WHSC World Challenge

Hey everyone- Megan blogging again

It’s been great to receive all of your comments. We’ve just come back from Bako National park, which was amazing. We took a bus to get to the boats. There were no seat belts, and the bus went really fast, it was lots of fun. We had the windows open, and got to see a lot more of Borneo. Once we arrived we waited about half an hour for our boats. There was a sign out front saying ‘ beware of the crocodiles’. I for one was quite scared about that. The speed boats we were in were so tiny, and rocked from side to side as we got in. The boats went really fast, and after a while I realised we were pretty safe. The local driving the boat seemed to find it quite amusing how we were all reacting. I swear a few times he deliberately went at the wave straight on to scare us. He stopped us part way to point out a crocodile sunning itself, we all took photos of it, and we didn’t see anymore of them. The accomodation at Bako was horrible. The rooms stank quite bad, and there were only fans. It was the toilets though that were the most disgusting. The water was always yellow, even after flushing, they stank and the ground was dirty. But we didn’t go there for the accomodation. The walks there were incredible, but tiring. We trekked to a really nice beach. We played a little in the water, which was really warm, and climbed some rocks. I don’t think there were any crocodile in the water there, but we weren’t allowed to swim just in case. Another walk led us up to a good view. However yesterdays walk was the best. We carried our full packs instead of our day packs, practice for the jungle trek. The walk was very long and tiring. You wouldn’t belive hows sweaty you get in the jungle, we had to make sure we drank heaps of water. Part of the way there, it started to rain, very lightly though. I’ve now come to realise that when it starts raining in Borneo, take cover, or put on a raincoat, because it’s about to bucket down. We trekked to a waterfall, it took us around two and a half hours. We were all wet and tired, and decided to go for a swim. I wasn’t going to go in at first, because the water was yellow and there may have been leeches. But how often are we going to get the chance to do this again? So I went in and it was really good. We went to trek to another beach, it was very steep and tricky, and when we got down there it was just a few rocks and no sand, the tide was too high so we had to go all the way back, which was very annoying. We all had our cold showers when we got back (I don’t know if the people of Borneo even have hot showers). We decided not to go for a night trek, and went out to Bako’s only restaurant, for another meal of rice and noodles- great.

The monkeys here are very tame, and cheeky. We have to keep our doors closed, to protect our stuff. Yesterday morning we were up pretty early, eating breakfast at the restaurant. One of the monkey’s stole Dylan’s food and he had to get some more. The local boy hissed at them, and through a chair. It sound cruel, but wasn’t. We got heaps of photos of them, and they followed us back to our cabins. We had to be careful not to stand under a tree with them above us, as they would probably jump on us.

Today we took the boat again, and bus, back to Kuching. It was great to be back at the hostel. We’ve just been out to KFC for lunch, and have come to an internet cafe, then are going to buy some food at the supermarket.

We’ll keep you posted about what going on. Before I go, hi Mum, missing you all heaps, we’re just about to send you a postcard.

From Megan.

November 25th, 2008 | Category: 2008 - Borneo | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL