Borneo!

BORNEO BEGINS

I have now been on the island of Borneo for three FANTASTIC days! For those of you who do not know where or what Borneo is, let me explain. Malaysia is split into two parts, the most known part is west Malaysia, containing Kuala Lumpur it is the southern peninsular running due south of Thailand. But there is another part to Malaysia, a much more back to basics, where tribal customs are alive and well. This is the eastern peninsula of Malaysia and it makes up a large portion of the island Borneo. Borneo itself contains three different countries. On its' west coast is eastern Malaysia, with the small Islamic country of Brunei, consisting of 380,000 people- and absolutely no alcohol-, wedged into the middle of the coastline separating the two Malaysian states, Saba (north), and Sarawak (south). Then the east and southern most regions of Borneo is Indonesian. So Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia all come together in peace to make up this beautiful island full of wildlife, rolling hills, steep mountains, and tribesman. It really is getting back to nature here!

BAKO NATIONAL PARK

I flew here from JB and landed in Kutching. This is a little city/town consisting of a strong Chinese population sitting in the most southern part of Malaysia in Borneo. From here, I will work my way north. But first, I went East, to the shore!! As there is not much happening in Kutching I wanted to get out and start seeing the real Borneo. I went to the National Park, Bako, to get started. I met 2, and then 2 more, friends in my Kutching hostel the night before found out that we were all going to Bako the next day. We were able to share a boat ride out to the National Park together and split the cost :) It is not an island, but a peninsula and a 30 min. boat ride is required to get past the mangrove, crocodile infested waters. At the end of this trip you step out of the boat onto a pretty beach with a mountain across the water in the background view as you look out into the open ocean. The 5 of us were feeling so lucky to be here it was surreal and exciting as hell. 3 of us rented a room together for the night, while the other 2 were just planning on doing a day trip. The three that stayed were myself, Franc (Dutch, 67) and Alena (Cheq, 34). The two who spent the day with us were Anita (Taiwan, mid-20's) and Michelle (Scottish, 26). We met back up with them the next night once back in Kutching. The 5 of us had a blast that first day. We went on a 6 hour hike around the park, stopping for the view points and beaches. The wildlife highlight of the day had to be seeing the wild monkeys swing from tree to tree all around us. We didn't see much else in terms of wildlife on this first day. We were exhausted by the end of those 6 hours hiking in the blazing sun and awful heat! We finished up our hike around 5 and had refreshing drinks at the 'cafe' (much more of a porch with a few drinks being sold out of a fridge). Here we watched the local monkeys literally steel junk food! No, they didn't want any one's healthy food, no fruit and veg for them. But instead they used their honed skills to grab bags of cookies and chips, as well as cans of soda, right off of people's tables only 2 feet from our faces.

Our two day companions had to leave to catch their boat back to the mainland where they could then catch their hour long bus ride back into Kutching. The three of us remaining were planning on going on a guided night walk. But as we waved the other two goodbye, took our much needed showers and ate some dinner, exhaustion hit us with full force and we decided to trade the night walk in for a few drinks of whiskey sitting casually on the cafe porch and sharing travel stories. As we found out later by another who went on the walk, we did not miss anything. YES! They didn't see a single nocturnal animal on the nightwalk. We sipped our whiskey and watched a fantastic lightning storm that went on for hours! A much better choice :) Somewhere in the middle of the storm, inspiration set in and we found the strength to get up from our table where we had set up camp since dinner and walk out to the beach where I was able to capture some amazing images of the lightning storm! I particularly like this one, on the right, of Heaven, Earth, and Hell! We still turned in early and listening to the sounds of jungle, we all three fell into deep and peaceful sleeps!

There had been talk of waking early in the morning to do some Tai Chi or Yoga, but this, like the nightwalk, never happened. We slept in, woke up to wild boars grazing outside our door, had a relaxing breakfast and then took off for an easier day of hiking; which really just took us to a beach where we went for a wonderful swim before returning to the jetty. We did see some cool wildlife on this shorter hike though. We saw the much more rare Probiscus Monkeys, and iguana, snakes, crabs, lizards, butterflies, and a scorpion! We caught our boat and bus ride back to Kutching, met up with our 2 companions from the previous day, added in some new friends of theirs and went for a massive meal!

Oh did we eat! For 17MYR (about US$4.80) we had an all you can eat buffet, Chinese style. Where you select your food raw, and take it back to your table where you cook it on an open fire, kind of like fondue. This buffet was complete with ice cream for dessert. You don't even want to know what it looks like when 8 backpackers can eat as much as they want for that price. Nor can you imagine how many times we went back for ice cream after already eating huge dinners. You wouldn't believe me if I told you. But needless to say, we have bottomless pits for stomachs. Tomorrow, Michelle, Alena, and I will move inland and start to see the rainforests and tribesman of Borneo!

