Back end of Borneo

My promise to myself that i would updated more often fell flat on its face so here i am writing essays again. I keep telling myself its good practice for uni in spetember.... *massive geek*

So after a 7 hour bus ride I arrived in Semporna, The town were we would be based to do our diving, and within 10 minutes had fallen down a meter gutter at the side of the road and inflicted upon myself a 4 inch gash, though who know how clumsy i am at least try and be sympathetic! So i trail into the hostel with blood seeping down my leg and meet back up with bill as he went jungle trekking for a day or two and i didn't fancy being t6hat far away from civilization or somewhere that sold alcohol. The islands round Ssemprona as supposedly some of the best dive sites in the world so i feel that now iv got my license i might avoid diving in the places like the north sea as it might be a tad dissappoitning. Some of the islands were liek islands out of films that you might get shipwrecked on, imagine an tiny sandy island with just palm trees on and you've the image spot on. So the diving course went on for threes day and then we did another days diving after. In those days we were diving wiht 6ft turtle and schools of fish that is they swam above you the completely blocked out the light, it was pretty unreal! The nights back in Smeporna were pretty lame as the town itself see no benefit of the huge amount of diving tourism that runs through it it goes straight into the pockets of the collect few who own resorts there. Our nights were spent making beer runs to the other side of town to the place where you could get the best beer deals, a small local chinese restaurant ( 3 beers of 13 Ringgit , a bargin right!?)

So we learnt to dive and the end of our diving coincided with the end of our time in Borneo, so we jumped on a bus back to the capital with a day to spare for a flight to Australia. The 10 Hour bus journey proved to be under arctic conditions and despite our pleas to turn the heat up, the air con Nazi that they were refused due to the 'fact' the windows would fog up ( i was surprised they hadn't frozen over). After 3 hours we stopped and i retrieved 3 t-shirts, a vest and another pair of trousers to fight the artic conditions! ( in no way is this paragraph over dramatic!)

Once we arrived back in the captial, Kota Kinabalu, we carried our frost bitten selves to a hostel and indulged in a western treat to ourselves, a trip to the cinema! Do not go see rise of the planet of the apes and thats all ill say on the matter! We had our last meal in asia night leaving me unsure of how i'd cope with out noodles after becoming dependent on them after 7 weeks of eating them everyday, i was not looking forward to weening myself off them...

Leaving for Aus meant a stopover in our old friend Singapore Airport ( my love for this airport i can not express!) which meant the usual in an airpoirt - A trip round the butterfly Sanctuary and a free film at the cinema!

Last smidgin of Thailand, all of Singapore and a dab of Borneo!

After reading the last few paragraphs of the previous entry the spelling is so bad its made me cringe so big effort for this one and a bit more concentration! Leaving it two weeks made it a chore that it wanted to get over!


SOOO from Phi Phi boated over to Phuket and met a group of 6 irish girls ( the irish are everywhere in Thailand!) who couldnt swim and apparently thats real normal in Ireland..... Odd. Phuket was just what the doctor ordered and although alot of people don't like it Old Puket town suited our needs just fine. A quiet lazy town with not alot to do and very few tourists! We arrived there and headed to a hostel called OnOn which played a significant part in the beach film ... and yes this was why i wanted to stay there that and the $1.50(theres no pound sign) room cost. Being massively over kean ( a Keano is the technically term) we asked which room the film was filmed in and they just handed over the key so we went and got massively over excited to find it was just OBVIOUSLY a standard ... i was expecting Leo Dicaprio in there i think. Anyways we spent a night in a Thai bar where there was live thai music and we the only westerners. The bar was oddly decorated in America 50's style cinema gear.

Dragon fruit found everywhere over SE Asia

We moved the next night after finding out why OnOn  was so cheap to a hostel with a widescreen TV purely to satisfy our craving for watching the Film The Beach ( im sure your as tired of reading those words as i am writing them - no more beach comments, i swear!) only to be mildly disappointed all that waiting for that !!!
Later that night we bumped into two girls in the hallway of the hostel after i walked past for the 5th occasion in ten minutes due to me leaving items behinds...typical me i know. Only to find that one was in uni in sheffield. Wahey! But thats not why i mentioned it as i dont normally refer to people we've met out here as its no relevance to you at home as your not with them drinking cheap beer on the beach or riding elephants, no your at home! I make the exception because Ai Ling and Ayla were Singapore veterans, and what a result that was!

