southeast asia

Singapore: The Last Days

Singapore skyscrapers and food hawker centre
After bobbing across the South China Sea from Tioman Island, Sara and I found ourselves nervously waiting for our 12:30 bus at the Mersing Terminal. At the advice of some information we read on the ever-so-reliable internet, we had booked the bus days ahead while in Melaka. The girl at the Mersing ticket counter was surprised when I mentioned a 12:30 bus to Singapore, but she told us it would come. She was right. Thirty minutes late and filled with sleepy passengers, it arrived. The driver told us we would have to transfer to get to Singapore. His English wasn’t great so we spent most of the ride wondering if our transfer location would be obvious.

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Boom Shaka Melaka, Malaysia!

Bukit Cina, Melaka, Malaysia
The shophouses of the Bukit Cina area.
The city of Melaka (Malacca) is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was the capital and centre of the Malay world in the 15th and 16th centuries, and a walk through Melaka today presents a tourist with architecture of Portuguese, Dutch, British, and Chinese design.

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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: High-Tech City Southeast Asian stylez

Petaling Street
Petaling Street, Chinatown.

Kuala Lumpur is one of those epic Asian cities that conjures up a thousand images at once. A picture of skyscrapers and technological forwardness, hot but cool, with the image of the impressive Petronas towers jutting out from it all. We were very excited about Kuala Lumpur.

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Bangkok: A tribute to Hunter S. Thompson the drug addict, alcoholic, adulterer who shot himself in the head.

Bangkok, Thailand backpacker ghetto
Khao San Road, the backpacker ghetto
Like batter poured into a pan, Bangkok sprawls outward, expanding and cooking at the same time. Although only a capital city for two hundred and thirty years, it’s history is everywhere: In its Chinatown market that is as old as the city itself, in its giant lavish temples that are surrounded by beggared, street sleeping locals and advantageous tuk-tuk drivers, in its decrepitness.

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Sandakan, Malaysia: More Than Just an Airport

Sandakan street
Sandakan, Malaysia.
We got a ride to the Sukau junction. Osman’s wife told us that we could catch a bus anytime to Sandakan, but our driver to the junction seemed less sure. He told us to take a minibus to the checkpoint and then a local bus into Sandakan.

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Shaved Across Southeast Asia

I wait, slightly nervous, as a boy slowly has his hair cut. The barber runs the comb through the hair and snips at it with the scissors. The end result is a hairdo that I refer to as “the Asian”. I’m definitely not here for one of those. Two weeks of traveling has left me with a patchy fuzz across my face. It’s time we parted ways. I get into the chair and am reclined to 180 degrees.

Puerto Princesa philippines barbershop
Barber shop in Puerto Princesa, Philippines
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Sukau, Malaysia: Where’s Osman?

Osman's Homestay Sukau Borneo Malaysia
Watching the river flow by at Osman’s Homestay.
We got up early for the 7:30AM bus from Semporna to Sukau (RM40/$13). We had booked a night with Osman’s Homestay (RM50/$16.20 per person per night inc. 3 meals) and arranged for them to pick us up at the junction, paying RM20/$6.50 for the privilege. We were dropped off at a boat dock and took the boat across the river to the homestay where Osman’s wife and children greeted us warmly. We settled into our very basic fan room – the best one in the house (including the family’s quarters). The lodgings weren’t stylish, but we were here for Osman. We had read online that Osman is the fixer for the BBC’s nature documentary crews when they are in town filming the local wildlife. He is supposedly a mine of information about the wildlife in the area, and the best around for spotting the animals.

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Semporna, Malaysia: A semporn-ucopia of sea life!

Snorkelling in Sibuan Borneo Malaysia
Pulau Sibuan. Perfection.
We caught the bus to Semporna from the Sepilok junction at 8AM (RM40/$12.90, 5 hours). We were a little worried it would be full, but when we climbed on the bus a mere six fellow passengers greeted us. As our bus steamed past the Sukau junction, we were a little dismayed that Sukau hadn’t worked out exactly the way we had planned. Not to worry though, we planned on booking with another B&B in Sukau as soon as we got to Semporna.

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Sepilok, Malaysia and the Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre: Don’t look for it, Taylor. You may not like what you find.

Sepilok orangutan rehabilitation centre borneo malaysia
Tourists gather for the show at the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre.
Getting to Sepilok from Kota Kinabalu is easy. We took a taxi to Inanam Bus Terminal for RM25/$8.10. The taxi drivers will tell you it’s a flat rate, but ask around as we got told a couple of different prices. When we arrived at the station (around 11am), we headed to the ticket counter and asked for tickets on the next available bus to the Sepilok junction. Any bus going to Sandakan will drop you at the junction. The next bus with seats available left at 1:30pm (RM42/$13.60, 6.5 hours). It would be a good idea to book your bus ahead of time if you want to arrive in Sepilok early. We found a restaurant across the street from the station sat down, drank tea, ate murtabak, and played chess until it was time to board the bus.

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Final days in the Philippines: Taytay and Roxas

View of Taytay from Casa Rosa Guesthouse, Palawan, Philippines
View of Taytay from Casa Rosa Guesthouse.
We made a break for Taytay, hoping to escape the mass tourism and expensive prices of El Nido. We took Roro Bus for P138/$3.20 from El Nido Roro Bus Terminal. The bus was air-conditioned and left at 10am. It was a quick ride to Taytay: only an hour and a half. We took a tricycle to Casa Rosa Pension (our review here) for P50/$1.20. We scored a basic bamboo fan hut with a shared bathroom for P500/$12. The view from the restaurant was beautiful: definitely worth the climb.

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