Gunung Rinjani adventures!

So, as mentioned, Gunung Rinjani lies on the mainland of Lombok.  She's a bit of a beast, we saw the sun rise from behind her all the way back over on Gunung Butur in Bali, and she's not just a simple volcano either.

Below her summit of 3726m there is an 8km wide caldera containing a 200m deep lake.  Rising out of the centre of this lake is an island with the volcano's smoking active peak.  Add to these geological and visual spectacles  some serious hiking, 2 nights camping and some hot springs and you should be in for a treat.  We were not disappointed.

In indonesia, however, there are always some hiccups along the way...

We were on the mainland good and early in the morning at around 7:30.  We waited for our fellow travellers to arrive before the shuttle bus took us to the mountains but, after some unexplained confusion, we headed off with only one other person.  When the rest of our party finally arrived in the mountains at around10:30, it turned out even they weren't the source of our ire.  Indeed, they had been delayed as long as us, but their delay was back at port where they had to wait for two hungover French girls to arrive late... who weren't even on our trip!!!! (the tour company were simply transporting them up the the mountains for a bit of extra cash...sigh)

Anyway, the result was that we set off very late in the morning, were driven hard all afternoon and had to setup camp shy of our proposed campground.  We were supposed to have viewed the lake from the caldera's edge by sunset, instead we were camped on its very windy outside.  To be honest this was no real hardship, we were glad the trip was more or less on track and should proceed then on in as planned... the guide had suggested amended routes and plans earlier in the day.

The views on the first day's walk were not to be scoffed at, but the views from the caldera's edge the next morning after breakfast were something else!  I've never seen anything quite like it and i'm not sure i will again, incredible.

Soon after, we were all of on the trail again.  We had a great group and were busy exchanging stories, travel advice and plenty of banter.  The day was far more full than the first also.  We descended down to, and swam in, the lake, larked about in hot springs and then trekked hard up to the ridgeline below the summit.

The views from the camp were otherworldly as the clouds drew in and the sun set:

It was chilly, but not too cold, (the night before was windy and freezing) and soon we were all tucked up in our tents to sleep before a 2am wake up; the summit attempt was to be early to see the sunrise.

The 2am wake up did not arrive.

In fact it was lucky that safety dad (that's me) had set his own alarm; thus it was that we woke the guide ourserlves.  Annoyingly this meant we were well behind schedule and it would be a rush to reach the summit for sunrise as planned.  In fact it was worse than that, the actual ascent was hellish in its own right.

Our group quickly splintered as we tried to pass other slow groups and individuals and, more vitally to Bex and I, reach the summit before sunrise.  The inexperienced and ill equipped were also very soon found out; climbing at night and also on relentless loose dirt meant many would not make it up before the sun rose (if at all).

Bex and I strode on.  With us we dragged along a young guy called Adam who was still dressed for Gili Trawangan beach... Bex and I had windproof jackets, trousers, hats and gloves etc. Adam matched an extra T-shirt and hoody with his Bermuda shorts to complete his ensemble!

We were going great guns with a few hundred metres to go when the altitude took its toll on Bex.  She was having issues (like most) with her feet slipping back on the loose dirt with every other step, now a lack of altitude acclimatization meant she was permanently short of breath until we descended again.  If you've met Bex then you'll know we weren't descending until we'd conquered the summit.  Somehow she pushed on and the three of us summited right on sunrise!  We were in an elite group of about 15 who did so, but I'm pretty sure no one started as late as we did!!

We quickly took all the obligatory photos, caught up with old acquaintance from Mulu (who was only there due to flight issues in Nepal... Which meant he missed the fatal avalanches out there!!!) and then rushed down to a lower altitude so Bex could breath again.

All that was eventful enough for one day, we ate breakfast and spent the rest of the day hiking back out of the mountains.  The drive back took an age.  It was then dark by then and we had missed the last public ferry back to Gili Air... We didn't let the unavoidable extortion of getting over to the island get us down, it had been a proper adventure and Gili Air wasn't such a bad place to go home to either...

