We would be couchsurfing at last on this trip. It had been a while. Luckily there was an American woman from the South on the flight and she chatted to us, which helped distract from the fact that we were up in the air. I hate flying, but we stomached this one. We eventually arrived and set off to get the bus to the town centre. Lonely Planet's descriptions are super shit. We walked out to the main road and went left, but saw nothing. No buses. Cannelle was upset with me, because we could have shared the taxi with the couple from the US. Anyway we ended up grabbing our own taxi to the CSers place. I can now give you the actual instructions to get a bus. Head out of the airport and walk straight to the main road. Then turn left and walk for around 1km and you will arrive at the new main bus station. From here its easy to get a bus into town. Fucking LP. I really don't think they have been anywhere in Borneo to do proper research. We arrived in town and Alex and Lucy kindly took us for a walk around town. Kuching is a really pretty little town and with not many more places to visit I would say that its probably the nicest city in Malaysia. At least our favourite anyway. Its much cuter and more modern than I was expecting from a city in Borneo. Seems like the whole world is developing fast. Then the camera broke. Fuck it. We knew it was on its last legs, but now it has officially died. Shit. Luckily Alex and Lucy were kind enough to take us out to some camera shops to buy a replacement. The only colours they had were puke green and bright pink. Excellent. We went for the pink one, but our new camera did have a 32 zoom and that would prove really useful in Borneo. Everything happens for a reason seemingly. Both of them have super interesting jobs. Alex is working for the British Council ironically, on a project to help develop teachers all over Malaysian Borneo, while Lucy is working on a project related to Hoses Civet Cat to trap and study them.
The next day Alex was working over in Lundu so he offered us a lift to Gunung Gading National Park. They didn't have any rafflesias at that time, after having five just two weeks earlier. We decided to visit the park anyway. Its a nice place. Not amazing hiking, but the drive there was cool as we took one of the local river ferries en route. We hiked up to the viewing point, which the guards had told us not to bother with. It was really pretty as you could see the sea out by the river. We were enjoying the landscape of Borneo. The park itself was nice to hike in and we saw a couple of ok waterfalls as again we hiked every trail in about half the time that the guidebook recommended. We saw a flying stick insect, some lizards and a green butterfly. One leech even mysteriously appeared on my shin, but I managed to pull him off before he took any blood. Don't go expecting anything world class from the park, but if you want a nice place to go for the day then I would recommend it. Doubly so if the rafflesia is in flower. After the park we walked into Lundu, which is a fairly forgettable place and Cannelle was offered sex by a ten year old. Oh well. Alex gave us a lift back and Cannelle cooked pancakes, while Lucy had cooked a vegetarian curry. It was nice to cook and have some real food. Alex was called back to Kuala Lumpur the following day for a meeting with head office so it would just be the three of us for dinner.
The next day we decided to head to Semmengoh early to try and see the orangutans. Hopefully we would have more luck than with the rafflesia. We took the public bus to the centre and were confronted with a sign that said during the fruiting season you had an almost 0% chance of seeing the orangutans. Shitty. Cannelle said that it was a waste of 10 ringgits to go in if we weren't going to see anything. I told her that there was always a chance. We walked in and had a look around the centre, which had some interesting facts about orangutans as well as some crocodiles being live fed chickens. There were only two other tourists on the bus, so we figured that we would have the place to ourselves. Then about 15 minutes before the feeding platforms opened up a load of tourists suddenly arrived. It seemed like a large number of organised tours and day trippers had all decided to come. Shit. Borneo is very much driven at the high end of the tourist market and they have no time for backpackers. None at all. It seems like you can fuck off if you aren't willing to spend a lot of money. Anyway. As we waited to be allowed in they gave a brief security speech and then told us to get back as the alpha male Ritchie was there. We saw some branches crashing and he arrived. He was enormous. Everyone gasped and moved back to give him space. Some people ran. I decided that I would just make sure there was one person between me and him as I am quick :-) We watched him cross and head to one of the other feeding platforms. Impressive. We had been very lucky. Afterwards we went to the main feeding platforms and saw four more orangutans. It was amazing to see them in the semi wild. We discovered that our camera went to 32 zoom, as we had assumed that it only had an 8 zoom. Afterwards we went to talk to the guides and they showed us some photos of bites they had overseen, as well as two bites on his own legs. Both from an orangutan called Hot Mama as she doesn't like people much. They even told us of a French woman who had got close to the orangutans for photos and got bitten and hurt fighting over her backpack and had to be taken to hospital. They are not gentle creatures and can be very dangerous. Best to heed the warnings of the rangers. Still its amazing. We went back to Kuching and I finally watched The Impossible. Its a better film and a lot less sentimental than I thought it would be. We went round the city and visited the famous cat statues (the big cat is smaller than I was expecting). Still the waterfront is very pretty. We picked up some stuff for dinner and cooked cheese on toast as well as a broccoli, cheese and mushroom pasta. It went better than feared. We had a nice time chatting with Lucy in the evening and both her and Alex really went out of their way to make our experience as good as they could. Spurs beat Lyon 2-1 at home with a last minute goal and we were off and running in the Europa League.
