Kutching and Sarawak, Borneo

It was E-learning week at NTU aka exchange student vacation, so Lianne, Tanya and I decided to head to Borneo and Brunei. My trip to Borneo was definitely different from any trip I have been on so far. We flew into Kutching, Borneo on Thursday afternoon. Like most cities I’ve visited, Borneo was a lot more developed than I had expected. We stayed at a Lonely Planet recommended hostel called Sagganhansa Hostel. It was great! The owners were friendly and it was a trendy hostel made specifically for backpackers. Our first day in Kutching, we went to a local beach and organized our big trip to a World Heritage Site, Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak. The next morning, we woke up early to go the orangutan sanctuary just outside of the city. We got to see 5 out of the 24 orangutans that were at the sanctuary during their morning feeding time. What fascinated me was how humanistic they are in the way we eat and move. In the afternoon, we headed to the local night market, where it started monsooning right when we arrived. So we decided to be typical Americans and do our favourite indoor activities… shop and watch a movie. To our surprise, Borneo actually had a legitimate movie theatre that was playing The Hunger Games. And I thought Borneo was just a jungle, boy was I wrong.

Kutching Beach

The orangatan sancturary

The Hunger Games in Borneo...$4 movies, not bad!
The next morning, we caught our flight to Mulu National Park. As we were flying in, all you could see is forest. There was so many trees, I was scared we were actually going to land in the forest. With a huge sigh of relief, we flew into a tiny airport that consisted of one room. Once we arrived to the National Park, we hired a tour guide to take us to the Deer Caves and Lang Caves. The Deer Cave is the biggest cave in Southeast Asia. Both caves were spectacular. The Lang Cave had one entrance and went long ways. The Deer Cave had a massive entrance and was enormous in the inside by width and in height. If you look up, you could see a sea of black, which were the 300 million bats that live in the cave. At 6pm the bats, all 300 million bats flee the cave to hunt for food. The site was spectacular, and this whole process went on for about an hour. Later, we met a Canadian boy from Winnipeg named Matthew aka Jungle Man that convinced us to head out the next day and do the Pinnacles trek. This trek was a 2.8 km hike on a 60 degree angle to reach the top of the mountain. Although the hike seemed a little advanced for our liking, we decided to take up the challenge and do this hike before we headed for the Headhunters trail. The Headhunters trail was our original plan, which is a 11km hike to a Sarawak longhouse village.

The entrance to the Deer Caves

The Lang Cave

It's a face!!

Inside the biggest cave in SE Asia...pictures just don't do it justice!

Just some of the 300 million bats on the hunt for food
We stocked up on 6 packs of cupped noodles, peanutbutter, crackers and nuts and were off to the jungle. The first day, we woke up at 6am to begin our trek to the pinnacles. If you didn’t make it to a certain point of the mountain by 11am, you had to go back down. I also was a little scared after I had read the post on the wall saying “Warning: This trek is for advanced hikers. You must be extremely physically fit if you plan on completing the trek”. All I was thinking was Yikes, eating noodles and crackers probably isn’t the best food to eat before this hike.

More caves!

Clear water cave...the water was warm!

On our way to conquer the pinnacles
After a long 8 hours of hiking, I had successfully made it to the top and down. The way up was physically strenuous and the way down was all mental. If you lost concentration for more than a second, it was very easy to slip and fall. With only one minor wipe out and a few bruises and scratches, I made it down alive! The pinnacles at the top were phenomenal! Pinnacles are sharp limestone rock formations that grow in bunches. Does this mean I am an advanced hiker and extremely physically fit? Sweet!

Johnny the hiking guide and I, being a giant as usual

Lianne, Tanya and I plus Jungle Boy pre-hike!

Made it to the pinnacles! We were so proud!
The next morning, we were headed up the Headhunters Trail. The trail was great. On the hike we were told to look for the 5 different types of tropical forest. I wish I could say I pointed out all 5 types of trees, but unfortunately they all kind of looked the same to me. But aside from my lack of knowledge on trees and plants, it was a great hike! The forest, wildlife and rock formations were breathtaking. We finally made it to the water after about 3 hours of hiking and then took a 3 hour boat ride to the longhouse village. Our tour guide had a knee injury and started drinking 52% alcohol to ease the pain. I guess they don’t have medicine in the jungle? After we witnessed him complete a whole bottle of “medicine” in the 3 hour boat ride, he wasn’t as informative as we would have liked. Once we got the village, it was a little bit of a culture shock. The longhouse was a worn down shack shared by many families. With that said, our homestay was certainly no 5 star hotel. It consisted of mats in a room with bug nets over them. I especially liked the Disney character sheets and lime green wall, really gave it a nice touch. The rest of the evening, we visited a local school in the village. The children stay there for the duration of the school year. The school was unexpectedly quite advanced with classrooms, desks, a cafeteria and computers.

