Shopping malls and shanty towns

Kota Kinabalu - An exotic name for a western city. 

Malaysia is a very developed nation to nearly-Western standards (sightly more emphasis on Health and Safety issues and it would be just like home, with a better climate). Which is why it finds itself home to many migrants from it's poorer neighbours. In east Malaysia, or Borneo particularly, there are many Filipinos filling in the jobs that are undesirable to the well-educated Malays, such as labouring on the constant new developments. As a result of these poorly paid, illegal workers with no rights, slums spring up close, or on, the building site to house the workers for cheap.


I can hardly criticise this system, as I have well and truly been reinforcing it, willingly or not. We've been moored at the beautiful Sutera Harbour Marina, (2 private beaches, four pools, separate saunas for men and women and all the other conveniences of a 5* resort).  Although it's been a luxurious holiday, the proximity to the nearest slum is astounding. In fact, it's only a very short stretch of water that separates the brightly lit 'Sutera Harbour Resort' sign from the nearest village on stilts which doesn't have electricity - and plumbing? Why would that be necessary when the houses are built over stagnant water? 

After spending 6 weeks almost exclusively in the city of Kota Kinabalu, I think I've got a good feel for the place now. If this is coming across as slightly bitter, please excuse me. I'm not. I understand the system exists because it works. The Filipinos come here because they are earning more than they ever could at home, even if their current living standards are lower. Maybe it's a temporary thing, or the fact that they can support their entire family easily. I also know that just because somebody lives in a hut on stilts doesn't mean they're not happy. In fact, many of the happiest people I've met on my travels live in similar circumstances, with barely enough money to rub two coins together, but the love and support of their immediate family, and an unchanging job that supports them through the wet and dry season is enough. However, the Malaysian government should be aware that these people are the backbone of the economy and certain rights, such as giving them legal citizenship, or at least the right to a temporary work visa would benefit everyone. 

Kota Kinabalu is a walkable city (unusual in Asia) with a population of some 600,000. I think of KK as one big shopping mall with some roads to negotiate in the middle. The rich here seem to be incredibly rich - in the marina there is a  brand spanking new US$5million boat, which is just a floating party venue to the owner. He has no idea how to drive the thing, and doesn't even own a pair of swim shorts! What a tragic waste! 

There is also a bit of a nightlife scene here - 'The Bed' is a large and popular nightclub right on the waterfront, with an entry fee of 20RM (even for girls, despite the fact that it can easily be described as a sausage fest). It was a good night out anyway although I wouldn't recommend going unless with a large group. The other fantastic night out I had in Kota Kinabalu was at the white room, which was epic just because it was so unexpected: we made friends with a large group of Indians who were dancing their Bollywood hearts out. This location seemed to have a slightly more gay crowd. I managed to get a completely unironic high five for my dancing (a first); Siem held the end of my hair out and the surrounding group of people used it to shimmy under as a limbo pole. 

The other, slightly random, night out I had was with Petrina. We were at Shamrock, enjoying the live music and embarrassing ourselves at pool, when a group of mostly Australians arrived, presumably already drunk (one of them wasted no time in stripping off his clothing and dirty dancing with the owner, who was turning 60). We took a stroll outside to explore the other options and drink cheap beer outside 7/11. When we came back, most of the mostly-Aussies were in a SUV, apparantly waiting for us. We were hustled into the car, en route to Sutera Harbour (the parents of some/all of these guys had a beautiful house on the edge of the golf course). What a crazy party it was. Everyone went swimming in the pool as soon as we arrived, (we regretted it straight away because it was freezing) and one of the mostly-Aussies sprayed champagne over everything. We spent a few hours partying with the nutters, had breakfast and got back on the boat seconds before Brian woke up (to this day, he doesn't know how late we got back). 

We spent some time exploring health care options in KK - Madara has a badly bruised ankle from a classic accident: motorbikes in Thailand. One day we borrowed a wheelchair from the marina and spent the day in town finding out just how disability unfriendly Asia really is. For one thing, all the local people are looking at us like we're strange. There are enough white people hanging out in KK that it's not just because we're differently coloured. I felt they wanted  to say, 'well, she's clearly broken, so what are you doing taking her through shopping malls and getting in the way of those of us who aren't crippled?'. Finding pavements that had a slope into the road rather than a step was insanely difficult. Also any ramps we found tended to be either too steep or slippery to push up/down a wheelchair without loosing control/getting squashed on the main road. Foreigners should note that if you manage to get to a hospital or government-run clinic you pay a flat rate of 15RM ($5US) for: access to a Doctor, any X-rays or treatment you might need and whatever medication they prescribe you. Unfortunately we weren't aware of this - we went to a private clinic at the beginning which charged extra for X-rays and meds.
 
