Sultans and gingers

We didn't just come to Borneo to dive. Everyone knows what this island is famous for, our ginger brothers the orangutans! There's a rehabilitation centre a few hours away from KK but aparently it's so crowded that we didn't bother going. So we had to go elsewhere and that was the state of Sarawak. KK lies in the state of Sabah, in the north east of Borneo, Sarawak in the middle north. Between these states lies, like a wedge, the sultanate of Brunei. Or Brunei Darussalam, the "pagoda of peace". We checked flights and buses and came to the conclusion it would make most sense to take a boat to Brunei and then a bus to Kuching, the capital of Sarawak. Because Brunei is cut in two parts and the two Malaysian states are autonomous, it would take us hours just to get through the checkpoints if we would do all by bus. We also booked tickets home. This was a sad moment, pressing the "book" button on our flight to Europe. Now it was clear, we were going home,

The boat to Brunei leaves at the harbour in KK. It's actually two boats there's a stop at Pulau Labuan, a tax free island where casinos are getting in the dirty cash which is not liked to be seen on the muslim mainland... The boats were fast and cold! We haven't been this cold since the Andes and we couldn't see the point of cooling down a boat to 15 or so degrees when everyone comes in wet from sweating. It's just stupid. In Brunei we arrived outside Muara, a town on the north coast about an hour away from the capital Bandar Seri Begawan where we were heading. At the harbour we hoped to get a bus heading to Muara but there weren't any. There was a bus stop but no buses. I asked a police man about it and he started to explain that there should be one coming only to be interrupted by a taxi driver shouting something in Malay. From then on the police man said that there are no buses and we should go with this man and his taxi. He didn't even have a taxi, it was just a normal car. Our first encounter with a Brunei official wasn't the best.

We decided to ignore the drivers and to wait for the bus. At the bus stop. After two hours Anni went to ask someone and they didn't know but one man working at a travel agency offered to drive us to Muara town after his shift was over. For free! He refused money and hurried us in the right bus heading to Bandar Seri Begawan or BSB. He also warned us that Brunei is boring. Nothing to do, no alcohol, no parties, just quiet. The opposite of Thailand. The ride was nice, it remembered us a bit of Singapore, everything green and clean, big houses and good cars. The capital was not that big and we walked to a guesthouse mentioned in the Lonely Planet. The price was high but then Brunei isn't cheap. The room was ok but the toilets were pretty bad, thinking about what we paid for it. Then we went for a stroll and dinner in a cafe and we liked it! The cars stopped when we wanted to cross the road and the food was good quality. We also got good photos of the big mosque at sunset, the ultimate Brunei shot.

The next day we just walked around and tried for the first time to follow lonely planets walking tour. We took a shortcut after 10 minutes to the big mosque. Sadly it wasn't visiting hour and non muslims are asked to stay away. At the river we took a water taxi to have a closer look at the floating village, the world's biggest. It's huge. We just saw a small part of it and it's fascinating how everything is on stilts, houses, walkways, towers, mosques and big schools. Here live the people who built Brunei. All the immigrant workers who can't afford land in the tiny sultanate and don't earn enough to even dream about doing so. Just like in Switzerland. We really wanted to get in to one of the two big mosques but one was closed and the other far away and I was getting sick so we called it a day and booked tickets out of the pagoda of peace.

Early the next morning we caught a bus to Miri in Malaysia. There we had to get another one all the way to Kuching. We left Miri at 12:30 and arrived in Kuching around 02:00 in the morning. We thought the "terminal sentral Kuching" would be quite central but it wasn't. It's about half an hour drive away from the city. There were only taxis waiting and they didn't bargain. Not an inch. And we had no power at this time with no other options and they knew it. So we paid and left. After not much sleep it was time to change the hostel, it was expensive and not worth it. So we walked through half of the city with our backpacks. That makes you realize the extreme heat and humidity in Borneo. It's hot. And I was getting more sick every day. The hostel we chose looked awful from outside but was very new and cosy inside. Nice staff and a good room for a decent price. Just the other guests were a surprise. Everyone was sick. It felt like a hospital, coughing and sneezing everywhere, people running to the toilet and back, it was just great. We stayed over two weeks with me being sick first and then Anni. We couldn't go anywhere so we read a lot and used the internet. We also had the first interesting converstions since Cambodia with a young lad working in the hostel about Malaysia, corruption and how dangerous it is to say these thing out loud in public. Scary.

