Kapalai Dive Resort

After 7 dives in 2 days, I was exhausted and slept almost the whole day the day after (while Matt continued on his merry way blogging and faffing on the cheap internet we found). In case you couldn't tell, there's really nothing else besides diving in Semporna, although it appears the major dive operators are creating a bit more "life" for the town by opening bars and pizzerias in the newer part of town close to the wharf.

The Dragon Inn - only $24 per night!

Anyways, we had become accustomed to stilt village living (and seeing water through the floor) having stayed in the Dragon Inn the last few nights, a hotel that takes up the majority of the Semporna Ocean Tourism Complex and built just off the shore from town, however we were excited about our next few nights out at Sipadan Kapalai Resort.

Our boat picked us up at the wharf in the morning and after a very choppy and bumpy ride (from all the bad weather) we were in the middle of the ocean in just under an hour. Kapalai Resort is built on a sand bar about 15 minutes boat ride from Sipadan - which was going to be great not having to endure that ride out to Sipadan from the mainland everyday!

We were welcomed by smiling faces, orange juice with umbrellas and waiver forms and were run through "orientation" including how everything worked, the boat schedules and feeding times and just as information overload was setting in, we were kitted up ready for our first dive.



The dive master lead all the newbies around the area just off the jetty to familiarise us with the area. Reef and coral were sparse, but the 5 or so wrecks sunk nearby formed a great home to tonnes of fish and the mother of all moray eels.


Back up for lunch and our rooms were finally ready. We settled in and admired the view for a bit, before kitting up again for another dive- this time to 'Seaventures Platform' an old oil rig stationed nearby to Mabul (an island nearby) which had been converted into accommodation.


It was during this dive that it occurred to us what the next week was going to be like... There was one dive master per 12 people and despite his requests to take it in turns to view the interesting features he was pointing out, it ended up being more of a rugby match with people pushing to get photos and often losing awareness of their surroundings, kicking other divers and coral in the process. Instantly, Matt and I lost interest in the crowd and did our own thing as much as possible, appreciating even more the attention and relaxed atmosphere we had enjoyed from having the instructor to ourselves with North Borneo. The dive master soon noticed what was happening and a couple of times he pointed to something for us and then swam away before the others would notice! However it was very tiresome and annoying to be diving with so many people around, having to watch them because they don't watch out for you and to not be able to take your camera out for too long, as the instant you find something cool - 10 people swim over and scare it away!


We got back to the resort and had another quick dive at dusk off the pier (just the two of us) at a place called Mandarin Valley. We got a little lost, but didn't have to swim too far and were well and truly ready for dinner when we got back.

Our Villa

The view from the porch! There was shallow reef below with trumpet
fish and turtles feeding and swimming by.

The next morning we opted for the 'early session' out to Sipadan which meant diving at 5.30am, 8am and 11am in the hope that the early start might deter some people. Unfortunately, we weren't so lucky... but our luck only got worse.

Matt had trouble with his ears on the first dive and after more than five minutes of trying to equalise at about 5 metres we ended up deciding the safest thing was to pull the plug and get back on the boat.

We were back on track for the second and third dives at Barracuda Point and Mid Reef and so later in the afternoon we decided to try navigate Mandarin Valley again. We jumped in and were starting to head down when at about 10 metres I felt this excruciating pain in my tooth, sending shooting pains into my cheek and creating really bad mask squeeze. Matt says he heard me screaming underwater!! I had taken my regulator out, because it had felt like it had split my gums!! I signaled to Matt and headed to the surface- probably a bit quicker than I should have. At the surface we inspected the damage- but there was no blood and no pain?? Given my gum wasn't split and there was no pain, I could equalise like normal and felt fine again, we decided to go down again. This time at 5 metres the same thing happened, not quite as badly, but definitely bad enough to call it a day.

We had our buffet dinner and made a call to the travel insurance agent to speak with a nurse. The dive masters assured me that I would probably be fine tomorrow and trusting their experience we signed up for the 5.30 start again, knowing there was a boat back to the mainland at 11am if necessary. Over dinner, Matt organised a dive partner to do a night dive off the pier later that evening, but I decided a magazine was a better option for me that evening.

