Five Days In Sarawak

Kuching Main Drag

Mosque at Sunset

Parliament Building

At the end of a busy first term we headed off to East Malaysia for a little break. Our destination was Sarawak on the Island of Borneo. The capital city is lovely laid-back Kuching. Kuching is bisected by the Sungei Sarawak - on one side is the Chinese town, businesses, markets, cafes hotels etc and on the other the Malay area with the various Kampongs. The image above is looking across the river to The Parliament building which the locals affectionately refer to as the lemon squeezer. Its on the Malay side. Little boats ferry passengers across from one side to another for 40 sen - very cheap.

Early Saturday arvo, we checked into Singgahsana Lodge and wandered round the riverside and tried a bit of the local food - kolo mee, pan-fried jiaozi and Kuching Laksa - all very good. As it was too late to book a tour we ended up organising to hire a car, with assurances from our hotel manager that it was very easy to drive around on a Sunday. We added a few more ringit to include a GPS with most of the locations we wanted to go to already programmed into it. After driving around in circles for 10 mins and with a lot of help from Xave in the back seat, I finally understood that if I did exactly what the GPs told me to do..'in 500 meters keep left... then turn left...' that would actually get us to where we wanted to go - even if it was different to what I had worked out on the map!

We headed up to Semenggoh Orang Utan Sanctuary where we saw one female and baby in a tree (no good shots on my camera ) and then did a bit of wet, rainy bush walking which was not a good idea before jumping back in the car and making our way out through the Borneo Heights hills to visit the Annah Rais Longhouse.

We wandered around the long house for an hour or so, a lot of seperate houses all connected by a common platform. We saw a cage of human skulls from the head hunting days. We met people coming back from working their gardens in the jungle, a friendly lady gave us some very delicious bananas to eat.

From here we drove to some hot springs and did some cooling off in a river. On the way back to Kuching we visited a place called Fairy cave. A humungous cavern four or five stories above the ground. The caven itself had a series of paths and stairways through it, alowing you to climb up to different levels, bats were flittering around- it was a bit spooky really, but definately worth the visit.

One refreshing aspect to the Singghasana was the roof top area. Each morning we climbed onto tall stools to eat our breakfast, looking out over a Chinese temple and the river precinct. A great way to start the day. The pool table, soccer game and hammock were optional extras enjoyed by the boys after getting back from our various activities around town.

Monday morning we set off to Bako National Park with a little sense of trepidation as we had heard the food and accom here were both a bit tired. We stayed in a 1950s Bungalow that was ok and the standard Malay food was actually quite reasonable as far as I was concerned - quite a few varieties of mee, tasty chicken curry, good kopi susu (white coffee) and a reasonable supply of apples and oranges - ok for a few days.

After taking the (local, bumpy, frequently stopping) bus to get to Bako Bazaar we got to Bako Nat Park by catching a small boat up (actually that should be down) the river estuary and along the coast to a little inlet where the Park offices and accomodation are set up. The river is tidal and we had to wait around for an hour for the tide to come in, but even that wasn't enough. Xave & I had to jump out and help the boatman push the boat through the shallows till we had enough water underneath us to get motoring along.

Bako wasn't really 'beachy' in the same way as Juara on Tioman. It has lots of mangrove areas and the water is more of a grey than the clear blue we had last year. Nevertheless, the attractions at Bako are the trails, range of vegetation and the animals such as proboscis monkeys that can be seen there. After our first afternoon scrambly walk to Paku beach and only seeing three monkeys way in the distance, I was wondering if we were going to be in for a disappointing time. However, as we got back to camp headquarters the boys who were way up ahead came bounding back to tell us they had found a contingent of Proboscis monkeys feeding in the trees. It was delightful to observe them leaping from one tree to another. They keep themselves pretty high up but I managed to get a few passable shots. They are such interesting creatures. Xave got some great video footage of them swinging and cashing through the branches that we may be able to upload eventually. We saw heaps of Macaques but as we can see these outside our back gate in Singers we were less gobsmacked - as you can imagine. We also saw some fantastic bearded pigs and Jordy actually spotted two bronze-back whip snakes in the vegetation near our cabin. The pitcher plants (carnivirous) we came across along the trails on the way to Telok Kecil were stunning as well.