Finally we got to see orangutans. Not in the wild but almost, in a rehabilitation centre where they nurse injured or orphaned monkeys back to health. They live in the forest surrounding the park and are free to leave whenever they please. They are also free to come to the feedings so sometimes there's many of them, sometimes none. Our bad luck was that we went there on a sunday. It was packed with locals. Asians behave, in our eyes, pretty bad in public places, screaming and pushing like a group of teens in a Justin Bieber concert (or at least that's how I imagine a Justin Bieber concert). First the rangers made an announcement on how to behave when the orangutans are coming. Be quiet. Then they led the crowd to a feeding place where they thought the monkeys would be most likely to show up. They didn't. Either they weren't hungry or it was just too loud. There are signs everyweher saying you should be quiet, in English and Malay, but no one cared. On the way back to the exit there was suddenly noise in the trees and branches were cracking. Orangutans! Just above our heads they climbed along the ropes that are fixed for them, like highways, through the trees. It was fantastic to see but hard to enjoy with all the others yelling and boxing their way to the best spots.

On one of our last days we set off to catch a bus to the Bako national park, a peninsula close to Kuching. It was the main day of celebrations for the state of Sarawak. A good day we thought, so everyone would be in the city watching the parades. It wasn't, public transport didn't work that day. No buses, not even taxis! So we joined the crowd, got a Malaysian flag from someone and headed slowly back to the hostel because there were no parades going on at the moment. We saw enough already, the last few days was training for the army for the big day and there were police cars and tanks driving past our hostel and fighter planes flying low over the city. That was it. The last days. We packed how we always packed and shared a cab to the airport. The last time through Kuala Lumpur and on to Bangkok where we spent our last night in Asia. The next morning we flew with Norwegian's Dreamliner to Stockholm (for 200€)! It was a nice finish, or at least a flight i looked forward to.

 

Borneo - go before it's too late

For a change we managed to get direct Air Asia flights to Kota Kinabalu, or KK, as most call it. Probably our first and last time when, flying international with Air Asia, the journey did not include a ridiculously long stop in Kuala Lumpur. We were really starting to dislike that airport by now.

The flight itself was a disappointment. Not because of Air Asia, which we think is pretty good, but the view from the plane. Sure, we read long ago how you can't really find real rainforest in Borneo anymore unless you go to Brunei, where logging and other ways of exploiting the forest are not needed thanks to their wealth from oil, which obviously is another story itself. But we never imagined it could be that bad. First, we saw some logged areas. Okay, we can take that. We knew it happens. But the closer to the ground we flew, the more the green patches in between the cut down areas started to make sense. Soon we saw that most of it was neat, clean rows of palm tree farms. Whole Borneo seemed to be covered in oil palms. And not much else. A bit shocked, we got out of the plane and after waiting for a nonexistent bus for about an hour we decided to take a taxi to KK city center. KK at least seemed like a nice enough place.

Arriving from Indonesia, which had mostly basic accommodation, basic food of noodles and rice with different sweet sauces and not much internet to speak of, we were happy to be in a big enough town, where we had internet, some western food and paper found in toilets without having to beg for it. Our cab arrived to Jalan Gaya, and we checked in to the first guesthouse we found, Stay-Inn Lodge. For 45 ringgit we got a basic but clean double room with shared bathroom. And most important: fast internet, at least in Malaysian standards. We were running low on money, and that meant one thing: it was time to start looking for flights home.

A day before the flight Anni had heard that a friend of hers was coming randomly to KK as well! Quite a coincidence! So the next day we met up with Jenna and Sakari, who were there for a holiday for a few weeks. To surprise Anni they had brought a few bags of Finnish salty liquorice, salmiakki! A much appreciated gift! One bag was eaten in hours, the other she decided to keep for later.

So we explored a little bit of KK with Jenna and Sakari. We visited the night market for food and fruit juices and on Sunday we fought our way through the crowd of the Sunday market in Jalan Gaya. Jenna and Sakari were shocked about the treatment of animals, which were kept in piles in small cages. They were shocked for a good reason, but for us, well, we've already seen so much worse, especially in China, that this was pretty mild. I almost felt bad for not being shocked anymore.

One day we visited one of the nearby islands. There are four islands off the KK coast, all about 10-20 minutes boat ride away and make good day trip destinations. Most famous of them is Sapi island. Jenna and Sakari had been to Sapi island the previous day, and they wanted to see another one. So we took a boat instead to Mamutik. Instantly we were greeted by the orange sea of life vests floating in the buoyed off area for snorkellers. Looked like a few hundred Chinese found the island before us. Nevertheless we soon joined the crowd to find out that the area was only sand and dead coral. All kicked to death, if there ever even was anything worth seeing. We were warned that if we go out of the snorkel area, we were in danger to get hit by a boat. So we took another approach and proceeded towards a line of rocks on the right side of the beach. Judging by the speed Malaysians like to drive, they wouldn't be anywhere near the rocks. And that worked. As soon as we went to the other side of the rocks, we found some fish and alive coral. Soon Anni saw a tiny reef shark! Very excited she told Ben what she had seen. In a matter of minutes another shark appeared, this time it was huge! And it came very close, only about few metres from Anni before swimming away again! It was a black-tip reef shark and they seemed to be very common there. By the end of the 30 minute snorkelling we had seen 10 or so more of these creatures!

