Jungle Part Deux, Also Caves

On Wednesday I flew south to Mulu to visit a national park there that is known for it's spectacular cave systems. I'm pretty sure one of them is featured on The Planet Earth series for those of you who have seen it. You know the one where they are climbing the mountain of bat guano and cockroaches? Ya, that's it. It's even more spectacular in person because you can really appreciate that rich smell of ammonia, it's very pungent. Kind of stings the nostrils.

The caves really were impressive. I've never seen caves like this before with proper selactites and bats and everything. The Deer Cave there apparently is the largest cavern chamber in the world and it houses millions of bats that come out to feed most evenings in giant swarms. It was really cool to see them leave the cave in this big swirling mass.

Mulu was also a very social place, I met a lot of people and drank a lot of beer. Overall it was a really good experience and I'm glad I was able to get a last-minute booking there. It would have sucked to spend those days sitting in KK instead.

Well I think I just heard my flight to Singapore being called to board. I've got two nights there and then I'm heading home. It's been a great trip... Afghanistan included, but it will be good to get home again.

I'm so far behind in this

I don't even know how I can possibly catch up. I'm going to start with the last few days because it's fresh in my head.

I just got back to KK after spending the last two days climbing Mount Kinabalu (which thanks to Duane I just learned is not the highest peak in SE Asia as advertised). It is a 4092m tall mountain though and it was a hell of a trek to get to the top.

I kind of booked the mountain a little last minute and didn't really have a whole lot of info beyond what the tour company gave me which basically said that they recommend that I leave KK at around 7am to be at the mountain for 10am so I could meet up with other trekkers and share the cost of a guide and start the hike.

Well I tried to leave KK on a 7:30am bus but by the time we actually left KK it was closer to 8:20am because the driver kept waiting for more passengers to show up. It was really pissing me off because he kept saying "Soon, soon" but if I had known it was going to be an hour late than I would have tried to find another bus. Anyways, by the time I got to the mountain it was around 10:30am and there was nobody at the base so I had to pay the full cost to hire my own personal guide (because they won't let you on the mountain without one). When I checked in they asked me when I was planning on doing the mountain and I was kind of confused because I wasn't really sure why they would think I was checking in if I was going to do the mountain some other day. Anyways when I said I would be starting it as soon as they checked me in the girl looked at me like I was crazy to be starting so late in the day.

Anyways, it was 11am by the time I got cleared in and picked up my guide and the ridiculous packed lunch they provided... cheese sandwiches, boiled eggs and bananas in a cardboard box packed in a reusable grocery bag. How is that practical to carry up a mountain? So thinking that I was really behind I started hiking quickly up the mountain. After about 20 minutes I lost my guide and never saw him again until about an hour after I got to the lodge. This guy hikes the mountain twice a week... how could he get so far behind?

I did the first day in about 3h10m which after reaching the lodge I found out was a really fast time. Most were doing it in 5-6 hours. At the lodge I met a group of engineers, an Auzzie couple from Singapore and an Irish girl who had been travelling all over SE Asia for the last few months. We sat and enjoyed our 25MYR beers (so expensive but worth it!) and commiserated on how tired we were. I got to bed early that night as the next day would start at 2am so we could be at the peak for sunrise.

Now I get a little competitive about a lot of things and I also hate being in a pack of people that prevent me from going at my own pace so I decided that I wanted to try to get as far to the front of the pack as quickly as I could so I could just do my own thing instead of waiting for others to get out of the way. Well after about 500m I realized I was at the front of the pack and there wasn't anyone even close to keeping up with me (even my guide) so I just carried on to the summit. It was the most amazing walk in the dark with millions of stars in the sky and the moon setting behind one of the mountain peaks... it was just beautiful! I would stop and turn around every once in a while to see a snake of lights coming up the mountain behind me but they were nowhere close to catching up. I have to give my guide credit though because about half way to the peak as I stopped for water a light came up to me quickly and there he was panting and wheezing. It didn't take long for him to fall behind again and I was easily the first to the summit by about 20 minutes.