Geylang... Singapore's Dirty Little Secret!

From Johor Bahru (JB), it is a short and cheap (less than US$1) trip back to Singapore. So while I was in JB, Hakimi, my gracious host, and I went back to Singapore for a Saturday night in their infamous red light district, Geylang! I know what you all must be thinking, how could a country where it is illegal to chew gum possibly have a red light district? Well, I'm not sure how or why the officials turn a blind eye to this, I can only suggest that Asia is Asia and sometimes things don't make a whole lot of sense. It really is a peculiar thing though. While we were there we sat, watched and had drinks at an outdoor cafe type of place where lots of guys pick up girls. Here we saw a gang of policeman enter the scene. We thought they were there to arrest everyone. But as the case turned out they were just there answering a call about a drunken customer sleeping at the table! Crazy! They simply truned a blind eye to everything else around them.

Geylang, like everything else in Singapore, has a very methodical setup. Each street has a different type of girl on it so that you can choose your taste accordingly. One street for Indians, another for Vietnamese, yet a different one for Thai, and the list continues not short of transsexuals, Chinese, westerners and all others in between. Some streets the girls line up, other streets (like the transsexual street) they are hidden away. On these streets, girls are not permitted to see them. I found this quite odd because if you were going to sell yourself, who does it matter who you sell to? But I guess it does in some circles. At each place they would not even talk to me, I always had to send Hakimi in to do some reconnaissance work for me to find out the answers to our many questions. I think he might have enjoyed this part.

We stayed all night and took the first train back to JB in the morning. It was an exhausting night in a crazy place and such a surprise being in Singapore! One more experience under the belt :)

For more pictures, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/find.barlow/GeylangSingaporeSDirtyLittleSecret#

Johor Bahru Continues...

So, most people would only stay in this place for a couple of days max, but I got sucked in! Why? Well for many reasons. Firstly, I have really enjoyed my time guest teaching at my friend's school. The kids did a project on what they learned about Hawaii for me. They had to come up with 10 facts and draw a picture of their favorite. I was really impressed with what they took in. Some even did more research and found out their own new facts. For instance, did you know the guava capitol of the world is known to be Kauai? News to me. I gave the kids an introduction to plate tectonics and the formation history of Hawaii, and then some of them brought in pictures of cross sections and information about hot spots! I was really proud.
I know some of you are wondering how teaching the senator went... Well it is going bloody fantastic! He says he loves the way I teach him as no one has ever broken down the words for him, or taught him simple rules of pronunciation. He has just been trying to memorize the way each word is pronounces, most of the time not even understanding what he is saying. Now he knows about syllables and vowels- first one does the walking, second one does the talking and so forth. And he understands about 'ph' and 'ed' now. It is really great seeing the twinkle in his eyes when he finally gets it right after minuted of frustration on some words. He increased our lessons to one each day to maximize his time with me while I am in town. I will be leaving tomorrow for East Malaysia and then will be back here for 2 days when I return from the other peninsula. He made sure he had my phone number for when I return. p.s. to everyone interested, I now have a phone number again. It is (dial out of the country first, I think 001 for the US) then dial 6016 785 4494. Would love to hear from all of you.
I have also been spending my time here painting a mural. This is probably why I have stayed so long to be fair. I was inspired by the artistic house I am staying in and the blank space of wall that obviously needed something. It has taken me four days and I couldn't leave until it was finished, of course. Anyone who knows Hawaii will be able to guess the beach, at least I hope so. You can tell I miss my home :( Anyway, my gracious host wants me to think of his place as my home away from home, and now I can. Here is the finished piece!
For more pictures, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/find.barlow/JohorBahru#

Johor Bahru, Malaysia!

