The Intrepid Adventurizing

Moving On

polly — Fri, 21 May 2010 20:09:00 GMT

This is my last week in Malaysia - I'm off to Phi Phi at the beginning of June, and from there hopefully into Vietnam and Laos.

It's been a really interesting time here in GT, I've definitely learned soooooo much about life, the universe and everything, and got a fairly good grip on Bahasa which should serve me well if I ever do make it to Indonesia.

Today I went to the Tropical Fruit Farm with my Indonesian friend Siti, which was amazing. Up in the 'heart of Penang', it was surrounded by amazing jungle, and they had about 200 types of fruit, although we didn't see them all! I felt very bad for the state of English fruit though, we just can't compare. Siti asked me what fruit we grown in England and I could only think of apples, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. Rubbish in comparison to huge mangoes, papayas, jackfuit, pineapples (which grown on the ground, not in a tree - who knew?!), as well as the nutmeg and cinnamon and all the other spices. Mmmm, and then we got to try all the fruits, quite a lot of which I'd never had. It was a fruit bonanza. Except for the durian, which was utterly the most disgusting thing I've eaten. Siti ate the entire 2kg durian, which is a huge thing that kind of looks like a spiky green coconut, and has this yellow, creamy fruit inside. Which tastes like raw garlic. Just unbelievably vile, and stinks so much that they don't allow it in hotels or shopping malls!

On the way back we picked up a hitch-hiker who was a fruitarian...I was tempted to ask if that meant he only eat food that had fallen from the tree, because picking it was murder, like in Notting Hill, but it just meant that he only ate fruit. It seemed like he was trying to convert me to the fruitarian way of life, but I value my meat and veg waaaay too much!

I'm off now - hopefully I'll be on an island in Thailand next time I update you :D

Life in George Town

polly — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 14:36:00 GMT

So I've been here for just over a month now, and definitely enjoying it.

George Town is fab. It's got a huge concentration of people living in it, and it's definitely very busy, but it feels safe and welcoming, and it smells amazing from all the incense that's burned!

I've been learning a lot about the history of George Town, because I've been researching to write the information boards for Suffolk House, which is a big kind of stately home that's been restored and opened to the public. It's interesting to see how George Town acquired such a mix of cultures, but it can't explain the harmony with which they live together, which is actually pretty awesome. There are really diverse populations of Muslim Indians living next to Chinese graveyards where people worship their ancestors, right across the street from a Thai Buddhist temple. It's a brilliant mix, and they all co-exist without violence or too many problems at all. I don't know how they've managed it but a lot of other countries could do with taking a look. Apart from anything else, it means that the food's great!

I'll put some pics up soon but I've done a few tourist things...went to see the Koon Kongsi Clanhouse (very ornate, very gold), the Tropical Spice Garden, Sun Yat Sen house where one of the instigators of the Chinese revolution lived, and a Muslim museum. I also went to Pangkor Island where David and Rebecca have another house which is usually used as a hotel, and that was breathtaking. It's so jungley and lush it makes you feel like you're in a commercial for Hawaiian Tropic or something!

Other than that I've just been hanging out with Tessa baking muffins, playing monopoly and bananagrams and going swimming and to the movies (and driving the automatic car which is basically like driving a dodgem). I've also been writing a lot of letters for the Penang Heritage Trust about swiftlet farming and trying to get fundraising, so at least my brain isn't turning to mush just yet :D And a friend from Mae Sot came down to visit on his way back to the States, so it was lovely to catch up with him.

Hope you're all well X

Hello Penang!

polly — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:11:00 GMT

So after a fairly epic journey down here (night bus to BKK, hours at Hualamphong Train Station, 24 hour train journey to Butterworth involving a border crossing and some rather loud snoring from the men next to me, ferry across to Penang), I finally arrived in Georgetown, to my new home for the next 3 monthsish (if all goes well).

The house is amazing, which is a total understatement (if you want to be jealous have a look at this: http://www.chinatiger.info/), and I have a lovely room with a big bed, air-con and ensuite, right in the middle of Little India which is a wicked place to be. I haven't been out exploring much yet, but I definitely will from tomorrow. There's loads of historical buildings, museums etc to see in Georgetown, and I'm going to do my best to see them all.

I'm generally free in the day time, apart from helping out with some UNESCO lobbying, and then in the evenings I get to hang out with Tessa, who's an awesome 12 year old, and we play Bananagrams (you have to check this out if you've never come across it!) and Monopoly, and veg out in front of the tv together. This afternoon we're going swimming, and we might sign up for a dance class together which'd be awesome fun. Scarily though I have to start picking her up from school which requires me to drive the automatic BMW...fingers crossed eh?!

