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Round the world trip!!

a travel blog by Kav & Sara


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Krabi, Thailand



permalink written by  Kav & Sara on February 4, 2009 from Krabi, Thailand
from the travel blog: Round the world trip!!
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Singapore, Singapore



permalink written by  Kav & Sara on February 6, 2009 from Singapore, Singapore
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Borneo

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

The last few days have been dominated by travelling from Thailand to Kota Kinabalu in Borneo.
After spending the last few days of Thailand at the stunning beach of Phra Nang Cave and also re-visiting the night market in Krabi, we packed up our stuff and boarded a mini bus to begin our journey to Borneo. After a 6 hour ride in the tiny mini-van, we then boarded a luxury coach to pass through the Thailand-Malaysia border and on to Singapore. It was a tiring 24 hour ride to Singapore, and when we arrived at 11am on Wednesday morning, we were pooped. Nevertheless, we had to waste some time as our flight wasn't until 5am the following day. We spent the day wandering around a small area of Singapore, and we couldn't believe how amazing it was. It was by far the cleanest city we had ever been to, and even though things seemed to run at such a fast pace, everything appeared to run smoothly. The buildings towered above us in every direction, and the architecture was sharp and contemporary, yet it somehow managed to maintain a traditional oriental vibe. The day was spent window shopping and going to see a movie, which passed the time well. As the day ended and darkness fell, the city lit up, with buildings competing to stand out. We spent an hour or so at the Fountain of Wealth, the worlds largest fountain. We circled the inner fountain 3 times with our right hand touching the water whilst making a wish, as this was said to bring happiness and good fortune. It wasn't long after we done this that a laser show began, which to our delight was free :-) The colours were awesome, and although we ended up soaking wet, it was well worth it!

By 8pm, we had exhausted the small patch of Singapore, and jumped on a public bus to the airport for $1.80 each, bargain! Its so easy to do everything in Singapore, we were amazed how everything worked so efficiently.
Once we arrived at the airport at 9pm, we still had 10 hours to kill till our flight left, and with no money for food or drink, we decided it would be best to whip out the sleeping bags and find a quiet patch of the airport to catch up on some much needed beauty sleep. We both slept pretty solid and woke up with 30 minutes to spare before our 2 hour flight to Kota Kinabalu, which was short and sweet.
We landed in Borneo just before 11am yesterday, and first impressions were pretty good, very similar to Thailand, although the weather sucked! One thing we noticed was that room rates are more than double what they are inThailand. This meant that we have been forced to stay in dorm rooms!!! Argh!! Its not too bad though, if you've seen the movie 'Hostel' then you'll understand how scary this is! But its all part of the experience, and at least you meet more people this way. So after a good nights sleep in the dorm, and all our limbs still in tact, we had a walk around the small city to familarise ourselves with the new country and plan our next 3 weeks. The food is awesome and pretty cheap, which makes us both very happy. Our plans over the next few days are to get prepared for the biggest trek so far. Were hoping to climb Mount Kinabalu in a day. Most people do it in two days and pay for a room halfway up, but in a bid to save some pennies, were goona start early in the morning and hope to get back down at around sunset, or shortly after. Considering Mount Kinabalu stands over 4000m high and is half the size of Everest, we hope that we'll live to tell the tale!!

Stay sexy,

Kayvon & Sara x x

permalink written by  Kav & Sara on February 6, 2009 from Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Round the world trip!!
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Mountains and Monkeys

