dropped our bags and went for for a little walk. Had a coconut juice each at the market. These are very refreshing and pretty cheap - only 3 ringgit, about $1. We were in between the market times - the fish markets were already done for the day, and the evening markets weren't set up, so there wasn't much to see.
KK is a transit town for most tourists, on their way to the highlights of Borneo. We had planned to stay here for three days, in case we needed the time after the long flights from home. KK has a vibe, but is a little short on attractions. The big thing to do is a day trip to see the proboscis monkeys, which was one of the reasons we wanted to come to Borneo in the first place. So we signed up for an excursion for the next day.
We headed to the night market for dinner. I was a little unsure of what we'd find, as all we had seen on our earlier walk was a big empty lot where the market was marked on the map. However at night, it's transformed into one of the largest open air markets I've seen. Unfortunately it was also pouring rain so I didn't take any pictures. There's row upon row of food stalls, barbecue grills, fresh fish markets. There's tarps strung up over the tables and stalls, but it's impossible to walk around with an umbrella with all the rope holding down the tarps. So while we could eat without getting rained on, we were soaked before we got there. The food was okay, although I prefer the coffee shops (little family run restaurants).
The next morning we were happy to see that our clothes were almost all dry - including our shoes. We had chosen quick-drying clothes for this trip, being in the rainforest in rainy season we expected a bit of, umm, rain.
We had the morning free, so walked a bit more about town, although with the heat we didn't get far. One of the local specialities is roti, so we searched that out for lunch. Heather had the roti canai which has an egg beat into the batter, served with lentils and a curry sauce. I had roti with chicken. Both were mmm good.
The excursion started in the afternoon as the monkeys are more easily spotted at dusk when they feed. The tour bus picked us up at 1pm and then it was a two hour drive to the Garama river, near Beaufort. It poured rain for parts of the drive, which didn't bode well for sighting animals. Next we boarded little river boats - about 10 tourists per boat. There were covers on the boats, that were probably better at providing shade than rain protection. The river (really a mangrove) was very narrow, at points we could touch the overhanging branches on both sides of the boat.
We were lucky as the rain started to peter out as we started the boat tour. We spotted silvered leaf monkeys and macaques, about 15m high in the tree tops. About 30 minutes in, we saw the proboscis monkey! Although, it was the females (the males have the large noses). It's not the best photo taking - shooting a dimly lit subject (being dusk) into a hazy sky background with both the monkey in motion and from a boat, with a long zoom. I posted the best one; unfortunately the monkey is also looking away.
The excursion also includes seeing the fireflies. Dozens of fireflies light up trees here and there like LED Christmas lights. It was really cool to see.
We had a buffet dinner overlooking the mangrove. Sitting in the mangrove just after sunset isn't the best idea for mosquitos, but our clothing and repellant held up and we weren't bitten.
The two hour bus ride back was a bit uncomfortable after the two hours sitting in a small boat. Showered back at the hotel and then crashed at 11pm, the latest I've stayed up so far.
We're staying at Hotel Sixty3 in KK. Our room wasn't ready (it was only 11am) so we dropped our bags and went for for a little walk. Had a coconut juice each at the market. These are very refreshing and pretty cheap - only 3 ringgit, about $1. We were in between the market times - the fish markets were already done for the day, and the evening markets weren't set up, so there wasn't much to see.
KK is a transit town for most tourists, on their way to the highlights of Borneo. We had planned to stay here for three days, in case we needed the time after the long flights from home. KK has a vibe, but is a little short on attractions. The big thing to do is a day trip to see the proboscis monkeys, which was one of the reasons we wanted to come to Borneo in the first place. So we signed up for an excursion for the next day.
We headed to the night market for dinner. I was a little unsure of what we'd find, as all we had seen on our earlier walk was a big empty lot where the market was marked on the map. However at night, it's transformed into one of the largest open air markets I've seen. Unfortunately it was also pouring rain so I didn't take any pictures. There's row upon row of food stalls, barbecue grills, fresh fish markets. There's tarps strung up over the tables and stalls, but it's impossible to walk around with an umbrella with all the rope holding down the tarps. So while we could eat without getting rained on, we were soaked before we got there. The food was okay, although I prefer the coffee shops (little family run restaurants).
The next morning we were happy to see that our clothes were almost all dry - including our shoes. We had chosen quick-drying clothes for this trip, being in the rainforest in rainy season we expected a bit of, umm, rain.
