Down some worn steps,
out of the light,
is a dusty cavern.
Lit by a few, bald bulbs and
smelling like the homes of old people.
There is no order
in the piles that gather
like someone who was preparing to move
and got disturbed.
Be prepared to spend some time
rooting.
Sit on the floor and carefully
dust off the cover and
hold it to the light.
The chaos is calming
as is the thought of where each
paperback once lived.
Who devoured the pages
with lusty abandon?
How many hours were spend savouring each word
on a chaise longue in the foetal position?
The search is as pleasurable
as the potential or reality of a rare find.
I select two
never more
or less
for I need enough
to carry me through a journey or a lunch hour or a Sunday afternoon
but with the prospect of another visit
sometime
very soon.
I leave with two treasures in my pocket.
I think of the moment
when I can open the cover and begin to read
in peace.
Free at last.
I smile.
Saturday, 16 October 2010
It's that time again...Poem Friday #21
It was National Poetry Day on the 7th October and the theme was 'Home'.
Home
Home is where the hearth is,
Mostly metaphorically speaking
these days.
Home is when you see a light shining
in the distance from your window
on a dark night
and feel uplifted.
Home is when you have butterflies
in your stomach at the thought of it
after a long journey.
Home is a creation of your own
your things, your colours, your ideas
made real.
Home is when you can relax
and swoon unashamedly
on a beaten-up leather sofa.
Home is when you love
the small things and the great things in it
from nooks with potential to cavernous lofts
as hot as hell.
But home is more than a place,
than a colour, than a possession or two.
It is the sum of you and the people you love
in it
for visits or for keeps.
Home
Home is where the hearth is,
Mostly metaphorically speaking
these days.
Home is when you see a light shining
in the distance from your window
on a dark night
and feel uplifted.
Home is when you have butterflies
in your stomach at the thought of it
after a long journey.
Home is a creation of your own
your things, your colours, your ideas
made real.
Home is when you can relax
and swoon unashamedly
on a beaten-up leather sofa.
Home is when you love
the small things and the great things in it
from nooks with potential to cavernous lofts
as hot as hell.
But home is more than a place,
than a colour, than a possession or two.
It is the sum of you and the people you love
in it
for visits or for keeps.
It's that time again... Poem Friday # 20
Ben Nevis
Uphill we tread,
A perfect line of primary colours marching upwards.
Mist hangs halfway in the sky, tiny droplets that soak the skin in a second.
Mountain lochs appear, at once inviting and then foreboding,
depending on the light.
Crushed velvet hillocks in the distance;
the softness draws you in.
Heads bowed, we snake ever upwards on the path,
following an invisible 'W'.
Some dream of the summit,
Some chat freely.
Some stay in the moment,
locked in a private battle of heart and mind and muscle.
We approach the top as a unit,
united in our mutual success.
For an instant we are adventurers and conquerors of the highest spot in our country.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A party of 8 ascended Ben Nevis on Sunday 19th September. The weather was dreich with occasional breaks in the cloud. Ben Nevis is 4,408 ft (1,344m), the highest mountain in Britain.
Uphill we tread,
A perfect line of primary colours marching upwards.
Mist hangs halfway in the sky, tiny droplets that soak the skin in a second.
Mountain lochs appear, at once inviting and then foreboding,
depending on the light.
Crushed velvet hillocks in the distance;
the softness draws you in.
Heads bowed, we snake ever upwards on the path,
following an invisible 'W'.
Some dream of the summit,
Some chat freely.
Some stay in the moment,
locked in a private battle of heart and mind and muscle.
We approach the top as a unit,
united in our mutual success.
For an instant we are adventurers and conquerors of the highest spot in our country.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A party of 8 ascended Ben Nevis on Sunday 19th September. The weather was dreich with occasional breaks in the cloud. Ben Nevis is 4,408 ft (1,344m), the highest mountain in Britain.
Saturday, 11 September 2010
Poem Friday # 19
The Jungle
From above it is immense.
A mat of green photosynthesising vessels.
For hundred of millions of years it has been,
generating life within.
The occasional opening
speaks of destruction
at the hands of man.
Smoke billows in the distance.
Fires, that clear ground to meet our insatiable demand for lathery soaps.
Inside
and you enter into an inhospitable world.
