Paul and Pete backpacking in Asia

Gili Islands

paulpiorun — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 00:55:00 GMT

The Gili Islands was one of the highlights of my south east asia trip a few years ago and I knew I had to return. When I first set foot on the front strip I barely recognised the place, there was a hundred more shops, bars, restaurants and people! But within 5 minutes I heard the bells and squeeky horn which could only mean one thing. Watch out for the donkey taxi! Sure enough a donkey and carriage was still the main mode of transport and it was good to see. After a lot of searching me and Mike found a decent place to stay not too far from the action. A place called banana leaf bungalows that had an awesome bath room with a top of the range toilet that had a special button you press after a number 2. When pressed this little contraption popped out to deliver a super strong jet of water with 100% accuracy. It saved us loads of toilet paper and tickled so it was a win win situation! After a quick bite to eat mike wanted a nap so I was straight into the sea with my snorkel to see if I could spot any turtles like last time. BOOM! Within 30 seconds of snorkelling I've got one coming right at me, 10 seconds later I've got another one in sight which was even bigger. So I followed the second one swimming within inches of it as it came to the surface to breath. Then me and the hawksbill turtle set off swimming casually against the current. Amazing experience and a great welcome back to the island by one of the locals!

Later on me and mike went to the beach and found one of the boats from lombok docking and there he was, me little bro, ready to join the gang again! That night we hit up the irish bar that had a good atmosphere. Here we acted like true backpackers buying our beers from the shop opposite and sneaking back into the bar with them! We planned 5 nights on the Gili islands and me and our pete made sure they were 5 heavy nights! Mike alternated with a one night on it and a one off it policy. Disappointing, I know. We spent a lot of time with 3 Leeds girls who our pete met in vietnam. Boss girls, boss banter. Then we also bumped into terri, liana and ashley, the 3 jersey girls we met and travelled with for a while in Laos. It was great to see them again after a few months and we all had a story or 2 to share. We visited sun set bar a few times (at sun set believe it or not). Each time we were treated to an amazing golden sunset with the sun setting behind Bali in the distance. So relaxing. Some times the nightlife was a bit hit or miss in terms of atmosphere but most nights we'd end up in the irish bar. Each day we went snorkelling and saw tonnes of turtles, what a great way to cure a hang over. We also saw black and white banded sea snakes and I spotted a black and white moray eel. One day we took a boat tour to visit Gili Meno and Gili Air. When I say 'we' I mean me and mike as our pete couldnt make it out of bed (even though he'd paid for the tour the day before!). So before long it was time to say goodbye to Gili Trawangan once more and return to Bali in prepration for our flight to Australia.

So we took the fast (and more expensive) boat back to Bali for one main reason. The all you can eat buffet in sky garden and to secure one hours free beer to wash it down with! The standard of food and options available was amazing! It was difficult to say no so we ate up there on each of our last 3 nights. Then there was the free drinks between 9-10 so we'd go home for a quick wash then head back up later on. On our return to sky garden Mike took a little too much advantage of the free cocktails and for over an hour was slumped against the bar with his eyes closed. I managed to stumble him to alley cats bar but they wouldnt let him in so he had to go home. This was before midnight may I add! He never left our hotel room for the whole of the next day! Meanwhile me and our pete went surfing, well, we rented a surf board for a couple of hours and spend 15 minutes tops on it. Hungover with no energy paddling against a super strong current = failure! On our last night out we mixed it up and went to Bounty instead. Here I met a little ozzy stunner who was the spit of Mila Kunis so I stuck with her and her mates and ended up in a gay bar which was a bit different! Great night out though and awesome end to Bali. The next day we said our goodbyes's to Mike who was flying to Thailand to commence his divemasters scuba diving course. Meanwhile me and pete said our goodbye's to sky garden with one last visit for the food only. All you can eat chicken wings! Ironic that I done the exact same thing on my last night in Bali a few years ago before flying to Perth. And Perth is where we were headed this time too.

So, after a whirlwind trip that began in March and took us through the sites of India, the himalaya in Nepal then onto the jungle, waterfalls, stunning beaches, amazing food and paradise islands of south east asia we were ready to take on the next chapter of our trip ... Perth, Australia. I might be staying a little longer in Australia this time round ;)

