It seems I keep on spending far too much time on any one location. The Philippines has shocked and thrilled me over the past 2 months. Despite it being the last country in the whole of South East Asia I have visited, it has to rank as one of the best by far! The people are friendly and honest, without being over the top.
After traveling through Mindanao, the Visayas and Luzon, I visited Palawan and enjoyed the company of many cool travelers. I explored the islands, caves and beaches.
I then had the opportunity to crew for a large sailing vessel. This was a great experience and It gave me a better insight into cruising.
I am however going to have to take time off of the RTW overland route for
A/ My brothers wedding
B/ There are no sail boats are going north until February next year.
I have spent too much time having fun and I have missed the weather window north.
Around the Philippines
Sarawak to The Philippines
Despite the long time between posting, I have done relatively little.
I made a journey across Sarawak, to spend Christmas in an Iban Diak Longhouse, which was a real blast. People were super friendly and there was excessive drinking going on for days.
Another trip across Brunei, and I found myself in KK for New Year. I then made a visit to a couple of national parks in Sabah before deciding it was time to sign up for a dive master course.
Semporna looked like the place to spend a couple of months, and the diving surly was out of this world.
After I completed my dive master I ventured to a couple more national parks in Sabah. Kinabatang river was particularly good, with plenty of animals round every corner.
The boat to Philippines was an interesting one, with no other tourists in sight I surely was off the trail again. On arrival the military were very friendly and gave me a "safe lift into town". I’m really enjoying Philippines so far. Its like a bit a Latin America in south east Asia.
Manado to Malaysia
It was difficult to leave Indonesia behind in more ways than one. Firstly there was a large overland trail across Sulawesi that turned out to be a major undertaking as the photo to the left shows. Once in Kalimantan I made my way by boat across Borneo to Sabah.
Malaysian Borneo was a culture shock, and still I feel it now, one month later.
Malaysia is much more developed than Indonesia and much more setup for tourism.
This makes seeing attractions easy. Which is great for spotting wildlife. However the adventure component of Borneo has now gone. That’s not to say im not captivated by the country and people. Its just a different style of travel has started, that will continue until I reach Rural China, some considerable time away.
Its been nice to finally capture some of the images I have been seeing under the water with a new canon PowerShot A570 IS to complement my EOS 400D.
I am enjoying the Malaysian food and the nightlife and it should be a great Christmas and new year In Sarawak.
No surprises this year, promise!
The Wallace Line
After leaving a busy Bali, I ventured into Java and was shocked at the level of poverty, despite the islands sovereignty.
I took a motorbike to zip around the majestic volcanoes of Bromo, before taking another arduous Pelni journey to explore The Wallace Line.
East Kalimantan was my first stop. Where I had my first glimpse of wild Orangutan’s. Then on to the island of Sulawesi. Where the people are super nice but obsess over death.
It has been the month of fasting for Ramadan, so it had been a little difficult to obtain food during the day at times. I have lost a bit of weight. But I ate lot of pig and buffalo at my friends grandfathers funeral. Which would be great if you like to watch animals slowly bleed to death.
I then swung along to the Togian Islands for some diving and chill . Before Hitting "Dog and bat eating" Manado.
And I have still got a lot of traveling to do.
Dili to Bali
This month I have been through more traveled paths. I left Dili without a scathe, despite Indonesian immigration, and headed for the islands to the North. I met up with a paleontologist who was mad enough to try to reach the island with me by outrigger canoe (featured in the picture link). We failed and we got wet!
I have been climbing a lot of Volcanoes, the islands are literally scatted with them. When you go diving in some areas you find poo smelling effervescence coming from the sand. When I trekked up to Gunung Rinjani there was some great hot springs close to the crater rim. This helped to ease the pain of my aching limbs.
I have also done a lot of diving. But have few photos to show for it. I swam with a manta ray on one of my dives (Wa hoo!).
I have had many long bus trips traveling though Flores, Subawa Lombok and now Bali. Then I plan to travel to East Kalimantan and then on to Sulawesi next month. Although, the visa situation is an issue.
My sea level photography has been progressing well. This month I have been bracketing a lot more shots, so I have been able to process a lot more in high dynamic range (HDR). I have also had more processing power so I have re-processed some of my photos from last month.
Darwin to Dilli
First photos for this trip, two months after I departed Newcastle, Australia.
Its taken a long time to find a decent internet café.
So I sailed to
I have been discovering from experience that the Indonesian government is trying to destroy its own tourist industry.
Then I spent a bit of time in the surprisingly exciting hole of Kupang. Then deep into the highlands of a small village called "Fatumnasi".
Fatumnasi was high (1500m) and cold. But the local houses had fires inside that kept things warm, if not asphyxiatingly smoky. I was lucky to stay with a family for a couple of days, learning the language and culture.
Then north the East Timorese enclave of Oecussi where I met up again with Chris Walsh from "Caritas"(NGO). I spent the next couple of days traveling around on field trips to small and remote villages in the area. I ended up spending a lot of time in the UN compound drinking too much.
It has been quite an incredible start to this journey.
The Aim Of The Journey
The Aim of this journey is to travel round the world by Land and Sea without the usage of air travel.
The route will start in Australia and include Philippines, Tibet, England, Canada and Chili. Africa may be included too (depending on circumstances at the time of travel)
I will probably spend 5-10 years on this journey. This includes time spent working abroad.
Why? With increasing scarcity of the worlds natural resources, the imminent threat of climate change, population overgrowth, and now a world wide economic crisis. To quote Jim Morrison; “I wanna have my kicks before the whole sh*thouse goes up in flames!”
To prevent such a long journey being "anti sociable" to friends and family, I will take diversions from the main route using air travel. Example; for my brothers wedding.
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