Thrice bitten

I last left off in Miri, about to catch a flight to Gunung Mulu National Park. Miri also gave us a chance to enjoy a little variety in food and to stock up on groceries and snacks for Mulu. However, we couldn't take too much, since these small planes have strict baggage limits. We ended up almost having the plane to ourselves (only 2 other passengers).

The 15 minute flight was impressive. After seeing so much of Borneo's forests replaced by oil palms, it was amazing to see so much virgin jungle, with meandering rivers cutting through it and tiny settlements along their banks. It would have been possible to get there by boat (Balthazar wanted to give it a try), but you have to make a series of connections going up river, and you're lucky to make the journey in one very long, exciting day. $40 for a plane ticket didn't seem so bad.

The national park was like an expensive version of Bako. Unlike Bako, almost everything at Mulu requires a guide. While I can understand that for some things (scaling the summit of one of the peaks), it really seems like overkill for everything else.

We did manage our own night hike along the miles of boardwalks near the park headquarters, rather than pay for the official guided tour. We didn't happen to spot any nocturnal primates up in the trees, but Alice and James were really good at finding the tree frogs from the chirping sound. In this one, I noticed I'd also caught a tiny stick insect in the same photo.

We were also fascinated how the sounds of the jungle changed as the night went along, sort of like new instruments being added to a complex symphony. In fact, one of the creatures we weren't able to spot sounded almost like a violin tuning up. When a few of those got going, it was like the sound track for a really creepy horror movie. I'd wandered ahead a ways by myself when I first heard them, and I couldn't help thinking of the famous last words "Let's split up, we'll cover more ground that way." I quickly headed back to the others. We also had to really watch our footing, since I almost tripped over some sort of huge spider (see the gallery for more) as well as several frogs.

Our first full day at Mulu was packed with tours from sunrise to sunset (and then some), starting with an early morning canopy tour. This consists of a series of suspension bridges (something like 17?) carefully attached to the upper parts of the jungle trees. They claim it's the longest canopy walk in the world. Though we didn't see much for wildlife other than a brief view of a couple of hornbills flying overhead (the symbol of Sarawak, and getting to be quite rare), we really got to see how unique each of the types of trees was and the amazing variety of other plants that work their way up (or down) the trees.

The main event for the day, though, was what they call the Garden of Eden. See below for details. Getting there was most of the fun, especially once we got past the nice walkways used for the normal cave tours. Deer Cave claims a few world records, including largest cave entrance and biggest cave passage. The record for largest cave chamber is also held by Mulu, but since it takes up to 15 hours to get there and back, you need special permission to visit that one.

Of more immediate importance, Deer Cave is home to a colony of about 3 million bats! The smell alone is pretty overwhelming, though oddly like Windex (bat guano is high in ammonia). The consistency is like fluffy, brown, warm snow. It gets a little harder to convince yourself it's OK when you're sliding knee and elbow deep through the stuff and notice it's wriggling with critters feasting on it.

Though not super difficult, the trek through the cave made for some tricky footing. We had to wade through a river in many spots, so most of us wore sandals. However, the footing was so slippery that you really needed good hiking boots to be able to hold on (as long as you didn't mind ruining them). Fortunately, they had ropes to grab in the trickiest spots, so you wouldn't slide off the edge when you inevitably slipped. We also had fun in one spot, when Alice spotted the largest spider any of us had ever seen (some sort of colorful cave spider - sorry, no pics), just as she was about to use it as a hand hold! Over the strong objections of our guide, we found a new route down - there's no way we were putting our hands right next to that thing.

Here's the view we had at the end of the cave - The Garden of Eden. This is a collapsed section of cave, providing a little section of jungle in the middle of the mountains, completely cut off from the rest of Borneo. Apparently one of the Planet Earth episodes is mostly dedicated to this and the surrounding caves (I'll have to watch it when I get home). We spent a couple of hours exploring the Garden of Eden area, and hiking to a beautiful waterfall where we had our lunch.

Those of you who've already skimmed through the gallery probably know what's coming next, but I need to give a little background first. It had become kind of a recurring joke since Belaga that each time we started a hike, Alice would ask the guide if there were any leeches. Their response was invariably "You'd be very lucky to find one." By this, I assumed they meant that we were unlikely to find any leeches, but if we did find one, it was nothing to worry about.

On this hike, Alice asked at the start whether there were any leeches, and the guide assured us that there were none in the cave. When we got to the Garden of Eden, she asked again, and got the more typical response about finding one. What I didn't realize is that this statement could also be interpreted another way.