Sepilok, Malaysia

It may come as a surprise to some, but we've actually survived to tell the tale of Mount Kinabalu, so here it is!
We arrived at the foot of the mountain on the 7th Feb, and after a day of acclimatising and getting used to the bitter temperatures we thought we'd left behind in England, we hit the mountain. On the 9th, we met our guide at the park headquarters and got a bus to Timphon Gate (the start point) ready to begin the climb. It was 7.20am and the cold air, along with nerves woke us up. Although the mountain didn't look half the size of Everest, a valley circled the mountain which meant we had to go down before coming up. The first few kilometres were tough as the terrain was constantly changing which made it difficult to reach a steady state. The psychological impact of this was that we felt a bit out of our depth and soon realised that we may have bitten off more than we could chew. Although it was tough on the legs and lungs, every now and again there was a break in the dense foliage which revealed a fantastic panoramic view of the surrounding hills. These brief stops provided us with a much needed break, and as we ascended further, they became more and more frequent. At the 4km point, we felt the air becoming thinner, and our lungs were working overtime to try and compensate for the lack of oxygen. As we were attempting to climb the mountain in a day, we had been warned that we had to reach the 6km point within 4 hours or else we would have to come back. We kept an eye on the time, averaging about half a kilometre every 15 minutes. With the gradient ranging from around 40 to 70 degrees, we knew we were doing awesome. The hard work was beginning to pay off, and we reached the 6km point of Laban Rata in 3 hours, an hour ahead of schedule. Tihs gave us a massive increase in confidence, and although our legs were feelng extremely weak, for the first time we started to believe that we were actually going to make the summit. After a quick bite to eat to replenish our energy stores, we set off again with only 2.7km between us and the summit. However, the trail of steps we had followed this far soon stopped, and were replaced by sheer rock with a safety rope lining the ground, should we slip or fall. As the trail became steeper, the air became thinner, and although we dropped down to only covering 500m in 20 minutes, we were doing fantastic for time.
Then, our guide, Arnold, dropped a bombshell. He said that the times had been changed and that we only had until 1pm to reach the summit and get back to the 6km rest point. This meant we had less than an hour to cover about 2km of the steepest part of the mountain. He then said that we didn't have time to reach the summit but we would go a little further before turning back. We were devestated. We had climbed to arounnd 3,500m above sea level, and covered nearly 7km of terrain, only to be told we wouldn't make it. We were defeated by time rather than our physical ability, which added insult to injury. Nevertheless, we had come this far, so we decided to get as far as possible. We scrambled up the rock faces with what little energy we had left. We had been climbing for over 5 hours now, with breaks of about 15 seconds every 10 minutes. As we reached the 7.5km checkpoint, before the ascent to the summit, Sara's body couldn't take her any further. She was breathing heavily and her legs began to shake with fatique. I was ready to stop as well, but Sara encouraged me to go furter. I was sucking as much air as I could, the concentration of oxygen at this height was less than I'd ever experienced, and every muscle hurt. The guide stood about 20m ahead, and I put my bag down and, equipped with only a bottle of water and a Guvners shirt, I headed for the top. The pace was fast, and the guide navigated up the rocks with ease. I found myself counting 20 steps, then resting for a few seconds, then taking another 20 steps. Everytime I saw the mountain level off, I pushed through to reach it, only to find that it disappeared as soon as I got to it. I soon reached the 8km point, 700m from the summit, and was 4971m above sea level. A small dip seperated me and the summit, and it gave me a massive boost. But it wasn't to be. The guide said we were out of time, and had time only for a few pictures. I came back down to meet Sara, and we both felt defeated and frustrated, to have come so close only to run out of time. We realised we should have done it over two days, but we had given it our all and didn't regret trying to reach the summit in a day. We had climbed higher than we had ever climbed before, and this was enough to make us proud of ourselves and each other.
The decent was the same as the ascent but in reverse! However, we made it down in 3 hours, even though it seemed to last forever, and the torrentail downpour didn't help. It seemed as though the way down was twice as long as what we covered on the ascent, and we couldn't believe that we had walked so far uphill. By the time we reached the bottom, our knees and thighs were in agony, and we just wanted to sleep. Unfortunately we had to walk another 500m back to our resort! Drenched, freezing, and completely shattered, we had tea and hit the sack.
The following day we picked out broken bodies up and headed to Sepilok, home of one of only a few Orang utan rehabiliton sancturies in the world. After checking into Sepilok Jungle Resort (which is amazing and has a swimming pool, jacuzzi, gym, and a spot for fishing!!!)
The sanctuary was 5 minutes walk from the resort, and yesterday we spent the day there. The pictures we took do far more justice than writing would, so we'll put some pictures on instead! It was amazing to see these apes in a semi-wild habitat. We saw three females, two of whom had newborns clinging to them! It was a once in a lifetime experience that we thoroughly enjoyed, and we hope you like the pictures!
Were hoping to take a river boat down the Sungai Kinabatangan River, where we've been told that were garaunteed to see an abundance of wildlife, including the rare Proboscis monkey, crocs, elephants, snakes, and hundreds of bird species, maybe even a wild orang utan!

