Jakarta and Bali

We arrived in Jakarta in Indonesia last week but had to quickly leave on a plane(after less than a day) because of Idil Fidri (which is like Muslim Xmas) which meant all trains and buses were full ! Its a dump anyway with more traffic than even Mumbai in India - 8 lanes of traffic jam ! So we weren't so bothered but it meant we will miss some cool Buddhist monuments in Java.

So now we ve been in Bali for about a week.Its great - tres,tres chic. I ve never seen so many fancy bars,clubs and restaurants. We ve sampled a fair few different cocktails purely for research purposes of course.It is almost London prices in the best of these but the experience is way better ! I can safely say that Ku de Ta is the nicest,dearest and funkiest beach bar I ve ever seen - jaw dropping.The architect would have had alot of fun.I ve also had the best sushi I've EVER had a few days ago (and I ve road tested a fair bit by now!) This place is spoiling us really....

We went to a club which had a bungee jump in its garden.The first jumper did it on a fired up moped ! No one arrived til 12.30am.We've hired a moped and seen a lot of South Bali on it and now i have a perfect T shirt tan. There are surfers and great surf everywhere but we the surf school is pricey so we may try that in Lombok instead.

Our hotel is awesome - we have stunning bathroom with plants and the perfect blue sky for a roof and a beautiful swimming pool and the staff are SO sweet.

Niah Caves + Borneo Rainforest Lodge

This is the sunset in Belaga - dull town but had the best butter prawns ever and we had a hotel room with the Premiership footy on for about 14 hours over 2 days - bliss.
















These are the Niah caves and they are massive.Look carefully to see a house in one of them (on the left).We trekked for 4 hours in these buggers mostly in pitch black and sometimes in v.small enclosed walkways. It was hot as hell in there but smelt strongly of bird droppings.Worth it but hard work !

Next we flew from west to east Malaysian Borneo and thus Sarawak to Sabah ! After some fun in capital Kota Kinabalu we flew to the back of beyond (Lahad Datu) before 4 hours into the rainforest to the Borneo Rainforest Lodge.This place was heaven.Amazing rooms,great food,lovely people.Plus some of the best virgin rainforest in the world with guides to show us some of wildlife that lives there.

I was regularly attacked by these leeches whilst trekking- we all had to wear leech socks to fend them off but they are very persistent.This one liked Lizzy alot and is a Tiger leech. I had wrestled with it only moments before to free her from its deadly clutches.
















We went on lots of nature treks including one on this canopy
walk. Over the 3 days we saw wild Orangutans,Flying squirrels,a Moon Rat,deadly spiders,lizards, horn bills,a Flying Limar and so much more.




This killer ants weren't so nice but I got pretty close being the fearless explorer that I am..........







We didn't wanna leave this amazing place but in the end we had to head back to Lahad Datu for 2 days which was awful.Crap town with no redeeming features.At all.However once again the Premiership was on TV in our room and I watched tons of that and saw Arsenal go TOP OF THE LEAGUE ! Happy days for Gooners (at the moment)....


Finally we had our last night in Borneo and hit the Sushi trail.Borneo has been fantastic and the next chapter in Indonesia is tantalizingly close..........

SK Airport Longhouse village + Hassan boat dude

Belaga river village and a night in a Longhouse

Once arrived at the charming village of Belaga we met Daniel (who runs nearly all things tourist in these parts) and signed up for a "package". Before long we were heading up-river, past the hunting men who had killed an anteater and wild boar, and were swimming under this waterfall. Nice.

That night we were bundled off to stay in one of these famous "tribal longhouses" which seemed very exciting on the face of it.However it was rather modern and not on stilts (if very basic )and thus a bit disappointing.The tribal people were very nice though -the teenagers were texting - nothing new there..... and the little ones were v.cute! (see below) The grandad tried to wear the Arsenal shirt I had brought as a gift with pride but it was very hot indeed! Though actually he may have preferd the rice wine that we left behind in Belaga by mistake -doh ! He let me play the nameless 4-stringed instrument (below) that he had made himself. We didn't sleep very well and were glad to get back to Belaga and a hotel room!

We met the monkey below the next day while on our way to another village - it was the cutest thing EVER and made all our hearts melt. It was orphaned and its mummy was now a human, whose leg it has hold of here!

Bako National Park & The Mighty Batang Rejang River

After a few great days in Kuching we decided that all that great food was too much and we should go explore.So we headed to Bako National Park for some trekking and wildlife and planned to stay over night.

En route we met several lovely Swedes and eventually of us headed out on a 3 hour trek in intense humidlity the 1st hour of which was steeply up hill! The jungle was very interesting and damn hot although,as a group of 6, we were making too much noise to see much wildlife though I' m sure it was in there somewhere ! Eventually we hit a plateau and the volcanic rock made us feel like being on the moon.Around this time it started to rain really hard which was initially a welcome relief from the heat, but eventually being wet through made it less than fun.Thus upon our return to the lodge (where we saw a snake and lots of v.cheeky monkeys) we checked in and then swiftly out again of our dingy dorm room and headed back to the comforts of Kuching.

Once refreshed and dry I hit the rock n roll trail with Swede's Andreas and Charlotte and we played his guitar and swapped metal and punk tips.

Next morning we hit the Batang Rejang river trail and after 5 hrs on the coldest air con boat ever,we landed in Sibu .......which was ugly and kinda rubbish.My vertigo wasnt helped by the 8th floor hotel room but we did get to the cinema for some light relief in the form of Wall E who apparently is a rather romantic robot.We then ordered suishi and walked out in horror when it arrived straight from the fridge and looking very hard and vomit inducing.So Pizza Hut was our saviour and then next day we hit the river again this time headed for Kapit.

This place has some serious bugs (see below)

On arrival we found an ok hotel and spent lunch eating at the local town square BBQ before braving a grubby pitch black room full of (computer)gamers in order to use the internet.

NB At this point we started to discuss ditching 4 weeks in Sumatra and S.Thailand and going to Java,Bali and Lombok instead - which is now a reality with flights booked for next week!

Next day we hit the river once again headed away from towns to the small rural Tribal communities up river and the famous longhouses towards Belaga.

Singapore and Kuching

And they're off! Yes, indeed we are now several days into the several months and already we feel at home on the road.

Singapore was lots of fun. Lizzy reckons it's a bit like New York - organised on a grid system as well as very clean and friendly, and we sure ate well.

Some of the best Japanese food either of us have tried is pictured here. And the fully enthused woman at the restaurant wouldn't let us try things that didn't work together. Nice.




We went to Raffles Hotel for Singapore Slings of course but i'm not so sure that the drinks had much alcohol in them despite the hefty price tag. Still the hotel was majestic and the monkey nuts (naturally the shells were strewn across the floor) were good.





And then to Malaysian Borneo......

We arrived (after a frustratingly delayed journey) in the City of the Cats - Kuching. The initial most striking thing was that its so Western, clean and wealthy. It even has trendy bars and an organic cafe called A-ha where we had a great lunch.It was like being in Notting Hill except hot and empty.


Why can't we have multi story car parks like < in the UK ?










So after a while of wandering the river front,some sightseeing and visiting a
old fort/jail we thought of our bellies again and found a restaurant called Blah blah blah.The fusion style food was incredible and that was a very yummy fern salad.I will try and mention other things we've seen and done that aren't food but it may be tough esp in the cities! Needless to say we had a great night out and it cost peanuts.