To end our fairly disastrous day, I went down to meet Matt as he was getting out of the water at the pier (after some swimming again!) and just as the dive crew were helping him to get his BC off and get out of the water- he exclaimed "Something just bit me!" and began looking around for the offender.

A short while later Matt was being showered down, complaining of a burning sensation, cramps and difficulty breathing. Quite worried I sat him down in the shower and called over every person I could see floating around the area at the time, just in case one of them had any idea what it may have been, what to do and who to call (stupidly, what to do in an emergency wasn't part of orientation!)

The nice big welt on his neck, arm and leg was washed in vinegar and he was placed on oxygen therapy for 20 minutes or so, the consensus being most likely a jellyfish sting that would itch a lot but not cause any major damage. With Matt's breathing back under control, the cramps not as bad and kitted up with phone numbers and having scoped out the quickest route from our room to the phone, we were sent to bed.

Up again at 5am and both not feeling too bad from our respective injuries, we were at the dive centre ready to leave, only to be told that it wasn't safe to take the boats out due to the storms that had had us up at 2am closing up our villa and getting rained on in the bathroom. So it was off with our soggy togs and back into bed for a couple of hours until the weather calmed down.

At 8.30am we were back on a boat a small distance from Kapalai. The dive was good with the highlight being a flamboyant cuttlefish showing off his light show (I got there first! But didn't have the camera : ( ). I only had a small amount of pain in my tooth and Matt said his neck felt ok.

At lunchtime we headed out to Sipadan for a couple of dives at Barracuda Point again. The dive master explained that we had to stay in the same place again because it was the most protected from the weather and currents- but it didn't really matter anyway as every time we got in the water we saw something different!!

Confidently, we dived into the water and began our decent - but it was all over for me - the pain I felt was worse than the previous day and I immediately surfaced and signaled for the boat. We had warned the dive master of this possibility and Matt continued his decent to catch up with the group and buddy with the dive master. I sat on the boat for the rest of day, snorkeling for half an hour or so after lunch and chatting with the boat men who all rafted up to ask me questions! Matt did another dive and then we were back at the resort for dinner and to re-think the next few days.

We had been chatting with some of our new found friends at the resort, Frederick and Marie-Claire and MC had had similar problems in the past caused by sinus which in turn caused referred pain and pressure in her teeth.

We decided that if I couldn't dive, there was no point paying to be at a five star dive resort. It was sad to have to end our luxurious "honeymoon", but I was taken straight to the doctor from the boat, have taken some antibiotics and am feeling much better. Matt's sting has reduced down to an extremely itchy rash and today we have started the paperwork nightmare with the insurance company (as the 6 day package was not refundable).

So its on to Singapore next and then home. See you all soon! XX

Semporna

We arrived in Semporna mid afternoon, exhausted from Uncle Tan's, but with 4 days spare until we were due to be picked up for the "honeymoon" part of our trip - 5 days at Kapalai Resort.
The spare days had come as a result of not too many delays or flight cancellations, getting to climb Mt Kinabalu the first day we tried and having to rearrange plans in order to do Uncle Tan's on the days they had free.

Eager to test the warm tropical waters we had heard so much about, we decided that we could use the days to do our Advanced Open Water Course, which would then give us more choice with the types of dives we could do at Kapalai (for example going deeper and diving at night). We checked out all the local companies and booked in for the two day/ 7 dive course with North Borneo Divers (for just $260AUD!!!) and spent the rest of the day relaxing with some of the other ex-Uncle Tanners who were in town.

Over the next two days we did our course, with Tom our instructor leading us around the magnificent Sipadan dive sight on the first day and Sibuan the second. It was like swimming in an aquarium (our photos really don't do much justice to how amazing it is) and was very difficult to concentrate on the skills we were to learn and our gauges!! We learnt about navigation techniques, bouyancy control using just our breath, fish identification, photography and got qualified to 30m (without getting narc'd!) We also did a night dive on the last night, which was quite spooky!!

Here are some photos:

Testing the camera works!


Saw hundreds of butterfly fish - big and small.

Found lots of Nemos too!

A Spanish Dancer - so named for their frills that propel them along
and look like a big Spanish skirt and are often edged in bright colours.


The most awesome thing - turtles everywhere...


