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Hello All,
I apologise for the delay in this latest blog but I have been truly falling in love with Borneo for the past 11 days, coupled witha lack of internet.
I will try my hardest to tell you all about this trip but I am being honest with you words really won't do it justice.
Here it goes. Getting to Borneo was slightly knackering, I endured an 8 hour bus ride from Battambang to Bangkok, with numerous changes along the way before catching my flight to KL by the skin of my teeth (again). I then messed around in the airport for about 7 hours playing on the internet and on the luggage trolleys like a big kid to pass the time as I had a 06:45am flight out to KK in Borneo on the 10th Oct.
The flight was all good and I quickly got my transfer from the airport to the King Park Hotel which was very nice. I was proper tired by this point with all that travelling so I treated myself to a spot of TV and a power nap :)
I had spoken to a girl called Liz prior to going on my travels on a blog where you can have a chat to your Gap Adventure group and she was really nice, so I was looking forward to meeting her. I asked at reception if she was about at all, but I was the first one to arrive apparantly, I later found out that this wasn't the case, two girls Sophie from Reading and Katherina from Germany had already arrived. Anywho, after my power nap I headed to reception again and asked if Liz had rocked up yet and she had, so I gave her room a liitle call and asked if she wanted to wonder into town and have a little explore. Myself Liz and her room mate Lucy, who is lovely all headed into town to have a goosey gander at what KK had to offer. We all pretty much hit it off from the word go which was really cool.
After wondering round town we all headed our separate ways before our first group get together at 18:00pm where the whole group would meet for the first time. We all met in the hotel restaurant and were briefed by our illustrious leader Arkin, who little did we know at that point would turn out to be one of the most awesome people any of us had ever met.
We all got on really well from the word go really we had myself, Liz, Lucy and Sophie all from England and all in our twenties, Katharina from Germany, the most lovely of lovely Danish couples called Cecilie and Frederick and Ian from Australia who was a wise Owl (who was also my room mate for the duration of the trip). The make up of the group was fairly diverse but it seemed to just work from the first moment we all met.
We all headed out for food and supplies before we started our first proper day travelling to Mount Kinabulu. We ate some great food and had some good chat before hitting the sack for an early start the next morning.
Right I am realising now that this blog may be slightly epic as I haven't even really started on the trip yet and I have to catch a taxi to the airport at 12:30 with Sophie to Singapore before meeting my good friends Pauley, Ric and Jeff from uni and the time is currently 12:01, so I will post this and resume writing when I get the chance.
I really don't want to forget any of the details so I will try my hardest to get on with this blog asap. My photos will speak for themselves as well, I have about another 500 odd to load up, I have been snapping away like an absolute trooper :)
Right I will chat to you all very soon to resume with day 2 of this wonderful trip.
x
Blog resumed.
So on our way to base camp, named Mesilau Nature Resort (1951m altitude), before the epic climb of Mount Kinabulu we stopped of at a viewing deck to see the beast that we had to conquer........it truly is an impressive sight. Whilst here we stockd up on last minute supplies like much needed munchies and a poncho incase it decided to rain.
We embarked on a little 2km treck in the Rainorest before hitting base camp, just to get our legs used to a little bit of exercise before tomorrows ascent. I have the names of the places we stayed at, but not on me at the mo, so I will go back an edit this blog with some more details at another time. We stayed at a lovely place at the base of the monutain though, myself, Arkin (illustrious leader), the Rass Man (Bus driver, leg-end), Ian, Frederick and Cecilie shared one place, while the rest of the girls shared another.
We all settled in had an awesome meal and were all briefed on tomorrows activities, which involved, which involve climbiing our way 8km to the half way camp, titled Laban Rata Resthouse (3273m altitude) before our summit climb which was based approximately 3km from the summit (total 4095m). The 8km climb to our next place was super hard, steep, and just an absolute leg killer, the amount of lactic acid that had built up by the end was just immense. Needless to say when we reached camp, we were all shattered, maybe bar Frederiko the gazel, who bounded up the last section of the climb, with me a distant 2nd (not that it was a race) :). Lucy an Katharina were suffering with knee problems, but both of them made it to camp, which we were all really proud of.
Whilst at camp we recharged our batteries and stocked up on food, hitting the sack early before our 02:00am wake up call for the ascent to the summit. At this point as you can imagine it was pitch black. The initial phase of the summit climb was straight forward, however we reached a stage where there was at least a 50 degree incline, needing a rope to pull yourself up........fairly scary whilst in the dark.
The rest of the climb was fairly straight forward, definitely easier then reaching our camp yesterday. The sun rise as you can see from my FB pictures was out of this world, definitely worth the climb. Everyone made it too including Lucy and Katharina...........I was very proud of them, they proper dug deep.
The sense of achievement was just great, knowing that we had conquered the tallest mountain in SE Asia, it was great. After sun rise and a load of pictures we all headed back down to camp, we wouldn't be staying here, we would just be collecting our things an heaing back to the base of the mountain. I don't have the details with me at present, however people run up this bad boy, and a Spanish guy holds the record, climbing to the summit an back in 2.5 hours, which trust me if you have climbed almost seems beyond the realms of the human body....................crazy as a coconut.
After we reached the base of the beautiful Mount Kinabulu, we had our lunch and moved on to our next location which was just near our base camp, with a spectacular view of the mountain. We stayed here for a night before setting of to the rainforest, where we would stay for 3 days, 2 nights.
The rainforest lodge that we stayed in was pretty impressive, located right on the river. That day we went on a boat trip up the river to see whether or not we could spot any of the beautiful wildlife that is based there. How lucky were we that in the space of approximately 2 hours we managed to see Orangutans in the wild, Probiskus Monkeys, Muscat Monkeys, a Python and a load of Pigmy Elephants...........WOW!!!