[Some more photos from along the way...loved it!]

Gili Air... Part 1

Our extended stay in Ubud gave us plenty of time to hone our bartering skills.  Now that it was time to leave, we did so with transport booked all the way to Gili Air at well below half what was being asked (and without a street fight with any taxi drivers).

The Gilis are a string of 3 small islands lying of the coast of Lombok (the next major Indonesian island to the East of Bali).  Our choice of travel was the mid-price option; shuttle bus to the coast (2 hours) and the "fast" boat over to Gili Air... "Fast" should be and hour and a half but loading and unloading, especially at the more party centric Gili Trawangan, somewhat negates the fast element and drags the boat trip out to over 3 hours!  Still we knew this in advance slept most of the way and arrived late afternoon.

The Gilis are classic white beached paradise isles but, if you go about it right, they can be cheap as chips too.  We bartered our accommodation down to ~£7.50 a night for a private beach side bungalow with breakfast included.

For 3 days we mooched about the beaches, snorkled and ate and drank our fill, its not hard to see how people get stuck here, I met one guy from Yorkshire who has been marooned 17 years; he rents on the island for £7.50... a week!!!

We, of course, wouldn't be hanging around.  I had plans to drag Bex up more mountains and Indonesia is pretty great in that regard.  Gunung Rinjani, over on Lombok proper, is the second highest active volcano in Indonesia and you need to jump on a 3 day guided and portered trip to summit it.  We spent a LOT of time negotiating the best deal we could (including full transit from and back to Gili Air) and on the forth morning we were off adventuring again! Huzzah!!!

[Hellish...]

Gunung Butur & cycling shenanigans

So, we'd not been overly impressed with Bali thus far, but they must have mountains to climb, right?  Right!  What's that, active volcanoes?  Even better!!

We chose to climb Gunung Agung, the highest point in Bali, then we quickly found out a religious festival had blocked all routes... No problem, Gunung Batur instead! (1717m http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Batur)

You have to book up in advance due the locals dwelling by the mountain carrying on the Balinese tradition of blatant extortion (there is a theme here you may realise), but that was cool as it was over an hours drive away and we wanted to so the sunrise summit, descent and then do half a days guided cycling too; got to keep busy right?

It was a 2am bus pickup and, once we'd navigated the aforementioned Mafia, the hike itself was pretty straight forward...by our ever changing standards that is; so it was seriously steep and killing casual walkers, but we were up in 2 hours, enjoyed great views from the top [including that of Gunung Rinjani all the way over in Lombok which we intended to climb later in the trip] and we were back down for breakfast by 8am!!!

Admittedly, we looked and sounded insane to the rest of the cycling party; they had just arrived fresh whereas we had tales from the dust spewing behemoth viewed from the terrace from which they were enjoying tea and toast.  In fact we were covered in volcanic ash and felt like heroes.  Win.

[Breakfast view]

The bike ride was easy but great.  All downhill and amongst the paddies which engulf nearly all of rural Bali.  Our guide stopped us at various sites of cultural interest (we drank coffee made with beans that had "been through a cat") and before you knew it we had lunch and were back in Ubud ready to pack and move on... Bali had some highlights, today had loads, but for the most part we were more than ready to move on. [for now, we'd be back]

Ubud, Bali - Highs and woes...

So, Ubud.  In central Bali, about an hour and a half from the airport, you'll find Ubud; much touted as Bali's, if not Indonesia's, spiritual and artistic hub.

Let's deal very quickly with the latter, don't believe the hype.  Admittedly there is a fair bit of decent jewellery knocking about, but anything better than anything else I've ever seen? No, not really.  There are galleries everywhere, 1 in 100 painting is ok, everything else is shit.  The end.

As for the spiritual, well, I suppose there is plenty of that wholesale around Bali, especially the rurual and remote areas, but Ubud itself has be poisoned by the novel "Eat, love pray" and its legacy.  I'm not sure it was ever anything like that described in the book, but the Balinese have duly raped the town for all the money the association can bring.

