Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

We decided to climb Mount Kinabalu at the Kinabalu National Park which is also a World Heritage Site. We had met a few travellers who had braved the climb and most had climbed in the rain so we were prepared to do that too. This was the first view of the mountain just before we started our climb and we never saw it as clearly again.


As we got quite high up the mountain we saw the giant Nepenthes pitcher plants but there were no rafflesia (the largest flower in the world that takes 15 months to bud and only lasts 7 days) in bloom at the time of our visit.

The first night we arrived we stayed in a lodge at the entrance to the park where we met a nice group of travellers on a trip with "Intrepid Journeys"
It is compulsory to take a guide on the route and we had a guide called Mikey and he lived with his wife, son and father on a rice farm near the mountain.
There were many species of rhododendron in bloom and the park has 26 species of these.



There were also several varieties of orchid along the trail and the park has about 1,200 species.

Lil became unwell at about 2800metres- headache, earache, and blurred eyesight. However she continued to the top hut.

The trail had many very steep steps and there were very few flat sections at all. We were passed by porters carrying toilet bowls and food for the restaurant. Nothing is airlifted into the park, although there are 4 helipads, so the porters have a busy time bringing supplies in and taking the rubbish out again.
We were about 5 mins from the Laban Rata lodge/restaurant when it began to rain so the huge pot of milo and coffee was most welcome as we registered and rested a while. Not long after it rained 'orangutans and macaques' and then we discovered our hut accommodation was 200 metres further up the rock climb beside what looked like a raging waterfall.

We got to the hut and had a lukewarm shower and put on a change of clothes and then had to put the wet clothes back on to go back down to the restaurant for dinner. The rain never let up until about 1am.

John got up at 2.00am and made some noodles to eat and then headed off with the guide for Low's Peak, the summit at 4,095.2metres. At the top he saw the Southern Cross very clearly and thought of Sir Ed Hillary who passed away recently. John on the summit

Sunrise on the summit

The cloud set in later in the next morning but it never rained again so we were very lucky.

We flagged down a bus to Kota Kinabalu city and with our 'jelly legs' managed the climb to a nice room on the third floor of the backpackers' hostel.

Semporna, Mabul Island dive, Borneo,Malaysia

After a few days in Sandakan, cleaning up after the jungle trip, we headed off to catch a bus to Semporna.

Sandakan sunset.

We went to the bus terminal and were directed to a bus that would take us to the bus terminal on the outskirts of town where we would catch a big bus to Semporna. The bus driver didn't speak English and insisted he was taking us to a Semporna bus connection so off we sailed past the bus terminal. After an hour with people getting on and off we shot up a side road into a palm oil plantation and everyone got off the bus and left us sitting there. We found a local Muslim woman who spoke English and she told us that the driver did not have a permit to travel this route. We unloaded our bags and headed across the street to flag down another 'bas mini' and continued our journey to the junction. At the junction we had to look for another mini bus and when it finally filled up we headed off again for Semporna. After a short cramped ride we shot up a dirt side road into another palm oil plantation- you guessed it- another checkpoint and no permit either! The road was lined with mini buses and trucks in view of the police checkpoint, waiting for the police to go home. We unloaded our gear again and waited on the side of the road which was now just as the sun was setting. We tried to flag down any bus that came our way but they were all full. A local returning from Tawau tooted at us and we got a ride with him at twice the price of the usual bus. What seemed a straight forward thing to do turned into quite a mission!

Local seaside village

Semporna is a popular place for divers who go to Sipadan Island to dive at a spectacular site. We took a 3 island trip and did some snorkeling for the day.

Local children watching the tourists!

The next day we decided to do the Discover Scuba Course at Mabul Island. What a challenge!

After learning 4 skills- purging the air regulator, clearing the mask of water, giving your buddy emergency air, and recovering your air regulator - we practised the skills and then did 3 dives in 3 different places.

The first dive was scary for me but by the third I was more relaxed and it was a fantastic first experience.

We saw 4 huge turtles (hawksbill and greenturtles) - 1200mms, a sea snake, pipe fish, angel fish, a flying gurnard, lion fish, a moray eel, a stone fish, a crocodile fish, as well as lots of colourful coral, anemones and schools of small fish at a depth of 10 metres. What a buzz!

This oil rig is a dive resort, and the story goes that the owner wanted to buy on Mabul Island but the owners wouldn't sell it to him so he bought this and placed it in front of the resort!

A friend took photos with his underwater camera (Thanks Richard and Laura)

These signs are on the ceiling of the hotel rooms and point to Mecca.

