Friday, November 20, 2009

Sandakan, Sabah

Anna's entry:

Locals of Sandakan were a very refreshing change after Ranau - lots of hello's, smiles, waving hands, and welcome's. We stayed at a hotel run by a very prudent Chinese family. The owner was a little grumpy, but knew his business very well, and made sure his rooms have everything a tired long-distance traveler needs - clean sheets, towels, soap, flip-flops for bathroom use, cold and hot drinking water, numerous hangers, ropes to hang your washed clothes to dry, AC (yes!), AND even flat screen satellite TV along with DVD player. Keep in mind, we also are talking here about about a budget hotel for 45 Ringets (about 15 USD). I know, for those having traveled in SE Asia, the description above is beyond believe (unless of course you are staying at a higher end hotel, which we refuse to do). In addition, the owner was guarding the entry like a watch dog, so we felt we were staying in a fortress, with top notch security. Being away from the West, we caught up on a few movies and excellent National Geographic series. One of them was actually about Orangutans, which we'd happened to experience ourselves just a few days prior in Sepilok.

Another pleasant thing about Sandakan was a great cheap Indian restaurant (yes, I am still fixated on my favorite Indian cuisine). And again the place was run by easy going guys from Kerala, so we established the rapport pretty quick, and, needless to say here, were not over charged a single penny for al three days we ate there. We also stumbled by a a small pancake stall run by a shy Muslim lady. The pancakes were great and cheap - they were not your usual pancakes - they came with shredded coconut and were almost half inch thick, meaning were very filling. After the 2nd time we came to buy a few more from her, we were welcomed with a huge smile, and both the stall lady and locals eating there were very pleased and proud that we liked the food so much, that we came back again.

Rob and I also spent a day exploring the town by foot - from an unusual Japanese cemetery to a Mayor residence, from a Chinese temple to an English write house, from an ancient burial to a track and field field. At the latter, the locals were surprised but pleased to see foreigners, and were were greeted with lots of hello's, smiles and waving hands.

Please don't think though, that everything is so rosy and cheery here. Leaving town was a small disaster; actually, we had to leave town twice, literally. You see, we wanted to visit an area called Kinabatangan, which is supposedly one of the best areas to encounter the wildlife. We also wanted to do that independently - no packages, no tour groups. And, an independent planning just doesn't fly with the transportation cartel, who are ripping foreigners off like banana peels. I am hoping Rob would write up a special entry, for now here is my synopsis...

No one likes an unfair treatment, no one likes discrimination, no one likes to be ripped off. We were given a price of transport to our next destination. We showed up on time, with plenty of time to claim our seats. The van driver did not bother to show up on time, and locals and us were standing for about an hour waiting for him. We found out from locals the price, however, when the sleazy driver saw us, foreigners, he measured us up with an ignorant smirk on his face and of, course, doubled the price. We really wanted to respond by a universal "F....You...'' sign, but instead did something more tamed, picked up our backpacks and walked away. We decided to stay another night in Sandakan, and have another fresh try tomorrow. That turned out to be a great decision. Early next morning we got on a local bus with an honest driver and honest price, got to the local bus station, got close to a local price to get to the next point, and began hitching from there. After about 10 minutes an old construction truck pulled over, and we were invited to jump in. As it turned out, the truck guys were originally from Tamil Nadu (India), and we immediately built a rapport and shared our experiences traveling there. After 40 km we were dropped off where we needed to be. The guys refused to accept our money, but we really wanted to contribute, and gave them what the actual bus fare would be. They were very appreciative, thanked us, and made sure we knew where to go next. Their kindness erased our bitterness from a previous morning, and we finally were excited to explore the Kinabatangan wild life.






Rob doesn't like to pose, but I pursuaded him. :)




Only in Asia you could see signs like this in a hotel room...