The main streets are now littered with brand stores, tacky salons, overpriced restaurants selling western meals (or, at best, westernised versions of Indonesian meals) and hundreds of shops selling the same tat you get flogged in all the tourist locations in Bali.

That said it has its merits, the buildings in this part of Indonesia all look like temples.  Its quite odd at first, but it gives an amazingly different look and feel to a place, especially when this naturally extends to the accommodation.

We'd booked a "bungalow" off of the main streets and it was ace.  Loads of room, quirky and quiet, the old man who ran the bungalows even served us breakfast on our own little terrace.

When you search the side streets you soon find plenty of real authentic cuisine in the local warungs and we duly feasted very well and often for a mere pittance.

After a couple of relaxing days we were planning our next moves (a few walks outside of town and hitting the markets seemed all Ubud really had on offer) in such a warung when I decided to befriend the Warung's dog... It decided to turn on Bex for no reason whatsoever and, before you knew it, the little shit bit her on the hand!!

I'll not go into the full tale of woe (I'm sure Bex will on her own blog whatbexdidnext.wordpress.com), but basically Ubud is pretty bad for rabies thus we had to stay for an extra 3 days while she had a couple of injections at the local medical centre.  The end result is we got to look around Ubud quite and relax quite a bit more, not such a bad thing really, and we lined up a quick summit as cycle ride at the end too... Much more my kind of thing!!

First impressions, Bali... hmmm

Let's start positive and see where we end up... We returned to Kota Kinabalu in fine spirits and, for the first time, fine weather.  We took advantage of this with a boat trip to the little island of Sapi just off the coast where we snorkelled, walked and I got a great up close experience and video of a monitor lizard!  Top stuff! [Oh, and sunburnt] Then we flew to Bali...

We arrived late at night to 9,667,543 taxis trying to rip us off for a trip 1 min round the corner.  We escaped their clutches and proceeded to get entirely lost on foot while attempting to find our overnight hotel.  Once we'd found it we relaxed and slept in the most comfortable bed we'd experienced in a month.  In the morning we quickly realised we'd made no plans and Bali, it seemed, wasn't going to be as simple to travel as Malaysia had.

We decided to avoid Kuta beach and the lively areas of Bali for now and head inland to Ubud, Bali's spiritual home (allegedly).  Local buses don't exist.  Coach transfers don't exist.  Indonesia's primary travel options, it turns out, are only taxis and scooters... Or scooters that are taxis!  Add to this revelation other things you'll quickly learn here...

I'm sure 10-20 years ago Bali was awesome.  The years of tourism as a primary trade, however, has twisted the country into a vile beast. Everything is a ripoff and everyone is trying to rip you off.  Its not really their fault, it really is the result of the relentless influx of tourists with too much money.

Long story short, and a quick jaunt in to the future; a taxi (by whatever name or flavour it comes in) back from Ubud to the airport will be list price 60,000Rp, negotiable to half that.  A taxi from near the airport to Ubud, which we now had to arrange will cost an arranged 250,000Rp, with quotes in excess of double that AND you'll need to basically fight the taxi driver before and after the trip... And so it was we arrived in a hot and horribly modern/commercial looking Ubud, adrenaline pumping and swearing at our taxi driver on the main street.  Great times.

Stop 8; Sukau and the Kinabatangan river!

Sukau lies to the south east of Sandakan and Sepilok.  The jungle and forests have been left more of less intact due to the vast river networks and inaccessibility those rivers inherently pose.  This makes travel a bit of a bind also.  Luckily a local entrepreneur was on hand to help intrepid explorers like us... And make a pretty penny himself!  Not that we begrudge him that, he has a very simple side business.  At 6am Mr Choy drives his daughter to school in Sandakan and at 1 pm he drives her home to Sukau.  Phone him direct, book pick up from your accommodation, and you can join him in his 7 seater for the equivalent of a tenner a head.  I think he's the richest man in Sukau, he certainly dresses the best and has the only new vehicle in the village!

