Shavey's Adventure

Wednesday, 23 January 2008

Location: Miri, Malaysia

Apologies to the avid readers for not posting an entry for some time now. All hopefully will be revealed as to why below! Some pieces may be missing as I it has been such a long time but hopefully this will suffice.

So after Bako we headed back to Kuching with the intention of getting to Sibu or one of the other towns along the Rejang River. the purpose of this was to go visit one of the numerous long houses, where local tribes/indigenous tribes of Borneo live, so we could experience how they live. We skipped through Sibu and headed to a place called Kapit where we stayed a night before heading to Belaga - a smalll town on the irver, near the jungle with easy access to a number of tribes. We headed over to see a guy who could apparently arrange all this for us - we only wanted to spend one evening with the tribes people as we weren't sure what to expect with regard to their way of living and had heard from various others that one evening was more than enough.

During the day we took a trek in to the jungle to meet with a tribe who lived a couple of hours inside the jungle. This itself was really cool. When we got there we were greeted by a couple of the local kids and went through to sit in the chiefs hut. Now you're all probably thinking him to be like Chief Sitting Bull with full feather head dress etc. Sadly he wasn't dressed like this or with just a strategically placed leaf to hide his modesty. Wearing trousers and a puma tshirt he was happily laying in his hammock smoking away half asleep! We sat there for a moment while the locals came in and out of the hut to take a look at us and most probably took the piss too!! Our guide went out back with the chief's son to give him our gifts (sugar, salt, biscuits for the nippers and some rice wine - 50% proof alcohol) Well when they came back to "share" the gifts half of the rice wine had gone and our guide seemed quite glazy eyed! As we sat there laughing and joking the atmosphere became a bit hairy as our guide seemed to get more drunk and then start to piss off the chief's elderly dad by pushing him while sat down and constantly trying to pinch his watch and take the piss out of it for being old and not working! The mood was soon lifted however when a spider the size of my hand (we had spotted this on the rafters before when we walked in) decided to jump down, scuttle across the floor (yes it made a tapping sound as its legs touched the wooden floor) and tried to crawl up my shorts. My reactions, as you can probably imagine due to my athletic ability, were cat-like. I jumped up patting my shorts so it didnt crawl up there and it crawled down again, up on my back and jumped off again all while I was making a squealing sound reminiscent of a small school girl. This was found highly hilarious to the two younger kids (who by the way weren't adverse to joining in with us doing shots of rice wine and also smoking) who then proceeded to nickname me Spiderman! The little feckers! We were also a bit worried when our guide didn't seem to want to leave the hut and we practically had to get up and start to leave ourselves. Him being slightly toshed up too worried us a little but he got us back in record time and not lost in the jungle - he set a rice wine induced pace on the way back! Maybe British athletes should try this in Beijing instead of Powerade! It was only when we got back that the tour organiser asked us if the guide was ok. We told him he got toshed up and was a"bit annoying, to which he replied "Well he's family and only started working for me. He's an alcoholic and sleeps on a bench in the square. If he does well he does more trips for me" BRILLIANT! Not only was this guy who just took us through the jungle a novice guide, he was a piss head too!

In the evening we headed to a local long house. I was expecting good things and an exciting evening where all the locals would gather and have a few drinks with us but this wasn't the case. They all stayed in their own huts (watching the footy it seemed) and everyone who we offered some booze to; declined. So the three of us sat outside playing cards! The night there proved to be quite eventful for myself. I had managed to spend the night in the toilet with very bad sickness and the runs! I say the runs (and I apologise for beign graphic here) but it was basically sh*tting water for the whole night. Any water I took, the tiniest sip would come out again within minutes. It was the longest 8 hours of my life and the sickest I think I have ever been. When not in the toilet I was trying to sleep on the floor while listening to the numerous dogs howling, roosters crowing and rats scuttling around in the roof! This sickness and sh*tting continued through to Sunday and when we got back to Belaga I continued to be sick. I got in to the local clinic and spent the day there on a drip and stuffed with various pills to try and keep some fluid in me! The only diagnosis that the nurses there could provide was that I had Cholera! CHOLERA! F*ck me! Thats the sort of disease that you only hear about in third world countries when Michael Burke from the BBC declares that there is a state of emergency during famines and that aid was needed desperately - and here I was, Johnny Foreigner laying in a clinic with it! Jeez! I was slightly more relieved when told that it was totally curable and this eased my mood slightly (even managed to raise a smile for a cheesy snap,) that and the fact that I finally had some fluid in me via the drip but still Cholera was still not anything I wanted to have. I was beginning to feel better til I got back outside and sat in a cafe waiting for our ride out of Belaga. I just felt really weak and threw up again. I checked myself back in and got another drip inserted and decided to stay there for the night. The next day I decided I should go to Hospital to get checked out by a proper doctor and get a proper diagnosis, to confirm whether it was Cholera or not! After 5 hours we got to Bintulu Hoispital where it was confirmed it was not Cholera, much to my relief. More tablets and yet another ton of hydration sachets we left for Miri!