posted by Rob and Anna @ 2:19 AM 1 comments

Going to Rehab in Borneo

Anna's entry:
I must give the credit for this title entry name to Rob. After hitching a ride, we reached the Osipelok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center, where the wild orangutans (previously orphaned or captured) are rehabilitated and released back to the wild. The center has been very successful, and many animals have been fully adjusted to be functioning on their own. It is a long process, and for some orangutans an additional assistance before transitioning on their own is still needed. For example, Orangutan moms-to-be often give birth closer to the center (the center is located at the edge of the rain forest) where they feel safer; and recently released to the wild younger Orangutans supplement their forest diet with the fruit and milk that the center workers bring to a specified area in the forest. The public is allowed to observe that feeding area. Sometimes none of the orangutans show up if the forest is in blossom and natural food is sufficient for the primates. We got very lucky though, and both in the morning and afternoon around 8 orangutans showed up. They are very cute, and shockingly resemble humans. Their eyes are very expressive, and even mannerisms and behavior are strikingly familiar. The orangutans one by one slowly appeared from the dense forest, some were playing with each other, some were just hanging around on the vine. I was very touched by one group of orangutans - among them was a mother with a baby 'tan surrounded by one adult male and one young adult 'tan. They all were taking turns to look and gently touch the baby 'tan. It almost looked like a real family of humans, the only difference was the fur instead of clothes, and they were so much quieter than humans. On another occasion a young orangutan stepped off the vine and joined the viewers on the observing platform; it was a young 'tan, who obviously was still craving a human attention, and was not entirely ready to be on his own in the forest. The center workers gently picked him up, and carried him away from the crowd. He was re-introduced back to the canopy of the forest, where he will continue learning his self-reliance skills; it might take him some time before he is entirely independent. Rob also encountered a large male orangutan who made an appearance in the accessible area. Apparently, this now adult male was brought to the center when he was still a young baby. After learning the skills, he was introduced back to the forest, and disappeared for 10 years. One day he showed up closer to the center as a completely self-reliant dominant orangutan, and since then makes a once-in-a-while appearance that Rob was lucky to see.
I almost forgot to add a few notes here about the leeches... We decided to explore a trail, Rob wasn't very keen on it, but went along; as it turned out he knew better not to. It was raining hard a night before, and as we came to find out during the "trail exploration", lots of leeches came out for a snack - us, that is. OK, we had an experience with the leeches when we trekked in Taman Negara National park, but nothing like this. These ones were blood thirsty, literally, and they were big. Normally, you expect to find them maybe around the ankles, or knees in the worst case scenario, not this time. They were crawling on our arms, backs, legs, trying to penetrate our specialized gore-tex boots, they were persistent and disgusting! We hurried back, trying to get them off us as we walked. Then we noticed two of them trying to penetrate our pants closer to the "private" areas, how unexpected is that?? We finally reached the edge of the forest, there were still two leeches around our boots. Well, that was it I thought. No, I was wrong... When I returned back to our room, and took my backpack off, I heard something falling to the ground. And, there it was - the heavy bloody leech that attached itself on my back, right under the backpack. My shirt was stained in blood, but I did not feel a thing. The whole notion of these blood suckers was so disgusting, I rushed to the shower trying to forget it's ever happened. It does make a story though, doesn't it? Let's leave it at that...

Osipelok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center was definitely a memorable stop-over. The place we stayed at was nice and peaceful, and I was able to catch up on my blog entries, from where I am writing this one. However, due to a tourist traffic a ''rip-off a foreigner" attitude exists among catering services, which bitters us. Locals not involved in services for foreigners are welcoming and friendly though, and this is what I will try to focus on in addition to having seen adorable wild orangtuns.





posted by Rob and Anna @ 1:27 AM 1 comments

Mt. Kinabalu National Park, Borneo

Anna's entry:

Normally, by staying in a smaller, less touristy town, one could expect a warmer, more authentic treatment. However, this was NOT the case with the Ranau town (we chose to stay there as a base for Mt. Kinabalu exploration). I must admit that after several days being there locals eventually warmed up, but over all the town of Ranau seemed cold, stagnating, and well, to put it bluntly, ignorant. As always, the best treatment we received happened at a Muslim restaurant that we spotted on the main road, and which coincidentally was run again by a few guys from Kerala (India). No surprise there - warm welcome and great service - this is why we love India, we even look for it in Malaysia. We were able to hike a couple of trails for about 10km; lots of them were up and down (mostly up), no leeches though, which was great. And, after an intense tropical heat down at the coast, it was refreshing to be in the higher elevation. We did not intend to climb the mountain, and walking the trails was a lot more fulfilling - we have heard that there is a constant stream of traffic to the top (about 200 climbers per day), so why join the crowds, when we could have the whole forest below to ourselves? The forest was very nice (it is actually on the UNESCO World Heritage List), no wild life though. We were told by a local that about 30 years ago one could see a great variety of animals, but they all have been poached and exploited by now. We start to think that the best wild life exploration for Rob and I was in Costa Rica - where we saw a panther, black tyra, countless amount of monkeys, birds, lizards, etc. etc. Even in India last year, we were able to encounter wild elephants. This does not seem to be the case so far here, in Malaysia. One animal that we should be able to see though is Orangutan, and for that we will be heading out to the world famous Osipelok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center, our next stop in Borneo.