Sukau is a tiny village that sits along a section of riverbank on the Kinabatangan river.  Its simple and poor, but the villagers are self sufficient and a make extra money providing lodgings and guided river tours for tourists.  We chose our lodge on Mr Choy's recommendation and we were pleased we did.  We had a private bungalow each (our new travel buddies Jon and Caitlin in one, Bex and I the other), 3 hot meals a day, unlimited tea and coffee and 4 boat trips and 2 hikes (1 of each at night) with a proper ranger.

We threw down our bags and jumped straight in the boat for our first boat trip in the late afternoon leading into dusk.  Long tailed macaques and proboscis monkeys were clear for all to see in the first few minutes travel and shortly after we had our first crazy experience.

We caught sight of a splinter group of Borneo pygmy elephants, including mothers and babies, (our ranger believes the parade to be ~50 strong) feeding on the lush folliage of the rivers edge.  It was a long time before we moved off and we saw little other than more of the same monkeys and a few hornbills, but in all our opinions the entire visit was already worthwhile (and it was only dinner time on the first evening!).

[I later read that official estimates for Borneo pygmy elephants in the wild number only 1500]

After dinner we headed out on a night boat trip; "but its raining!" the ranger exclaimed when all four of us heartily agreed to carry on as it started to rain; he was clearly expecting, and hoping for, a negative response.  The rain seemed to convince the crocodiles to avoid the river but we saw some buffy-faced owls and had amazing up close experiences with stork-billed and blue earred kingfishers; with kingfishers being one of my favourite bird species this blew my mind as much as the elephants! Epic.

Next morning our already blown minds were rocked again.  It turned out a properly wild orangutan and her juvenile daughter had decided to pass threw the outskirts if the village... So basically straight over our accommodation, incredible!

Overall the trip was all we ever hoped for from Borneo wrapped up in to a few days; we went on to see 5 species of hornbill, bats, crocodiles, a pine civit, Jerdons bazas, swiftlets and probably even more that I can't recall!  We left very happy and headed back all the way to Kota Kinabalu before reluctantly leaving Malaysia and moving on to Indonesia.

Stop 7; Sepilok

The far east of Borneo has been, as previously mentioned, decimated by palm oil plantations.  Absurdly tucked away within this is Sepilok. There is an area containing rehabilitation centres and accommodation where tourists and locals can go glimpse wildlife in a tiny pocket of conserved jungle.

Had we bothered to research properly we may have not headed this far east to visit, certainly not this area (our next stop was our main priority), but we were lured by the task of finally seeing orangutans.

We arrived at our lodgings early evening an grabbed a great dinner. Turns out all meals were included for the days we would be here, result! Hot showers, comfy bed and free transit to and from the orangutan sunctuary the next morning were also included, things were looking up at last.

Next morning, well fed for free and in great weather (out of the mountains it was like being in a different country in regards to climate) we headed of to see our elusive cousins, well I say elusive... We'd prepared ourselves for the experience to be organised and non-wild and we got what we expected - feeding time arrived and so did the orangutans and monkeys of differing species. We could openly see the ranger passing the food direct to each creature from behind a tree on the feeding platform.  Still, we saw yet another new species of monkey, the short tailed macaque, and also a pit viper. Cool.

Next door there was a sun bear sanctuary too. These little blighters are rather cool, we spent an age watching them feed and climb trees.  That, however, was about it for Sepilok! We'd made some travel buddies who were interested in our next adventure so we nailed down plans for meeting up and getting there the next day, we had high hopes for some real wildlife encounters before we said goodbye to Borneo!

Mountain stop; Gunung Kinabalu...

We arrived at Kinabalu National Park in good time and order.  It was a bit drab and wet but nothing too much to be concerned about.  Our money saving plan (not in any guide book) consisting of turning up and booking direct even worked out too!  Long story short; its about £80 total direct (entry, park fees, guide and 1 night at base camp hostel), agencies in town or online will pull your trousers down for £150-£250...insane!