Below having a rest along the trail on the way to Kecil Beach.

Magnificent pitchers waitng for an unsuspecting ant or other insect to drop in!!!

Telok Kecil - and guess what? A boat waiting to ferry us back, after a challenging walk!


A little stream, coloured red by the oxide in the rock at Telok Kecil.

Sunset at Bako, looking across the sea to Santubong on the Damai Peninsula, another popular spot close to Kuching.

Delima track into the Mangroves.

On the boat heading back to Bako Bazaar to pick up the bus to Kuching. The tide was in so it was a much quicker trip this time.

Traditional Peranikan sarongs and tops in the street markets in Kuching.

The people in Sarawak were so friendly, it was a pleasure to travel here. Could definately do it again.

Feb Adventures

Well Feb in Singapore has been a decidedly busy work months with lots of classes and activities. There has been time for other activities too though. We all celebrated our first Chinese New Year.

One of the special things to do is the loe hai lunch. Everyone pitches ingredients including peanuts, cinnamon, oil, raw fish, dried tofu skin and more into a special salad and then the whole table tosses the salad with their chopsticks - then eat. Great fun!!

We also attended our first Chingay performance at the formula 1 shed. They close off a few roads for the event. There is a great parade win heaps of lions, dragons, drumming and then a sucession of floats and people costumed to the max - all dancing and cavorting along. The whole thing is capped off with fire works and sundry festivity. It was an exciting night out.

Xavier played in the South East Asian cup last weekend. Stayed in town at the Grand Copthorn Waterfront - very nice for those who can. Games were played at the Sports School, Innova Junior College and The National Stadium. Singapore were runners up. Defeating Indonesia and Thailand but not getting over the top of a very strong Malaysian team.

January cool !!

January was a pretty cool month in Singapore...cool cos we had our daughter here for a month and could show her some of the local sights and cool because it actually felt a lot cooler, due to the breezyness of the recent weather, a bit of air movement certainly makes a big difference in this tropical environment. I was expecting it to be very challenging after getting back from the freezing winter weather in China but it wasn't too bad after all.

We also had family friend Brenna over for a while... great to have visitors ... though I must admit it is decidedly difficult to get teenagers out of bed before 11.00 am in the morning, even when the best partof the day is before 9... and after 5... though they definately experienced lots of that.We ventured to Henderson Waves and the aerial path through Telok Blangah that connects to Henderson Waves Bridge. When we were here last year it was later in the year and the fires in Sumatra made it quite hazy. This time it was clear as a bell. Lots of monkeys around too, as you can see.
We also took Fulori to one of our favourite Chinese dumpling places in Neil Rd, China town, where a contingent of Chinese aunties make the most delicious jiaozi (dumplings). This time we also tried the Sichuan spicy noodles and the hot and sour soup. Haochi ! (Delicious)

We have tried a few things we haven't done before like the toothless fish spa..a speciality where you drop your pins into a pool of fish and they come and nibble all the dead skin off them...a very stange sensation... Felicity the most vocal advocate to get us there, turned out to be the biggest chicken and couldn't get her feet in the water for the fish to feed on for quite some time!

Another recent event that was a visually amazing spectacle was the Hindu Thaipusam festival. It begins from the Sri Perumal temple in Serangoon Rd, devotees of Shiva's incarnation Lord Murgu (I think) assemble weighty 'kavadis' on their bodies, some carried by piercing the poles through abdominal skin, and hook many attachments into their flesh, often capped off with a piercing through the mouth and tongue. They then walk 4km from the temple to another temple in Tank Rd. Thousands do it , many women and children carry milk pots and other sacred items. The kavadis though are utterly spectacular.

The festival runs for 24 hours beginning from midnight. I got down there at 6.30 am which was a great time to see things as the streets weren't yet too hot or crowded. Felicity came along later and then Xave and I went down (after soccer training of course!) and watched a guy at the temple get fully prepared right up to walking through the temple doors on nail shoes. I was asking a few Indian teachers at school why they did it and apparently it is a sign of gratitude for blessings received.

