In idle

Literally...

Travelling RTW provides me with a lot of time on busses, and ultimately waiting for busses.  Today as I sit 40 min in advance of departure I am left idling with time on my hands, quietly  observing the people and sites and I realize that the bus in front of me has been running the entire time.  This enrages me.  MOSTLY, because it is not the first bus to do so...it is the norm.  They run for 30, 40, 60 min (0r longer) waiting to depart.  I think it's to ensure the bus is frigid with AC from the moment you get on, but I am not certain.  Often I see environmental destruction and I realize that destruction of resources is often in the short term economic gain of a nation, so although it could be different I have some level of understanding....but idling a bus not only increases CO2 emissions, and increases mining of fuel, it also COSTS the company more and thus reduces economic gain.  As i dit here i realize also that i don't take the bus much in Canada and so i don't know whether the practices there are any different?  Trouble is I feel rather powerless.  It isn't uncommon for me to ask friends or family to turn of the ignition...but I'm not sure i can take on the Asian bus community?  Thoughts?

From the rainforest to urban jungle

The last 2 weeks have taken us through distinctly contrasting worlds- from rugged Borneo to the Vegas of Asia in Singapore!  

In our planning of this trip, Malaysian Borneo was never our destination to see incredible wildlife of the tropical rainforest, instead we thought we would go to Java's neighbor Sumatra island or to Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) but in the end we chose it because transportation was a bit easier, treks were a little less effort to organize and overall it met our needs for this point in our trip.  Having so much flexibility has been an amazing part of this trip as we never have flights booked more than one step in advance, and hotels one place booked at a time we can and have changed our mind at the drop of a hat.  Borneo gave us everything we wanted.  The highlights were undoubtedly the final climb to the summit of Mt. Kinabalu, and the 3days spent in the jungle.  Kinabalu is the highest point in south-east Asia and took us 2 days to climb staying at Labban Ratta hut on the mountain for a few hours of rest before we started our final summit ascent at 2:30am.  At first we were part of a mass group being herded up permanent fixture stairs and I got the impression that it was going to be a less than impressive morning.  But, within 30 min we had distanced ourselves and gotten to a position that it was just Matt andI, pulling ourselves over sheer granite with ropes under a blanket of incredible stars.  It was dark, quiet and every few minutes if you looked to the sky you would see shooting stars and heat lightning.

  
Unfortunately we reached the summit an hour before the sun and had to wait in the freezing cold watching the long path of headlamps weave there way wearily to the top.  It has been a while since I have summited a mountain and it was amazing to revisit that euphoric feeling you get when you push your body really hard and then get rewarded with a feeling of immense accomplishment and incredible views from the top.  Oh and we also had to walk down which was at times harder and more painful than going up and I am certain was the cause of my inability to walk for almost 4 days after!  I did take a LOT of joy from doing mini rapels down the ropes I had used to climb up- life's little moments.

With a day break we found ourselves limping like a pair of 80 yr olds (sorry grandma) into Uncle Tan's to go on our jungle trek.  First stop was to Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Center....I was really hesitant to go as I am always stubbornly determined to see my wildlife in the wild, but was convinced when I learned that the feeding platform where food is put twice a day is in the jungle where the rehabbed apes are free to roam, and many don't come back to the platform once they have sufficiently learned to get there food from the forest (the Center uses bland repetitive food to try to encourage the apes to fend for themselves). I have always loved monkeys, especially apes and have been really fortunate to see Chimpanzees wild in Uganda, and now Orang-utans.  Although the 2 that came to the platform when we were there were small (both under 10) to watch the swing through the trees and interact was breath taking.  

This species of ape is genetically the most similar animal to humans sharing 97.5% of our DNA and it was obvious in the short time we had the pleasure to watch them that they were intelligent, affectionate and playful.  Unfortunately in Borneo and Sumatra orang-utans are under serious threat as habitat is being cut and replaced by Palm plantations at a rapid rate.  Driving through Borneo was sad, for hours we saw nothing but Palm.  The worst areas were where forest had recently been cut and land had been tiered and recently planted.  I these areas as far as we could see was exposed soil and emptiness instead of luscious layered forest.  From an environmental stand point I am horrified, but when we talked to locals almost all saw the plantations as positive for the economic and  social improvements they provided. And, is it worse than oil or coal mining- at least there is still vegetation helping to clean the air? A topic for further inquiry and debate.....mega side track.

