< last chapter | chapter selection + Photos | next chapter > |
Traveldiary chapter 17 [January 2007 - April 2007] as PDF (Borneo: Sarawak & Sabah in Malaysia, to it Brunei; thereto Singapore: Thaipusam-Festival, as well as Thailand: Koh Tao) |
|
Sarawak | Brunei | Sabah | Thailand | Top |
|
Photos: Thaipusam (Singapore) | More about Singapore: chapter 13 (Main Story), chapter 15 (Light Up Festivals), chapter 18 (Farewell), chapter 34 |
Thaipusam: an impressive Hindu festival in Singapore
After our “holiday” in
In the afternoon of our last day in
We tried to get more info about this
festival and the tourist office told us, there was no specific time but the devotees
would parade between two temples all day Febr. 1st.
Almost by coincidence we saw that part of
the road was already closed for the traffic when we returned from dinner to our
lodging in Little India (on
At first there were mainly women and
children. All participants were wearing orange or yellow robes and carried
offerings of milk in heavy pots called “Paal qudam” mostly on their head. In
the beginning, many had some small needles pinned into their forehead. Later
many had their cheeks and tongue pierced by metal skewers, which got decorated
with some ornamental symbol on each end. The later the night, the more
plentiful and extravagant accessories could be seen, drilled into the skin,
especially but not exclusively of men.
At around 2 a.m. we went to the temple
where they all prepared for the parade. When we asked whether we could enter
and watch, we got the reply: “of course you’re allowed in for free, only those
who walk the parade have to pay. We only ask you to take your shoes off”. So we
entered over a carpet of spilled milk and colourful powders into this huge but
very well organized chaos. There was a calm and mysterious atmosphere, where
everyone was doing something.
After a ritual bath, the devotees prayed
and made offerings to the gods. Each family occupied a spot on a square of
newspaper or a mat, where they piled everything they needed for the parade.
Here some people got into trance, whilst others were decorating the hooks and
arrows which were later drilled into the skin or they mounted feathers and
symbols on the frames of the heavy burdens those in trance were going to carry
to the other temple. From those we had seen, only a minority was obviously in
trance; most pilgrims mastered the walk of faith with their will-power only.
After the ritual bath, which meant that
they threw buckets of water over their cloths, we’ve seen many people dodder.
Whereas when we watched them having their cheeks and tongues pierced with long
skewers, nobody seemed to suffer pain. If they would not have been allowed to
carry their mobile phone along during the parade they probably would have
suffered more… but the gods didn’t refuse that, as the holy Hindu script has
luckily been written before modern times.
Otherwise, the ideas how to increase the
hardship were unlimited. They did not only pierce the forehead, cheeks and
tongue. Some hoped for more favours by connecting several dozens of oranges,
lemons or little milk pots with hooks to their chest, back or legs or
everything combined everywhere.
A typical feature of the Thaipusam
festival is the “kavadi” which is a semicircular metal and sometimes partly
wooden frame, carried by men. These shiny frames were decorated with peacock
feathers, pictures of deities, flowers or golden symbols. They can weigh between
30kg up to 150kg and usually measure about 2m in diameter but should not exceed
Whereas at night there had been an
uninterrupted procession of devotees in yellow dresses with mostly women,
during the day we saw mainly small groups of mostly men in intervals of 10
minutes, but almost all of them carried a kavadi.
The Thaipusam festival has its origins in
Tamil Nadu in
In
Even though you can see almost no blood at
all, it happens that insufficiently prepared devotees keep doctors busy with
skin lacerations or by collapsing after the long strenuous walk in the heat (up
to 8 hours) or that their wounds don’t heal as quickly as they thought..
However, it was enormously impressive how
these people manage to control their spirit mentally, so that it could not be
reached by any pain of the body.
Probably the description of this all might
sound gruesome to you and we have seen a fair share of tourists watching with
horrified expressions on their face. Naturally, pain is indicating when the
body has a problem, but the Thaipusam festival proofed that anyone is able to
master his mind not to feel pain while experiencing whatever “cruel” happen to
the body. It’s just important that you are 100% convinced that you want it to
happen to you and that you are ready to face the consequence that might result.
This is probably the basis to have a wish fulfilled and as with anything else:
you first have to believe in yourself that you can do it. So in the end, the
Thaipusam festival left us a much deeper impression than just that of a
“colourful parade”. Those spectators that just shook their head certainly
learned nothing of it! More about Singapore: chapter 13 (Main Story), chapter 15 (Light Up Festivals), chapter 18 (Farewell)
Singapore (Thaipusam) |
|
Brunei | Sabah | Thailand | Top |
Photos: Sarawak-Malaysia | More about Malaysia: chapter 13 (Kuala Lumpur), chapter 34 |
|
Borneo: Malaysian Sarawak and Sabah, (+ Brunei in the middle) between traditional and modern life
On Febr. 2nd 2007 we headed off
for Malaysia. The airline MAS offered
a convenient airport shuttle that brought us directly from
Kuching, the capital of the semi-autonomous East Malaysian state of Sarawak, was our first
destination. To us, it was surprisingly modern and didn’t seem to lack behind
peninsular
Kuching is situated scenically by the
As Kuching is one of the wealthier cities
of
Similar to peninsular Malaysia, different
ethnic groups are living together here. There are many ethnic groups (like Iban
people) unique to Borneo. Some used to be headhunters in the centuries passed.