Anyway fun times are being had, although I do miss my Mae Sot buddies. The fact that there's a Topshop here maybe makes up for that a little bit...!

Lots love X

Bye Mae Sot!

polly — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:43:00 GMT

Soooo Alice is not longer coming travelling with me, so it seems I’m on my own for a while until people maybe turn up in Indonesia this July. I’ve decided to head down to Penang in Malaysia where a friend of Olly’s (thank you a million times Olly!) is putting me up and giving me work to do. I’ll be doing some business stuff, some UNESCO stuff for his wife, and some au pairing of their 12 year old daughter. So I should be pretty busy, but it’ll be good to have lots of different things to do and to live somewhere new. I’m off tonight actually, hopping on the night bus to Bangkok with my friend Daniel and then getting the train to Hat Yai when I’ll get the train, bus or boat to Penang and he’ll go on to Singapore.

I’ve loved my time in Mae Sot and I’ll really miss the awesome friends I’ve made, but hopefully I’ll be back at some point to do another 3 month placement, or maybe something more permanent.

So since the last time I wrote (sorry, I don’t know why it takes so much effort to do this!) I’ve actually done quite a lot.

I went to Koh Samet for 6 days to ‘teach’ at an English camp, which was a weird but entertaining experience. Leaving the bus ticket buying up to a boy turned out to be a bit of an error, because while he was trying to get a tick to Ban Phe (which it turns out no bus from Mae Sot even goes to directly) he accidentally got one to Ban Suan (we think, although still aren’t entirely sure where we ended up). Anyway, we got on the right bus, we just got kicked off about 3 hours away from where we needed to be...at 3am, on the side of a highway. So we sat down and sulked for a bit, tried to find out where we were, and eventually I just ended up jumping up and down on the highway until a bus from Bangkok picked us up and took us to Rayong, from where we got a Songthaew to Ban Phe, literally arriving at 7.55am, to start teaching at 8. We were pretty tired from the trip but spent the day doing about an hour supervision of Thai kids doing activities and then sat on the beach watching them in the sea, so not too too strenuous! Basically we were just there to provide white faces to be photographed I think, I was in about a million photos and I’m sure I’m in Thai laptops all across Southern Thailand! The next day we just went to the Aquarium with them, and then hopped across to Koh Samet for a weekend of relaxation and fun.

Which it definitely was, we spent time on the beach, walked along the coast, danced in what we quickly realised must have been the only gay bar on the island, and stared at the amount of white guys with Thai ‘girlfriends’. It’s a weird phenomenon, and although I knew it was all over Thailand it just doesn’t happen in Mae Sot, so I’d never really seen the situation. I found it pretty disturbing to be honest, and it kind of made me not want to spend much more time on the beaches, although I’m sure they’re not all that bad, I think Koh Samet’s proximity to Bangkok makes it a bit of a hub.

Anyway, after a weekend of fun we headed back to Mae Sot, I worked back at BI for a while, and then heading back on the same bus to Koh Chang to see Mum for her birthday week. Obviously she missed her flight from Burma and was late arriving, but it was not a problem cos I had a tv, air con, a huuuuge bed and a Jacuzzi on my balcony! Ha, so different to the bucket showers, broken fans, mats on the floor and dust everywhere.

I had a great week with Mum (thanks Mum and Will!), lots of coconut shakes, a Thai massage, an elephant ride, swimming in pools and the sea (although a bit jelly fish infested, but only got stung twice!) and generally lying around reading books and eating. Fab. On Mum’s birthday we went on a boat trip around the smaller islands off Koh Chang...some of them looked well worth checking out, especially Koh Wai, so maybe I’ll do that in the future. Mum jumped off the top of the boat ‘screaming’ (she thought she did this out loud but it may have just been in her head) “I’m 50!” which was rather cool of her. Then we got the whole boat to sing Happy Birthday to her and ate a pile of whipped glutinous cream pretending to be a cake while doing lateral thinking games with one of the completely bonkers but hilarious Thai crew.

Since then I’ve been finishing off this month’s paper and finishing off all things Mae Sot...eating my favourite foods again (Mango sticky rice, Kow Soi, Pirate Pad Thai, Cashew Chicken), finally going to the one night club Y2K, which is unutterably horrific but has to be done at least once, biking to the border to buy a longyi and get some iced coffee, and generally saying goodbye to people I’m going to miss loads.