We had the morning free, so walked a bit more about town, although with the heat we didn't get far. One of the local specialities is roti, so we searched that out for lunch. Heather had the roti canai which has an egg beat into the batter, served with lentils and a curry sauce. I had roti with chicken. Both were mmm good.
The excursion started in the afternoon as the monkeys are more easily spotted at dusk when they feed. The tour bus picked us up at 1pm and then it was a two hour drive to the Garama river, near Beaufort. It poured rain for parts of the drive, which didn't bode well for sighting animals. Next we boarded little river boats - about 10 tourists per boat. There were covers on the boats, that were probably better at providing shade than rain protection. The river (really a mangrove) was very narrow, at points we could touch the overhanging branches on both sides of the boat.
We were lucky as the rain started to peter out as we started the boat tour. We spotted silvered leaf monkeys and macaques, about 15m high in the tree tops. About 30 minutes in, we saw the proboscis monkey! Although, it was the females (the males have the large noses). It's not the best photo taking - shooting a dimly lit subject (being dusk) into a hazy sky background with both the monkey in motion and from a boat, with a long zoom. I posted the best one; unfortunately the monkey is also looking away.
The excursion also includes seeing the fireflies. Dozens of fireflies light up trees here and there like LED Christmas lights. It was really cool to see.
We had a buffet dinner overlooking the mangrove. Sitting in the mangrove just after sunset isn't the best idea for mosquitos, but our clothing and repellant held up and we weren't bitten.
The two hour bus ride back was a bit uncomfortable after the two hours sitting in a small boat. Showered back at the hotel and then crashed at 11pm, the latest I've stayed up so far.
Monday, December 02, 2013
Singapore, Singapore
We booked our flight for the Sunday so that we weren't rushed to pack and leave. I haven't flown through Terminal 1 at Pearson for a year, and wow have they improved the experience. Where there used to be rows of uninviting seats, there's now lounge seating that rivals Porter, and every seat has an iPad with free web access (you have to watch a 10 second ad), and USB and electrical outlets. It's very impressive.
Another benefit of flying out on Sunday is that the flight to Tokyo was only 75% full. We had a row to ourselves to stretch out. Thirteen hours to Tokyo, two hours layover and then seven hours to Singapore. 28 hours door to door.
Heather had picked up homeopathic tablets called NoJetLag, and maybe it works or maybe it's a placebo effect, but we feel pretty good this morning. We're staying at the Naomi Liora hotel in Chinatown. We walked over to the hawker stalls in the Chinatown Complex for breakfast, mmm good.
The rest of today is just relaxing and eating and trying to stay awake. Tomorrow morning we fly out to Borneo. It's a short three-hour flight :)
Another benefit of flying out on Sunday is that the flight to Tokyo was only 75% full. We had a row to ourselves to stretch out. Thirteen hours to Tokyo, two hours layover and then seven hours to Singapore. 28 hours door to door.
Heather had picked up homeopathic tablets called NoJetLag, and maybe it works or maybe it's a placebo effect, but we feel pretty good this morning. We're staying at the Naomi Liora hotel in Chinatown. We walked over to the hawker stalls in the Chinatown Complex for breakfast, mmm good.
The rest of today is just relaxing and eating and trying to stay awake. Tomorrow morning we fly out to Borneo. It's a short three-hour flight :)
Sunday, December 01, 2013
Toronto, Canada
This trip is to Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. We decided on this region by googling for places to travel in December (that's when I had time off). I for one was greatly surprised to find out that Brunei is actually in Borneo and not in the Middle East. As we read up on the region we realized there's a lot of cool things to do in Borneo and so we're spending 3 of our 5 weeks in Borneo. On the itinerary is trekking in the rainforest to see the orang-utans, proboscis monkeys and possibly a pygmy elephant or a bearded pig; diving in Sipadan to see a hammerhead shark; and then exploring the bat caves in Mulu Park.
Unusual for us is that we've prebooked the whole trip, in part due to the popularity of the Borneo excursions (for example Sipadan issues permits for only 18 divers a day); and then traveling over Christmas. Internal flights are pretty inexpensive (typically $40 one way) so we've booked a few of these to save time, and wear on our bodies.
For those counting (Gerry, Tanya) I'll get three new countries, which will make it 64.