Ive still not really regained my confidence to eat anything, or my confidence in farting without anything other than air passing through, and am craving some home cooked food. A nice hearty plate of suasages, egg, chips and beans is just what i want right now! Nan if you could rustle me up a steak, roast tatties and veg with all the trimmings - would be greatly appreciated!

I'm trying to not let my episode taint my experience but I feel that the longhouse trip was not really worth what we paid for it. I'm also trying to not let it spoil the rest of my time here in Borneo but at the moment I really am feeling fed up with the place. The same green landscape, the same city/town set up with restaurants and shops that open and spill out on to the street. I feel like I need a new surrounding but I also know that it's because I've been ill and craving some varied western food that i'm biased and fed up slightly. I think I'm associating what I see with the feeling of being ill which isn't helping at all.

We are heading to Brunei tomorrow for a couple of days so this may provide me with the break I need. Although I'm not sure what to expect. Are the streets going to be paved with gold, or is it only the Sultan who lives with such luxuries?! We shall see.

I just hope I can snap out of this ill feeling and get over the mindset that rice is actually not going to make me sick again! Please excuse the cynicism at this point of time and when I look back I will hopefully be able to say "Yeah maybe posting an entry shortly after being ill is not a good idea" Then again this is a personal blog and writing down how I feel is what this is all about, and at the moment I'm still not 100%

Saturday, 12 January 2008

Location: Kuching (Borneo), Malaysia

I currently feel a little bit guilty over my ignorance to where I am currently residing. Although part of Malaysia; a seperate stamp in my passport actually suggests Borneo/Sarawak! This may well be a similar situation to the UK/Great Britain sovereignty over Scotland, Wales and Norn Iron! Although I am currently leaning towards this conclusion, if somebody more knowledgeable (or someone with more patience to traipse through Wikipedia) than myself could please inform me that would be brilliant! This in fact is actually quite ignorant but at the moment the Lonely Planet is getting hammered trying to find somewhere cheap to eat that offers a more substantial menu other curry, curry or................................ curry! Again ignorance on my part but I really am craving a roast dinner or a simple cheese and pickle sarnie on white at the moment!

So after stupidly deleting my last quite frank entry on Taman Negarra and Cameron Highlands I will briefly summarise:

Taman Negarra - Nice to experience the jungle but sadly ruined by tourism and package tours! Where's the wildlife - after all isn't this supposed to be the jungle!?!

Cameron Highlands - Excellent trekking - stunning views from the mountains overlooking over the valleys and tea plantations that dominate the hills here!!

After the visiting the above we stopped back off in Kuala Lumpur (think my nostrils were spoilt for clean air in the Cameron Highlands - as stepping off the bus in Chinatown had me gagging at the smell of, well inner city smog and grot!) for a night before taking the morning bus to Singapore! After hearing a few stories about Singapore being the cleanest city in the world I was expecting to arrive in a city sparkling with chintz and gleaming like a Mr Sheen advert! Now most of you will now be expecting me to say this was not the case, well frankly it wasn't, I had just let my imagination run wild on a tedious bus journey but nonetheless it was clean!! Now compared to other cities this is by far the cleanest I had been too! Signs clearly stating huge fines dished out for littering, chewing chuddy and feeding pigeons (hallelujah!) could be seen frequently, thus indicating how the city obviously wanted to keep it's clean image a reality. The city is itself (from what I saw) excellent. Modern, clean, friendly, busy yet charming. Not as busy and built up as I thought it would be but I think in time this will change. Lots of development and construction is taking place and it is has it's own little areas of cultural diversity with it's own identities (we stayed in the busy and vibrant Little India (Chinatown already existing and other new modern apartments cropping up) - with Banghra blaring from shops and restaurants and stalls selling fruit and veg and flowers (and I'm not talking the size of Mark Fowlers poxy Eastenders stall outside the Queen Vic either.) Transport was easy to use and the people were so freindly to approach and ask for directions and they were more than happy to help. This was exemplified by the fact that a punk goth (not as depressed here as they are back home obviously) approaching an overwhelmed blind guy in the busy Orchard Road Metro Station (street with more shopping centres and designer shops than you could shake a stick at,) being bumped around by over zealous Prada & Chanel bag wielding Fashionistas and guiding him to the exact shop he wanted to go to, taking him through the hustle and bustle, chatting away with him!

