From Bali to Borneo
MALAYSIA | Monday, 30 March 2009 | Views [3155]
Greetings from Semporna,Malaysian Borneo.
I'll start by going back to Bali. I met up
with Lauren again in the Denpasar (Bali) airport and we shared a taxi
to Kuta with a British guy named Nick. We
spent about an hour wandering around looking for a cheap place to stay
before we finally found a beautiful hotel with a swimming pool and
veranda overlooking a garden for less than $8 a night. We spent a few
days in Kuta decompressing and ran into Alisa, whom we'd met in Laos.
We also met up with Caroline and Ramona (the Swedish girls) again. I
surfed a bit and Caroline, Ramona, and Lauren gave it a try. The surf
wasn't that great though and I was not disappointed to head to the Gili
Islands. We were joined by Alisa.
Many other travelers have recommended the Gilis, three small islands
off the west coast of Lombok, and one went so far as to say it was the
most beautiful beach he'd ever seen. They weren't exaggerating. We
stayed on Gili Trawangan, the backpacker island, and it was fantastic.
So much so that we spent our longest stint of the trip on this island
(a whopping 6 full nights). The view from the beach is breathtaking
with crystal blue waters meeting the deeper blue hue of the open ocean
with the green mountains of Lombok clearly visible in the background.
There are no dogs or motorized vehicles on the island. Only cats,
pony-drawn carriages, and bicycles. My only complaint was that the
coral was all dead, shattered into smithereens by dynamite fishing.
The damage was so extensive that it's hard not to contemplate the
future while snorkeling, diving, or swimming here. So I only went on
one dive while there. The rest of the time was spent exploring the
island, hiking to the fantastic sunset spot, and relaxing on the
beach. We ran into Nick again and we all spent St. Paddy's day at the
only Irish bar on the island and it was far from disappointing. But it
was time to move on and we headed to Nusa Lembongan next, splitting
from Alisa as she headed to Kimodo Island.
Nusa Lembongan is
another beautiful island and is off the east of Bali. We were only
there for two nights, and spent it exploring, relaxing and diving. We
went on two dives that were far better than the one in the Gilis (see
the pics). The current on the second dive exceeded 4 knots and we were
flying past fish and coral, dodging the occasional outcrop. It was
fun. We were running short on our time in Bali though so we left for
Ubud.
Ubud is a quaint little mountain town in the heart of
Bali and is known for its eclectic community of artists. The town has
the feel of old-school hippie mixed with new-age art, not unlike Austin
or Breckenridge. The air was a bit cooler, which we welcomed with
relief. We visited the Sacred Monkey Forest where I was harassed by
long-tailed macaques overly interested in my flowy green dress. I had
to play tug of war with several of the cheeky primates to keep myself
fully dressed. The Sacred Monkey Forest is as the name suggests and
Hindus flock to the temples here to worship. We also checked out the
local crafts market, which was amazing and cheap. If I ever buy a
house, I'm coming back here to furnish it! Next we took a downhill
bike tour of the area and learned about Balinese culture, sampled
cervid poo (yes, poo of the fecal sort) coffee, and had a delicious
traditional Balinese feast. Our guide, Dharma, was amazing and we
learned, among other things, that it is the men's job to lovingly wrap
the placenta of his child and bury it under a rock in a designated
garden of the compound. A compound is a traditional way of living
which consists of several households of male relatives living within
the same walls. It was really interesting and we learned a lot.
After our bike tour, we were dropped off back in Kuta where we said our
final goodbyes to the Swedish girls on their last night, ran into Nick
again (who had left the Gilis for Jakarta days ago and had already
returned and was now booked on the same flight as us to KL), met up
with Alisa one last time, stocked up on supplies, and took advantage of
the cheap internet before heading to Borneo via Kuala Lumpur two days
later.