Among the Malay population, Islam is not the only religion – there are also
many Christians. Almost no Indians live in Sarawak and Sabah, but there is a
big Chinese community. At least part of the Malay population seems to be quite
realistic about them; when we asked in the tourist office, whether there are
many Chinese all over Borneo, a Malaysian employee said straight forward:
“where would our economy be without Chinese? We would not even have restaurants
or shops!"
Kuching is very spread out and also the
suburbs were well stocked with shopping centres. For five days we didn't get
tired discovering this city and talking to the nice people that spoke better
English than those of Singapore (for the general public). But then we wanted to
get out and see nature!
First, we made an attempt to see Orang Utan's at the Semenggoh
Rehabilitation Centre, where they try to prepare orphaned apes to live in
the jungle again. They were doing this quite successfully, as none of the 23
Orang Utan's living in the area felt the urge to come to the feeding session,
now that the forest offered them plenty of fruit. Never mind, we learned quite
a bit at the info centre about these impressive big creatures. Males can get
very heavy; more than 100kg with an arm-span of up to 3 meters.
The tourist office informed us that a
Rafflesia flower had now opened in Gunung Gading National
Park. So the next day, we hopped on an express bus to the
town of Lundu, 1 ผ hours away. Rafflesia is a parasite plant
that doesn't have leaves nor stem. Within 9 months a flower develops out of
what looks like a coconut. With up to 1 meter in diameter, this is the biggest
flower on earth. Once it blooms, the red flower with five petals and a
bowl-like middle part with long spikes in its interior only lasts for 4-5 days.
Interestingly, the flower that we found, grew right above an old one that had
turned completely black but hadn’t lost it’s form. That rare Rafflesia, of which
about six different species exist, can be very hard to spot on the forest floor
despite its size. We shared the experience to find it, after rough directions
from the Park Headquarter with two Dutch girls that hiked with us in the heat,
after we had met on the bus.
On the way back we met seven other
tourists and found out that they all had seen the Rafflesia flower too and they
all stayed at the same Backpacker’s place as we did in Kuching. From then on,
we kept on bumping into these people again and again.
With two of them: Susanne & Roland
from Germany , we set off the next morning by taxi, bus and boat to Bako
National Park. It is famous for it’s variety of vegetation zones,
despite being a small headland of 27 kmฒ only. Many trails lead through seven
distinct eco-systems: beach- and cliff vegetation, mangroves, peat swamp-,
mixed dipterocarp- and heath forest, plus grassland. Many plants were very
special too, like the small pots of various pitcher plants that trap insects
for food. Then, there were interesting palms with spiky stems that looked
really dangerous, twisted vines, colourful thorny spiders and a beautiful
coastline with freestanding sandstones.
Just before the four of us reached the
park headquarters again, we saw the first few monkeys high up in the trees.
There was so much to wonder about, we took 5ฝ hours for the 5 km loop on the
Lintang Trail that was meant to be walked in 3 hours.
We had booked two nights accommodation and
so we could enjoy the entire next day here as well. We purposely chose not to
roam too deep into the forest again, as we had heard that monkeys often stick
around the Park’s HQ und the mangroves on the beach.
Just after we’ve had breakfast in the
simple National Park restaurant, a Macaque tried to get into our
room. After we chased it away, we saw the rest of his pack playing on the fence
and boardwalk surrounding the NP Headquarter. They didn’t take much notice of
us and we could watch about 25 of the small monkeys, including some tiny cute
babies, playing like kitten.
After a while we walked to the beach to
explore the spectacular sandstone formations that were exposed now that it was
low tide. Later, somebody pointed out, where we could spot a poisonous green
viper up in a bush. Suddenly, something came jumping out of a tree behind
us. Now one by one, Silver Leaf Monkeys which are part of the Langur family, crossed
the path on their way to feed on the mangroves. We followed them down to the
beach and as we sat quietly, we were finally watching about 30-40 of the
silver-black monkeys that might well be 1-1,2 m when standing upright. Funny
was, that they have caramel-brown babies and later we read that they turn grey
(already) when they are about 30 days old. For us humans, it takes much longer
to reach that state! After helping themselves to plenty of green leaves, they
held a siesta or were playing with each other.
For us too it was now time for lunch, but
when we passed one of the bungalows, we noticed a gang of small Macaques, maybe
about 15 of them, exercising on the chairs, tables and staircase to the
veranda. We couldn’t help but picture some more. Poor tourists were out on
strenuous walks in this sweat driving weather, hoping to see some wildlife and
here they were; these little Macaques, raiding the bungalows and snapping
anything they could get hold of. Even in the restaurant, which was on an open
veranda, at least one Macaque was constantly observing whether it would get a
chance stealing something from a table. Biscuits and drink cans, which they
could even open, were their favourite targets and they even seemed to know the
colour of their favourite brands. Quite often a monkey would race up to the
restaurant and snatch something of interest. Newly arrived tourists only
screamed, as they were taken by surprise.
Now we hoped to get a closer look at the
rare Proboscis Monkeys, a long-nosed
primate we had heard come to feed in the mangroves quite often. They are found
on Borneo only and are of considerable size. There is usually one male with a
harem of about 3-8 females.
Their fur is light brown, changing into
grey toward their hands and feet. Around the stomach and bum it’s brighter too
and especially the male’s fur is very white around his bum. From the back it
almost looks as if he was wearing white underwear but the red penis and
black-blue testicles make everything clear again.
Their young are grey at first, changing
into brown later, contrary to Silver Leaf Monkeys. The male’s nose is so long,
it wobbles when he’s eating his leaves, whereas females only have a small snub
nose.
It was impressive to watch these creatures
from a short distance. They look very much like humans when they sit in the
trees and we were impressed how they moved with ease about and in between the
trees. They sit as comfortably and secure on branches as we would sit on a chair.