Photos: Gili Islands

paulpiorun — Wed, 9 Oct 2013 18:12:00 GMT

Sunsets, beaches, turtles, bintang

Flores and Komodo

paulpiorun — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 14:22:00 GMT

Me and Mike caught our one way flight to Flores looking like zombies. 3 solid nights out in Bali kind of has that effect! We caught up on a bit of sleep on the plane before arriving at our destination, Labuan Bajo, in the west of Flores. We were keen on booking a 3day/ 2 night scuba diving liveabord to explore some of the best dive sites around Komodo National Park. But it turned out to be quite pricey with no last minute deals being offered. So we opted for day diving instead which meant 3 dives per day but coming back to land and staying in the accomodation provided by the dive company rather than staying on a boat. The accomodation was great and it was the first time we had air con for a long time!
Now I'd read stuff on the internet and heard stories of how strong the currents can be around Komodo so I kind of knew what to expect. Even before getting into the water the swirling currents were obvious from the surface but our Dive master was very experienced and provided good guidance.
We enjoyed 3 days of scuba diving and completed 9 dives all in all. Up to 30 metres visibility on some sites, loads of turtles, reef sharks and moray eels amongst a billion other things!
On our first day one of the sites we visited was called Batu Balong and this proved to be my favourite. From the surface it looked nothing more than a few rocks protruding from the sea. But underneath the place was buzzing with marine life! The coral there was perfect! Alive, colouful and plentiful! The current either side of the site was very strong and it would have been easy to have been swept away so we only explored the one side. We also dived at Manta Point which is teaming with HUUUGE Manta Rays in some months of the year. We spoke to people who had seen them on the days before and after we dived but unfortunately they were hiding from us during our dive! But we found a nurse shark and an octopus so that made up for it!
On our second day we had a drift dive at a site called Siaba Kecil. The current at the site was really strong so the idea is to jump in at one part of the site and let the current carry you along. I never enjoyed this one as I was always kicking one way and being dragged the opposite. At one point I nearly lost the group as they caught shelter from the current in a cave wall as I was being swept down current. I felt like I was being sucked down a river and it wasn't nice not being in control!
On our third day one of the sites we visited was called Castle Rock and it was top class. Again, very strong current around the sides of the rock so we stayed close to our dive master to make sure we werent swept away. This site was teaming with sharks. We spotted 6 in a row at one point! Also giant trevally's, tuna and a blue spotted stingray. Our final dive in Komodo was at Tatawa Besar, here we were treated to more amazing coral, several turtles and a rare eagleray.
The 9 dives around Komodo National Park puts my tally at 42 dives, I'm starting to feel like a pro! I have to say Komodo National Park is up there with some of the best dive sites I've visited around the world.
On our last night we hit up a Reggae Party with a couple of german girls that we met on our flight from Bali. The whole of Labuan Bajo seemed to be there and it was a decent night. Taking a bottle of the local spirit 'Arak' was definately a good idea although we all paid for it the next day!

Rather than being boring and booking a flight back to Bali we decided to go on a 4day/ 3 night cruise to the Gili Islands where we were going to meet back up with our pete.

There was around 13 of us on the boat and everyone seemed to be nursing killer hangovers from the reggae party the night before. Needless to say there was very little socialising initially! But as the day went on we found that that we had a good group of people (even though it was a bit of a sausage fest). On our first day we stopped off at a couple of really good snorkelling sites then visited Komodo Island, home to the legendary and deadly Komodo Dragon! We were guided around the island by a park ranger and spotted a number of giant komodo dragons. It was amazing to see them in their natural habitat! In the evening we anchored up and all done a bit of fishing off the side of the boat (with limited success). On our second day we visited Rinca Island which is also home to the Komodo Dragon. Again we were guided around the island by a park ranger and spotted a few more dragons. We followed one for a while until it reached a waterhole. Also got to see it poo which was interesting! Later on we visited and snorkelled around a couple of small deserted islands that were just breathtaking. Small white tips of sand emerging out of crystal blue water! The sand islands couldnt have been bigger than 30 metres in length, only thing missing was a palm tree! On our third day we visited an island with a waterfall, we were all delighted to finally have some fresh water as there was no showers on the boat! We spent the rest of the day sailing and were treated to a lovely colouful sky as the sun set behind Mount Rinjani on Lombok in the distance. As if that werent enough we had a pod of dolphins swimming at the front of our boat too! All this whilst sipping a can of bintang beer, it just couldnt get any better! That evening we were out in the open sea and the boat got VERY rocky, we were all trying to sleep on the top deck and were rocking and rolling from side to side. As the night went on it eased off and by the time we woke the next morning we were anchored up next to Lombok and the Gili Islands were just a stones throw away.

Gili Trawangan here I come ...

