Let's Blog Again

I left Moncton aboard Air Canada Monday morning, late by one half hour as usual. I don't know what it is about Moncton but I think I have never left there on time. Why is the question. It's not like it's a hustling, bustling place. Anyway there was lots of time for the connection in Toronto and here I am one day later in Hong Kong.

I am staying at the Yesinn hostel in Causeway Bay which is close to Victoria Park. Partly I chose this hostel because I usually would go for a few laps in the park early in the morning. But I am currently nursing some tendon problems in my feet. Peroneal on my right foot and anterior tibialis on my left. It's the first time I have had these problems so I want to give some rest and recovery before resuming my running routines so as not to create a chronic situation.

I will be staying at Yesinn three nights and then going over to the New Territories where I will stay at a YHA hostel. I have never been there before but it is bound to be a lot more traditional and less touristy then Hong Kong Island and Kowloon; and as well it provides closer access (I think) to many kilometers of hiking trails along the MacLehose trail.

I am then booked to Kuala Lumpur on the 26th and will hang there for some undetermined time before going up to the highland areas on the west coast and tentatively plan to be in Ipoh.

Currently I am having an American at Habitu Coffee which is next door to the Pacific Coffee Company which is next door to a Starbucks on Hennessy Road where I just bought my Maserati (LOL) and picked up material from Malaysia tourist office.

2012-13 travel

Getting ready for 2012-13 travel to SE Asia.  I am booked on Air Canada to arrive Hong Kong where I plan to stay one week.  This year I am to spend some time in The New Territories which is closer to a network of trail systems.
After Hong Kong I will go to Malaysia and I think I will spend most of my winter there and then maybe wind up with a month in Thailand and some time in Taiwan.

Monday, 30 January 2012, Kota Kinabalu

I am sitting at Starbucks in Kota Kinabalu airport waiting for Malaysia Air flight to Hong Kong where I will turn around on 2 Feb and fly to Vancouver.

Upon reflection I decided to abort SE Asia travel.  There are several reasons.  This years travels just seem to be not going as well as previous years nor as well as I had hoped.  Now I find that, even though I 'like' Sabah and Malaysia in general, it is either too hot or too rainy to spend much outside time.  Consequently most of my time seems to be inside a lodging place.  For example I took a van to Kinabalu National Park home of Mt. Kinabalu and a UNESCO world heritage site (of course).  When we got to the gate it was pouring rain and fog in all directions.  One could not see up the mountain nor down the valleys.  So I stayed on the van for another 10km to a town called Ranau where I stayed three nights and the weather did not change.  I then decided to return to KK and the weather did break for awhile.  It's a gorgeous trip through the jungle mountains but alas it was time to take a pass on the Park.

Other attractions on Sabah are the Urang Utan rehab area and Turtle Island both on the SE Coast on the opposite side of Sabah.  The few people I talked to were disappointed in these as they said, all you see at the rehab centre is a few Orangutans at feeding time and the fee for getting to Turtle Island is outrageously expensive as noted on some travel sites.

The way to see Sabah and Indonesian Borneo is to have lots of money and hire private guides and charter small aircraft.  Otherwise you are limited to seeing tourist packaged tribal villages on some tour group.  Which is ok, just not my thing.  Tourism is the 'new' tribal village way of life it seems.

I am not sure what I will do after I arrive in Vancouver .  I could go down to Mexico and try to get my dental implant work done; but I am inclined at the moment to wait until next fall.  Alternately I may go to Calgary and hang out at least throughout February and get back to Miramichi in March.

Thursday, 19 January 2012, Beaufort, Sabah, Malaysia

Thanx to all who have given me emotional support and encouragement to keep on blogging.

Some of my posts are over-weighted with logistics. But then, travel by definition is a logistical activity and in some countries such as Indonesia and India dealing with those logistics can take a disproportionate amount of ones time and energy. The lesson, at least for Asia, is to fly wherever possible. So for example at the last minute and after my stressful 'bus' travels I booked with Air Asia to fly from Yogyakarta to Jakarta and onward to Sabah. The flight from Yogy to Jakarta ( a distance of 437 km) costs $28.00Cdn.

As you can see, Adisutjipto Airport in Yogyakarta is a small airport but yet has frequent low cost flights.