Their faces did clearly express joy, worry or thoughtfulness and they
communicated also through various sounds. Even though, genetically wrong, to us
Proboscis monkeys resemble a human being much more than apes that have no tail.
In fact, Malaysians commonly refer to the Proboscis as “Orang Belanda” which
stands for “Dutch Man”.
Back in Kuching, we sorted out hundreds of
pictures we’d taken in Bako, as each of our “electronic films” is capable of
storing 400 high resolution (6MB) photographs. How far would we have gotten
with the suddenly old-fashioned 36 exposure film rolls?
For the continuation of our trip, we had
found out that it was possible to either follow the coastal road or travel up
the rivers 1’000 km through the interior with speed-boats. We decided that the
latter was the more interesting route for us and therefore boarded a first
express boat a few days later. Between Kuching and Sibu we sailed for a long
way, about 200km out and then into a river mouth on each side, and almost 100km
along the South China Sea in the middle.
Sibu was also a modern city, even though in one suburb the buildings looked
a bit run down and rather dirty. This was compensated by other suburbs that
were rather posh with luxurious housing developments and upmarket shopping
centres, as we didn’t expect to find in Borneo. There was a huge covered market
with old fashioned goods but with an adjoining 8 storey parking-house!
Previously, the town was known by the name
of “New Fuzhou”, as it was founded by Chinese immigrants from “old Fuzhou ”
(that we had seen becoming the real ultra-new Fuzhou ). This Chinese community
recently built a beautiful new pagoda on the river shore with many impressive
artifacts.
Like Perth in Western Australia, Sibu also
decided to adopt a swan as its emblem and call itself “the city of swans” with
plenty of oversized concrete models around town, but not one living bird to be
seen anywhere!
Before we got here, we had met a nice Swiss
couple: Andrea & Peter and they arrived here one day later too. As we got
along really well, we started to go out for dinner together every night; here
and also in the next town; Kapit.
Express-boats are the common means of
transport from Sibu further up the river called Batang Rajang that is Sarawak
’s longest river at 670 navigable kilometers. The speed-boats were long oval
shaped tubes, Brigitte felt look like floating submarines. They bring the
passengers in air-conditioned comfort and rocket-speed of more than 80 km/h
across the water.
Along the river bench, we could see
various long-houses that the tribes of this area have been building for
hundreds of years and usually housed an entire “village”. Today they still
build long-houses, however they rather look like an endless row of modern
terrace houses with a communal veranda spanning along the side from the first
to the last unit.
Although we still had seen the odd topless
granny sitting outside with her grand daughters but they wore jeans. Today
there is certainly not much traditional life left in these communities. The
number of satellite dishes is about equal to the number of units and where
there was road access, there were cars parked. We were amused to see modern
tribes people coming back from town bringing along such devices as electric
stone-grills and raclette stoves. Also dish-washers and washing machines don’t
seem to be an exception.
Although, all along the river shore there
was dense forest, there were many timber processing plants from the logging
industry that supply the “west of the world” with “eco-friendly furniture”.
Those that prefer to replace their plastic garden furniture with wooden pieces,
are not realizing that they come from the jungle and those are often marked
with an eco label like “cl้ vert” as we had seen in France .
After a few hours, we reached the small
town of Kapit, which is home to abut 8’000 people. As this place
can only be reached by boat, we naively thought, there would be no traffic.
However, a sealed road net connected the surrounding villages, less than
Other surprises waited along the way while
we were walking along a small Kampung (village). Next to a moderate house on a
hill, we saw a helicopter parked. If the car doesn’t make it to the next town,
the helicopter seems to be the only solution…
The people were extremely friendly and
everyone said hello (selamat). The major came out of his house (he only had 3
cars) and talked to us, as he spoke quite well English.
Later on, we came to a narrow swing-bridge
that was also used by motorbikes. Right behind it, a big modern glass building
of the Federal Government was shining in the last sunlight.
On Febr. 17, 2007 the Chinese Lunar New
Year’s Eve was celebrated but contrary to our wishful thinking, this was mainly
celebrated in the family and among friends. During the following one to two
weeks most Chinese run businesses were closed. Here in Malaysia about 20% of
the population is of Chinese origin but this resulted in the fact that 90% of
shops and restaurants were closed! For us, this had the consequence that we had
to feed on “fried rice/fried noodles” only for the next 10 days. It seemed that
Malaysian foodstalls tried to make money by cooking with as little effort as
possible, whereas Chinese wouldn’t shy away from additional effort to create a
more imaginative menu and offer more variety. Sometimes we still found an
Indian Caf้ that made us some Roti Canai (flat bread) for a change. Even though
we were “noodled-out” quite quickly, we shouldn’t complain, because without the
Malaysians we wouldn’t have survived this period.
On New Year’s Day it was very quiet on the
road. Only in front of the Chinese temple, a few giant incense sticks were
burned. One political party had organized a small event in the town square at
night. While we watched the Karaoke singers, various members of the committee
went around the spectators, offering “lucky” oranges, then some roast lamb and
later some peanuts and soft drinks. That’s one of the things we love about
Asia: however big a festival, there is almost no alcohol around and it’s a big
exception to see Asians drunk. As all over South East Asia, western tourists
and expat’s seem to be the only ones who obviously don’t know their limit with
alcohol.
Around midnight, there were lots of noisy
fire-crackers and some colourful fireworks. The government tried to ban private
fireworks, but as the country’s prisons are way too small to hold all the
offenders, i.e. all Chinese and part of other citizens too, they were quite
unsuccessful to enforce that ban.