It sucks your breathe as humidity rises,
It coats you in sweat as you dare to breathe from every pore.
Ears tune in to alien sounds:
Cicadas that screech frenetically,
The howl of a monkey and
the thunderous roar as a giant leaf falls to the forest floor.
Nostrils are invaded by moisture and fragrance:
flowering orchids,
damp leaf litter,
and the pungent aroma of wild garlic.
And you see
vast armies of insects
patrolling their patch.
Soldier ants that forward march,
forward march, forward march.
Following a relentless trail.
I seek the light and see nothing but
buttress roots as tall as me,
and etiolated shoots snaking to the sky,
Climbers and creepers
swinging their way upwards by any means.
I feel my heart rhythms,
pulsating to a jungle beat,
And I am acutely aware of myself in this place.
Nutritionally devoid yet nature rich.
A vast and bountiful kingdom,
sacred to native tribes,
Who's existence hangs, precariously.
As yet, uncertain.
From above it is immense.
A mat of green photosynthesising vessels.
For hundred of millions of years it has been,
generating life within.
The occasional opening
speaks of destruction
at the hands of man.
Smoke billows in the distance.
Fires, that clear ground to meet our insatiable demand for lathery soaps.
Inside
and you enter into an inhospitable world.
It sucks your breathe as humidity rises,
It coats you in sweat as you dare to breathe from every pore.
Ears tune in to alien sounds:
Cicadas that screech frenetically,
The howl of a monkey and
the thunderous roar as a giant leaf falls to the forest floor.
Nostrils are invaded by moisture and fragrance:
flowering orchids,
damp leaf litter,
and the pungent aroma of wild garlic.
And you see
vast armies of insects
patrolling their patch.
Soldier ants that forward march,
forward march, forward march.
Following a relentless trail.
I seek the light and see nothing but
buttress roots as tall as me,
and etiolated shoots snaking to the sky,
Climbers and creepers
swinging their way upwards by any means.
I feel my heart rhythms,
pulsating to a jungle beat,
And I am acutely aware of myself in this place.
Nutritionally devoid yet nature rich.
A vast and bountiful kingdom,
sacred to native tribes,
Who's existence hangs, precariously.
As yet, uncertain.
Monday, 30 August 2010
Singapore, Mumai magic, home to Heathrow
I spent Tuesday to Saturday in Singapore staying with my friend Cara, husband Sam and newish baby daughter.
It was good to get to the condominium after my flight. I was more than a little delicate on Tuesday. I retired straight to bed on arrival and pretty much did not emerge until 6pm.
We then headed out for some food at a local Chinese venue (the Chinese make up about 70-80% of Singapore's population). I had 'chicken-rice' - it is no more exciting than it sounds, but after a day of not eating tasted delicious.
The days that followed were a nice mix of sightseeing and normal activities.
We visited the old colonial part of Singapore and the thriving Central Business District (CBD). We took the elevator up 56 floors to the top of Marina Bay Sands - this is a newish (opened June 2010) complex comprising three high rise buildings (supposedly in the style of a deck of cards) with a 'boat' on top. The boat includes a viewing deck known as the skypark and a 150m pool for residents of the hotel. The view was pretty cool and the pool is amazing. It is apparently the largest sized pool in the world found at that height
The complex is designed for rich Chinese. It has designer stores and an expensive hotel and a casino to rival those in nearby Macau.
After our day of sightseeing we retired to the Singapore Cricket Club, a truly ex pat experience. It is quite prestigious, but my friends Sam and Cara have managed to get membership. Typically sophisticated we drank beer with our dinner.
We decided to have a sports day on Thursday. This involved tennis at the apartment block in the morning followed by an 8km jungle run (for me) in the afternoon. What sort of nutter runs at 2pm in 32degree heat? Me apparently. I didn't stop sweating for an hour afterwards. Dinner was take-out from the Thomson Plaza, one of the many indoor food centres that sell an incredible range of foods which are cooked fresh for a mere 3-$5 (about £.250).
Friday began with tennis again and then I was booked in for a full body Javanese massage. She was not a shy lady and happily pummelled every area imaginable. She certainly exerted herself and belched twice over the course of my hour session (I think my appointment coincided with lunch). I left greased up with oil and floppy.