Back to the waterfall. Here we are, enjoying our lunches, blissfully ignorant of the horror that awaits. After lunch, we had a half hour or so to swim before starting back. I was about the last to get my swimsuit on and get in, but I figured there wasn't much risk in rapidly moving water. It turns out leeches can swim really well.

As we got out of the water and started to get ready for the hike back, I think Alice was the first to let out a shriek as she started flicking at the first leech to get it to come off. I kidded her, reminding her "you promised to let me take a photo before you pulled it off."

Famous last words. Others started finding leeches, and pretty soon I found one on the back of my right ankle, right where my sandals had started to cause a blister. Taking a photo never occurred to me, as I frantically started flicking at the big, juicy bloodsucker. It gave up and dropped off pretty easily, probably having almost drunk its fill. Of course, the blood continued to flow, which I knew was going to be a problem under my sandal strap (that's the special thing about leeches - you can't feel them, and their anticoagulant is so good that it keeps bleeding for hours).

Then I found another, right on the sole of my foot. This skinny guy had just gotten started, and he wouldn't let go. I kept flicking at him, but he just seemed to dig in. "This is what I'm supposed to do, right?! It's not working!" Finally, after a combination of pulling and flicking, he finally let go of my foot.

Everyone in our group managed to get at least 2 or 3 bites, most of them bleeding quite profusely. After checking myself pretty thoroughly, it looked like I got by with just 2. Boy was I ready to get back on the trail.

By this point, we were not quite so bothered by the leeches. When a big, stripey one jumped on Alice from one of the trees, the guide pointed out it was a tiger leech. She was kinda proud to be the only one bitten by this leech species.

On the way back, I started to regret not changing back into my regular shorts after swimming (guys probably know what I mean), but I stuck it out and the discomfort eased.

After making it back to the entrance of Deer Cave, we explored the adjacent Lang Cave. This one was much smaller, but filled with beautiful limestone cave formations, including one called helictites (tiny sideways stalactite fingers, created by the wind). More photos of Lang Cave can be seen here and here.

We finished the day waiting outside the entrance to Deer Cave for a couple hours, watching for the ~3 million bats to emerge around sunset for their evening meal. Apparently they were convinced it was going to rain, so the main group of them never flew out. They had several remote control video cameras with spotlights setup inside the cave, so we could at least watch the activities of the bats on the cave ceiling up close. We also got to see a rare bat hawk (bird that only eats bats) picking off some of the bats emerging from nearby caves.

Finally, it was back to the park lodge for a much needed shower to get rid of the layers of bat guano. As I got rid of my swimsuit, I discovered the reason they'd gotten a bit uncomfortable on the hike back. I'd missed a leech! My swimsuit lining was completely drenched in blood, which was still flowing. I finally found the bite, all the way up the inside of my leg. Any further, and it would have been truly tragic. No sign of the leech, but I wouldn't have been posting a photo of this one anyway!

I'm now in the city of Kota Kinabalu, over on the other side of Borneo. I'm well over a week behind on updates, but I'll try to get you caught up on what's happened since Mulu before before I head inland again.

Never get out of the boat

Not just a great quote from Apocalypse Now, it was the law in Sarawak until WWII. You had to stay in your boat when trading with the various tribes up the Rejang river. This was mostly to protect the various tribal peoples of Sarawak, but it also helped the Brooke dynasty maintain control of their kingdom for over 100 years.

I just left Sarawak for the bizarre little Sultanate of Brunei, but I have some catching up to do now that I have cheap internet again.

When I last posted, I was stuck for an extra day in Kuching since my laundry took longer than everyone else's. To help kill time, Richard, the hostel owner's brother, offered to give Ash and I a ride out to their luxury hotel in the countryside for the day. Supposedly the Prince of Monaco is planning to rent out the whole place in a couple weeks:

All 3 remaining stragglers (Ash, Kevin, and I) managed to catch the boat to Sibu early the next morning. It was a pretty rough ride for the first couple hours as we went parallel to the coastline. Ash spent most of the trip looking green with his head over the side (though never quite fed the fishes). He really regretted saying "Why take a bus when you can take a boat?"

We parted ways in Sibu, with Ash and Kevin catching a bus further up the coast to do some caving, while I caught the first boat up the river to Kapit. Other travelers had advised me to spend as little time in possible in Sibu (known for cheap prostitutes, loud karaoke, and high probability of getting robbed).