Things are really winding up for CNY (Chineses New Year)as the locals refer to it. Its our first one. Felicity & I will both be going out with our respective schools for a special CNY lunch - very exciting. There are stalls everywhere selling year of the tiger motifs and traditional paper decorations. We bought a few to put up inside the house. Seng Shiong (don't quote me on the spelling) our local supermarket has pallets and pallets stacked with hundreds of boxes of varieties of mandarins, which are a traditional gift offered to friends and family. Another gift given by the married to younger/unmarried is the 'ang pow' - red packet - it contains a gift of money. My sec 3 English class said they'd be happy to receive any ang pows from me - with 43 of them in the class - not very likely. I did pick up a pack of beautifully designed red envelopes at a local stall - so the boys might get a little something on New Year's Day - which is actually next Sunday, Feb 14. F & I get a little something too - 4 days off. Gotta love that!!


So that's it for January. Xinnian Kuaile! Happy New Year!

Bryan's China Part 2

Yes, yes, yes, I know, Fenghuang, is a tourist town and at night you can hear the music thumping from the bars...not quite as much thump in winter as in summer though. Many of those bars were looking quite empty on most nights.
That image above, incidentally,was what I looked out on from my hotel room balcony. In the evening it was ablaze of lights, which I could look at as I sat on my bed gazing out of the window. I wasn't complaining!!!

Touristy it might be, but Fenghunag is utterly atmospheric and beautiful. There are so many vantage points along the old town walls snaking above the river where you can look out over the rooftops and view the old houses built on stilts on the water's edge. Fenghuang had great shops, really interesting food and a maze of old cobbled lanes that we never tired of wandering around. One tour we did do, and there were many that we didn't, was out to a 1000 year old Miao village. It was constructed mainly of stone and mud brick. It was near an area where bandits had terrorised people for many years and we had a walk along the cliff tops where they lived in caves, in pre-revolutionary times.

After the charms of Fenghuang, which means Phoenix City by the way, it was back into solo travel and my first stuff-up was to underestimate the travel time to Huaihua and my rail connection onto Sanjiang in Guangxi province. Hence the snap of me on the sleeper bus to Lonsheng which was the easiest connection I could figure out after I had well and truly missed the train. Consequently, I found myself in Longsheng sitting under a lampost at 5.00am in the morning wondering where I was going to go. One sleeper bus was definately enough of a taste for this type of travel. Don't do it.Thankfully I had lugged Jordan's U-shaped travel pillow around for the past two weeks, periodically cursing it as a useless piece of unnecessary junk, but on that sleeper bus to Longsheng, it saved my neck, literally!!

So there I was under the lampost at 5.00am, waiting for the town to wake up and debating what to do, whether to continue to head (now back) to Sanjiang or forget it and keep going to the Dragon's Backbone Rice terraces. I actually found I had inadvertently deposited myself outside a rather unrecognisable bus station, with buses to Sanjiang. So decision made, that was where I was going. Fortunate decision too, for sitting quietly up the back of the bus happened to be a Canadian girl who had just been to the Rice Terraces and who had seen nothing as they were shrouded in mist. Having seen rice terraces shrouded in mist before I was thankful I had decided to head 14 km past Sanjiang to Chenyang to see the wind and rain bridges in series of Dhong villages near the Guizhou border. Chengyang was also a delight, a stunning place to spend a few days walking in the hills from village to village, which is excactly what I did.

The bridges are constructed with joinery techniques and without the use of nails. They and the surrounding country side were outstanding and I am ever grateful I accidently chanced upon the bus to Sanjing, as it was well worth it.

The hostel I stayed in had no heating but a snuggly electric blanket on the bed did the job perfectly. My room had not one but two balconies facing out to the bridge and surrounding countryside. The owners were super friendly too. On my first night I met a group of retired Tiwanese teachers touring through and on my second two young American-Swedes, the only other westerners I had come across for the past two and a half weeks.

After ChengYang, it was skip the rice terraces and onto to Yangshuo where I stayed at the Yangshuo Culture House for 5 nights and did some great walks and a ride along the Li and Yulong Rivers. I also watched a few Chinese meals being prepared at my hostel in the evenings. The food was very good. Each night they would come up with 6 - 8 dishes, which were included in the price of the accomodation. Not crap food either - good quality dishes, all fresh produce. The house was also way out of the tourist centre of 'Foreigner street' which, as far as I was concerned was a bonus, as after the amazing places I had seen in Hunnan I was a little underwhelmed by Yangshuo. Enough said!