Photos: Flores and Komodo

paulpiorun — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 20:56:00 GMT

Scuba diving and dragons

Bali Babyyy

paulpiorun — Mon, 9 Sep 2013 15:36:00 GMT

It took us the best part of a day to arrive in Bali as we had a 4 hour stop over in Jakarta airport. I was here back in 2010 and knew there was only one area we were gonna stay. Kuta! We found a triple room in a place called Suka Beach Inn that was recomended to us by one of our friends we met in Laos. It was a nice big hotel that had a pool for some day time chilling. After checking in we went straight to Mcdonalds for a scoff before heading out on the town. Kuta is hectic at the best of times but with it being the high season we found the place was heaving. Especially the first bar we went into called Alleycats that does quadrouple vodka redbulls for 15,000 rupiah (£1). Quite reasonable I thought! We finished that evening in the legendary sky garden lounge that has 3 floors and about 7 different rooms to dance in. It got messy, lets just leave it at that.
We had big idea's to actually do some stuff (surfing, white water rafting,visiting the waterpark) whilst in Bali rather than just partying but it's easier said than done. Each day we found ourselves laying on the beach slowly sobering up from the night before with no energy to do anything other than eat!
So as it turned out we ended up just partying for 3 nights then chilling on the beach the next day. Memorable events include a free all you can drink in sky garden between 9 and 10. We took advantage of this on our second night! At on point Mike fancied himself as a pole dancer and climbed about 25 foot in the air on a pole in Bounty nightclub. His ascent was much better than his descent as he hit the floor hard and gained a nice bruise on his leg for his efforts.
One night we took a taxi to a party in south kuta where we met up with one of my old mates Liz who's been travelling in asia for a bit longer than us. The place was rammed and was playing some decent house music so it was right up our street! After a few hours we sloped off and headed back to Kuta to continue with the night. Bounty and sky garden again, same same.
On our last night we decided to take it easy (on booze) and headed to an all you can eat ... again at Sky garden. They really had some good cutom out of us! For 50, 000 rupiah we all filled our bellies to the brim on some delicious food then headed home and had a lads night in watching a movie ... The President with Will Farrell. Hilarious!
Early the next morning me and mike checked out and headed to the airport to catch a domestic flight to Labuan Bajo in Flores with one thing on our minds... Scuba diving! And Komodo Dragons! Ok so thats two. Our pete decided it wasnt for him so we left him in bali and arranged to meet again in a week or so in the Gili Islands to finish our south east asia trip. Next stop Komodo National Park!

Photos: Bali

paulpiorun — Mon, 9 Sep 2013 15:18:00 GMT

Bintang, beaches, sunsets, parties, SKY GARDEN!

Sumatra

paulpiorun — Sun, 1 Sep 2013 13:17:00 GMT

After meeting back up with our Pete and spending 2 nights in Kuala Lumpur we were ready to take on our last south east asia adventure ... Indonesia! Also joining us for a month was my mate Mike who I met in Oz a few years ago on my last backpacking trip. So Mike was supposed to meet us in Kuala Lumpur but had problems with his connecting flight in Delhi and had to spend 27 hours in transit! We finally all got together at the airport then set off to Medan which is in the north of the indonesian island Sumatra.

Medan wasn't the nicest of places so we only spent 1 day there and set up a trip to head to Bukit Lawang to do some jungle trekking! The 3 hour journey wasn't so bad and we got good vibes as soon as we arrived in Bukit Lawang. It was a small village laid alongside a river and all the locals were very friendly. We decided to go on a 2 day/ 1 night trek in the jungle hoping to see a few wild orangutans, we also paid a bit extra to go tubing back down the river at the end of our trip back into the village.

We had a couple of very friendly and knowledgable guides that led us into the jungle. Within the first hour we had already spotted a few different types of monkeys! Then we were made up when we came across our first couple of orangutans! One was a mother and the other was a young orangutan but still old enough to swing around freely through the tree's and return to his mum. We spotted around 8 wild orangutans on our first day with some really close encounters. At times I felt like I was in a David Attenbrough documentary! We found that there is only around 7000 orangutans left in the wild so we felt lucky to have seen as many as we did in their natural environment. We also came across this mean looking poisonus centipede that the guides told us to stay away from as a bite can do some serious damage! That evening the guides cooked us some delicious local food and we spent the evening sitting around a camp fire next to the river. We spent the night in an open tent shelter whch was fine but we slept on a paper thin matress so we never had the best of sleeps. At breakfast the next morning the guides gave me their personal accounts of the devastating flash flood that swept through the village in 2003 killing over 250 people and 80 orangutans. It was quite touching as both had lost close family members but they thought it was important to share the history of the village with travellers. After breakfast we set off walking up the river then back into the jungle. It was some tough trekking at times due to the incline, the humidity and lack of any sort of breeze. It would be fair to say we were soaked through with sweat! The 2 day trek ended at a lovely fresh water river where we all took a dip and cooled off before jumping on some tubes and floating back down to the village.The next day we set off to Lake Toba, the biggest volcanic lake in the world. We found out that the lake was created when there was a massive volcanic eruption, the biggest on earth in 25 million years, this covered all of asia in volcanic ash and created the massive crater that later became the lake. It was a LONG jouney of around 7 hours weaving up down and around small local roads. It was painful to look at the map as you would think it was only 2 hours away! We found some lakeside accomodation on Samosir island in the middle of the lake and spent the next couple of days chilling out and relaxing. On our first day we rented scooters and explored the island. It was great fun and we saw some lovely views, we also visited some hot springs but they werent up to much. Poor Mike hadnt seen sun for a few months and looked like a lobster at the end of the day and we didn't even think it had been that sunny! The next day we all done our dirty washing then relaxed in preparation for our nest destination, the town of Berastagi.