Lucy gave us a lift in the morning to get the bus to Bako, but there was no bus until 9am. Shitty, but it was low season. They seem to do everything they can to fuck people who might want to go to Bako for just a day trip. Be careful and I would really recommend staying for at least one night. We met a Canadian and Turkish guy on the bus and wanted to share a boat with them. They said that you had to book your return trip in advance and you couldn't just arrange it when you got there. Shitty as the other guys were going for a day trip. We tried to argue with them as to why they sold one way tickets then, but they made up some bullshit. Everything in Borneo is run by cartels, so you always lose out. In the end they agreed that we could share the cost of the boat out there, but that we would have to pay for two separate boats back. Shit. Nevermind. We saved some money. The boat ride is quite quick to the park and only around 15 minutes. It was raining a lot and we hoped that it would pick up the next day. You could not check in before 2pm and after 5pm which was shit, so we asked them for the key anyway and that we wouldn't go in early as we wanted to do some hiking. See what I mean. Everything is designed for your inconvenience. The park itself is stunning though. Even in the rain you could see how pretty it was when you arrived. Cannelle was again pessimistic, not believing that we would see anything. I had some faith so we set out for the Delima Trail, which is the one where you are most likely to see Proboscis Monkeys. We saw nothing until the last minute when I saw something orange colour in the trees. I used our new 32 zoom and there they were. Yes. Finally. The proboscis monkeys. We could not see them very well, but through the zoom we could get closer shots. They seemed to be sleeping. The walks are all very beautiful in the park. The guides seemed quite shit and they even have a sign saying why hiring one is really useful. I don't really think so. Maybe for plants if you are a huge plant lover, but then again if you are, you probably know where to look to see the things you want to see. On the way back we saw some Americans staring at something and went over to see an Emerald coloured viper in the bushes. It was very pretty and they tend to hang out on the left hand side of the visitors centre if you look at it from the beach. Just walk round the side and keep an eye out in the bush. We saw plenty of macaques as well and the cheeky little shits still keep trying to steal your food at every opportunity. We got lunch and set off for the Paku Trail now that the rain had eased off. On the way we almost walked into an alpha male proboscis monkey and saw a troupe of monkeys including two babies. They were on the jetty near where the boats drop you off and they seem to like that area. We got much closer views here than at Delima. Maybe it was the rain, but they were all there. The Paku Trail itself is ok and it ends in a nice beach, but its nothing amazing. Yet its the trail that all the day trippers do. I wouldn't bother, but it depends how much time you have. We kept meeting a Spanish couple who had done the Lintang trail and said it was beautiful and they had seen pitcher plants etc. We decided we would do it the following day. On the way back we saw the proboscis monkeys on the beach and watched them cross all the way over the visitors centre and were about 5m from them. Impressive and beautiful. This park was amazing and all of this was happening after most day trippers leave as they have to take a bus by 4pm at the latest or pay a premium. We joined the Spanish couple for dinner and witnessed an amazing sunset. You should stay for that alone. There were also a lot of bearded pigs around the centre, which are quite amusing to watch. We had a mental old French woman in our dorm. We had been told that the rooms were so shit and she had complained about how awful they were. I found them perfectly ok. Better than a lot of places we had stayed in Malaysia. Not amazing, but certainly nice enough.
