Sorry for the delay in updating my movement since I have been away, having succumbed to the lure of a tour in Borneo the schedule was so tight that email was impossible to use for more than about than 5 seconds a time. I will give you a quick update on my 10 day whistle-stop tour of Sabah, the Eastern province of Borneon Malaysia.

The trip started with a climb up the highest mountain in South-East Asia, Mount Kinabalu (4,101m ASL) - this was pretty grueling and was only finished by a few of our albeit elderly group (only 3 of us were under the age of 30, and only 1 more was under 40). I will update with photos when I arrive in Saraburi. The agony of the climb was followed by the ecstasy of an evening in a natural Spring bath which helped to sore some of the aches and pains.

The mountain climb was followed by 2 nights in a jungle lodge and 2 solid days of wildlife spotting, the spotting was mostly for monkeys (of which there were 4 types) and also the King of the Borneo jungle the orangutan. We were lucky enough to see a mother and child oranagutan in the wild which was amazing however like a tool my camera had run out of batteries by the time we saw them!

OK I will put out an update tomorrow regarding the 2nd leg of the trip.. sorry if this reads like a boring travel diary I will try and jazz it up for tomorrow.

X

written by  Michael Russell on March 3, 2009 from Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Escape from Blighty
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So the 2nd leg of the Borneo trip was to encompass a visit to the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary and either a trip to an island or a white water rafting trip... as I have plenty of time to bum around on a beach I of course went for the rafting choice.

The Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary is part run by a UK Orangutan charity and sadly feels like a profit making scheme; sadly the feeling is rather touristy and the generic sob story video that they make you watch before you enter was extremely cringe worthy. Our guide has told us that the Orangutan levels had grown considerably since their plight was highlighted some years ago, approx numbers are 15 -20k in the wild however the sanctuary will of course say that more needs to be done, yada yada. The visit consisted of 2 feeding times, 1 in the AM and the other in the afternoon. The orangs are provided with food and toys to play with whilst a baying crowd of tourists watch them. I was lucky enough to see 2 organutan shaped blobs in the wild and for me this was far more enjoyable than being in the Sepilok environment, however I did of course get some cracking photos at the sanctuary!!

The rafting also deserves a mention as it was most enjoyable, it was a 19KM trip with 9 rapids to maneuver, our guides for the day Mr Bond & Mr Brown assured us that capsizing was extremely rare! It was fitting that on the 1st rapid we flipped over, it took 2 1/2 hours overall from start to finish and 1 chap remarked that was considerably better than he had done both in Thailand and NZ.

So the plan for the next week is as such, in currently in Kuala Lumpur, tomorrow I am scheduled to depart for Cameron Highlands for 2 nights and then finally onto Penang. The plan was then to traverse across Southern Thailand and up to Saraburi, however due to the airline phenomenon that is Air Asia I can fly from Penang to Bangkok for under 60 GBP and do the Thailand traveling later next month once Rob has departed.

Hope everyone is well, speak to you soon

X

written by  Michael Russell on March 7, 2009 from Sepilok, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Escape from Blighty
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Had 2 days in which to explore KL and this was probably just about right, as with most of Malaysia, KL is very Westernised and hi-tech.

A visit to KL wouldn't be complete without a trip to the Petronas Towers and the KL Tower, the Petronas Towers are set amongst a fancy shopping mall with all of your favourite designer boutiques and Starbucks a plenty. In fairness to KL it seems to do top-notch shopping malls better than we can. The KL tower boasts wonderful views of the city so a trip at sunset was a must, sadly the dirty glass on the outside of the viewing deck made good pictures almost impossible.

A trip to Chinatown followed the next day & having done Singapore Chinatown the day before there are only so many fake Rolexs and knock off Premier League jerseys that you can stomach before everything becomes much of a muchness. I did however purchase a garish pair of swimming shorts that may go see-through when wet.. you (the loyal reader) will have to wait until Rob gets out before they can be snapped on the islands!

I thought I would end with a quick observation of Malaysia, from what I have seen so far in both Western and Borneo, Malaysian are obsessed with 2 Western products; firstly Premier League football; it seems to cross genders, women as much as men can be seen in football colours and there isn't the macho image of football that we have over here. Secondly, and most bizzarely, is their love of KFC.. the Colonel is cleaning up here! There are the standard MacDs and the occasional BK but the Malays love their KFC, so much so that this was our 'packed lunch' following the rafting in Borneo. In fact Kenny Rogers has his own Rooster joint in KL Chinatown in an attempt to muscle in on the Colonel's territory.

Next stop is Cameron-Highlands for a wee bit of trekking and walking round tea plantations/strawberry farms and apparently Butterfly Gardens!!woo hoo

x

written by  Michael Russell on March 13, 2009 from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Escape from Blighty
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Cameron-Highlands is the famous of the Malay hill stations and was founded by the British in the 1930s, it produces the apparently 'famous' Boh Tea, which I'm led to believe you can buy in Harrods/posh foody shops in London.

