Bali!

So it has been a whirl win now that we are in Bali. It was all very fast to get here and now it is very slow! Exactly what we wanted :) 

We caught our flight at 8am from Sandakan to Kuta Kinabalu and then hurried to the ferry terminal to catch a boat to a near by island. We spent the day swimming, snorkelling and of course burning my white as skin. Ten at 3pm we caught the boat back and hussled our butts back to the airport to catch a 6pm flight to Bali. We were pooped, burned and so excited about our very unexpected travel plans. 

We got into kuta and it was beautiful. All the beautiful offerings on the road/ships and the frangipani flowers everywhere. I  so in love over here! We spend our next day exploring kuta and purchasing silk scarves and a few items we felt we couldn't live without. We ate an Indonesian feast and passed out cold! 

Today, we caught the 8am fast boat to Gili Trawangan and arrived at 12pm. We hiked around the island taking wrong direction after wrong turn. Finally, after getting all straightened out, and Pat hearing enough "last time.." stories we made it to our homestay. We got our swimmers on and hiked down the beach to find our favourite restaurant and lounge area. My favourite spot has been demolished...and an Italian restaurant has taken it's place. We hiked further and further till we crashed in the shade. It's been super easy breezy since then. After a good feed at the market we are ready for a good sleep. 

Much love,

Taryn

Monkeying around

Today was crazy productive - probably the most productive we have been an will be this whole trip. 

We got up, got some money out, bought my birthday present, then met our taxi driver, went to some caves (epic!) and then cruised down a river. Oh my gosh I'm exhausted just writing it! 

Today we paid $500MYR for a taxi man to drive us 1.5h to the Gomantong Caves. They were stunning. Unfortunately there were a few too many cockroaches and too dark for me to use my phone and take some pics. (Oh my goodness I just realized there won't be a big picture show/story telling session when I get home....cause I'm not going home....shit!) 

The caves are incredible though I highly suggest googling a pic of them. They are currently in the middle of a 2 week long harvesting season of edible bird nests. (Hold your stomachs together for this one!) The Chinese consider the dried edible birds nests to be good for their health and pay up to $3000 MYR ($1,000+ CAD) for black nests and $9000 MYR ($3,000+ CAD) for white nests. These nests are made from birds saliva and water and basically are glue that sticks to the tops of caves. Every 4 months they are harvested for 2 weeks only. People work 24h a day clearing caves of these previous nests. The work is hard and incredibly dangerous. The men climb small ladders made of grass,palm and wood up to ridiculous heights to climb across another more rigid ladder where they perch and collect the nests. The process reminds me of someone picking garbage using a prong and a big bag. If the rigid ladder needs positioning the ground men use one of the many stabilising ropes to manoeuvre the ladder to a new position. This dangerous job pays well though, for the men climbing they can collect over a tonne of nests and be paid up to $20,000 MYR ($7,000) for their work. A dangerous job yet very financially rewarding.

The cave system itself was beautiful. There were 3 main entries of light and with a light sprinkle of rain outside the contract of colors from the vibrant green ferns and still blue sky to the black bat guano and yellow stalagmites and stalactites developing within the cave. It truly is breathtaking; or maybe that was the smell! We were really lucky to visit during harvest season and to be able to speak with the workers inside. Our taxi man provided us with big sun hats to protect us from bat and bird poo and falling eggs from the nests. We didn't however have any protection from the cockroaches. 

After the caves we continued for another 30m to the Kitobanoman River where we did a 3h private boat cruise down one of the protected channels of the river. We got to see macaw monkeys, herons, prosboscis monkeys, hornbill birds and some other various birds. It was really something to see the prosboscis monkeys with their long noses. These funny looking primates have kept their noses through evolution for no other reason the because the ladies think it's sexy. The monkey man is the one with the biggest, and therefore longest, nose out of the bunch. I've taken a few pictures of these guys but you aren't able to see clearly - I again suggest googling! 

We are now heading back to our hotel. Pat is sleeping on me and although it's 7pm sleep sounds so good right now! The heat and humidity is really taking it out of us. We leave tomorrow for KK at 8am so it will be an early one. Then hopefully jet off to an island for the day before we catch our flight to Bali at 5pm. After today, we both confirmed it's the best idea. 

So much love of course,

Taryn 

Orangutank'd

So we went to sipiyak today to see the Orangutang's - what I've been planning and waiting for and... It was such a disappointment. 

There were 4 little ones and they didn't do much but sit and eat. We spent all this time and money and energy and they just ate watermelon in front of me like they had no cares in the world...wait taryn get your bitterness out of the way and that is exactly why they did! We took a few pics and had a little giggle then walked on. We ended up doing some hike through the jungle (another To-Do list item checked) and sweating our asses of (seriously we lost 2kg of water on that hike!). 

We then ate some food, drank 4L of water, a coke and an icecream. Then headed for the sunbear rehab center. They, on the other hand, were a adorable! They are so small and so cute oh goodness our hearts melted. 

Needless to say, we have had our fill of Borneo. We just want a beach, some turtles and good vibes. We are having an amazing time and enjoying eachother a company and support which is amazing. We are a team and a pretty epic one at that....that good stuff all being said...we just booked our tickets to Bali! Why not right? I told pat about the turrific turtle toura that run out of gili t and he was hooked! We are now looking forward to a week of sunshine, turtles and amazing vibes. So spoiled, so thankful I have some savings and ridiculous happy I have a team mate that is willing to completely change plans and go to Bali in a day. (Jenna...sound familiar?!) 

Hope you guys are enjoying my crazy travel activities. I wouldn't want to let you down and have a straight forward trip right?! 

Much love,

Taryn

Ps: pat says hello to all as well but I didn't want to sign from both of us cause that is a little too serious ;)

Here are some pics...enjoy! 

Roof top and sunset

Currently we are sitting under a frangipani tree at a roof top bar enjoying a fresh guava cocktail enjoying the sun setting over Sandakan. A well deserved view for another amazing day in Borneo. 

Pat and I woke up this morning to catch a flight to Sandakan. It was a quick 40 minute flight that brought us ever closer to Orangutang's, proboscis monkeys and sun bears. 

We got into Sandakan and after exploring the small city we settled at our hotel bar. Tomorrow there will be a much bigger adventure and some exploring. Today though - I explored a pearl shop....dare I say I fell in love?! Danger birthday girl! 

Borneo

Well the adventure began on the 16th of April at 9:45pm. Pat and I boarded our first plane to Melbourne, Australia enroute to Borneo! 

The first leg was good. Pat and I were separated and he was front left of plane...I was back right, literally the last seat on the plane. It was a good flight though and was over before I knew it. We then boarded our next plane at 3am for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was an amazing plane and a nice lady switched seats so pat and I were together. This was a bonus as I had someone to sleep on being in the middle seat! (Reason 1 it's more fun to travel with people you know then alone!) 

We arrived in KL and were excited to be in Malaysia. The location is great, the fact we are almost in Borneo better but the food is the best part! We took our time eating and enjoying our layover. Our 3h layover turned into a 6h layover though at which point we were over waiting! We finally got into Kota Kinabalu, Borneo at 5:30pm local time (10h behind Invermere). We got to our hostel and decided to eat! We went to the markets and got some Tempe and chicken then had noodles and rice. We are so eager to pop our sleeping pills and pass into a much needed prone sleep! We will sort out what we are up to tomorrow and go from there! Let the adventure begin :)