Things have been going so well these last few weeks i'm afraid i dont have much of a story to tell. I hired a river taxi with some friends to see the waterfront of Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. We saw some proboscis monkeys and also a glimpse of the Sultan's palace. The palace, with over 2 million square feet, 1,788 rooms and 257 bathrooms, was impressive to look at even from a distance. From Brunei it was easy to take a ferry back to Malaysia and Borneo. I stopped by Beaufort, Malaysia, about 2 hours south of Kota Kinabalu. It is even smaller than Beaufort, SC but was nice nonetheless. As I was wondering about with my big bag a local offered to help me find my way. When I told him I just wanted to see the town because I was from a place called "Beaufort" in America he kindly offered to show me around. We saw the Beaufort Waterfront and crossed the bridge to the south side of town. Had an amazing bowl of laksa for lunch. Laksa is Malaysian deliciousness. It is a coconut milk based soup with noodles, chicken, egg, shrimp and calamari- although it might not sound good, i promise it is amazing! After lunch I caught a minivan to Kota Kinabalu and then the overnight bus to Semporna.
Semporna is the take off point to some of the best diving in the world. I was able to stay on a small island and dive three times a day for three days!! Although I didn't get to see any sharks or manta rays or anything like that, I still had an amazing time. I saw a school of thousands of jack fish and also a grouper that must have weighed over 200 pounds! My new favorite fish is the crocodile fish. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of it, but it looks so much like a crocodile I can't help but love it. Other recent favorites are the lion fish, box fish, peacock mantis shrimp and eels. The water temperature was perfect and the diving was great.
I am now in Kota Kinabalu and spent the day lounging on a small island just a 15 minute boat ride from Kota Kinabalu. Tomorrow morning early I fly to Kunming, China and will make my way to Lijiang China to trek through Tiger Leaping Gorge. Malaysia has been great and now I'm looking forward to a change of scenery to the mountains!
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
Brunei
I wasnt sure what to expect here in Brunei, but I can't say I am disappointed. I arrived yesterday around noon and promptly took the public bus to the Empire Hotel.....the one the crown price built and it cost roughly $1.1 billion, note the Petronas towers in kuala lumpur cost just $1.6 billion. I am embarrassed to say it wasn't quite as spectacular as I expected. That being said, I did take a picture of the crystal camel with solid gold adornments that was displayed in the lobby- valued at $500,000. However, it was a beautiful building and I enjoyed most of the afternoon relaxing near the water and waiting for the air show to start. The Brunie international defense exhibition is holding demonstrations from the 6th to the 10th with airshows, parades and other exhibits. Although I wasnt able to see the airshow, I did enjoy the afternoon. I visited the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque and marveled at the replica of the 16th century mahligai (royal) barge in the middle of the lagoon in front of the mosque before watching the sunset over the water village.
This morning started early at the parade grounds to watch another part of the Brunei international defense exhibit. although it wasn't the same as our 4th if july parades, it wasnt bad. Thirteen different countries participated in the parade, including members of the US navy. Following t the parade I took a boat up the river to a small town to see what life was like out of the city. After a45 minute fast boat ride up the river through the mangroves I found a small quiet town with friendly people,and if course, good food. From here I will return to malaysia and hopefully experience some good diving!
This morning started early at the parade grounds to watch another part of the Brunei international defense exhibit. although it wasn't the same as our 4th if july parades, it wasnt bad. Thirteen different countries participated in the parade, including members of the US navy. Following t the parade I took a boat up the river to a small town to see what life was like out of the city. After a45 minute fast boat ride up the river through the mangroves I found a small quiet town with friendly people,and if course, good food. From here I will return to malaysia and hopefully experience some good diving!
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Now "Meredith" Andrepont Adventures Abroad:)
As Nathan has had to return to the real world, I guess I am now responsible for blogging- I will do my best.
I met up with Nathan and Chris in Kuala Lumpur for their last 2 days abroad. We had an excellent tour guide and former Bolles classmate of Chris and Nathan's, Wilson Lee. We saw the sights of KL and also a little of the night life. The boys are currently en route home and I am in the Cameron Highlands. The highlands are 4 hours north of KL at about 5,000ft above sea level. I have been to a tea plantation and seen how they harvest tea, an amazing rose garden, a butterfly garden and a strawberry farm all in the 7 hours I have been here. I was planning on doing a hike to the waterfalls and up a mountain tomorrow, but might not have time. While eating dinner at a small stall on a side street I struck up conversation with the woman next to me. As the typical local to foreigner conversation goes, she asked me what I did back home. When I told her I was a nurse she became visibly more excited. She told me she works at the health office and invited me to come see it tomorrow. We will see if I have time for my hike...