We arrived on the same flight as our 'Guides' in SINGAPORE and instantly were directed around the underground (or MRT as i got told off for calling the underground) with amazing ease by Ai Ling as she had lived there for half her life. This made our life very easy, to follow they showed to a hostel in the main part of town we never would have found! The hostel was under a Nazi regime where you couldnt put bags on the bed or bring anyone inside the building that wasnt staying there, it culminated with Bily getting pushed out the dorm room by the land lady causing him to stumble all because he was eating a slice of toast.

As much as Singapore is a lovely and perhaps the only city i could at the point imagine living in outside London its super super expensive! The hostel was 15 quid a day which kinda blew a hole in our 20 quid a day budget, so yes the budget went out the window. And how we celebrate this happening with a trip to universal studios.... (really out the window) but it was worth it for a pretty awesome day.

The nightlife in Singapore is Pretty buzzing but also ridiculously expensive so i wont quote prices as i feel it detracts from the story! Again the girls came through with their knowledge for us and we went to a bar called clinic which was an open air bar on a quay side which was doctor themed; the staff where medical outfits, you sit in wheelchairs and drink cocktails out of drips! unfortunately when me and bill tried to have a jousting competition in the wheelchair it was quickly thwarted.The last day was spent in a surreal way with us round the pool side of a very very swanky pool and spa resort which the girls had gone on about for three days. One of there dad was a life long member of this club so we all got free entry and use of the pool, not what i expected from my trip to singapore.

I finished my last evening tasting some of the best beer i've ever had from a water side bar with its own brewery outback with a family friend. It could have been so tasty as i had run for 15 minutes as i was late due to a confusion with directions but i dont want to believe that was the case!


Having never heard of BORNEO til about 3 months ago it was bottom on my list of places i wanted to visit and what a mistake that was. Unknown to me til not to long ago its the only place in the world where you can see proboscis monkeys and one of two where you can see wild orangutans. The island in the south China Sea is spilt into  two sections the Malaysian side and the Indonesian. Were staying on the Malaysian side and the people here are the most genuine and welcoming people in the whole of my travels. 

Yesterday we went and saw some Wild Orangutans at a rehabilitation center be fed in an open jungle environment which was a once in a life time feeling. (Also Ill say it now... Ill have no ginger related jokes on my facebook, thank you.) the apes literally came within centimeters of you, some more than others with one women being tapped on the shoulder and thinking it was her husband to turn round and jump out of her skin, very amusing. After i found out they could rip a man in half due to them being four times stronger than us, which was slightly unnerving given they were within touching distance. From there we went on a jungle canopy walk which was a walkway suspended 30M above the ground in the tree tops and saw absolutely no wild life what so ever! was still a good experience though. On the way home we met the set designer of the newest macdonalds advert on the local bus (she was on holiday not Malaysian for the slow people) so i have no doubt i wil be making a claim to fame every time that appears on tele, i hope for your nerves it disappears before i touch down in England.

Unfortunately the day was slightly smeared for me, by my wallet somehow got stolen on the bus which has been a massive ball ache and a hit to budget as i was carrying a stupid amount of cash in there ( i can see mums head shaking now) this has resulted in thre trips to the police station but i do now have a police number to quote to the insurance, hurray!

Given the hit to budget and police meeting this day was destined to be a lazy day so what else do you on a lazy day - eat, sleep.... and blog. We made our way to a malaysian food market which for the quality and number of people was very very slightly reminiscent of notting hill festival. And i went to town on peanut pancakes,noodle pastries, banana cake, chicken skewers, fried bananas, malaysian omelet and sweet potato pasties. Fair to say the malaysian diet isn't the healthiest... oh and there was ice cream chucked in at the end!

I also some how, at this said market whilst inquiring over some pretty delicious looking heart shaped chicken nuggets ( i should have cottoned on from that) got proposition by a very camp male market stall vendor. So after enquirng what was in the nuggets "chicken" came the reply. Which then rolled on to where i was from ( a usual question whilst travelling) so "london" came my reply. Then the conversation took a turn down an alley i never want to go down in which he said " Are you single?" in shock i reply "yes". Apparently this was to his satisfaction, and apprently i look like an easy pull as he then said " me too! What time?" Fair to say i didnt take up the opportunity of heart shaped nuggets and scampered off for ice cream ( to regain my macho bravado, of course).

Next stop on the Borneo train is Diving in Semporna ( one of the best places in the world to scuba dive, winner winner chicken dinner!)