But hopefully I’ll be back at some point.

Anyway, next stop: Penang...

Photos: Thailand

polly — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:31:00 GMT

Burma

polly — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:50:00 GMT

I had to do my visa run last weekend so Tania and I popped over the border here in Mae Sot to Myawaddy, which turned out to be actually an awesome day.

We grabbed a kind of rickshaw, which was basically just a wooden cart with half a bike strapped to the back of it, and were driven around by a really well meaning, but totally incomprehensible Burmese guy.

We saw this big Crocodile Temple, which is basically a pagoda on the back of a huge concrete green crocodile, and lots of huge statues of Buddhas and golden temples. They seem to go into that more in Burma than in Thailand, or at least comparing Mae Sot to Myawaddy, there were a lot more pagodas and shrines.

We also went to the market, which was predictably full of live food like the markets in Mae Sot, and to the Buddhist School, which is a free school for young kids, and just about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. The children were jumping all over me and Tania, and shaking our hands and running away and grinning all the time. It was adorable.

It was interesting being in Burma though, I felt you could really tell the difference between there and across the border. It seemed much more rundown to me, although the people were super super friendly, we were given some food for free once when we were riding past a stall, and everyone gave us big smiles. So it definitely made me feel like I would want to do some travelling in Burma, as far as you can.

Not much else has gone on this week, apart from I’ve decided that I’m staying in Mae Sot until the end of March/at some point in April, because Alice has some fancypants work experience until then. It’s good though because part of me wanted to stay longer and she’s helped me make up my mind! And I’m going to move into the volunteer house here. There are no girls living at the office, only guys, and lots more have moved in this week, and I find them sleeping in the hallway and on the stairs and stuff, and none of them speak any English, so I’m going to move this weekend. My friend Chris lives there, and another girl is moving in soon, so it’ll be fun to house share for a month or so.

Hope you’re all good,

Polly xx

More Mae Sot

polly — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:49:00 GMT

Hello all,

Sorry it's been a while, having issues uploading photos from my camera and feeling that I can't write without visuals for some reason! Maybe because my memories are blurred from all the whiskey...?!

The holidays here were fab, we made mashed potatoes and chicken with garlic veggies for Xmas dinner, and my pie went down a storm. We just lounged about watching dvds and drinking wine, and the boys smoked cigars outside, which I found hilarious. Since then things have been getting better and better out here, as the long-term people come back from their holidays at home, and newbies arrive.

We had a cracking NYE at French Ben's, he procured a bit outdoor clay oven from somewhere, and we all brought ingredients for a pizza party. The pizza was delicious, and everyone indulged in lots of whiskey sodas, and some weird green gunky drunk that we got from the Thai party opposite. Lots of appalling karaoke was sung, and there were fireworks at midnight. Smashing stuff.

Since then we've had numerous other parties, including a wedding/crepe party at Ben's, where Carrie and Andy (who live near Dartmoor, lets hear it for the southwest!) were 'married' by a very drunk, very Irish, and very unPriestlike Daniel. It was a truly beautiful ceremony though, especially when Daniel announced them husband and wife by 'The Power of Greyskull...'

Sooo the holidays were good, but work's great now. I've written and edited a fair few stories on next year's elections, the trafficking of Burmese women into China, landmine victims in the refugee camps etc. It's all soooo interesting and I'm definitely learning a lot. Right now I'm doing a piece on migrant workers in Mae Sot and the effect of the economic crisis, and of the rumours we've heard that there'll be a mass expulsion of migrant workers on February 28th.

It's not always super-easy working in this environment with people that have such different attitudes to deadlines and to time in general, but I'm sure it's good for me to be in this position. You really have to be careful to know when you should give someone space so that you don’t offend them, or put a bit of pressure on to make sure it actually gets done. But a great woman from the Netherlands called Cyrille works in the Documentary ‘Office’ (by office I mean room with a table and power socket in it) next door so we make sure the other doesn’t go nuts.

And the reason I love Cyrille the most is that she asked me to housesit while she’s away for a week, so I get a double bed, cable tv, internet, hot shower and little kitchen area, and it’s really pretty. So I’m over the moon about that, and it’s great to appreciate little things like that so much. Also not having to eat the ‘food’ at the office for a week is good. Fat chunks in oil, fish paste, and the only vegetable being one described as a ‘noxious weed’ on Wikipedia do not a happy Polly make. It could be worse though, we’ve only had broiled fish innards once, so I can’t complain that much.