Ok, so right off the bat I have been caught in the first town I visited in Malaysia. I was not planning on staying longer than a night, as there are tropical islands calling my name. However, the warm hospitality of the man who runs the homestay/hostel I am staying at has encouraged me to stay. His name is Hakimi (on left, pointing to his beloved Guinness, in picture to the left), Malaysian and a trained English teacher. During his first English teaching assignment, many moons ago, he met an English teacher from Montana who taught him in the proper ways of American Hippism :) This guy is fantastic and loves all the same music I do. It is great to be spending time with a head from the 60's who properly loves all the favorites, from Grateful Dead and Floyd to Simon and Garfunkel. A real taste of home right here. However, there are many things about this awesome homestay that are quite different from home. For instance, I am getting used to using a squat toilet (I'll let you ponder what that is) and a bucket shower called Tabo. But of course there is no toilet paper, so the Tabo is used after the toilet as well. This is a bit of an art form to not get your pants soaking wet. Thankfully for me, there are 3 Filipino girls staying there that are lovely and have answered all my questions, albeit with a little shared laughter, but nothing embarrassing. The food here is quite different from home as well, but I actually love it! And I don't miss the food from home at all, not yet anyway.
Hakimi is only to welcoming and insists upon letting us stay for free, as his teaching job is enough for him and he likes to help out the real travelers, the ones who come to meet and greet the people, not get another stamp on their passport (those travelers get charged). This has helped me to afford to make the decision to stay here a bit longer. Also, I expressed to Hakimi how I want to teach English while in South East Asia. Probably in a couple of months or so. So right away his eyes lit up, he brought me to his school the following morning where I had my first experience teaching locals. At first he threw me into a class room with 5 16 year olds, I had not idea what to do. But with vocabulary list in hand, I figured it out. Next were the international 10 year olds from all over. They were much more excited and well versed. I did not teach them English, but about Hawaii instead. Their teacher then gave them an assignment on Hawaii which they were all very excited to do! I loved it! They loved it! All were happy :)
My time here is pretty good, and apparently Hakimi has signed me up to teach a one-on-one session tomorrow... with a senator! What am I going to do? I have no idea yet, but will figure it out tomorrow. I guess the universe thinks I can handle it, so why not give it a go!

SingaPura! a.k.a. Singapore

OK, for a land I never planned on visiting and, quite frankly, was scared to visit with its strict laws (remember that caning that happened to that American in 1994 for chewing gum), I BLOODY LOVE IT HERE! Singapore is absolutely fantastic! The people are so sweet and trust worthy. You can leave your wallet somewhere and someone will find out where you live and bring it to your house for you, that's how honest they are! I guess there are benefits to their strict law system. People actually HAVE morals!

Singapore's famous night sky line includes a 'MerLion' spitting water into the sea. This is because when the sultan prince from Malaysia first landed here, the first thing he saw was a lion. He therefore named the island 'Singa', Malaysian for lion, 'Pura', Malaysian for land, Singa Pura or Lion Land! Which eventually became Singapore. So now, they combined the lion part, with the fact that it is an island, and a statue of a MerLion was created to represent Singapore. To be fair, it is not the only beautifully lit building lit up at night. The whole colonial district is gorgeous, not to mention the area surrounding the riverfront. Combine the lights, food (which is unbelievable and unbelievably cheap) and fun with the diversity of Chinese, Malaysian, and Indian influences in the culture and you certainly have an interesting place where one never gets bored!

I am lucky enough to be staying here at my friend Bertrand's place. He and I used to work together in Hawaii and now he is living here (in a palace of a place complete with awesome pools and fountains, a nice break for this backpacker!) studying for an international MBA. Unfortunately this has kept him quite busy and unavailable. But I have made many friends here since I landed (in Singapore this is so easy because everyone is so nice, helpful, and interested), and to be fair, the fun has never stopped!

I spent my first few days here catching up on sleep, swimming in Bertrand's pool and exploring the city. My favorite spots were Little India and the Arab Quarter. I visited sooo many mosques and temples it was hard to keep them all straight. The highlights of the temple scenes included a Buddhist temple that cost SD$62 million! It also contains a tooth ( a very old tooth) from the Buddha himself! You will not find pics of this though in my web album as you were not allowed to photograph the tooth. But there certainly are pics of the other 4 floors to the exquisite temple! I went to a Hindu temple that was supposed to be a big deal as well. However, not being Hindi and not knowing what everything meant, it did not make much of an individualistic impression on me compared to the other Hindu temples. However, there was a man here who told me about this spacial Hindi festival that was happening in 2 days time that would be amazing to see. It turned out he was right, but more on that in a little bit.

I found out during this time just how A-mazing the food is here! For $3 you can get a whole plate full of local food, which includes Indian, Muslim, Malaysian, Chinese, and even some Japanese at times. You get your food in these 'hawker' stands, basically a small warehouse with no walls full of many different stands competing for your patronage. Funny thing is the food never looks that good at the stand, and your not always sure what your ordering, but once it is on the plate it looks, and tastes gorgeous! At these hawker stands there are also special drink stands. Some sell coffee and soda cans, but many are fresh fruit juices! They juice the fruit right in front of you and it, like everything else, tastes incredible and refreshing. I must have at least 2 a day, but more like 4! I mean for a dollar, in this heat, how can one resist this healthy temptation. My favorite has been this fruit called Sourpot combined with Passion fruit, Mmmmmm :) Another funny thing about this city/country... They insist upon making bags out of their drinks! Even if you manage to score a cup type of 'to go' holder for your liquid of choice, they put a plastic handle on it, like a plastic grocery bag has! Incredible and unnecessary waist of plastic. A bit curious...

