Brunei Darussalam

After two ferry rides today, Dave and I are now in the tiny country of Brunei. Brunei is tucked between the northern and southern provinces of Malaysian Borneo. It is a very small and very wealthy country that is on our route as we travel southwest along Malaysia. We will only spend a couple days here before we move on, and we will likely spend our time checking out some lavish museums and mosques.

Food and Water

Our first step out of the cab and into the hostel gave me a very good feeling about the food here in Malaysia and it hasn't disappointed since. The restaurant right below our hostel has wonderful smelling and tasty food. Their is a certain ethnic diversity that coexists peacefully in Malaysia and makes it a little different than the other places we have visited. Islam is popular in this country bringing with it different food and culture. There is a large portion of restaurants that sell Indian food or a least foods that have been derived from Indian fare. I have yet to walk somewhere in Kota Kinabalu and not be enticed by the delicious smell of curries wafting from nearby restaurants or night markets. One night we went to the night market and got a grilled fresh tuna steak with a curry sauce, not something I would have thought of but very delicious. We have also happily wandered back into roti (fried flat bread) country. Instead of having banana and chocolate sauce roti that we had in Thailand there is a coconut jam called kaya that is very tasty. There are also savory roti here. We had a vegetable and egg roti that came with curry sauce and took roti to a whole new level. Next on the list we ate a nice Chinese meal of savory pork soup and a bowl of rice at the restaurant I was describing earlier that is below our hostel and always smells good as we walk by. Overall the food here is among the best we have had anywhere on our travels.

When we moved from the Philippines the weather was starting to get a little wet but somehow after a one hour flight we were to move into the dryer season of Malaysia. I'm still not sure how that works but it so far hasn't. After expressing concern about how wet it must get in the wet season to Marina she mentioned that the guide book refers to the fact that even though its the dry season. There is less of a wet/dry season here and it can pretty much rain anytime of the year. So far that has been the case with rain and sometimes heavy rain coming most afternoons. We have gotten used to carrying our rain gear with us most days when we head out for the day. Today we went to visit one of the near by Islands and have a beach day. We packed for trip the same as we do for most days. I brought my rain jacket and Marina brought her umbrella. We intended to get an early start which turned into a late morning start after a longer than normal breakfast talking with another hostel member who was debating climbing the summit of mount Kinabalu and then we took a stop at the market to pick up some food for the day. We ended up on the boat just before noon and planed to return around four. Around two o'clock it started to rain and we took shelter at a food restaurant and had a warm drink to wait out the rain. The rain slowed up for a while but didn't look like it was going away so when the boat company found us on the Island and offered us an earlier boat we decided to take it. We debated changing from our bathing suits but thought it could be a wet ride and why get more clothes than necessary wet. Wet was an understatement. I think the drier option may have been to swim back from the Island. As we waited for our boat the rain picked up began blowing under the shelter and getting us wet before our boat even arrived. By the time the boat arrived it was raining very hard and Marina said she had to put a towel over her face because the rain drops were hurting her face as the boat sped across the water. The rain continued as we crossed the ocean back to Kota Kinabalu driving under the canopy that was really only protecting a section of ocean next to the boat as the rain was coming down at a sharp angle. Just when we thought we couldn't get wetter the boat would spray up after a big wave then the wind would carry the boat's wave over us and the whole boat would yell out. There was a mixture of some people enjoying the wet ride while others were certainly not. When we arrived back at the harbor in Kota Kinabalu we climbed out of our boat as wet as I have possibly ever been but happy to have found our way back to land in the rain. We then walked back to our hostel in the rain deciding there is now way we could get any wetter that we already were. The nice thing about rain here is it can be a welcome change from the heat and when you are soaked to the bone and walking home you don't have to worry about freezing.

Beaurocrats

It is our last day in the Philippines and we have planed to send a package of souvenirs home because we don't want to be charged extra for overweight luggage this afternoon when we fly to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo. David asks the helpful staff at our hotel where we can find a post office and we are happy to discover that there is a post office within an easy walking distance. We gather up our goodies and head for the post office. At the post office I approach the lady at the parcel counter.

"I want to send a package to Canada" I say.

"Where is it?"

"Here" I hold up my bag of things I want to send home.

"It's not packed." The lady looks at me disapprovingly.

"No"

"We don't have boxes."

"Is there somewhere nearby where we can get a box?"

"Roxas"

"Where is Roxas?"

"Beside Mercury Drugs"

"Where is Mercury Drugs?"

"Beside the doughnut shop." The lady looks at me and purses her lips. We are in a strange town and she has given no actual indication of the direction we should take to find Roxas and a box for our package. We decide that we are unlikely to get any more help here and head towards the main street. On the way out the door David says "What kind of post office doesn't have a box?" We actually find Roxas with no trouble at all and are amazed when the man there measures our things then takes a flat piece of cardboard and makes it into a box that fits everything perfectly in about a minute. We head back to the post office with our newly packed package. The lady is much more friendly now. She invites us to sit behind her desk while she weighs our box. 1.38 kilograms. She quotes a price. A very high price. I say:

"Can we send it surface?"