posted by Rob and Anna @ 1:19 AM 0 comments

Back to Malaysia - Borneo

KOTA KINABALU, SABAH, BORNEO
Anna's entry:
We did it again! Even though we insisted nine months in Asia was more than enough for us last year, we are back to South East Asia. Bad Asia, stole our travel souls, and we must be haunted by it. So, we packed our backpacks, and decided to face it - again. :)
I am writing this entry from Kota Kinabalu (Malaysian Borneo). We landed in Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia) a couple of days ago, from where I am writing this blog entry now . All is well so far - locals (mostly Muslims in this part of the country) are very helpful and welcoming - lots of smiles, hello's, welcome gestures, AND no rip offs yet - YES, we are actually getting a local price, not the Vietnam-like-reap-off-foreigners-in-touristy-places attitude (if you read our previous travel entries you might remember what it was like). Anyway, after landing in the Kota Kinabalu international airport, walked about 200 meters to the highway, got the true local price from the airport to town $1, changed to a local bus .50 cents, got a room right in the city center $12. And, food - oh my, that deserves a special entry at some point! We could see - it is going to be hard to loose weight - Indian, Malay, Chinese food, all freshly cooked AND cheap! I personally, have been missing Indian food, so keep indulging for about $1.70 a meal - yes, it is a splurge, I know - we are accustomed to pay only $1, but what can I say, we are in the Borneo capital! :)
Kota Kinabalu offers a great variety of food options; walking around the town we stumbled upon an Islamic establishment that served a nice variety of Indian food (it seems like Islamic restaurants are all somehow catering towards Indian dishes, and the notion doesn't really have anything to do with the religion). We came to find out that the eatery was run by two gentlemen from Kerala (a region in South India) - after they found out that we had traveled through their region, we got a red carpet treatment, and quickly became their favorite customers. We were very happy to catch up on the great Indian food and hospitality.
Speaking about hospitality, Kota Kinabalu spoilt us with the warm welcome and honest pricing, which is unusual for the developing world mentality. As you would see from our future entries, that was due to change, and would eventually go back to the "norm'' - two-tired pricing mentality.
On another note... It is HOT-HOT-HOT here - consuming about 1/2 litre of water every hour; shirts, pants, backpack all wet from sweating profusely in the high tropical humidity (hope it's OK to share such personal details). For Rob it is already starting to feel cozy again. In some ways it feels like we never left fifteen months ago. We do have to re-adjust though back to the traveling mode and natural challenges it comes with (for me personally it normally takes about 3-4 weeks to re-adjust). Hope that the rest of the trip continues smoothly, we'd be happy.
We had to say good-bye to KK; our last nigh there we climbed the hill and watched the sunset over the city. The next morning after another hospitable Indian breakfast, we took off for Mt. Kinabalu National Park to explore some trails.

STRIPPING FOR 10 Ringets

I was really hoping that Rob will write this entry in his usual witty way, until he does, I need to add something to the Kota Kinabalu blog below. On one of our walks, Rob's pants came apart - he just bowed down to pick something from the ground, and pow - both seams fell apart. One thing is when he has only one day to walk "exposed", but the other is when the entire trip can be ruined. And, yes, trust me, a pair of good practical pants is a top notch priority in our travel lives - think about it - you need reliable pants to climb, hike, ride, sleep and swim in, and occasionally go to in-pronto wedding invitations in, AND pants have be able to dry quickly in this intolerable humidity. So, we started our quest of finding Rob some pants to fit the challenge. Most of the markets and shops we went to did not have any fittings rooms, so Rob had no choice but try the pants on right in front of the selling ladies - keep in mind that most of them are shy Muslim ladies, that don't see men strip in front of them often. But, once the shock was over, they and us were laughing and giggling, and to add to the fun, Rob even gestured ladies to put a couple of Ringets (local currency notes) behind his belt. That created even more laughs, and neighboring stall selling ladies gathered in to join the laughing scene. Eventually, we found Rob a suitable pair for 10 Ringets, around 3 USD. The newly acquired pants will be put to the test quickly - we are on the way to explore Mt. Kinabalu trails.

posted by Rob and Anna @ 1:09 AM 1 comments