 We also found a dentist (eventually) and got a check-up. Petrina and I wasted quiet a bit of time initially - we were recommended a local dentist and booked an appointment by phone. On the date and time of the appointment, we arrived at the location (directions from the friend who'd recommended the dentist). Strangely, the place appeared to be shut. We walked around the block, looking for a different door in or another dentist with the same name. Tidak ada. We called up and got directions from the receptionist whose level of English consisted of, 'go to 7/11', which was on a parallel street. When we drew level we realised the store was actually shut down although the signs were still up. No sign of another dentist though. The saga continued for at least another 30mins - we listed all the hotels, banks and restaurants we could see. They directed us towards something they recognised. We requested they send someone out onto the street to find us. No luck there. Eventually when we were thinking on giving up on the quest and indulging in ice-cream instead, I passed the phone to a local lady walking by. After a very short conversation, she informed us: 'You need to take a taxi. This dentist is 100km away.' We had much more luck with our second attempt.

I've also met some brilliant local friends in KK. I had a bout of tonsillitis and was fortunate enough to be picked up by Sim whilst en route to the nearest farmasi on foot. He was kind enough to take me to get my drugs AND waited to give me a ride back too. When I was feeling more sociable, he introduced us to some of his friends who took turns in escorting us to various local attractions. We particularly loved the Sabah museum (I suck at walking on stilts) and the best laksa restaurant in town.

How NOT to plan epic adventures

Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. 

What a mellifluous mouthful. The place is almost as exotic as it sounds - beautiful beaches, high mountains in the distance, palm trees everywhere and some headhunters still showing off the spoils of their ancestors' traditions! Jungles filled with orangutans, proboscis monkeys, pygmy elephants and the world's largest flower - the Rafflesia. Having spent over a month hanging out in the admittedly stunning, Sutera Harbour, I was more than ready to go for some land adventures when Petrina and Madara arrived. We had to first sail the boat along the coast from KK towards Kudat (some 14hours) around the northernmost tip of Borneo, help with the haul-out before we disappeared into the jungles for seven incredible days of exploration. 

For some reason, the group decided it was a great idea to rent a car to explore this vast expanse of area (over 70,000km²), which meant a trip back to KK would be necessary. 

Here are some quick tips on renting a car: 

1) Don't get the cheapest car. It's obviously the worst. Which means that when you're travelling over all those big Bornean rainforest-covered mountains your car will not do so well. 

2) Check the car works. Try running the A/C, radio and driving uphill (at the same time). If the car struggles with this, it is going to be an issue. 

3) Shanghai a Polish guy that knows a) how to drive and b) how to make a terrible car drive. You should ideally kidnap him for about a week (he might have to miss a couple of flights, but he'll appreciate his sacrifice in the end). Thanks Vtec!


4) Car alarms just don't like some people. It's a fact of life. Sorry Petrina.

5) The point is... When explaining mechanical failings of terrible cars, the point should be reached as quickly and painlessly as possible. And should also not be mentioned to the rental company before the deposit has been returned!!!! 

When you have selected your car, don't bother with a real map. If the roads are not so developed there won't be too many options anyway (we used a free tourist map that had little detail, but conveniently marked tourist attractions on it). Also, we found that often the best adventures happened like this:

Driver: Could you take a look at the map and check we're going in the right direction?
Co-pilot: No.
Driver: Can I check the map?
Co-pilot: No.
Driver: Where are we going?
Co-pilot: Turn left HERE! This road looks fun!
Driver: silently fuming

Which actually turned out for the best. In the above example, we went for a swim in the river, spent the night sleeping in hammocks and Madara enjoyed an early morning ride on on the longest zip-line in Borneo. 