 

Next day we set off for some dives. We chose the company Diverse Borneo based on the good attitude of the people in the shop and cheap prices. We had been recommended to go with Scuba Junkie, but the lady in the shop scared us away with her uninterested attitude. We booked 3 dives near Sapi island and we were very impressed by the amount of macro life there! Since Maumere in Indonesia we had been more excited about nudibranchs and other small creatures than ever before. They are just amazingly rewarding to find! We were mostly disappointed by the short dive times, strict 45 minutes, even if people came up with over half a tank of air! Such a waste. Instead of actually diving we spent a long time above the surface waiting in a restaurant. When it was time to get back, the crew was suddenly in a hurry, and we ended up being soaked on the boat, thanks to the Malaysian way of trying to break the sound barrier with their speedboats. Oh well. A fun day, anyway.

Other than that, we mostly spend our time browsing websites for cheapest air tickets and planning what would be the last month of our travels. A soon as we got everything sorted out, we said our goodbyes to Jenna and Sakari and took a bus towards Lahad Datu.

Lahad Datu was in the headlines in February this year because of a conflict between Filipino militants and Malaysian army. Things had calmed down since then, but there was still a lot of army people present. Every shop and restaurant was also decorated with brand new Sabah county and Malaysia flags, probably in remembrance of these events. Or maybe for the upcoming national day? We didn't know. Our plan for Lahad Datu was to visit the office of the Danum Valley field centre, a research station for scientists working in a patch of untouched rainforest. They also provide dorm beds and other accommodation for travellers. Our overnight bus from KK arrived 3 in the morning, so we sat in a restaurant until the office opened its doors. At 8 o'clock we faced one of our greatest disappointments so far. No room in Danum Valley in the next 2 weeks! And their prices had miraculously climbed up to double from what we were quoted by a friend, Matias, who went there just about a month before! High season, we guessed. No chance for seeing wild orangutans for us, then. Greatly disappointed we still tried a few more options. There are two lodges nearby, but their prices were so high we couldn't even think about paying that. Tired and sad we took a taxi to the bus terminal and took a minivan to Semporna.

After a few hours of sleep in the bumpy minivan we arrived in Semporna, the base for divers wanting to dive Mabul, Kapalai and Sipadan, the latter of which is constantly rated as one of the best dive spots in the world. We checked in to a nice guesthouse, Damai travellers lodge, right in front of the mosque, guessing that the cheap (51 ringgit) price was probably related to the amount of noise. We had barely eaten all day, so we decided to go for food and check out a few dive shops for prices. It was clearly high season, the town was full of tourists and everywhere was crowded. It looked like this place had been growing fast, probably thanks to Sipadan's popularity. Everything in this place was about diving. We had heard that if you want to dive in Sipadan, you have to book well ahead because they only give out 120 permits a day for people to visit the protected island. That includes everyone: divers, snorkellers, dive boat staff and day trippers. Judging by the amount of people around us we thought we wouldn't have a chance. We asked the Scuba Junkie office and got a confirmation for this. "Any chance for diving Sipadan?", Ben asked, and the guy at the counter just shook his head, assuring that Mabul and Kapalai will still blow our minds. We knew that those would be amazing as well, but still decided to think about it the next day. We were too tired to make any decisions.

Things seemed brighter after a well-slept night. We went to town and the first shop we saw, Uncle Chang, had a sign on the door that said "Sipadan available". Great! Their prices were not great though, they wanted to charge 220 euros for 3 dives in Sipadan. It would have been cheaper if we did a dive package, but since their accommodation on Mabul was full, that only left the option of an overpriced day trip. For a few minutes we really thought about just paying it, it could be our only chance and would surely be booked out soon if we didn't act fast. And our travels were coming to an end soon, this could be the last dives of the trip. Sure we could spend a little bit extra? We still thought we should ask the other budget option in town, Billabong.

