19 Sep - 26 Sep 2009 Miri


Southeast Asia
Flawed-Democratic Federation of Malaysia
Malaysian Borneo
Sarawak aka Land of the Hornbills
Miri
Minda Guest House +6085411422 info@mindaguesthouse.com
Small but adequate double room with wifi, air-con and breakfast for MYR 50.- or US$ 14.20.- per night.


Click below for an interactive road map of the Minda Guest House in Miri, which we would recommend, and for directions:
N 04° 23.87' E 113° 59.32'










Visiting the “open house” of our Muslim Kelabit/Malay friends Fatima & Moshidi at Shangrila Gardens, sampling delicious and fattening Raya cookies and cakes, and celebrating Hari Raya Aidilfitri together with their family and friends: Selamat Hari Raya!



Taking pictures of the largest and biggest (but not grandest) Taoist temple in Southeast Asia, the San Ching Tian Temple, built in 2000 CE, which houses three statues of the deities Guan-di, Zhang-fei and Liu-bei, and features intricate dragon reliefs which had been brought to Sarawak from mainland China.



Leaving vast Sarawak ("...if adventure had a home, it would be here..."), a friendly East-Malaysian state which teeters between First World and Third World, thus (i) taking the MBT bus no. 2 from Miri’s central bus station to Kuala Belait in Brunei (MYR 13.- or US$ 3.70 per person, including a bus change at the Sungei Tujoh border checkpoint where we were being issued with a 30-day visit pass for a “social visit” to Negara Brunei Darussalam on arrival, free of charge, after we had had to reveal our race as “Caucasian” in one of those nonsensical embarkation/disembarkation forms for visitors), (ii) taking thereafter the local Bibiyana bus (BND 1.- or MYR 3.- per person) from Kuala Belait to Seria, a company town dotted with nodding donkeys in-between the low bungalows accommodating both Shell staff and the Ghurkha elite troops brought in to protect the oil, and, finally, (iii) the ADBS bus from Seria to Brunei’s boring capital city Bandar Seri Begawan (“BSB”) for BND 6.- or MYR 16.- per person.


Click below for more blog posts about our travels during Ramadan
11 Jul - 01 Sep 2013 Kuching
16 Aug - 04 Sep 2011 Tanjung Karang
09 Aug - 12 Aug 2009 Nunukan
30 Jul - 01 Aug 2011 Petaling Jaya
19 Aug - 28 Aug 2009 Similajau

 Click below for a summary of this year's travels
Facing Borneo
© Konni & Matt


Recommended gear - click below for your Amazon order from Germany:

For Amazon deals from the United States, please click here
For Amazon deals from Canada, please click here
For Amazon deals from the United Kingdom, please click here
Destination: ,

18 Sep - 19 Sep 2009 Mulu


Southeast Asia
Flawed-Democratic Federation of Malaysia
Malaysian Borneo
Sarawak aka Land of the Hornbills
Gunung Mulu National Park
Mulu Berawan Settlement
Betty’s Homestay
Basic and reasonably clean double room for MYR 30.- or US$ 8.60 per night.
Friendly local hostess.


Click below for an interactive road map of Betty's Homestay in Mulu, which we would recommend, and for directions:
N 04° 02.52' E 114° 48.63'










Walking at our own pace through the park's steamy jungle to the Paku Waterfall, identifying birds, butterflies and tree ferns with the help of our photographic nature guides and visiting the nearby Penan settlement (the Penans are rather shy and elusive semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers and supreme jungle experts) at Batu Bungan where a friendly elderly woman played flute for us on her nose.
"...every music lover is familiar with the sound of the flute, which seems to possess a magic power that emanates from its innermost being. It speaks, it moves, it entrances, almost as if it had been revealed to us on the glorious day of creation. And yet it is genuine human expression, an element of language, the image of a dream continually repeated..."


Flying with MASwings (“Connecting the World to Sabah and Sarawak”), Malaysia Air's Borneo branch, in an ATR 72-500 from Mulu over vast deforested areas and ongoing big-scale logging operations back to Miri, located on the shore of the politically very interesting South China Sea, for all inclusive MYR 102.- or US$ 28.- per person, one way, and reading after our arrival in the The Borneo Post that “...the state was targeting MYR 7 billion in timber export earnings”.
"The army and the police came to our blockade and threatened us and told us to take down our barricade. We said 'we are defending our land. It is very easy for you as soldiers and policemen. You are being paid. You have money in your pockets. You can buy what you need; rice and sugar. You have money in the bank. But for us, this forest is our money, this is our bank. This is the only place where we can find food'..."