In Jakarta the discount airlines have their own terminal, (Terminal 3) and it's from there that I flew Air Asia to Kota Kinabalu

Kota Kinabalu is the largest city in Sabah with a population of about 500,000 and although Sabah is a state of Malaysia, they can exert their own autonomy regarding immigration. A Canadian visiting Malaysia gets an entry stamp for 90 days and does not need a visa. Sabah is on the Island Borneo. Borneo is also the name sometimes given to Indonesia's province of Kilamantan. The Malaysian state of Sarawak and the Brunei Sultanate are also on Borneo.

Kota Kinabalu and Sabah in general has many offshore Islands on it's three coasts - South China Sea (opposite) on the west, Sulu Sea on the North East and Celebes Sea on the South East

A couple of boats anchored at Kota Kinabalu Harbour

Some like it hot.

Like everywhere KK has it's share of markets and there is always an abundance of fresh produce.

 At one of the Wisma's the sidewalk was lined with tailors and their sewing machines.  This is the first place in my travels that I have seen tailors concentrated in one place like this where there were at least 12 stands.  You would wonder if there would be enough demand for each of these men to make a living. In the past I have availed myself of tailor services in Yogyakarta, Chiang Mai and Mazatlan.  They are very handy and inexpensive for making repairs while on the road.

Yesterday (18th of January) I left KK by bus and traveled westward and a bit inland to Beaufort.

Beaufort is a small town and does not have the modernity of larger Malaysian centres even though it is only a couple of hours from KK. It serves the surrounding agricultural areas.  There are no western or world branded franchises here - not even a 7 /11 or a KFC.  There are several traditional markets and many, many eateries. 

Downtown Beaufort

Around the country coming toward Beaufort from Kota Kinabalu there are several Catholic churches, schools and missions including a couple here in Beaufort. However, one mosque dominates the town of Beaufort.

From the minaret at 4:30 AM the muezzin's call to prayer is broadcast through loudspeakers over the town.  It is of course in Arabic and is very rhythmic and hypnotic - all the better for mind control?

'A muezzin is the chosen person at a mosque who leads the call to prayer (adhan) The main purpose behind the multiple loud pronouncements of adhan in every mosque is to make available to everyone an easily intelligible summary of Islamic belief. It is intended to bring to the mind of every believer and non-believer the substance of Islamic beliefs, or its spiritual ideology. In modern times, loudspeakers  have been installed on minarets for this purpose.' (thanks Wikipedia)

I am liking it here as the geography is hillier and there is very little traffic and brething all that oxygen from the heavy vegetation is much better than sucking in hydrocarbon emission products. It's a good place for morning running.  By noon time though it is desperately hot, so I hide out in my AirCon hotel room. 

I am of course the current town oddity being the only pale face in sight and my hairy arms attract a lot of attention.

Out of Indonesia and on to Sabah, Malaysia

Monday 17th Jan 2012 - two months out of Canada

I was going to fade this blog to black but I got a couple of encouraging feedbacks so I will keep it going for the time being

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There is not much happening with me and I was questioning “What is the point of my travels?” Beyond the obvious escape from Canadian winters I conclude that the point is: “There is no point”. Its simply a way. Maybe I am ready to settle down. I met an English woman on a flight to Denpasar who had retired in Kuching, Sarawak. She had a son living and working in Denpasar and she traveled about on her own saying her husband was basically a couch potato not interested in doing anything. She seemed quite happy at having left Britain behind and lives off her pension (retired school teacher). I like Kuching but it seems just a tad too far from Canada for going back and forth one or two times each year.

I am currently in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia (Kota means City) after having flown from Yoyakarta to Kota Kinabalu via Jakarta . KK is a welcome break after all the Indonesian chaos.

I have not much to say and no photos about Yogyakarta aka Jogjakarta and commonly Jogja ( pronounced something like choke cha). Jogja is the most popular tourist destination on Java because of two nearby UNESCO World Heritage sites. One Borobudur, a reconstructed Buddha temple and the other Prambanan, a Hindu temple. I didn't go see either one of these. I just didn't seem to have the interest in more ruins/temples and making a 4:00 AM trip to see the sunrise. I simply don't have 'spiritual experiences” that others speak about having and after all I climbed Mt Ararat (Egypt) in the dark!

