1st April, Sabah, Borneo

1 April 2009 Ranau, Sabah, Borneo

The adventure continues!

Our last few days in Vietnam saw us reach the South China Sea, south of Ho Chi Minh, which turned into an expected highlight as the road petered out as it reached the sea in a suitably non-descript little village. On the horizon we could just make out some islands in the distance – phase 4!

The traffic of Ho Chi Minh, though infamous, wasn’t too bad for us (when you’ve cycled in Lahore, you can cycle anywhere!) – mopeds rule the roads, so bicycles can just enter the flow fairly easily. Crossing the road as a pedestrian, however, is a test of nerves – there is never a break in the flow of traffic, so you simply take a purposeful step into the road and continue at a very steady, even pace across the road while literally thousands of mopeds part and swerve around you. The trick is to keep moving at the same pace so that the mopeds can predict your position ahead – if you stop, or falter, you’re in big trouble! We celebrated our arrival in Ho Chi Minh with Andrew’s request – KFC! I know – not exactly a celebration of all that is Asian, but it made him happy!

So – next stop was Brunei – I have copied my diary entry for Brunei below as I think it pretty much sums it up. From there, we cycled North up the West side of Borneo to reach Kota Kinabalu. Hot hot hot, but lovely friendly people and delicious cheap food. It’s actually preferable to be cycling in the sun, than doing anything else in the sun, as at least while we are pedaling we create a breeze. Walking about in the sun is murder. We are virtually on the equator and of course we’re right at the equinox – we’ve never seen sun so high in the sky – at midday there are virtually no shadows cast at all.

We have just completed 2 of the toughest days of our journey so far, climbing high up into the mountains just south of Mount Kinabalu – a 2000 metre climb in this heat and high humidity is no joke and we’re both completely knackered. Andrew has been fighting a head cold since we arrived in Brunei which has really taken it out of him. We will take a break tomorrow at a tea plantation before tackling the next 2 days which take us to the Sepilok Orangutan Reserve. We’ve decided not to climb Mount Kinabalu – it's a very expensive exercise, we don't have the right gear with us and the cycling is exercise enough for us - so we’re happy just to see it from below and pedal on past.

The advantage of being up in the mountains again, despite (or perhaps thanks to…) the clouds and rain each afternoon, is the fact that it is slightly cooler at last. We won’t be up here for long, but we’re making the most of it and luxuriating in being cool enough not to be dripping sweat constantly. We think we have finalized our plans for the rest of our journey: we will head South down the East coast of Malaysian Borneo into Indonesian Borneo. This promises to be something of an adventure as it is pretty much off the beaten track. We have realized that to head further afield to other islands in Indonesia with the limited time that we have left, will be too risky as the ferry timetables are too unpredictable. We have committed to being back in the UK by 12th May and so we now have a deadline to work to.

Judging from some of the emails and comments we received after our last blog, I realize that I have given the impression that the cycling part of this trip was over. Believe me it’s not! We are cycling just as much as ever and reckon we will clock up around another 1,500 kilometres in Borneo. With quiet, good quality roads and beautiful scenery, I can recommend Borneo for cycling touring!

So – we’ll definitely be loading photos after we have seen the Orangutans and stayed at the Borneo Rainforest Lodge – assuming we can get internet. So keep your eyes out for photos of cute ginger fellas.


25 March 2009, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

Brunei….funny place! The architecture is a bit like Hemel Hempstead circa 1983. A bit dated and tired around the edges, with quite a few empty business properties. There is even grass growing up through the paving of the car parks – not enough cars to keep it at bay. Where is everyone? There is really hardly anyone about at all – and even fewer vehicles. No mopeds or bikes – only cars, but hardly any of them at all. It’s very peculiar – like going into town on Christmas Day: no one about and the faint suspicion that there is a big event taking place that you don’t know about, and everyone else has gone! Bandar Seri Begawan (the capital - great name!) is tiny – we already feel like we know it intimately having wandered gently about it all day.

We visited the mosque which is a very nice white building – all the turrets are covered in gold tiles and it glows, even in the moody light of impending rain, which threatened all day, but never materialized. It’s so humid that occasionally a drop of water lands on your head when the atmosphere just can’t hold it in suspension anymore, but it doesn’t amount to rain. We went to see inside the mosque and a little gathering of incredibly friendly men on duty there gave me a black kaftan and head scarf to wear. So in I went looking like a harlot dressed like a bag of potatoes, with my red painted toe nails poking out, flaunting themselves! It’s a lovely building with the sort of carpet you expect in a country pub.

Next we went into the nearby, new (it seems) shopping mall. We had the most sensibly priced cappuccino of our trip (about 60p) and had a good look around – making a mental note of the large cafeteria food hall for lunch. Back out of the air conditioning, we headed off to see the Royal Regalia Museum. An unimpressive building from the outside, (looks like a 1960s registry office), inside it’s all marble, soft carpets and treasures. As a celebration of the Sultan, the theme began to wear a bit thin after umpteen rooms of gifts from foreign nations, a series of rooms devoted to the creation of a constitution, a room given over to the raising and training and personal interests of the Sultan, and a huge series of rooms commemorating the silver jubilee which included a large scale model of the entire ceremonial room, with seating for over 1000 guests, the royal chariot and bearers and so on. It was all beautifully put together and very well done, but exhausting in the end.

Our next stop, after lunch back in the food hall, was the ‘floating village’, which is actually a series of wooden walkways out over the river to a village of houses on stilts, most of which seemed abandoned and without a soul to be seen living there. The lack of people here is peculiar – we feel like we are in some Eastern version of the Truman Show. We were staggered when we went to cross a road at a zebra crossing and the nearest approaching car slowed down and stopped for us to cross. This is the opposite extreme of the spectrum from Ho Chi Minh … and we haven’t had a vehicle make way for us since we left the UK! We have been careful to use zebra crossings – not sure what the rules here are about ‘jay walking’ and the like, and rather nervous about making errors after the announcement on the inflight tv screen warning that bringing drugs into the country was not permissible and would be punishable with death! Seemed so extreme at the time that it gave me a fit of uncontrollable and inappropriate giggles!

And that is pretty much it for Bandar Seri Begawan. Tomorrow we head off by speedboat to Bangar from where we start to cycle (ed note - the boat ride was great - we saw a HUGE crocodile that snapped its jaws at us!). Thanks to peculiar geography and land ownership, we will pass out of Brunei, into Sarawak (Malaysian Borneo) back into Brunei, back into Sarawak and finally into Sabah (also Malaysian Borneo) – 4 border crossings all in the first day!