Ending on a High

So that's it 11 months, 24 countries and a whole host of new friends and experiences later im sat writing my final blog for this trip but hopefully not for ever.

This year has been truly amazing and i owe alot to all those who have helped me and shown extraordinary kindness along the way. I will never forget this and hopefully i can do my part and return the favour at some point.

Last time i wrote i had just arrived in Brunei a place i chose to visit purely through curiosity, to see what the small oil rich kingdom had to offer. The curiosity aspect seemed to be the same for everybody else i met, some having purely come on a day trip from KL. I was unsure of what to expect and to be honest the capital Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB) did disappoint. Together with Rob who i met at the airport we checked into the only affordable hostel and went off to explore. Lonely Planet provides a walking tour map for BSB and so it was 15 minutes after starting we had completed it. The city is tiny and apart from a mosque and a clock there is nothing there. The Sultan may be one of the richest men in the world living in a huge 4000 room palace on the hill above, but this wealth you do not see on the street. The people live comfortably and thats about it, no poor no rich just ok.

To kill a bit of time we took one of the water taxis, locally dubbed 'flying coffins' and used this to cross to the largest stilt village in Asia that sits just off the mainland. It filled an hour and we both agreed that we would leave the next day. That night we chanced upon a local who gave us a tour in his car using his local knowledge and we ended up getting to visit the largest mosque in south east asia. This is really spectacular and kind of worth the visit to Brunei on its own if we had actually been allowed inside. Instead we had to make do with the outside and the beautiful gardens.

Next day i caught a speedboat to Bangar from where i hoped to take the bus back to Malaysia and Kota Kinabalu (KK) in Sabah. The boat trip involved a hair raising hour long ride on a speedboat through the tiny mangrove lined waterways. Arriving in the Bangar i realised within about ten seconds that there was nothing to fill the afternoon so i scrubbed my plan and headed straight back to BSB. That pretty much sums up Brunei and unless your passing through i wouldn't bother.

Deciding to forsake the bus route i instead took a boat to the island of Labuan in malaysia where i spent a few hours before continuing on to KK. This town was hardly much better although Summer Lodge is a really great hostel and their cat was funny as it amused itself by chasing anything that moved including the arrow on the computer screen. My last major activity i had planned was to climb Mt. Kinabalu the highest mountain in South East Asia. Standing at 4095m it towers over the north of Borneo being visible from pretty much everywhere. While the weather remained fine i wanted to get the climb out of the way so i left KK after a day and found a mountain guesthouse just outside of the park. Most people climb halfway in the afternoon spend the night and then get to the top for sunrise and this was my plan as well until i was told it would cost 90 quid to stay at the mountain hut in a 30 person dorm. And this cost is in addition to the climbing permit and the obligatory guide which added another 50 quid. I could not afford this and gutted i was not sure what to do. By chance a ranger said you could always try a day climb but here is the time schedule and if you dont make it fast enough, tough luck.

The day climb was now my only option so i arrived back at the park at 7am to start the climb as i had to be halfway at 10am and at the summit by 1pm. God knows how much paperwork later as well as a bus ride to the gate we finally started climbing at 8am. I am not in the best of shape having done little vigorous exercise and i was increasingly worried when after 15 minutes i was out of breath. I really thought i wasn't going to make it as the guide kept glancing at his watch, and desperate not to fail i refused to stop for any breaks. Anyway at 9.50 we had done 6.5km out of the 8.7km climb. No problems from there on in although my legs were feeling the pace. The altitude had an effect and our pace slowed quite alot but we still managed to summit at 12 having climbed the mountain in four hours as well, in the process catching the only other day climb group who had left at 5am. The mountain is really beautiful with its lush forested lower slopes which give way to bald granite moonscape at the top. Having studied and been fascinated by the mountain at university i have finally fulfilled my ambition to see it for myself. Im so glad i did it although my legs gave out on the way down and hobbling in quite alot of pain i made it back to park headquarters with numerous blisters. Needless to say i couldn't walk the next day and had difficulty for a few days after that.

With only five days left and two weeks until im back at work i decided to fork out for a three day safari of the Kinabatangan river. A suitably exotic name and place to go and spot wild orangutans. Before the boat left I visited Sepilok the world famous rehab centre for the Orangutans but it was pretty rubbish and we saw one ape that had been forced out so as not to disappoint the crowd. That afternoon 8 of us took a boat upriver to Uncle Tans jungle camp. The place is set in the middle of the jungle and came highly recommended. There i spent two nights being attacked by millions of mosquitos and trying to avoid the enormous spiders that kept somehow getting inside my mosquito net. Despite this i had a really great time and my tour group were interesting people and a good laugh. We managed to see the wild Orangutans which was a real highlight, as well as gibbons, hornbills, macaques, leaf monkeys and crocodiles to name but a few. Most of Sabah is now one big oil palm plantation and very little forest remains as is the case on the river as the trees are probably only three or four deep along the banks. It is shocking to see but as the wildlife has nowhere else to go its easy to spot. I guess everything has an upside.

With two days left of my trip and not really enough time to do anything else i spent two nights in Sandakan with a father and daughter from Oklahoma who i met at the camp. The city is pleasant enough and yesterday I visited the really moving war memorial park which commemorates the thousands of POW's who died in awful conditions at the hands of the Japanese. The only other attraction of note in town is the house of the famous American author Agnes Keith which is located on the hill overlooking the bay next to of all things an english tea room, complete with scones, cream and even a croquet field. A pleasant hour was spent chowing down on the excellent chocolate cake and tea.

And thats as they say is a wrap. I now sit and wait for my flight which is in 6 hours and 15 hours after that i will be back in England. Plenty of time then to plan my next trip!!!