One of many canopy walks on the Headhunters Trail

The longhouse village in Sarawak

The local school in longhouse village, all the kids were adorable!
Sarawak, Borneo and Gunung Mulu National Park was different from any place I have been so far. It was a perfect mix of natural beauty, nature, and authentic culture. Next up was our stop in Brunei… also a very authentic experience.

We completed the "Survivor" challenge

Hanoi and Halong Bay, Northern Vietnam

For reading week, Lianne and I decided to head to Northern Vietnam. Before flying to Hanoi, we bused to Kuala Lumpur for the night. It was cheaper to fly out of KL than Singapore. Since it was my third time being to KL, I made it mandatory to go see the Petronas Towers. They are extremely tall twin skyscrapers that light up beautifully at night. After a few beers at the Reggae bar, we went to sleep so we could catch our 6 am flight the next morning.

THE PETRONAS
Hanoi is a lot like Southern Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh city, except a lot less touristy and a little less chaotic. I also found there to be a little more of a language barrier in the North. We were dropped off at St. Joseph’s church in the Old Quarter of the city, where a strip of hostels are. We headed right to the very reputable Hanoi Backpackers Hostel. The Backpackers hostel is very trendy, attracts mostly younger travellers, and has reputable tours. Lianne and I booked the Halong Bay boat tour as soon as we got there. We got a two day and one night tour for $78 USD. The tour was a little more pricey than usual, but it included all transportation, food, accommodations, and activities.

I fit right in!
We spent the remainder of the day gallivanting around Hanoi. Our first stop was at the Ngoc Son Temple. It wasn’t anything too special, but it had a nice view of the big lake that is in the center of the city. The rest of the day we shopped in the local markets and ate. For dinner, we went to the famous Pho24 chain in Vietnam. I got the famous Pho Bo soup, which is pretty much beef, noodles, beansprouts, and chives in broth. I just can’t get enough of Pho Bo in the Nom! YUM! Since we had woken up at 4am in the morning, we were in bed and fast asleep by 8am…quite the party animals!

Oh hey

$2 CDN Pedis, can't get much better than that

Beef Pho
We woke up bright and early to catch our bus to Halong Bay. There were about 30 people on our tour and the bus ride took about 3 hours. Our tour boat ended up being way nicer than I expected. The dock looked like a pirate ship and the inside of the boat has a dining area and the bedrooms. Lianne and I were lucky enough to get a double bed…which we decided to call our honeymoon suite.

On the dock of "The Pheonix

Loved the Pheonix
As soon as we got on the boat, we were told by our Irish tour guide to go buy some beers and start drinking (this was at noon). The people on our tour ended up being a really fun crown. We spent the rest of the day playing drinking games, kayaking, exploring caves and eating delicious food. The best part was we did all of these activities while looking out onto the beautiful limestone rock formations that were scattered throughout the water. I felt like I was on the movie set for Pirates of the Caribbean…so cool! The dinner was prepared by a local Vietnamese family and was absolutely delicious. There was everything you could have wanted – fish, beef, fried chicken, rice, clams, fresh prawns, vegetables, and fruit! At nighttime, the boat turned into a booze cruise. Lets just say, what happens on the boat…stays on the boat.

Th World Unesco Site- Halong Bay

Kayaking...with our party hats of course

Lianne about to jump into the water...you know its winter right?