It's a hard life...


Not sure what this one's called, but he had big lips and purples spots!


A White Tipped Reef Shark - wasn't sure how I'd react when I saw
one of these guys, but they soon became like any other fish!


Pulau Sipadan (in bad weather!) a diving mecca and regarded by many as one of the world's top dive sights for diversity in marine life. In 2004 the Malaysian government ordered all resorts built on the island be closed and removed due to the destruction to the island and the environment and now visitors/divers are limited to a small 150m stretch of beach and the jetty (right above), with only 120 permits to visit being issued per day. About half a dozen army officers occupy the remaining resort and patrol the stretch of beach, checking the various dive operators' permits, as well as forming a 'presence', given in the past the island has been the subject of territorial debate with the nearby Philippines.

Uncle Tan's Jungle Camp

For once the transport showed up on time and at noon I was off to Uncle Tan's Jungle Camp HQ in Gum Gum to meet up with the rest of the group traveling to the camp for our three day, two night adventure. In the meantime, Matt caught the bus back into Sandakan to go to the ATM. Paying more than expected at the hotel in Sepilok (and their credit card machine being broken) had left us with less than enough Ringgit to pay for the jungle camp... Luckily the bus to the bridge where we would take our boat ride up the mighty Kinabatangan River to camp wasn't to leave for another two hours- Matt was back at the HQ with 5 minutes to spare!

The boat ride deep into the jungle was a safari in itself, with birds flying above, monkeys playing on the shores and the eerie feeling that crocs were lurking just beneath the murky river's surface...

We arrived to settle into our accommodation- a raised wooden box with cage wire for windows- somewhat of a reverse zoo- and to have a drink and a chat with our new roomies- Becs and Scott from Southampton, before dinner. We met the guides and one of the locals- the massive bearded pig!

After dinner was our first official adventure - a night boat safari - cruising up and down the Kinabatangan looking for wildlife. We saw owls, frogs and heaps of birds. My favourite was the Kingfisher we found asleep on a low branch - he was so colourful and just looked plastic! He didn't even move an inch even with the massive spotlight shining straight on him. The guide knew the latin and common name for every animal as well as what they ate, their predators, usual behaviours, etc.


When we got back to camp, we discovered a few cans of beer still cold in the esky, so despite being exhausted we decided to stay up looking for civet cats (the only ones out of about 30!). Apparently they come up into the common area after the generators are turned off around midnight. By about 1.30am we had seen Mr Pig a few times but no cats, mainly due to the noise coming from the other side of the camp - a local school group on "eco-camp". It was around then we decided we better get some sleep - we had to be up again at 6!

So up again at 6 and once again we cruised the river for wildlife. A fairly unsuccessful venture (by camp standards) we only saw a few Hornbills, a Sea Eagle, a few Macaques, some Egrets and lots of trees. Over breakfast we discovered the other group had seen a big croc and the previous morning some others had seen a mother Orang Utan with its baby. It was nice to see the sun rise over the river as well.

Anyways, after breakfast a guide took us for a walk around the jungle immediately next to the camp. We saw tonnes of bugs and looked for bats asleep in curled banana leaves and the guide showed us the different plants you can use for food, water and medicine and we ate leaves and fruit! I had some kind of millipede thing crawling on me that excreted oil that smelt like almond essence and we saw a frog that was camouflaged as bark!



Back to camp for another feed and we were well an truly ready for "siesta time" - seeing out most of the afternoon.

After the heat of the day had cooled a little, we went for another quick cruise along the river before dinner. The highlight was a group of Proboscis monkeys swinging and playing in the trees and a big male Orang Utan setting up his nest ready for bed. He must have been nearly done when we arrived as he quickly disappeared into it, leaving us staring at a black blob in the trees for nearly half an hour! The guide and Camp Boss, Lan, soon advised us that if we wanted, we could wake up at 5am and he would take us back, ready for when he wakes up - to which everyone quickly put their hand up for, so we cruised back to camp. When we got back to camp at around 7.30pm a civet cat was wondering round the eating area! We were excited to see one, but cut that we had waited until 1.30 in the morning to see one!