In the afternoon we went to the urban planning museum. Very interesting to see how well you can plan on a micro scale -Singapore is a city-state and really not that big an island (smaller than greater London) and when they run out of land they simply reclaim more from the sea! It was all designed according to a visionary masterplan - transport links are excellent, there are food outlets pretty much everywhere and green spaces are valued. Water is supplied by means of 15 man-made reservoirs which also serve as recreational spaces and waste is shipped out to an offshore landfill site.
Following my bus-man's holiday I took a hot and sweaty tour of some temples and sat in Raffles Square watching the workers start their weekend and contemplating the human condition. It was then time to head to the famous Raffles restaurant for dinner.
What a buffet! It was a culinary delight and I had six plates worth of the food. Very enjoyable.
On Saturday we fawned over orchids at the botanic gardens and then it was time to fly to Mumbai.
I arrived into Mumbai around 9pm Indian time to find out that my visa was not valid. The rules had just changed (you have to leave 2 months between re-entry periods). I sucked up to the immigration man who took me off to an office full of jobs-worth and I was rewarded with a re-entry permit form. Not before I had been well and truly grilled on why the hell I would travel via Mumbai and not spend a decent amount of time there. Fair question.
I took a cab to my pre-booked 3 star Best Western Emerald Hotel.
On arrival, I had an interview with the manager who informed me that several rooms were unavailable due to electric failure. And lucky me I was upgraded to the 5-star Sea Palace across the road.
Several more interviews later and I was escorted to room 108 by a grinning bell-boy (although boy is not quite correct as he was at least 50). He took great pleasure in showing me how everything in the room worked (including pulling back the covers of my double bed) before I shooed him off with 100 rupees.
I left to fly home the following afternoon.
It was a long flight and Heathrow welcomed us with chaotic queues at immigration. I waited one hour to enter the UK.
Still the cab ride home was entertaining. My driver's best friend is the some of Idi Amin! Apparently he had around 50 children. In case you're wondering how we got on to that subject it was the Scottish connection - Idi Amin loved Scotland. See the film Last King of Scotland if you haven't already.
And so endeth one great trip.
It was good to get to the condominium after my flight. I was more than a little delicate on Tuesday. I retired straight to bed on arrival and pretty much did not emerge until 6pm.
We then headed out for some food at a local Chinese venue (the Chinese make up about 70-80% of Singapore's population). I had 'chicken-rice' - it is no more exciting than it sounds, but after a day of not eating tasted delicious.
The days that followed were a nice mix of sightseeing and normal activities.
We visited the old colonial part of Singapore and the thriving Central Business District (CBD). We took the elevator up 56 floors to the top of Marina Bay Sands - this is a newish (opened June 2010) complex comprising three high rise buildings (supposedly in the style of a deck of cards) with a 'boat' on top. The boat includes a viewing deck known as the skypark and a 150m pool for residents of the hotel. The view was pretty cool and the pool is amazing. It is apparently the largest sized pool in the world found at that height
The complex is designed for rich Chinese. It has designer stores and an expensive hotel and a casino to rival those in nearby Macau.
After our day of sightseeing we retired to the Singapore Cricket Club, a truly ex pat experience. It is quite prestigious, but my friends Sam and Cara have managed to get membership. Typically sophisticated we drank beer with our dinner.
We decided to have a sports day on Thursday. This involved tennis at the apartment block in the morning followed by an 8km jungle run (for me) in the afternoon. What sort of nutter runs at 2pm in 32degree heat? Me apparently. I didn't stop sweating for an hour afterwards. Dinner was take-out from the Thomson Plaza, one of the many indoor food centres that sell an incredible range of foods which are cooked fresh for a mere 3-$5 (about £.250).
Friday began with tennis again and then I was booked in for a full body Javanese massage. She was not a shy lady and happily pummelled every area imaginable. She certainly exerted herself and belched twice over the course of my hour session (I think my appointment coincided with lunch). I left greased up with oil and floppy.
In the afternoon we went to the urban planning museum. Very interesting to see how well you can plan on a micro scale -Singapore is a city-state and really not that big an island (smaller than greater London) and when they run out of land they simply reclaim more from the sea! It was all designed according to a visionary masterplan - transport links are excellent, there are food outlets pretty much everywhere and green spaces are valued. Water is supplied by means of 15 man-made reservoirs which also serve as recreational spaces and waste is shipped out to an offshore landfill site.