Sorry to those of you who have been worrying whether we're alive or not, inernet cafes are as rare as wild orang utans over here! So don't worry! No news is good news!!

Lots of monkey love,

Kayvon & Sara x x

permalink written by  Kav & Sara on February 11, 2009 from Sepilok, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Round the world trip!!
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Kinabatangan and beyond

Semporna, Malaysia

Hi guys and dolls!

Sorry we haven't put the pics on of Mount Kinabalu or the orang utan sanctuary, the internet went down in Sepilok!
The last few days have been possibly the most amazing dats of our trip! We've been living in a hut on stilts on the Kinabatangan River for the past two nights, which, although scary, has been well worth the money we paid!
We arrived on the 14th with a Canadian couple called Bob and Jan, who were so down to earth, who spoke about travels and where they had been for 3 hours until our first boat cruise on the river. We set off at 4pm, and cruised along the river looking out for wildlife. The absence of a 'zoo-like' environment was amazing, and all the things we had seen on TV and only dreamed about seeing were either flying over us or swinging through the trees alongside our boat. The list of species we saw is almost endless, but to name our favourites, we saw:
Birds: Stork Billed and Sacred Kingfisher, various Hornbills, Red and black broadbill, White chested Sea Eagle, various Storks, and hundreds of other smaller birds.
Primates: Long tailed & Pig tailed macaques, Red lipped Langur, Silver Langur, The indiginous Proboscis monkey, and.... WILD ORANG UTANS!!! This was by far the best part of the boat trips. To see them in the wild was spectacular, and to see a mother and baby was reassuring for the future of this beautiful endangered species. We can't put it into words how gracefull and aesthetically pleasing these animals are. On our last boat trip shortly after sunrise, we spotted a group of three orang utans, a mother, baby, and dominant male. Its so rare to see all three at once as the male usually leaves during pregnancy to find another mate. We trekked through the trees with our fantastic guide, Nelson, who took us to the bottom of the tree that the orang utans were in. The dominant male was fine with us being there, he just chilled out and carried on sleeping. However, the mother became quite territorial and protective of her baby. As a result, she snapped off huge branches and threw them at us, along with peices of fruit! The longer we watched, the louder she shouted, and the bigger the branches became, until we backed off a small distance. At this point she became more curious than concerned, and watched us as we headed back to the boat.
Not too far behind the orang utan experience was when the painstaking search for the Proboscis monkey finally paid off. On the way back to camp on the last evening cruise before sunset, we spotted monkeys on the opposite side of the river. Expecting more macaques, we weren't overly excited, until we heard the unique grunting of the most perculiar looking primate in the world. A troop of around 10 of them were swinging through the trees, then stared at us as if just as fascinated with us as we were of them. Their gracefull movements made them look lethargic, as well as their huge pot belly's making them look like beer monsters! They were so amusing, the males sustain their 'excitement' in the downstairs department for 24 hours! Lucky fellas! The females have the cutest pokey noses in world, where the males noses are large and droop down, the females stick straight out! In this part of the jungle, the bigger the males nose, the more females he gets!
We saw numerous insects and reptiles, including many monitor lizards, and Sara's least favourite, the scorpions that were staying at the same lodge as us!
The Malaysian people are by far the most welcoming people we have ever met! Our guides were so friendly and had a real passion for both nature and the protection of all the animals that live among the people. Last night, one of our guides, Alloi, took us to his family home where there was a huge wedding ceremony for his younger brother. We were welcomed by everyone, and offered us their food, drink, and thoughts about the world. Everyone was so happy, and all the children were so open to us as outsiders, and their curiosity made them extremely likeable and we played with them in between dancing for the bride and groom. The whole village had come to celebrate the occasion, and everyone danced and laughed until the early hours. We were only meant to be there for an hour, but 4 hours later (after talking to half the village), our guides took us back across the river to our lodge.
We had so much fun, and it was the first time we really experienced such a genuine interaction with another culture. The combination of amazing wildlife and equally amazing people made these last few days a truly unforgettable experience.