We got to the Billabong office, a random little room on the top floor of a building and we weren't too hopeful. All the other dive shops had prime locations and modern interiors that encouraged you just to pop in for a chat. We asked anyway, and got an anwer we liked. "Sipadan? Yes. Let me check. You can go to Mabul tomorrow, dive Mabul and Kapalai first and the third day we have space for Sipadan. We can book you a package." We couldn't believe it! For the price of Uncle Chang's day trip we now managed to get 3 dives in Mabul and Kapalai, 3 dives in Sipadan and accommodation and food for 3 days! We booked it without hesitation. And the next day we were already on Mabul.

The Billabong homestay, as it's called, though not really a homestay anymore, was a nice place. At least to the outside it was one of the nicer looking budget places. Nothing comparable to the fancy big resorts, but more our kind of place anyway. More than anything we were happy to have scored a good deal. Soon it was time for the dives. And what diving it was! We were almost speechless. Mabul and Kapalai are known for their macro life, or "muck diving". They even say the term was invented there. And as soon as we hit water we knew it wasn't just advertisement. We managed to see many many new nudibranchs, frogfish, leaf scorpionfish and so many things we had never seen before. We were lucky to dive with Wan, who took on the challenge of finding as many nudibranchs as he could. It seemed that every dive you would spot something you haven't seen before! Definitely recommended for any macro freaks out there. And the moments we were not diving we spent in water anyway. Happy to have our snorkelling gear, we explored different spots just off the beach finding juvenile scorpionfish, tiny cuttlefish, countless morays and even 3 ghost pipefish! We were extremely happy!

And then it was time to dive the famous Sipadan. And Sipadan didn't disappoint us either. It's more known for the big stuff, because it is an island with a deep drop off to 600 metres that brings sharks and big schools of fish. And we managed to see countless whitetip reef sharks, blacktip reef sharks and even a few grey reef sharks as well as a huge school of barracudas and a big school of jackfish, circled by sharks. We also saw many turtles, a tuna and a maori napoleon wrasse. Well worth the effort!

We should have checked out after that, but we asked to extend our stay. We couldn't get enough of the underwater world. They had space, and in the end we stayed 4 nights longer than intended. We also booked 2 more dives in Mabul and Kapalai. We got to see mandarin fish, a thorny seahorse and a green frogfish the size of a football!

One evening one of the instructors, Keiko, came to ask us if we would be interested to see baby turtles being released into the ocean. Borneo divers on the other side of the island has a program of collecting hatched baby turtles and releasing them to make sure they make it in the water safely. Sure! We lined up on the beach and soon the race was on. We watched 30 or so of these little cuties fighting the slope down to the water. Everything was over in 30 minutes or so. First time for us to see anything like this!

One thing that we enjoyed as much as diving was hanging out with other like-minded people. We were lucky enough to meet some fantastic people in this place. Amongst them was a Finnish couple, Tiia and Kimmo, which was random because we hadn't met many Finnish on this whole trip, except Anni's friends of course. They were also on a longer trip and had already been travelling for about two months. We spent some days diving and chatting together. We all left Mabul on the same day, so the last night was for celebration. Our divemaster Wan had invited some guys from Uncle Chang's to play guitar and sing with us. We bought some black market rum and some coca-cola, and Anni realised she still had a bag of Finnish candy in her backpack! So now it was time to sacrifice it. Tiia and Kimmo were already having bad cravings for this delicacy. At the end of the night we ended up donating the soggy, half-eaten bag to our new friends as our travels were almost at the end, and we figured the others would need it more than Anni. They were so grateful that they even volunteered to pay for our rum! Everyone happy!

We mostly had a good time, but there were a few things that did not go as we wanted. What we were not happy with was the dive gear. There was no dive where something wasn't or didn't get broken. In Sipadan both of our depth gauges were broken, Ben's BCD was inflating itself and he had to disconnect the hose mid dive. Anni got the same thing few dives later. Every time we check the gear carefully before entering the water, but with some things that is just no help. After the dives we told the shop people to change them, just to be handed a different piece of broken equipment for the next dive. Money over safety, we guess.

Another thing that really worried us was the dynamite bombing all around us. We were diving the Kapalai house reef when we heard a huge bang and a shockwave went through our bodies. Divemaster turned around to signal us if we were okay, and we continued the dive to the other direction. A protected area? Police and army boats everywhere? And still people are bombing the reef like nothing else matters. That wasn't the only time we heard it. It was every dive, just further away. If they keep on doing this amount of bombing, most of it will be gone in a few years.

Soon we were back on the bus to KK. This time we did it during the day. Except for the few national parks all we could see was oil palm plantations and advertisements looking for investors for the new businesses. It somehow made us realise how we were lucky to see even this much life there. We hope that at least the national parks will be kept untouched or else there won't be much to see in future.