Hi again! Well, we've had an extremely busy week. We tried to organise an overnight stay in Bako National Park, but unfortunately it was fully booked until the 13th, so, with several days to kill between the end of our stay in Kuching and then, we decided to go to Miri. I am SO GLAD we did.
It didn't start out so well though. The sixteen hour bus ride was hellish, as for some reason they had the airconditioning turned up ridiculously high and I absolutely froze. Harry was fine as he had a nice jumper (which he did kindly offer to share, but I foolishly declined). All the other passengers had jumpers too. But seriously, who would have thought I'd need to pack a jumper for the aircon??
Moving on, the main attraction in Miri is Niah Caves National Park, and for good reason. It was possibly the most extraordinary place I've ever been. We went with a few other people from our hostel, and I think we were all equally impressed. It was a huge network of limestone caves on a cliff in the middle of a rainforest, where a particular type of bird makes its nests out of its own saliva. These nests are for some reason considered a Chinese delicacy. Who knows how people come up with these kinds of things? But anyway, the caves were enormous and dark, and rather scary (full of evil looking insects and bats) but incredibly beautiful. It's very difficult to describe, and, as Harry says, the photos didn't quite capture the majesty of the place, but I hope they'll give you some idea. Google it if you want more.
Other than the caves, we didn't really get up to very much in Miri as it rained a lot. We did have a lovely trip to the beach, at which a group of people converged on us and wanted to take photos with us for some reason. Perhaps they mistook us for the Twilight peeps? We also played lots of pool (badly), and Harry has been teaching me chess. I haven't beaten him yet. He's rather good.
Anyway, after another dreadful bus ride back to Kuching, we hopped straight off that bus and pretty much straight onto another bus to Bako. There is a park headquarters that can be reached only by boat, where we were staying, and from there there are lots of rainforest hikes to choose from. Unfortunately it was also infested with terrorist monkeys (see Harry's perspective). These monkeys made it impossible to swim at the beach as if you left your bag unattended for more than ten seconds they'd be all over it.
We did, however, enjoy two hikes through the forest, one to a fantastic rocky beach and one to the top of a cliff, and we were also fortunate enough to spot Proboscis monkeys both times! They are SO funny. Also sen were bearded pigs, leaf monkeys, a snake (shudder), squirrels, a monitor lizard and a mysterious red bird.
Anyway, been having a great time. We're in Thailand now, staying in a hostel in Patong Beach, Phuket, so expect another update soon enough!
Harry:
So,. we've been on bus/bus/boat for approximately 20 hours - starving, and exhausted. We finally arrive at Bako and it seems things are about to get better. The tide is low so the boatman drops us off at the beach and we wade to shore before crossing the beautiful beach to our accomodation. Naturally, we make straight for the cafeteria.
Food is somewhat unappealing, but not terribly expensive and... well... anything would do at this point.
Lauren and I collapse onto our seats and begin to eat with gusto, until... the Macaque of Death spots us from above. Dropping down from the roof, in one swift movement he's on our table and eating my egg! He makes off with it before I can even blink to share it with his evil monkey friends, and before you know it we're seen as an 'easy target' by every one of the foul creatures. After several skirmishes Lauren managed to finish her meal, and I - on the advice of some Germans at the next table - did not finish my meal. Another day hungry. :(
Fortunately not all monkeys are evil, and Lauren and I each spotted a 'harem' of the highly endangered Proboscis monkeys which restored my faith in monkey-kind through their adorable branch-jumping shennanigans. And their hilarious noses, of course.