Berastagi has 2 active volcano's and our plan was to climb them both in our 2 days. But as we set off for the first one the darkest sky appeared with big black clouds then the heavens opened so we had to call it off. With 1 day left we decided to climb the highest volcano out of the 2, Gunnung Sinabung at 2400+m, this only erupted back in 2010 with lava flowing out and the local village had to be evacuated! We decided to climb the volcano on our own so never arranged a guide. That morning the sky remained grey and it was still spitting, we were in 2 minds to call it off but went ahead with it anyway. The climb never started perfect as Mike stood on a snake and was a bit shook up! But it scuttled off and we never came across anymore of them! It was a tough climb at times made worse by the slippy muddy terrain. However we reached the summit in just over 2 hours. Unfortunately for us the clouds remained and we could only just about see each other with absolutely no views of the surrounding area. We stayed at the summit for 30 minutes or so and found some hot air vents spewing out really hot moist air from inside the volcano, it was almost like a sauna! So we gave up on the mist clearing and began our descent down. But after about 20 minutes we looked up and the grey mist began to shift and we were treated to an amazing view of the village and lake below us. We knew straight away that we had to return to the summit so turned back on ourselves and headed back up. The views from the summit were breathtaking! We stood above the cloudline and had 360 degree views of all the landscape!! We could also see into the crater so could appreciate the power of the volcano and the eruption in 2010. After an hour or so we began our descent and we were all exhausted by the time we got the bottom. That evening we had a big scoff at a local street stall then later took a taxi to Medan airport to spend the night before our mornning flight to Jakarta and onwards to Bali. Now it's time to PARTY!

Photos: Sumatra

paulpiorun — Sun, 1 Sep 2013 12:55:00 GMT

Trekking, Orangutans, Volcanic lakes, Volcano

Boracay

paulpiorun — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 23:51:00 GMT

So the woman in reception told me the journey to the airport would take about 30-45 minutes and as we were only 12km away it would be fair to say I was relaxed about catching my 08.55 flight to Boracay. I jumped in a taxi outside my hostel, we drove 2 minutes then got stuck in traffic. HEAVY city traffic. Traffic that didnt move even when the traffic lights were on green. I began to realise that it would be quicker walking so after 30 minutes I jumped out of the taxi and began frantically running through Cebu city (not actually sure what direction the airport was in). Then I jumped in another taxi but the journey took twice as long as anticipated and I missed my flight. Not impressed! I arrived 40 minutes before my flight was due to take off but the Cebu Pacific check in closes 45 minutes before take off so they wouldn't let me on! Made worse by the fact that I thought check in closed 30 minutes before take off so when I arrived at the airport at 08.15 I was delighted thinking I had made it and even tipped the taxi driver for his efforts. So I had to pay double what I'd originally paid to get another flight leaving a couple of hours later.
But when I got to Boracay the stress and tribulations of that horrible morning quickly disappeared as I checked into the most amazing hostel called Friendz resort, had a welcome beer on arrival, then headed down to the soft powder sand, stunning blue water and palm tree's at south beach. The weather was scorching as well (not bad for the rainy season!). After a day on the beach I went back to the hostel and started getting to know people. So many of the guests were solo backpackers like me and it was exactly what I was looking for but hadn't found so far in the philippines.

I spent 4 nights on Boracay and they kind of merge in together as they were all as crazy as eachother. They'd start off about 6p.m with a group of us picking up our evening meal (a fully cooked chicken on the rotisserie), some fresh bread from the bakery along with A LOT of local rum for pre drinking at the hostel before we went out. At about £1.50 a litre it was good value! Then a big group of us from the hostel would head out to one of the beach bars that were quite lively with DJ's playing and busy dance floors! Pre drinking in the hostel was a great laugh, playing pool, people playing the guitar then on the last night the hostel arranged some live music with a local philippino singer who was a little cheesey but still quite good! I spent my days chilling on either south beach or puka beach although one day 5 of us chartered a boat out and took a tour around the island stopping off at a few points to snorkel.

Boracay was a great way to finish my trip in the philippines as it had a bit of everything. On my last day I got to the airport extra early to avoid any hiccups and caught my flight to Manilla with a lot of time to spare! Next stop is Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for 2 nights to meet back up with my bro then we begin our final trip in south east asia ... Indonesia!

Photos: Boracay

paulpiorun — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 23:44:00 GMT

Cebu

paulpiorun — Tue, 6 Aug 2013 16:56:00 GMT

I arrived at Mactan airport on Cebu with big plans to see big fish! After waiting in a massive queue for a taxi I made it to the south bus terminal then jumped on a bus and headed 4 hours south to a little town called Oslob. Over the past 12 months or so the local fisherman have been feeding whale sharks in the bay and it's turned into a massive tourist attraction so they're there every day all year round. I only heard about this place 2 weeks ago when I was in Borneo from a dutch couple who had done it but once I heard about it I knew I had to go! I arrived late at night and the place looked like a ghost town but I found a place to stay and got my head down in preparation for an early snorkelling session.
The next morning I was up by sunrise, after a quick bite to eat I was down in the bay where I could see a couple of massive fins protruding from the water! A little boat took me out to the snorkelling area, I was so excited that I went to jump in before looking and almost landed on this HUGE whale shark that was about 3 times the size of the boat! I spent the next 45 minutes in snorkelling heaven with a group of whale sharks all to myself. All of them were huge but there was one that took the piss, about 11 metres long! They're all so slow and graceful gliding through the water, not fazed by me at all. Most were just interested in swallowing the food the fishermen were dishing out. Once I got back to the shore I was told there had been up to 10 whale aharks in the area. And all this for £15! Amazing!
After finishing the snorkelling I jumped on a bus and headed back up to Cebu city then connected with a second bus that took me to the very north of the island. Here I took a boat to a little island called Malapascua. This island is one of the only places in the world were you can scuba dive and see thresher sharks pretty much on a daily basis. They normally live at a depth of around 200 metres but visit the island early each morning to get cleaned by the wrasse, a small fish that removes the dead skin.
I had to get out of bed at 4a.m and we set of the the dive site named Monad Shoal before sunrise. And sure enough within minutes of getting to a depth of around 25 metres were were greeted by 2 thresher sharks. They're like creatures of the deep with big black eyes and a giagntic tail that takes up most of it's body. It was another great diving experience to add to the list! I spent 2 days either side of my scuba dive visiting beaches and snorkelling. Some of the beaches in the north were picture perfect and I had them all to myself!
After 3 nights I left Malapascua for another island just above Cebu called Bantayan island. Mainly as I heard it had great beaches and snorkelling. The beaches were great but the snorkelling wasn't up to much. Although on my last day I spotted a couple of scorpion fish and a lion fish which was pretty cool.
So a week in and around Cebu had quickly passed me by, I enjoyed some great experiences but hadn't really met anyone to enjoy them with. Maybe it was due it being the rainy season in the philippines but I hadn't came across any other backpackers and the places I visited were a bit too quiet for me. Good job that the next island I'm off to is Boracay! So I headed back to Cebu city in preparation for an early morning flight to Boracay. What could possibly go wrong? To be continued ...

