22.04
In the morning we go out together again. We eat some roti at a Malaysian eatery and the two of us continue walking around Saratok. People here are mostly Malay, which is not typical for Borneo. Usually towns are inhabited mainly by Chinese.
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15.04
We head to the outskirts of Kuching on foot. The city is called “The city of cats”. At almost every roundabout we see figures and statues of cats, but we couldn’t understand why they are so honored here and we didn’t see much cats on the streets.
One comes to Borneo in order to see natural wonders, endemits, rare animals and plants. Historical landmarks and architectural buildings are not the strong sides of the island.
Our next destination is Gunung Gading National Park. We want to visit it in order to see the parasitic giant flower Rafflesia. Here grows a rare kind of Rafflesia that blossoms only at the territory of this park.
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Long-nosed monkey
04.04
We have two options: to take the ferry back to Sumatra, Indonesia or to first visit the Malaysian part of Borneo. The things is that there are no ships sailing to Borneo, the yachts going in this direction are just a few, so the only option left is to find a cheap flight. On this journey we travel only by land or on water, but we decide that Borneo is worth it so we will make an exception. In addition the flight with Air Asia costs just 25 Euro per person (luggage and all included). So we will visit the oldest tropical forest in the world, a dream come true for every nature lover and explorer and we will also see the sultan of Brunei :)… or at least the sultanate.
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24.03
In the morning the boy from the poor Muslim house brings us coffee. His grandmother, who sent him, waves us merrily from inside the house. There is so much goodness “lurking” behind every corner!
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We cross the border easily. All European Union citizens have the right to stay 90 days in Singapore without the need of issuing a visa. Nobody checks our luggage and some short minutes later we enter officially in Singapore. Laws here are very strict, but we follow them closely – we don’t smuggle any drugs, don’t have hand-cuffs in our luggage and the most important: we don’t bring on us any chewing gum. Later we asked some people why is it illegal to have chewing gum here but nobody gave us an adequate answer. As far as drugs are concerned there is a death sentence, if you carry any, without the right to appeal. Another official punishment is beating. Thanks God we are just innocent tourists 🙂 Continue reading
07.03
In the morning we acquaint with a retired American who is photographer and his Thai wife. They are the only tourists we meet here. They give us eggs and some bread and then they agree to take us to the close-by town Gua Musang.
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28.02-06.03
In the morning we recharged our camera in one of the floating restaurants close to the river bank. After that we took a boat. On the opposite side there were many giant tree with branches hanging over the water. We paid the tickets (just 0,25$ per person), took a map from the headquarter, made a photo of a diagram with the altitude of the base camps and around 12 o’clock we were absolutely ready to be swallowed by the jungle.
The Golden Triangle itself
04.01
We continue hitchhiking north towards the Golden Triangle. The region is defined by Mekong River and forms a triangle on the border among Thailand, Laos and Burma and is famous for producing opium for hundreds of years. Traditionally here live mountain tribes, animists with quite exotic customs whose main crop is poppy. People in Thailand don’t use opium and heroin anymore and the government tries to educate the tribes to start growing other cultures and to develop its tourist industry here in the meanwhile. In Laos and Burma things are different. There they continue producing drugs full force and Burma is the main producer of methamphetamine and they often traffic their production through Thailand. Nevertheless the region is considered safe. Continue reading
Old temple
27.12
In the morning a ranger with a motor bike comes and he doesn’t seem worried at all that we are camping at the pavilion which is in the center of the park area. He just asks us when we plan to leave and even gives us a lighter because ours is out of gas. Good that he did because without it we wouldn’t have even drunk our morning tea. Continue reading
Ima Market (Mothers’ Market), Imphal
16.11
In the morning we have the chance to meet our benefactor and his whole family. It turns out he is the uncle of the men whose door we knocked on yesterday. The surrounding other 3-4 houses, with the belonging land which is quite vast, also belong to their family – they are in fact rich Brahmans. Our guy is the eldest of all and this is the reason why they take us to him so he can decide how to proceed. He looks young and has lived 20 years in Canada where his wife and sons still are. Continue reading
Magic Kervan 