I am a bit skeptical about the whole idea of UNESCO branding. Despite the treaty being touted as a means of preserving world heritage; I see it (the UNESCO World Heritage designation) more as a tourist marketing tool which is suffering from overexposure. And why are natural geological formations such as canyons (as in Grand) and mountains (as in Kinabalu) even on their list?

On my run this morning I headed eastward on the coastal highway at 5:30AM against heavy inbound traffic and no shoulders on the road. I expected much less traffic and I don't like having to put so much energy into traffic awareness; especially as there are frequent roundabouts here and they are not always so easy to navigate on foot. I thought I might have been better going west past the airport as it looks from my map there are fewer suburbs in that direction but a Sabah tourism clerk said it would be just as bad in that direction.

There is a significant Chinese community here in KK and they are readying for the Chinese New Year next weekend on the 23^{rd .} It seems like it might be a good time to leave the city. In any event I want to get to a smaller town and maybe up in altitude a bit for less traffic and cooler temps as I am now into my 2012 training season.

From Kota Kinabalu, Mount Kinabalu and the offshore islands for diving are the primary tourist draws. Climbing Mt Kilabalu is a “must”. It is rated easy but a little strenuous at 4100 meters. I don't know if I can do the thin air as I have to aclimatize even in Mexico City at only 2200 meters. In the meantime I think I will head out in the other direction and then back to Kinabalu Park.

From Bali to Java

The short version of this post is that I left Pemuteran by bemo on 10th January to Gilimanuk and crossed by ferry from Bali to Java.  In Karangasem, Java (the town outside the port on Java I ran into some difficulty getting my planned bus ticket to Yogyakarta and ended up staying over night and traveling by train via Surabaya and onward to Yogyakarta.  The long version of this story is posted below  It may not be of much interest but I felt like posting just for the record

Today's tiring travel trials (Just for the record)

I was up early on 10^th January, checked out and just about stepped onto the roadway when I spotted in my peripheral vision, a red vehicle in motion and automatically flagged as it passed by. The driver saw me and stopped about 50 meters down the road. Yes he was going to Gilimanuk to the ferry, and I could go for 100000 Rp. I expressed shock and the price and it was immediately reduced to 50000 and even that would be considered 'tourist price'. I would bet these drivers get together at the end of the day and swap stories about how much they could get from crazy tourists. However I was more than happy to pay for the 30 km ride and to have successfully flagged my red Isuzu Bemo.

I don't have a picture but these bemos are like mini cargo vans of a vintage of many years back and are pretty well beat up. The one I was in had no paneling on doors or elsewhere and the door handles didn't work. There was a makeshift wooden shifting lever and generally the vehicle had been well used if not abused. The capacity of these vans are expanded way beyond design by adding wooden benches and rearranging seats. When I boarded there was one other female passenger and the back end was jam packed with carton of something. Along the way more passengers ( mostly workers headed for field work it seemed to me) were picked up until there were 10 adults and two babies plus cargo and driver. The side door remains open for the duration of the journey and once all the seats are taken passengers stand hunched over in any space available.

By the time we reach Gimanaluk I am the only passenger and the driver drops me at a “bus station” near the ferry terminal. It appeared to be one of those mini van stations and not a station for full size, long distance buses. A man comes to me and says he has a motorcycle and can take me to the bus company office where I can buy a ticket on an express bus that would take 10 hours to Yogyakarta. Of course I didn't trust the guy, especially when he said there where no buses on the Java side.

I walked away from him and crossed the street, bought a drink and asked the lady where to buy a ticket and she pointed me to a man on the gate going to the ferry. I am talking to him about where I wanted to go and he told me my options (including getting a bus on the Java side). He suggests that I might want to take the train. While he is explaining things to me a pickup truck comes to the gate with driver and passenger and the driver pays .Then the ticket guy talks to them in Indonesian, turns to me and says I can catch a ride to the bus station with them. So I go to pay for my ferry ticket and he waves me off. Apparently whatever the truck driver paid covered all passengers in his vehicle.