Love to you all xx

Merry Christmas everyone

polly — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:44:00 GMT

I'm just about to head back to Mae Sot after spending 4 days in Chiang Mai enjoying air conditioning, HBO, hot showers and lots of Western food. Yumski. And a good way to recover from a whiskey-filled weekend. It was Vrouyr's last few days volunteering so we had to send him off in style, which apparently meant lots of drinking and singing old Armenian folk-songs. You can't make this stuff up.

This week I was at a workshop on gender mainstreaming and migrant workers which was really interesting and I learned loads. A few of them were huuuuge communists but it was actually great to look at the situation here from a totally different perspective, even if I didn't agree with all of it.

And now I'm going back for Xmas, there'll be about 5 or 6 of us I think, and we're going to hang around at the house watching dvds and then go out for some Thai BBQ I think. So un-Christmassy, but we figured we'd never be able to make it like home so there was not point even attempting! I'm being charged with making Banoffee Pie though, so at least there'll be some form of cake...

Hope you all having a wonderfully snow-filled time, I can't believe I'm missing the first white Christmas in about a thousand years. I'm gutted. Still, the sunshine helps to ease the pain.

Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxx

Um Phang and Mae La Refugee Camp

polly — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:10:00 GMT

So it's been quite an action packed week...I went to Um Phang for the weekend with 4 other volunteers, which is a four hour Songtaew ride South from here (along what used to be called the Death Road apparently, but it's not that bad any more!) Songtaew literally translates as 'two benches' in Thai, and it's basically just a smallish truck with benches stapled to either side. They're very cheap, and have no capacity limit as far as I can tell. We had 28 on ours at one point, and I think they're built to fit about 8 Westerners comfortably, so it was pretty rammed!

Um Phang was cool, the place is really just a jumping off point for trekking in the jungle and rafting down the Maeklong, both of which we did. The river bit was awesome, we all just lay in the boat being paddled along by Thai guys for 5 hours, there was absolutely no effort involved at all! Then we trekked through the jungle to a campsite, sat around drinking Hong Thong whiskey, and got up early the next morning to see Tee Lor Soo Waterfall, which was gorgeous.

Then I was taken into Mae La Refugee Camp for a couple of days. It's about an hour from Mae Sot, and is the biggest camp on the border, with about 40,000 people. And it is huge, it's like it's own village, except that absolutely everything is made out of bamboo. It was Karen New Year on 16th December, so I went in to see the celebrations and take photos for Burma Issues. It was kinda awesome, they had lots of speeches and dances and a volleyball match and a concert, and everybody was dressed up in traditional Karen clothing. The people all seemed fairly happy, and very interested in me, as one of only about 5 white people in the whole camp. However I went into the camp with The Wah (from BI) at his Uncle’s, who’s quite an important guard in one of the Camp Zone’s, and is very friendly with the Zone Leader, which is kind of a big deal here, so I know that what I saw wasn’t representative of how all the refugees live. But I spoke to quite a few people in the camp, one of whom could speak good English, and he told me that the wealth disparity in the camp is large. There aren’t that many jobs, and getting one depends on knowing someone and being able to speak Karen, which is the language of most of the refugees. The rations given to each refugee aren’t really enough to live on, it’s just rice, fish paste and spices, so they need to earn money to buy veggies and meat, and more blankets etc. If they can work as a guard or had enough money to start a stall or cafe when they arrived then they can do okay, and maybe have some electricity in their home and eat well, but if not then they can earn a bit by litter picking and selling recyclable rubbish on, or by cutting bamboo and flattening it, but it’s never really enough to live comfortably.

It was great to stay in the camp though and really experience it, and hopefully I’ll go back and do a couple more stories. I visited the Karen Handicapped Welfare Association which works with refugees who were the victim of landmines in Burma, and they do an amazing job with hardly any resources, so I’d like to do an interview with them and look into getting them more support.

All in all it’s been a really interesting week, and I’ll put some photos up when I can. I’ve been the victim of my own technological sabotage AGAIN and my laptop says ‘unrecognized usb device’ when I plug my camera in so I don’t know what that’s about but I’ll try and sort it when I can.

Byeeeeeee xx

Mosquito Killer

polly — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:06:00 GMT

Hi all,

I've now moved into the room above the Burma Issues office, and spend my days drinking disgustingly sweet instant coffee and keeping my ear to the ground in an impressively journalistic manner.