Photos: Cebu

paulpiorun — Mon, 5 Aug 2013 20:39:00 GMT

snorkelling, beaches, scuba diving, whale sharks, thresher sharks

Palawan

paulpiorun — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 01:09:00 GMT

With over 7000 islands to choose from I was always gonna have my work cut out in the Philippines! But I had a good idea of where I wanted to go so I planned my itinery before I left England. My only slight concern was that I was travelling to the Philippines in the rainy season (aka typhoon season) so my plans may get interupted! My journey started from Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia with a 2 a.m flight to Manilla where I spent 4 hours before connecting to my first island ... Palawan.

After getting off the plane in Puerto Princesa I jumped straight into a mini van and headed 6 hours north to El Nido. Now I'd heard great things about this place and I wasn't to be disapointed! I found a place to stay called 'The Alternative' right on the beach less than 5 metres to the waters edge. The bay was surrounded by steep jagged limestone cliffs covered in green tree's that dropped into the sea. I arrived in the evening and was exhausted but I still dragged myself out to watch some live music at the Art Cafe bar and enjoy some of the local beer, san miguel pilsen. I got talking to the barman who was very accomodating. He sorted my out a couple of free beers on the house and gave me some great info on El Nido.

On my first day I walked to Las Cabanas beach, recognised as one El Nido's best beaches. I arrived early and had the place to myself. A lovely stretch of beach outlined with palm tree's and a connecting sand bar to a smaller island. I went snorkelling and saw some great stuff, the usual nemo's, a cuttlefish, boxer shrimp, and a few other fish that I couldnt ID! Later on I noticed a turtle surfacing for air a couple of times too. The weather was great and the views of the islands in the distance were beautful.

The next couple of days I booked on 2 island hopping/ snorkelling trips around the barcuit archipelago. Now this place was paradise! Each trip consisted of 5-6 different locations to stop, swim, snorkel, etc with fish/ chicken BBQ lunch included at midday. The different stops were beautiful blue lagoons and secret white beaches. Many of them were so remote that you couldnt see them before you were actually on top of them them as they were concealed in between jagged limstone cliffs. Some only accessible by climbing though narrow gaps in the rock! The scenery was just amazing! I enjoyed some great snorkelling seeing octopus, a turtle, a sea snake, a snow flaked eel, a mantis shrimp and loads of other different stuff in the crystal clear water, the visibility was superb. Now I know the movie 'The Beach' was filmed on Ko Phi Phi in Thailand, but rumour has it that the original book that the movie was based on, written by Alex Garland, was inspired by El Nido - and I could see why. I spent 3 nights in El Nido before taking an overnight bus back to Puerto Princesa with one eye on my flight to Cebu on the 17th.

In Puerto Princesa I visited the subterraneon underground river which runs 8.2km underground through cave's before spilling out in the south china sea. It's recently been added to the new 7 wonders of nature. The cave itself was swarming with bats and full of different rock formations of all shapes and sizes, our boat only went 1.5kms inside as you need a special permit to go further.
After the river trip I headed back for a night in Puerto Princesa before my flight to Cebu the next day. What a start to the philippines!

Photos: Palawan

paulpiorun — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 22:49:00 GMT

Secret Lagoons, Hidden beaches, Beautiful islands

On-the-go- Borneo!

paulpiorun — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 19:34:00 GMT

My journey to Borneo was so easy thanks to air asia having great deals on flights in Malaysia! I took 2 flights, the first from Kota Bharu to the capital Kuala Lumpur where I then connected to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo. I was pretty tired on the plane and never really felt like talking to the chinese woman sat next to me who kept striking up conversations, but it paid off as she was getting a lift and dropped me at my hostel in the city for free! I checked in then headed out to the night market and bought some delicious local food (chicken wings!) for my tea.