We stayed in a jungle camp with 4 other tourists that we reached by boat on the Kinabantangan river.  We slept on wooden platforms with mosquito nets open to the creatures and sounds of the jungle.  The first day we caught a rat running off the platform when we were coming back from dinner and later Neils heard it hanging out while we were sleeping....I was happy to share my place with a rat and thankful that it wasn't a snake instead!  We went on a day trek and a night trek in the jungle with a guide named Leo.  I am inspired by this mans enthusiasm, care and respect for the wild creatures big and small.  He could literally speak with frogs, birds and apes and was the most excited person in the group for a sighting of even a tree frog which he has probably seen 1000.  He showed us how scorpions tun fluorescent green under a blue. UV light at
night, how lantern bugs change over their life cycles into the most beautiful, colourful little creature (that was getting eaten by a group of soldier ants...), and how birds sleep with their head tucked into their wing.  Despite searching we saw no wild oragutans, BUT we also did 4 boat safaris and saw 5 Gibbons (another species of ape).  I could have cried watching them swing high in the trees from branch to branch with their giant long arms - I was penguin sighting excited.
 
Also hung out with proboscis monkeys and their giant round noses and fat bellies, and tons of macaques aka the mafia of the jungle according to our guide.  

Then we went from JFC ( jungle fried chicken) to KFC (which we didn't actually eat but they are everywhere in cities of Malaysia and Singapore).  We said a temporary goodbye to Malaysia and flew to my favourite airport in the world Changi in Singapore.  A quick 3 VERY expensive days of indulgement.  Singapore is clean, orderly and full of amazing food and malls.  I am pretty sure that if Singaporeans are not eating at one of the delicious hawker centres throughout the city then they must be shopping because I have never seen so many malls in my life.  If you arrive at a bus terminal you are in a mall, train stop...in a mall, and you can guarantee that that mall is connected to three more through underground tunnels or overpasses.  We are talking mega malls connected to mega malls often with duplication of stores.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel Complex...has a mall, casino and that is a swimming pool spanning the top of 3 buildings and is the size of 3 football fields. They did not let us go up.

 WE spent much of OUR time eating.  Because of its multicultural past Singapore is diverse in its population with massive Chinese and Indian populations mixed in with Malays.  The food was even more diverse and with specialties like chicken rice, chili crab, BBQ stingray, dumplings, red bean curd, fish head curry, we have been on quite an eating adventure!  We also decided to do something educational and went to the Asian civilization museum...the history of Singapore is romantic, dramatic and definitely fascinating. To imagine the history of trade stretching hundreds of years and comparing it to the success story they are today is exciting.

Now back to Malaysia...more eating, more shopping, and certainly more great adventures!

3 down 16997 to go

Blog may 7

Sitting in the jungle contemplating the last month of our journey.  We fell in love with Indonesia where people were so incredibly kind and helpful, and scenery both natural and cultural was amazing.  We went to 3 of Indo's 17,000 islands - Bali, Nusa Lembongan (technically still bali) and Java.  Bali captivated me with its beautiful architecture elements. Doors intricately carved out of wood, temples built in family homes, and just the care and precision in construction.  One day i went on a short hike from Ubud along a river, through rice paddies and into a small village.  Along the way there were men building a new temple which is no small feat when all construction elements  are done by man not machine - but the most amazing part was seeing large slabs of stone and poured concrete on the walls transformed by local carvers  into gods and idols in amazing designs.  I loved the representation of Hinduism and despite similarities found the Hindu culture very different than parts of India that I have visited.  Every morning the women prepare an offering to the gods and demons.  These are prepared on a banana leaf or in a woven basket and include different natural items (I'm told that is what the gods like) such as flowers, rice, cakes, biscuits, sometimes money, and usually incense.  These looked beautiful and smelled amazing all through town- they were literally in front of every house, store, driveway, in cars, by bridges....everywhere.  Historically they were prepared from scratch by women but now they buy lots of the items in the market.  Time in Bali was relaxing (we had many hotels WITH pools!), rejuvinating, and inspiring - just what the doctors ordered for Matt's back and our overall health (full body one hour massages cost $6).

