Water colours - Bako

Not too far from the city of Kuching on Malaysian Borneo, situated on a peninsula, is Bako National Park. The only way to reach it, is per boat, and so we did. First we took a bus to Kampung Bako (about an hour and a half), where we chartered a boat for the last few miles.

Local  fisherman

In a teeny tiny boat we went. First out of the village, past the houses and then on to open water, where we crossed paths with local fishermen going back with their nights catch.
We arrived at Bako NP beach at low tide. This meant we couldn't moor to the pier, but had to wade the last few meters.  Of course, the water was warm enough, and only the next day we discovered the HUGE jellyfish.

The arrival beach at Bako NP

At Bako you can spend the night in very basic rooms, and so we did. We spent 3 nights in the park, which gave us enough time to leisurely explore the park. There are a some well-marked trails in the park, and you are allowed to walk the trails independently. As a safety measure, when you go out on a hike you sign in and out at the central register. In this way, if you are away for far longer than estimated, help can be sent.

Start of our hike

We did one 4-hour circular hike. It started at see level, on a wooden boardwalk underneath the trees. Then a bit up over soft soil and then climbing rocks towards the panoramic vistas. Utterly sweaty we reached the plateau of the peninsula, formed by lava, with small springs and streams cutting into the black ripples. A bit further the ground was more sandy, even dune like. The environment gradually became greener, small trees appeared and it became more humid again.

At the plateau

Then down we went, to a small secluded beach. We stayed a while, swam, washed off the sweat off, and had a snack. Then up again, back to the trail. The last stretch was steep down again, climbing down over ladders and boulders until we reached the main path around the park headquarters, where we passed a drowned forest. 

The drowned forest

On this particular hike we didn't see a lot of large animals (we did on other hikes!) but were amazed at nature's diversity at such a small patch of land: Insects, plants, soil, even without the mammals, this was a really good hike!

Pitcher plant at the plateau

People of the forest - Semenggoh

When we decided to go to Malaysian Borneo there was no question about it: we would visit one of the wildlife rescue centers in the hopes of seeing an orangutan. We chose the city of Kuching as a base for the 2,5 weeks we spent on Borneo. One of the main reasons we chose Kuching is it's proximity to Semenggoh Wildlife Centre.

There are a few different spots on Borneo where you can see semi wild orangutans. We opted for Semenggoh because it is not included in most organised tours (they tend to go to Sepilok in the east) but still accessible enough by publing transport (as opposed to Matang).

Mother and baby sighted

Semenggoh is a rehabilitation centre and the orangutans living there are thus semi wild. They are used to humans and no longer wild enough to be set free. But they can move about within the conservation area as they please.
Twice daily food is placed on feeding platforms in the reservation, but this is no guarantee the apes will show.
If there's enough food in the forest, they usually do not come to the feeding platforms. We were aware our trip might be in vain, but wanted to at least give it a try.

Mother and baby coming down to feed

From Kutching we took a bus to Semenggoh, about a 40 minute ride, so we arrived in time for the afternoon feeding session. From the bus stop it is about 20 mins walk on a paved road to the feeding platform.
In the past you were allowed to walk ther over paths through the forest, but since the current alpha male is too aggressive the paths have been closed to humans. I think that's a good sign for the apes, don't you? The rules are set to make the orangutans more comfortable, not the humans.

Aplha male Ritchy on the feeding platform

As we waited near the platform, we could read a bit on the individual history of each ape and the family relationships. Within the reservation the apes are comfortable enough to breed!
We had good hopes of spotting an orangutan since it was past the fruit season, which means less food to find in the forest. We were not dissapointed! Our first sighting were a mother and child! Still fairly high up in the trees, but who cares?? This was more than we had hoped for!

Edwin had so many facial expresions!

As the rangers placed some food on the platform, they came further down and started munching. But suddenly then she went up again!
It soon became clear why: the trees started swaying... and Ritchy came down! Ritchy is the current alpha male, and an impressive sight, even from the safe distance we kept.
We stayed another hour or so to watch the apes eat and interact. A few more oranutangs came down, including the comical Edwin. Utterly satisfied with our sightings we went back to Kutching.