After dinner it was on with some gum boots and off for our night trek. By now, we were all good friends (and had had a beer or two with dinner - cold from the next lot of new arrivals) and squelching knee deep in swamp mud - so it was doubtful we would be catching any creatures unaware, but our guide Leo still found us some creatures including an angry little scorpion, a tarantula with its babies and a really cute tree frog perched on a branch. The best thing ever though- no leeches!! We were flopped under our bug net soon after.



At 5am the excitement of seeing the endangered Orang Utans in the wild had us up and ready at the jetty well and truly before Lan. Running a little 'late' we cruised down to the spot and were thankfully rewarded with a sighting. We were waiting about 20 minutes before the lazy bugger decided to get up- apparently well and truly slept in by OU standards! After moving about a bit in his nest, he eventually climbed out and about half way down the tree, completed his morning ritual of pooping and peeing what seemed like half his body weight and then climbed the rest of the way down and into the jungle. We also saw some more Proboscis monkeys playing in the trees and a small croc on the way back.


After breakfast the "white boys" decided to take up the guides' invitation to a friendly barefoot soccer match whilst we waited to depart late morning. When the guides came back a few minutes later dressed in various soccer tops and shorts (whilst the whites boys had gotten so hot waiting five minutes in the mid morning heat they had taken their shirts off), it was very apparent who would be winning this match. Even with a few white boy subs dragged from the breakfast table or the grandstand they couldn't manage to be competitive and retired at one injury and 3-15 down, just in time for our last river cruise back to the road.

I was disappointed we didn't see any elephants but it was heaps of fun all the same! Apparently the elephants had been seen in a patch of jungle about 75km up river, if we'd been there a few weeks later they would have made their way down to Uncle Tan's patch and we could have seen them.

The Uncle Tan's crew

Roomies Becs and Scott and AnnaLisa

As an aside, if you click on the "Uncle Tan's Jungle Camp" heading at the top of the post the page will reload with a zoomed in map of Uncle Tan's (like it will if you click on any headings, or just use the zoom bar). You'll notice that Uncle Tan's resides in a patch of dark green, that's primary rainforest. You'll also notice that most of the Kinabatangan River is surrounded by light green, that's palm oil plantation. That's why it's so easy to see wildlife at Uncle Tan's, it's hemmed in by plantation forest though which animals migrate but don't live.

Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre

Following our soak in the hot tubs, we said goodbye to our fellow mountain climbers and caught the bus back into Ranau in time for our 5pm bus to Sepilok.... well so we thought....

At about 4.45pm whilst munching on our ice creams at the bus stop cafe, the shop girl kindly asked us where we thought we were going. We advised of our intention to be on the 5pm bus to Sepilok, which was met with a bit of a grin, a bunch of jabbering to the other shop assistant in Malay, a laugh and the reply of "Sorry, there's no bus. The only one from here is 10pm- I think".

Once again we had been foiled by the public transport system. Wandering whether we should skip the Orang Utan Centre and head direct to our next appointment in the morning, catch the 10pm bus (which would have us in Sepilok at 2am- with no accommodation booked!) or to go back to the main part of town and see if there was another bus (or very expensive taxi), we were approached by a youngish Malaysian guy who had overheard our dilemma and debate and was about to head off for Sandakan (Sepilok is on the same road). He offered us a lift- but added "only if you don't mind riding in this", pointing to a 44 tonne truck full of pumpkin!

With it getting dark and none of our other options being that great, we took his offer and rode (slowly) in the front of the pumpkin truck. Wadi spoke reasonable English and was apparently accustomed to picking up travelers who had missed that bus. The journey took about 1.5hours extra but we got to Sepilok around 11pm. This included heavy rain, missing sections of road (probably due to the rain) and a stop for dinner at a truck stop full of male Malaysian truck drivers, staring and poking fun at their friend and his strays. He told them all Matt was "his Australian brother". Not knowing what to get we asked Wadi what was good and ordered the same. You would never have guessed it, but the meal was one of the best we've had in the whole of Malaysia.