In the morning we got breakfast from the canteen (which is reasonably priced btw so you don't need to bring in your own food. Water is expensive though, so I would prioritise bringing your own in. Meals are around 8 ringgit as its done by servings). We set off on the Lintang Trail, which passes through some beautiful forest and then some sandy areas on the higher ground. We sidetracked to the Kecil trail, from where you can see the sea stack from a great viewpoint. If your camera has a good zoom you can capture it as well. There is a little red arrow on your right that points to the stairs to the beach. Its on a rock on the floor so look for it on your right hand side. On the way back we saw our first pitcher plant. They really are beautiful. We went to the other beach view trail next to Kecil and then headed back to the Lintang. There is a viewpoint midway round that is a bit overgrown, but still nice and a quick side climb. Over the back of the trail we saw loads of pitcher plants and the beautiful blood red rivers than ran over grey rocks. The scenery is stunning round here and Bako is one of Cannelle's highlights of the trip. At the viewpoint towards the end, just before the big descent Cannelle saw a silver leaf monkey. They seem to hang out around there. I saw it leave, but I never saw it clearly. Then I fell down a ladder, but it was not too bad a fall. Be careful on them though, as they are slippery. We went to get a shower at the end of the walk (It took us around 4 hours including all 3 of the side trips) and saw a macaque with her baby. We had to get our return boat at 2pm from the beach as it was still low tide. We picked it up, after walking over the beautiful fern patterns in the sand and grabbed an early us to Kuching. I presumed there would be buses to the bus station until quite late so we went online and ate and arrived at the bus station around 6.45pm. The last bus is 6.30pm so don't leave it too late. Shit. Fuck. We had to take a taxi and they wanted 30 ringgit. We knew it was 26 to the airport and we knew the bus station was only 1km away so we asked him to take us to the airport as they pretended it was closer (when it isn't and his meter read higher). We must be the first people to get off early because its cheaper (to save a bit as its expensive here) and we walked to the bus station and got a night bus to Miri, which took 17 hours.
We arrived in Miri, checked in and debated whether to go to Gunung Mulu. It was going to cost a lot of money and Cannelle was not even bothered with hiking the Pinnacles. I said if we weren't going to hike them then there was no point as we would be paying a fortune to look at caves. I had read that they have a fruit bat flight in Philippines and we had seen a beautiful cave in Vietnam, so we decided not to go. We opted for Niah caves instead, until we realised that we didn't really want to go and were doing it because we thought we should. So we decided to skip that as well, chill out in Miri and go to Brunei the day after next. The mark of whether you regret something or not is how you feel after you make the decision. We had no regrets for either of these places and so it was cool with us. I think Borneo is super overpriced for what it is, so we were going to have to prioritise. Bako was awesome. We decided to narrow down the Sabah side to Kinabalu, Sipadan and Kinabatangan for our money and we booked our flight to the Philippines.
The next day we got up late and watched Batman in the hostel. The French woman turned up again and we chatted with her. She said Niah was ok. We met some Aussies who had just climbed Kinabalu. I asked how it was and he said it was a cool challenge. Shit. I want it to be beautiful. Its no challenge to climb Kinabalu at 4000m when I climbed Cotopaxi at 5897m. Especially as 90% of every unfit tourist who climbs it succeeds and at Cotopaxi only 2 groups out of 9 made it (all of them fit and the two of us who made it almost had to give in). That's a sense of achievement. We sorted out Brunei and the next day I was off to my 75th country. Bako is awesome though. Well worth it and Semmengoh, Kuching and Gunung Gading as well. Miri is just nondescript in a pleasant way.
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