In the mornings the waterway around Kapit
harbour was very interesting to watch. An impressive number of boats moved in
and out, although the one we needed to travel further up Batang Rajang River
was not running for a few days due to Chinese New Year’s holiday. The
frustrating thing was that nobody seemed to know for sure, when the boat would
resume its service.
After three days, Andrea & Peter who
had coincidently chosen to stay at the same guesthouse, didn’t want to wait any
longer and decided to go back. On the 4th morning, we stood on the
pier with no boat appearing. On the 5th morning, the Chinese
controlled boat finally showed up again and brought us within 6 hours in high
speed up the river and over the strong Pelagus Rapids. We learned that the boat
cannot pass these rapids if it hadn’t rained for more than a week, even now in
the wet season, as there are huge stones in the river bed.
In Belaga, we finally reached what we had long hoped for:
a small village without much traffic. Even though a small 4WD track led out to
the next big town 4ฝ hours away. When we explored the village, we came
across a 50m long narrow wooden bridge. We believed that there would be no more
cars behind this point, but we were surprised to find a few small cars parked
along the road side or underneath the houses. As in many places of Malaysia,
the older houses typically were big timber structures resting on high stilts.
As we didn’t find an access road, we asked one of the locals, how they bring
their cars here. He replied “we just use the bridge, as we also have the right
to park in front of our home”. When we walked back, we realized that the owners
of big 4WD vehicles were in the unlucky situation that their cars were too wide
to squeeze through and therefore needed to park on the other side of the
bridge.
Only about 1’000 people live in Belaga,
but several hundred shops and restaurants are usually serving the people from
the surrounding woods. However, due to the “Tahun Baru Cina” (Chinese New Year)
most were initially closed. During the three days we stayed there, a few more
were re-opening every day.
Of course, in such a small village
everybody knows each other and they all gathered in the few open coffee shops.
When we sat down, it happened quite often that someone would join us for a
chat. Maybe their English was not as good as in the bigger towns but they tried
hard and they watch TV. Why else would the old man have said to us upon
leaving: “bye bye, I love you”?
In the mornings we could see lots of elder
tribes-people that came to the small market. Several had traditional tattoos on
their throat, on hands and feet. Some also had these legendary long ear lobes
that could hang right down to their shoulders, even though they didn’t wear the
traditional jewellery on the ear anymore.
Unfortunately, the jungle was not
accessible, except over the river and of Sarawaks emblem; the rhinoceros
hornbill, we’ve never seen one bird anywhere! Instead, we’ve seen many giant
colourful butterflies and a proud fisherman who caught a big fish out of the
muddy water, probably over 1m in length.
Overlooking the river below Belaga, were
various animist temples with beautiful woodcarved gates on the opposite site of
the shore.
The indigenous people of this area mainly
belong to the tribes of Iban, Kenyan and Kayan. Most of them still follow some
of their animist believes but as missionaries have been “quite successful”,
they also became Christians. In the Malaysian part of Borneo , Christianity is
certainly more dominant than Islam, especially in the countryside – maybe less
in the cities.
Belaga is the furthest upriver tourists
usually can go. From here, you can either return on the river all the way back,
take a 4ฝ hour 4WD ride to the coast or if weather permits, those with no more
than 10kg of luggage may take one of two weekly Twinotter flights.
Daniel, a local tour operator, suggested
us a 4th variation: by express-boat as far upriver as Batang Rajang
is navigable, overnight at his brother’s house and on a sealed road back to the
coastal highway. This sounded adventurous and attractive, because that homestay
was situated above the disputed Bakun Dam hydro electric project, which is the
Malaysian government’s holy cow and normally absolutely off-limits to
foreigners.
As we were leaving, 60 years old Daniel,
who probably is an influential figure in this community, came onto the boat and
wished us farewell and more important: informed the captain that we were going
to stay with his brother. So this was apparently our permit to travel further
up river.
In this area, the highspeed
air-conditioned boat picked quite a lot of people up or dropped them off. Here
they never had a pier and people had to jump onto a muddy shore. Heinz was just
going to picture under what basic conditions the locals had to embark the boat,
when somebody said that this was the final stop and we had to get into this mud
as well!
On top of the steep river bank, Leang and
two of his almost adult daughters were waiting with their 4WD vehicle. Before
reaching their house, we had to pass three security check-points and drove for about
30 minutes through the big Bakun Dam
construction site. We were allowed to keep our eyes open and watch but this
didn’t apply for the lens of our camera; it was strictly forbidden to take
pictures.
We learned that about 5’000 workers had
been imported from as far away as Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and China, but
also from Indonesia. The cheap laborers had to sleep in dormitories, whereas
the engineers were housed in luxurious villas that had been purposely built for
them.
Initially, thousands of indigenous people
were resettled, in order to flood several huge river valleys. They had received
new longhouses before work commenced on the dam
Most locals we’ve met were not too happy
with the construction of this dam but many hope it would regulate the river and
prevent the annual flooding of the Batang Rajang. After an insight into this
chapter of the new economic boom of Malaysia , we reached the home on top of
the Bakun Hill.
Here, Leang’s wife Annie was waiting with
the three younger children. In contrary to other indigenous people, who’s
landrights were not respected, this Kenyan family was in the lucky situation
that they could make use of their land and many of their relatives built new
houses after they had to move out of their longhouse because of the dam.
Together with his brothers, Leang’s family has a big logging company, employing
up to 40 Indonesians. The family is almost self-sufficient, with their own
well, power generator, a big fish pond, some animals and veggies in the garden.