Following my bus-man's holiday I took a hot and sweaty tour of some temples and sat in Raffles Square watching the workers start their weekend and contemplating the human condition. It was then time to head to the famous Raffles restaurant for dinner.
What a buffet! It was a culinary delight and I had six plates worth of the food. Very enjoyable.
On Saturday we fawned over orchids at the botanic gardens and then it was time to fly to Mumbai.
I arrived into Mumbai around 9pm Indian time to find out that my visa was not valid. The rules had just changed (you have to leave 2 months between re-entry periods). I sucked up to the immigration man who took me off to an office full of jobs-worth and I was rewarded with a re-entry permit form. Not before I had been well and truly grilled on why the hell I would travel via Mumbai and not spend a decent amount of time there. Fair question.
I took a cab to my pre-booked 3 star Best Western Emerald Hotel.
On arrival, I had an interview with the manager who informed me that several rooms were unavailable due to electric failure. And lucky me I was upgraded to the 5-star Sea Palace across the road.
Several more interviews later and I was escorted to room 108 by a grinning bell-boy (although boy is not quite correct as he was at least 50). He took great pleasure in showing me how everything in the room worked (including pulling back the covers of my double bed) before I shooed him off with 100 rupees.
I left to fly home the following afternoon.
It was a long flight and Heathrow welcomed us with chaotic queues at immigration. I waited one hour to enter the UK.
Still the cab ride home was entertaining. My driver's best friend is the some of Idi Amin! Apparently he had around 50 children. In case you're wondering how we got on to that subject it was the Scottish connection - Idi Amin loved Scotland. See the film Last King of Scotland if you haven't already.
And so endeth one great trip.
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
Goodbye Borneo
I arrived back into Borneo on Sunday evening and basically had dinner and went to bed. The next day (Monday, 23rd August) I was up early to go and see orang-utans.
There is a rehabilitation centre at a place called Semaggoh about 20km away from Kuching. The centre rescues orang-utans that have been orphaned (for whatever reason) and then enables them to live in semi-wild conditions in the National Park. The Park is not large enough to sustain them, hence there are two supplementary 'feeds' a day, one at 9am and one at 3pm. I think there are around 20/25 orang-utans currently living there. They range from 29 year old males, including 'Ritchie' the dominant male to a female baby of only 1 month.
I went for the 9am feed.
I think we were very lucky as quite a few orang-utans came down that morning including the sizeable Ritchie and other mothers and babies and adolescents. There were a lot of people there and I couldn't help but feel a bit sad that their existence amounted to this. I'm sure it's better than a zoo, but being stared at twice a day whilst you try to feed can hardly be enjoyable for them.
In the afternoon I mooched around. I went to some museums and then sat in some gardens for a while, quietly perspiring in the heat. I then went for a drink and resigned myself to souvenir shopping.
I decided what I was going to by and came back to the places later on after I had showered. It was particularly hot on Monday.
One of the places had all sorts of indigenous souvenirs and the shopkeeper, who is of the Iban tribe, personally writes a statement of meaning to accompany every gift you buy.
Whilst I was waiting for him to write my statement they offered me a beer and I sat down and started chatting. Three hours later and I was still there (the shop had now closed) and I was getting increasingly spooked by all the shaman faces and war masks bearing down on me.
I was very hungry so we left to get some food.
They then invited me to a karaoke bar. I'm loathe to turn down an opportunity to sing in public and Asians love their karaoke, so off we went. Someone's brother drove us. I've know idea where we went but it was about 25 minutes out of Kuching.
The place was dead on arrival, so our party of four took it in turns to sing. I was treated to Malay and Indonesians love songs and then sang some of our own favourites - the Beatles, Wonderwall, Backstreet Boys etc.
At about 1am the place started filling up. Remember this is a Monday night. Everyone was well up for singing and vying for the microphone.
Word got around that it was my last night and I was constantly plied with drink. The bar owner personally said that I would not go without a drink that night.
And everyone got down. Malay people can bump and grind. Great fun. The first time I have been able to bust some of my own moves in a long time!
We left about 4am and I got back to a locked hostel. Several minutes of banging later and I was in. I 'slept' for about 2 hours and then left to get my flight to Singapore.
The 1.5 hour flight felt like hours in my fragile state. But, what a great way to leave Borneo!
