OVERLAND CRUISING

Arrived in Kuching Borneo, and it feels like the first day of a new trip, on our own, and with nobody but ourselves to make decisions. We booked in at the Kuching Waterfront hotel which is very nice and first up is the Orang Utans at Semenggoh, so it was up early to catch the 7.15 bus - total cost of 3 ringits! We were the first to arrive at the reserve, paid our 3 ringit entry fee and walked the two km to the feeding area. This was a lot cheaper than taking a tour where fees start about 60 ringits . There are 27 apes in the reserve and we saw 8 different ones at various times, the rangers were very cautious as there had been a ape attack earlier in the week and a ranger had a finger bitten off and a leg broken. We took some terrific photos and thought it was a great value day out .
Next stop Baku National Park for three days staying in the lodges, you can only access the park by speedboat an exhilarating experience for the 45 minute journey, finally landing on a deserted beach and wading ashore. We hired a guide for the first day to show us the ropes and the best places to visit during our trip. It was evident that this was the place to come for Probiscus monkeys and we saw lots very close up which is unusual as they have a reputation for being shy. There were also the naughty Macacque monkeys and silver tail monkeys plus wild boar wandering about with their young in tow. On the way back from breakfast one morning Sandra was walking back to our room from the canteen when a group of Macacques attacked her for the cornflake packet tucked under her arm, one even jumped on her back so we had to beat them off and I guarded her back while we ran for it. There were also plenty of snakes, reptiles and insects which were pointed out to us on a night hike .
On the last day we decided to trek the Lintang trail with a side trip to Kesil beach a distance of about 8 kms, the heat and the humidity was very high plus it was raining heavily for a couple of hours and the terrain was very difficult and wet and although we took a litre of water each, I began to struggle towards the end and got back to the camp just in time where I quickly drank 3 cans of isotonic drink, 2 cans of orange juice and loads of water. I had cramp in both my legs and feet.
Caught the boat back to Kuching, then flew to Miri, and bused it to Brunei, crossing the zig zagging border 10 times in one day (not much more room in our passports). We were lucky to meet a local guide called Danny at the bus station and he showed us around the capital Bandar Seri Begawan and the Palace of the Sultan of Brunei, who believe it or not, personally owns over 3000 cars, 2 black hawk helicopters and a boeing 747 of which he is a qualified pilot . We went out on a speedboat for the afternoon for a wonderfull insight into life on the river. We have seen many floating villages on our travels but nothing on the scale of this. There were 3 large floating schools,3 fire stations, a midwife, hospita, in fact a whole infrastructure which was absolutely amazing.
Onwards to Kota Kinabalu where we were hoping to climb/trek up Mount Kinabalu but found the mountain closed as the annual climbathon was taking place at the weekend and all the park accommation had been fully booked for months so we decided to cut Borneo short and move on to Bali early. Two other factors in this decision was the amount of rainfall we have had since arriving, and we have both caught coughs and colds.
We stayed for two weeks in Sanur Bali in a very nice apartment, probably one of the best of the trip, called Amansari Villas. We hired a motorbike and while out biking, actually met up with Russell and Sylvia by chance on the road and spent some great time swopping stories,and experiences since the end of the trip. So it was another goodbye as our next destination is Perth to meet Darcie our new granddaughter for the first time, plus a reunion with Nick, Karen, Julian and later Sarah when she arrives from England on the 18th November.

Arrived in Singapore on the 8th September, and straight away it was off to the Raffles "Long Bar" for the World famous Singapore Sling". We ate peanuts and threw the skins on the floor - which didn't seem quite right, and sipped our very EXPENSIVE cocktails for as long as possible. It's an iconic journey London to Singapore overland, and I would not be suprised if we are not the first vehicle to complete this journey in 2011.

We were all booked in to stuff and drink ourselves silly (Sylvia) at the Hyatt Hotel Sunday Buffet. It was our final meal together and what a spectacular finale. Unlimited Champagne, and an eye popping buffet that lasted for four hours. I am sure my stomach will protest at all the rich food after the noodle and rice diet we have been on for months.

This is it - THE END.

Our six months are over, and a lot of tearful goodbye's as we all go our seperate ways, some lucky one's for more independant travel and others back home and work. We will miss all of our fellow travellers and really hope that we can meet up again some day (12.12.2012) it's a bit like school days - you don't realise what you have until it's gone.

Sandra and I would like to thank, Russell and Sylvia (our trekking buddies), Steve, Zoe and Susan, Lucy, Emily, Denis, Ben, Jenny, Clare, Wendy and Colin, Mel, Sally, Mandy, Alfie, Richard and Andrea, and last but not least Paul, for being such wonderful and supportive friends.

Thank you to Odyessey and the crew, CJ and Jim for providing us the opportunity and leading us so well.

We are now in Borneo, and will continue to post blogs until the end of our trip.