What a great crowd
The next day we pretty much just took in the scenery one last time and had lunch (and continued drinking and belting out love songs at the top of our lungs of course). We arrived back in Hanoi in the late afternoon and then headed to “Snake Village”. I didn’t really know about Snake Village until the boys we had met in Halong Bay told us about it. Its pretty much a street with a bunch of restaurants that have one thing on the menu…snake. First, we paid for 3 snakes since there were 8 of us. It cost each of us about $20 USD each. They then let one of us help cut the snake open with a knife and remove its heart. We decided that the girls would kill the snake and the boys would eat the hearts. Gross! We then had to take one shot of the snake blood and one shot of the snake bile. Since even the idea of it made me gag… I made sure I swallowed it quickly enough that I wouldn’t taste it. The restaurant owners then prepared the snake meat into various dishes. One dishes looked like a humus and was served with bread chips. It really didn’t taste that bad, but just the thought of what I was eating snake turned me right off. There were also what we called “Snake Balls”, “Snake Spring rolls” and “Snake Ribs”. And even better, this very delectable meal was paired with snake wine. It was quite the experience.

Lianne killing the snake...

A shot of snake blood...yum

We did it!
The next day, Lianne and I booked a tour to the Perfume Pagoda. To save money, we booked with a travelling agency other than the Backpackers Hostel. We paid $18 instead of $35, for transportation and entrance into the Pagoda. However, we instantly regretted booking the cheaper tour. First, our bus left an hour after it was supposed to and then it broke down. The wheel of the bus almost came right out, but they still managed to say it was a “small problem”. After being stranded in a random Vietnamese village for about two hours, we finally got shuttled into the docking station.

No worries, just a minor problem
We were paddled into the town by boat. The scenery around us was beautiful. There were hundreds of boats paddling in the same direction and huge mountains surrounded the water stream. Once we got there, we were hit by a little bit of a culture shock. We were the only tourists in the entire village. But that wasn’t the part that shocked us. There were also dead animals, cut open, partially bleeding and hanging on a string at the front of every restaurant. But this wasn’t the normal cow, pig, and chicken kind of animals. No, this was, porcupine, some form of dog, beavers, buffalos, antelope, etc, etc. If this didn’t convert someone to a vegetarian, I don’t think anything could. It was appalling. However, it must have been the norm since each restaurant was crowded with people. You order porcupine, they go over to the hanging animal, cut off a piece, and cook it up for you. I certainly converted vegetarian for the day, and stuck to the tofu and vegetable options. (however, I did have a delicious beef burger for dinner…oops)

Being a giant in Asia never gets old
Lianne and I decided to climb to the Perfume Pagoda. We knew it was going to be an uphill hike, but not as strenuous as this one. It took 40 minutes for us to climb all the stairs to the top and we were sweating buckets! Once we got there, we saw the temple built-in to the cave. There were thousands of people swarming the site. It was really cool. Since we didn’t want to miss our tour back, we decided to suck it up and pay for the cable car back down. We thought this would be the easy route, but boy were we wrong again. In Vietnam, there is no such thing as organization. We bought our tickets, and then pretty much just piled into the swarm of people trying to get a cable car. We called it the Asian Mob. Although my height was a great advantage, I was still being pushed at every body part to move towards the cable cars. Once we aggressively got pushed to the front, we then had to actually somehow jump into a moving cable car. This would be easy if it were one at a time, but that wasn’t the case. Lianne and I actually had to fight our way into a cable car. So we held hands, and pretty much jumped over people to get into one. Luckily, we were able to get onto the same one, but I did have to sit on Lianne’s lap…hopefully there were no weight capacity…yikes. Although it was a very stressful situation, it ended up being one of the funniest parts of the trip. Oh Vietnam.

Nice and sweaty after a hike up to Perfume Pagoda
At night, we hung out at the Backpackers Hostel pub, where we found out about a local rave going on that night. We decided to check it out. We put on some more “rave” appropriate clothes, and headed to the party. Boy were we wrong again. The bar was mostly outside, so everyone was wearing jackets, sweaters and pants. I really do not know why they called it a rave. Other than the fact that we were more on the chilly side, we ended up having a good night. With near to no sleep, we got up the next morning to catch our early flight back. I would say North Vietnam was one of my most authentic trips yet. And I loved it!

Candid shot!

What a great trip, we will miss you Vietnam and our party hats

Hong Kong

Hong Kong certainly exceeded my expectations! It was one of the coolest cities I have ever been to. We flew out from Singapore at 4 in the morning and arrived in Hong Kong at around 10. Hong Kong is made up of 260 islands, which makes the whole city so mountainous and surrounded by water. We had pre-booked out hostel on Kowloon Island, which ironically was called the Canadian Hostel haha. Accommodations are much more expensive in HK compared to what we pay anywhere else, at $30 per person a night. The hostel was clean and small. The only problem with it was the sketchy market we had to pass through to get to the elevators. Oh and the staircases that looked like a murder scene. We learned quite quickly to stick to the elevators…yikes.

Sticking to our roots

No but actually...did someone die here?
We decided to spend the day walking around the city. The city was as bustling and crowded as I had imagined. The first thing we did was stop at a Japanese restaurant for some sushi. The sushi we ordered was the biggest I have ever seen or eaten. Since you could barely put it down in one mouthful, things got pretty messy. Although I ended up with half the sushi on my lap and mayonnaise sauce in my hair, every bite or should I say “attempted-bite” was delicious. We then made our way to HK island by using the super efficient MTR system(HK’s subway system). We ended up in some ritzy area and didn’t really know where we were. It ended up being Hong Kong’s business district, which is close to HK’s famous Peak Tram.

Before the big mess all over my lap and the table
The Peak Tram takes you up to the top of a mountain peak by a trolley cart (similar to the trolleys you would see in San Francisco). For only $10 CND, you get to the top of the mountain and access to the peak which looks over the entire city. Since we got there a little bit before sunset, we stayed up at the peak waiting for it to get dark. The only problem was, it was freezing! Not being prepared for the cold weather to begin with, we almost froze to death at the top. But it was all worth it since the view was unbelievable. I never knew Hong Kong was such a beautiful city. We ended the evening on the Temple Street market, which is a whole street of handbags, jewelry and other accessories. The amount of Marc Jacobs and Tiffany and Co. knock-offs was obscene. It was a great market and the salespeople weren’t overly aggressive, which is always nice.

We Love Peak

It was stunning!
The next day, we were off to Cheung Chau and the Mongkok markets. We arrived at the ferry terminal in the morning and took the slow boat over. It ended up being about a two hour journey. Once we got there, we were overwhelmed by the overpowering fish smell. Cheung Chau island is actually a fishing village with market-type alleyways and a spectacular view of the plentiful fishing boats across the shore. We spent the day gallivanting through the markets and stopped off for some delicious freshly grilled vegetables. Later, we discovered a dumpling vendor, where you could see a man actually making the dumplings with his hands. For 3 large pork and shrimp dumplings it only cost us 12 HKD ($2 CDN). They were so fresh and so yummy.

Hitting up the markets

Fresh grilled vegetables and meat...so good and so cheap!
We then headed back to the main island to venture to the Mongkok market. This market was like the market on Temple Street, except it was ten times the size. The area was flooded with people, food stands, shopping malls and market booths. It was chaotic in a good way and was great for shopping.

I'm really easy to spot in this crowd
The last day in HK, we decided to check out the Kowloon harbor front area, which was walking distance from our hostel. The whole area was right beside an Arts center, making it very glamorous and colourful. The view of the HK skyline from the harbor front was beautiful aside from the vast amount of smog blurring the buildings. While we walked along the harbor, we came across the HK Avenue of the Stars. Since Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee are the only actors we would recognize, we were on a mission to find their stars. They seemed to be the only two stars with people crowded around them, so we had to fight to get our picture with them. For lunch, we stopped at a Turkish restaurant that had the best lamb salad and tandoori chicken rice I have ever tasted. Although we didn’t really experiment with authentic HK food throughout our trip, everything I ate was some of the best food I have had in SE Asia.

The Kowloon harbor

Finally found Jackie Chan's star

Best tandoori fried rice I have ever eaten
Since our flight was late at night, we decided to head to Lantau island to see the big Buddha and wisdom path before we headed to the airport. We took a 40 minute bus ride to the top of the mountain and then climbed 400 steps to the Buddha. It was huge! The view was even more spectacular than the Buddha, as we looked out onto the enormous mountains. Since we only had an hour to kill, we practically ran to wisdom path. We had heard about wisdom path on a promo video that was playing on the ferry the day before, so we didn’t know what to expect. So when we got there, we were blown away!! The sun was slightly setting behind these tall pillars covered in calligraphy. Even more beautiful was the mountains and the water that surrounded the area. Absolutely stunning.

Me and the big Buddha

Just taking it all in

Wisdom Path

After a long day of gallivanting around the city, we head to the airport by the MTR for our flight home. HK is definitely a city I want to go back to in the future. It was a perfect mix of culture, city and beauty. I look forward to going back some day!

We will miss you HK