Right I have to go an book a train ticket to KL now, but I will resume with this blog as soon as I can.
Until next time
I'm back - 23rd Oct
So I was saying before that we were super lucky to see all of these animals in the wild, we were all amazed afterwards and just couldn't believe our luck.
Everyone was pretty shattered by the night and hit the sack fairly early before another trip along the river first thing in the morning. On this particular trip we saw the usual Probiscus Monkeys and Muscat Monkeys, along with a few exotic birds, which again was pretty impressive.
After this trip we headed into the rainforest on foot, following a trail to see whether or not we could see anymore of the Borneo wildlife. We bumped into massive spiders, massive ants and a Salt Water Croc that Arkin estimated at approximately 16 foot, he was a whopper. He looked proper impressive, I was so glad that we saw a croc, that is what I really wanted to see whilst Iwas out here along with the Orangutans.
Myself, Frederik, Cecilie, Sophie and Ian also took the night cruise up the river in an attempt to see some of Borneo's nocturnal wildlife. The boat drivers had the most immense vision, spotting exotic birds and the smallest little Kingfisher sat on a branch, it was very impressive. We also saw another croc flying into the water and numerous crocodile eyes poking orange above the water under torch light.
The following day we went to Sepilok Orangutan rehabilitation centre, which we were all super excited about. We were able to view numerous Orangutans who are now semi wild in their own environmet from a set of viewing decks. This was the last stage of the Orangutans introduction back into the wild. Within the national park the centre has numerous feeding decks, gradually taking the Orangutans further and further into the rainforest. The Orangutans come back to the feeding deck at their own will, some days they don't turn up, but on the day that we were there we had loads to see. There is strictly no human contact to limit the spread of disease amongst us and them and also to prepare the Orangutans for life in the wild. It was a great day.
Our accommdation follwing Sepilok was really nice. We all had these amazing huts on stilts and we all had a joint pool/jacuzzi thing which was an added bonus. It didn't take 2 seconds before myself and Frederik were messing around in the pool, soon followed by everyone else, it was really nice.
We ventured out into Sandakan by night, a 20 minute drive from our hotel. It is Borneo's 2nd biggest city I believe, but really didn't seem it by night. We all ate and stuff but had a 22:00 curfew, as the Rass Man had to drive us all back, so there was no wild drinking for that night.
The following day we all headed to Sandakan Memorial Park, which was a morbid experience, but worth seeing. This is where numerous work camps were and where numerous death marches took place. Out of 1800 Australian and 600 British troops imprisoned here, only 6 Australian's survived, all escapees...............pretty horrific.
After our morbid but interesting morning we all set off to the airport to catch our Air Asia flight back to KK, where we would be staying back at the King Park Hotel.......nice!!!
Lucy is a super nervous flyer, but she handled it all really well, I was tryin to crack the funnies and divert her attention away from the whole flying experience, but I didn't really help hehe :) Anywho we all arrived safe and sound and headed for the hotel, for a relaxing remainder of the day.
We all had dinner on the waterfront which I now really miss. I loved it in KK with the group, we had such a great time together (sorry just reminiscing). The following day we headed to Manukan Island, based approximately 15 mins boat ride away from KK port. This was a tropical paradise, no roads, hardly any toursist, we basically had the place to ourselves, it was great. We all went snorkelling and saw a load of fish; we played some fisbee and just messed about for the day which was really cool, a complete change to the rest of the trip thus far which was great.
Visiting Manukan Island was basically our last proper activity together as a group before all heading our separate ways the following day which was super sad.
We all went out for our last meal togther that night though and myself, Frederiko, Cecilie and Sophie all stayed out and got on it. It was a great night, lots of shapes were carved, whether they were good ones or not that is is another question :)
The following morning, the morning of everyones departure was a sad one, we all ate breakfast togther and exchanged emails etc. I had to get whisked off to the hospital by Arkin and Sophie to see what they had to say about Norman the tropical ulcer, if you have no idea what I am talking about here just check out the lovely photo album on my FB page. Everything was A ok on that front, Cecilie is a nurse and had been looking after myself and Norman for the majority of the trip, she is an absolute saint. The Doctor couldn't fault her work. So apart from Sophie and Arkin messing around in the Hospital (ok I was too) it was all good :) I just recieved a few dressings to look after him and I was good to go.
Arkin had the same thing on his leg at one point and had to have it scalpelled which I am glad didn't happen to me. He really wanted them to get the scalpel out though to cause me some pain :) little tinker.
On our return we had a last goodbye with Lucy which was sad, she was flying off to Oz, we also said a final goodbye to Ian, who was also flying back to Oz, before heading to Cuba (very nice). Myself, Liz and Sophie had all booked to stay another day in KK so we stuck around.
Sophie and I just went shopping and mooched around for the day, organising the next leg of our journeys and Liz chilled by the waterfront. We all had dinner together and then just hit the sack.
That was the end of Borneo really. It was absolutely amazing, different to everything else I have experienced thus far, but absolutely above and beyond what I had expected. I just feel so lucky with the group, the wildlife we saw, the weather, everything was just perfect.
Thats me for now folks, I think that is all of Borneo but I may add some more at a later date if I think of anything.
Off to Singapore now to see my uni boys, all will be explained in the next blog.
Over and out X
- comments
linda Pictures look amazing -how are you ever going to settle back down to a regular life!!!! Missing you loads can't wait for your next blog. xxxxxxxxxxxxx PS is your leg getting better?