Borneo continued
Well hello all! Ben again! It has been a while since our last post and I'm sure I could write for hours on all we have done but I will try and keep it breif!
From KK we got a coach to Mount Kinabalu national park. We had previously decided not to climb the mountain so we just spent a couple of days doing the trails around the park. These were still pretty strenuous at times, especially when the cliff path collapses leaving gaps requiring big Indiana Jones style jumps. It was very nice at Kinabalu though, a cool climate like back home for a bit of a change!
From the mountain we made our way to the other side of the national park to a place called Poring. Poring is famous for its Hot Springs, sounds great yeah! Well it is thourougly average, the springs are just big tiled bath tubs which take hours to fill up! I soon resorted to removing the taps and letting the water run freely, even if it did deny water to other people for a bit! Poring also had a canopy walkway through the jungle which reaches 40m at some points, it was pretty cool! We really need to upload some photos! There were also a couple of waterfalls here, one 10mins away which was only 10m high and the other 2 hours away but 120m high! So, i decided being as I hadn't done the mountain I better take the challenge of the hike to the waterfall! 4 hours climbing may not seem like too much but we had been warned that you had to tell the park headquarters if you are doing it because the path is a bit dangerous! So I set of at 6:30 and was on my way, turns out the path is fine and only took 1 1/2 hours to get there, but the waterfall was AWESOME!!! Again, photos to follow!
We had met a group of 6 English people when in Kinabalu and they were taking a similar route around Borneo so we decided to stick together for a while. They are all graduates with useless art degrees too!!! So we headed to Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre together. Well, what can I say? They are fascinating creatures, I don't think I have ever taken so many pictures in one sitting! We went to two feedings, there were 12 Orang-utans at the first and almost as many at the second. It is quite easy to watch them for hours, they are amazingly human-like! A little more like some humans than others, no names mentioned!!! It was quite expensive at Sepilok though so we didn't stay long.
The others we met were hoping to do their Open Water PADI scuba diving courses at Sipadan Island (one of the top 5 diving locations in the world) Alice and I had considered it too so I called a dive company there and managed to get a discount because there were lots of us! Only 100 pounds to learn to dive in one of the most beautiful places in the world! You just have to ignore the fact the 50 people were kidnapped there 5 years ago and held in the Philipines for 5 months!!!
Anyway, off we went to Semporna (the mainland town the course is run out of). We have a lovely room here for hardly any money! The dive centre is called Scuba Junkie and is the only PADI approved one here (we checked with PADI first), Scuba Junkie run by a Scot and a German both really nice. On the 14th we started the course with the theory part (watching loads of videos then doing a short exam. Miss Swat Marshall got 96%!!!
THEN DISASTER STRUCK! Alice ate something bad that night and was sick all night, there was no way she could do the practical part of the course the next day. :{ I carried on with it with the rest of the group. We all hoped that Alice could join us the next day to catch up, but no. The practical training took place on the most idilic desert island called Sibuan; palm trees, white sands, clear shallow reef! It was heaven, just wish Alice had been there to see it! Alice was still no better on the third day, we had tried all sorts of anti nausea medicine and little bits of different food. Everything comes up! All the people we are with and the dive operators have been amazingly helpful and nice. Then yesterday I did a dive trip to Sipadan island. I hate having so much fun while Alice lies in bed pukeing but the diving here really was AMAZING!!! We saw Reef sharks, Grey sharks (3m long), Hammerhead sharks, the entire cast of Finding Nemo (if I was to go through all the fish we saw you would get very bored!!) and best of all we saw about 30+ turtles. They were so docile and old looking, but really graceful. They come right up to you, close enough to stroke them. We took an underwater camera down and have loads of photos, so I shall post them as soon as we get to Perth. I simply loved this place! Most of the reef is at about 12m but then the famous bit is a 600m drop-off. As Open Water grads we are allowed to go to 18m but I snuck down to 29m! But while I am having the time of my life, Alice is still poorly. She is really fed up now.
This morning she ate a little banana and some toast so I think she is on the mend. Unfortunately we have missed our flight back to KL. To make our flight from Singapore to Perth on the 21st we must spend a small fortune on new flights as Alice doesn't feel up to long bus journeys. We cant really afford it but thats what credit cards are for hey! Thankfully Scuba Junkie are signing Alice's exam paper so she doesn't have to do the theory again and they are not charging her anything! So she is determined to complete the course when we reach OZ. One day we will come back to Sipadan, it really is truly amazing!
So, now we spend 2 more days in Semporna. What makes things worse is the fact the Semporna is a crap town, there is nothing here and the people are getting a little annoying! I know they are just curious and we look very different but EVERYONE beeps their car horn at you and the girls we are with keep getting rather horrible propersitions! There is a chance that if Alice is well enough on the 20th she may get to snorkel at Sipadan (still an amazing experience) I snorkelled a little between dives and still saw sharks and had turtles following me!
I apologise for writing so much but a lot has happened recently, I cant wait to show you all the pictures. Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery for Alice. Send your get well messages and I will forward them to her!
Post again soon.
Ben
Excuse spelling mistakes, cant be bothered to read through all that again!!!
From KK we got a coach to Mount Kinabalu national park. We had previously decided not to climb the mountain so we just spent a couple of days doing the trails around the park. These were still pretty strenuous at times, especially when the cliff path collapses leaving gaps requiring big Indiana Jones style jumps. It was very nice at Kinabalu though, a cool climate like back home for a bit of a change!