Watching the sun come up over the mountains this morning was simply spectacular! As I sat there watching it I kind of wished it would just go on and on.

On the way back down the mountain my guide did much better and stayed with me the whole time. As we approached the trailhead I heard him sigh and say "Finally". I really think I almost killed him. I gave him a good tip though so he was happy in the end.

Almost the end... of Semporna

Sadly I'll be leaving Semporna soon. It's been great here and I really just can't get enough of diving. A few days ago I finally got my trip to Sipadan Island. It turns out is is everything it's cracked up to be.

The first two dives of the day were strictly ok... I saw things that I hadn't seen before like grey reef sharks and white tip reef sharks but other than that the dives were just average. The third dive was spectacular! We went down to the Turtle Tomb and then along Drop Off and the scenery is simply amazing. It's a wall dive where the wall stretches down into the deep as far as you can see. It apparently goes down over 600m deep. Swimming along this wall as new scenes opened up in front of us as we went around every corner was just amazing! The wall was hanging with coral and on some little shelves you could find turtles resting. To our left we always kept a watch out to try to spot any rays that came by or if we were really lucky a hammerhead or whale shark. The divemaster did spot a devil ray and gave a bang on his tank while he waved urgently towards us. I took off after him and swam hard to catch a quick view of the ray as it sped by. Amazing!

Further along the wall we found a small school of barracudas playing in the current and then came upon a massive school of jackfish as well as a school of humphead parrotfish. The humpheads were great! They're pretty big fish (close to 1.5m long) and while they milled about chomping on the coral they looked kind of like a heard of buffalo.

While we waited and watched the parrotfish, one of the guys in our group put his hand down on a piece of coral to steady himself. As he did this I looked beside his hand and there was a big scorpionfish sitting less than a foot from his right hand. I carefully went around to the left side of him to tap him on his shoulder and gave him the old "there's a scorpionfish sitting right beside your hand" signal. He didn't seem to get it so I followed up with a "just carefully come towards me please before you get yourself poisoned" signal. He did come towards me but he still didn't seem to get what I was trying to say although he seemed quite grateful later when I explained it to him on the surface. He even gave me a cookie :)

So after the parrotfish we went back to the school of jackfish and swam through them. It was really awesome being completely surrounded by the fish as they swirled around. There is also a big school of barracuda at Sipadan which was at the time apparently just a little further down the reef. It would have been really awesome to swim with them. I spoke so some people who did and they just said it was an incredible experience being in this swirling vortex of barracuda. Oh well... maybe next time. Overall, Sipadan was really great!

So I have been trying to figure out how to spend the rest of my time here. I have Mount Kinabalu booked for the 15th and wanted to go see some orangutans up in Sandakan before going there. I had heard great things about Uncle Tan's for the orangutans and jungle trekking from everyone that passes through there so I booked with them. I've been told it's basically like summer camp but with beer. Can't wait!

After Uncle Tan's and the mountain I'll only have 4 days left in Borneo before catching my flight up to Singapore. I still haven't figured out what I'll do with that time but I might head south as there are supposed to be some spectacular caves down there. I'd also kind of like to pass through Brunei even if it's just for a few hours because I kind of want to get another stamp on my passport. I'll have to look into it all in the next few days and decide what to do. If all else fails I can always spend the time diving in KK! I feel like my vacation is coming to an end too fast, only two weeks left.

I've decided I may not ever come home

Arrived in Borneo on the 28th and caught a bus to Semporna where I would be diving. This area is supposed to be one of the top ten places to dive in the world so it should probably suit my needs just fine.

The town itself is... well it's a shithole. There isn't really another way to put it. There is a small area near the docks where all the diveshops are and that's basically where the tourists live and stay. Even that area is very run down, dirty and smells bad. Anyways I didn't come here to tour Semporna, I knew it was a dump. I came here to dive.

I completed both my open water and advanced open water courses and I'm now just fun diving and I'm absolutely loving it! I don't know why I haven't been doing this for years! It's amazing to go down under the waves, there is so much life down there!