Mount Kinabalu

The next morning I got up early and headed off to Kinabalu national park, about 1 and a half hours from Kota Kinabalu. Here, I had plans to climb Mount Kinabalu, south east asia's highest peak at 4095 metres! The itinery was a 2 day/ 1 night climb, not on the scale of our everest base camp trek but it still required a good level of fitness! I arrived and spent the night in a hostel at the bottom of the mountain in the park. The package I booked included several meals so I let loose on the buffet that evening and the same the next morning! The first day I registered and obtained my permit to climb, I then made mates with a couple of irish girls and we shared a guide together. Not that we needed one but a guide is compulsory for all climbers.
We set off around 8.30 a.m and reached our resting point and accomodation for the night 3 quarters the way up the mountain at 1.15pm, just before the heavens opened! The climb consisted mainly of steps and not a lot of actual walking, so it was like a constant climb. You certainly couldn't get lost it was either up or down! So I ate a buffet lunch and a buffet evening meal and was heading to the summit with a full belly! We got our heads down then we were up at 2a.m to finish the climb to the summit. After a little bite for breaky we left at 3a.m and we're climbing the mountain in pitch black with a sky full of stars and half a moon. The head torch certainly came in handy. We got to the summit at 5.30a.m and had to wait 30 minutes to watch the sunrise. It was freezing at the the top and my fingers were going numb with the cold. But it was all worth it as we were treated to a beautiful sunrise, loads of different colours mixing in with the morning cloud and slowly lighting up Mount Kinabalu and the national park. After a few photo's we set off for the descent. Constant step after step after step after step down. We finally got to the bottom just before midday and had a well deserved sit down. I grabbed a quick snack then jumped on the next bus to Sandakan, 5 hours north.

Kinabatangan River

I arrived in Sandakan absolutley exhausted, made worse by the fact my SD card had messed up on my camera so I couldnt retrieve any Mt Kinabalu photo's and the coach driver told me to get off saying we were in the centre when I was still a few Km's away from the hostel I'd booked! I grabbed a taxi that took me to Sea View hostel near the harbour. I was given a great reception by the local owner who sorted me some local food out straight away and I was upgraded to A/C free of charge! (Due to local malay girls in the same dorm but hey I wasn't complaining). In the morning I went down to the booking office of Crystal Quest who arrange all trips to the turtle islands national park. Here, you can watch turtles lay eggs on the beach every night and get to see hatchlings make it to the sea. This was right up my street but it was so popular that my best bet was to get a cancellation and there was none! So, plan B was a 2 day/ 1 night trip to the Kinabatangan river. Now this place was just teaming with wildlife! I booked a package that included a nights accomodation and 3 guided cruises on a small boat along the river. The first cruise was in the afternoon and straight away we spotted a group of probiscus monkey's up in the tree next to the riverbank. Next was probably the highlight of the trip, seeing the endangered Orangutan wild in it's natural habitat. He was alone up the tree taking things very slow! We got to see a few different bird species including the rhinoceros hornbill, they're huge with massive beaks! Every couple of minutes we were stopping and watching different species of monkeys swing from the tree's, it was like being in a nature program! We were slightly disapointed as we never got to see the pygmy elephants and I'd spoke to other travellers who had done the tour a few days before and had seen them. We had a buffet for our evening meal then went back out for our night cruise. This was the most enjoyable cruise as I wasn't expecting to see much but with our brilliant guide we seen loads. Our guide had a big flash torch and was scanning the river for any signs of life. He kept spotting birds half asleep on branches at the side of the river and we were able to get right up close them. We mainly found kingfishers but also spotted a few owls. I said to the guide it'd be great to spot a croc and within 2 minutes he'd found one, I was well impreesed! It was only a baby but we found a much bigger one a bit later on, between 2-3 metres long. They can be easy to spot as their eyes light up red when the torch is shined on them. We also found a reticulated python and a bull frog. The next morning we were up at 5.30a.m for our morning cruise, I was half asleep during this one and we mainly spotted loads of bird species, mainly hornbills but we also spotted a rare hadjutant and a water monitor lizard half way up a tree. We had some breaky after the cruise then I checked out and took a lift to Semporna where I planned to stay the night before heading to Mabul and Sipadan islands for snorkelling and scuba diving!

