The last post was quite long, so here is a short one for you. Enjoy!
Manila is skipped by many travelers we've met . How come? Might it be because it's dirty, grimy and smoggy? Because first timers and even locals find the 'public transport' so uhm... challenging? Maybe it's because Manila so blatantly shows its wealthy sides as well as its poorer sides while smiling down at you and saying 'I'm all of that, It's all here, I'm the Poor, I'm the Rich, I'm Loud, I'm Fun, I'm Big. You are here by no mistake. Make use of it!' And so we did.
Thanks to a relative of mine we were able to see the many sides of the capital. Thanks again for that kuya! We experienced and enjoyed, both just briefly, the life of the big majority while staying in the safe and comfortable home only known to few. We used the jeepney and we used the private cars with driver. We ate simple meals and we had feasts. We walked through luxurious commercial areas and we got to meet, albeit just briefly, people in ramshackle homes. We bought credits for my mobile at a small simple store fronts but we also visited the humongous Mall of Asia.
Yes, you might easily feel lost and not welcome by the city, but then again, it's a big city. Show some balls and you might just get the hang of it and linger longer than you had planned. Marlies showed some and it brought us home from our first jeepney ride in the capital and that was at night! Check out the pictures for image-like impressions on this city.
Baguio and Sagada are next on the menu. As always your comments are welcome!
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
From rivers to longhouse to caves
First of all, thank you for the nice comments on my posts! They are very much appreciated. I'm enjoying writing/blogging much more than I thought and reading your comments makes it even more fun! Thank you all for visiting and enjoy!
Ok, Marlies and I will be wrapping up Malaysia soon, to be precise we are leaving for the Philippines on the 2nd of February. I've never been to Malaysia, heck, I've never been to any of the countries I'm going to visit in this trip except for the Philippines, which I've only visited once since 1985, but it was full of surprises. We kind of rushed our stay on the mainland of Malaysia to spend more time on the Borneo part of it, in hind sight a choice well made. Check out our route found on the map link to the right.
Kuching is the capital of Sarawak an it's weird, it has half a million inhabitants, but where were they?! Anyway, Borneo is known for it's flora and fauna so we stayed over night in Baku National Park. It has some great walking trails through pristine jungle, we spotted the proboscis monkey with it's weird nose in it's natural and only habitat! Yey!
An other worthwhile 'activity' was a stay at a longhouse, there we got to get a feel of how the 'natives' live. To get to the longhouse we had to take a boat upriver over the Amazon of Borneo, the Rejang River. No, we didn't need to row, nowadays all transport over the river is motorized, but the trip was interesting none the less: rough currents, green lush jungle to the left and right and the occasional longhouse all made the the boat trip worthwhile, but the stay at our longhouse was the icing on the cake. The family we visited, one of about 30 under one long roof, was reserved but warm and our local guides were very kind and knowledgeable, their lack of proper English only adding to the joy of the experience.
The next destination which brought us nearer to the capital of Sabah, was Miri. Not so far from Miri lies Niah National Park. One of the caves in the park is the second largest cave in Borneo, apptly named 'The Great Cave'. All the caves together were huge, big enough to house half a million bats and half a million swiflets. Swiflets are birds that make nests from their spittle, the nest are then collected by collectors, get processed and in shops in the city we could buy 48 grams of the processed birds nest for the equivalent of 250 euro! That's 5000 euro for a kilo of dried bird spit!
Kota Kinabalu is our final destination before departing for the Philippines. We got to snorkel in the waters of a nearby island and we ate some fresh seafood from the local market. Speaking of food, the food in Malaysia stays interesting, it's not always to my taste, but then again, I've only scratched it's culinary surface. The food alone would make me come back!
That's two weeks of parts of Malaysia in one post. I'll do my best to post in shorter intervals, but connection kind of sucks. As always, comments are welcome! Dutch or English, both are just fine.
Ok, Marlies and I will be wrapping up Malaysia soon, to be precise we are leaving for the Philippines on the 2nd of February. I've never been to Malaysia, heck, I've never been to any of the countries I'm going to visit in this trip except for the Philippines, which I've only visited once since 1985, but it was full of surprises. We kind of rushed our stay on the mainland of Malaysia to spend more time on the Borneo part of it, in hind sight a choice well made. Check out our route found on the map link to the right.
Kuching is the capital of Sarawak an it's weird, it has half a million inhabitants, but where were they?! Anyway, Borneo is known for it's flora and fauna so we stayed over night in Baku National Park. It has some great walking trails through pristine jungle, we spotted the proboscis monkey with it's weird nose in it's natural and only habitat! Yey!
An other worthwhile 'activity' was a stay at a longhouse, there we got to get a feel of how the 'natives' live. To get to the longhouse we had to take a boat upriver over the Amazon of Borneo, the Rejang River. No, we didn't need to row, nowadays all transport over the river is motorized, but the trip was interesting none the less: rough currents, green lush jungle to the left and right and the occasional longhouse all made the the boat trip worthwhile, but the stay at our longhouse was the icing on the cake. The family we visited, one of about 30 under one long roof, was reserved but warm and our local guides were very kind and knowledgeable, their lack of proper English only adding to the joy of the experience.
The next destination which brought us nearer to the capital of Sabah, was Miri. Not so far from Miri lies Niah National Park. One of the caves in the park is the second largest cave in Borneo, apptly named 'The Great Cave'. All the caves together were huge, big enough to house half a million bats and half a million swiflets. Swiflets are birds that make nests from their spittle, the nest are then collected by collectors, get processed and in shops in the city we could buy 48 grams of the processed birds nest for the equivalent of 250 euro! That's 5000 euro for a kilo of dried bird spit!
Kota Kinabalu is our final destination before departing for the Philippines. We got to snorkel in the waters of a nearby island and we ate some fresh seafood from the local market. Speaking of food, the food in Malaysia stays interesting, it's not always to my taste, but then again, I've only scratched it's culinary surface. The food alone would make me come back!
That's two weeks of parts of Malaysia in one post. I'll do my best to post in shorter intervals, but connection kind of sucks. As always, comments are welcome! Dutch or English, both are just fine.
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