Borneo

How long since last time, is't it?

I am sorry you have some dealy from the spanish blog, but I don't have so much time here in the hostels in Borneo.

But honestly I think a lot of you all, this blog thing is really nice, I feel that I can talk to you directly and with the pictures I think I can tell you more than I could only with a big massive mail. The only thing I don't like is that it takes me a longtime to update it and I can not do it as often as I would like to

I am going to tell you the important things and a bit in short, because when I started to write a draft in the notebook I take with me, and when I had already wroten two and a half pages, I realised that there was no point in it and that the best option is writing it directly. So, since I am writing you from Borneo I think the best I can do now is telling you how things are happening here. The rest from Kuala Lumpur I can tell you later on, and moreover I have not here the pictures from those days.

So let's go all of us to Borneo!... In Borneo Island there is a big part wich is the Indonesian part. There is another part in the north with is the Malaysian part, where you can find two of the therteen states of Malaysia: Sabah in the northeast and Sarawak in the southwest. And in between these two states, in the coast, there is Brunei. Here you are a map, so you can see where I am going.

On Tuesday November the 9th, Tomaš and me took a plane flying to Kota Kinabalu, in the west coast of Sabah. Already on the plane, when we were looking through the window, we could already see what we were going to find here.

The first days we had some things organised with a travel agency. Let me tell you: In one of my visitis to the offices of Tourism Malaysia I got the contact of one Directive of a travel agency with clients in Spain to know what was more convenient for me to visit here in Borneo. They are helping me and the only thing I had to pay was an excursion we made with them; for the booking of the hostel in Kota Kinabalu, all the advises to visit places in Borneo, or the organization of my trip for the week after with another travel agency, they didn't charge anything at all.

So we arrived to Kota Kinabalu, we went to the hostel were we had the booking, then we went to meet the guy from the travel agency here, and after talking to him we decided that on the next day we were going to visit Kinabalu Park and on thursday we would visit some islands around here.

That night we walked a bit around the city. There is not much to see in Kota Kinabalu, but it has a night market which is the one I liked the most so far. There you can buy fresh fish cought during the day, fruits, vegetables... and there is also a part in which you can seat and eat something.

On the next morning, the people from the travel agency pick us up to go to Kinabalu Park. We got into the minivan and we were incredibly stinking insect repelent, of course, everybody noticed it as soon as we entered. It was funny.

The excursion was ok, a bit touristic but acceptable. You know I like more travelling on my own, but Kinabalu Park is not exactly close to Kota Kinabalu and if you want to go by bus, in one day, you probably won't have time to see all we saw. We were walking a bit through the botanical garden and one of the paths of the park while the guide was explainig us about how aboriginal people use the plants from the rain forest. Taking a good picture in the rain forest is a bit difficult, here you are one which is a normal one, but at least for you to know how full of plants this is.

After that they took us to see what is considered the biggest flower in the world. It is the flower of a plant called Rafflesia and depending on the spice it has bigger or smaller flowers, but in any case much bigger than daisies.

And to finish the excursion we went to a Canopy Walk, which consists on hanging bridgesd between trees, so you can walk at the highth of the braches. It is interesting.

When we got down from the trees we took a bath in the termal spring water swimmingpool around there.

Back in Kota Kinabalu, again a night walk and go to sleep.

The next day we went to visit three of the islands the Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park, very close to Kota Kinabalu. Well, what can I tell you... it is better if I show you a couple of pictures and you decide by yourselves...

I hope you are not seeing this from your job, so it is not too cruel.

This is Manukan Island, it is quite ok, of course, but on the weekend before we had been at Tioman Island which we liked a lot because the part of Tioman Islad in which we were is not crowded and full of tourist. So this island, which is very well prepared for tourists and there are more people on the beach, didn't impressed us so much.

After lunch in Manukan Iasland we took the boat to our next island: Sulug Island.

We did really like this island. Especially becuase this one, on the contrary as Manukan Island, is a "desert" island; the boat leaves you there and you tell the man on the boat at what time you want him to pick you up. Even if the beach was not the best beach I had seen ever, becuase it has many coral pieces and small rocks... how cool... imagine an island just for you with nobody else to bother you... I really liked it a lot. After some time three Italians arrived, but the island was big enough for the five of us.

But... not all could be perfect. After a while we both were in the water when something bit Tomaš on his foot. We don't know what it was, there are several theories but none of them is for sure. What is for sure is that Tomaš had never felt before something which hurted like that in his whole live. And Tomaš is not precisely the weakest person in the world. His foot began to swell and, since misfortunes never come alone, that morning I had gone into the water with my mobile in my pocket so it was dead (but absolutely dead, I had to buy another one on the evening). Of course none of the italians had a telephone, so Tomaš had to stand the pain until the boat came to pick us up more than half an hour after.

When we arrived to Kota Kinabalu we went to the hospital and then they inyected him several cocktails of whatever and he didn't have to stand the pain anymore. Here you are a picture I took the day after, when his foot was much better... can you guess which one it is?

In the meanwhile I went to the hostel to take his passport and his insurance. And later I went back again to take some clothes because it was better if Tomaš stayed during the night in the hospital to see that everything was ok.

But even from the worst experiences you can always get something positive, and that day Tomaš could experience the hospitality and kindness of the people here in Malaysia. When I went back to the hostel for the second time to take the clothes and buy the mobile (20€, just that, new one), the woman of the hostel told me that they were leaving at 7 and the hospital was in their way, so they could drive me there. When we arrived to the hospital she came out of the car and told me that she would like to enter at least to say hello and see how he was, and in the meanwhile her husband stayed waiting in the car.

Tomaš was not in the emergency area anymore and she was finding out where he was. The hospital was not from the third world at all, but beds were in big rooms like the ones you can see in some films. So after being some time with us she said that since Tomaš had insurance, why we didn't go to a private hospital where he would have been more comfortable. The thing is that when we arrived to the harbour we asked which was the best hospital in the city and we were told that this was the best one. So she started to make phone calls to her husband and ask him how we should do to change to another hospital. While Tomaš was talking to the doctor her husband parked the car and came up too, in case it was necessary. But the doctor understood perfectly and said that there was no problem for Tomaš to change to any other place. So then Tommy and Veronica (yes, both are Chinesse, as you have guessed) were finding out which was the best place where we could go and they drove us there, and that was not on their way home because it was at the other side of the city.

Even after arriving to the private hospital they stayed for some time with us until we told them that they could go home when they wanted.

I imagine that there is no need to comment. Tomaš was amazed about how nice they were to him evem if they hardly knew him since two days ago. To tell the truth, people here are in general very kind.

On the next day Tomaš came early in the morning to the hostel, bougth some flowers for Tommy and Veronica, we pack our stuff and we took the plane to Miri, which is Sarawak, in the coast close to Brunei.

Since it was friday, in the evening I went to pick Zuzana up to the airport, who was arriving from Kuala Lumpur. That day Tomaš stayed resting in the hostel hoping that his foot would be ok on the weekend, when we were going to Gunung Mulu National Park.

But this, I will tell you some other day, let's go step by step...