I met up with Nathan and Chris in Kuala Lumpur for their last 2 days abroad. We had an excellent tour guide and former Bolles classmate of Chris and Nathan's, Wilson Lee. We saw the sights of KL and also a little of the night life. The boys are currently en route home and I am in the Cameron Highlands. The highlands are 4 hours north of KL at about 5,000ft above sea level. I have been to a tea plantation and seen how they harvest tea, an amazing rose garden, a butterfly garden and a strawberry farm all in the 7 hours I have been here. I was planning on doing a hike to the waterfalls and up a mountain tomorrow, but might not have time. While eating dinner at a small stall on a side street I struck up conversation with the woman next to me. As the typical local to foreigner conversation goes, she asked me what I did back home. When I told her I was a nurse she became visibly more excited. She told me she works at the health office and invited me to come see it tomorrow. We will see if I have time for my hike...
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Mt. Kinabalu
Climbing Mt. Kinabalu
Chris and I have been staying with Mr. Cham (the father of a highschool friend of ours) here in Kota Kinabalu. Spots are limited for hiking the mountain and are typically booked in advance, or should be. I say should be because that’s about the only way to climb the mountain unless you know Mr. Cham. We arrived in KK resigned to the fact that we probably wouldn’t be able to climb the mountain, however when we mentioned that that was something we wanted to do Mr. Cham sprang into action. Still on the way home from the airport, he made a call to a friend and minutes later we were sitting in a tour company office and booking our trip 2 days out. He secured 2 last minute spots for us from people that had cancelled and thus, without much planning we were able to climb the mountain.
We started on the 23 June with a big breakfast at a hotel down the street from Mr. Cham’s office. As we were about to hope on the bus to the base of the mountain Mr. Cham gave us 2 hard boiled eggs each “for energy on the mountain”. Chris and I didn’t know where to put them so the obvious choice was our pockets. (Note, carrying eggs up a mountain can be a bit difficult, or at least messy). He also helped prepare us by giving us some water bottles which we stuffed in our bags. After the 90km drive from KK on the coast to the mountain Chris had a little surprise: his eggs were pretty cracked leaving shells in his pocket and his water bottle was empty and his bag soaked. It was quite a way to start the 18km hike.
We did the first 6km up the mountain in about 4 hours, stopping to eat our eggs (which were wonderful to have as my stomach started to grumble). We had lunch on the side of the trail, which was fairly well covered as there was pretty thick vegetation until 7km up the trail. At the 6km mark there is a lodge where almost all the hikers overnight before heading to the summit in the morning. We relaxed and rested our legs in the sunshine at about 11,000 ft while looking forward to the morning.
We woke at 2:15am to grab breakfast before leaving the lodge at nearly 3am, nearly 30 min after the majority of the hikers left. We took off with headlamps blaring and quickly overheating in our layers of t-shirts and windbreaker. There was a traffic jam as many of the hikers were struggling with the stairs. Chris and I, driven by the fear of missing the sunrise, were constantly making quick darts around the slower hikers. 1.5km passed the lodge the stairs gave way to bare rock with a thick white rope guiding the way and acting as a handhold as we hauled ourselves upward. At this point Chris and I had separated from the masses and could only see a few headlamps ahead and behind us. It was so cloudy/foggy on the mountain that we had pretty low visibility. We reached the summit quicker than our guide expected and had an hour to wait until sunrise. We were the 3rd group to the summit and took refuge behind a huge boulder to hide from the wind. We though we may be under-dressed and therefore brought towels from the lodge to act as an extra layer. As we were waiting the wind picked up and it started to pour. We are 13,000ft above sea level sitting in driving winds in freezing rain. The night went from black to gray to bluish white---there was no sunrise. We realized that the cloud cover was so heavy that we missed out on the picturesque sunrise. At that point we started to walk around and found that only about 30 people were at the summit and heading down quickly (160 had set out for the summit that morning). We pried our hands from our gloves to take the summit pictures and scurried down. We were soaked and freezing but excited to make it to the top. After returning to the lodge we striped off our wet clothes and hoped into bed to try to warm up; 2 hours later we started our decent and arrived at the park gate around noon.
It was an amazing hike even without the fabled sunrise and one that we will surely remember. I will try to post some pictures of the hike soon.
Chris and I have been staying with Mr. Cham (the father of a highschool friend of ours) here in Kota Kinabalu. Spots are limited for hiking the mountain and are typically booked in advance, or should be. I say should be because that’s about the only way to climb the mountain unless you know Mr. Cham. We arrived in KK resigned to the fact that we probably wouldn’t be able to climb the mountain, however when we mentioned that that was something we wanted to do Mr. Cham sprang into action. Still on the way home from the airport, he made a call to a friend and minutes later we were sitting in a tour company office and booking our trip 2 days out. He secured 2 last minute spots for us from people that had cancelled and thus, without much planning we were able to climb the mountain.
