The Perhentians symbolized the beginning of the end of our year long trip. It would be our last island get away; our last chance to dive in warm, tropical water; our last chance to get a tan; our last meal of authentic curry; and our last chance to blow the budget. But most important, it was our last overnight bus ride and it was perfect. "Perfect" and "bus ride" don't typically occur in the same sentence. With sore knees, aching backs and kinks in the neck and a good nights sleep on swaying, bumpy bus is hard to come by. But [View Full Entry]

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Here Kitty Kitty At the western tip of Borneo lies the quaintly modern city of Kuching. Known as the "cat city" I knew I was going to like it before I'd even arrived. We flew in at night, prime prowling time for cats and within minutes of stepping out of the airport taxi we spotted our first cat! A cement block was missing in the sidewalk, exposing the gutter below and here sat a sleek calico peering down, waiting patiently, for tasty rats or mice. Mind you this wasn't really a unique experience, but I remember it vividly being in the [View Full Entry]

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Have you ever been on a 30m boat in the eye of a huge storm 300km off shore? Neither have we. Rather, we had calm, clear waters as our live aboard diving boat headed out to the South China Sea in search of the Spratly islands, primarly Layang Layang. Layang Layang is an atoll rising 2000m from the ocean floor creating coral reefs and walls that are teeming with underwater life. Everyday the visibility was excellent, 25+ meters, allowing you to spot reef sharks lurking in the deep yet see the surface and the sun rays streaming through the blue. [View Full Entry]

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Banana's and Milk From Sipadan we made our way north to Sandakan, a jumping off point to visit the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre and jungle tours. In the morning we caught the local bus just outside the city and were dropped off at the door-step of the Rehabilitation Centre just in time to purchase our ticket, check our bags and reach the viewing platform before the banana's and milk came out for feeding time. In a tree just a few meters away from the viewing platform the big-cheeked dominate male and a young orang-utan sat around lapping milk from a [View Full Entry]

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We've arrived in Borneo Malaysia after a short two hour flight from Manila however it took much, much longer than two hours. Mechanical problems with the plane caused a delay of six hours until our "rescue" plane arrived from somewhere in China. Oh, how I love Air Asia! So far our first impressions of Borneo have been lovely. The food is excellent (leagues above the Philippines), the people are friendly and the landscape is lush, green and growing everywhere. We spent a few days in Kota Kinabalu while we came up with a travel action plan, did some necessities shopping [View Full Entry]

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We felt we’d been on a rotating rollercoaster of ferries, out-rigger boats, buses, jeepneys, and tri-cycles and it was becoming draining. A relaxing stay on Pandan Island was just what we needed for a vacation from a vacation. Just a short boat ride from the mainland, Pandan Island is a privately owned property with few amenities. Electricity is supplied via solar power and salt water showers are the norm. It’s not a place for people who require air-conditioning and regular pedicures. Just off shore a house reef is home to countless fish, hard corals, and other sea creatures. T [View Full Entry]

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An afternoon quickly slips into evening. The families packed up their picnic baskets hours ago and the teenagers are slowing drifting home as well. Now only Jarrod and I are left at this perfect oasis of fresh green pools and staggered waterfalls carving a path through the smooth rock and mossy vegetation. Ducking underwater and behind the rock wall there is a small cave hidden behind the upper falls. Rubbing shoulders with the grooved, wet rock we hid away peeking out through a basketball sized hole at the water tumbling down in front of us. On the lower set of falls [View Full Entry]

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The Attic A ferry, jeepney (an elaboratly painted share truck/van with wooden benchs in the back and luggage storage on top), and a huble-huble (older motorbikes equipped with customized racks for larger loads) ride later we had arrived at KooKoo’s Nest near Dumagete on Negros Island. We didn’t have a reservation for a cottage, and they were all full, so we ended up in an improvised room which really was the attic above the bar. Width-wise the attic just fit a mattress and length-wise we had just enough room for our bags. Standing was not an option, but, we've discovere [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in a country where vegetarians would starve, cash registers are used instead of a drawer or pocket, and we haven’t learned a word of the local language because English is widely spoken. The country side is lush, shades of deep green, and volcanos reach the clouds. Groves of palm trees spread inland and ripe coconuts litter the ground while the coastline is dotted with sandy beaches or mangrove trees spreading their roots into the clear aqua blue water. The natural beauty is simply stunning. Welcome to the Philippines. We made our way, in one very long day, fro [View Full Entry]

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Bagan was once the capital city of Myanmar at its prime between 1084 and 1286AD. At that time the king started a temple building extravaganza raising nearly 4500 temples over that 250 year period. It is a spectacular view with nearly 2000 temples remaining that speckle the countryside and mountains looming across the Irrawaddy river. For two days we were shuttled around via horse cart. Our first day out we had an "aged" horse who limbered around so slowly bicyclists would pass us. The following day we got a younger, friskier horse named Lucky who pranced around rather quickly. Lucky seemed [View Full Entry]

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