Taxi?
Door: Michel
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Michel
18 Juni 2014 | Maleisië, Kota Kinabalu
Pfff.. where do you start when 3 months passed by since the last update?
Hereby a summary of some stuff I still remember.
Malaysia
My last update was just before the Perhentian islands, it appeared to be one of the nicest places in Malaysia. I didn't do much over there, but maybe that's the reason why I liked it.
Lying under the palm trees, seafood BBQ by the sea, the open air movie night and drinks on the beach watching a fire show. Life's good!
Kuala Lumpur, a nice big city, did some couch surfing over here and I finally visited the Petronas towers that I already saw so many times in movies and pictures.
Thailand
I've been here before, but I went back to Chiang Mai for their famous water festival in April. A crazy sight: locals and tourists with water guns, water hoses and buckets of ice water. Everybody is soaking wet, the streets start to look like they are flooded and nobody gets angry but is just smiling when they get a bucket of ice water right in their face.
Sumatra
In Bukit Lawang I did a 2 day jungle trek to spot the orang oetangs in the wild and we were lucky enough to see many of them. Jumping from one tree to the other, orang oetangs fighting with black gibbons and trying to shake them out of the tree, an agressive one was chasing us (quite scary!) and one walked by with her young when we were having breakfast in our camp. Definitely one of the highlights of Indonesia!
Lake Toba was a good place to relax. My hostel was on the island at the waterside with a beautiful view. We rented some scooters to explore the island's rice terraces, temples and hot springs.
Java
On every trip their are highlights and dissapointments, Bandung "The Paris of Java" was one of them. Of course you expect something from a city with that nickname. Unfortunately the city was ugly with nothing to do, not even an Eiffel tower in sight. I found out that the Dutch gave the city this name in 1912 when only 700 people were living here in a green village full of flowers... If only I knew before I came here..
Borobudur is an impressive temple and the most famous pictures of Java are taken here. Nevertheless, the locals still care more about the white tourists walking around. "Missterrr, picture please!"
I was interviewed by many kids over there and I'm probably in a couple of photo albums by now.
After sunrise at the Borobudur, I also did sunrise at Mount Bromo and the
Ijen crater. Especially at Mount Bromo it is insane how many people are standing up there in the pitch dark already at 4 AM to have a good spot to see the sunrise. There are many benches and chairs and people are standing on anything to be higher up like a concert or movie is about to start.
Bali
Ubud is in the center of the island and although it is quite touristy, I really liked the chill atmosphere, my family homestay, the reggae bar and a great dinner sitting besides the rice terraces.
Indonesia doesn't get more touristy then Kuta. This beach town is all about shopping and unfortunately there are more salesmen than palm trees. The whole day you will hear: "drink sir? T-shirt? sunglasses? ...
After 10 PM the assortment changes to: "Mushrooms sir? Happy massage, weed, taxi, cocaine, ladies?"
I didn't have to go anywhere so I said no to the taxi driver.
But besides all the annoying people, there are many friendly people all over the country.
A family sitting in a restaurant at the table next to me offered to bring me to the gardens where I wanted to go the next day. They picked me up at my hotel, brought me to the bus terminal and even paid my restaurant bill without telling me, incredible!
Apparently I looked lost a couple of times when I arrived at a bus terminal and it happened that locals offered me a free ride with their taxi or motorbike or pointed me in the right direction just to help me out. I will definitely remeber that the next time I see a tourist in Utrecht that needs help.
When I had a coffee on the street, I talked with a local about the differences between Europe and Indonesia. He told me that the average income is less than 150 Euro per month and he knew that I was travelling for 10 months. Nevertheless, he insisted to pay my coffee when he left and I felt guilty that I didn't think about offering it before he did.
After all these adventures, I'm now in Kota Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo. Tomorrow I'm taking the boat to the island Labuan to stock up on duty free liquor before I'm heading to Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB), the capital of Brunei. The 5th country when I'm starting my 5th month, right on schedule!
If you took the time to read this, you probably also have time to leave a comment below. At least then I know I'm not writing this for nothing, thanks :-)
Hereby a summary of some stuff I still remember.
Malaysia
My last update was just before the Perhentian islands, it appeared to be one of the nicest places in Malaysia. I didn't do much over there, but maybe that's the reason why I liked it.
Lying under the palm trees, seafood BBQ by the sea, the open air movie night and drinks on the beach watching a fire show. Life's good!
Kuala Lumpur, a nice big city, did some couch surfing over here and I finally visited the Petronas towers that I already saw so many times in movies and pictures.
Thailand
I've been here before, but I went back to Chiang Mai for their famous water festival in April. A crazy sight: locals and tourists with water guns, water hoses and buckets of ice water. Everybody is soaking wet, the streets start to look like they are flooded and nobody gets angry but is just smiling when they get a bucket of ice water right in their face.
Sumatra
In Bukit Lawang I did a 2 day jungle trek to spot the orang oetangs in the wild and we were lucky enough to see many of them. Jumping from one tree to the other, orang oetangs fighting with black gibbons and trying to shake them out of the tree, an agressive one was chasing us (quite scary!) and one walked by with her young when we were having breakfast in our camp. Definitely one of the highlights of Indonesia!
