We went to
Bako National Park and got a healthy taste of monsoon season. It started with a bus ride that felt more like a water park ride with the water pouring in through the windows as we went through puddles, followed by a foggy boat ride in a small, uncovered boat in the pouring rain. But the rain did stop and we took a jungle hike to a beach, saw lots of interesting plants,
Bearded Pigs that are the size of boars, and 3 different kinds of monkeys (
proboscis, macaque and one other) that will literally jump over our heads in the trees. It rained, or actually poured, all night and the next day, and the park was starting to look more like a swamp. There is really no way to ever get dry, as the lodging are stilt houses over pools of water. We went on hike to see the "cobra" sea stack, a rock formation off one of the beaches. The destination was nice, but hard to see due to tides and rain, but the hike was quite the adventure! The "trail" was absolutely flooded with water, so we did the whole hike in a river (that was getting deeper as the rain continued) with the final stretch being down a waterfall of sorts. Water was pouring off the huge roots that form staircases on the trail and cascading down the rickety ladders and boardwalks on the trail. We were soaking w
et, but loved the hike! And we didn't even get any leeches, which are apparently small enough to fit through you socks! We were happy to return to Kuching, where we can get dry. Today we are going to a long house and the rest of our trip is up in the air as we form new plans hourly. Maybe to
Mulu National Park, which has lots of caves, maybe to
Brunei, and maybe back to the other peninsula for a tour of the west coast. We look forward to the next adventure!
Landed safely in Brunei this morning, landing in the capital city of Bandar Seri Begawan [BSB]. Part of the draw of coming to Brunei was that it is the most outwardly Muslim country on our trip. We knew we were not in Oregon anymore when, just as we were pulling away from the gate on our Royal Brunei Airlines Flight to BSB the attendant announced that we were going to have our plane blessed, the monitors lowered, and on the screen we were treated to a long prayer in Arabic [though on the screen it was captioned in Malay and English]. While people have been friendly everywhere on our trip, the Bruneians are incredibly friendly, helpful, and welcoming.
The city of BSB is very manageable [the whole country has much less of a population than Wyoming!], and the Indian food here is as good as everywhere else [Indian, Chinese, Malay, and to a lesser extent Thai, are the dominant foods]. Nearly every woman wears a Sari. As in Singapore and Malaysia, every sign is in English [as well as Malay in Malaysia and Arabic in Brunei], and nearly everyone speaks English. Also, alcohol is banned in the entire country.
et, but loved the hike! And we didn't even get any leeches, which are apparently small enough to fit through you socks! We were happy to return to Kuching, where we can get dry. Today we are going to a long house and the rest of our trip is up in the air as we form new plans hourly. Maybe to Mulu National Park, which has lots of caves, maybe to Brunei, and maybe back to the other peninsula for a tour of the west coast. We look forward to the next adventure!