With that all sorted we just had to pop to our hostel just outside the park (more money saving) and get some good kip before an early start...

We arrived and met the owner.  After a very short and confusing conversation (understood not a word of English) we gathered she had no computer or internet, therefore no idea of our booking!  No loss, there wasn't a soul booked in due it being off season and the weather being "a bit unpredictable".

We dropped our bags in a nice big room with en suite (ooh la la!) and the owner checked the light.  Nothing.  She pointed at the switch and informed us "no light".  Ok, so we understood that well enough, no electricity.  Oh well, we'd just wait, we had no plans after all.  Time passed, the weather closed in.  We sat in the common room but it was open to the elements, thus we soon had mist around us and the rain and wind were picking up too.  Helpfully the owner popped in occasionally to inform us "no lights!", thanks.  We moved to the bedroom and played scrabble on my phone by candle light, ate trail rations for dinner and went to bed with storms rattling the building.



The morning brought us no respite from the rain and wind (nor arrival of electricity), so our early start was delayed and we headed to breakfast at the truck stop outside the park at 8am.  Breakfast was delicious and the weather was clearing minute by minute!

We headed into the park, grabbed our guide from HQ and hit the trails!  All was well again.  The climbing was steep and incessant (very much expected) and it was great to be on our way.  We passed at great waterfall, I made friends with a Borneo ground squirrel and we even saw some red leaf monkeys!



We were making incredible time, so our guide suggested that, with an uncertain forecast, we should blaze through base camp and summit in the same afternoon!  We were already climbing 1404m in one day, he was suggesting increasing this to 2229m with 15mins for lunch!  We told him we would decide at base camp but the decision was lost to us.  30mins from base camp the winds and rain came in hard, it was hell.  Really, the worst experience I've had on a mountain.  We were soaked from head to toe, the temperature bitingly cold, the water turned the path to a steep, rock strewn, fast running river and we had visibility of about 3m.

The hostel was clean, dry and out of the wind. Thankfully there were also large, thick duvets, an absolute savior as the room had no heating whatsoever.  We got in to all our remaining dry clothes (including all warm layers packed for the summit) and both dived under two duvets on a one bunk.  15mins later I finally stopped shivering, another 15mins and I could feel my feet again (they weren't feeling great).  That was basically it for the day.  We had reached base camp in 4 hours and now it was early afternoon with wind and rain battering the building.  We chatted to other climbers who arrived even later, ate trail food for dinner again (we had no dry clothes we could waste heading to the canteen) and then went to sleep hoping the trails would be open at 2am for the original scheduled summit attempt.



2am.  No change.  Slept till breakfast at 6:30am and then hiked down in the unchanging weather.  At the bottom we grabbed our bags from the hostel (still "no lights"), I changed in to my very last dry clothes (vest, shorts and flip-flops, not warm at all) in the truck stop toilets and got the midday bus onward to Sepilok.



Cold, disappointed, bags full of sodden and smelly clothes, neither of us could be happy at all.  To add insult to injury, where once only primary rainforest resided, all we saw on the second half a 5 hour bus journey was endless palm oil plantations.

You read about it, hear about it, but nothing prepares you for it.  We'd walked, trekked and frankly marvelled for weeks at Malaysia's wild jungles and forests, the most stunning and beautiful I've been lucky enough to see and experience.  To see it laid to waste and replaced as such is agonisingly heart breaking.  Things could only get better for us, I fear for Borneo's forest's future though.

Stop 6; Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo

It was time to head to yet another national park but this time we were in search of a summit, not Borneo's wildlife.  We wouldn't have things all our way this time...

The changing weather systems I mentioned earlier were really starting to drift down to us now, we circled around six times in an air traffic jam before landing in a sodden and flooded capital, Kota Kinabalu.