THE PENGONEI FESTIVAL

Ok, so this Hindu Festival was probably, hands down, without a doubt the coolest and craziest thing I have ever seen! You just can't keep your eyes off it! So what is it for you ask. It is the 'Pengonei Festival', for Lord Shiva's second sons' second wife, if you follow that you are doing well! Basically, devout Hindu's make vows with the gods of their choice throughout the year. These vows are promises they make and intend to carry out at the Pengonei Festival if their prayers are answered. They are usually very serious requests, and for that reason the vows are incredibly sacred and between only themselves and the god they make their promise to. They usually involve healing a very ill family member, or asking for a marital blessing of sorts. When the prayer is answered they have to follow through with their end of the deal at this festival. And what is their end of the deal you may ask? Well, it usually involves inserting spikes, hooks, skewers and other metallic sharp objects through any number of different body parts. Then, most of the time these hooks and skewers have objects attached to them. Anything from limes and apples, to huge cages surrounding their whole torso with a head dress on top, or hooks on their backs pulling carts behind them. Sometimes they are also walking on shoes made out of nails! These 'costumes' (for lack of a better word) are sooo elaborate and colorful, they are just gorgeous (once you get over the fact that they have tons of pierced objects through them). After they are fully in this costume they then walk 1.5 miles through the streets to the designated temple for the festival. Once at the temple, they wait in line and go one-by-one in the temple and dance a bit. Afterwards, the priests bless them while placing a sacramental (and I think it has natural anti-biotic and blood clotting properties) powder over their wombs while they pull the inserted needles out of their skin. Then the next person enters the temple and dances while praising the Hindi gods and then awaits his or her blessing from the priests. Not all people pierce parts of their skin, some simply carry huge silver jugs filled with milk over their heads an offering to the gods that the priests collect when they enter the temple. Many (mostly women) just do one or two simple piercings on their face and in their tongues and carry the milk jug. But still, carrying a heavy, silver jug filled with milk over your head for a mile and a half is no easy task! I even saw one man who had many of these heavy milk jugs hooked onto his skin. In the picture below you can see the milk spilling out splashing onto the street. It must also be mentioned that the people following through on their vows are not alone! Every person demonstrating their thanks to the gods is surrounded by loved ones who help them make this journey, watching and caring for them

if the need arises. In the 5 hours I was there I only saw 3 people look like they were in physical distress caused by the physical exertion. I saw 2 of these 3 faint when they got to the temple. Each was caught by their care takers before hitting the ground. But I was amazed at how nonchalant these care takers were about their person fainting! If they hadn't been holding them, you would have thought they didn't even notice. I asked someone what just happened and their response was, "Oh, she's just in a trance, no big deal". Ha! A Trance! I don't know about that, but then again I have never done it and am therefore in no position to make this call. But it looked like a faint to me.

This demonstration of self will power and strength is truly a beautiful sight to see. Combined with the colors and endless smiles, it is just breath taking! Singapore and Malaysia are the only 2 places in the world where this festival can still be properly celebrated in this fashion. I feel so lucky that I was able to attend. I was just in the right place at the right time to find out about it. It is not something advertised. There were only 2 other westerners there, the 3 of us stuck out in the sea of Indians. As I stood their trying to get close to take pictures the people were more than happy to move out of my way and let me get closer. They were thrilled I had questions and a general interest. A priest even gave me a blessed satchel of Hindi food for lunch! The people were lovely and it was an awesome experience I will never forget!!

SINGAPORE ZOO
The Singapore Zoo is said to be one of the best in the world. I am not sure I would agree with this. All though it is certainly an awesome zoo. unfortunately for me, it rained the whole day while I was there. So a lot of the animals were sleeping or under shelter. Maybe it would have been better if it had not been raining. I hear most days the monkeys run around at your feet free. I did not see any of this. The zoo is very humanly designed though. There are no real cages. All the animals are set in their little areas and blocked from harming people by moats. This certainly makes the viewing much nicer. the 2 hings I enjoyed the most were the White Tigers and seals. The white tigers I saw are the only ones left in the world. unfortunately there are none left in the wild. They were gorgeous and their paws as big as my face! I wanted to cuddle with one, but I'm sure that wouldn't have turned out in my favor. As for the seal, this was an exceptionally cool experience for me as I got kissed, 3 times! The first kiss made me laugh so hard I couldn't pull my face away, and then he just kept kissing me! It even made the animal trainers laugh!