Enjoying lunch

But before we left Borneo we decided to try our luck again... so a fortnight later we visited Semenggoh for the second time.  An even more impressive visit.
This time we saw another mother and child, both a bit older than the previous visit. The youngster was happily eating his banana inside 'our' viewing hut. And because visitors have to keep their distance from the residants, this meant that the humans were standing in the blazing sun, while the apes were enjoying a lunch in the shade: imagine that!

Ritchy: 150kg of muscle

Then suddenly the mother started walking, and the rangers appeared very concerned. Another visit by Ritchy! But this time not on the feeding platform. He followed suit and decided to have lunch in the hut as well.
And if Ritchy does that, you show respect. An adult male orangutan can litteraly rip you apart. So the humans were hoarded out of his way, while leaving room for the moher a child orangutan that were leaving. (We learned that since she had a young child to care for, she did not want to be impregnated and therefor stayed away from the alpha male.) It was a very crowded  parking lot! Even more so when Ritchy decided to follow the others...

Mother and child hurrying away

Luckily all went well in the end, and the rangers made sure to keep as much distance between the human and apes as possible. The only thing was that Ritchy decided to sit down right next to the road, and do some people watching. The same road we had to walk to get to the bus stop.....
After some time, we knew we had to start walking. The last bus of the day would be there in half an hour. But what about Ritchy?
After strict instructions from the rangers, do not look at him, no camera sounds, no photos, no talking etc. we walked passed him, as far to the other side of the road as possible, but still only 6 meters away!  Equally impressive as scary if you ask me, but what an experience... Definitly a top 10 visit!

Ritchy near the road, seeing us off

Pilgrim for a day - Kii Peninsula

It's been a while since my last post. I've spent a month in Japan and of course that should mean I've got more stories to tell! But somehow it's been hard to get my mind back into working order since I came back. Harder than usual that is ;-)

I decided to just start with the 'easiest' story from Japan to get back into blogging . So this post will be all about the Kumano Kodo...

At 9 am we were walking under tall trees

Kumano Kodo translate roughly as 'the old route' and is a network of ancient pilgrimage mountain trails on the Japanes Kii-Peninsula, south east of Kyoto. (click here for more info)

We like to mix some nature activities into our trips, and when read about this area, we decided to go there. There are many hiking possibilities, but we walked just one day on the Nakahechi route. We chose this trail because it was fairly accesible, looked not too touristy, and you can fairly easy book accomodation through the tourist office.

Some steep climbs...

We walked from Nonaka-no-Ipposugi to Hongu, a 22 km hike. Since it was quite hard to get information on exactly what to expect, we were very happy with the walking schedule on the tourist information website.
Like all things Japanese, it was very detailed: You were supposed to start at 7am(!) and the whole hike was devided into sections. For every section a distance and a time was specified. To the minute. As did every point of interest.
Very funny, but very informative as well!

Part of the hike information provided by the tourist office:
we had 5 minutes to look at the tea house remains....

So we decided to start as instructed, and monitor closely for the first hour or 2 if we could keep up with the schedule. If we could, we would walk on, if we couldn't, we would turn back and take the bus. This was quite important, as the trail would mostly pass uninhabited areas and it wouldn't be possible to stop halfway through.

Around noon we walked trough a lovely valley

We spent the night at a nice minshuku (Japanese style B&B) and our hosts were so kind to drive us up the first hill (a very steep climb bout 200m up).
At 7:05am we started walking. The first hour or so we welked over on paved roads but then we entered the woods. After 2 hours we were still on schedule, so we decided to proceed. And what a lovely walk it was!

We were pleasantly surprised by the diversity in terrain. From majestic cedar woods, past small shrines, to fairytail like mossy paths, some very steep ascends and panoramic vistas. It was a strenuous hike though. But well worth it.