We started on the 23 June with a big breakfast at a hotel down the street from Mr. Cham’s office. As we were about to hope on the bus to the base of the mountain Mr. Cham gave us 2 hard boiled eggs each “for energy on the mountain”. Chris and I didn’t know where to put them so the obvious choice was our pockets. (Note, carrying eggs up a mountain can be a bit difficult, or at least messy). He also helped prepare us by giving us some water bottles which we stuffed in our bags. After the 90km drive from KK on the coast to the mountain Chris had a little surprise: his eggs were pretty cracked leaving shells in his pocket and his water bottle was empty and his bag soaked. It was quite a way to start the 18km hike.
We did the first 6km up the mountain in about 4 hours, stopping to eat our eggs (which were wonderful to have as my stomach started to grumble). We had lunch on the side of the trail, which was fairly well covered as there was pretty thick vegetation until 7km up the trail. At the 6km mark there is a lodge where almost all the hikers overnight before heading to the summit in the morning. We relaxed and rested our legs in the sunshine at about 11,000 ft while looking forward to the morning.
We woke at 2:15am to grab breakfast before leaving the lodge at nearly 3am, nearly 30 min after the majority of the hikers left. We took off with headlamps blaring and quickly overheating in our layers of t-shirts and windbreaker. There was a traffic jam as many of the hikers were struggling with the stairs. Chris and I, driven by the fear of missing the sunrise, were constantly making quick darts around the slower hikers. 1.5km passed the lodge the stairs gave way to bare rock with a thick white rope guiding the way and acting as a handhold as we hauled ourselves upward. At this point Chris and I had separated from the masses and could only see a few headlamps ahead and behind us. It was so cloudy/foggy on the mountain that we had pretty low visibility. We reached the summit quicker than our guide expected and had an hour to wait until sunrise. We were the 3rd group to the summit and took refuge behind a huge boulder to hide from the wind. We though we may be under-dressed and therefore brought towels from the lodge to act as an extra layer. As we were waiting the wind picked up and it started to pour. We are 13,000ft above sea level sitting in driving winds in freezing rain. The night went from black to gray to bluish white---there was no sunrise. We realized that the cloud cover was so heavy that we missed out on the picturesque sunrise. At that point we started to walk around and found that only about 30 people were at the summit and heading down quickly (160 had set out for the summit that morning). We pried our hands from our gloves to take the summit pictures and scurried down. We were soaked and freezing but excited to make it to the top. After returning to the lodge we striped off our wet clothes and hoped into bed to try to warm up; 2 hours later we started our decent and arrived at the park gate around noon.
It was an amazing hike even without the fabled sunrise and one that we will surely remember. I will try to post some pictures of the hike soon.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Bali: Lovina Beach and Padang-Padang
Bali
We just finished our visit to Indonesia with a week on two beautiful beaches in Bali. The first beach was Lovina Beach on the north side of the island. It isn’t what typically comes to mind when you say Bali (no white sand, now waves, and few people) but it was the perfect place for Chris and I to get SCUBA certified and for Meredith to dive too. Chris and I took a 3 day course and are now open water certified. Day 1 was in the classroom and in the pool. Day 2 was spent on a reef that is a National Marine Park not far off the coast of Bali. We spent about 10 min reviewing and the remainder of the 2 dives exploring the wildlife. It was a new world to me. As a swimmer and a coastal resident I was shocked at how different this water experience was for me than any other I had had. We loved the reef but were in for a real treat on Day 3. We spent the third day of the class exploring the wreck of the USS Liberty. The Liberty was commissioned at the end of WWI but was primarily used in WWII as a cargo ship. A Japanese submarine sank the ship off the coast of Bali in 1942. Before it went down completely it was beached on the coast to salvage the railroad parts it was carrying. In the mid 60s a volcanic eruption on Bali pushed the wreck from the beach to where it now rests 50m off of the shore. The wreck was a wonderful combination of history and wildlife. Watching fish as they move through the gun turrets was incredible. Lovina, now passed its heyday, is pretty deserted at night. The evening after certification Chris and I went for a few drinks and, finding the places empty, decided to enjoy a beer on the beach. What did we find, the men’s late-night gambling location. On the beach, under an umbrella and with only a lantern was a group of 25-30 men playing a type of roulette. We watched for a while but could never figure out the exact rules. It was a flury of money being thrown on a numbered mat and a heavy ball being rolled on a numbered board. It was still quite entertaining to watch, regardless of the rules.