There is a rehabilitation centre at a place called Semaggoh about 20km away from Kuching. The centre rescues orang-utans that have been orphaned (for whatever reason) and then enables them to live in semi-wild conditions in the National Park. The Park is not large enough to sustain them, hence there are two supplementary 'feeds' a day, one at 9am and one at 3pm. I think there are around 20/25 orang-utans currently living there. They range from 29 year old males, including 'Ritchie' the dominant male to a female baby of only 1 month.
I went for the 9am feed.
I think we were very lucky as quite a few orang-utans came down that morning including the sizeable Ritchie and other mothers and babies and adolescents. There were a lot of people there and I couldn't help but feel a bit sad that their existence amounted to this. I'm sure it's better than a zoo, but being stared at twice a day whilst you try to feed can hardly be enjoyable for them.
In the afternoon I mooched around. I went to some museums and then sat in some gardens for a while, quietly perspiring in the heat. I then went for a drink and resigned myself to souvenir shopping.
I decided what I was going to by and came back to the places later on after I had showered. It was particularly hot on Monday.
One of the places had all sorts of indigenous souvenirs and the shopkeeper, who is of the Iban tribe, personally writes a statement of meaning to accompany every gift you buy.
Whilst I was waiting for him to write my statement they offered me a beer and I sat down and started chatting. Three hours later and I was still there (the shop had now closed) and I was getting increasingly spooked by all the shaman faces and war masks bearing down on me.
I was very hungry so we left to get some food.
They then invited me to a karaoke bar. I'm loathe to turn down an opportunity to sing in public and Asians love their karaoke, so off we went. Someone's brother drove us. I've know idea where we went but it was about 25 minutes out of Kuching.
The place was dead on arrival, so our party of four took it in turns to sing. I was treated to Malay and Indonesians love songs and then sang some of our own favourites - the Beatles, Wonderwall, Backstreet Boys etc.
At about 1am the place started filling up. Remember this is a Monday night. Everyone was well up for singing and vying for the microphone.
Word got around that it was my last night and I was constantly plied with drink. The bar owner personally said that I would not go without a drink that night.
And everyone got down. Malay people can bump and grind. Great fun. The first time I have been able to bust some of my own moves in a long time!
We left about 4am and I got back to a locked hostel. Several minutes of banging later and I was in. I 'slept' for about 2 hours and then left to get my flight to Singapore.
The 1.5 hour flight felt like hours in my fragile state. But, what a great way to leave Borneo!
Sunday, 22 August 2010
Miri
Miri, Wednesday 18th August 2010
On Wednesday I left Kuching bound for Gulung Mulu National Park in the east of the island. My flights meant that I had to go via a city called Miri on the coast with a connecting flight to Mulu on Thursday morning.
I travelled on MasWings which is part of Malaysian Airlines and seems to serve the cities and towns of Borneo.
I arrived into Miri at about 2pm. I purposefully arrived late as it is reputed to be a bit of a dive. The rumours were true.
From the airport I went straight to my hotel, the Pacific Orient, a grimy mid-range place that kind of represented the city with it's below the surface dirt and slightly seedy air.
I left the hotel pretty sharpish and made for the tourist information, mainly to get information about Mulu, but also hoping for something to fill the afternoon.
The tourist officer recommended I go up to the oil museum on the top of Canada Hill. I asked him the direction and he responded that I should take a cab. 'How many minutes walking I asked?'. 'Oh about 30 minutes' he responded but you should take a cab.
Of course I walked and it was a sweaty climb and did involve a precarious crossing of a four lane highway (the city was not planned for the pedestrian), but it was a filler!
The museum itself was not so interesting to me; mainly an opportunity for Shell to market themselves. I did manage to extract some interesting facts though.
[Amusing interlude: Miri feels much more Asian than Kuching and definitely more seedy. For the first time since entering Borneo I was getting stared at a lot. On entering the oil museum two men jumped to open the door for me and one asked if I was single. I admired his direct approach].
Miri was born from oil. It is where the first oil well was dug in Malaysia in 1910 - one hundred years of drilling almost to the day (Wednesday August 10th). There are now 624 oil wells in the Miri Oil Field. Well number 1 became known as the 'The Grand Old Lady of Miri'.