Kota Kinabatangan Wildlife Reserve, Borneo, Malaysia

You can't come to Borneo and not visit the jungle. So, we booked a tour to stay 3 days and 2 nights in the jungle.

In the boat on the way to the lodge we were lucky enough to spot our first orangutan in the wild, several long tail macaque monkey, silver leafed monkey, proboscis monkey and lots of hornbill birds, egrets, and serpent eagles.

The lodge was a very basic affair: mattresses on a wood floor under a mosquito net. The windows and doors were chicken wire to keep the rats and mischievous monkeys out. The rooms were linked by a boardwalk as we were above the water and being the wet season it was quite high. The kitchen and dining areas were built to float above the water but the rooms would need to be cleaned out after flooding. Luckily we had no rain the whole time we were in camp!

In the evening we went by boat with a spotlight to see the nightlife of the jungle. The kingfishers obliged by sitting still so we could photograph their iridescent feathers!

The yellow ringed snake was so close we could have touched it (if we wanted to)as it rested in the leaves waiting for insects.

At 6am we headed off in the early morning mist to see the early risers. We were rewarded with seeing a herd of about 12 wild elephants grazing along the river bank just a few metres away from us. It was most unusual to see elephants at this time of the year as they are here in August, so were luck once more!

On the last evening at 9pm, we waded knee deep in the water through the jungle to look for more wildlife. We saw

The glass frog which is transparent

Scorpions

Tarantula

Everyday we had monkeys, pigs,a monitor lizard and an otter around the camp.

All in all we had a fantastic time, ate well and met some great people.

Sepilok, Borneo, Malaysia

After a day in Kota Kinabalu we caught a bus to Sandakan and visited the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre.

There are about 10,000 orangutan left in the jungle and as more and more jungle gets bulldozed down to plant palm trees for palm oil their habitat is shrinking. The Sepilok Centre has orangutans that have been found by plantation workers. Some were caged as pets and some were babies whose mothers had died.

At the Centre the animals are vaccinated and tattooed. The babies are bottle fed and then taught how to climb and other skills they need to be able to return to the wild again.

Tourists can view the animals that have graduated from the nursery. They are fed at 10am and arrive at the feeding station as the first step to losing their fear of the jungle. As they become more used to the jungle they follow the ropes that take them further and further into the jungle to find seeds and leaves to eat. Some eventually never return to the feeding station.

Occasionally some of the rehabilitated orangutan have returned with their babies for a visit and so the staff at the centre feel it is a sign that their rehabilitation programme is working!

Bohol Island, The Philippines

Panglao Island is a small island off the south end of Bohol Island and other than the white sand beach at Alona Beach (which attracts the divers) there is not much to see other than the daily island life. The islanders grow the usual bananas (lots of kinds- from tiny yellow finger ones to big white flat ones that are fried or grilled over charcoal), coconuts, sweetcorn, sweet potato (campote),long beans, and raise pigs, cows, chickens and roosters for fighting.

We met a couple of guys, George and Paul from Holland, who were on a 12 day holiday in The Philippines and we got together and hired a van and driver to visit the sights of Bohol.

There are some hills made from coral that brown off in the summer and because of this they get their name "The Chocolate Hills". They were formed millions of years ago and the soft sand was eroded away to leave the hard coral shapes.

The Philippines has a small animal called the tarsier and it is so cute. It is a nocturnal creature related to the sloth family and its eyes are larger than its brain.We were able to see some in a caged area along with sleeping fruit bats and flying lemurs who were also asleep.

tarsier

Flying lemur
Fat fruit bats

The oldest church in the The Philippines was in need of a lot of funds to prevent it decaying any further. It was founded in 1400s by the Spanish priests and had an ornate wood carved inside.

We came to this part of The Philippines to rest up and we did not want to be looking for accommodation or transport at such a busy time of the year. Rest we did! Our lodge had a kitchen and we were pleased to be able to cook food and not have to eat out 3 times a day. We read the 8 books we were carrying and watched HBO movies on TV. It rained often but at least it was warm and at happy hour time we were able to meet up with many other travellers from interesting places including a guy called Espen from Spitzbergen.

Happy hour
From Bohol we took a fast ferry back to Cebu and spent a night there before catching a night ferry to Manila (22hours). Most people were returning to jobs and study the next day so the ferry was fully booked.
Mens' urinal Manila

We have a night here in Clark, just outside Manila, and will take a fight to Kota Kinabula, Malaysia tomorrow and have a change from Catholicism to Islam.