The next day we drove over the mountains (a very scenic drive) to south Bali and stayed at the well-known surf spot of Padang Padang, down the road from the even more famous spot of Uluwatu. We stayed a great place right on the cliffs of the beach. The hotel, if it could be called was essentially a porch with bamboo mats for walls. The roof straw roof acted as the ceiling which meant that the bamboo mat/wall hardly provided a feeling of privacy as it only extended to about head height. It was all we needed though as we spent the 3 days on the beach reading and doing a bit of surfing. One afternoon we went to Uluwatu to watch the experts surf the different breaks there. It was a scene. You had 50+ surfers in the water, waves crashing on the face of the cliffs, boards being snapped in half by the surf and an army of pro photographers to capture it all. It was a wonderful way to pass a few hours, a banana shake in hand and watching this surfing/mayhem from the safety of a cliff-side café. So concludes our time in Indonesia. We are now in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia for nearly a week before a few days in Kuala Lumpur before returning to the States. I’ll try to keep you posted.
Oh, and I almost forgot. We parted ways with Meredith in Bali. She decided to continue on the explore some of the more remote islands of Indonesia and is going to meet us in Kuala Lumpur. When I depart for the States she will be taking over as the sole author---maybe I can get her to post something about the parts of Indonesia we aren’t traveling together…we’ll see.
We just finished our visit to Indonesia with a week on two beautiful beaches in Bali. The first beach was Lovina Beach on the north side of the island. It isn’t what typically comes to mind when you say Bali (no white sand, now waves, and few people) but it was the perfect place for Chris and I to get SCUBA certified and for Meredith to dive too. Chris and I took a 3 day course and are now open water certified. Day 1 was in the classroom and in the pool. Day 2 was spent on a reef that is a National Marine Park not far off the coast of Bali. We spent about 10 min reviewing and the remainder of the 2 dives exploring the wildlife. It was a new world to me. As a swimmer and a coastal resident I was shocked at how different this water experience was for me than any other I had had. We loved the reef but were in for a real treat on Day 3. We spent the third day of the class exploring the wreck of the USS Liberty. The Liberty was commissioned at the end of WWI but was primarily used in WWII as a cargo ship. A Japanese submarine sank the ship off the coast of Bali in 1942. Before it went down completely it was beached on the coast to salvage the railroad parts it was carrying. In the mid 60s a volcanic eruption on Bali pushed the wreck from the beach to where it now rests 50m off of the shore. The wreck was a wonderful combination of history and wildlife. Watching fish as they move through the gun turrets was incredible. Lovina, now passed its heyday, is pretty deserted at night. The evening after certification Chris and I went for a few drinks and, finding the places empty, decided to enjoy a beer on the beach. What did we find, the men’s late-night gambling location. On the beach, under an umbrella and with only a lantern was a group of 25-30 men playing a type of roulette. We watched for a while but could never figure out the exact rules. It was a flury of money being thrown on a numbered mat and a heavy ball being rolled on a numbered board. It was still quite entertaining to watch, regardless of the rules.
The next day we drove over the mountains (a very scenic drive) to south Bali and stayed at the well-known surf spot of Padang Padang, down the road from the even more famous spot of Uluwatu. We stayed a great place right on the cliffs of the beach. The hotel, if it could be called was essentially a porch with bamboo mats for walls. The roof straw roof acted as the ceiling which meant that the bamboo mat/wall hardly provided a feeling of privacy as it only extended to about head height. It was all we needed though as we spent the 3 days on the beach reading and doing a bit of surfing. One afternoon we went to Uluwatu to watch the experts surf the different breaks there. It was a scene. You had 50+ surfers in the water, waves crashing on the face of the cliffs, boards being snapped in half by the surf and an army of pro photographers to capture it all. It was a wonderful way to pass a few hours, a banana shake in hand and watching this surfing/mayhem from the safety of a cliff-side café. So concludes our time in Indonesia. We are now in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia for nearly a week before a few days in Kuala Lumpur before returning to the States. I’ll try to keep you posted.
Oh, and I almost forgot. We parted ways with Meredith in Bali. She decided to continue on the explore some of the more remote islands of Indonesia and is going to meet us in Kuala Lumpur. When I depart for the States she will be taking over as the sole author---maybe I can get her to post something about the parts of Indonesia we aren’t traveling together…we’ll see.
Monday, June 13, 2011
A few more pictures
The first picture shows the volcano from the plains that we were hiking across while the second shows Chris in the middle of his ash shower. I don't have many pictures from the top because I was sure the ash would ruin my camera given the chance. It was a spectacular morning.
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