The other advantage of not doing research, not planning and not arriving anywhere on time is that you can change the plan ...or the one you didn't have. Our first night's lodgings were procured through making friends with a Malaysian (Dr El, the local director of English Education) who led us to a guesthouse where they never normally allowed white people apparently because they didn't want complaints about their standards, although for us, this was not an issue* which was much cheaper than anything we saw in Lonely Planet, and much more fun - the four of us shared a room in comfortable double beds (apart from poor Vtec, who had a mattress on the floor).

 What else did we get up to? Well, one night we stayed at Poring Hot Springs Park, where everything was shut down by 7pm. Naturally that led Vtec on a quest for alcohol (OK, I joined him) and we began a dangerous night hike through the deep jungle (read: chasing fireflies along a paved road which bordered the jungle). Feeling guilty by the amount of fun we were having, we stopped back at the room to collect the rest of the team, and now with flashlights, we led them further along the same path. We progressed more slowly as we could hear a noise from ahead - over the gentle trickling sounds of a stream there was a louder roaring sound. Somebody eventually voiced their fears of being eaten by a clouded leopard, or trampled by a pgymy elephant until we stopped in our tracks, and huddled together in the middle of the road. Everyone was petrified of making any movement, should the unidentifiable beast come out of the bushes to attack. Madara was on the verge of hysteria. For four sensible adults, with a combined age of 112, it should not have taken us so long to realise that the sound came from a SPRINKLER. Or rather, a broken pipe - sporadically spraying water on nearby vegetation. 

The highlight of my trip was later the same night, when fueled by adrenaline from our brush with death and local rice whiskey, we decided to explore the closed park by night. A gap in the fence made this fairly easy, and we stealthily sneaked into the compound to look around - until we found the hot springs - and so our brief adventure as David Attenborough wannabes ended. Petrina was in her element; skinny dipping in the hot springs and playing with friendly cats after. It was so great to be there with just the group of us, that we didn't really see any point in going back in the next day (although we had tickets this time) - the place was an absolute zoo with all the tourists absolutely crammed into the pools. Although we did look at the butterflies.

All in all, we couldn't have planned this trip any better than it turned out. Which is why I'm glad we didn't try.

* I've been in Asia for so long that when I went into the bathroom, I noticed the tap, bucket and scoop and began having an Asian shower - I only found out about the actual shower head higher up on the wall because someone mentioned it later. 

Celebrating Halloween in Asia

Halloween in Asia does not even vaguely resemble it's origins in the West. I've only found one fancy dress shop in the whole of Kota Kinabalu (a decent sized city) where you can buy outfits, but for some reason it's all in pre-teen sizes. Asian pre-teen sizes - that's pretty small. Deciding we would have to celebrate this annual excuse for mugging strangers for chocolate in other ways, we bought a pumpkin.

A previous pumpkin

Can I just mention that my pumpkin carving skills are pretty damn good. I mean I've done some fairly intricate vegetable carving work before. Because it turns out those brightly coloured (do they inject E-numbers at birth?) supermarket pumpkins are bred for you to decapitate with a sharp knife. The pumpkin I found was not so well genetically modified - it had walls three inches thick! Which meant cutting it was really hard. Which meant that the elaborate fanged mouth I would normally do was going to be really tricky. I suspect the reason it was such a fleshy vegetable is because no Asian person in their right mind would waste a whole meal for their family of 12 on a goopy mess that's going to be covered in bugs approximately five seconds after you put it outside - so pumpkins here are actually for eating.

A prunken Drumpkin

Also, this dock I'm on right now has at least THREE kids on it and none of them have been trick-or-treating; they're probably inside killing old grannies on the streets of GTA, or whatever it is kids are playing these days.

Despite the lack of children dressed in scary masks based on cartoons that I'm too old to recognize, there are benefits to Halloween in Asia. Here are some of them: 


Today the weather was 30-something degrees.
Right now it's around 26.
I haven't seen a drop of rain, or a cloud in the sky.
I went diving this morning at around 10am wearing a thin dive skin.
...I went diving.
No one here has any idea what a good pumpkin should look like, so they think mine's great!
If none of the kids gets their act together and realize they can come and beg for candy, I get to eat all of it myself. Mwa-ha-HA-haaaaaaaaa

Also the nightlife is probably the sole exception to people who don't care about our pagan festival - most clubs have a prize for the best costume on the night. Hopefully we'll have a good chance of winning, as we've had a lot more experience creating fancy dress from scratch than I think they have!