As it was winter it was also citrus season. The citrus was plentiful, cheap and excellent quality. Those orangey discs you can see in the two baskets are actually peeled, dried persimmons. They are a little hard to describe but have the texture of something like a dried fig without all the little seeds. Not to everone's tast but I found them very 'haochi' (lit: good eating)!

After Yangshuo I headed to Dinghu Shan, a park in Guandong Province with the plan of doing a couple of days walking before arriving back in Guangzhou, but the hostel was so crappy that I did all the walking on the first day, complained about the 'no heating', 'no hot water' expensive price in the afternnon, got a 50 % discount and left promptly at 7.30 the next morning. This was definately the worst place I stayed in - the mattress was a board.

As I wrote previously, I was thinking I would be marking time back in Guangzhou waiting for my plane but in these two days I headed out into other areas of the city and saw a bit of the local life. It was actually quite engaging. I met a Korean guy and we went into town on Xmas eve and headed into 'People's Park' where we watched 100's of Chinese ballroom dancing and doing other leisurely pursuits. It was fun.

How's this for a way of organising the letter boxes at the front door of the apartment?!? You wouldn't see this in Singapore!!!

In the streets of the neighbourhoods, there is exercise equipment of all descriptions and people, old & young, using it day and night. My Korean buddy & I had a go at a few things as you can see here. Kooky stuff, but the idea of people unabashedly exercising in public spaces in China and also here Singapore, is something I find quite refreshing.


OK. So that was My China. Hope you all had a great Xmas & New Year & best wishes for 2010.

Bryan's China

A quick report and some happy snaps of my three weeks travelling around China, in a bracing winter.

Guangzhou would have to take the prize as the ugliest city I have ever seen. Building construction going on everywhere... rubble, shade cloth covered buildings and scaffolding...joy! A city getting ready for the 2010 Asian Games - same story in Shanghai, I heard. The much touted island enclave of Shamian Dao, advocated by Lonely Planet as a peaceful haven, was a building site. I spent half an hour there and got out. No doubt you can see why.

It was, though, easy to get around on the Metro...especially after a year on the MRT in Singapore...direct tansfer of commuting skills. On my return to GZ at the end of the trip I managed to have a couple of days where I ventured out into some more local areas...with leafy streets offering some oldy-worldy charm.This would be a hot place in summer and the pollution was thick enough to be cut with a knife. I managed to use my budding but very limited putonghua skills to buy the correct hard sleeper ticket to Zhang Jia Jie... and in an even more noteworthy achievement ... actually found my way onto the correct train (with correct ticket) among the absolute chaos that is Guangzhou Huochezhan (train station).

Zhang Jia Jie was definately an aweinspiring landscape. Stunning sandstone peaks in a misty national park. We spent two days walking, one climbing the 1000's of steps to the top to view some of the peaks and the next, thankfully, doing a long but very pretty gorge walk following a stream between the peaks.Our guide was a little painful as he wanted us to spend more money than was necessary and I don't think he liked the idea of us walking everywhere... wanted us to take cable cars, elevators and carts as many of the other, dare I say Chinese tourists, do. I think he earnt a commission from each ticket office where he got us to spend money... we did come down the the 300 meter elevator from the peaks on day one but other than that, much to his grumbling disappointment, it was hoofing it all the way. And was there any one else on the trails? You bet there wasn't, we had them all to ourselves!!!

After three days here it was on to the junction town of Jishou and into a mini-bus to the small Miao village of Dehang. My Chinese colleague's friend had advised us not to stay in Dehang...'nothing there' but I stuck to my guns and insisted on going and thank god I did. It was magnificient. How many people there ...me and my Chinese friend and you and stop counting. Yes it was cold and the hotels are really set up for the summer season.. but the walks out along the streams, throught the padis and into the gorges, climbing up to the two raging water falls were nothing short of exquisite.

So much clean, clear ,running water and the stone pathways and bridges were a constant delight. For me, Dehang was definately a special part of the trip.

So much for this post. I find the process of getting the images & text into the right alignment/position in these things tiresome. Next installment in a new post...