Oil is the reason why Miri achieved city status in 2005 and is responsible for the relative wealth (and all the trappings that this brings - prostitution and the like). But, evidently some good has come from it from an infrastructure perspective.
I met a guy who I met earlier in the week on the walk down and we agreed to meet for dinner. We went to 'ladies night' at the local bar and drank lots of beer under the watchful eye of the proprietor who wore hotpants and tucked the notes into her waistband.
I retired to the hotel a little later than planned to the sound of booming music. I realised my room lay directly above 'Secrets' nightclub and 90s rave anthems seemed to be a favourite... time for the Bioears.
I was woken to telephone wake-up call at 6am (1 hour earlier than asked for). I was not amused, but at least I got my flight on time and could get out of this place!
Thursday 19th - Sunday 22nd August, Gulung Mulu National Park
I also flew to Mulu by MasWings but the plane was a tiny, lightweight aircraft. It was a short flight, just 25 minutes, but quite fun and great to see the rainforest from above. I was acutely aware of the irony of flying by plane to admire the beauty of a rainforest. It didn't sit too well with me. Nor did the knowledge that the National Park is actually land of the Penan tribe, nomads who were forced off their land so the Park could be set up. But more on that at a later date.
We arrived at Miri airstrip at 10am, basically a field with a bit of tarmac.
People were jostling for lifts to the Park HQ so I decided to avoid the crush and walk the 1.5km instead. It was pretty hot and luckily someone took pity on me and picked me and all my rucsacs up on his return journey.
Gulung Mulu National Park is the largest National Park in Sarawak, some 52,566 ha (compared to Kubah at 2,230 and Bako at 2,728). The dominant forest type is mixed dicterocarp (also the dominant forest on the island generally) but also has peat swamp, kerangas and montane forest. Now excuse the stats: there are 80 species of mammals, 270 birds, 130 reptiles, 50 fish species and somewhere in the region of 20,000 insects! Phew...
The Park is also a World Heritage Site and consequently is less 'free' than the others I have been too. You have to register and it's near on impossible to do anything without a guide. I see it as a rainforest experience for the novice.
However, it does harbour some incredible natural and cultural heritage, including Deer Cave, the largest cave passage in the world. This is also home to some 2-3 million wrinkle-lipped bats and it's the cave that everyone is familiar with from 'Life of Mammals'.
I booked to visit the cave on Thursday afternoon and I troop with around 19 others along a jungle trail to the opening. It was not really the jungle experience I'd become accustomed to, the only mammals I heard were of the human kind chatting about all sorts of drivel. Anyway....
I'm going to find it hard to write about the Deer Cave in a way that will do it justice on paper. I don't think I can. The place is incredible. Firstly the scale is immense, the interior is almost cathedral-like; there are irregular forms of rock and tiny pinholes through which a torch beam of light shines down and then there are the sudden openings through which a lush layer of vegetation can be seen. One such opening is known as the 'Garden of Eden'. It was truly beautiful, like walking out of the gloom and into paradise.
As you walk deeper into the cave you become more aware of the clicking bats and the restless activity above your heads and the stench of ammonia (from the bat's guano) pervades your senses.
This is a living chamber and a home to millions of bats, tiny swiftlets and numerous other oddities that thrive on bat shit!
I walked slowly back through the cave. Without meaning to get too sentimental I did feel like I had witnessed something unique and was quite moved. It felt life-affirming. Those experiences are so special and I felt quite emotional to be there and be part of it.
On exiting the cave we wandered to the 'bat observatory' to await the daily exodus of bats at sunset. They leave on mass to go and feed some 40km away at the coast.
It was raining and was shaping up to be less of 'Life of Mammals' moment and more of a bat trickle. However, they did come; and between the hour of 18:00 - 19:00 groups of bats rushed out. You cannot see them at the mouth of the cave as their dark shapes are hidden but once they break the skyline they dance and twirl around one another, snaking together in spirals and curves, entwined in an exit dance before heading to the coast.
I wondered what it was like to be a bat at that moment; do they tremble with excitement before they flee the cave? Something we will never know.
On my remaining days at Mulu I visited some other caves (although it was difficult to top Deer Cave) and did some trekking. I enjoyed the park culture and staying in a large dorm and eating communally and drinking beer. It was quite relaxing.