From the mountain we made our way to the other side of the national park to a place called Poring. Poring is famous for its Hot Springs, sounds great yeah! Well it is thourougly average, the springs are just big tiled bath tubs which take hours to fill up! I soon resorted to removing the taps and letting the water run freely, even if it did deny water to other people for a bit! Poring also had a canopy walkway through the jungle which reaches 40m at some points, it was pretty cool! We really need to upload some photos! There were also a couple of waterfalls here, one 10mins away which was only 10m high and the other 2 hours away but 120m high! So, i decided being as I hadn't done the mountain I better take the challenge of the hike to the waterfall! 4 hours climbing may not seem like too much but we had been warned that you had to tell the park headquarters if you are doing it because the path is a bit dangerous! So I set of at 6:30 and was on my way, turns out the path is fine and only took 1 1/2 hours to get there, but the waterfall was AWESOME!!! Again, photos to follow!
We had met a group of 6 English people when in Kinabalu and they were taking a similar route around Borneo so we decided to stick together for a while. They are all graduates with useless art degrees too!!! So we headed to Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre together. Well, what can I say? They are fascinating creatures, I don't think I have ever taken so many pictures in one sitting! We went to two feedings, there were 12 Orang-utans at the first and almost as many at the second. It is quite easy to watch them for hours, they are amazingly human-like! A little more like some humans than others, no names mentioned!!! It was quite expensive at Sepilok though so we didn't stay long.
The others we met were hoping to do their Open Water PADI scuba diving courses at Sipadan Island (one of the top 5 diving locations in the world) Alice and I had considered it too so I called a dive company there and managed to get a discount because there were lots of us! Only 100 pounds to learn to dive in one of the most beautiful places in the world! You just have to ignore the fact the 50 people were kidnapped there 5 years ago and held in the Philipines for 5 months!!!
Anyway, off we went to Semporna (the mainland town the course is run out of). We have a lovely room here for hardly any money! The dive centre is called Scuba Junkie and is the only PADI approved one here (we checked with PADI first), Scuba Junkie run by a Scot and a German both really nice. On the 14th we started the course with the theory part (watching loads of videos then doing a short exam. Miss Swat Marshall got 96%!!!
THEN DISASTER STRUCK! Alice ate something bad that night and was sick all night, there was no way she could do the practical part of the course the next day. :{ I carried on with it with the rest of the group. We all hoped that Alice could join us the next day to catch up, but no. The practical training took place on the most idilic desert island called Sibuan; palm trees, white sands, clear shallow reef! It was heaven, just wish Alice had been there to see it! Alice was still no better on the third day, we had tried all sorts of anti nausea medicine and little bits of different food. Everything comes up! All the people we are with and the dive operators have been amazingly helpful and nice. Then yesterday I did a dive trip to Sipadan island. I hate having so much fun while Alice lies in bed pukeing but the diving here really was AMAZING!!! We saw Reef sharks, Grey sharks (3m long), Hammerhead sharks, the entire cast of Finding Nemo (if I was to go through all the fish we saw you would get very bored!!) and best of all we saw about 30+ turtles. They were so docile and old looking, but really graceful. They come right up to you, close enough to stroke them. We took an underwater camera down and have loads of photos, so I shall post them as soon as we get to Perth. I simply loved this place! Most of the reef is at about 12m but then the famous bit is a 600m drop-off. As Open Water grads we are allowed to go to 18m but I snuck down to 29m! But while I am having the time of my life, Alice is still poorly. She is really fed up now.
This morning she ate a little banana and some toast so I think she is on the mend. Unfortunately we have missed our flight back to KL. To make our flight from Singapore to Perth on the 21st we must spend a small fortune on new flights as Alice doesn't feel up to long bus journeys. We cant really afford it but thats what credit cards are for hey! Thankfully Scuba Junkie are signing Alice's exam paper so she doesn't have to do the theory again and they are not charging her anything! So she is determined to complete the course when we reach OZ. One day we will come back to Sipadan, it really is truly amazing!
So, now we spend 2 more days in Semporna. What makes things worse is the fact the Semporna is a crap town, there is nothing here and the people are getting a little annoying! I know they are just curious and we look very different but EVERYONE beeps their car horn at you and the girls we are with keep getting rather horrible propersitions! There is a chance that if Alice is well enough on the 20th she may get to snorkel at Sipadan (still an amazing experience) I snorkelled a little between dives and still saw sharks and had turtles following me!
I apologise for writing so much but a lot has happened recently, I cant wait to show you all the pictures. Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery for Alice. Send your get well messages and I will forward them to her!
Post again soon.
Ben
Excuse spelling mistakes, cant be bothered to read through all that again!!!
posted by alicestronaut at 7:12 am
3 Comments:
Get well soon Alice!! Lula xxx
Hello Pukeface! Sorry you're not feeling well... get well soon for xmas! You were missed loads at the weekend at Laura's Christmas (Gayfest) party! Love you chicky! Ser xxx
Oops, I had the wrong link for your journal so I've been looking at Alice taking a photo of herself in a lift since you left England. Now I know loads though! Sounds amazing. Stop sicking and go talk to turtles Alice! Glad you're both having so much fun! X
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