Brunei Darussalam

I'm now sitting here at one of the few cafes to be found in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital city of Brunei Darussalam in northern Borneo. It is all very different from the rest of the region. It's very calm and relaxed, almost soothing. Cars drive past you slowly, noone seems to be out in the streets at all. The only sound that strikes you are the prayers from the minaret of the national mosque. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but a very strange feeling when you have gotten accustomed to the intense pulse of Asia.

The Omar Ali Saifuddien mosque in central bandar Seri Begawan

 Brunei is a tiny oil magnate, run by the sultan Hasanal Bolkiah himself without a government (His father, the former sultan banned all political opposition). It's a muslim country with a mostly malay population, that seems to be very warm and loving. The sultan is one of the richest people in the world, his own palace seems to cost as much as the sporadic infrastructure of the rest of the country. It's weird to see that one single person can manage pull that off. To use the whole nations assets to fund your own private interests, and still be loved and worshipped by the people. Paradox?

Lots have happened on our way here to Brunei though. We left Kuching behind us and took a ferry ride to Sibu. Did I feel nouseous or what. Atleast I wasn't alone having my stomach twisted inside out while the captain of the boat, probably considering going that fast with big waves in the side simply, "fun"!?

Sunbeams from a hole in the cave roof.

 That same evening in Sibu I started feeling very ill, which doesn't occur very often. My head was spinning out of control, I was sweating heaps, while freezing at the same time. it seemed I had all the symtoms of a proper dengue fever attack. I wasn't very happy. It lasted for about another 48 hours but then I felt fine. Lucky me. I remember in the Gili Islands in Indonesia two years ago when my dear friend Mick got the dengue, layed in bed for 10 days without eating or drinking and lost maybe 10 kilos. It's horrible.

Niah Cave

On our way to the bordertown of Miri we stopped over at the Niah caves National park, to check out some of the worlds largest caves. Inside the caves they appear to have found the oldest evidence of human presence in all of Asia. Apparently bones dating 40.000 years back have been found inside what appeared to be an ancient burial ground. Pre-stone age wall paintings can be seen accompanied by approximately 500.000 bats and equally as many swallow birds. The locals in the area today make a living, climbing bamboo poles 10-50 meters up in the roof of the caves to collect the swallow birds nest, consisting of feathers and saliva. For one nest alone, they can earn up to US$ 1000, because they are considered a delicacy in... wait for it.. yes of course... China!! When dogs, discarded human fetuses or seahorses simply aren't enough. let's get some bird's saliva!

Tomorrow it's time to hop on the bus again, this time towards Kota Kinabalu in the Malaysian province of Sabah. We are going to have to cross a lot of borders to get there, since Brunei is divided into two parts enclaved by malaysia. So after another 9 hour busride and 8 stamps in the passport we'll both be looking forward to heading up the trail to climb Mt Kinabalu. the largest mountain in SE Asia.

Peace out - Sauerkraut!

Sarawak, Borneo

We got to Kuching Airport here in Sarawak, borneo a few days ago only to realize that there aren't any shuttle buses to the city, We were told however that we could walk a bit down the highway and catch one of the local buses. Waiting at the highway for at least an hour a guy pulled over and told us we're waiting in vain. There aren't more than 2 buses a day here, so jump in and I'll drive you to the city! We arrived at a hostel called Tracks in central Kuching, and the place is lovely. The guy working here, Dean makes everyone feel like home, and we pay almost nothing for the best accomodation possible. In fact everything here in Sarawak is dirt cheap, especially if one just arrived from Singapore. A meal at a restaurant is about 3 Ringgit (equal to 6 SEK), and that is awesome!


Kuching has a pretty cool vibe to it, it's very relaxed and soothing, even though it's the largest city in Sarawak. You don't meet a lot of backpackers, but the ones you do meet are lovely people. The locals are very nice and friendly with a constant smile on their faces. They speak remarkably good english and treat us very well. Like yesterday for instance. We were having dinner at a lebanese restaurant and were seated next to a group of local boys. We shared some beers and a hookah with them and for some reason decided to go to a karaoke bar together. It turned out to be one of the wildest nights in a long time. No matter how many times you experience it, it's always a blast to see asians enjoy their karaoke. They love it!

One morning we decided to go to the Semeggoh wildlife centre, which is like a sanctuary were they try to help domesticated Orangutangs back to a life in their natural environment! I'm very happy to see that Malaysia is really putting in an effort to help this endangered species. Anyway, we got there at around 9 am, which is the time they feed the Orangutangs, (like a supplement to the food they find in the wild themselves). It was clearly stated that, this is not a zoo. you are in their territory, behave, be quiet and don't expect to see any monkeys at all, you should be happy if you do. Expecting nothing, we waited for more than an hour when suddenly one of the wardens said that they had spotted a few orangutangs a bit up the path. He motioned us to follow him a few minutes up the path and there it was. Possibly the coolest creature I've ever seen in my whole life, just a meter away from me! That was such a "wow" experience I'm sure it's gonna stick around in my memory forever.

The day after, we went to the Bako Nationalpark which is about an hour away from Kuching. After disembarking the bus at the pier we chartered a boat to take us to the park headquarters, located half an hour out on the peninsula. As soon as we got off the boat, we were surrounded by naughty macaque monkeys trying to steal whatever possible. Having a lunch at the cafeteria one of the macaques stole a can of 100plus from a girl, ran up the roof and enjoyed it peacefully. They even stole Johans springrolls from his plate when he wasn't paying attention! Either way, the first night we decided to join in the "night safari" which supposedly should be a good way to see some of the creatures that don't really come out during the days. And indeed, we saw a lot of  different snakes, spiders, birds, bats and pigs. And went to bed very satisfied with the walk.