Okay, even many travelers don't understand where or
what Borneo is, so let me explain. Borneo itself is an island composed
of parts of Indonesia and Malaysia and the entire (tiny) country of
Brunei. So it's one island, 3 countries. It is east of peninsular
Malaysia and Thailand and north of Java, Indonesia. It's also where
some of the best diving in the world is found. By far the most popular
and fabled dive sight in Borneo is Sipidan Island, which is where we
were heading. Sipidan is now protected and you can no longer stay on
the island and you need a permit to enter the waters nearby, so there
is a wait list for diving here. However, we had booked 3 dives ahead
of time and there are a few dive companies who have cheap accommodation
on the nearby island of Mabul, with daily excursions to Sipidan and
other dive sites around Mabul. We stayed at a place called Uncle
Chang's. Unfortunately, I had caught a cold in Nusa Lembongan and was
still recovering so I spent two days on Mabul before attempting to
dive. Lauren suffered the same predicament, but she was in an earlier
stage of her cold, so she decided to stay in Semporna (the dirty,
boring town that is the gateway to Sipidan and Mabul, but has better
supplies) one more night.
Uncle Chang's is a small
conglomeration of wooden buildings on stilts with a main deck serving
as a common/dining area. I spent the first two days relaxing in the
deck chairs, on the nearby beach, and snorkeling. It was relaxing and
just what I needed, but there really is nothing to do there unless you
want to snorkel or dive. It's not a great beach. Anyway, the much
anticipated day of the Sipidan dives finally arrived and I was very
excited, having looked forward to these dives since early in our trip.
I grabbed my camera and, although the indicator light on the battery
charger had gone out, I was hopeful that my battery had charged. The
first dive was a disaster. Despite my taking two full days to recover
on Mabul and having taken decongestants, I could not clear my ears and
experienced vertigo underwater while simultaneously discovering that my
camera battery had not charged and my camera was now dead. At the end
of the dive, I could no longer hear out of my left ear, except for a
faint ringing that was to become louder over the next few days. We
disembarked on Sipidan island for some tea and I discovered that I had
no balance and was walking like a drunken sailor, completely
disoriented. So, in the end I decided to snorkel for the remaining two
dives. It was absolutely amazing still and I really wish I had
pictures to show you! We saw several sharks, so many turtles they
became boring after a while, barracuda, bat fish, huge Napoleon Wrasse,
tons of unicorn fish, and lots of other goodies.
The next
day, Lauren was able to fill in for me on my 3 nonrefundable dives in
Mabul, since she hadn't yet booked any dives, so that was a bit of a
relief. I'm still a little bummed that I only got to do 1 of 6 dives.
It didn't help that the resident cat decided to mark my sarong and
small backpack as its territory, or that my camera had died with its
lens fully extended and open and will remain that way until I can track
down a new charger, or that my big backpack was the only one to get
soaked on the way back to Semporna, or even that the clinic wasn't open
when we arrived and we'd have to stay another day, but the snorkelling alone was worth it.
And I guess I have another excuse to come back. So I went to the
doctor today and he wasn't much help. I made a better diagnosis
online. It appears I have inner ear barotrauma. Basically, I've
damaged my ear because of the pressure caused by diving with a cold.
The doctor simply said "It looks red and there may be some sand in
there. Don't dive until the ringing stops. Here are some drops."
Well. At least it only cost me 25 Malaysian Ringitt to find that out
(less than $7). So I'll go on with my journey and wait for the ringing
to stop and for my balance to return. Tomorrow we head to Sepilok
where we'll go on a jungle trek and visit an Orangutan sanctuary! I'm
excited about that, particularly since it doesn't involve any pressure
changes :-)
I've finally managed to put up my Burma photos, so here is the link for those:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2704676&id=8369089&l=136a6c9451
And the (3) links for Indonesia are:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2703830&id=8369089&l=abd17b7b6e
AND
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2704777&id=8369089&l=2605e7dfc3
AND
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2704804&id=8369089&l=9c39645abe
I hope you are all doing well.
Sierra
