Bali and Lombok with the girls

I was lucky that while I was planning this trip, my friends Mal and Ayesha were also planning a little vacation. We thought it would be perfect to meet up for 10 days to explore Bali and it's neighbouring island, Lombok.

First stop was Ubud, the cultural centre of Bali. It has gone through many changes in the past few years thanks to (or depending on who you speak with, not thanks to) a little novel, some of you may have heard of called "Eat, Pray, Love". The author travels to Ubud after Italy and India and finds love...apparently it has inspired many to follow suit. Ubud is situated among rice fields and is teeming with restaurants, yoga studios, crazy luxurious retreats and shopping....it's a shopping paradise from the regular knock-offs to one of a kind artisans.

To better understand the culture and history of Bali, we set out for a day of bike riding from the base of Mount Batur back towards the town of Ubud. It was one of my favourite days thanks to our amazing guides, Dharma and Dewa who were full of knowledge and personal stories of life in and around Bali. As we biked, we passed through 'banjars', communities of compounds. Extended families still live in compounds and every day make offerings to the family and banjar temples. The majority of people on Bali are Hindu, but not quite the same as Indian Hinduism, as many of their beliefs blended with the animist traditions that were around before Hinduism. Balinese architecture is stunning and black rock, ornate temples were around every corner.

Throw in a stunning rice field in full bloom, and I get why people flock to this paradise.

Mount Batur

Learning to make Balinese offerings

Downhill biking in Bali

Stunning rice fields

All smiles while biking in Bali

After exploring Ubud (and making plans to end our trip back there), we grabbed a boat to Lombok and the port town of Senggigi for some serious beach and pool R&R and to plan our Rinjani hike. Unfortunately, Mal had been feeling unwell for a few days, so only Ayesha and I set out for the grind up Rinjani. It is the tallest peak on Lombok at 3726m, and we decided to climb it and descend in only 2 days, in retrospect, what the heck were we thinking!!!!

This was definitely the most difficult hike I've ever done. The terrain was steep a lot of the first day, and after hours in the 35 degree heat and humidity, I had sweat out more than I could take in. Fortunately, our guides and porters had us covered with a ton of water. We made camp and enjoyed sunset, but it was an early night for a very early morning. 2am wake up to summit for sunrise. We started off strong, but I was hurting on the last hour of climbing scree to the summit. Now the weather was closer to zero especially with the wind chill. We didn't stay long on the summit, took some photos and made our descent. 2700m, my legs were jelly, I was covered in dirt and blisters, but mission accomplished.

Approaching Rinjani's summit - and camp!

Base camp - well deserved R&R before summiting

Dusk at Base Camp

Looking down to the volcano crater from the summit

WE DID IT! Freezing our butts off

View of the lake after breakfast at camp.

The intrepid crew - Ayesha, me and our guide and porters.

Ayesha and I took our tiered selves to meet Mal on Gili Air, one of three islands off Lombok. For the next two days, I did little but relax, eat and drink. Ayesha's legs seemed to be fine after a day or so, mine on the other hand were sooooooo sore. Doing nothing was exactly what I needed. We got tired of the quiet island life, so headed back to Ubud to enjoy our last few days together before parting ways.

Local Gili transport

The roads on Gili Air

Just in case you forgot the geography of the Gili Islands.

I said goodbye to Mal and Ayesha and flew to Flores and the town of Labuan Bajo for a week of diving to finish off the trip. I had an amazing time on my live aboard, the Jaya, and made some great friends. But it was finally time to get back to reality, and after one more beautiful sunset on Bali, I flew back to Canada.

Labuan Bajo, not much of a town, but a great view!

Dusk in Komodo National Park

Dusk on the Jaya - my live aboard for a week

Relaxing on an island in the National Park

Another stunning sunset

Hanging with Kai on Rinja Island (the Jaya is in the distance)

Borneo

I had a vision of what Borneo would be like. Images from my imagination, and probably too many wildlife documentaries over the years. I pictured thick native rainforest, teeming with wildlife and beautiful orchids around every corner. I wasn't completely wrong, but agriculture, economy and cheap labour have turned much of the native forests into fields and fields of palm plantations. This in turn has greatly effected the populations of many of th large mammals in the area. 

I only visited a small area on Borneo, the Malaysian province of Sabah in the NE corner of the island. I got a good idea of the layout of the island on a long 11 hour bus ride from Kota Kinabalu to Semporna (ugh). KK, the province's capital, provided me with one of the most beautiful sunsets of my trip so far, but I didn't stay long as diving the Semporna Archipelago was beconing.

Sunset at Kota Kinabalu

Night market fish BBQ...yum!

I stayed on the stunning white sand island of Mabul and spent 3 great days diving with Scuba Junkie. It was more eat, dive, sleep and repeat and was was made even better by wonderful dives and great people to spend my time with. Unfortunately, I didn't book early enough to see the gem of the area -diving around Sipadan, but I did do my first "muck dive", where most of the dive is spent in the shallows in the sand looking for weird and wonderful creatures.