Finally, let's not forget about the food! We are really looking forward to all the yummy street food.
Unusual for us is that we've prebooked the whole trip, in part due to the popularity of the Borneo excursions (for example Sipadan issues permits for only 18 divers a day); and then traveling over Christmas. Internal flights are pretty inexpensive (typically $40 one way) so we've booked a few of these to save time, and wear on our bodies.
For those counting (Gerry, Tanya) I'll get three new countries, which will make it 64.
Finally, let's not forget about the food! We are really looking forward to all the yummy street food.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Toronto, Canada
We arrived back in Toronto safely. We ended up carrying most of our souvenirs as carry-on, which turned out to be much better for fragile souvenirs. We had bought a cheap duffle bag intending to pack it carefully and check it; but then found out it was $70 to check a 2nd bag. So the airplane people suggested we take it carry-on. I think we'll try to do this for future trips!
Overall Jordan was a very enjoyable trip. There weren't any safety issues, even near the borders. The biggest impression was the lack of hard-sell from would-be guides, vendors, etc -- all it took was a single "no thanks" and they would wish us a good time in Jordan. It was very refreshing.
Petra was amazing, it's in my top five places to see in the world.
There were a lot of ruins in Jordan, and we did get out-ruined after a while. Three weeks in Jordan was probably too much time -- normally, Jordan would be part of a trip including Israel, Syria and/or Egypt, which would provide more variety.
Also, there's not much tourist infrastructure. Outside of Petra, Aqaba, Madaba and Amman there is very little mid-range accommodation. Out of 22 days in Jordan, we spent 18 nights in those four cities. I would have preferred a little more variety, but there just weren't places to stay.
Here's our pics from the trip:
Overall Jordan was a very enjoyable trip. There weren't any safety issues, even near the borders. The biggest impression was the lack of hard-sell from would-be guides, vendors, etc -- all it took was a single "no thanks" and they would wish us a good time in Jordan. It was very refreshing.
Petra was amazing, it's in my top five places to see in the world.
There were a lot of ruins in Jordan, and we did get out-ruined after a while. Three weeks in Jordan was probably too much time -- normally, Jordan would be part of a trip including Israel, Syria and/or Egypt, which would provide more variety.
Also, there's not much tourist infrastructure. Outside of Petra, Aqaba, Madaba and Amman there is very little mid-range accommodation. Out of 22 days in Jordan, we spent 18 nights in those four cities. I would have preferred a little more variety, but there just weren't places to stay.
Here's our pics from the trip:
 |
| 2012 Jordan - favourites |
Saturday, January 05, 2013
Amman, Jordan
We've spent the last couple days of our trip in Amman. There's not that much tourist stuff to see here.
Did the walking tour from the Lonely Planet, which took about two hours. Took a taxi to the top of the Citadel (the Roman ruins at the top of a hill overlooking Amman). It was okay, not as impressive because we were at Jerash the day before. There's good views of the Roman Theatre along the walking tour, so we didn't bother to go inside.
Wandered through the fruit and vegetable souq and some other markets.
Had lunch at Hashem Restaurant, a local legendary falafel place. It was okay, and I suppose you have to eat there once if you visit Amman. There were more locals than tourists.
Had dessert (kunafa) at a little place in an alley with a huge lineup. It was excellent, a honey cake on top of cream cheese smothered in a sweet sauce, sprinkled with crushed pistacios.
We had plans for 6pm to meet a friend of Brendan's (Mohammad) who now lives in Amman, so we got home and cleaned up.
Mohammad met us at our hotel, and we drove out to Rainbow St, a trendy street with lots of cafés and restaurants and galleries.
Mohammed grew up in the area, and actually wrote a book Old Houses of Amman, based on the history of the houses on and around Rainbow St. He gave us a walking tour (much better than the Lonely Planet), and then we had some tea at one of the cafés and chatted away. It was cool to get a local's view, it's otherwise a bit risky to talk about some subjects like politics with strangers while traveling.
The next day was Friday, so we planned the day around things that were open on Fridays (lots is closed). Unfortunately even though the hours said it should be open, the National Gallery of Fine Arts was closed. So we walked up to Rainbow St, had an excellent lunch at La Calle (an Italian place), and Turkish coffees at another place.