We'd made a call on the way and booked the hotel across the road from the Orang Utan Centre, which was about 2 k walk from the main road where we were dropped. Once we arrived, it was quite obvious that a call at 9pm requesting a standard double room for that night had translated to 'please take advantage of us and put us in your deluxe suite, leave the key with the night security guard so we can't argue and charge us for it in the morning'. We enjoyed the sleep in air conditioned luxury, but not the bill in the morning, especially given it was obvious there were plenty of "standard" rooms available. It did not help that a few extra items had appeared on the bill including Pringles and French toast that we had supposedly consumed between the hours of 11pm and 7am (when the restaurant was closed??).

Anyways, the Orang Utans!!!! We missed feeding time by 10 minutes, by the time we had argued over the bill and our "free" breakfast had taken about 30 minutes longer than it should have taken to make toast and instant coffee, but we saw a few of the guys anyway:

There were only two "hangin out" when we got to the viewing area. For a few minutes they showed off their climbing and rope skills and one (the girl actually!) cheekily peed from her elegant feet-up-around-ears position onto the viewing platform and then they were off into the trees. Their auburn hair and grins were very charming.

We hung out at the platform for a bit as some other travelers had said that once the hoards leave after feeding time, they sometimes come back and climb onto the platform.


Whilst the Orang Utans had done their bit for the tourists and left, the macaques came back in droves. They were everywhere! Right the way along the boardwalk back to reception, playing and swinging, carrying babies and picking fleas and of course some were 'goin for it'!!


For the rest of the hour or so we had until "Uncle Tan" picked us up at noon, we wandered round the boardwalks in the park with a tight hold on our camera and bags, avoiding the money squabbles and poo!

Unfortunately, we didn't see any rhinos...

That may be because its estimated that there may be as little as 50 left in Sabah's jungle due to loss of habitat and fertility problems.

Mount Kinabalu

Getting out of Brunei proved to be nearly as difficult as getting in and we arrived in Sabah's capital, Kota Kinabalu, late in the day. Anxious to get a place to climb Mount Kinabalu the next day we headed straight for the offices of Sutera Sanctuary Lodges. They control the only accommodation on the mountain, without a reservation at which you cannot get a permit to climb. We'd being trying for months to get a reservation, but many places are sold to travel agents a long way in advance, making securing independent reservations difficult. We had been told that just turning up may be our best hope, but Sutera informed us once more that no places were available. Instead they suggested we try some of the adjoining travel agents, many of whom were happy to sell us a place for a three fold mark-up (and in one case that was to sleep on the floor of the restaurant).

A little disappointed we headed for a hostel, only to bump into some other travelers we had already gotten friendly with. The evening was a merry one, if you get my gist.

Once again we arose early (though this time with a little more difficulty than previously) with the aim of getting to Mount Kinabalu park headquarters and trying our luck once more for a place. For once the trip was shorter than expected and we arrived a little after nine to find five other people begging for a place. So we sat in the office listening to a Belgian guy ask every ten minutes if there was a place. Remarkably this tactic seemed to pay off, and despite the fact nothing actually seemed to have transpired to create a vacancy, all of a sudden the staff announced they had six places. A little more persuasion and it was agreed that Erin and I could share a bed and all seven of us could climb (though we were still rather rudely charged for two beds!).

After shelling out more cash for permits, a guide (who we only saw for about 10 minutes in two days), bus transfer, etc. we were finally climbing. Starting from where the road ends at 1800m above sea level (ASL) we spent the afternoon walking the 6.5km to Laban Rata, which is 1500m higher at 3300m ASL. After an early dinner we headed for bed as soon as it was dark. Not so lucky was a fellow climber we got chatting to named Bart. Bart was organised enough to book months and months in advance for his climb. As such he had prepaid accommodation at Laban Rata and incurred none of the associated headaches we'd encountered. Unfortunately Bart arrived at Laban Rata to discover that they had failed to reserve him a bed, so he spent a sleepless night on the floor of the restaurant.

En-route to Laban Rata, the altitude (and too much beer) made for slow going.

Our hut 'Gunting Lagadan' with a couple of Mount Kinabulu's spires as a backdrop.