I saw my first shark yesterday! Just a small nurse shark, but it was very cool. Apparently they've been spotting hammerheads at Sipadan for the last three days so I'm hoping I'll see one when I'm there. Today I saw an eagle ray and a blue marlin. The marlin was jumping out of the water as it hunted for fish, it was really cool.

The dive outfit that I've been using is called Scuba Junkie and I have to give them two big thumbs up on their work. They own the dive shop, the hostel and the bar next door and that's pretty much all I need from the town here. My days start at 7am, grab some breakfast, over to the dive shop, on a boat to some island, do two dives, have an amazing lunch (the food here has been so good), do another dive, back on the boat to Semporna, shower, change, over to the bar for about 6 hours, bed, repeat.

The first day I went diving I was at an island called Sibuan. Sibuan is basically a spit of sand with some beautiful tall palms on it and a few huts where the local villagers live. It honestly looks like something out of Robinson Crusoe. We went ashore at lunch and a bunch of kids from the village came running down the beach with fresh coconuts for us. One little boy in particular who was probably around 4 years old came down the beach with a coconut on his shoulder and looking all proud that he had carried it all that way but wasn't wearing a stitch of clothing. It had to make you smile.

The diving has been great, I've seen a nurse shark, eagle ray, octopus, lots of turtles, lionfish, scorpionfish, a school of thousands of jackfish that swam all around us, giant morays, colourful little nudibranches, boxer shrimp, batfish, angelfish, triggerfish, little nemo fish, trumpet fish, surgeon fish, spotted ribbon tailed rays, remoras and so many other things.

Yesterday a green turtle passed by me and it had a remora on it's back. Well as it passed, the remora came off and swam towards me. It seemed very curious and came to take a close look. I tried to shoo it away but it was very persistent and I sort of lost track of it when it swam down towards my chest. I didn't think much of it and carried on my way. Well about five minutes later I felt something on my head and so I looked up and saw a flash of a tail above me and then felt more movement around my head. I tapped my dive buddy on the shoulder and sort of pointed to my head and made a kind of "is there something eating my head?" kind of signal. She initially looked confused and then she had big eyes and laughed as she saw the remora trying to clean my head. Well my little friend eventually left me alone when our instructor came over and it decided instead to try to swim up his shorts. Rowan was luckily quick enough to clamp down the leg of his suit before the fish made it's way up.

I've met a ton of good people here, most of them come and go... well I guess all of them have moved on by now and new ones have arrived. I seem to be the only one who's stayed for the long haul but I just can't get enough of it. Tonight I went on a muck dive in the harbor and it's such a different world down there at night. Lots of different and curious little creatures. It was a little creepy too with nothing but darkness around you and just a flashlight to show  your way.

I'll be heading to Si Amil island tomorrow. Looking forward to it already.

G'night.

Safari!

Yesterday afternoon I went on a desert safari that I had been looking forward to going on, I had heard good reviews so I figured it was worth a go. Well the whole experience can be summed up by saying "frikken hilarious!"

Now let me lead into this by saying I really didn't know what to expect. I had been trying to contact a tour company that was recommended in my Lonely Planet while I was in Kandahar and they never replied to my e-mails. Once I got to Dubai I gave them a call and made the arrangements. Well on Tuesday around noon (with the tour supposed to start at 3:30pm) they called me to tell me that they would have to reschedule me because they had damage to their base camp and needed to do some repairs. So just a note: don't book a tour with Alpha Tours Dubai... bad experience.

So I scrambeled and booked with another company called Lama Tours. I'd give them two thumbs up... book your desert safaris here. Anyways as I said, I didn't know what to expect on this tour and when the driver showed up to pick me up it was me and a family of four in the truck. I didn't know if that meant it was going to be just the five of us all evening? I had images of me jumping in all their family photos, maybe they would adopt me and be my Dubai family. Little Rasheef gave me some of this candy on the drive out to the desert so I was pretty happy with how it was all starting.

Well I quickly figured out by the number of tour trucks that we saw on the highway that we were clearly not going to be the only ones. There were dozens of trucks from several different companies all heading in the same general direction.

Well the tour itself started off with a nausiating ride through the dunes. I should note that I was stuck on the back bench of the SUV and with all the ups and downs I was starting to feel sea sick.