At 1 pm we walked an old paved section

We encountered about 10 people on the trail itself, so we could really enjoy our surroundings. The only downside: there weren't a lot of places to get water (that sounds like a weird thing to say, but when you go to Japan, you get used to vending machines every 100m very quickly!)

Some nice views around 2 pm

The last 1,5 hours, near the Honshu shrine, was in a more populated and area, so that was busier.  We arrived at the Honshu shrine around half past 3. And pretty much exhausted...
And we finally met some Japanes hikers, at least they wore a proper hikingoutfit even though we only saw them at the shrine

The Japanese prepare a bit better for their hikes than we did

The whole hike was very clearly marked, including the detour caused by a landslide.
We spent the following night at Yumomine Onsen town, where we could ease our muscles in a very hot, and rather smelly, thermal bath.

A well signposted trail

Train Life - Trans Siberian

When we did (part of) the Trans Siberian train, there are a few thing we had to take into account. Because knowing this made our train life easier, and more fun, so I thought I'd share them.

Train life

Some TransSib basics:

• The lower the train number, the faster the train. The Rossya (Red train) is the number 1 towards Vladivostok and the number 2 goes towards Moscow. This is the fastest train. It takes 7 days for the entire trip. Most of the route is single track, this means you might wait for 10-90 minutes at a station for a lower numbered train to pass. 
• For express trains (all numbered trains) you have to reserve a seat/betrh. A seat always equals a berth on overnight trains. You can make a reservation at the counter of a train station or through an (online) agency. Bedding is provided (a top and bottom sheet, a pillowcase and a towel)
• Most trains continue for several days, but not all trains continue along the entire route.  
• There are 4 classes on express trains: platzcart (bunk bed carriage), kupe (4 bed compartments) and spalny vagon (2 bed compartments) and luxe (1st class).
• Bring your own (instant) food, and supplement with foods sold at the platforms or in the train. 

Passing Lake Baikal

Booking

We've booked most of our tickets through an internet agency (Real Russia). And that worked really well! We could pick up our tickets at St. Petersburg station by simply showing the lady at the counter our passports and picked the other up at the Moscow office.
The major plus, we found, was that booking through this agency meant we travelled in the carriage with the Russian folks.We met some other tourists that booked with a non Russian agency and they we all seated together in the first carriage. That would be missing most of the fun!

Another option is to book through a hostel or at the counter of the train station. The last option is a bit adventurous, since most of the people speak only Russian. But since they generally would like to help you, usually a means of communicating is found. Either by writing, pointing or with the help of a random student passing by...

Another advantage of booking through a local agency is that you can decide to book platzcart (3rd class). A service not reguarly offered by non Russian agencies.

Krasnoyarsk station

 Classes

The cheapest class is platzcart, or 3rd class. Platzcart is a open carriage, bunk bed style. There are 54 beds in each carriage.  

Two beds above one another, the lower bed is used as seating during the day. So if you plan on lying down a lot, choose a upper bunk! The upper bed is a bit claustrophobic.
One row of beds is orientated lengthwise (so if you're quite tall, your feet might not fit in), then the aisle, then the transversal beds: 2*2 per 'cabin'.

Platzcart carriage

We were quite curious what platzcart would be like, but not adventurous enough took book 3 nights without knowing what it would be like. 
This class has the most people per carriage, so not a lot of privacy, but more than adequate to spend 1 or 2 nights in. Since this is a cheaper class, people here tend to speak less English or German.
But you might meet a student avid on practicing his English, as we did.
And if you are a single woman travelling, you might want to consider platzcart: less privacy but more social monitoring.

Kupe is the class we travelled in for the longer hauls; 2nd class, 4 bed compartments. We travelled as a couple, and this provided some interaction with locals, without the complete lack of privacy in platzcart. The compartment can be closed with a sliding door, and the aisle is usually the place to chat, walk and meet more travellers.
In the compartment were 2*2 bunkbeds, the lower beds again used for seating during the day. There are 9 compartments, so a maximum of 36 people in a carriage.

Aisle in kupe carriage

 

Toilet facilities

All carriages have 2 bathrooms at either end that are shared between all passengers. These have a toilet and a sink, but no shower. You can get very inventive with this (I've heard of someone filling a soda bottle with lukwarm water, punching holes in the bottom and using that as a shower) but I reckon baby whipes serve a purpose here...

Train attendent - provodniza

Every carriage has 2 train attendents (provodiniza) that are in charge of daily affairs. They check your ticket, provide bedding and clean! How often and how well your bathroom (and the aisle) is cleaned depends largly on you provodniza, but we were happy with it.Once we were shooed into the compartment because the carpet in the aisle needed to be vacuumed and turned!

 

Food

Oh... the food! Where to start?  Ehm.. Let's say I am not a huge fan of Russian food. As I told some friends: I feel like they have a deep fear of spices and herbs... Most of it is just pretty bland for my liking. But maybe I haven't tried the right places or foods.

Culinary highlights

All carriages on the train have a samovar; a boiler filled with hot water. You can use this freely to make coffee, tea or instant foods. We packed instant noodles, soups and other instant 'delicacies'.

When the train stop, there are usually some locals selling their cooking the platform. This may vary from meatballs (frikadelki) to apples (bloko), to pancakes (blini) and others. The further east you go, the more common it is to see this. But not on all stations so do NOT count on it.

The 3rd option is of course: buy food on the train! Most provodnizas have a little business going on, so you can buy some basics with them. Tea, served with sugar in a pretty glass, chocolate, biscuits etc.

Some trains have a restaurant car, but we've never made it to one of those, so I can't tell you al lot about them.

Platform bought food

What route to take?

This is a hard one! There are 3 main routes:

• Trans Siberian (Moscow to Vladivostok)
• Trans Manchurian (Moscow to Beijing)
• Trans Mongolian (Moscow to Beijing via Mongolia)

To do an entire stretch without stopping takes about 7 days in a fast train. 

It really comes dowd to what you prefer...
What destination: Vladivostok or Beijing?

If you want to visit different interesting places means you'll make more stops en route. 

If you want to get into train life you might want to take on long trip without stops.

To see what we ended up doing, visit this post.

Summer into winter in 7 days - Trans Siberian

This week I was triggered by another blog: subject... train travel.
One of my favourite trips so far, was the journey from the Netherlands to Bangkok by public transport, mainly trains.

I'm a long time fan of train travel, and when we started to plan this particular trip our starting point was one of the most epic trains ever: The Trans Siberian.
We ended up not doing the Trans Siberian, but the Trans Mogolian, but I'm sure at some point we will do the actual Trans Siberian.

A ticket for every hop

Now, as with every blog, I start by flipping through photos to get me into blogging 'mood'. What triggers a fun memory, or which photo do I want to show? But there is so much I can or want to tell about the TransSib! So I decided to split it up into different posts. This will be my first of a series! Consider it an intro...

In 2009 we travelled through Russia  for 4 weeks, starting late August. This made us just in time for celebrating the end of summer in St. Petersburg and Moscow day* in shorts, and the start of winter in Siberia.

Our Trans Siberian itenerary was:
6/9 Local train (elektrichka) from Moscow to Vladimir, 200 km, 3.5 hours 
8/9 Train 092 from Vladimir to Krasnoyarsk, in kupe class, 3900 km, 60 hours
11/9 Train 270 from Krasnoyarsk to Irkutsk, in platzcart class, 1100 km, 18.5 hours
19/9 Train 070 from Irkutsk to Ulan Ude, in platzcart class, 450 km, 8 hours
21/9 Train 362 from Ulan Ude to Ulan Bator, in kupe class, 650 km, 23 hours
6/10 Train K24 from Ulan Bator to Datong, soft sleeper class, 1300 km, 25 hours
11/10 Train K616 from Datong to Beijing, hard sleeper class, 400 km, 6.5 hours

Interior of an elektrichka class train

Before really embarking on our TransSib, we wanted to go to on of the Golden Ring towns encircling Moscow. We decided on Suzdal: a bus ride away from Vladimir on the TransSib route. Since it's such an short ride, you can take a local train.
You don't have te reserve a seat in an elektrichka as you have to do at an express train. Just show up at the correct train station (Moscow has a mere 15 train stations) and buy a ticket at the counter, in Russian of course.