Begin at the Beginning

Some of you may be wondering: how did that strange girl that writes too much get to where she is now? From rainy old London to a boat in Malaysia in the middle of a storm. In a nutshell, this is how it happened: My parents had sex around 24 years and five months ago.
TMI,sorry.

Well after working enough to save up a little bit of money (my thanks to Cote Brasserie and the Foxman!) I was wondering how far around the world you could get for the lowest amount of money. Skyscanner helped me with this - they had flights to Bangkok from London for 300GBP. Kate had given me a wonderful book for my birthday - pictures and a short description of every country in the world. I flipped to the page on Thailand: beautiful beaches, stunning lady boys and strange food. It sounded like a great place to start! I booked my ticket, singular, that night. I didn't really consider how much* time you need to get organised for a round the world trip - I figured one month was long enough for me to give my notice and have some jabs. Apart from missing one of the shots, I just about made it to the airport in time! 


In the local supermarket...

My adventures in Thailand were as much as to be expected - and more! I overdosed on temples pretty quickly, found that although there are some beautiful lady boys out there, there are also some pretty unfortunate ones too, started couchsurfing, met loads of cool people (more on all these adventures later) and before I knew it, my first month was gone! In this time I'd also got my open water and advanced PADI qualifications, attended the obligatory full-moon party and successfully navigated the Bangkok public transport system, on the way to the airport for my second month on the road - in Burma!

Burma was very special - this is where I was adopted for the first time, met some truly incredible and inspirational individuals, saw the temples at Bagan, went swimming in lake Inle, got into trouble with the immigration officials at Naypyidaw and went back in time, to a place where the locals didn't bother with modern inconveniences like tractors, or electricity. I also had the most fun I've probably ever had - before or after - during Thingyuan (Burmese New Year festival) which was pretty much a nation wide water fight. It was a short flight back to Thailand, but such an extreme difference in the development of the two neighboring countries. 



Teaching colours, using Twister

Back to Thailand, then, for some air conditioned 7/11 treats. I took the train up north, and spent some time hanging out in Chiang Mai, before taking the bus to Chiang Rai, and settling here for the next 10 months or so as I found a school that was willing to let me teach their students (I'm still not sure why they let me). I had a fantastic time here, learning a lot more about Thai culture than you could ever find in a book, making friends, adopting families and hopefully teaching somebody something. 

I had some holidays in this time - a month I spent in Lao, making new friends, and meeting some old, whilst kayaking, rock climbing, visiting waterfalls, sustaining the worst injury of this trip so far (broken finger - thanks to the excellent Nurse Lauren, it's only slightly wonky now), tubing, doing some cultural stuff, like going to Phonsavan and seeing the plain of Jars, plus the caves at Vieng Xai. I was lucky to be in Vientiane, applying for my Thai visa, whilst the beautiful Lao Loi Krathong festival was in full force. I made my way back to Thailand (in time to see the festival all over again) and back to school. 

Riding a water buffalo, of course.

"Gravity works like this..."

I started to make plans for moving on - a fellow traveller had told me about findacrew.net, and I eagerly set up a profile, although I didn't have much of an expectation - I thought it would be another of those things I am endlessly signing up for, only to unsubscribe six months later when you realise your inbox is full of junk emails you've stopped opening. Happily, I couldn't have been more wrong if I'd tried. I got in touch with Captain Brian, of Furthur - we met up at New years in Phuket, and I delayed my return to school so I could join the trip to the Similan Islands for diving - something I am very glad I did. I met some other crew whilst here - Julie and Anya, my first companions on the boat.

Beautiful beach at Koh Raja

That beautiful holiday ended all too soon - back up north for another few months of 'teaching'. When school had finished for good, I made the 24hour bus journey - 1000 miles! - back down to Phuket, where the boat was waiting in Royal Phuket Marina, ready to cruise again. New crew this time, but the journey was just as fantastic, as well as some more incredible diving around Koh Ha, Racha Yai/Noi, Hin Deang and Hin Mueng and on, towards Malaysia. 

The rest of the last eight months have flown by - we've done some amazing things, met awesome people - not to mention the diving! - and cruised down the length of Malaysia, past Singapore all the way to Flores in Indonesia, before changing direction to head up around the coast of Borneo. 