On the crossing the driver started talking money, but apparently knew no more English. I assured him I would give him some money after we got to the bus station I had already decided I would give him something. The question was how much? And of course there was flashing thought that once off the ferry and sandwiched between two guys about whom I knew nothing, I could be driven to a secluded spot, have my throat slit and they would take off with all my possessions. But I thought I was reasonably safe because it had been the ferry ticket man that set it up and the driver seemed Ok.

He was a bit lost in trying to find the bus station but after asking a couple of times finally arrived at another Indonesian bus station.

Well this time it did look like a long distance station as there were larger buses about. As I enter the compound a guy approaches and says he is security and offers to help. I ignore him and walk around the terminal ending up at a place that looked like an ticket agent 'office'. Basically a dirty hole in the was with a surly looking man and a desk with a banner showing a bus line advertisement. He and another man who appeared spoke no English but it seems maybe I am at the right place for a ticket. Just as I felt we had successfully communicated, my 'security' greeter appears and repeats that he is there to help me. After some discussion it seemed the options were basically a 14 hour air con bus today at 2:20 or a 10 hour express bus tomorrow morning. I couldn't really face 14 hours but after being told there were no hotels close by and with reassurance that the 14 hour bus made two stops, had air conditioning and reclining seats, I decided I had to go for it. This bus was scheduled to depart some four hours later.

I killed time by finding an internet, having some snacks and drying some damp clothes I had packed.

At about 2:20 a bus arrives, my greeter comes to get me and sells me a ticket for 15000 (he had said that tomorrow's price will be 275000 and so much for the security gig! He was obviously making a commission. But what I couldn't understand on reflection is why the other two men seemed to accede to this guy. Maybe it was because he spoke better English.) Anyway I get on the bus look around and it doesn't seem like any bus described earlier. I look at the ticket and it has has a list of about 20 place names indicating more than the promised 'two stops' – I am thinking 'milk run' . I am stowing my things, sit on an uncomfortable seat but cannot find any recliner. I look around the bus more carefully and I realize I am being had. I retrieve my bags and get off the bus – my greeter comes over. I say it's not the bus he described earlier and there is no way I am traveling 14 hours without a reclining seat (and no toilet). He doesn't argue and has to get my refund from the driver who doesn't seem too happy about these goings on. My greeter then tells me 'no problem' a bus with reclining seats will be here in one hour. I tell him I will think about it and I walk away not sure what to do next.

I walk back to the internet I had used thinking I would try to sort things out from there. Before going on line I start talking to three people ( maybe family) and after some time they point the direction to the train station. I had decided to check it out and if that didn't work I would come back to the bus terminal. The older man of the three called a motorcycle driver over and asked how much he would charge to take me to the station. Just then a bemo passes and I flag it down and ask my 'helper' to find out if he would go to the station. In the end I took the bemo and eventually arrive at the station which is quite removed from any other commercial type activity. The ticket wicket is closed. I could however see from the published schedule that there was a train to Surabaya that evening and another in the morning.

I am getting quite tired by now and ask a shop owner at the station if there was a hotel close by. The answer was in the negative. I head back over to the terminal and see a man exit with a ticket in hand. At the ticket counter two men are explaining bisinis ( second class) and executif (first class) prices and the departure time. They call another person over who they seem to know. He speaks very good English and clarifies everything. He says he's a tour guide (yeah, right I am thinking) He pulls out a testimonial letter from some Canadians that had a couple of Canadian flag stickers and wanted to know if I had any. Then he explained he had been guiding for two Italians. His credibility was increasing and he suggested the morning train would be better and I agreed provided I could find a hotel. He said he knew of one close by and near where he lived and offered to take me there on his motobike.

I gave him some money for his help (he didn't ask for any) and he offered to pick me up in the morning and take me to the train, which he did. I gave him some more money and he said “are you sure?' I was very thankful for all his help. In the end I think he was a legitimate independent, self styled tour guide – but who knows? Maybe he was just a good confidence man.

So after a night's sleep I settle in to my bisinis class seat for an on time departure at 8:17 with a schedule to arrive at Surabaya at 2:57. I need to buy a ticket and change to a different train in Surabaya for the onward trip to Yoyakarta. There is a train that leaves at 3:00 PM but I figure that three minutes will not be enough time to buy a ticket and get to the next train so I had expected to have to find a hotel in Surabaya and travel the next day

And here is the train station in Karangasem, Java, Indonesia and the arriving train

Bisinis (business or second class) car with a coffee (Kopi) that definitely wasn't Starbucks.  Which reminds me:  There was a good cafe in Pemuteran, Bali where you could buy one cup of special Indonesian coffee for 200,000 Rp (about $21. Cdn)

Needless to say, I didn't try it!