The ride up the river by express boat was kinda fun. They're basically a big bus (more like an MD-80 fuselage) with a keel that goes really fast. Since the Rejang is like one big lumber mill, they're constantly having to dodge logs floating downstream (every boat has a log spotter). During the ride, I got to know James and Alice from England, who I'd met briefly back at Bako National Park (you tend to keep running into the same people in Borneo).

Having arrived a day earlier, Balthazar met us at the dock in Kapit and showed us to the only reasonable hotel in town (all the ones mentioned in the guidebooks were 2-3x more than advertised). Though there's not a whole lot worth sticking around for, it's hard to avoid spending a night or two here. The only boat up the river leaves first thing in the morning, but you have to have a special permit to go beyond Kapit. The office that gives that permit is a few miles outside town, and it only opens a few minutes before the boat leaves. So, we saw Kapit really thoroughly.

The only historical site is Fort Sylvia, the last Brooke outpost up the river:

In the evenings, Kapit's entertainment options included drinking with old Chinese guys, karaoke, or snooker. Snooker seemed like the safe bet, but it turns out it's way harder than pool (and I'm not very good at that). We modified the rules to offer bonuses for squashing the various insects scurrying around the table. Balthazar kicked my ass in what may be the longest game of snooker in history.

With permit in hand, we braved the chaos to get a seat on the boat, ignoring other travelers coming off saying "no more seats!". French Canadians are particularly stubborn.

Finally, after 3 days travel up the river, we reached the village of Belaga. It's the last settlement on the Rejang, so even though it's really tiny, you can still buy pretty much anything you need here. It's also the best spot to organize trips out to see the longhouses. Unfortunately, one guy seems to control the tourism industry up here. The guidebooks all say not to use him, but there wasn't a lot of choice, and at least we knew what to expect. Balthazar and I opted for a day trip, while James and Alice went for a full 3-day, 2-night experience.

Longboats provide the only means of transport beyond Belaga. Though I got a few photos of them from shore, I didn't get any photos while riding one since my hands were fully occupied holding on for dear life. This German traveler has some decent photos of the experience here. They're kind of like a canoe hand made from planks attached to an outboard motor with way too much horsepower. Their only stable positions seem to be listing 30 degrees to the left or right (almost to the water line, or plenty close to it on the turbulent, eddy-filled Rejang). By shifting my weight slightly, I could get it upright, but only for a second or two. Worse yet, water gushed between the planks on the left side anytime we leaned that way. Nobody else seemed bothered by it, even though we had like 2 life jackets between the 6 of us. Oh yeah, and we're dodging logs coming down river constantly with the help of the log spotter at the bow. On one trip, that was a deaf/mute woman with a ~10 word invented sign vocabulary. She did well, but there wasn't much chance of "man overboard!" having any effect!

The longhouse experience ended up being a lot of fun. Parts of it felt a little artificial, as it seemed like some things were being done just for show. However, it was clear the locals got as much, if not more entertainment value out of us, so I didn't feel too bad. The old ladies just about died laughing when they got us to try betel nut, a complicated, nasty-tasting experience that involves eating a betel palm nut, a leaf covered in snail paste, and something else I didn't quite catch. It supposedly has a minor stimulant effect somewhat less than a cup of coffee, but the main result is red foaming at the mouth. I have a couple photos of the other's expressions on first biting into it here.

The longhouses themselves were surprisingly spacious. The ones we visited housed 500-600 people, with completely separate condo-like houses within for each 10-12 person family. They seemed to have all the basics of modern life, with a tv/stereo in the living room, separate dining room, and detached kitchen out back (to avoid burning the whole place down). Each family (and any guests) slept together in one big room upstairs. During the day, all the families come out onto the huge veranda they share, and the kids just run amok while the adults do their crafts, repair their nets, etc.

The highlight of the day was Iban, a charistmatic elder at the 2nd longhouse. He just loved having his picture taken and would stop whatever he was doing to see how our photos of him turned out. We brought a small bottle of rice wine to share with him, which was his favorite. He said it'd been a month since anyone had visited. We shared a lunch of mouse deer (tasted kinda like rabbit) followed by Iban demonstrating his various skills (blowdarts, stringed instrument, nose flute, drinking, and copping a feel of young women when nobody's looking).

We finished the day with a trip up a side river to a gorgeous waterfall. No pictures, I'm afraid, as we had to jump out of the long boat into the river to wade upstream. We also had to trek through the jungle barefoot for a km or so (not quite as scary as it sounds). We had a great swim at the falls, not spoiled by watching the whole thing through a camera lens or stopping to pose for photos. If you're really curious, I think it may be this one (hopefully I don't get in trouble for linking to it - buy his photos!), though we'd had a lot more rain, so imagine it being much more beautiful!