After our last river cruise this morning, we planned to go back to Sepilok. However, being the spontaneous duo we are, we decided to do a Tony Blair and follow some Americans. It led us to Semporna, where we are now. The reefs of Sipidian Islands is rated in the top five dive sites in the world, so with a fine disregard for our budget, were gonna do it! Due to it being fully booked at the moment, we could only book the dive for the 22nd. So unfortunately, we've decided to spend the next 5 days on a remote island, where the resort is actually in the sea rather than on land, connected by a long jetty. We bumped into Bob and Jan today (the Canadian couple), who said its like paradise. We are promised to see turtles and possibly sharks, which is gonna be awesome!!

So we hope all is well back home and your having as much fun as us,
Missing you all,

Kayvon and Sara

P.S we got married Malay style

permalink written by  Kav & Sara on February 16, 2009 from Semporna, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Round the world trip!!
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Kinabatangan and beyond

Semporna, Malaysia

Hi guys and dolls!

Sorry we haven't put the pics on of Mount Kinabalu or the orang utan sanctuary, the internet went down in Sepilok!
The last few days have been possibly the most amazing dats of our trip! We've been living in a hut on stilts on the Kinabatangan River for the past two nights, which, although scary, has been well worth the money we paid!
We arrived on the 14th with a Canadian couple called Bob and Jan, who were so down to earth, who spoke about travels and where they had been for 3 hours until our first boat cruise on the river. We set off at 4pm, and cruised along the river looking out for wildlife. The absence of a 'zoo-like' environment was amazing, and all the things we had seen on TV and only dreamed about seeing were either flying over us or swinging through the trees alongside our boat. The list of species we saw is almost endless, but to name our favourites, we saw:
Birds: Stork Billed and Sacred Kingfisher, various Hornbills, Red and black broadbill, White chested Sea Eagle, various Storks, and hundreds of other smaller birds.
Primates: Long tailed & Pig tailed macaques, Red lipped Langur, Silver Langur, The indiginous Proboscis monkey, and.... WILD ORANG UTANS!!! This was by far the best part of the boat trips. To see them in the wild was spectacular, and to see a mother and baby was reassuring for the future of this beautiful endangered species. We can't put it into words how gracefull and aesthetically pleasing these animals are. On our last boat trip shortly after sunrise, we spotted a group of three orang utans, a mother, baby, and dominant male. Its so rare to see all three at once as the male usually leaves during pregnancy to find another mate. We trekked through the trees with our fantastic guide, Nelson, who took us to the bottom of the tree that the orang utans were in. The dominant male was fine with us being there, he just chilled out and carried on sleeping. However, the mother became quite territorial and protective of her baby. As a result, she snapped off huge branches and threw them at us, along with peices of fruit! The longer we watched, the louder she shouted, and the bigger the branches became, until we backed off a small distance. At this point she became more curious than concerned, and watched us as we headed back to the boat.
Not too far behind the orang utan experience was when the painstaking search for the Proboscis monkey finally paid off. On the way back to camp on the last evening cruise before sunset, we spotted monkeys on the opposite side of the river. Expecting more macaques, we weren't overly excited, until we heard the unique grunting of the most perculiar looking primate in the world. A troop of around 10 of them were swinging through the trees, then stared at us as if just as fascinated with us as we were of them. Their gracefull movements made them look lethargic, as well as their huge pot belly's making them look like beer monsters! They were so amusing, the males sustain their 'excitement' in the downstairs department for 24 hours! Lucky fellas! The females have the cutest pokey noses in world, where the males noses are large and droop down, the females stick straight out! In this part of the jungle, the bigger the males nose, the more females he gets!
We saw numerous insects and reptiles, including many monitor lizards, and Sara's least favourite, the scorpions that were staying at the same lodge as us!
The Malaysian people are by far the most welcoming people we have ever met! Our guides were so friendly and had a real passion for both nature and the protection of all the animals that live among the people. Last night, one of our guides, Alloi, took us to his family home where there was a huge wedding ceremony for his younger brother. We were welcomed by everyone, and offered us their food, drink, and thoughts about the world. Everyone was so happy, and all the children were so open to us as outsiders, and their curiosity made them extremely likeable and we played with them in between dancing for the bride and groom. The whole village had come to celebrate the occasion, and everyone danced and laughed until the early hours. We were only meant to be there for an hour, but 4 hours later (after talking to half the village), our guides took us back across the river to our lodge.
We had so much fun, and it was the first time we really experienced such a genuine interaction with another culture. The combination of amazing wildlife and equally amazing people made these last few days a truly unforgettable experience.