SENTOSA ISLAND

Sentosa Island is off to the south of Singapore. Separated by less than a kilometer, it is said to be the most southern point of south East Asia. It is basically an island full of amusement park-like attractions, which of course all cost money. There are also 3 beaches, which are free, so this is where I spent my time. They are not the nicest seeing as they over look barges and not the cleanest water. Nonetheless, it was a nice break from the hussle and bussle of the city. It was a good day for a time-out :)

CHANGI JAIL MUSEUM

Changi jail and museum was a POW camp during WWII where the Japanese subjected the Australian, British, and any other allied forced who got stuck in Singapore to brutal torture. While they occupied Singapore for 3 years, many Chinese civilians were also condemned to interrogation and torture here. As awful and the conditions were here, it was still preferred by the POW's over the other option of being sent off to work on the Thai-Burma Railway of death. There are no pictures as we were not allowed to take any. But the museum was very well done and definitely educational. The Japanese had bombed Singapore the same day they bombed Pearl Harbor. Today the jail is still used to house Singaporean criminals and executions of drug offenders are still carried out here.

PULAU UBIN

Just north of the jail in the Changi Village are boats departing for the small island of Pulau Ubin. This island is just a few km's off shore in the Straight of Johor, towards Malaysia. They depart when they are full, there is no real schedule. But only taking 12 passengers at a time and costing only $2, we did not wait long for the boat to fill. 'We' by the way, refers to my new friend Adam (England) whom I met while eating dinner one night in Chinatown. Since he was also a lone traveler, we decided to do a few tours together. On Pulau Ubin there are no real roads, just paths. There are a few restaurants and many places to rent a bike. We rented our bikes for $3 each for the day, what a steal! This island has hardly anything on it, save for a few shacks for the people who run the businesses on the island (cafe and bike rental shops). This island is said to look like what Singapore did 60 years ago. It definitely is not as clean as the rest of Singapore. The strict little laws are obviously not regulated here. however, the island is full of charm and we had a blast, in the rain!

MY NIGHT LIFE

OK, so I know you are all wondering what I was doing at night here. Sometimes sleeping, but I did become a little bit of a regular at this one, kind of whole-in-the-wall, karaoke bar in Chinatown. I loved it! I met a taxi driver named Jeremie who took me on his version of a tour of the city and then to his local pub. I had such a great time there, I went back a couple more times during the week. The people there loved me and I never even paid for a drink. I met some really nice new friends and sang songs in English, Indonesian, and even Chinese (with English sub-titles of course). Every night I went back, my name would be shouted over the mic upon my entry and the beer would start to flow. It was like my own little local family. I loved the Jess Pub!

While in Chinatown, I also went to a Fish Spa. What is this you are thinking. Well I was too after my friends Adam told me about it. Apparently it is this tank of fish that you sink your feet into at the end of the day. Then you just let these lettle fish nibble at your feet for half an hour. I shriecked and giggled when I first inserted my feet. It feels so funny and ticklish. But then you relax and get used to it. Pretty soon, before you know, you are enjoying it! And at the end, when you pull your feet out they are sooo clean and sooo super soft. The fish and you have a symbiotic relationship. The feed, while you get your feet cleaned, exfoliated and your blood circulation renewed! It felt awesome and I want to take a fish spa bath with my whole body!
There was also a Seesha bar I went to twice in the Arab Quarter. The man who ran it was Indian and also owns hotels in India. I am currently reading a book that takes place in Bombay in the 70's and he happens to be from there. Therefore we got into a great conversation about India and my interest in going there in the future. He gave me his card with email and number and told me to call him when I get to India. I can stay at his hotels for the local price and he can make sure I am safe and have the correct information when I get there. This is a valuable new friend for me. He also said in the towns where he does not have hotels, his friends do, so not to worry, he will always be able to help. What a nice guy. At the end of the nights he gave me a ride home so I would not have to take a cab. I am telling you, the people in Singapore are AWESOME!

I also tried my first Singapore Sling in the bar that takes credit for inventing the drink. It was alright, a bit of a fu-fu drink. And at $24 a pop I am glad I wasn't the on footing the bill. Nonetheless, it is a must to do in while in town at the Long Bar.!

As always, I am sad to leave the place I am in, but excited for whats on the horizon. My plan is that tomorrow I will take a bus to Johor Bahru, the southern most town in Malaysia. From there I will travel north through the Malaysian peninsula. Goodbye Singapore, thanks for everything!

More photos of all my Singapore experiences can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/find.barlow/Singapore# .