I've been finishing off a story the last girl who was here left, which is about the Burmese migrants who live and work on the rubbish dump in Mae Sot. It's pretty heart-wrenching stuff...to sum it up one guy said that even moving his whole family onto an unsanitary rubbish dump where they have no clean water or health care is preferable to staying in Burma. Unbelievable stuff. And I'm working on a story about the high rates of domestic violence within the refugee camps, which is spiralling out of control because the people there have nothing to do and the population just keeps getting bigger, spreading what resources they do have ever finer.

So to take my mind of the depressing statistics I spend all day reading I've been going out lots, and came second in the Tuesday night Quiz, so I got a 'free' (minus the 100Baht I spent on entering) gin and tonic, and felt very English drinking it! That one was for you Mum! And this weekend I'm heading off to Um Phang (on what is apparently the most uncomfortable Songtheow journey it's possible to do in Thailand) with some of the BVPers, to see a big old waterfall and hopefully ride an elephant :)

I've also just been to the 7-11 to buy a big batch of mozzie repellent, because anyone who says there are no mosquitoes in the cold season is a big liar. They're bloody everywhere, but now I've got my repelling coils and the ready and my spray primed for action. Plus I'm getting pretty good at grabbing them out of the air with one hand. Although I did get bitten on my palm yesterday so maybe that's not the best course of action.

Big love x

Intrepidly in...Mae Sot

polly — Wed, 2 Dec 2009 18:29:00 GMT

So I've left Alice (weep) at possibly the worst hostel in the world, it was literally like being in the film Hostel, there were no windows and the entire block was made of concrete, and we were the only guests. However we'd had an amazing hostel-run previously so we figured we couldn't complain.

I bumbled off to the airport and flew up to Chiang Mai and then got to the coach station and sat around for a few hours waiting for the bus to Mae Sot, about which LP had some horrible things to say but was in fact fine, if slightly air condition. I was a bit worried about travelling to Mae Sot alone because I didn't know where I was gonna stay and wasn't meeting up with the Burma Volunteer Program until Monday so I thought I was in for a lonely weekend, but luckily an American girl called Hanna was on the same bus at the back, and at a rest stop we spoke to each other and it turned out that she was off to Mae Sot to work for the BVP too, and we were starting on the same day. So that was awesome, and we've pretty much been together ever since, staying at a guesthouse over the weekend and now in the BVP Volunteer guesthouse with 2 other newbies.

Mae Sot is a pretty cool town, there are tons of NGO workers so it'll slightly disproportionately white, but it's nice in that there's a fairly lively ex-pat scene and there's an Extreme Frisbee Team and a Quiz Night and stuff. That said, the town shuts down at 9.30pm on weeknights, so it's early nights all round.

We're just having orientation week this week so we've been at the BVP office a lot, at the Curriculum Project where they have tons of resources and books, and visiting places like the Political Prisoner's Museum. It's all really interesting, and weird stuff like having a twenty minute chat with a "badass Monk" just happens, so I'm learning a lot already! I'm being placed with The Burma Issues branch of The Peace Way Foundation (http://www.burmaissues.org/) so I'll be editing and writing articles for the newspaper mainly, and then I'm going to do a couple of evening classes a week too, because I do want to teach at least a little bit while I'm out here.

Anyhoo all in all it's going really really well and I'm having a fab time. More British people would help dilute the Americanity (I'm trying desperately to hang onto my accent!) - but you can't have everything!

Byeeeee x

(Oh and I met another 2 people from Bristol in Mae Sot, a backpacker and a BVPer who's based in Mae Sariang. So bizarre.)

The Intrepid Travels Begin

polly — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:18:00 GMT

It probably doesn’t seem that long since I left, but Alice and I have packed so much into the last 2 weeks that it seems like a lifetime ago to me already! I’m currently sitting in a lovely guesthouse in Mae Sot (North-West Thailand, just near Myawadi), it’s all carved wood and white sheets and free internet connection (yay), for about £2 a night. Sweet. I’m starting my volunteer orientation for the BVP on Monday, and have heard on the grapevine (via a girl I bumped into who has been around this area for a month already) that they need people in Mae Sariang, which is about 5 hours north, and apparently a pretty quiet place but very beautiful and in the mountains, so I might end up there. If anyone knows anything about that village then please let me know asap! I’m sharing my room with this American girl called Hanna that was on the same bus as me from Chiang Mai, and she’s doing the same thing for the BVP for three months and isn’t really sure what’s going on either so it’s awesome to be slightly lost with her and able to wander about Mae Sot together. We got here last evening and have met a few people who work for the BVP who we’re going to see tonight and get the lowdown from, and met a lovely British guy from Bristol (people from Bristol are all over the shop, I met another one last week and it’s lovely to be able to say ‘College Green’ to someone and they know what you’re talking about!)