When we eventually got to the base camp it was really pretty nice. They had a "traditional?" (I say that because I have no idea what a traditional bedouin camp looks like but that's what they told us) bedouin camp set-up with tables and chairs around the central stage area. All-in-all it was pretty good.

They had a number of activities that you could participate in if you liked: camel rides, henna, smoking sheesha (or hubbly bubbly as they kept referring to it). I wanted to ride a camel and I'll tell you that was the most uncomfortable experience ever! I just couldn't find a position where my boys weren't being crushed. Thank god it was a short ride because I basically had to hold myself off the saddle the whole time. I think the guy leading the ride knew what my problem was because he had a big knowing grin on his face.

So after the camel ride I went to relax and smoke some sheesha. While over there I met a couple of Californians who were on their way back from a wedding in Sri Lanka but I can't for the life of me remember their names. Well there were also a bunch of Chinese tourists trying the sheesha and it was just about the funniest thing I've ever seen. Some of them I couldn't actually tell if they were sucking or blowing on the pipe. When they would draw their face would clench up and they would put such effort into it and then you would see a single bubble in the pipe and they would stop and cough and the rest of them would laugh at the smoker. My new american friends and I couldn't stop laughing at this. If instead of a dancing show they had just put a couple of these Chinese guys up on stage with a pipe it would have been the perfect entertainment for the evening. This experience alone made the tour worth every penny!

So as for the show, thirs they had a guy wearing a dress and spinning. Now I'm going to sound ignorent, but they didn't tell us anything about what we were watching and I had never seen anything like this before so from my un-enlightened perspective it was a guy spinning around in a dress. That said, he was really quite good at it... he spun and spun and spun. Then they turned off the lights and his dress lit up so he looked like a UFO. Again, the Americans and I couldn't stop laughing, it was a good show but the lights were a little too much.

So then we had supper (which was really quite good) and after supper they had the belly dancing show. Now the way that they introduced the dancer kind of made me think I was in a strip club. In a deep radio DJ voice the announcer said, "Ladies and gentlemen, this next dancer has performed in shows all over Asia. Put your hands together and welcome to the stage... OLGA!" and then out came Olga to laser sounds and the Arab techno music started with her "Olga" theme song. Again, peals of laughter!

I did rather enjoy that she sort of had audience participation from the men sitting in the front row. At some point she was shaking everything she had right up in front of some guy while his 10 year old son sat next to him with a look of amazement on his face. Amazing! Overall, this tour was worth every cent. Definitely do this if you're in Dubai!

Let the vacation begin!

Oh wow! Where do I start? It's been so long since I've updated this thing that I have a ton to say. I would also imagine that anyone who has been checking in regularly to see what I've been up to has long since stopped so I'm probably writing this now just for my own sake but here I go anyways.

Well to start way back from where I left off... My last week in Kandahar was a little hectic trying to get all my work closed off before I left. Why is it that whenever time runs short that's exactly when you get the largest workload? It's like the irony of sleeping in the morning... why is it that the best time to sleep is the exact moment that you have to get out of bed?

It wasn't just the work that made the week chaotic, the process of leaving was chaotic too. Nobody seemed to really give me any instructions and i've obviously never done this before so how should I know what I should be doing and when? In the end it all worked out, but it just seemed like I had to jump through a lot of hoops in order to leave.

I had to do an "exit interview" in case I had any complaints or needed to pass on any security concerns or anything like that. Well it's somehow not just as simple as going to the interview, I had to have an escort to get there and back. now you would think that the travel/HR department would provide that person. They got me to the base afterall, don't you think it should be their job to get me home too? Turns out... no. It was up to me to find someone. Oh, and it can't just be anyone, it has to be someone who is certified to escort you to the interview.

"Ask your boss," they said.
"I did," I said, "He's not certified."
"That's ok," they said.
"It's ok if my escort isn't an authorized requestor?"
"No. Ask your boss."
"What?"

That conversation didn't really go anywhere. In the end I found someone who found someone else to escort me and it all worked out, but what a pain.