After a last night in Belaga, getting to know a few more insane locals (what is it about end-of-the-line places?), we were eager to move on. Instead of going back down the river, the four of us caught a ride on a 4x4 over rough mountain logging roads back to the highway along the coast, then a bus onto Miri, the last city before you get to Brunei. From there we caught a flight inland to Mulu National Park, Sarawak's most famous sight. That update will have to wait for tomorrow, though photos from that are included in the new batch, starting on page 27.

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Heading up river

Only 2 out of 5 of us ended up making it up in time for the boat today. Backpackers are such slackers. My laundry finally showed up today, so the 3 of us stragglers are going to try again tomorrow. If all goes according to plan, I'll catch an ocean-going express boat here in Kuching to take me up the coast to Sibu. If the boat is on time, I should just be able to catch the last boat of the day up the Rejang River to the town of Kapit.

In Kapit, I'll hopefully meet up with Bathazar and possibly other travelers to head further up the river to visit some Iban or Orang Ulu longhouses. I'll explain what that means soon!

For now, here are a few videos I've tried uploading to youtube. I haven't done this before, so don't be expecting anything really exciting like the cat that plays the piano.

First up is a short video showing part of the boat ride to Bako. It doesn't catch the roughest part of the ride, but it gives you an idea. This was taken by Kevin from Calgary:



Next up are a couple of orang utan videos. The first shows the mother and child coming down from the trees to start feasting on fresh fruit:



The second one is my favorite. It shows the female meticulously husking a coconut only to have it snatched away by the male before she even gets to taste it. Her expression afterwards is priceless. This same scene was repeated on another feeding platform nearby (still photos showed a bit of that, with the male spilling the coconut milk down her back in his haste). You can't help but feel a little sorry for her, but it's kinda fun to watch anyway:



Finally, I've added some photos poached from fellow travelers (Kevin from Calgary and Tom from Belgium) which do better justice to Bako National Park. I'll try to stick these in chronologically eventually, but for now they start on page 22.

Election Day

Today was election day here in Malaysia. That seemed to be a surprisingly big deal here, even though the same party that's ruled the country for the last 50+ years since independence is expected to get over 90% of the vote. Kuching is one of only 2 or 3 spots in Malaysia where the opposition has a chance (only the Chinese vote for the main opposition party, and this is a mostly Chinese city).

While exploring across the river from downtown today, I walked right through two polling places (no pictures, as that was kinda forbidden). Even before the polls closed, there was a frenzy of the locals tearing down all the campaign signs and banners, setting fire to them, or even wrapping their little brothers in them:



The highlight of the trip so far was my 3 days/2 nights in Bako National Park. The guidebooks say this is one of the best parks in Asia, and it's easy to see why. The variety of wildlife we saw was truly overwhelming: 5 types of primates (3 of them extremely endangered, the others way too friendly for their own good), pit vipers, bearded pigs, huge monitor lizards, pit vipers, bizarre insects, tarantulas, scorpions, bats, pit vipers, civet cats, fish that hop on land, and various crabs. Did I mention there were a lot of snakes? Add to this carnivorous plants, every type of jungle foliage imaginable, stunning waterfalls, beautiful beaches, and views of the South China Sea.

I'll try to let the Bako pictures speak for themselves:
http://traveler.sub-atomic.com/~karl/gallery/main.php/v/SEAsia/?g2_page=8

If you hadn't stumbled across the photos already, you may want to start from the beginning: http://traveler.sub-atomic.com/~karl/gallery/main.php/v/SEAsia

There's so much else I'd like to say about Bako it's hard to know where to start. The hikes were somewhat challenging. Even though the distances weren't vast, hiking through jungle is like nothing I'm used to. A big part of it is the heat/humidity. Your body really can't cool itself off when it's almost 100 degrees and muggy, so you can't keep as fast a pace as you'd like. It was also fairly rugged, with cool stair steps formed by tree roots. You also have to really watch your footing while keeping a close eye out for snakes and such (all of which can be deadly here - someone was evacuated with a viper bite the day before we arrived, though made a full recovery). Finally, you should really protect yourself when trekking through the jungle, which means proper boots (not sandals), heavy socks, long pants, and technically even long-sleeved shirt (didn't bring one). Taken together, that's a recipe for heat exhaustion. Still, it's worth every bit of effort to experience this, and the challenges somehow make it all the more beautiful when you get there.