The next 'morning' we had the mother of all early starts, up at 2am and walking by 2:45. With around 150 people a day attempting to climb the mountain, many of whom appear to have done no exercise for quite some time, we started off trapped in a large group of people walking very slowly. After about an hour we had managed to pass the group and made good time first though alpine forest and then over exposed granite to the summit. The top of Mount Kinabalu is 4095m ASL, making it the highest mountain between the Himalayan foothills in Myanmar (Burma) and Irian Jaya. From here we might let the pictures do the talking for a bit:

We might have been stinking hot for weeks, but it was freezing (or pretty close to it) on the summit. Whilst it was peaceful being some of the first up, the wait for sunrise was rather bone-chilling.

Despite not appearing remotely pyramid shaped from beneath, the mountain casts a pyramid shaped shadow at sunrise (much like Volcan Tajumulco).

It's not so lonely at the top after all.

Gradually thawing out on the way down.

One for Erin's work colleagues, it's a Pitcher Plant - it eats bugs.

On the way down Bart passed us once more, lack of sleep left him looking a little worse for wear. The trip down took us almost as long as the trip up and upon arrival at the park headquarters we and a few fellow climbers decided we'd earned a trip to nearby Poring Hot Springs. Built by the Japanese in the Second World War these springs are not quite as idyllic as you may be imagining. Nonetheless a soak in one of the many concrete tubs followed by dip in the rather liberally named 'rock pool' did help to refresh our weary bodies.

Brunei

After a terrible nights sleep in Lawas (it turned out that the room we had hastily chosen the night before had a broken air-conditioner, sleeping with the window open resulted in Erin being eaten alive by mosquitos), we arose early to catch a boat to Brunei. Our guidebook, ferry timetables and the internet all assured us that at 7:30am a boat departs Lawas for Brunei. However, when we finally located the tiny wharf on the outskirts of town - no ferry was to be found. Asking around we found that there was a boat at 9:30am to Limbang, from which there are regular services to Brunei. Our guidebook assured as that the trip should only take 30 minutes, so we weren't feeling too put off. However by the time we finally arrived in Limbang at 1pm our mood was deteriorating.

Unfortunately things didn't improve, we'll spare the finer details, but suffice to say there were no more boats for the day and the bus wasn't leaving until well into the evening. We were finally forced to pay for a hotel shuttle bus to the border. We were stamped out of Malaysia, our Brunei visas were carefully examined and then we were questioned to ensure we had no alcohol before being ushered into Brunei.

Brunei is by far the smallest country occupying the island of Borneo. It was supposed to join the Malay union when Malaysia was formed, but dropped out at the last minute when oil was discovered (some say it was heavily encourage by Shell). As a result of this oil, Brunei is also by far the richest country in the region. The Sultan of Brunei is known for once being the richest man in the world, however his brother (the former finance minister) squandered vast sums of the royal families wealth. Although the Sultan still owns a Boeing 747 with gold plated furniture he has now slid to fourth place on the world rich list (or thereabouts). As a result of the countries oil wealth all Bruneians enjoy free education and health care, along with no income or personal tax.

A long standing curiosity about this strange blip on the map prompted its inclusion on our itinerary. Few visitors must arrive overland, as the consulate in Canberra were reluctant to issue us a visa as we were not arriving by air (and we can see know why you would want to fly!), but they finally gave our passports back complete with visas.

Having crossed the border we hopped on a public bus and made it the rest of the way to Brunei's capital, Bandar Seri Begawan (most commonly referred to simply as Bandar, can't imagine why!). We'd opted for a slightly smarter hotel as a respite from sleeping on longhouse floors. When we arrived we were informed that we had been upgraded to a deluxe room as all the standard rooms were full. This was rather strange as we saw only a handful of other guests during our stay and the hotel was six storeys high, we suspect the top five floors are simply not used. Due to our rather late arrival we did little more than find some dinner and call home before retiring to the air-conditioned comfort of our room for the evening.

The next day we set out to visit Bandar's biggest attractions, first stop: Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque. The mosque is the tallest building in Bandar, and apparently this remains so as the strict Islamic government prohibits anyone from erecting a taller building. No expense was spared with its construction, gold leaf adorns not just the outside of the dome but many of the surfaces inside. The marble used in its construction was imported from Italy, granite from China, carpets from Turkey and the inside of the dome features a three million piece mosaic. We circumnavigated the outside (which features a moat complete with replica royal barge) before venturing inside. We had dressed conservatively, but were given a black gown each anyway. Somehow the mosque looked smaller inside, but the attention to detail was impressive nonetheless. Surprising things included an escalator to the upper level and safes everywhere for the Qurans. We asked to climb the minaret as the view is apparently very good, however we were informed that we needed prior written consent (something we'd mysteriously failed to obtain).

Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque

From the mosque we headed for the waterfront where we negotiated with the boatmen for a tour of Kampung Ayer (the Water Village). Roughly 25,000 people live in houses built on stilts in the bay off the coast of Bandar. The residents of Kampung Ayer have all the luxuries of Brunei's land dwellers, the village has a number of schools, a hospital, police and fire stations and a mosque, all on stilts. The boatman took us to his part of the village and showed us around his house, which we were surprised to find was not only roomier, but better appointed than our own!

The boatman's rather luxurious stilt house.

On our second day in Brunei we were a little bemused to find that we had covered Bandar's main attractions the previous day. Unless we wanted to hire a car or head for the lesser developed Temburong district, neither of which we had the time to do, we were running short of entertainment. So we hopped on a bus out into the suburbs to the district of Gadong. As the bus wound though the backstreets of the suburbs we saw many beautiful houses on large well treed blocks, a far cry from the outskirts of the Malaysian cities we had seen so far. In Gadong we headed for 'The Mall,' a huge shopping complex that could have been anywhere in the world (so long as you didn't want to buy any grog).

We spent the afternoon relaxing by the hotel pool (as modestly as possible!) and planning the following day's escape from transport deficient Brunei.

Kelabit Highlands

Despite our deep suspicions that the only people who read this blog is our Mums, we will nonetheless embark on another post...

As mentioned previously, our next expedition was a trek from Bario to Ba Kelalan, both small townships located in the Kelabit Highlands near the border with Indonesian Kalimantan. Once again Joanne proved instrumental in helping organise, and upon arrival at Bario's tiny airstrip (in an equally tiny plane) we were met by the lovely Nancy, with whom Joanne had arranged for us to stay.

Boarding the 17 Seater Twin Otter bound for Bario (after making a stop to deliver supplies to another village).

Nancy, our host in Bario.

Nancy runs a homestay at the end of the old airstrip in Bario. During our stay she served us a number of delicious meals, including some wild boar, as well as helping us orgaise a guide for our walk (and preparing for the 15 Australian high school students she was expecting the next day!).

The following morning we headed for Pa' Lungan, and the home of our guide Phillip Liang. Despite being assured that the path was very clear and it was impossible to get lost, we still managed to take a wrong turn through the first village. Luckily a friendly lady in a rice paddy pointed out our error and we were soon back on track (and feeling rather stupid having later seen the huge sign we walked straight past).

Phillip welcomed us into his home and then wandered off to knock some pomelos (like grpaefruit but the size of bowling balls) off a tree in the centre of the village. Quite a bit of pomelo later we were left to our own devices to wash (with a view from the washroom over the buffalo field) and relax. Over dinner Phillip told us of how every election poiticians come to their tiny village of 100 people, and every election they promise a road from Bario, but the road never gets built. Instead the local people have to bring in everything by Buffalo or by foot.

The irony is that they will probably get their road one day soon, but it will not be provided by the government. At this point in time logging roads reach within about 25 kilometers of Bario, and given the current rate of progress Pa' Lungan will get its road within a decade. This is not a prospect that Phillip and the people of Pa' Lungan are as keen on. Much of their livelihood stems from the jungle and a small farm that they maintain on the outskirts of the village. Logging will undoubtedly make many facets of their current livelihood untenable, but they have no other place to go (there are few parts of Malaysia more remote, and even if they could go there, they could not very well transplant their houses and farms).

Phillip's house is one of only two in town with a satellite dish, so in the evening half of the villlage takes up residence in his huge living area to watch Indonesian soap operas. Given our limited understanding of Indonesian and our even more limited interest in soap operas we opted for an early night.

The next morning we set out from Pa' Lungan into the jungle. Thoughout the day we forded streams on shaky log bridges, heard animals disappear at our noisy approach and got friendly with the blood sucking locals.

The blood sucking locals; leeches. In the three days we spent in the jungle we would have plucked no fewer than 200 off our shoes, socks, feet, legs, stomachs, etc.