Both parents had grown up in longhouses
and Annie’s mother is still living in one. The family’s biggest and apparently
most modern dwelling, are three huge units in a longhouse they inherited from
Leang’s father. This is equipped with modern dish washer and washing machine
but at the moment, they only use it to dry fish. Then they also have a big
house in Belaga, where the children live during the school term.
The house here on Bakun Hill was simple
without much furniture, but on the other hand it had a TV, bigger than we had
ever seen in a private home. Annie told us that she can now follow much easier
what’s happening on TV, as her eyes are not too good anymore. Furthermore; the
next optician is more than four hours away but the TV shop was within one hours
reach. The RM 12’000 (€ 2’400) the TV had cost would have bought her quite a
few glasses though.
In our honour, they cooked a big meal
consisting of various vegetables, rice and wild boar Leang had hunted and
stored in the big deep-freezer. This was a big feast and tasted even better as
it was our first change after days of fried noodles.
In the evening we sat on the mat in front
of the TV and talked a bit more to the older members of the family and some of
their Indonesian employees, who were free to come and watch TV. Normally, more
of their workers join in, but due to very heavy rainfall that night, the others
didn’t feel like exposing themselves to the element, as their dwelling was
about 200m away.
We had to get up very early the next
morning. Some of the family came along in their 4WD and after passing the
construction site and the three security check-points again, we were brought to
a pick-up point almost one hour away. Here we said farewell and changed into
another 4WD that was some kind of private shared taxi. It brought us over a
rattly though sealed road to the mainroad about 100km away. There, we flagged
down an express bus to Miri,
our last destination in Sarawak.
It was the least charming town we had seen
sofar, with no heart and soul. It was modern but most buildings looked like
those you would normally expect in an industrial zone. It looked as if most
people would live out in the suburbs and no one in the centre – quite unusual
and strange for Asia!
Singapore (Thaipusam) | Sarawak |
|
Sabah | Thailand | Top |
|
Photos: Brunei |
Brunei: Oil & Islam in the Sultans hands
Now we changed into another country: the
small sultanate of Brunei
consisting of 5'270 kmฒ. The connections to its Malay neighbours; Sarawak to
the west and Sabah to the east, were anything else than efficient! At the
tourist office in Miri, we were told that we needed to head off before
Brunei is very wealthy thanks to huge
amounts of oil, which Mother Nature laid at their doorstep: off shore. The
360’000 people therefore do not need to pay taxes and the government subsidises
the most important consumer items as for instance cars. The government actually
is the sultan himself, who still appoints all members of parliament personally.
In free elections about 20 years before
gaining independence from England in 1984, the people voted in favour of a
party that aimed at converting their system to a constitutional monarchy. As
the father of the present Sultan refused to share power, the people revolted
but finally the Brits decided to support the Sultan and helped him to retain
his position. Probably with the hope that the people would easily obey him
again, he then decided to push Islam as the ruling state religion. Today, Islam
is really dominant here; within the first two hours, we had seen more big
mosques than we had seen in three and a half weeks in Sarawak, that has many
Moslems too.
At prayer times, the chant of the Mullah
is not only heard from the loudspeakers of the minarets, it is also transmitted
to the modern shopping malls and even to American fast-food outlets. At least
traffic didn’t come to a stand-still.
All children have to wear Islamic school
uniforms, including non-Muslims. Boys wear the black Muslim hat and girls wear
long dresses and a white head scarf. In the newspaper we read also about the
Islamic religious schools, where children learn to be “guardians” of the Koran.
That means they learn to cite the holy book “by heart”. In such schools,
students are honoured and motivated with 100 B$ (€ 50) per month for
remembering 10 verses, 200 B$ for 20 verses or even 1’000 B$ per month if
they can recall the entire holy book. In these schools they are not allowed to
study any other subject like math’s, as this would distract them from their “real
duty”.
Even though people appeared quite happy,
it seemed that there is quite some pressure on Moslems to obey Islam. Somehow
it disqualifies itself with the same arguments to be “the truth” as Christian
clerics did and sometimes still do. As soon as something needs to be declared
superior above anything else and people are being forced to warship, this looks
fishy to us!
The coverage about world news in the state
controlled press is not that different from the west. On the other hand,
whatever regards their own country, is strictly written with Islam in mind. A
few examples? “We all know that in a few decades the gift of Allah, our oil,
might run out. It should be our aim to find new ways, approved by Prophet
Muhammad – peace be upon him – to boost our economic growth and to please
Allah, the true owner of this land”. “Although the Koran and Prophet Muhammad –
peace be upon him – would allow Muslims to run their own business, most
companies are in fact run by the Chinese minority (15%). Why are our people,
Islamic Bruneians, not more initiative?” What they do not consider in our
opinion, is that people who obey unconditionally, as it is expected of them,
are naturally not the most initiative.
Brunei often likes to compare itself with
Singapore that is 8 times smaller but has 10 times more inhabitants. Despite
having no natural resources at all, they have achieved so much and their
economy is booming! - Driven by 77% diligent Chinese! Their only 14% Malay
Muslims are still less innovative than Singapore’s 8% Indians. Sorry Brunei,
that’s how we see it!
Although the official languages in Brunei
are Malay and English, every business is required to mark its name in Arab
writing as well.
Government buildings usually all looked
very modern and expensive. Also the uncountable mosques that were often
surrounded by large parks represented the wealth of the country. It is said
that the Sultan, who was until recently named the richest man in the world,
inhabits the largest palace of any monarch. Due to the 23rd anniversary
of the country’s independence which we had missed by 3 days only, almost every
tall office tower in the centre of BSB was decorated by a big advertisement.
