Sandakan

The last part of our trip was to the south eastern coast of Borneo. We were supposed to fly to some place called Palu Luang, which is a pirate city. From there were wanted to get to the Danium Valley Preserve. This proved to be rather difficult. There was no transportation running and it would have been very expensive on our own. We met a Greek woman who had been working in the Phillapines with Doctors without Border. She clued us in to a bus that was leaving soon to Sandakan. This was our other choice when we were deciding where to visit last. Sandakan has the Sepilok Forest preserve where oragatangs come to learn and eat. We hopped the bus and had a great time.

Sandakan is the second largest city in Sabah. It is also where the Sandakan death marches occurred during WWII. Now, it is a gritty, yet enjoyable city on the sea. We spent New Years here. It was interesting because alcohol was available, but not really common. We couldn’t drink on the street and it was not sold at any of the festivities. We ended up hanging out at our favorite Chinese café and spending the night there, making friends with the local men. Sandakan also had a water village, sim sim. I had been eager to visit one the entire trip and was very pleased. Sandakan was also very near to the Sepilock Orangutan Refuge. We took a day trip there and saw some of the refuge inhabitants.













Rob found some Malaysian tobacco and interesting rolling papers. We tested them out and they were pretty nice... very smooth...


The hotel we stayed in was the cleanest hotel ever. It also had the nicest TV's and a movie collection to rival Blockbusters. Some of the signs in our room:



Haircut or beer?




The guys we met at the cafe on New Years Eve.





New Year's Eve Rob and Judy and Durian Friut

































We got to walk through the reserve and were lucky enough to see some of the orangtang eating. WE actually got pretty close to them.




They were so cute!




The trail was flooded. We debated going around it, but decided to try it. I am so happy I didn't get a leech.





Running throw the water, trying to stay on the planks to avoid leeches. At one point we saw a snale swim past us.



Yeah, try to get out. My feet were feeling the strangest things. Mabye snakes hiding in the water...

Ha Noi

Hanoi blew my mind. I have never been in a city quite like it before. Even the coloring, at least for a major city was strange. Everthin was brown. The buildings, sidwalks, the clothes, everything had a brown hint to it. It gave the impression of really being back in SOUTHEAST Asia before the wars, maybe just after the wars {It's difficult to guess.} Many people still wore miliary clothes and communist fatigues. Almost every guy wears dark pants and a long sleeved button up shirt. Women dress litle more wester-like but many wear the traditional silk outfits, espcilly to schol.It was like watching an old-time movies. It was great. And then modernisism kicks your ass back into reality. Ha Noi defiantly walkes the line betwween moderity and history. As yu standing the sidewalk, taking you the veiws you will quickly be assaulted by the scere number for motor bikes on the roads. They are moving fast, kicking up dust. They quickly take crossing the road to a new level. This is like Frogger Level 50. Miracuously, I have not seen an accident. Its very simple to cross the road. Fritst, step up to the curb and take a deep breath. The you just walk frowd. It seems like sme form of magic. No one will hit you. There are be a of bikes 20 deep and everyone will manage to miss you.

Back to Ha Noi being a historic gem


The hotel that I stayed at was a gem. My room had a private balcony, the breakfast was awesome and the staff were the friendiest people in the hotel business. One warning about hotels in Viet Nam. People tend to wake up every early like 4:30-5 AM everymorning. What this means to you is that rooms facing the street will be noisy in the moring. Another downside is that room serce will knock on you door and 7:30 AM.


Propaganda Posters.
It is Veit Nams






Button Shop

Borneo!

This post is a little old. Once returning to Korea things were quite busy. It really doesn’t seem like we were on a warm vacation over a month ago.

Fir Christmas were given a week off school. We decided to head some places warm and exotic. Robert, Judy and I spend a wonderful two-week vacation exploring the island of Borneo. Borneo has always held my interest. I remember first hearing about it from my friends who were Geography majors. I remember them talking about how quickly the teak forests are being destroyed for export, other land is being destroyed to make room for the other over populated Indonesian and Malaysian Islands. I remember hearing that this was one of the most biologically diverse places in the world. It has new frog discovered all the time. It has tigers, orangutans, elephants, rhinos, and lots of beautiful coastline. I have wanted to see this island before it was completely destroyed. I am glad we finally made it. We were able to see rain forests, wildlife, stars and peace. It was a truly amazing journey.

We first started out in the capital pf Sabah, Koto Kilabalou. This was an interesting city. It was quite heavily mixed. There were many Pilipino, Chinese, Indians, Malays, and many other groups. It seems like the city had a nice cultural mix. There were many Christian and many Muslims but it was very relaxed.

We spend our first night here exploring the city. We ate many delicious foods, which will be focused on later. WE found some markets and a decent Chinese restaurant to eat at. We stayed at a hostel called he Step in Lodge. It was nice; they gave us wake up calls for our crazy early flights and breakfast before hand. They were very friendly.

In general I have to say that Borneo Malaysians are some of the friendliest, helpful people on earth. Everyone was greeted on the street. People strived to understand and communicate with you. We were shown hospitality that I have encountered in few other places. From the flight crew to the ground I felt happy just being around so many happy people.





The view from our hostel. There was a pretty busy market outside during the day. The sold pearls. I really enjoyed pearl shopping.



Food stands along the East China Sea.


The street scene from the hostel took on a different feel at night, or really early in the morning. OUr flight was at like 6 AM so we were up very early. When the sun started to rise the call to prayer was sounded off though the city streets. It was really beautiful to hear signing on dark empty streets. This was also the time in the morning to see the street sweepers shake the large rats loose.



View of KK from above. Its beautiful!


The ports were very dirty. This is the area where the workers got their boats to go home to a water village on another island.


Fish sign on the way back from the airport.

Mulu

Mulu National Park is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to visit. Even the air there smelled so fresh, clean and green. It was a wonderful change from the Seoul airs. Mulu is rainforest, so it was very verdant. I loved the colors and the plant life. There were so many frogs and insects making noise, it was difficult to sleep sometimes, but the sounds were great. While we were here we hiked through the jungle to a waterfalls. We did a canopy tour. We also saw the largest cave opening in the world when millions of bats were fleeing out to hut. It was amazing. We took long boat rides to long houses. Rob even bought a dart gun. Now we could get our own jungle animals. It was so peaceful and beautiful here.


Yeah, this was like the world smallest airport. Our flight was like 20 minutes as as opposed to the 12 hours of traveling on land...




Walking to the park from our homestay.


OUr homestay. It was fun.













From up in the canopy.






















Rob's a hunter now.