The view of the Gypsy village on Mabul

All the dive sites around Mabul

The awesome girls - Kim and Cat who I spent my days with.

See my Facebook album for more pictures.

Next it was onward to the Kinabatangan river with a stop in Sepilok to see some semi-wild orangutans. Many of the ones that come for feedings were brought to the rehabilitation centre after being found in palm plantations, orphaned after their mothers were killed for eating the crops. Lots of education is ongoing for the locals to better deal with the wild orangutans instead of simply killing them. After being rehabilitated they are released into the jungle (much of the area around them is now protected jungle), and some successfully never return for feedings. It did feel a little like being at the zoo though, not the same amazing experience as tracking wild mountain gorillas in Rwanda.

Feeding time!

Zooming in on mom and baby

I decided on a 2 day river cruise on the Kinabatangan River to see if I could find some of these beautiful apes actually in the wild. Unfortunately, we had no luck seeing the "men of the trees", but we could tell they were in the area because we saw some old nests that they use for sleeping. We did see a ton of other wildlife including proboscis monkeys, known for their protruding bellies and the long noses of the males. As well, crocodiles, long and short tailed macaques, monitor lizards and a python. We also saw a ton of birds, the highlight being several species of hornbill. The birders on my trip were pretty pumped...haha! We also did some night hikes. I dressed in my leech proof outfit to see sleeping birds, spiders, tree frogs and the adorable Western Tarsir. They look like little gremlins and reminded me of the night exhibit at the Toronto zoo. Apparently they are quite difficult to spot and seeing 3 made us a lucky bunch. 

Proboscis male

Long tailed macaque

Crocodile and egret

Short tailed macaque

Leech proof outfit.

Tiny tree frog

Adorable Western Tarsir

Dusk along the Kinabatangan

I celebrated my birthday with a last dawn river cruise and was serenaded with "Happy Birthday" by the other guests, a great way to start the day. I then went back to the Sepilok area to visit the Rainforest Discovery centre where I had many pictures taken with locals. Not sure why I'm so popular, but I'm guessing it's that I'm a single, pale, tall female that was scantily clad in a tank and shorts :) It was a lovely way to spend my day.

Stunning orchids of Borneo

Surrounded by men :)

Catwalk in the jungle

Although I only scratched the surface of Borneo, it was time to fly to Bali, Indonesia.

Peninsular Malaysia

It was goodbye to awesome Thailand and hello to beautiful Malaysia. First stop was more diving (surprise, surprise) on the Perhentian Islands. This little group of islands off the east coast is still developing, no huge resorts like Khao Lak and Phuket, it was huts on the beach and seaside restaurants. I was lucky enough to meet up with a friend, Jen, who I met on the Similan islands Liveaboard. Divers are awesome people, and Jen was great to spend a few days with. We stuck to our diving mantra of diving, eating, sleeping and repeating. Sleeping was done on the beach (under umbrellas for me). Thanks to Jen for some of her spectacular underwater pictures.

Beautiful Long Beach

Shy bamboo shark

Cuttlefish. Love these guys!

An Indian Walking Man Scorpion fish....hehe

Time to stop diving...well, for a few days and see some culture in Malaysia. I headed across to the west coast to the island of Penang, and city of Georgetown. The city is s UNESCO heritage city, full of colonial architecture and a mix of Chinese, English, Malay and Indonesian cultural, architectural and FOOD influences. I had a great two days wandering the streets, taking in the beautiful buildings, street art and stopping for lots of food. I tried both fancy restaurants and hawker stalls and made sure to read reviews to find the best places.

Street art in Penang, made wandering the streets a whole lot more fun

Colonial Georgetown

More street art

Chinese Mansion in Georgetown

Beautiful views around every corner

Food smorgasbord in Penang

 

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Hiking near the townsite

I decided to spend a day in the Cameron Highlands on my way to Kuala Lumpur. After the hot, hot, hot weather of Penang, it was a much needed cool break. This is a tea growing region in the mountains and is significantly cooler than the coast. The evenings were even slightly chilly and a sweater was needed. I hiked near the townsite and went on a tour of the area including a nature walk through the moss forest.

Reminding me how much further I needed to go

Beautiful hike in the forest. So peaceful as it was just me.

Tea Plantation

Beautiful butterflies were everywhere!

Finally I made my way to Kuala Lumpur to meet up with my friend, Jen.I wasn't sure what to expect from the city as I know Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh city and Phnom Penh in SE Asia, but I didn't think KL was much like any of them. It felt very modern with the Petronas towers and huge state of the art shopping malls. I did see some older areas while shopping in Chinatown along Petaling Street and I checked out some of the colonial buildings near the river. KL was definitely about relaxing though! After the day wandering about town, it was back to the hotel AC and pool!

Jen and I shopping on Petaling Road, we scored some good deals!

Mughal Architecture found in KL

Mosque along the river

My best....I know, pathetic view of the Petronas towers

Night Market...lots of good snacking food.