Click below for more blog posts about traditional musical instruments
23 Jun - 26 Jun 2013 Nara
08 Jun - 18 Jun 2011 Leh
27 Apr - 01 May 2011 Chidambaram
13 Oct - 14 Oct 2009 Kudat
10 Jul - 20 Jul 2009 Kuching

 Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2009 Map Konni & Matt


Recommended books - click below for your Amazon order from Germany:
 
For Amazon deals from the United States, please click here 
For Amazon deals from Canada, please click here 
For Amazon deals from the United Kingdom, please click here
Destination: ,

16 Sep - 18 Sep 2009 Mulu


Southeast Asia
Flawed-Democratic Federation of Malaysia
Malaysian Borneo
Sarawak aka Land of the Hornbills
Gunung Mulu National Park
Camp Five (c. 80 m above sea level)
Rugged dorm bed for MYR 30.- or US$ 8.60 per person per night.


Click below for an interactive road map of Camp Five in Mulu and for directions:
N 04° 08.20' E 114° 53.59'











Hiring the competent and friendly Christian Lun Bawang guide Roland (his fee: MYR 80.- per person for three days of his service) and teaming up with fellow international travellers Claire & Toby from the United Kingdom and Alicja from Poland for (i) a guided tour (MYR 10.- per person) through the Wind Cave, situated above an ancient Berawan burial site, and through the Clearwater Cave, formed by an underground river which emerges near the cave mouth, and (ii) a three-day trek to feared The Pinnacles (a fantastic and must-see forest of razor-sharp limestone peaks clustered 45 m above the rainforest on the flanks of 1,732-m high Gunung Api) thus chartering a longboat (MYR 90.- per person, return) and going upriver on the Sungai Melinau to Kuala Litut, thereafter hiking through leech-infested jungle to the bee-infested Camp 5 for the overnight stay and clambering the unrelentingly steep path (it is only 2.4 km long but rises 1,200 m; the last part is near vertical with ropes and ladders to climb) up to the top of The Pinnacles of Mulu.


Click below for more blog posts about hillwalking and scrambling
01 Dec - 07 Dec 2012 Xingping
05 Sep - 06 Sep 2012 Hua Shan
29 Apr - 03 May 2012 Bukittinggi
08 Jun - 18 Jun 2011 Leh
12 Feb - 14 Feb 2011 Adam's Peak

 Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2009 Map Konni & Matt


Recommended books - click below for your Amazon order from the United States:

For Amazon schnaeppchens from Germany, please click here
For Amazon bargains from Canada, please click here
For Amazon bargains from the United Kingdom, please click here
Destination: ,

14 Sep - 16 Sep 2009 Mulu


Southeast Asia
Flawed-Democratic Federation of Malaysia
Malaysian Borneo
Sarawak aka Land of the Hornbills
Gunung Mulu National Park
Mulu Berawan Settlement
Betty’s Homestay
Basic and reasonably clean double room for MYR 30.- or US$ 8.60 per night.
Friendly native hostess.


Click below for an interactive road map of Betty's Homestay in Mulu, which we would recommend, and for directions:
N 04° 02.52' E 114° 48.63'









Climbing into the canopy of the old-growth tropical rainforest and traversing the 480-m long Mulu Canopy Skywalk (MYR 30.- or US$ 8.60 per person) - the longest tree-based walkway in the world and one of the ballyhooed attractions in the Gunung Mulu National Park +6085792300, a stunning UNESCO World Heritage Site and heavily commercialised tourist destination for young and old nature lovers where almost all of the caves and rainforest treks require that visitors are accompanied by a guide licensed by Sarawak Forestry, supplied either by the park or by one of the adventurously greenwashing adventure-tour agencies; who told you that tourism is a substitute for war?

"If it's tourist season, why can't we kill them?"
(Unknown Headhunter) 





Joining a guided tour (MYR 10.- or US$ 2.90 per person) of the world’s largest cave passage - over 2 km in length and 175 m in height - through the Deer Cave and the adjoining Lang’s Cave with its fascinating limestone formations (elegant rock shawls and cave curtains as well as dramatic stalagmites and stalactites) and later viewing the mass exodus as millions of bats, great swirling whorls of them, like sky-darkening clouds of gnats, emerged from the vast entrance of the cave to forage in the rainforest.



Click below for more blog posts about caves and cave temples
18 Apr - 22 Apr 2014 Phetchaburi
25 Jan - 29 Jan 2013 Phatthalung
20 Aug - 23 Aug 2012 Datong
15 Oct - 21 Oct 2011 Ipoh
28 Aug - 31 Aug 2009 Niah Caves

 Click below for a summary of this year's travels

Facing Borneo
© Konni & Matt


Recommended products - click below for your Amazon order from Canada:

For Amazon schnaeppchens from Germany, please click here
For Amazon deals from the United States, please click here
For Amazon deals from the United Kingdom, please click here
Destination: ,
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