Yesterday afternoon we returned from a trek and it started to rain; in torrents. It rained all afternoon and all night and into this morning. It was like some sort of biblical storm. Everywhere was underwater this morning; in some places waist deep! Luckily all the buildings are built on stilts.
Several flights were cancelled this morning, but I made mine this afternoon. Quite lucky really. I enjoyed the 'down-time' and finished two books but was itching to be off. Also hanging around the dorm starts to lose it's appeal. Looking around at the various bodies in repose and glum-looking people reminded me of a hospital ward. Good to get out!!
So, here I am back in Kuching but for one day longer only. Tomorrow I'm on a 7.20am (!) bus to go and see the orang-u-tuans. I hope to snatch a glimpse.
Jungle Spots
- a female stick insect hanging on with one arm to a gate; she is about 30cm long. A bit like cliffhanger.
- a bright red beetle wandering slowly on a trail.
- fireflies. Beadlets of light suspended in the night. Apparently the males signal to the females and if she responds with light he's in there.
- Raja Brooke butterflies sucking salty water.
Some notes on 'Jobs Worth'
1. The man who controls the elevator in the Thomson Clinic Singapore. And you thought working in a basement was bad..
2. The lady who dusts water bottles in the main bazaar, Kuching.
3. The man who sweeps leaves of the jungle trails in Gulung Mulu National Park.
On Wednesday I left Kuching bound for Gulung Mulu National Park in the east of the island. My flights meant that I had to go via a city called Miri on the coast with a connecting flight to Mulu on Thursday morning.
I travelled on MasWings which is part of Malaysian Airlines and seems to serve the cities and towns of Borneo.
I arrived into Miri at about 2pm. I purposefully arrived late as it is reputed to be a bit of a dive. The rumours were true.
From the airport I went straight to my hotel, the Pacific Orient, a grimy mid-range place that kind of represented the city with it's below the surface dirt and slightly seedy air.
I left the hotel pretty sharpish and made for the tourist information, mainly to get information about Mulu, but also hoping for something to fill the afternoon.
The tourist officer recommended I go up to the oil museum on the top of Canada Hill. I asked him the direction and he responded that I should take a cab. 'How many minutes walking I asked?'. 'Oh about 30 minutes' he responded but you should take a cab.
Of course I walked and it was a sweaty climb and did involve a precarious crossing of a four lane highway (the city was not planned for the pedestrian), but it was a filler!
The museum itself was not so interesting to me; mainly an opportunity for Shell to market themselves. I did manage to extract some interesting facts though.
[Amusing interlude: Miri feels much more Asian than Kuching and definitely more seedy. For the first time since entering Borneo I was getting stared at a lot. On entering the oil museum two men jumped to open the door for me and one asked if I was single. I admired his direct approach].
Miri was born from oil. It is where the first oil well was dug in Malaysia in 1910 - one hundred years of drilling almost to the day (Wednesday August 10th). There are now 624 oil wells in the Miri Oil Field. Well number 1 became known as the 'The Grand Old Lady of Miri'.
Oil is the reason why Miri achieved city status in 2005 and is responsible for the relative wealth (and all the trappings that this brings - prostitution and the like). But, evidently some good has come from it from an infrastructure perspective.
I met a guy who I met earlier in the week on the walk down and we agreed to meet for dinner. We went to 'ladies night' at the local bar and drank lots of beer under the watchful eye of the proprietor who wore hotpants and tucked the notes into her waistband.
I retired to the hotel a little later than planned to the sound of booming music. I realised my room lay directly above 'Secrets' nightclub and 90s rave anthems seemed to be a favourite... time for the Bioears.
I was woken to telephone wake-up call at 6am (1 hour earlier than asked for). I was not amused, but at least I got my flight on time and could get out of this place!
Thursday 19th - Sunday 22nd August, Gulung Mulu National Park
I also flew to Mulu by MasWings but the plane was a tiny, lightweight aircraft. It was a short flight, just 25 minutes, but quite fun and great to see the rainforest from above. I was acutely aware of the irony of flying by plane to admire the beauty of a rainforest. It didn't sit too well with me. Nor did the knowledge that the National Park is actually land of the Penan tribe, nomads who were forced off their land so the Park could be set up. But more on that at a later date.
We arrived at Miri airstrip at 10am, basically a field with a bit of tarmac.