Then we travelled over land and by ferry to Java and we saw a different side of Indonesia.  First of all this island is extremely populated and mostly Muslim.  Gone were the carvings, and offerings replaced with very loud call to prayer 5 times a day. This is blasted over loud speakers distributed throughout all towns and cities and seemed to be generally pointed into our room!  At 4:30 am it goes off for the first time and shockingly I enjoyed it, found it quite beautiful and used the woken minute or two to think positively about my own day or week.  One morning we woke at 3 to go to Borobodur temple (one of the largest Buddhist temples in the world) and were actually wide awake for the call, and to see the city sleeping but know that this was a time that most would arise to pray with their family was pretty neat.  Java also provided us with some spectacular natural sites.  Another 3 am (2am for us because we overlooked the time change between Bali and Java - couldnt figure out why they weren't more organized...) wake up this time to visit Mt. Bromo.  This is an active volcano in and amongst a "volcano field" that was well worth the early rise.  We took a 4wd jeep up part of the mountain and then had a short but steep climb to the sunset view point.  Because of the heat of the volcanoes there was huge amounts of heat lightning just about the caldera's!  The sunrise was beautiful and was quickly followed by a huge blanket of cloud filling the valley and creeping up the sides of the volcano.  We drove through the mist and again had a short but steep climb to get to the lip of the active volcano! Once the sun burned through the fog we were able to see into the hot hole and watch massive spurts of steam and sulphuric vapour spew from it.  No lava but really cool.

We travelled overland through Yogyakarta where we rode around in Beceks which are small carts you sit in pushed around by a guy (usually pretty old) on a bike aka bicycle rickshaw in other countries. Apparently bought art from the local mafia? Visited the palace of the Sultan (apparently these still exist?) and ate lots of delicious food from sketchy looking carts on the street (the more awful it looked seemed to correlate with best taste!).  This was a good opportunity to see crazy city life was a good contrast to Cianjur where we travelled next to experience more village life.  After a train, a bus and then a mini bus (totalling more that 12 hours and costing about $25) we were dropped of in the middle of a neighbourhood at the apparent address we had provided the driver with.  In the past we have stayed at "home stays" but this was legitimately staying in a home with a married couple and their child.  It turned out to be one of the best parts of our trip and definately memorable.  We were immediately treated like family including having our laundry done by the cleaning lady! Over the next few days we met a few other like minded travellers and experienced different lives in the village including an English tutor, a fisherman and fish farmer living in a floating village, a rice farmer, a brown sugar maker, and a plastic recycling sorter as we were brought all over on the back of a motorbike or in the back of a "ute" (see previous blog for explanation).  We finally went karaokeing with our local guides/friends and saw an Indonesian rock band play at a fair.  We even went to a "water park" which was very strange, compounded by the fact that I had to wear all my clothes in the water over my bikini to be respectful to the Muslim women also there.  It was incredible and very unlike other "tours" which many of you know I don't generally like.  In the village up in the rice paddies where we ate so much fresh brown sugar just cooked from the sap of the palm we lied on the floor of a woman's house who we had just shared lunch with and had an afternoon nap while one at a time we got a massage by the local "masseur"- it was magical!  

We finished up Indo in Jakarta with the other 16 million people that live there.  While looking for the port we got lost in the very small alleyed paths of a neighborhood.  A rare opportunity to see into houses and get a feel for everyday life.  Tourists were obviously strange to be seen but after a glance people went on with their evening. Call to prayer happened while we were there and all the men were coming out of their homes to go to the mosque- very cool.  I really wanted to get into a sweatshop while I was there and went so far as to set up an account as a textile buyer and emailed many factories....but shockingly none got back to me.  I will go back to Indonesia and highly recommend  it, we felt very safe, very taken care of (at the slightest look of being lost someone usually jumped to help).  Despite many surviving on less than 1million rupiah each month or $100, people we met always smiled and made life seem like it was enough.  People have shelter, food and clean clothes and work hard to get kids to school but they are very happy.  Yudi told us "people in Canada have lots of money but they don,t have time...Indonesians have lots of time but no money....we strive to balance the two".  

Another long one....looking for feedback on the blog writing as we head into half way mark.  Do you read it? Do you like it? Do you wish was shorter, longer? Do you like types of stories? Do you want more of something or less?