We returned to the area for dinner at Cantaloupe, a new restaurant on the 4th floor of some building. The appetizers were pretty interesting, we shared cantaloupe and feta cheese with pesto, and bresaola with roca leaves (tastes a bit like arugula). Bresaola is cured beef, there's no pork served anywhere in Jordan.
Today we had plans to visit the Art Gallery again, except it rained for the first time on our trip. Before the rain, we did get to Darat al-Funun, a privately funded art gallery. It took a bit of searching for the place. We ran into some other tourists walking around lost with guide book in hand who were also looking for the place, the Lonely Planet maps are terrible.
(The Lonely Planets have been getting progressively worse since they were bought by the BBC. The best thing I could say about the Jordan edition is that it had some blank pages for notes. We only bought it because the Rough Guide's updated edition for Jordan was published two days after we left Canada).
We're now back at the hotel, catching up on reading. Our flight is at 5am (all Europe departures are around this time) so we have a taxi arranged for 2am. It's sort of a waste of a hotel room, but really the only option.
Did the walking tour from the Lonely Planet, which took about two hours. Took a taxi to the top of the Citadel (the Roman ruins at the top of a hill overlooking Amman). It was okay, not as impressive because we were at Jerash the day before. There's good views of the Roman Theatre along the walking tour, so we didn't bother to go inside.
Wandered through the fruit and vegetable souq and some other markets.
Had lunch at Hashem Restaurant, a local legendary falafel place. It was okay, and I suppose you have to eat there once if you visit Amman. There were more locals than tourists.
Had dessert (kunafa) at a little place in an alley with a huge lineup. It was excellent, a honey cake on top of cream cheese smothered in a sweet sauce, sprinkled with crushed pistacios.
We had plans for 6pm to meet a friend of Brendan's (Mohammad) who now lives in Amman, so we got home and cleaned up.
Mohammad met us at our hotel, and we drove out to Rainbow St, a trendy street with lots of cafés and restaurants and galleries.
Mohammed grew up in the area, and actually wrote a book Old Houses of Amman, based on the history of the houses on and around Rainbow St. He gave us a walking tour (much better than the Lonely Planet), and then we had some tea at one of the cafés and chatted away. It was cool to get a local's view, it's otherwise a bit risky to talk about some subjects like politics with strangers while traveling.
The next day was Friday, so we planned the day around things that were open on Fridays (lots is closed). Unfortunately even though the hours said it should be open, the National Gallery of Fine Arts was closed. So we walked up to Rainbow St, had an excellent lunch at La Calle (an Italian place), and Turkish coffees at another place.
We returned to the area for dinner at Cantaloupe, a new restaurant on the 4th floor of some building. The appetizers were pretty interesting, we shared cantaloupe and feta cheese with pesto, and bresaola with roca leaves (tastes a bit like arugula). Bresaola is cured beef, there's no pork served anywhere in Jordan.
Today we had plans to visit the Art Gallery again, except it rained for the first time on our trip. Before the rain, we did get to Darat al-Funun, a privately funded art gallery. It took a bit of searching for the place. We ran into some other tourists walking around lost with guide book in hand who were also looking for the place, the Lonely Planet maps are terrible.
(The Lonely Planets have been getting progressively worse since they were bought by the BBC. The best thing I could say about the Jordan edition is that it had some blank pages for notes. We only bought it because the Rough Guide's updated edition for Jordan was published two days after we left Canada).
We're now back at the hotel, catching up on reading. Our flight is at 5am (all Europe departures are around this time) so we have a taxi arranged for 2am. It's sort of a waste of a hotel room, but really the only option.
Wednesday, January 02, 2013
Jerash, Jordan
Another day, another set of Roman ruins. Our hotel (Hadrian's Gate) is right outside the entrance to the old walled roman city. It was easy enough to walk down to the ticket booth (through a maze of souvenir stalls), buy our tickets and start our visit of Jerash.
We walked through Hadrian's Arch, a 13m tall entrance to the city. It was enormous. Over the next three hours we wandered through the site. The highlights included the Temple of Zeus, the Forum, the South Theatre, Temple of Artemis, and Cardo Maximus. There has been a lot of restoration work here -- there are some before and after pics that show a pile of rubble, and then the current state. It's by far the best set of Roman ruins I've seen.
Fortunately it's December, because it was about 15C and sunny. I couldn't imagine doing all this in 35C in the summer.