As is the case with hill stations the temperature is a lot cooler during the day and gets a bit nippy at night, I met a good lad from Northern Ireland on the bus up and we trekked around the town for 2 days happy as larry's. Sadly the weather wasn't so good for the time we were there so activities were limited to a walk in the morning-ish and watching DVDs at the hostel in the avo as the rain came down.

The first day we went for a walk round the main tea factory in CH and went for a hike amongst the tea Plantation, this was then finished off with a cup of afternoon tea and a smuggled-in loaf of excellent banana bread. The 2nd day was slightly more energetic as we went for a walk up to the top of the mountain (1663m ASL) and back through a village of indigenous people.

Next on the itinerary is a quick bus to Penang before my flight to Bangkok on Wednesday. I will upload the Borneo, Singapore and Peninsula Malay photos sometime over the weekend/early next week for you all to see.

x

written by  Michael Russell on March 17, 2009 from Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Escape from Blighty
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JR i stationed 50 or so clicks north of Bangkok in a town called Saraburi, its roughly 1 hour by bus from BKK. The vibe is very much a relaxing one, despite the presence of a 5 month old baby! It is obligatory to take a nap at some point in the day, which is fine by me, and there is also an abundance of quality thai food due to the family running a restaurant/snack bar at the end of the drive-way!

Highlights of this week include being served buns by a ladyboy, aged 50 odd, in Tesco Lotus; a 2 day trip to Bangkok to sample the Khao San Road and the Grand Palace; and most importantly my new found fame as the Nick Berry of Saraburi, I feel obliged to discuss the last point in detail. As Saraburi isn't on the tourist trail so farangs are a novelty item. When I arrived there was a welcoming party of a few local young ladies, one of whom, Nue, has taken a bit of a fancy to me and has brought me rice cakes, offered to teach me Thai and has said that I am 'very handsome' - to be fair to Nue, she fancied my brother when he turned up and also some other doctors that were in town but she clearly has immaculate taste in men.

So the plan is to chill out until Wednesday as my parents have just arrived for a fortnight stay, then meeting up with Rob in Bangkok followed by some Full Moon fun on Ko Pha Ngan until 12th April.

x

written by  Michael Russell on March 27, 2009 from Sara Buri, Thailand
from the travel blog: Escape from Blighty
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[[Myanmar-(Burma)/Yangon]] - colonial capital of Burma/Myanmar - when we rocked out in the 1960s the Burmese decided not to bother with maintanence of the city and as such the city is a wonderful city of old buildings and rundown streets. It appears however that the junta has plenty of bunce to spend on nice pagodas.. the Sole pagoda is the heart of the city centre and the Shwedagon pagoda overlooks the city and is truly beautiful at night.. (see facebook) - The Shwedagon has a 76 carat diamond at the top of the umbrella!Impressive stuff!

written by  Michael Russell on April 21, 2009 from Yangon, Myanmar (Burma)
from the travel blog: Escape from Blighty
tagged Yangon
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The Lake was slightly dissapointing, especially as it took 17 hours on a nasty bus to get there.. as it was low season there were very few tourists and we ended up being hearded round market stalls and shops on our day on the lake.

Highlights included visiting a monestry where the monks have taught cats to jump through hoops in the air & fisherman rowing with their legs

written by  Michael Russell on April 25, 2009 from Nyaungshwe, Myanmar (Burma)
from the travel blog: Escape from Blighty
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The stay in Mandalay was only 2 days which included a trip to Mandalay Hill where we meet a Burmese chap rather keen to practice his English, topics included the political movement in Burma and the promiscuity of Burmese women. The view was breathtaking from the top and included a view of the State prison which was quite sobering.

The 2nd day included a visit to the worlds longest teak bridge where Mark and I got 'made-up' Burmese style by a talented young local girl - the teak bridge was up there with the best of the things I have seen so far..

Next stop the 12th Century ruins of Bagan...

xx

written by  Michael Russell on May 1, 2009 from Mandalay, Myanmar (Burma)
from the travel blog: Escape from Blighty
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The ruins were plentiful & very beautiful.. sadly the only down side was the weather... with temperatures at 42C in the shade getting around by the preferred course (bicycle) was pretty tiring, hard still were the bikes themselves, as I had 3 flat tires out of 4 bikes.

The pagodas were extremely beautiful and almost untouched by tourists, there were too many to pick a favourite but a favourite moment was messing around with local kids on the top of one of the more famous pagodas during sunset. One of the plus points of Bagan was interaction with local kids... they are always looking to practise their English and very keen to flog an array of postcards and paintings.

After 2 half-days of sightseeing Mark and I decided to chill-ax by our hotel swimming pool all day as we felt we had earnt our break, that evening we bumped into a local we had met at one of the pagodas the previous day and were invited to a local coffee house to watch some English football, it was certainly a good way to finish the Burmese trip....

For anyone that is thinking of visiting Burma I would say go for it as the beer is ridiculously cheap, we mananged to buy a beer for 25 US cents and the sights to see are top notch.

Coming up next is Laos, where we currently are, Emilia will be joint-blogging to ease the burden for me.. woo hoo!

X

written by  Michael Russell on May 3, 2009 from Taungtha, Myanmar (Burma)
from the travel blog: Escape from Blighty
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