Each showed a huge picture of the sultan and in small letters the name of the
company that was congratulating him for leading the country through 23 years of
independence!
The houses of the commoners were rather
moderate and about 30’000 people live in timber houses on stilts over the
water. They called it Kampung Ayer, meaning water village and it stretches over
8km in a big wide “S” in Sungai Brunei , the river that flows through the
capital. Today the wooden houses are supported by concrete platforms and there
were electricity-, tap water- and sewage systems available. Boardwalks
interconnected the houses in the same way footpaths would cross a village on
land. There were schools, mosques, shops, a doctors nursery- and police station
as well as fire-brigade. Taxi boats constantly ferried people around very
cheaply.
Most houses were very big but rather
simple. In the evening, thousands of cars were parked along the roadside
bordering the rivershore from where people boarded the taxi boats from various
piers to Kampung Ayer. For us too, this was the means of transport between our
hotel and the centre.
We spent a short, but intense three days
in this unique sultanate that has disillusioned Brigittes perception of it as
being a perfect fairy-tale place.
Now we went back to Malaysia again. As
Brunei didn’t feel it was necessary to build a road to the eastern border, we
had to get started at 6:30 a.m.. After taking two buses to where the road ends,
there was an Express-Boat to Pulau
Labuan, which is directly administered by Malaysias Federal government
and got the status of a duty-free zone.
To our surprise, there was not only a
small settlement on this island, but a full grown town with huge shopping
centres, offering everything people might want to buy. As in the rest of
Malaysia , there was an abundance of local and western fast-food chains. As a
consequence, obesity of children became so much of a problem, the government is
now considering to ban TV advertisements for fast-food in programs that focus
on youngsters.
Western brands market themselves so
successfully that now every Malaysian restaurant glorifies the old fashioned
cheap instant noodles as “Mee Maggi” and suddenly the locals are ready to pay
almost as much as for a proper noodle dish.
We had three hours on Pulau Labuan before
our next boat to Kota Kinabalu (KK) was scheduled. When we got back to
the modern ferry terminal, we were impressed to find a big electronic board,
indicating all arrivals and departures as on an airport. What delighted us less
was the fact that next to our boat a word in red kept flashing, reading
“cancelled”! At the ticket counter they apologized and just gave us a refund
with no explanation. Only after some insisting they kindly informed us about an
alternative whereby we could take a small speed boat (leaving when full) to
Menumbok, where there would be a minibus (also leaving when full) to the town
of Beaufort . There a big Express bus was waiting to bring us the remaining
100km to KK.
Singapore (Thaipusam) | Sarawak | Brunei |
|
Thailand | Top |
|
Photos: Sabah-Malaysia | More about Malaysia: chapter 13 (Kuala Lumpur), chapter 34 |
Borneo: Malaysian Sabah between traditional und modern life
This is the capital of the semi-autonomous
Province of Sabah on the northern tip of Borneo. It is Malaysias poorest state with an
unemployment rate soaring at 15%. Judging by the many big 4WD’s we saw around
town, we got the impression that the locals are maybe not that poor, but the
many illegal immigrants from Indonesia may cause a problem. We heard that Sabah
’s population exploded by abt. 50% during the last few years and nobody seems
to know where all these people suddenly come from.
At night, some areas of the town didn’t
look as trustworthy as it normally does in Malaysia and some corners could be
quite smelly. In general, KK that lies on the coast is becoming quite modern at
present with many upmarket shopping centres, eateries and apartment building
springing up. Even Asia ’s biggest ice skating rink is opening here.
In various areas of the town, night
markets were set up daily and they offered things very cheaply.
Due to the end of the Chinese New Year
celebrations, there were lots of red little lanterns hung up on the town square
and a banner announced an event on Saturday night. Although at the tourist
office they didn’t have any clue about it, we decided to come back to see
what’s up. There was a stage show with several dance groups in colourful
costumes performing to celebrate the end of the Chinese New Year 15 days after
its beginning, which was on 4.3.2007.
After we had watched for 45 minutes from
the side, a Chinese lady came up to us and invited us to sit among the official
invitees of political and economic importance. Somehow, we felt that refusal
would be offensive and accepted to sit down on the armchairs with small tables,
puzzled by the honour we got. We were offered some lucky oranges imported from
China for the occasion, special New Years cakes and soft drinks. Between
performances, a minister and chief of Sabah ’s Hotel association, who was
sitting next to us, informed us about the meaning of the Chinese dances.
The highlight of the evening represented a
lion dance performed by two acrobats that were world champions in that
discipline. Under a costume of a lion with a huge head, one artist played the
front, another one the back part of the animal. The lion was dancing between 8
stilts of various heights. While one acrobat held on to two stilts with his
hands, the other under the costume stood with his feet on two other stilts.
Together they managed to jump over to other stilts almost two meters away. That
wasn’t all! Sometimes one would jump on the other’s shoulders, making the lion
stand up on two legs. This was a dramatic show and we really feared the artists
would fall down.
After a few days in KK, we drove on by
bus. We passed by many hills and the road led past the entrance to Mount
Kinabalu National Park . At 4’101 m this is South-East Asias highest mountain
and it is covered in fog most of the time. Many tourists attempt to conquer it
but as there was no indication of “Devon Tea” being served on the peak, we
didn’t feel the urge to go through that pain!
Instead, we drove for 6 hours to Sandakan.
The way out there was literally littered with Christian churches and from about
the middle, the forest had been sacrificed to endless palm oil plantations.