After our last river cruise this morning, we planned to go back to Sepilok. However, being the spontaneous duo we are, we decided to do a Tony Blair and follow some Americans. It led us to Semporna, where we are now. The reefs of Sipidian Islands is rated in the top five dive sites in the world, so with a fine disregard for our budget, were gonna do it! Due to it being fully booked at the moment, we could only book the dive for the 22nd. So unfortunately, we've decided to spend the next 5 days on a remote island, where the resort is actually in the sea rather than on land, connected by a long jetty. We bumped into Bob and Jan today (the Canadian couple), who said its like paradise. We are promised to see turtles and possibly sharks, which is gonna be awesome!!

So we hope all is well back home and your having as much fun as us,
Missing you all,

Mr & Mrs Azadi

permalink written by  Kav & Sara on February 16, 2009 from Semporna, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Round the world trip!!
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End of Borneo

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

We've finally arrived back to where we started our Borneo trip, in Kota Kinabalu. The last week has been predominatly relaxing and exhilerating. We left Semporna on a small boat headed for the tiny island of Mabul. When we arrived we were slightly disappointed by the facilities! The accomodation stood on stilts in the sea and looked half finished. We were also told that we had a private room with en-suite, but we were soon sharing a bathroom with half the resort. But the beaches made up for the disappointing accomodation and its lack of style. Prepared with a mask and snorkel, we both snorkelled around the small piers that lined the island. The coral gardens were lush, and there was a huge range of colourful marine life (far too many too list!).

We took snorkelling a bit further after a few days and headed further out to a drop off, where the depth was around 10-12 metres. Here we saw our first turtles, which were unbelievable! They were so placid in the presence of humans and didn't show any signs of fear. We got within a foot of them and even swam along with them, mimicking their movements. We were also fortunate enough to see some spotted eagle rays with a wing span of about 1.5-2metres. They glided under us in a smooth and effortless manner, which was a little scary albeit exhilerating!
We spent the evenings with a couple we met from England called Ali (who's brother is Ray Mears) & Liz.
We got on extremely well with the help of some imported Phillipino Rhum, and we wasted away the nights listening to an awful live band whilst playing card games and quoting some legendary movie lines! (such as zoolander, anchorman, super troopers, old school....)
On our final full day was spent off the island of Sipidan, which, due to its recent restrictions for conservation purposes, allows only 120 people to dive here per day. As this island is rated one of the top 5 dive spots in the world, we hoped the five day wait for the permit would be worth it. By George it was!! On our first dive, as soon as we started our descent, we were greeted by the rare sight of two turtles mating. Over the next forty minutes we came within a metre of white tip reef sharks, giant trevally, a massive school of bumphead parrotfish, green turtles, huge trigger fish and a Nepoleon Wrasse (which are gigantic fish, google it).

Our second and third dives were just as amazing, visiting a turtle graveyard inside a cave, seeing loads more sharks and turtles, and also a huge school of baracuda were just some of the highlights.
We spent our last day chilling in the communal area at the resort, whilst doing a spot of fishing (which was a regular activity!) and playing more cards.
We left Mabul Island yesterday and as soon as we arrived in Semporna, we headed straight to KK on a night bus.
The next couple of days are going to be spent preparing for Australia, which is going to give our budget a good run for its money!! We're looking forward to catching our own dinner with our newfound sea fishing skills.

Next time we write, we'll be upside down :-)

Take it easy peeps, lots of love as always xxx


permalink written by  Kav & Sara on February 23, 2009 from Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
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Singapore, Singapore



permalink written by  Kav & Sara on February 26, 2009 from Singapore, Singapore
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Sydney, Australia



permalink written by  Kav & Sara on February 27, 2009 from Sydney, Australia
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Byron Bay, Australia



permalink written by  Kav & Sara on March 7, 2009 from Byron Bay, Australia
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Wasssuuupp!
Our Phileas Fogg expedition is coming to an end!! Arrgghh! So we've decided to extend our stay in America to 2 months, so we'll be back in July! Just kidding!
We've travelled to the centre of the earth and back. Our beards are now grey and longer than ever, and in 6 weeks we'll be...

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