Malaysia - Sabah (Island of Borneo)

(Pic: Orang-Utan "Man of the Forest")

We landed in Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia on Tuesday last. Sarawak and Sabah are the two Malaysian provinces on the island of Borneo. It's a big place, so we decided to concentrate on the Sabah side and even then, we are doing a whistle stop tour of the area!


We stayed with a friend's family (the Liau family), who looked after us very well for the few days we were in Sandakan, including treating us to some proper home cooked chinese food! During our time there, we went to the Sepilok Orang-utan (which means man of the forest) to see these endangered animals. Truly a privilege that they came out at feeding time: we saw two adults and one baby. The rehabilitation centre takes in orphaned babies and rears them until they can fend for themselves in the wild (all depends on the individual, some of them take 6 years, some take 10) so the work being done there is amazing. You can support this centre through Orang-Utan Appeal UK if you are interested!

(Pic: Mt Kinabalu - when it's not raining...)

From Sandakan we made our way by bus - it's been a while ;o) - to Kota Kinabalu further west. This journey took us over the mountain range and past Sabah's number 1 tourist attraction, Mount Kinabalu, which is the highest in South East Asia. Unfortunately, as we neared the mountain it got really misty and then we hit major downpours so we couldn't see it at all. Good thing we caught a glimpse of it on the flight into Sandakan! An hour into the journey, the bus started to heat us and we all started to drip - the AC had gone on the blink - so we eventually ended up pulling in to a truck stop and waited for an hour or so before another bus arrived. This truck stop was interesting and we were obviously VERY interesting to the locals - I'm sure two ladies of the paler variety are not frequent visitors to that cafe. Anyway, after an hour of not trying to make eye contact with everyone there, we left again and reached KK about about 17.00. KK is located in a very scenic spot - even more scenic if you could see the mountain ;o) - right next to the sea, with some lovely islands off the coast. Sadly the rain means we are seeing more of the local shops and restaurants than the islands! The shopping experience is somewhat painful - how does a girl walk past the Marc Jacobs sunglasses without at least trying them on!!

Malaysia - Perhentian Islands

On Monday last (19 June), we left Thailand to head for Malaysia. Once again ( ahem, taking the road less travelled by backpackers), we availed of the services of an airline and flew to Kota Bahru on the northeastern side of peninsular Malaysia (see map in "Where we are now"). From here, we made our way by boat to the smaller of the Perhentian islands, where we basked in the sunshine and blue, blue waters. It's high season on this side of the peninsula as it's not really their rainy season (though it doesn't stop the rain coming down in buckets!).



(Pic left: Long Beach)












Anyway, we hopped off the little speedboat, straight into the water, backpacks in tow and set off on the beach to find suitable accomodation. Now you can imagine our standards following our stint at 5 star level! Sufficit to say "chalet" usually conjures up images of some sophistication, or at least decent loo facilities. But not really the case in this instance for us. A chalet, a bed and a mosquito net is what you get for a steep 65 ringits per night (high season! some people end up sleeping on the beach on night one!!). So we landed ourselves in Panorama Chalets right in the middle of Long Beach on Pulau Kecil. Over the coming days, we snorkelled, tanned and I (Sancha) decided to sign up for a diving course. Kind of scarey at first getting used to breathing only through your mouth, taking your mask off underwater and then having to clear it - you know - that kind of thing! Anyway, it was all worth it in the end cos I got to see lots of Nemos and some other cool aquatic life such as Hawksbill turtles, stingray, small sharks, zillions of very colourful fish, brightly coloured corals etc . (Pic: Sancha found Nemo!)

So while I was off scaring, testing but ultimately feeling very proud of myself, Michelle was keeping the local sun-umbrella-supplier in business. Roles will reverse when we get to New Zealand: Michelle will be skiing while I'll be nursing a hot toddy "apres ski". Those of you who know Sancha well will know of my terrible state of balance and history of accidents resulting from same ;o) so it's safe to assume Michelle will be whizzing down the slopes without me!

Oh yeah. The mozzies got really acquainted...sigh.....

Phuket - Thailand

Phuket

Pic (our rather well appointed hotel)

We are taking a little holiday within a holiday to indulge in some well needed rest and sunbathing. Our location is Kata beach on the south west corner of Phuket island. Kata town is 5 minutes walk away, Kata beach is 5 minutes walk away , everything else is within arms reach.

Our rather nice hotel is on the headland overlooking the beach and is equipped with everything (pools, jacuzzi, sauna, spa, gym - everything a true backpacker needs !).

The hotel boasts many services, one of which is the free loan of a DVD player for the length of your stay - just what we need to watch our knock-off DVDs - purchased in Vietnam for the bargain price of $1 per DVD with the added extras of Vietnamese voiceover (one lady covers all ages and genders) or Russian subtitles - all new releases too.

Something new that we haven't come across before are signs on the beaches indicating Tsunami evacuation routes (inland and to higher ground) and other signs further inland indicating Tsunami Evacuation Rescue points.

We intend to lounge here until Sunday 18th June and will surface again once we have completed our restoration process of facials, chocolate body wraps and massage.

Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon

L-R: Michelle Fitzgibbon, Ho Chi Minh, Sancha Mulcahy

Presidential Palace, Saigon, Vietnam 10.06.2006 (ap: Reuters)

Thursday 8 June

We flew Vietnam Airlines from Danang (30 km from Hoi An) to Saigon on a superb Boeing 777 400 !! We got a taxi from the airport into the backpacker area of the city (probably got ripped off but we did go to the official taxi rank ! anyway). The guesthouse was a small place but the room was fine - AC and TV ! The Guns'n'Roses bar next door shut at 11.30pm so we could actually get a decent nights sleep although going to bed any earlier was useless unless you actually liked falling asleep to "Sweet Child of Mine".