Sandakan was not a very exciting place and
at night it was really dead! Apparently there was a new part of town, where it
was more lively but because it was about 4km away, we didn’t get there. A new
entertainment and shopping district is currently also being built at the
harbour front of Sandakan but sofar only a modern covered market and some fancy
restaurants were completed.
During the last few days we had been
looking around to find a suitable package tour to go on a “safari” and here we
booked now a two days stay. Although, or probably because big parts of Sabah
are now covered with palm oil plantations, the shores of the Kinabatangan
River, Sabah’s longest at 560km, offers good wildlife watching
opportunities. The area is now protected but except a small belt on the river
shores that is still covered in jungle, most land has long been logged and planted
with oil palms. This enforces the remaining wildlife to live mainly along the
river shore.
A rattly track led to the few small
settlements at the end of the road but as lots of palm oil can be harvested, it
is currently being upgraded to a proper road.
Several tourist lodges stood along the
river, offering every category; from ramshackle to 5 star luxury. Ours was
called “Nature Lodge” run by Nasalis Larvatus Tours.
Our bungalow was new but tiny and the lodge geared mainly toward independent
and energetic travellers. Our fellow adventurers were two older ladies from
France, a young family from Denmark and an Italian couple in our age. Our
package included several day- and night walks and two boat cruises at sunset
and sunrise each day. Of the animals, monkeys were the most visible with mostly
Macaques, a few Silver Leaf monkeys and many Proboscis up in the trees. We saw
much more proboscis monkeys here than in Bako National Park but we could never
get as close. During the morning cruise of the last day, we’ve been lucky to
see a big Orang Utan male. We were amazed how big this ape was and how gentle
it moved between the branches. Orang Utan means “man of the forest” in Malay
but with its long arms it looked even bigger than a man!
There were also many birds around,
including various species of big hornbills. Finally we saw them here! Giant
Kingfisher and black&red Broadbill were very colourful and also birds of
prey and storks flew around. We were lucky to spot several giant warans (big
lizards) and crocodiles. From far away it was not always possible to tell them
apart as they had about the same size here. When our boat approached them too
close, the croc’s would run into the water and the goanna out.
There must be quite a number of small
pigmy elephants around, as we had stumbled across tons of elephant droppings on
our walks. But we didn’t see one elephant.
Hanging on a branch, there was the peeled
off skin of a snake and of another, live one, we had only seen the tip of its
tail, as it didn’t like our presence and vanished in the grass.
During the night walks, our guide loved to
get scorpions out of their hiding and play around with it in front of the
horrified tourists. As it rained for a while on our second day, leechies
greeted tourists even more enthusiastically than on the first night. Even they
seem to know which meat is tender and jumped on the Danish boy only on the
first night and mostly on the young guide on the second. Thanks to the big
rubber boots made available by the lodge, we were quite well protected and
didn’t mind to walk through the mud – that also meant we didn’t need to clean
our hiking boots afterwards!
After getting up once more at 05:30 a.m.
for the last cruise on the misty river, we had breakfast and then went back by
bus to Kota Kinabalu.
By coincidence, we bumped into Andrea and
Peter once more, just minutes before they left to the airport. That’s what we
did as well two days later. We boarded a flight to Thailand where we got to
write this story about Borneo. More about Malaysia: chapter 13 (Kuala Lumpur)
Singapore (Thaipusam) | Sarawak | Brunei | Sabah |
|
Top |
|
Photos: Thailand | More about Thailand: chapter 8 (Main Story), chapter 13, chapter 15, chapter 34 |
Koh Tao: tropical island-paradise or dive factory
On March 13th 2007, we left Kota
Kinabalu on an Air Asia plane to Bangkok. It was certainly not the first budget
carrier we used, but for us, it was the first time that the flight also took
off from a specially designed "Budget Terminal". It was a modern brand
new facility, offering its users only the most important amenities, as a
duty-free store with essential items as booze, tobacco and perfume. Like in any
other duty-free store, also special „bargains“ could be found, like the Swiss
chocolate bars for the unbelievably low duty-free price of only RM 22.50 (€ 4.50)
whereas the same item in town would set you back a mere RM 9.--!
As this was a Budget Terminal, the more sophisticated facilities
like money changer or letter boxes were non-existent at all! Still, it was not
the most basic Budget Terminal. For instance Singapore’s new Budget Terminal
was built so basic, that except Singapore’s own Tiger Air, all other Budget
Airlines decided that the S$ 3.00 (€ 1.50)
saving per passenger, was not worth the hassle and so they all still use the
“full service terminal”!
We arrived in Thailands capital
Bangkok at around midnight and after some hanging around the airport, we
checked in at 4 o’clock for the first flight with Bangkok-Air to Koh Samui.
This airline has a monopoly on this route and as they proclaim themselves to be
a “boutique-” and not a “budget airline”, we could take advantage of their
lounge offering free drinks, snacks and internet access prior to departure.
From Koh Samui we took the ferry to Koh Phangan’s Haadrin beach. (more infos: chapter 13, chapter 8 (+chapter 15)) Here we assembled
our last travel story about Borneo and we also could arrange to meet Angelika
and Karsten, whom we know from Costa Natura. Last time we had seen them three
years ago, also on Koh Phangan and as they had meanwhile visited many countries
in this area, there were lots of travel tales to be exchanged.
As most land in Haadrin had already been covered by new
developments, the investors now started to build on steep cliffs and rock
faces. They did not only add concrete bungalows but even swimming pools on
concrete stilts.
