A week in the Malaysian Peninsula

I was quite sad to leave the Philippines. It's one of my favorite countries in SE Asia for sure. But I have never really been in the Malaysian Peninsula before unless a few days stop over in KL 8 years ago counts. And countless transit flights... So about time to change the fact.

From Cebu we flew to Singapore and took a bus to Johor Bahru, as the plan was to travel to Taman Negara national park by train. Should be a scenic ride... Right... Oil palm plantations aren't really scenic.

Anyways, all worked well, both border controls were efficient and we found our small hotel next to the JB central train station. And there are also all the small food stalls! What to eat! Can I eat in every booth?

Laksa!

Next morning we boarded the train around 6 am. The train took off as scheduled just to make a weird stop after maybe one hour. So there we were, in the middle of nowhere and the old japanese steel wagon is just not moving. Grrrh. After 2 hours it made a small movement. Backwards. Grrrh. And this went on and on the whole journey. We were supposed to be in Jerantut around noon so we could still make it to the national park in the same day. But not with a train which is hours&hours late. So one night in Jerantut (good food btw!) and in the morning we took a local bus to the park.

And what a nice park it is! Taman Negara is one of the world's oldest rainforest. It's amazing! So beautiful, silent & loud at the same time. We stayed in a cheap shit hole next to the river the first night and booked a trip to a cave for the next day. Meaning 2 h in a boat up the river, 6 hours trekking through the rainforest to a huge cave where we slept on the floor one night. Absolutely fantastic! We made a small bonfire to cook food and it served as the midsummer bonfire at the same time.

Much better than a tent!

Next day we walked maybe 3-4 hours back to the river, visited a local village on the way and booked ourselves into the same shit hole as before for one more night. Just couldn't be bothered to move anywhere as we were leaving the next day anyways to Perhentian Islands for some last dives before Tanja has to fly back home and I to Borneo.

Trying out a blow pipe. I'd starve.

So, Perhentians, Kecil and Besar... The paradise islands in the Peninsula.... ok, they are quite nice and this was a really bad time to visit them as it is now the high season but still, c'mon ridiculous rip off prices for the shitty bungalows and average food. But we planned to dive most of the time anyways and that should be quite nice.

We were a bit unlucky with the visibility as there were a lot of currents which made the water really unclear. At times you could see only 3-5 meters. Pfff. But on the first dive I found a bamboo shark, on the second I didn't see shit, on the 3^rd there were a few turtles.

Hide! 

Too big to hide.

The next day I had booked 2 dives of which the first one was to Sugar wreck which is one of the best dive spots in the Perhentians. Well... There was a huge fog probably coming from oil palm plantations in Sumatra so the visibility at the sea was really crap. Our boat man didn't find the wreck. Neither did the other dive shops. So change of plans and we went to another one, vietnamese wreck. 

Maybe 5 m from surface. The best visibility of the dive.

What a bullshit dive. Huge current, I thought my mask is gonna fly off on the way down. And next to the wreck the visibility was maybe half a meter. Luckily they had told us it's a wreck, otherwise I wouldn't even have known it. I mostly saw fins kicking to my face (we were 10 divers looking to one hole) and basically I just hanged around in the back waiting for the “dive” to be over. What a waste of time & money. Not often I've been so frustrated when coming back to the boat. The last dive of the day and at Perhentias was again a bit better, we found some cool stuff at Batu Nisan but still nothing really spectacular. So Perhentias, I've been there and don't have to go back. The beaches are quite nice & coctails affordable but there are many other places much better around Asia. Like Borneo, where I'm heading next. Yayyy!!! 

Last beers with Tanja. Have a nice flight back home!

From beach to rainforest

I spent one day in Kudat, in the north of Borneo. I landed in the small town with a tiny plane, 6 seating rows. Which explained why I was asked to step to the weight belt together with my luggage at check-in. “Every kilo counts”. 

After landing there were no taxis in the airport so I hitched a ride with a local family who also flew in from Sandakan. So nice people (again), the dad dropped off the family at their house and wanted to bring me to the tip of Borneo as I told him I'll be leaving town already the next day. Quite an impressive place, roaring waves hitting the colorful rock formations. And we just arrived in time to see the sunset.

Mantanani at 6 AM.

The next morning I took a shared jeep to Kota Belud which is the nearest town to go to Mantanani Island. On the pier I met a swiss girl, Nora, who I ended up traveling together for almost a week. 

Mantanani is a fantastic small island with white sandy beaches and 2 friendly villages. But the place we stayed at, Mari-Mari "backpackers" was quite a rip off. Internet per device 15 ringits, no possibility to fill up water bottles, and they also told us in the briefing not to go near the local police station - “its not for tourists”. Well, nobody told it to the police men, who were hanging out with tourists all the time. Borrowing kayaks for free, bringing them fishing & snorkeling and giving out rice wine. 

I also did one dive, a really expensive one (of course, it was Mari-Mari...). 180 ringits for the most boring dive I've had so far. So two days in this island was enough and I decided to go and meet up with Devin & Falco again at Mulu. Nora also changed her plans short planned and came along.

Deer cave.

So. Back to Mulu :) I'm backtracking again. But I really liked it there last year, so why not. I went to Camp 5 again where's the climb to the pinnacles. But as I already tortured myself through that one last year I decided just to stay in the camp in the middle of the rainforest and to hike alone to the near by gorge. Well, it's rainy season so that was not possible. I got stuck half way as the patch was washed away and crossing the river was also not an option. 

After coming back to the park headquarters I met a friend from last year and we went to Camp 1 for one night. Another amazing place in the rainforest. Nobody had been there for quite a while and also now we got the place just for ourselves. 

That's where I also broke my record of collecting leeches. They really like my feet. But it's not a rainforest without all the insects. 

Afterwards I spent a one more night in Mulu and then it was time to head to Kuching for the last 2 nights. byäääää... Holiday over. Pia is not happy. Luckily the next trips are already planned & booked. Ireland, Sri Lanka, Maldives & Nepal! Soon!

Mulu!!!! Limestone walls&rainforest.

Coming back from camp 1.

It's not a chimney, it's a cloud of bats leaving Deer Cave.