Lake Toba was a good place to relax. My hostel was on the island at the waterside with a beautiful view. We rented some scooters to explore the island's rice terraces, temples and hot springs.
Java
On every trip their are highlights and dissapointments, Bandung "The Paris of Java" was one of them. Of course you expect something from a city with that nickname. Unfortunately the city was ugly with nothing to do, not even an Eiffel tower in sight. I found out that the Dutch gave the city this name in 1912 when only 700 people were living here in a green village full of flowers... If only I knew before I came here..
Borobudur is an impressive temple and the most famous pictures of Java are taken here. Nevertheless, the locals still care more about the white tourists walking around. "Missterrr, picture please!"
I was interviewed by many kids over there and I'm probably in a couple of photo albums by now.
After sunrise at the Borobudur, I also did sunrise at Mount Bromo and the
Ijen crater. Especially at Mount Bromo it is insane how many people are standing up there in the pitch dark already at 4 AM to have a good spot to see the sunrise. There are many benches and chairs and people are standing on anything to be higher up like a concert or movie is about to start.
Bali
Ubud is in the center of the island and although it is quite touristy, I really liked the chill atmosphere, my family homestay, the reggae bar and a great dinner sitting besides the rice terraces.
Indonesia doesn't get more touristy then Kuta. This beach town is all about shopping and unfortunately there are more salesmen than palm trees. The whole day you will hear: "drink sir? T-shirt? sunglasses? ...
After 10 PM the assortment changes to: "Mushrooms sir? Happy massage, weed, taxi, cocaine, ladies?"
I didn't have to go anywhere so I said no to the taxi driver.
But besides all the annoying people, there are many friendly people all over the country.
A family sitting in a restaurant at the table next to me offered to bring me to the gardens where I wanted to go the next day. They picked me up at my hotel, brought me to the bus terminal and even paid my restaurant bill without telling me, incredible!
Apparently I looked lost a couple of times when I arrived at a bus terminal and it happened that locals offered me a free ride with their taxi or motorbike or pointed me in the right direction just to help me out. I will definitely remeber that the next time I see a tourist in Utrecht that needs help.
When I had a coffee on the street, I talked with a local about the differences between Europe and Indonesia. He told me that the average income is less than 150 Euro per month and he knew that I was travelling for 10 months. Nevertheless, he insisted to pay my coffee when he left and I felt guilty that I didn't think about offering it before he did.
After all these adventures, I'm now in Kota Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo. Tomorrow I'm taking the boat to the island Labuan to stock up on duty free liquor before I'm heading to Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB), the capital of Brunei. The 5th country when I'm starting my 5th month, right on schedule!
If you took the time to read this, you probably also have time to leave a comment below. At least then I know I'm not writing this for nothing, thanks :-)
-
18 Juni 2014 - 09:59
Oliver Hahn:
Heey Michel,
Long time no see! Je bent goed bezig zo te lezen. Ik weet niet hoe lang je nog in Borneo bent, maar ik weet nog wel een erg relaxte plek voor backpackers, een paar uur ten noorden van Kota Kinabalu. Mail maar effe als je details nodig hebt. grtz Oliver -
18 Juni 2014 - 11:51
Dagmar:
Goed om weer wat te lezen van je Mich!
Leuke en mooie foto's ook!
Enjoy. Groetjes Dagmar -
18 Juni 2014 - 19:04
Michel:
Hey Oliver, inderdaad lang niet gesproken! Hoe is het met jou?
Bedankt voor de tip, maar ik ga morgen al naar Brunei dus dat wordt hem niet.
Hey Dag!
Dank je, daar doe ik het voor :-) -
20 Juni 2014 - 15:32
:
Goed verhaal Michel. Ik had trouwens dezelfde fout gemaakt als jij door in Bandung rond te kijken. Tot overmaat van ramp was ik daar nog aangereden door een auto ook, vrouw achter het stuur je kent het wel. -
22 Juni 2014 - 23:29
Richard:
hey Michel! I just found out about your blog through FB. It's good to see you are having fun. It's also good to see that SE Asia hasn't changed much! Reading about your trip brings A LOT of happy memories to me. Oh I wish I could do it all over again! I've been back for 3 1/2 years now and I'm still longing for more adventures. I hope I'll be able to keep the dream alive like Martin and move abroad. We'll see.
I saw from FB that you'll be going to the Philippines and Eastern Indonesia. Good choice. A tip for Philippines: get your long-stay visa and don't go for the 21 days one. It sometimes take forever to get to places in the Phils and you'll probably run out of time. The main issue is not really to extend the visa as it's a formality... the issue is that you need to get it done in the regional administration offices and this often means backtracking/wasting time. It was my only regret visiting this amazing country.
Enjoy your time abroad, enjoy every moment of this trip. Just don't get hit by moving vehicles (like Martin) or get your shoes stolen again.
Cheers and good luck to team Netherlands! -
28 Juni 2014 - 09:04
Rob En Riëtte:
Leuk om al je avonturen weer te lezen en zo een stukje met je mee te reizen. Geniet ervan jongen.
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