The trip to Vladimir took 3.5 hours, on wooden benches... and I was tired enough to sleep through most of it! We spent 2 nights in Suzdal, a tiny little Golden Ring town, with more churches than people. And of course no one spoke anything but Russian there!

Vladimir train station

From Vladimir our TransSib adventure really began. Our first leg was a long one: 60 hours! In this long strech we crossed from Europe into Asia. During the Europian part we passed villages and forrest, mostly deciduous trees, turning into autumn foliage. Over the days the view changed into pine trees and taiga, villages getting scarcer.
The intriguing part is that you can see autumn arrive as in fast forward because the climate changes from a moderate continental to a taiga (subarctic) climate.

The Europe-Asia border marker

We delibiratly chose to do one long haul in our journey, as to really get the feeling of TransSib train travel. And we weren't dissapointed, in just this part of our journey we crossed 6 timezones!

To see a little bit of Russia as well, we took a small (6hour) break from the train in Krasnoyarsk.
We left our luggage at the station and went around town for a walk. It was sunny but there was a definite chill in the air. We completely missed the temperature drop due to the warm enclosure of our train!

Mosaic mural at Krasnoyarsk station featuring Lenin

Our next leg was an 18-hour stretch to Irkutzk, one of the biggest cities in Siberia. We spent most of our time there on Olkhon island. The day before we left, was pretty weird weather wise:

In the morning we walked to one of the monastries, just across the river. The weather was nice and sunny, just walking short sleeved, maybe 20'C.
On our walk back, the wind suddely picked up and we were hit by a sand storm, hiding in a bus stop shelter. The temperature must've dropped 10 degrees in half an hour.
That evening we had dinner in a restaurant, when we left: there was snow!!

Snow in september in Siberia

From Irkutsk we made a short hop (8 hours) to Ulan Ude, a very little visited city in Buryata. And with reason, altough we did manage to see the largest Lenin head in the world.
Next stop was Ulan Bataar, capitla of Mongolia! This takes about 24 hours, mostly because of the extensive border controlls. The tipical thing: you cannot buy food anywhere on this stretch, so be warned... we had just a few dry biscuits in 24 hours!

Sunrise over Ulan Bataar station

The weather in Mongolia was cold during the most of the days, freezing at night. But in the sunshine it was lovely,being in a desert meant no rain or snow, of course!
When we crossed into China, it was obvious we were travelling south, since the temperature increased while we were well into October.
We decided to no travele directly to Beijing, but to make a stop in Datong first.  This ment we arrived in Beijing on October 11.

Tickers for the last few hours on to Beijing

*) Moscow day is the day that commemorates the founding of the city. It was more like a week of celebrating, including a close down of the Red Square for military parades and Tversakya (the BIG 10 lane boulevard leading to the Red Square) closed to alle vehicles and filled with DJs, dance shows and balloons. Amazing! 

Small wonders - Cuc Phuong

During our trip in Viet Nam, of course we planned to vist Sa Pa, known for his hill tribes, as well. But... things didn't go as planned.
The day before we intended to take the train out of Hanoi a typhoon ravaged the North. Landslides, deaths and touristst helicoptered out of there made it obvious we couldn't go there.

Spider and prey

We needed an alternative. We decided on Cuc Phuong: a National Park south of Hanoi. Due to the use of agent orange most of Viet Nam's jungle was destroyed.*  Luckily jungle is a resilient thing and it grew back.