 
Woke up early the following morning, to get out on the path as fast as possible, before it gets too bloody hot. (the heat down here is almost comparable to a finish sauna). Johan and I decided to take the longest possible loop there was and boy was that a good call. We didn't just see an incredibly diverse flora with everything from palm trees to insect eating plants, but also a whole bunch of cool animals. We saw Pribiscis monkeys (which are famous for their noses that looks like penises), hermit crabs, a lot of different snakes and more macaques. The whole trek took us about 5 hours, but was supposed to take much longer, happy to realize the cycling fitness is still going strong!

Today will be our last day here in Kuching before it's time to head north to Sibu, not really sure what to expect or do, but one thing is for certain. Theres going to be more encounters with nature like these last few days. I love it!

Singapore

Riverfront bars!

Yeah baby! Feels so good to be back in asia again, To feel the heat strike you with the force of a fistblow as soon as you disembark from the airplane. To smell the fragrance of open sewers mixed with incences and oriental food. To go out in the steaming streets only to sweat like a pig after a few minutes. To hear different languages and witness different cultures only a block away from eachother. Singapore is quite extraordinary.

Hindu temple

The country is located on a few islands about 150 km north of the equator, so the climate is literally boiling, but I've been longing for that so I don't really mind. One can easily detect the difference between Singapore and other major cities in asia. It's clean! Really really clean, almost sterile, even by western standards. I suppose the $1000 fine for littering isn't such a bad idea after all.

Beautiful architecture at Taoist temple

We have settled ourselves down in an area called little India in the northern parts of southern Singapore, which is pretty cool. It's got a very chilled out atmosphere and people don't really seem to be in a hurry, in contrary to the very busy chinatown to the south. Another thing to note is that the city is not just full of mosques, but also heaps of churches, synagogues, taoist- and hindu temples. It's both a multicultural and multireligious country, mostly due to it's important location in the South China sea which has led to it being one of the most important harbours in the world.

Beer garden in chilled out Little India

Sentosa Beach

The six days we have spent here have been very busy but so exciting. There's been enough time for beach hang aswell as temple sightseeing and rainforest walks. Yeah, that's right. in contrary to my believes that Singapore was just one mega urbanised area, it has actually got a whole bunch of national parks and nature reserves, even though a bit touristy, they are still worth the visit. A trip to Singapore can easily become a very pricey holiday, but we managed to live quite cheap by doing the "free" stuff and eating the delicious food at the Indian foodstalls.

We have now taken another flight to Kuching in sarawak in the Malaysian part of Borneo, where we will spend some time before heading north towards Brunei Darussalam.

First time in a car, Mordor, Otane and Auckland.

Hello again!

Swedish Citizen?

It's been quite a while since the last update, again... But at least a lot has happened since the last time I posted. We've lived a month at the Coromandel Mansion in Wellington and it's been a blast! The city has been treating us well and we've have had the best company possible. The most amazing girl from Tasmania that I was lucky enough to meet in Queenstown has been staying with me at the Coromandel. I'm not sure if there's anything else in the world that can beat a romance. Love is amazing! Unfortunately duty called and she had to go back to Australia to take care of Greg Barns and some other business. I can't wait to see her again though!

Because of the earthquakes in Christchurch, the Wellington city council has decided that all buildings must be earthquake proof, which the old mansion is not. Our landlord "Jacko" therefore had no choice but to kick us out, which wasn't too bad because we had been planning on leaving either way. However, we wanted to stay for the Wellington sevens this weekend which is one of the worlds greatest rugby events where the best teams in the world play each other with only 7 players. (Apparently this version of rugby is to be a part of the olympics in a few years if everything goes right.) But all accomodation to find in Wellington this weekend was sold out, so our only option was to leave.

Wellington from Mt Victoria

We went to Thrifty car rentals hoping to relocate a car to Auckland, which is for free as long as you get it there in 48 hours! We got ourselves a Toyota RAV4 and burned away towards Otane in Hawkes bay, where we have relatives which neither one of us ever met before. We are both very glad we went there to meet them! They are a friendly and loving family not too different from our own. Hopefully our paths will cross again eventually, maybe in the northern hemisphere!

The Napthens

Hoppa Hulle

After spending the night at the Napthens we decided to head for Tongariro national park to do the Tongariro crossing trek. Tongariro is where they shot all the scnes from Mordor in The Lord of the Rings! Even though we got there at 1 pm and the fog was so thick one could almost cut it with a knife we decided to go for it. We figured we could do it if we walked twice as fast as calculated on the signs. Even though visibility was zero throughout the whole trek we both enjoyed it, especially the mind blowing silence that struck us when we were up on the plateau close to the volcanoes. It felt so good with a proper workout after a month of laziness. We managed to do the 11 hour trek in 5½ hours, which is evidence enough the fitness we built up during our 2000km bike ride is still there!

A crater in Mordor

Having driven some 300km more from Taupo, we are now in Auckland.We are ironically enough staying at base backpackers and have already had one of the famous "button-showers".
It will however only be for a few days because we fly out to Singapore on the sixth to continue our journey. We'll stay about a week in "The City of Lions" and then fly over to Kuching in Malaysian Borneo. From there, find our way through up to Brunei Darussalam and then on towards Palawan in the Philippines. It's going to be a nice change to pick up the backpack again and discover new cultures in SE Asia!

Tutta Fjutt på en vessla!