Somerset Hotel Miri

... a remote area of the Kelabit Highlands where I'd done the teaching part of my volunteer placement.

Bario
My memories of Bario were of a magical place, cut off from the rest of the world accessible only by plane, with a wonderful simplicity to their way of life and a real richness to their cultural traditions. Well, 5 years on things have changed a little. The introduction of mobile phones, a logging road all the way from ...

... diving in Miri.

Dive 1 - Belais Reef

Dive 2 - Anenome Garden

Dive 3 - Eve's Garden

Dive 4 - Kenyalang Wreck

Dive 5 - Nemo City

Dive 6 - Sunday Point

Dive 7 - Santak Point

Dive 8 - Siwa Point

Dive 9 - Lonely Planet

... rally hell. The road from Mukah to Bintulu is part concrete, part dirt and under construction. We bounced along for about 2 or 3 hours and at times had to pull over to the side of the road so other buses and construction vehicles could pass with inches to spare, I don't think we went over 20 km the whole time and oh yeah the wonderful air conditioning wasn't enough, no air and no windows to open, not that you would want to, the greenery on both sides of the road were ...

We flew to Miri on a late evening flight, so arrived in the dark. Because it was late we took a taxi to a hostel that we found in the guidebook. Luckily it was clean, although slightly overpriced, but it was late so we couldn't be bothered to search further. The crazy lady who owned it had lots of cats which she spent a lot of time tormenting and talking to really quickly. The following morning we decided to make our own way to the Niah Caves rather ...

... the hostel, met up with my two new Zeoppo mates and spent the evening drinking beers and pondering our future travels. can one ask for me? nope!! so far, borneo has been great and although i slightly regret not being able to go to mulu because i planned to go back to kl for christmas.. its ok.. its all worth it still.. lisas exsperiancing it all.. from the houses on stilts, to the beautiful native kids/. its all pretty awesome.. peace n love chickens xoxo kota kinabalu tomorrow!!!

Salut les forces vives de la France de Sarkozy,
Il m'est arrive une petite histoire de rien du tout...

Acte 1 : On plante le décor
Histoire de continuer dans les visites de Longhouse, je suis parti pour Kapit et puis Belaga, soit environ 7 heures de bateau en 2 jours. Et sur la dernière portion du voyage, j'ai paumé ma pochette avec tout mon pognon, une vraie fortune pour le pays. Et quelqu'un sur le bateau l'a trouvé et me la ...

... into town by taking it apart shipping it and then putting it back together all by himself. i guess we would all reconsider if we really needed a car if we had to do this! Douglas hooked us up with the most awesome guide, Leon, for our hiking around Bario. He came over that afternoon and we ended up chatting and hanging out with him all night. The next day Leon took us on the 5 hour hike through the jungle to Pa Longan, a small village of about 80 that is ...

... face to face with the splendours of nature which had taken shape after so many years. The many shapes of stalagmites and stalactites, some of which are still alive and growing are a sight to behold. Deer Cave : From Lang Cave, we continued on and walked through the world´s largest cave entrance, which is the massive Deer Cave. We soon realised that not every cave is the same. We saw different formation of stones and ...

... monkeys with ther funny noses, huge bellies and leaps of faith from one small branch to another. The list goes on and on and doesnt even cove rthe insects, amphibians and holding a scorpion in my hand for the first time. WOW! I've been very fortunate for all the people i have met here in Borneo. Shaking hand with a 92 year old Iban tribesman warrior, who got up to introduse himself to me with a very firm handshake ...

... roots enormous. The first cave was the Trader's cave, a small but beautiful spot. The rocks had turned dark green and the walls were full of black spots. Some more steps up and we arrived at the mouth of the Great Cave. At first it didn't seem so impressive but the smell of guano was. I (read Heidi) almost fainted at the terrible smell... We took out our flashlight and went deeper into the cave. Wow the ...