"Room for one more?"

Boat travel suits me very well - I'm a lazy backpacker, and being able to sleep in one bed, yet have a different view nearly every day is incredible. It's a fantastic way to get around, especially all these archipelagos that are made of thousands of islands. I can't wait to get to the Philippines and see another new country, both above and below the water. Making a profile on find a crew has been one of the smartest things I've done on this trip so far. Maybe the best part is that long bus rides are now optional!


Now you know where I am, and how I got here. I aim to write about everything that I've previously done on this trip, as well as all the exciting new things.

*There's so much else you have to do! 
- Vaccinations (I got rabies, Hep A and B, yellow fever, a tetanus booster and unfortunately, a completely pointless and expensive Japanese B encephalitis shot. I also picked up lots of anti-malarials).
- Start a travel blog (Ha! Who has time for that before you leave?) 
- Go shopping. Seriously, I barely had any of the necessary stuff: a good first aid kit, walking boots, a big backpack, a raincoat, travel proof clothes - e.g. quick drying, wrinkle proof lightweight clothing. If you can find something that looks good and also has UV protection built in, you get extra points! Also a travel towel - mine is an attractive shade of puke green, but was a bargain. Most important on your list: a sleeping bag liner - if made of tightly woven silk these things stop bed bugs from biting you, and anyone that's ever been bitten will tell you what a horrific experience that is.
- Some things I took that I've barely used - a sleeping bag, waterproof matches (actually I used those up really quickly lighting mosquito coils), and the new raincoat.
- Organising travel documents - visas etc, making sure your passport has enough pages/years left on it. It's a good idea to scan and save an electronic copy of all these things in case you find yourself in a situation without your passport. 
- Changing money - there are some bank accounts you can set up from home that allow you to exchange your money before you leave so you won't be charged with a terrible rate every time you hit up an ATM when you're on the road. This is probably most useful if you're going to the US, Australia or New Zealand (I didn't find them in any other currencies). Otherwise it's a good idea to travel with some back up cash, in case you get stranded/have an emergency/lose your bank card. 
- Saying goodbye. Organising one big party/event and hoping everyone can be there would have been a sensible way to do it, if you can spare some cash from your travel budget.
- Planning an itinerary. Although this is definitely optional, and I've never been very good at it, it's nice to know where you're heading from the airport at least. 

Good luck and safe travels!

The next adventure

The next adventure came sooner than we would have liked – sailing from Kudat towards Kota Kinabalu around the northernmost tip of Borneo in the South China Sea.

A small problem of the engine completely stopping, whilst in rough waters…also with a squall, giving us 45knots of wind to go against. And to make things even more interesting, we were drifting uncontrollably whilst perilously close to a pinnacle that jutted out of the water, some 50metres away. 

Honestly, I don’t make this stuff up. 

An image of the squall on the radar which we were right in the middle of. Everything yellow is lots of wind, rain and big waves. Plus the rocks to the left, of course.

Luckily for us, Furthur is installed with a ‘Get Home’ system – or APU which allows the propeller to be run by power from the generator, rather than the engine in situations like ours. In flat, calm waters it should manage around 4knots – or about half of what we’d normally cruise at.

In this mess, we found the system worked, although a bit slower than promised given the conditions. We quickly devised a system – as soon as the engine ignition switch light went off, the engine would stall, (despite our threats and pleas) which meant Brian would run down to the engine room to turn on the get-home while I waited to steer the boat as soon as we had power. Emily watched the small engine ignition switch light like a hawk, and would shout out the second the light came back on - the engine would run again. This happened somewhere between 15 and 20 times throughout the rest of our 70 mile journey to Kota Kinabalu. Every time the light came back on, we’d be back to battle stations – Brian in the engine room, turning off the get home (you can't run both systems simultaneously), and me at the helm, trying to avoid the worst of the 3-4m swells and re-starting the engine.

Emily decided that bed was the safest place to be in the rough stuff!

Some 14 hours later, we limped into the most beautiful marina I’ve ever seen – Sutera Harbour Resort, which is just what we need for a month of well-earned R&R. 

A spectacular sunset from the marina

If you need me, I’ll be at the pool.