No log bridge here!

Late in the day we arrived at our destination, Long Repung, a hunting shelter on the banks of a river. Unfortunately the shelter was on the opposite bank and the bridge had been washed away. Phillip demonstrated the technique for dancing across a narrow slippery log, before we unelegantly crawled across.

Phillip crossing the river.

The evening meals was rice and wheat drink as well as some ferns and chilli that Phillip collected from nearby. The evenings sleep on the hard floor with rats wasn't the best we've ever had...

Another days trekking and another hundred leeches saw us cross the border into Indonesian Kalimantan and to the town of Pa' Rupai. All the townships in the area are inhabited by people belonging to the Kelabit tribe. Modern borders have split the community, but they are more or less free to move between countries. However restrictions on employment and trade result in the Indonesian Kelabits being the poorer cousins. The longhouse we stayed at in Pa' Rupai was noticeably poorer than the more modern houses on the Malay side of the border, and far more people occupuied the one house.

That night we shared a meal with the village chief; rice, ferns and bamboo once more. And once again everyone turned up after dinner to watch soaps. Many of the villages expressed their disappointment to Phillip that they could not speak English so they could talk with us, another noticeable difference between the Malay an Indonesian sides of the border. Our attempt to communicate using the small Kelabit phrase seciton of our guide caused some amusement (but no actual communication)!

Sharing a meal with Phillip and the village chief.

On the final morning we headed back off into the jungle, this time to avoid the Indonesian military who have been known to ask for bribes before allowing travellers to re-enter Malaysia. No such difficulties at the military post on the Malaysian side of the border, the officer didn't even want to look at Erin's passport! Once we had crossed the border we rejoined the logging road, which runs all the way from the Malay coast line into the hills of Indonesian Kalimantan. In Ba Kelalan we discovered our flight had been cancelled, instead Phillip helped us locate a 4WD heading for Lawas and we said our farewells.

Phillip with a possible glimpse of the future .

The 4WD, a diesel Hilux, had two padded bench seats in the tray with a canopy over the top, this is where we and the other two unfortunate passengers sat. Not far into our journey we discovered why Ba Kelalan still has an airstrip despite the advent of road access. Even though it is the 'dry season' in this part of Borneo, this simply means they get an average 300mm of rain a month instead of 500mm. Although it hadn't rained for a number of days the constant humidity makes the road very slow to dry out and we were frequently up to the axles in thick sticky mud.

At one point we approached a hill only to find the five vehicles in front of us stopped. Ahead was a steep hill covered in thick mud with a 4WD stranded about a third of the way up. Our driver stopped at the end of the queue and wandered up the hill to help (which involved throwing rocks, logs and anything else they could find over the road to form some kind of base). After about an hour of makeshift road improvements, interspersed with attempts at the hill by various vehicles and just as we thought we were headed back to Ba Kelalan, a vehicle eventually made it up the hill. One by one they climbed the hill and finally we were on our way again.

After a few hours we passed through the first logging settlement. If you can imagine the landscape around Queenstown in Tasmania you can get a feel for the landscape in the immediate vicinity of this town. All the houses were identical, obviously bought in on the back of trucks. Garbage and sewage appeared to be disposed of directly into the rather filthy river that ran beneath the rows of shacks.

It is pleasing to say that the rainforest was completely destroyed only immediately surrounding these settlements. But the string of log trucks that we passed endlessly on the way down to the coast would tend to suggest that trees are disappearing fast. Apparently only the largest trees are harvested to begin with, and then as virgin rainforest gets more inaccessible the loggers return for smaller and smaller specimens. The problem with this technique (or more like one of the many problems) is that forestry researchers suggest that ten smaller trees are killed for each one large tree that is removed, effecting far more damage than is evident from simply counting the number of logs removed.

A log truck slid off the road, a dozen more wait for it to be removed so they can continue down to the coast. Where did your last piece of hardwood funiture come from?!

Finally, after six and a half hours in the tray of the hilux (and a rather unpleasant tropical downpour for the last 30 minutes) we arrived exhausted in Lawas. The flight we were supposed to have caught takes 40 minutes and costs less! We took the first hotel room we found, quickly got some dinner and collapsed.