As it turned out, exiting the train in Surabaya one actually passes through a train on the adjacent track. As I am doing so a trainman asks where I am going. When I tell him he points to the train I just walked through and tells me it is going to Yogyakarta. I thank him and say I am going tomorrow. I exit and go to the ticket counter to buy my ticket for the following day. The ticket seller gives me prices and times and says I can still make the 3:00 PM. I make a snap decision and buy an executif ticket – she says “hurry to track 6” I rush back into the station, show my ticket to a trainman who points me to the last car. I have my foot on the top step of the entry as the train begins to roll away.

What a difference executif makes versus bisinis – reclining seats and air conditioning and quite comfortable as I make my way to Yogyakarta.

Westward on North coast, Bali

On or about 8^th of January I headed westward from Lovina on the north shore by hired motorbike to Pemuteran. Pemuteran stretches along the highway for about three kilometres lined on both sides with Homestays (for some reason all accommodation is called a homestay rather than hotel or guesthouse), dive shops and small farm lots with one or two cows or pigs and chickens. It is really a village dedicated to tourist diving mixed with traditional Balinese subsistance farming. There is no commercial infrastructure, not even ATMs, service stations or convenience stores.  Most homestays have restaurants and there are local eating places called warangs.  Prices at the homestays (for tourists) tends to be higher than many other places on Bali.

My homestay, Juawa had very nice building structures and gardens, a big pool, and good restaurant and internet that didn't work and no Wi Fi ; BUT...It was very uncomfortable sitting in the restaurant or outside my room because of the odors from the above mentioned farm animal enclosures and the commensurate presence of house/barn flies. Curiously (to me) the room had no chairs or tables and no mirror in the bathroom – all of which I find a bit strange for an establishment catering to foreign tourists and charging over twice (even with discount which I wasn't to tell other guests about !)what I paid in Lovina.

In front of my homestay unit and next door to a cow pen on the left.  Too many flies to sit out on my porch.

 Juawa did have a nice pool and internet in shelter at far end which didn't work during my stay and no Wi Fi - thus this blog is posted after leaving 

The beach here in Pemuteran was actually nicer than at Lovina and stretches all along the coast.  The bay shelters from the storms - we had very high winds two nights in a row.  Maybe a monsoon off shore?

The Bay

On a laneway between the highway and the beach

A recently departed

        

and 

               

                    The last homestay

At Pemuteran we are leaving the Balinese Hinduism behind and getting into predominately Muslim territory

There are trails and paths leading from the highway back toward the mountains that form the backdrop to Pemuteran.  Below are some photos from my wonderings on some of these paths.

 I had my camera out taking a pic of a farm house when a group of kids kicking around a soccer ball on the path saw me and came running.  Of course when they got close too have their picture taken they broke into typical kid behavior.  One of the boys spoke English and asked where I was going. I think they and the farmers I met along the way, probably don't see too many old white men with hairy arms in their neighbourhood very often

And the cows were also wondering
'who is that guy ? "


I wanted to get a picture of the cultivating implement, which was made of wood, but by the time I got my camera out the farmer had reached the end of this row and didn't come back.

Cultivating Corn

Farm House

I stayed two nights at Juawa but had to move on to ensure being in Jakarta on 14^th of January for my flight to Sabah, Malaysia. I was fretting getting from Pemuteran to Gilimanuk for the ferry from Bali to Java and had to allow for unanticipated delays in getting to Yogyakarta.

 There is no scheduled bus service and there was not the obvious abundance of motorbike drivers offering transport as had been the case heretofore in Bali. The only option (short of a car hire) was to flag down a Bemo ( pronounced 'beemow' by some or 'baymow' by others)  and hope for the best. My homestay hostess wasn't too helpful in how or where to do that. I talked to a woman at a nearby “store” where I had bought drinks and she told me to look for an Isuzu that was red, stand by the road and flag it down.  At first I didn't understand what she was saying and then it dawned on me she was saying "Isuzu" , the vehicle.