The city has a very western feel to it but it is expensive! The only way not to spend too much money is to go to the cinema it seems, as we found out as we went twice in two days (mainly to avoid the torrential daily 2 hour tropical downpour and also to kill some time) all for 2 squid a time!

This morning we took an early flight from Johor Bahru in Malaysia over to Kuching (Malaysia/Borneo.) We walked round town earlier and we've been overwhelemed by the friendliness of everyone. Everywhere we have walked everybody has been smiling at us saying "Hi, how are you?" Whether they don't see many white people here, the fact they want to try and practice their English or they are just genuinely friedly remainds a mystery but it's so nice to walk about and not be scared to look at somebody without the customary English greeting of "What are you looking at!" Seems a very laid back place right on the River Sarawak (see not so ignorant after all!) Hopefully will go out tonight and sample the nightlife - hopefully it will be equally as chilled out!

Right am off on my elusive search of something Western to eat tonight! Doner Roll anyone?! (sh*t ignorance alert!! hahaha!!)

Tara xxx

Tuesday, 08 January 2008

Location: Malaysia

I've been a complete tit and managed to delete my last entry on here! Instead of edit I pressed on the delete key by accident. If I get round to it I might try and replicate the previous entry of my travel to Taman Negarra and Tanah Rata/Cameron Highlands!

Apologies for those of you who didn't manage to read it!

Wednesday, 02 January 2008

Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Firstly - Happy 2008 to you all!!! Hope you all had a brilliant time celebrating the arrival of 2008!

Just a quick update to say I FINALLY have some snaps up on here!! Take a browse through. We are heading out of Kuala Lumpur tomorrow and going north to Taman Negara to do some trekking in the forests round there and then maybe on to the Cameron Highlands for more walking - depends how much blood I get sucked out of me by the leeches and mossies!! These places you can appreciate are slightly less westernised than the rest of Malaysia so I may not be able to get access to the internet for a few days. Not entirely sure how long we will be gone for but will update you all ASAP.

Sunday, 30 December 2007

Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I suppose travelling is all about those spare of the moment decisions where to go and how to get there and Friday was one of those spare of the moment decisions for us.

After arriving and staying in Langkawi for one evening, having already decided that Kuala Lumpur was our chosen destination for NYE, we planned out our route from Langkawi to KL. This involved a ferry to the neighbouring island of Penang and from there travelling to mainland Malaysia and then an overnight train down to KL. When we arrived at the ferry port in Langkawi we were told that the ferries to Penang were fully booked for the next two days! After having the lady behind the counter explain an alternative route to mainland Malaysia a number of times and not understand anything of what she had said we turned to the nearest taxi driver and asked "how much to the airport?!" We knew we could fly from Langkawi to KL but obviously this was a more expensive form of travel. But the thought of three or four different buses and then an extra couple fo trains too didn't really appeal so we decided on a flight.

We arrived on Friday evening and took the bus to the city. Coming in on a bus via the motorway was a brilliant way to get a first glimpse of the city! Coming in you could see the illuminated Petronas Twin Towers and the KL Tower and the various other skyscrapers lighting up the skyline. It looked so cool. Where we're staying is right in the centre of Chinatown but i feel a bit of an idiot not being able to use chopsticks to eat my rice and chicken! So I did attempt to use them tonight - not with much success I hasten to add! haha! The city itself is pretty cool. Got a really friendly and excited buzz to it too. It's not quite a s busy and lively as London, which is cool as well as there are not too many people about all the time. Loads of skyscrapers around but it's weird as there is not much else about around the buildings for example other shops, cafes etc. There is a lof of building work going on in the city so maybe this is what is happening.

So far I've found Malaysia a lot friendlier and more welcoming than Thailand. Everyone seems friendly and helpful. Whether this is because the country it self is a lot welathier and the standard of living is better. This in turn probably means that the people here are more educated and their grasp of English is a lot better, hence seeming more friendly and helpful. Like last night sitting in a Reggae bar being offered a toke on the water pipe by some of the locals! Of course it would have been rude to refuse a local custom - I didn't have any halluconogenic experiences so it must have been kosher plain apple flaboured tobacco!

Not sure of the plan for NYE yet. In said reggae bar we got talking to a lad from Oundle so we plan to meet up with him and a few others tomorrow night, have a few drinks at their hostel and then go in to the city. Probably watch the fireworks and then see if we can find any decent bars or clubs to party in.

Happy New Year to you all if I don't speak to you beforehand, stay safe and all the best for 2008!