I think I got out of Kandahar just in time actually. The heat for the last few days was really opressive. It felt like it had actual weight to it and it's still nowhere near the summertime temperatures. I can't imagine what that's like.

On the plane ride back to Dubai they served beer. To quote the brilliant Will Ferrel "It's so good once it hits your lips." Yeah, it's true. Good one Will.

Oh! And I almost forgot, as I was sitting on the plane staring out the window I saw a mid-air refueling taking place! It was awesome! The two planes crossed directly under our path with one tucked in right behind the other.

Well I arrived in Dubai on Sunday afternoon and went on to my hostel and checked in. Now I had been writing back and forth with a friend from my MBA days who's currently living in Dubai now and he invited me to stay with him. Unfortunately I didn't get that e-mail until after I had already checked in, but what are hostels if they aren't cheap, so after checking my e-mail I proptly checked back out again and went to stay with him. Thanks Amine, you've been a great host!

So sunday evening wasn't too eventful. I met up with Judy for a late supper and a beer... the second time was just as good as the first... and then when I got to Amine's we went for more food. It was good to catch up with Amine and I'm glad i got the opportunity to. Mind you it sounds like he wants me to move here. It would be a nice city to live in, but it's just too hot!

I'm realizing that this blog post doesn't really sound too interesting... if you've stuck with me so far please don't give up yet. It gets better I promise.

On Monday I got up and went to the area around the creek to go to the souks and do some exploring. I really do love this plpace, it's so diverse and it's such a comfortable city. I'm not really sure what I mean by comfortable, but I've never felt out of place or uncomfortable about being anywhere. I just always felt like I belonged wherever I went.

While wandering the souks I got the distinct impression that i had the word "sucker" written across my forehead. I kept geting drawn into stores and once I was inside there was probably about a 4 in 5 chance that I was leaving with less money than I went in with. The highlight was probably a swquence that started with me walking through a narrow alleyway in the gold souk and a guy shiftily coming up to me and saying in a low voice, "Wanna buy a watch?"

Well no, I didn't really want to buy a watch but I was curious to see where this would go so I followed him through some alleys to a small shop. The alley where the shop was couldn't have been more than about 5 feet wide at best. Now first of all, who decideds that this is a good spot to open a store? This location required a guide in order to find it in the first place... not good business planning. Second, when I say it was a "small shop" that's a bit of an understatement. The store was a room about 6 feet wide by about 10 feet deep. Small.

Anyways I went in and "the guide" closed the door behind me and left. Hmmm... curious. So the guy in the store says "You want watch?" Well I look around the store and there are no watches anywhere, the store seemed like it was mostely focussed on selling junk. Just a lot of really random junk. Well the guy goes to the back wall and slides a hook out of the way and bangs on a panel (honestly, I couldn't make this up) and a little secret door opens up and he pulls out a box of watches.

"You want Rolex? You want Tagg? You want Breitling? You want Omega?" and he starts pulling watches out of the box. Well remember how I said that there was a 4 in 5 chance of me buying someing once they got me into a store? I've always wanted an Omega so... I bought one. $90 and made in Korea but it looks nice and I'm sure it's of *very* high quality ;)

So here's something I don't understand. Well I do understand the traditional arab outfits... long, white, loose fitting, it all makes sense and they look very comfortable. What I don't get is why the women get screwed over by having to wear black! The sun here is just too hot to be draping yourself in black! I would melt.

My last blog from Afghanistan

I figured I would make one last post from Afghanistan as I lay here wide awake listening to my roommate snore. Tomorrow I'll be giving my computer to Jim to take home with him so here on out it will be internet cafes in more tropical locations.

I can't say that I haven't enjoyed my time here, but I'll certainly be happy to see the end of it. It's been an adventure and I'm glad I took the opportunity but it's not something I would like to do long term. Some of the guys here have been doing this kind of thing for years. While it would certainly be financially beneficial, this isn't the life I'm looking to live. Well as far as I'm concerned, this really is no life at all. This is living your work and having three months a year to go home to visit your real life.

7 days from now I'll be back in Dubai. Can't wait!