Malaysia is the third border in a row that we have negotiated ourselves, as we did not relish the stay in the National Park during the wet season or the subsequent long drive. We opted for an overnight train to Penang and saved two days which we spent in and around Penang Island. On the 25th Sept we booked an Island Tour and were lucky to have our own driver for the day. He was very knowledgable and the four hour tour lasted 6 hours and we returned exhausted. The highlights for us were Snake Temple, Butterfly Park, the local Tea and Coffee factories, a Batik printing clothes shop, where of course Sandra found a skirt to buy, Fishermans Village and Spice and Exotic Fruit tastings. The group arrived at 7.00pm and we had a nice meal in the night market opposite the hotel with our Canadian friends Sylvia and Russell.
Monday the 26th and a trip to the Vernicular Railway for some spectacular views of Penang only downside was the heavy rain showers which are getting more persistant as we get into the wet season. We went back to the hotel by the same route up, but Russell and Sylvia decided to walk back from the top, unfortunately it turned into an epic for them and they arrived back late in the afternoon after a really long walk.
A drive across Malaysia to the Perhentian Islands (27th Sept) and a speedboat out to our Island Beach Resort called Watercolours. Unfortunately we felt the accomodation was not great and moved next door to the Coral Island Resort into a bungalow right on the beach front which started a stampede and eight others soon followed. We had a relaxing time on the beach lazing just in or around the water. It was Zoe's Birthday, and to celebrate, Zoe and Susan arranged a Truck Olympic Competition on the beach with plenty of silly games and Sandra was again in the winning team which makes it a 100% record for her in all the truck games as she has always been on the winning team.
An early start on 1st Oct with Kuala Lumpur our next destination, this is a big concrete city with not much to do other than shopping. We did however find the Worlds Largest Free Flight Walk in Bird Aviary and found lots of exotic birds flying around inside a giant net. I got bitten on the thumb by a Lorikeet parrot and Sandra had a problem with a Pelican who managed to open its beak and had her head inside before a warden intervened.
We spent the last night being entertained at "Smellie Nellies" by a little irish git called Ben who seems to think he's some sort of comedian (as if), it was his Birthday Celebration and he had been promising us a gig for 6 months you would think after all that time to practise .... Seriously it was a riotous evening and very funny even the locals were in stitches, the other local comedian was very good and the group had some great sing a long songs.
Next stop Melaka 5th Oct and we just really lazed around chilling out with the group, must mention the cycle Tuk Tuks covered in plastic flowers and fairy lights blaring out pop music was much better than a taxi, and they were also very knowledgable about the City and sights . This is where we said goodbye to Calypso our trusted home and travel companion over the last six months, she has travelled over 23,000 km without a breakdown or puncture not bad for a converted dustcart. It's a shame, but the powers that be said it was" too expensive" and difficult to drive into Singapore - not sure that the right decision was made on this one.
I think our lives seriously changed on 6th Oct with the arrival of our first grandchild Darcie Matilda and we can't wait to get into Perth and meet up with Karen and Nick and have a cuddle with little Darcie.

Arrived under our own steam in Bangkok on 7th September after an easy border crossing from Cambodia and again met up with the group at the hotel on the Koa San Road. Once again no window in the room but Hey Hi now getting used to it. Went out on our own the first evening for a great fish meal, I had tiger prawns and Sandra went for snapper!
Then took the train as a group to Chang Mai to meet up with Jim who had collected Calypso from Laos as the truck had not been allowed in to Vietnam and Cambodia due to technicalities. Decided to rent a motorcycle for the day (10th Sep) and made our" first mistake" by not paying extra for an automatic, after a brief sortie around the ring road it was off to the mountain to visit the temple, as we arrived it absolutely tipped down for about an hour and on the way back we saw a sign for the waterfall "second mistake", after taking the turnoff and paying our entrance fee 400 baht we found ourselves going up a steep hill and the bike was struggling in 2nd gear so "third mistake" I put it into 1st gear and immediately the front wheel reared up and the bike fell back on top of us. As we were only wearing shorts t-shirts and sandals "fourth mistake" we found ourselves with varios wounds to hands, elbows, knees and toes etc and after a brief mop up we decided to get back to the hotel to clean up our wounded pride. Surprised everybody raves about Chang Mai as we found it quite boring, must be our ages or the extraordinary places that we have visited on our journey so far .
As we had the choice to take the train or truck to Kanchanaburi we decided on the train and were surprised to be the only people to take this option. The sleeper train journey was quite exciting as the recent heavy rain had caused extensive flooding of the countryside, and the train was delayed 5 hours as the water was covering the tracks and the train could only go at walking pace, all you could see for miles was the tops of trees poking out with thousands of birds looking for a perch. We found out later that ours was the last train to get through for 7 days. We stayed at the Apple Retreat Hotel which was within walking distance of the Bridge over the River Kwai made famous by the film with Alec Guinness. Also visited the Erawan Waterfalls which consisted of 7 falls at various heights we made 6 before time ran out and we were turned back by park staff as you needed enough time to return safely before dark.
Wednesday 14th Sept and a group of us rented a large Tuk Tuk and visited the Death Railway at Hellfire Pass. The railway was 415km linking Burma with Thailand and was built by allied prisoners of war in 1942 over 100,000 men died in brutal conditions. In the afternoon it was off to the Tiger Sanctuary and we were not sure what to expect as there had been a lot of bad publicity, but everyone who decided to enter had an excellant afternoon walking fully grown tigers on leads and petting them whilst having numerous photographs taken. I can only say that we saw no evidence of drugs or ill treatment to the animals and it was the best 600 bahts spent so far.
On an off note and a warning to future travellers to Asia two ladies in our group had bags snatched by motorcyclists within a 24 hour period in Kanchanaburi .
After a long drive to Surat Thani the group separated for "beach week" on the islands, we opted for Koh Samui and had swopped a week of our timeshare in Spain for a week at Saboey Resort in the north of the island. We chose well, and spent a wonderful relaxing time around the infinity swimming pool with jacuzi. Risked another motorbike for 3 days without mishap this time .
Decided to bypass the two nights at the National Park as we had been warned it was the wrong time of the year to visit (rain) and caught the bus ,train and ferry to Penang, crossing the border into Malaysia 2 days early and another new adventure .