People were jostling for lifts to the Park HQ so I decided to avoid the crush and walk the 1.5km instead. It was pretty hot and luckily someone took pity on me and picked me and all my rucsacs up on his return journey.
Gulung Mulu National Park is the largest National Park in Sarawak, some 52,566 ha (compared to Kubah at 2,230 and Bako at 2,728). The dominant forest type is mixed dicterocarp (also the dominant forest on the island generally) but also has peat swamp, kerangas and montane forest. Now excuse the stats: there are 80 species of mammals, 270 birds, 130 reptiles, 50 fish species and somewhere in the region of 20,000 insects! Phew...
The Park is also a World Heritage Site and consequently is less 'free' than the others I have been too. You have to register and it's near on impossible to do anything without a guide. I see it as a rainforest experience for the novice.
However, it does harbour some incredible natural and cultural heritage, including Deer Cave, the largest cave passage in the world. This is also home to some 2-3 million wrinkle-lipped bats and it's the cave that everyone is familiar with from 'Life of Mammals'.
I booked to visit the cave on Thursday afternoon and I troop with around 19 others along a jungle trail to the opening. It was not really the jungle experience I'd become accustomed to, the only mammals I heard were of the human kind chatting about all sorts of drivel. Anyway....
I'm going to find it hard to write about the Deer Cave in a way that will do it justice on paper. I don't think I can. The place is incredible. Firstly the scale is immense, the interior is almost cathedral-like; there are irregular forms of rock and tiny pinholes through which a torch beam of light shines down and then there are the sudden openings through which a lush layer of vegetation can be seen. One such opening is known as the 'Garden of Eden'. It was truly beautiful, like walking out of the gloom and into paradise.
As you walk deeper into the cave you become more aware of the clicking bats and the restless activity above your heads and the stench of ammonia (from the bat's guano) pervades your senses.
This is a living chamber and a home to millions of bats, tiny swiftlets and numerous other oddities that thrive on bat shit!
I walked slowly back through the cave. Without meaning to get too sentimental I did feel like I had witnessed something unique and was quite moved. It felt life-affirming. Those experiences are so special and I felt quite emotional to be there and be part of it.
On exiting the cave we wandered to the 'bat observatory' to await the daily exodus of bats at sunset. They leave on mass to go and feed some 40km away at the coast.
It was raining and was shaping up to be less of 'Life of Mammals' moment and more of a bat trickle. However, they did come; and between the hour of 18:00 - 19:00 groups of bats rushed out. You cannot see them at the mouth of the cave as their dark shapes are hidden but once they break the skyline they dance and twirl around one another, snaking together in spirals and curves, entwined in an exit dance before heading to the coast.
I wondered what it was like to be a bat at that moment; do they tremble with excitement before they flee the cave? Something we will never know.
On my remaining days at Mulu I visited some other caves (although it was difficult to top Deer Cave) and did some trekking. I enjoyed the park culture and staying in a large dorm and eating communally and drinking beer. It was quite relaxing.
Yesterday afternoon we returned from a trek and it started to rain; in torrents. It rained all afternoon and all night and into this morning. It was like some sort of biblical storm. Everywhere was underwater this morning; in some places waist deep! Luckily all the buildings are built on stilts.
Several flights were cancelled this morning, but I made mine this afternoon. Quite lucky really. I enjoyed the 'down-time' and finished two books but was itching to be off. Also hanging around the dorm starts to lose it's appeal. Looking around at the various bodies in repose and glum-looking people reminded me of a hospital ward. Good to get out!!
So, here I am back in Kuching but for one day longer only. Tomorrow I'm on a 7.20am (!) bus to go and see the orang-u-tuans. I hope to snatch a glimpse.
Jungle Spots
- a female stick insect hanging on with one arm to a gate; she is about 30cm long. A bit like cliffhanger.
- a bright red beetle wandering slowly on a trail.
- fireflies. Beadlets of light suspended in the night. Apparently the males signal to the females and if she responds with light he's in there.
- Raja Brooke butterflies sucking salty water.
Some notes on 'Jobs Worth'
1. The man who controls the elevator in the Thomson Clinic Singapore. And you thought working in a basement was bad..
2. The lady who dusts water bottles in the main bazaar, Kuching.
3. The man who sweeps leaves of the jungle trails in Gulung Mulu National Park.
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