Had lunch at a roadside grill place, and then caught a taxi to our hotel in Amman, the final leg of our trip. We're staying at the Crystal Hotel in the business district.
We walked through Hadrian's Arch, a 13m tall entrance to the city. It was enormous. Over the next three hours we wandered through the site. The highlights included the Temple of Zeus, the Forum, the South Theatre, Temple of Artemis, and Cardo Maximus. There has been a lot of restoration work here -- there are some before and after pics that show a pile of rubble, and then the current state. It's by far the best set of Roman ruins I've seen.
Fortunately it's December, because it was about 15C and sunny. I couldn't imagine doing all this in 35C in the summer.
Had lunch at a roadside grill place, and then caught a taxi to our hotel in Amman, the final leg of our trip. We're staying at the Crystal Hotel in the business district.
Tuesday, January 01, 2013
Jordan Valley, Jordan
We were up at 6:30am for a big road trip. Had breakfast, packed, checked out. Our driver met us at our hotel. Or so we thought. After getting our bags in the trunk and starting off, we realized with the driver that we weren't his passengers -- it was another couple who we going to Petra! So we apologized, found our real driver, and switched our stuff over to his car.
Today were the sights in Jordan Valley. We started at almost Dead Sea level. Heather was just getting into my cold, so now both of us had trouble equalizing with the altitude changes.
First stop was Pella, about two hours north from Madaba, through winding roads. Pella is supposedly the most historically significant site in Jordan, because it's been continuously settled for 7000 years. The ruins lie a scattered amongst farmers fields. At one point we saw a shepherd take a flock of sheep through the ruins site.
In a single view, we saw ruins from the Ummayads (760 AD), Romans (60 BC), Mamluks (1300 AD), Byzantine era (400 AD), and Canaanites (1270 BC).
Next was Umm Qais, in the northwest corner of Jordan. Umm Qais was one of the Decapolis cities of the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD. The Lonely Planet says Umm Qais is striking because of the juxtaposition of roman and Ottoman-era ruins, but after Petra with Roman and Nabataean ruins, the Ottoman stuff seems pretty plain.
What is cool about Umm Qais is its location on a hilltop in the corner of Jordan. From a viewpoint (and if it's not hazy like today) you can see Syria, Lebanon, the Golan Heights, and the Sea of Galilee.
The roman ruins are also cool, not yet restored, but pale in comparison to Jerash.
Last for the day was Ajloun Castle. This has been mostly restored, and is fun to wander around and explore all its rooms and levels.
We drove to Jerash to end our day. Checked in at the Hadrian Gate Hotel, and had dinner at the Lebanese House. Supposedly the Lebanese House is pretty famous (the menu has a page full of dignitaries that have eaten there). It was pretty good, but I wouldn't go out of my way to go there.
Today were the sights in Jordan Valley. We started at almost Dead Sea level. Heather was just getting into my cold, so now both of us had trouble equalizing with the altitude changes.
First stop was Pella, about two hours north from Madaba, through winding roads. Pella is supposedly the most historically significant site in Jordan, because it's been continuously settled for 7000 years. The ruins lie a scattered amongst farmers fields. At one point we saw a shepherd take a flock of sheep through the ruins site.
In a single view, we saw ruins from the Ummayads (760 AD), Romans (60 BC), Mamluks (1300 AD), Byzantine era (400 AD), and Canaanites (1270 BC).
Next was Umm Qais, in the northwest corner of Jordan. Umm Qais was one of the Decapolis cities of the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD. The Lonely Planet says Umm Qais is striking because of the juxtaposition of roman and Ottoman-era ruins, but after Petra with Roman and Nabataean ruins, the Ottoman stuff seems pretty plain.
What is cool about Umm Qais is its location on a hilltop in the corner of Jordan. From a viewpoint (and if it's not hazy like today) you can see Syria, Lebanon, the Golan Heights, and the Sea of Galilee.
The roman ruins are also cool, not yet restored, but pale in comparison to Jerash.
Last for the day was Ajloun Castle. This has been mostly restored, and is fun to wander around and explore all its rooms and levels.
We drove to Jerash to end our day. Checked in at the Hadrian Gate Hotel, and had dinner at the Lebanese House. Supposedly the Lebanese House is pretty famous (the menu has a page full of dignitaries that have eaten there). It was pretty good, but I wouldn't go out of my way to go there.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)