Sipadan/ Mabul Island

I found that there wasn't an awful lot to do in Semporna, so after visiting the dive office to confirm my reservation I let the rest of my day pan out by me either eating or using the wifi in the hostel. The next morning I was up early to the dive office. I booked with Uncle Chang's dive company as they were the only company that allowed 3 scuba dives on Sipadan island without booking a big package that included dives on other islands. I made the initial reservation before leaving England as the governmnent only allow 120 diving permits per day on Sipadan so places get booked up fast. It included a night's accomdation and food on Mabul island too. It was pretty pricey but Sipadan is well known as having the top dive sites in the world.
So the first day didn't start off as I imagined. I went to the islands by speed boat and it was grey, raining hard and very miserable. The rain finally went off about midday and I met a couple of swiss girls who I went snorkelling with. Despite the large amounts of plastic bottles and rubbish that had washed up on the beach the snorkelling was acually really good. It wasn't long before we found lovely coral, spotted a turtle, triggerfish, a barracuda and a pufferfish. This was just a little sign of the things to come for Sipadan. Later on we took a walk around the island which took less than an hour and we spotted some massive resident monitor lizards!
The next morning the excitement levels were off the scales. My first dive at Sipdan was at south point. Even before getting off the boat we spotted turtles heads popping out of the water, 2 turtles in paticular were attached and kind of in the middle of something! Also spotted a big Napolean wrasse. The dive started great, the water was so calm and clear with visibility over 20 metres. It wasn't long before we spotted schools of black tip reef sharks! Also seen a white tip reef shark amongst a million other fish. It was only after the dive I found out how deep we went ... 39.2 metres, my deepest dive yet! Dive site 2 was definately my favourite. Aptly named: Barracuda Point. This surely has to be the best dive site in the world. Almost every direction you looked you could see turtles swimming. At one point I counted 7 at the same time, I must have seen over 20 during the whole dive! We also seen massive schools of jack fish and chevron barracuda, literally thousands of barracuda, it was unreal! Then sharks following the barracuda! Also seen a moray eel and a pufferfish, there was loads of cool stuff everywhere I looked. Then at the end of the dive we came across a big school of humphead parrotfish. All this along with amazing beautiful living coral helped me decide that this dive site surpassed the sites I saw during my 11 dives on the great barrier reef in Oz a few years ago. The third dive site was hanging garden, again we saw loads of sharks ... silver/ white/ black tip reef sharks, more turtles and an abundance of other marine life. The dives were expensive but worth every penny. I could have stayed and done it all again the next day ... and the day after!

I took the afternoon boat back to Semporna from Mabul then the overnight bus all the way back to Kota Kinabalu. I arrived in Kota Kinabalu at 5.30 a.m and stayed at the same hostel I did when I first arrived in Borneo. The staff were great and let me check in staright away and get some sleep. The last 10 days had been hectic so I decided I was gonna have a chilled day and just relax.. On my last day in Borneo I took a trip to Tunku Abdul national park which is a set of islands 20 minutes by speedboat from Kota Kinabalu. I decided to spend the day on Sapi Island and had another great day snorkelling and spotting some cool stuff like the snow flaked eel, a pufferfish and loads of Nemo's!

11 days just flew by in Borneo, it was ON-THE-GO constantly, I realised that I never slept in the same bed twice during my stay here!

Now Borneo is gonna take some beating but I think my next stop could come close. The Philippines!!

Photos: Borneo

paulpiorun — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 19:10:00 GMT

ON-THE-GO!

Perhentian Paradise

paulpiorun — Fri, 5 Jul 2013 00:10:00 GMT

The journey from Ko Phangan to the Perhentian Islands on the east coast of Malaysia was a bit of a nightmare.It consisted of the following ... Taxi, ferry, bus, mini van (arrived in Hat Yai), realised I was not going to make it to the intended border crossing in time so had to take another mini van there and back to a different border in order to get my passport stamped as my visa was about to run out. So I had to stay in a dodgy hostel near the bus station in Hat Yai, then the following morning I took a mini van to Sungai Kolok at the Thai/ Malaysian border, then a bus to Kota Bharu where I found that the last speed boat to the Perhentian Islands leaves at 4p.m so I had to stay in Kota Bharu for the night.

The next morning I was up early and took a bus to Kuala Besut then finally jumped onto a speed boat to the Perhentian Islands! It took the best part of 2 days to get here but once I arrived I knew that it was well worth it! I decided to stay on Perhentian Kecil, the smaller of the 2 islands, this is regarded as the backpacker island. As our speed boat pulled up the pier I was blown away by how clear the crystal blue water was and Coral beach looked amazing lined with palm tree's. The place looked all that much better due to the glorious sun shine, something that I aint seen that much of in Thailand. I took a walk across the island and found some accomodation near Long Beach which is the more livelier part. Here I had my first encounter with one of the massive monitor lizards on the island! Then I was out straight away down to the beach with my snorkel and mask! I snorkelled under the jetty and saw loads of amazing fish, some in scholes of thousands! But I had better snorkelling a bit later on the other side of the island. Only a 15 minute walk as the island is quite small with no roads or transport. Here I got to see loads of clams, clown fish (nemo's) and black tip reef sharks. They were only small, less than a metre, so I felt safe! That evening I got talking to a couple of backpackers, Andy and Clare, when I was having my tea and they became my island buddies. That night we watched the fire show on the beach and had a good few drinks including our first taste of 'Monkey juice', the local rum!

The next morning we were a little bit worse for wear but what better way to cure it than going on a snorkelling trip. We spent the day visiting 5 ot 6 different locations around both islands. The first being Shark Point, here we caught sight of a few black tip reef sharks, this time they were the parents and at least 1.5 metres in length! We also went to Turtle Point and snorkelled with green turtles. One of them in particular was massive! He was on the bottom for ages so a few of us were duck diving down 5-6 metres to get a better view. The other locations had some beautiful coral and really clear water where we seen some triggerfish and LOADS of Nemo's, up to 10-15 in the same location! For 30RM
(about £6) it was great value. In the evening we went for a BBQ on the beach, we waited 2 hours for our food as they clearly underestimated how many people were going to turn up. I had an early night as I was exhausted and had arranged a scuba dive the next day.