The boat trip to the park was also a real E-Ticket ride. Though it was clear our captain could read the waves better than any surfer to find the safest spot to plunge through, our tiny river boat was way too small for big ocean waves. It was also reassuring to know that a boat of elderly tourists had capsized the day before. We got completely drenched several times, and narrowly avoided capsizing a couple of times by all leaning into the wave. After reaching the beach, we thought it was over, but then the big breakers really started crashing over us, and we quickly grabbed our soaked belongings to wade to shore.

Probably the biggest highlight was the night walk. One of the local guides took a group of us for a ~90 min walk through the jungle. We learned to spot a variety of wildlife we'd never have seen otherwise. We started with watching tropical fireflies in the mangroves. I'm not sure whether they're similar to those found in parts of the US, but they seemed to flash really strangely. Coolest was learning how to spot nocturnal mammals high in the jungle canopy. All you do is shine your light around and look for the bright yellow eye reflections that only nocturnal animals produce. We were able to follow several civet cats this way, bounding through the upper branches.

Bats were another frequent visitor, especially at the cafe during dinner. They would swoop low over our heads almost constantly, catching mosquitoes and such. I don't know whether I was just drained of all adrenaline at this point, but somehow this didn't bother me one bit. It was nice to know the bats were doing their best to protect us from malaria and the other fun stuff those little blood-sucking insects spread around here.

Our final surprise was having our room raided by a small army of macaque monkeys. Apparently we hadn't quite locked our window one morning, and they had no trouble opening it the rest of the way and removing the screen. They meticulously went through every bag, opening zippers, tasting everything, finding every scrap of food and most of the medicine, leaving behind muddy footprints on our beds and pillows. Instead of being upset, we were all quite amused and only wished we had video of their escapades.

The return to Kuching was much less eventful, but we were extremely glad to get back to our favorite hostel with hot showers, cold A/C, and comfortable beds. After a day back "home" in Kuching, it looks like we may go our separate ways for a while, but we're planning where we can meet up again as we make our way around Borneo.

I guess by now you're probably curious who this "we" is. The best thing about staying in a hostel like Singgahsana Lodge is you meet some really cool fellow travelers. It also helps that places like Borneo seem to attract mostly the really serious, experienced travelers. I kinda feel like the least competent traveler here, but like in college, I do my best to catch up and learn from those around me.

While talking with other travelers here, trying to figure out what to do next, several of us decided to head to the leading attraction around here, Bako National Park. Initially it was Kevin from Calgary, Tom from Belgium (not the French part) and I. Ash from Brighton, England soon joined up with us, since we'd rented a 4-person room. The 4 of us explored Bako, along with another group of 4 folks from England (you'll see a couple of them in the photos, though they had to leave a day early). On the way back from Bako, we met Balthazar from Montreal (coolest name of anyone I've met here). We convinced him to upgrade to our hostel.

After seeing the main sights around Kuching, it's time for us to move on. Though we've enjoyed hanging out and getting to know each other a little too well these last several days, our interests and (at least in my case) abilities differ somewhat, our paths must inevitably diverge for a while. Our plan was to leave before dawn to head up the coast by boat to a city called Sibu. From there, Kevin, Tom, and Ash are planning to catch a bus further around the coast to do some caving, then head inland to do several days of challenging trekking in Gunung Mulu National Park. Balthazar and I want to visit at least at least one of the tribal longhouses, and the best way to do that is to head up the Rejang River from Sibu for a few days.

Unfortunately, little things sometimes get in the way of perfect plans. We all desperately needed to do laundry after returning from Bako (seeing as how I only have like 3 shirts and 2 pairs of shorts anyway, and anything I wore in Bako is mostly jungle, soaked in the South China Sea). I turned mine in to be laundered just after the others yesterday (a shower seemed far more urgent), but somehow mine didn't come back today. With luck, it'll be done early tomorrow afternoon, but that'll be way too late to catch the boat.

I'm still optimistic I'll be able to catch up with Balthazar in Sibu or somewhere up the Rejang River, but if not, we'll all most likely meet up in Kota Kinabalu, the main city in the other half of Malaysian Borneo.

I even picked up a Malaysian SIM card today, since ~$2.50 seems like a really cheap way to coordinate things with fellow travelers. Should anyone else need to get in touch or feel like texting (I'm not sure anyone here uses their phones to talk), I'll be reachable at +60128957989 until I get to Indonesia in a couple weeks. Remember, I'm 16 hours ahead!