On Friday we did a scout of the area and planned our exit out of Vietnam - the aim to get a cheapish flight from HCMC to Phuket for a well deserved holiday within a holiday. ( I know the remarks we'll get for that but we have been doing some serious siteseeing and travelling - we need a rest !). After visiting numerous agencies and checking online airlines we sorted our flights ( now with Thai airlines) and organised a city tour for the following day. I also managed to find a very cool website called latestays.com - gives discounted short notice prices for very nice hotels in south east asia.

The city tour on Saturday 10 June took in some temples (one buddhist and one chinese) - the Giac Lam pagoda and Thien Hau temple, China town, Binh Tay market -the local wholesale market where they literally sell everything in bulk - eg. plastic bags, cardboard boxes, clothes of all kinds, electronics, food, clothes pegs, flowers, DIY stuff, motor engines and accessories. The afternoon trip brought us to the War Remnants museum, the Reunification Palace and the Notre Dame Cathedral (more french influences).

(See also updates under Siem Reap & What's Hot, What's Not)

Hoi An

Pic: The beach outside Hoi An - our view for three days, sigh....

Saturday 3 June
Our journey took us on a 5 hour bus trip south to Hoi An ; spectacular scenery on the way down the coast with stunning beaches, lagoons and mountains. Our bus made several stops on the way down at some of the beaches, the Marble Mountains and China Beach (as of the old US TV series). China Beach was actually used by the US army during the war as part military hospital and part respite area for soldiers.

On arriving in Hoi An, we were sheperded by our tour bus to a hotel called "An Phu" - the prices given were within our budget but the existence of a swimming pool sold it for us. It was probably the nicest place we stayed in since Bangkok. So what you gonna do when you get off a bus after 5 hrs, its 38 degrees outside and its still only 2.30pm ...... hit the loungers at the poolside.

That evening when the temperature fell to a "cool 28 degrees" we decided to venture out and explore the town. We weren't long on foot when we were accosted by a girl who practically dragged us to her sisters shop to check out the clothes. I must explain - Hoi An is famous for its tailoring shops - thats all thats in the town other than the gorgeous beaches. We picked out the styles and the materials and the clothes were ready for final fittings the next day at 4pm - there is a 24 hr turnaround time on most items ! Very quick , impressive work and most importantly - very cheap.

The next few days we divided our time between the pool and the beach. We rented bikes (mine had seriously steering and questionable breaks) but we got on fine and were flying around in no time like the other psychos on mopeds on the dirt roads around the town.

Hoi An is a beautiful spot - a combination of chinese, vietnamese, french and european influences. Even though we were hassled like crazy by sellers of all ages and all levels of english. One funny american (!) aptly named walking down the main street like "Running the Gauntlet".

We did make friends though with some of them on the beaches - Lina, Qin, Binh number 1 and Mango. As a result of the french influence there was plenty of cafes and bakeries selling baguettes, pain au chocolats and other french delights !

Hue

Wednesday 31 May

Today we left Hanoi and flew with Vietnam Airlines to Hue. I must say Vietnam Airlines is an impressive airline even if it was an airbus we were flying in (the author is not a fan of the airbus - much prefer a boeing) - cheap yet very professional with lots of leg room. As we had prebooked our accomodation in Hue - they had a car waiting for us at the airport - nice one ! The guesthouse we were staying at was central (as recommended by the LP) and was more than adequate. We organised a tour of the city for the following day, had dinner in a place called Mandarin cafe (lots of local cuisine) , polished off by a few Tiger and Saigon beers in "Cafe thru Wheels" later.

The following day we were up bright and early checking out the local royal tombs ! The tombs were build for the Emporers of the Nguyen dynasty who ruled from the early 1800's to about 1945 - interstingly enough none of them lived very long (all died before they were 50 ) - too much of a good life it seems ! (that was our history fix for the day !). We stopped along the way to see incense making and the famous conical hats of Vietnam. Sancha couldn't resist and purchased a little set of conical hats (the "easy to post" kind) .
After lunch we headed to the Forbidden Purple City (royal palace and temples) and the Citadel (scene of major offensive during the Vietnam war 1954 - 1975). The area itself was very impressive but as the temperature at 2.30pm hit 38 degrees - we started to wither slightly.

(Pic, dragons decorate the river for Hue's 2006 Cultural Festival)

We struggled on and went to see a pagoda down river - nice scenery - you can see the mountains which border Laos from Hue. We finished the evening in "Cafe thru Wheels" with Graham and Yvonne where Tu (the owner) played "Ireland music" all evening - first U2 then the Pogues !

Friday 2 June - had a well deserved sleep in and spent the afternoon sorting travel arrangements for our onward trip south. We treated ourselves to a haircut - the first in two months and badly needed !! The cut turned out fine in the end however it was an interesting experience. First she washed the hair, then she blow-dried it, then she took out the hair straightner and spent 25 minutes straightening every strand in my head (with the occasional smell of singed hair!) and finally she took out the scissors ! Trying to explain that we cut after washing and before drying was a futile excercise.

There is an obvious difference between Vietnam and other SE Asian countries (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia) in that we see very few monks here - confuscist religion here and there are no problems here with PDA ( Public displays of affection).