The following morning I dived at 'Temple', regarded as one of the top dive sites on the islands. The visibility was not amazing, due to the full moon and tidal currents, but we still saw some amazing things ... 3 Bamboo sharks, triggerfish, blue spotted stingray, moray eel and thousands of twinstripe fusilier. I was supposed to be diving at a shipwreck in the afternoon but not enough people turned up so I rearranged it for the next day and just went snorkelling again instead. That evening was our last so we watched the fireshow on the beach and enjoyed a few drinks. We all had a laugh and I even bumped into a couple of scousers!

After checking out the next day I went to the dive company then out to 'Sugar wreck', a ship wreck also regarded as one of the top sites here. The visibility was terrible at first only 1-2 metres when we were 18 metres down. But as we came up it got better and I could see the wreck laying upside down, we got to see some puffer fish, box fish, juvenile barracuda and a scorpion fish which was laying 100% still and completely camouflaged itself in the same colours as the wreck. After the dive I had just enough time to grab a quick shower and some food before getting the speedboat back to the main land.

I've visited a few islands on my travels but this ranks up there with the best! It was just sun soaked paradise!! Shame I only had 4 days. But onwards I go, back to Kota Bharu for a night then I fly to Kuala Lumpur to connect to Borneo!

Photos: Perhentian Islands

paulpiorun — Thu, 4 Jul 2013 23:48:00 GMT

Paradise!

Thailand: The Islands!

paulpiorun — Mon, 1 Jul 2013 02:38:00 GMT

We only just about made it onto our bus from Pakse in the south of Laos to head to the Thai border. They had oversold the seats, typical transport in south east asia. I had to settle for a place on the coach floor in the middle of the isle and in between a load of bags as there was no room for them in the underneath compartment. After crossing the border into Thailand we had a VIP bus and got looked after with a little goody bag, great reclining seats with leg room and right in front of the tv which was showing I-Robot (in spanish!). We got to Bangkok on schedule then a quick tuk tuk ride took us to the airport with time to spare before our flight to Phuket. Now we knew that the Andaman Coast was in the rainy season and we got a taste of it on our 1 hour flight as we experienced some heavy turbulance. But the last 15 minutes of the flight the plane was all over the place with the wind! Just a little bit scary!! Only in the last 10 seconds of the flight did the wings seem to level out and stop dipping at a 45 degree angle! We stayed at Kool Backpackers bang right in the action in Patong. It was a great hostel and we made loads of new mates very quick. Only problem was the weather, it reminded me of England! Grey sky, blowy with light rain and it seemed to stay that way for both of our days. The rain stopped of an evening and we enjoyed some heavy nights out and got to meet several very friendly ladboys!

So our next stop was a short but rocky boat journey to Koh Phi Phi, famous for Maya Bay where "The Beach" was filmed. We spent 3 days on Phi Phi and the weather improved slightly but there were a lot of heavy sporadic downpours. But it didn't stop the party mood! We went on a snorkelling trip that also took us to Maya Bay and although you could still appreciate how beautiful it was the weather wasn't the best! I also took a walk up the view point where you can get a picture of how small the island is and how vulnerable it was to the tsunami in 2004 when thousands died.

Our next island was on the other side of Thailand ... Ko Tao. Again, the nightlife was great here but it was all about the scuba diving for me! We had a heavy one on our first night that ended with a pool party and the sun was up by the time we got home but after that I was in bed handy every night as I was always diving early in the morning. I completed my advanced course which means I can now dive to 30 metres and Pete completed his initial open water course. The weather improved as well, we hadn't saw the sun for far too long until we arrived here.

Then the grand finale of our Thailand trip was Ko Phangan and the full moon party. I had to leave our Pete in Ko Tao to finish his course but he followed the next day. Ko Phangan was packed with people ready to party. We checked into a hostel in Ban Tai called Mango's and it was a nice small well run hostel and easy to meet new people. Only problem was that our fan room was the same temperature as the sun! There were a couple of decent event's leading up to the full moon party, in particular the 'jungle experience'. Basically a massive party in the middle of the jungle. There was thousands of people there and we had a great night, we kept bumping into other backpackers that we had met on our first 3 islands. So the full moon party fell on the 23rd of june and you could feel the massive build up to it. We started the night with body paints whilst drinking buckets in our hostel then we all left and took a taxi to Haad Rin beach. The beach was absolutely packed and it brought back great memories of when I came here on the new years eve full moon party in 2009. Who ever created the idea of having a massive party on this beach under the full moon deserves a big pat on the back! The next day our Pete had to leave for Cambodia so after 3 months of being in eachothers company 24/7 he was off and we're both now travelling solo! On my last day I rented a scooter and drove up north to Haad Yao beach to visit our dutch mate Lisa who we met in Pai. It was a very chilled day on the sun loungers, perfect recovery after a full moon party!

Next stop for me ... Malaysia!

Photos: Thailand: The islands

paulpiorun — Mon, 1 Jul 2013 01:59:00 GMT

Phuket, Ko Phi Phi, Ko Tao, Ko Phangan