After 13 days in Haadrin, we continued with a speed boat to
discover the neighbouring island of Koh Tao. Due to its
small size (2x5km) every corner can still be reached by foot. From pictures and
some stories of other travellers, we knew how the island looked like about two
years ago, when there was only generator power.
It’s almost unbelievable through how much (uncoordinated) growth
the island had gone since. The arrival of town-power and to a much bigger
extent the tsunami in the Andaman Sea (Dec. 2005) had swept literally 100’000’s
of tourists over to the Gulf of Siam. Here it’s considered more “tsunami-safe”
and this has meanwhile changed this little island forever. Thanks to an
abundance of coral it rapidly became South East Asia’s main training centre for
divers. There are now about 50! dive operators and many resorts cater for
divers only, not accepting other guests. One traveller mentioned: “the island
is now a dive factory with lots of fins, lots of bubbles but not that much
fish”. In Koh Tao a quiet diving day means that there are “only” 15 (fifteen)
boats on one dive site!
There are still some real bungalow-bargains left on the island but
more and more (western managed) up-market resorts come in, with the most
expensive one charging 500 USD a night.
Surely, this made this (lost?) paradise a bit more commercial and
nowadays it’s almost impossible to walk 50 meters without hearing “Hello Taxi”
and western time-share touts are looking like vultures for pray! As on any Thai
tourist island except on Koh Phangan, there is also a “girly bar scene”. Many
prostitutes try to hold onto their clients and tie the knot. From the paper we
learned that from several regions in northern Thailand 70% (seventy!) of women
are getting married with men from Germany or Switzerland!
Koh Tao stays for Turtle island because turtles used to come to
lay their eggs here. As the tourist developments took over the beaches, they
had to look for new breeding grounds. Now at high tide, most beaches do not
exist anymore at all, as most resorts set their restaurants and bungalows up on
terraces above the sandy beach. When we asked a local restaurant owner about
the lack of beaches, he just replied: “as most tourists come out here for
diving, we do not need big beaches for sunbathing. So it would be a waste of
land, if we wouldn’t use it to build our businesses”. However, he complained
that in stormy weather, the sea sometimes heaps a lot of sand up to the bar and
they needed to clean for many days in a row once the water kept on washing more
sand up the “beach” day after day…
Almost along the entire length of the island the paths and roads
(where they existed; often there were dirt tracks only) are lined with ATM’s,
shops, restaurants, internet-café’s, massage parlours and accommodation.
Surely, in some parts Koh Tao still retains its natural beauty.
Like on the beach of Shark Bay or Nang Yuan Island just off the coast, which
consists of three islets connected by sand banks. A look-out offered
spectacular views and there was superb snorkeling in what they call “Japanese
Garden” just off the beach.
Everybody on Koh Tao is a tourist or works for tourists. There is
no village – only tourist settlements. As divers are active all day and their
dives often start early in the morning, the island got more quiet than we
appreciated already at 10 p.m. The nicely located Beach Bar’s were normally the
only places which still served something after dinner, at least to those who
are flexible enough to drink only alcohol. On one night the first place we
tried, informed us friendly but firm, that they sell only beer at this time (10
p.m.). When we tried our luck at the neighbour’s bar, we were told that they
only sell alcoholic drinks. A few houses on we finally were successful and
could order some shakes.
The good thing about the arrival of mass-tourism is that the island
had now a sophisticated scene of reasonably priced gourmet restaurants and
bakeries or café’s. On the other hand, if it comes to drinking, only those who
are happy with canned and bottled stuff or cocktails, are delighted. If it
comes to the delicious old-fashioned fresh fruit shakes and juices, they cost
2-5 times more in the nice dining places, than in the remaining “cheapies” but
what you get is normally only crap out of a tetra pack if you are lucky, but
sometimes they even only serve syrup! instead of the fresh real thing!
Only Banana-Shakes were always fresh, at least as long as there is
no Banana Syrup on the market. Our rule on Koh Tao: a juice or shake for 20-30
Baht (€ 0.45-0.65) is always good and made of fresh fruit but if it costs
anything between 40-120 Baht it’s more often than not a waste of money.
By looking around, we observed that in the nice eateries nobody
got the guts to order these delicious creations made out of fresh fruit and
ice. To us – and especially for Heinz; they are the highlight of any trip to
Thailand. We think ice had already been reasonably safe to drink in touristy
places all over Asia, and nowadays it’s probably as save as in the west. Both
of us ordered shakes already 20 years ago and we never run into a major problem
but due to stupid reliability laws, travel guides have to warn tourists about
every minor risk and most people do not realize that the risk they are taking
by diving or renting a motorbike on a Thai island, is much higher than the risk
of having a fresh fruit shake! Strangely, tourists who dine in the simple and
cheap places, which are not always as clean as they could be, order lots of
iced shakes and juices and as we, they don’t seem to have a problem with it.
After nine days the full moon party we had escaped from on Koh
Phangan was over and we went back to that island. Brigitte proposed to go to
the beach at Had Yao, as she hoped that we could sunbathe on the sheltered
veranda of the bungalow we had stayed at 3 years ago. Heinz was kidding that
these bungalows would most probably have been replaced with modern ones and
there would be a swimming pool sitting on top of the hill. As soon as we
arrived on that beach, we realized that his joke was not far away from reality.
In the resort where we stayed last time, each simple bungalow bad been replaced
by three times that many sophisticated ones, nicely squeezed in between a new
swimming pool on top and another one on the bottom of the hill! Never mind, we
found another nice bungalow about 100 meters from the beach, which had a
sheltered balcony.
< last chapter | chapter selection + Photos | next chapter > |
© 2007 - |