Kuta, Bali, Indonesia

I'm only here because I fly to New Zealand in a few days. It also means I have completed the three "krazy K's" (Kathmandu, KhaoSan, Kuta).

Kuta's like an extremely tanned, toned, beautiful, young, noisy, flowering tree - wearing flip-flops and an alcohol-branded t-shirt, and sporting many tattoos. I feel like a little white stick-insect clinging to the edge of this foliage, unable to enter! It's a Bintang beer army and they're planning something. Most people are Australian - the touts and sellers know this and when you approach they shout "G'day mate, how's it ghan?" At first It was funny, and I would say "ah man, I'm from England!" (which some then reply with "lovely jubbly!") but after a few days, and hundreds of people (per hour) saying this I now plug myself into the mp3 player when walking around. Who can blame them though? There's lots of money here and the sellers have t-shirts, massages, Viagra, cigarettes, stubby-holders, air-guns, marijuana, motorbikes, tazers, stickers saying "I fuck retarded midgets", sunglasses, crossboes, surfboards, island excursions, hats, wooden penis bottle openers, money changing, food and beer to sell.

My day goes like this;

6am - wake up and take the 15 minute walk to the beach when it's quiet. Run, read and relax in the nice morning air. 8am - the surfboard sellers arrive on the beach - hire a board for two hours and surf (badly). 10am - back to the guest house and have some breakfast by the pool. 11am until 4pm - stay in the guest house reading, writing and cooling off in the pool. 5pm - Sunset walk with the camera, then find somewhere for dinner before the Bintang evening army gets out (I guiltily had a KFC one day). 7pm - Back to the guest house past the already busy bars pumping out EXTREMELY loud English and American chart hits. 8pm - In bed sleeping!

The beach itself is is long, sandy and a little dirty. The high-tide line leaves a colourful line of washed up plastic and dead wood. This morning it was nice to see the "Bali beach clean-up team" sponsored by Coca-Cola and Quicksilver) - but curiously they only cleaned away the big pieces of wood and seaweed. I can only assume as this causes more of a hazard for the hundreds of surfers and swimmers than a little plastic bottle.

Kudat, Borneo

The flight over Palawan and down into Borneo was stunning - the pilot seemed to be weaving around enormous black anvil-topped thunderclouds - with a golden sunset backdrop and crystal blue waters below nature was really pulling out amazing colour combinations from her palette! I might say that this was the most beautiful flight I've ever been on - my face (then camera) was glued to the window for the whole flight.

I got off the flight and crashed out in a hostel - feeling extremely tired. Next morning I felt a lot better and headed out first thing to find a bus to take me to the northern tip of Borneo. I'm heading to a hostel called Tampat Do Aman. My family are friends with the parents of Howard, who's been out here for seven years, is married to a lovely Borneo lady, and has slowly but steadily been building this business. His aim is to put as much back to the village as he can, so he employs locals for all of the work - and has a few western volunteers on-site as extra hands. Everybody knows and respects him greatly! 

The rickety bus costs 20 Ringgits and takes about five hours. It drops you in Kudat main town, and Howard personally picks everybody up to take them the 30km to the very northern tip of Borneo.

The resort itself is sustainable, with compost toilets, all made from local wood and put together in a traditional way. There's bungalows, just big enough for a double bed, and a traditional Rungus longhouse with ten (I think) rooms, some with double and some with bunk beds. There's a communal area and they've just finished a fantastic little museum, full of interesting artefacts from the surrounding areas. For breakfast there's a shuttle (mostly Howard) that takes you down to the beach, where his restaurant is. There's surfboards, snorkels, kayaks and mountain bikes here. He also has some motorbikes and a battered (characterful) Proton to rent if you so wish.

You can do as much or as little as you want here. I did a jungle walk with Freddie, a German volunteer, and I got eaten alive by mosquitoes. I also spent some time on the surfboards. One evening I was failing to surf when the distant sky turned jet black and it started raining - it had a dramatic effect on the sea, smoothing and taming it with each droplet, only letting the waves roll in. I stopped surfing and sat on the board, soaking up the serene atmosphere with my lower half in the hot sea and my upper half in the cool rain!

There were two mom cats (with no names) in the lodge. One had three kittens (days old) and the other had two (weeks old). The days old mom decided she wanted a week old kitten to feed also and stole one of the others - though days old mom didn't seem too bothered having only one to look after. She took a shine to my bed and I regularly came back to find the kitten in my bed, or hanging precariously on the mosquito net on the outside! In the end I put a box in my room for them to sleep in, the mom seemed happy with this and would happily meow her way into my mosquito net for some attention in the middle of the night.

In my diary of Melaka and Penang in West Malaysia I raved about the food - and I'm so glad to be back here, I missed it so much. The Malay, Chinese and Indian influences excite me greatly - it truly must be some of the tastiest food in the world!

 

 

Traditional Rungus dish - cold fish cooked in lime acid juice, with chilli

There was a village wedding happening on the beach, and they invited us to join them at every opportunity. This corner of Borneo is actually Christian - there was pork, and a lot of beer and locally brewed rice wine. We were fed so much food - they kept putting fresh trays, loaded with tasty things, in front of us. When our drinks were gone (and even before) they were topped up, or we were forced to drink shots of rice wine. Everyone was ridiculously friendly, I think I spoke and danced with most people. There was a party guy, who kept coming around with cans of beer and a bottle of brandy - mixing them together in a glass and getting us to do shots. Me, the three volunteers, an Australian girl and a Canadian couple got exceedingly drunk - I think the Canadian man threw up. We learned how to dance like a bird and me and Freddie impressed the locals with a karaoke rendition of Let it be. I rolled into bed and passed out to the pleasant sound of  millions of jungle critters.

End of the night rabble!

I was rudely awoken from my hangover sleep by a sharp pain in my right elbow. Having no idea what was happening I fumbled for my torch - finding blood dripping down my arm, but nothing in sight - and this was inside my mosquito net. I jumped out of bed and looked around the bed but still found nothing. I went to the communal area and examined the bite more - there was a definite hole, and my elbow was starting to swell up, and become flushed, like a poison was irritating the skin. I didn't want to get back into bed after this, so stayed up. A few hours later Howard came and had a look, as he's an expert in jungle stuff. He said it looked like a centipede bite, of which some contain poison, although not lethal to humans - that would explain the swelling and painful aching elbow! He ripped a plant from the ground and squeezed a white, sticky liquid from it and onto the bite - he said it's a natural painkiller, but I forget the name of the plant :(

Nature's in control here. From the billions of bugs to the insane greenery, everywhere, climbing everything. Giant leaves the locals use as umbrellas when it rains! Howard said that clearing the lodge area is a constant battle - leave it for one day and nature takes over again. 

Centipede attack