Its quite bereft of charm in fair weather, bad weather really showed off its dreary side.  We took a rare taxi to save the bother of figuring out buses and finding our way to the hostel in the downpour.





Our aim here, aside from heading on to more easterly regions, was to summit Gunung Kinabalu.  We'd marked it out early in our plans as our first challenge to be conquered.  At 4095m she's the highest peak in the Malay archipelago:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kinabalu

We'd done all our homework, made our plans... Now we spent the rest of the day pouring over weather forecasts and working when we should head over for an attempt (the national park was still another 2 hours away on unreliable transport links).

Eventually we were all set again.  We had what looked like a 3 day weather window approaching; we would leave the day after next, travel to the park and register to climb early the morning after that.  In the meantime we attempted to enjoy KK.

Its a bustling port city and that night we dined on fresh sea food in the night market (under a tarp in the rain, obviously).  There were breaks in the rain the following day though, so we got out and about, completed a few odd jobs and took in some minor sights.  Next morning the weather cleared early, we packed our bags and headed to Kinabalu National Park for the adventure to begin...



[Everyone loves to see  crow dissecting a rat at the harbour, right?]

Stop 5; Mulu National Park, Mulu

Betwixt activities in Kuching, Bex buried herself in guides, blogs and reviews.  The result was an extra major stop before heading all the way west to Kota Kinabalu.

Mulu is tiny.  Nestled south of Brunei, but still within the Sarawak region of Malaysia Borneo, its basically an airstrip (arriving by land is near impossible), a tiny village and a huge, varied and interesting national park.  The, not in anyway unpleasant, but certainly unexpected oddity here turned out to be the park itself...

When you land in a twinprop with 20 other people and then walk to a home stay for your lodgings, you hardly expect the national park to be so incredibly well developed and modern.  Immaculately uniformed staff, modern offices, shop and restaurant, even most of the self guided walks were 75% fully maintained wooden walkways!

The park offices can happily and readily arrange guided and non-guided activities for your entire stay (all in near fluent English of course!).  For our three nights we settled watching the nightly bat exodus from Deer Cave, a self guided walk, a waterfall visit, a days guided cave exploration and hike and a tree top canopy walk.  All in all the cost was quite reasonable, if we'd used the park lodging and restaurant this would have been well over budget!!!

[Not to mention the home stay had a great kitten which Bex kind of loved, so why stay anywhere else?!?]

We nipped off straight from the office to try and catch the bats (it was well into the afternoon already!). In the end we still had to wait an hour for the spectacle but it was certainly worth it!  As it was dusk the pictures I took are naf, but watching ~6 million(!!!!) bats spiral, almost endlessly, from the cave and off into the jungles as night closed in won't be something I forget in a long time!!  Afterwards we inadvertantly had a self guided night hike back to the park HQ.  From what others told us this was the same as the organised equivalent... Except we didn't see foot long stick insects or anything of note aside from frogs and fireflies!

On the next day the self guided walk turned out to be a pretty simple affair (but it was free) but I snared my first leech [as you'll see evidence of weeks ago when this actually happened!!], we saw plenty of gigantic bugs and a dip in the waterfall toward the end was actually quite glorious and welcome!

The area is rightfully renowned for its cave systems and we had eagerly anticipated our final full day getting involved in some caving!  It did not disappoint.  At the entrance we witnessed tarantula webs coating swathes of ground and boulders.  None of their creators were to be seen but, in the full dark of the deepening cave there were plenty of their relatives to be found!  I have no idea of the species but they were as large as my outspread hand:

We climbed, crawled, scrabbled, waded and swam our way through the caves, paddled/waded our way up a remote river and, eventually, hiked to and settled for lunch at an incredible waterfall (this backpacking is a right chore!).  Job done.  The final morning we quickly went about the canopy walk (great fun, the world's longest tree based walkway apparently... Though not too scary) before grabbing our bags and walking to the airport; that never sounds any less odd [oddly not the last airport walk either!]