Reproduction in progress

The animal population takes longer to reestablish, specially the mammals. This is caused by two major reasons: The larger the animal the slower the reproduction rate (generally speaking). Another reasn in ths specific country is the poor population. If you're hungry any animal is edible, and that happened on a large scale.

Spot the lizard...

Fortunatly there are several animal rescue centers and breeding programs. And for us visitors it is a good place to appriciate the smaller wonders of the animal spectrum.

Although.... it seems like some of the insects have taken on gigantic proportions... ! May be trying to compensate for the lack of mammals?

Ridiculously big stick insect

In the end we had a great two days in Cuc Phoung. The jungle visit was impressive, so were the rescue centers, and there are also some interesting archeologically interesting caves to visit. This is appareatly one of the oldest places of human settlement.
But again... watch the creep crawlies when visiting!

Bats in a archeological cave

*) Agent orange is a herbicite. The US army spayed it with planes in copious amounts during the Vietnam war to defoliate the leafy jungle, thus destroying North Vietnames soldiers's hiding places and ambushes. Needless to say it was toxic for humans and animals too.

Staring over the water - Olkhon Island

Since I've been writing on this blog I quite regularly flip through my photos. And as it says in the header: a story for every photo is certainly true. Every photo, or set of photos, evokes a memory.
Oh my..... I might just be turning into one of those old people that keeps on telling stories of the things I've seen and the places I've been. But then again, that's what this blog is for!

The cliff next to Nikita's in Khuzhir

So... Olkhon Island... One of the places I've been. Now, for most people this might not sound familiar. Olkhon Island is the largest Island in Lake Baikal. Lake Baikal is the most voluminous, deepest, clearest and probability oldest lake on earth.

And in the middle of Siberia.

The steep cliffs (look at the car!) of nothern Olkhon

Olkhon Island is an important spiritual place in the Buryat of the shamanistic religion. Since it is a shamanistic practice to leave a token or offering at a sacret place you'll see many trees or rocks packed in scarfs, ropes or plastics. Blue being the prevalent colour, since blue represents heaven and peace.

Sacret spot near Choboi Cape

The island itself has indeed a mystical feel to it. It's hard to describe but  most of the people I spoke to that have been there feel the same.
Of course it can be caused by the omnipresent blue scarfs, or mayby because of the rugged, primal nature. The island and lake were formed a long time go, and haven't changed a lot since.

Sandy beach with freezing water

Olkhon is still rather primitive. There is no asphalt on the island. Or showers. But you can use the banya!
And during several months a year Olkhon Island is cut of from the world.

In the summer you can take a ferry, and in winter there is a hovercraft over the ice. But during the months that the ice is too think to sail through and too thin to drive over, you simple can't get there.

I think it's a special, mystical place. So.. if you find yourself in Siberia; don't forget to spend a few night at Olkhon Island!

Sunset over Lake Baikal

Mesmerized by the city - Kuala Lumpur

For those of you that don't know it yet... I'm a city girl. Even though I grew up in a village in a country without 'real' cities .
Even in my tiny country I like to live in a city. I like the hustle and bustle, the contradictions, the anonymity of large groups of people, the inventivity that comes from living in a confined space and the chance meetings. 

Petronas towers

So if we're travelling I always try to spend a few days in a BIG city. My favourite used to be Bangkok, but I changed that to Shanghai in 2009. Thus far Asian cities seem more 'alive' to me than Western cities.

Offerings on sale

So when we went to Kuala Lumpur in 2013 I was curious what she would be like. She was... demure. Being in a muslim country means that alcohol and nightlife isn't abundently present.  Not that I need alcohol but it does change the atmophere.

Best satay, one street from the über touristy nigh market

But there are a few nice night markets with lovely street food, lots of big and small shrines and chinese temples. And the contrast old versus new, hitech versus traditional is everywhere.

A few old houses in between modern high rise

So Kuala Lumpur on the whole... I like the multitude of Chinese temples, and some of the street food, but wasn't as vibrant as I had hoped.

One of the many Chinese temples