Take care, and enjoy the first 196 pictures.

When Orang Utans Attack

Slight exaggeration, but it worked for Fox.

I had a blast today getting up close to Orang Utans at a recovery center near Kuching, Malaysia. The spelling may seem wrong, but since we use the Malay word (meaning "forest people" or "man of the forest"), it's only fair to spell it how they do. I'll let the gallery speak for itself there (captions coming shortly, along with the link, though you can probably figure it out).

Tomorrow I'm heading to Bako National Park for a few days, before returning here to Kuching. It's supposed to be an amazing spot to see many of the rare animals of Borneo. Several of us staying at the hostel here went in together to rent a 4-bed room at the Forest Hostel inside the national park for a couple nights. We'll explore the trails during the day and see what we can see:

http://www.sarawakforestry.com/htm/snp-np-bako.asp

Other than a few hours seeing the Orang Utans, today was spent trying to get ready for the next few days (buying food, getting a proper tropical rain poncho, etc.).

I'm currently staying at by far the best hostel I've ever seen:

http://www.singgahsana.com/

It really is like a 4-star hostel, if there was such a thing. At $10, the price is about double that of others in town, but it's still a bargain. It probably helps I was in a bit of a dive before, but this place has the nicest beds (better mattress than I have at home), hottest shower (the other place only had cold), powerful A/C, tasty free breakfast, and super friendly staff. They don't even screw you on the extras like most places (free wifi, cheapest beverages around, etc., which is how most of the "cheap" hostels make their money). It's easy to believe that other travelers have gotten stalled here for over 2 months.

I'm planning to make several more day and overnight trips to nearby sights so I can enjoy this place more before moving on to the other half of Malaysian Borneo or Brunei (haven't really decided yet).

I did promise to explain the whole Cat City thing, but it's late, and we're supposed to catch the bus to the boat to Bako in about 7 hours. I should have a lot more animal photos to add when I get back, though I'm really hoping very few of them are poisonous snakes (word from other travelers suggests I should have a nice collection of those too).

Greetings from Cat City, Borneo

I flew into Borneo yesterday, after a few relaxing days in Kuala Lumpur. After a couple of days of feeling really jetlagged and doing my own thing, I got to know some of my fellow travelers. Quite an entertaining bunch of people, but seriously cheap travelers. I guess that's to be expected when you're staying in a $3/night hostel.

Eating out was a bit of an adventure, at least once I was ready to be sociable. Starving, we'd set off in search of food. We'd find restaurants with delicious-sounding SE Asian seafood and such for ~$2, which would get the usual response of "I bet we can find the same for $1 if we keep looking!" Afraid to admit that I'm not a poor backpacker, and would happily buy them all dinner if we could just stop and eat now, I'd bite my tongue and continue the quest for bargain food. And sure enough, after an hour or so, we'd eventually find something amazingly good for about a buck. Those of you who've gone wandering for food with me probably think this is some sort of karmic justice.

Despite meeting some cool people, it was clearly time to move on. KL's not a terribly exciting city, and once I was over my jet lag, it was clear I wasn't going to get much sleep in the dorms. I had probably the worst bed in the whole place - upper bunk right next to the door, in an 8-bed room, with two other 8-bed dorms that were only accessible through our room. The place was packed, so 23 people had to squeeze past my rickety bunk every night. Fortunately, they were mostly drunk, so pretty sound sleepers.

The last night, some guy started screaming about water leaking on his bed at 5am, turned on all the lights, and started rearranging the room to avoid it. I took that as an opportunity to check out early and head to the airport.

Flying into Borneo was an amazing experience. I don't mean it was white knuckle landing, but the view as we approached was unique. The island of Borneo's mostly surrounded by huge mangrove swamps, with meandering streams cutting through them to the sea. Occasional rocky outcroppings poke up through the jungle. All the settlements are up the rivers a ways, past the mangroves.

I'm in the city of Kuching, Sarawak, which is in the Malaysian part of Borneo. Even though I'm still in Malaysia, it's like a completely different country in many ways. I think because of how they joined with Malaysia in the 1960s (don't worry, no history lesson yet), they still have their own passport control. Residents of the mainland have to get permission to come here, but for me it just means one more stamp in my passport! Mostly it's the people here that make it different. Even police officers will stop to say "Hello" in English.

My hour's about up here, so I'll have to leave the explanation for why Kuching is called Cat City for next time. Hopefully there will be pictures, though I may have to eat at KFC to upload them (free wifi there). With the amazing quality of the local food here, that will be a sacrifice.