Anyhoo, so that’s all good, the hardest ‘alone’ part of my trip so far actually went as well as it could. Before that Alice and I had the best two weeks, possibly of my life, in Borneo. I’d so recommend it to anyone, I’m actually a little worried about if I’m gonna be able to top it! The Malaysian people are lovely and friendly and everything’s in English so it’s easy to navigate (it’s not like that in Mae Sot!)

So first Al and I flew to KL, met up and went across to an island called Mabul off the coast of Borneo. We stayed at this awesome hostel called Uncle Chang’s. Uncle Chang is a legend, he looks like a Native American with this long ponytail, and he bought Al and I lunch and then arranged a special boat to take us back to mainland for free when we’d finished and stuff, just so nice. Anyway UC’s was great, the rooms were pretty poor but the food was tasty and there were tons of people hanging around diving. We basically just did our PADI’s and lay around in the sun (I lay around in the shade being scared of sunburn). The diving was great, it was all learning at first but there were still giant green turtles and lionfish and angel fish and squid and tons of stuff in the water where we were doing our basic stuff, so there was loads to look at. And we met some brilliant people, there was a hilarious Danish guy called Kristian who said ‘amayshing’ all the time and was really fun, and some groups of friends and an awesome couple (hello Andrew and Lisa!) who were just up for having a good time so we’d just chat in the evening. And then at the weekend the boat drivers and Dive Masters (all these Malaysian guys of about 18 – 23) would rock out in this band. They’d just pull a wall down from the side of the food area and there were about 4 guitars and a full-on drum kit and keyboard, and they’d just go crazy for about 4 hours, it was brilliant. The singer (who Alice and I called Elvis cos he always wore shades and blatantly wanted to be a rock star) was absolutely terrible but he genuinely love it so much that it was great. So we got Radiohead, Bruce Springsteen, The Beatles and loads more, all lovingly murdered by Elvis. Ace.

And then at the end of our stay we dove Sipadan, which was just an island paradise with stunning coral around it, and we saw a 3m grey reef shark, tons of smaller white tip reef shards, huge tuna, a massive shoal of barracuda, lots of giant green turtles...just so much stuff I couldn’t name it all. It was the perfect end to our trip.

And although we were really sad to go, we hopped over to KK to climb Mt Kinabalu. We shared a taxi with the worst people I’ve ever met, who we called ‘Oxfordy’, or ‘Boring and Boringer’. They were really into achieving and the girl was just the most irritating person I’ve ever met, she had a massively shrill voice and kept saying hugely boring and stupid things to ‘Lenny’ her friend. Gah. So, 6 hours later and up the mountain at Laban Ratan (the lodge you stay in before climbing the summit) we decided we had to ditch them, and at a similar time spied 2 guys who were making outrageous claims about people dying from not farting at high altitude. Naturally we decided to befriend them, and luckily they hated the 2 other girls in their group, so the next morning at 2am we all got up to climb the summit and met downstairs for breakfast.

And it was blowing an absolute gail/hurricane outside. So we couldn’t climb then (there was apparently waist high water pouring the trail), but we stayed up chatting for a couple of hours (turns out they’re from the South-west too), and then got up to reattempt the summit at 8am. So Al, I, Abe and James went with Nuisse (their guide) and struggled up the next 3K (it was horrific, it was terrible weather, we were freezing cold and soaking wet and we had to literally pull ourselves up some parts with ropes) but eventually we made it, and then we turned around and came straight back down. It was such a long way, and really hard in parts, but some of the views were awesome and we definitely felt like we’d achieved something at the end.

We spent to next 2 nights at Abe and James’s hostel in KK, some of which involved drinking Arak and something akin to Special Brew (which was gross) and went scuba diving and generally chilled out. However we also introduced them to the cardboard box game at about 3am one night, which ended in Abe having to take a trip to Bornean hospital (it’s all about the experience). You can see some vids of what those guys have been up to, with me an Al in a few, at

http://www.youtube.com/user/abecambridge#p/u/10/MoluH8rWXkU

Gallery: Borneo

polly — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:01:00 GMT

Mainly Mabul Island and Kota Kinabalu