"I'm not sure we can do that. It would be very slow. Three or four months"

"That's OK. We don't go home until October. It will still beat us home."

"We couldn't track it" says the man at the next desk over.

"That's OK" I say.

The lady looks irritated and begins to look through a stack of papers. She quotes a price. I much nicer price. We pay the lady. She continues looking through papers.

"You have to pay the higher price." Says the lady (a little triumphantly in my opinion).

"Why?"

"It is too light"

"Pardon me?"

"It's too light. You have to pay for airmail. We can't send packages surface unless they weigh two kilograms." She pauses. "You could put more in the box."

"If I put more in the box it will cost less to send it?"

"Yes"

"Can I just pay you for two kilograms and send it like this?"

"No, it needs to be two kilograms."

"Can I put a rock in the box?"

The lady looks at me disapprovingly. "I think you would rather send a souvenir. You could buy something at Roxas."

As we are leaving to buy something to add to our package so it will be less expensive to mail it to Canada, the lady says:

"We're closed for lunch between twelve and one."

When we get to the street, I glance at David. I think he is scanning the ground for rocks. After lunch David and I return with some treats purchased at a nearby grocery store and add inexpensive candies until our box weighs exactly two kilograms and the lady says she can now mail it to Canada for us. We head for the airport triumphant.

At the airport we go through security, check our bags, pay the departure tax, and go through immigration without incident. We go around the corner and find that we have to go through another security check. We put our shoes and carry on bags on the conveyor belt then walk through the metal detector. Once through the detector the lady working there decides I look suspicious and feels me down. Apparently criminals store something dangerous in their bras. I walk over to pick up my bag. The lady by the x-ray machine looks at me disapprovingly:

"You have an umbrella in your bag." She says accusingly.

"Yes" I say.

"You have to pack umbrellas in your checked baggage."

"Oh" I say as I wonder how you could hijack a plane using a small folding umbrella. I pull the offending polka dot umbrella from my bag. "What should I do now?"

"You can go back to the check in counter and put it in your bag."

"My bag is gone."

"They will find it for you."

We turn to head back to the first desk. The security guard stops us and says David can't go back. I walk alone through the metal detector with my bag, setting off the alarm as I go. It takes them a long time to find my bag. I feel bad. As I am waiting I notice a list of items that are not allowed in carry on baggage. Umbrellas are on the list. The list is only displayed on counters that are not in use. When the luggage guy returns with my bag I apologetically put my umbrella in the bag and return to the security counter. This time I get through with no trouble at all. When I get to where David is sitting he says:

"She stole more umbrellas while you were gone."

We walk to the waiting area.

"I'm thirsty." I say "Do you see where I can get some water?"

"Here, I still have some." David says as he passes me his water bottle. David made it through security twice with half a bottle of water (and we all know how criminals like to drink water while they fly), but I am stopped for a silly umbrella.

Our flight was uneventful, and we have safely arrived in Malaysia.

Interesting things found in Philippines

The Philippines has been a great stop on our travels. With it not being connected to other popular South East Asia travel destinations there is a lot less tourism in the areas we have traveled and I think this applies to the whole country in general. Sometimes I find myself doing a double take when we pass other white people. We have received a warm welcome at all houses we have visited and helpful people have helped us when we are lost or need help. In contrast, we both have had blatant but failed pick pocket attempts. The efforts of some to reuse dish/bath/rain water as toilet water and turning all vegetable waste into compost at the farm contrasts the actions of others when we have seen plastic containers being thrown out the window of vehicles. In certain areas trash lines the streets and pathways. We were once in a grocery store and placed our cloth reusable bag on top of our groceries. On the way out of the store we were confused to see that we had received a plastic bag with our cloth bag packed neatly inside. Not really our intended result. We both think it's strange that it is acceptable here for men and children to pee on just about any wall or structure they can find. Just before writing this post we saw a man peeing on the rear wheel of a jeepney (local public transportation). The jeepneys are fun looking but they expel huge amounts of stinky exhaust as they pass and we learned this could be the fuel here contains lead. Christianity is huge in the Philippines. Religious slogans and icons fill the streets, homes, and public transportation vehicles. My favorite wacky slogan was in the jeepneys some had a sign that said "God knows Judas not pay". One of the buses we rode on had this picture of superhero Jesus.

I enjoyed seeing the way native culture was celebrated. During the election victory party of a local congressman there was traditional dress and dancing as well as other non traditional performances. There has also been an abundance of flowers blooming on almost every stop in our travels perhaps because it's the beginning of rainy season. Despite some unpleasant experiences there is beauty to be found both in the people and the nature of the Philippines.

Rice Terraces

The northern Philippines is known for its impressive rice terraces.
The rice terraces are one of those things that you just can't come to
this part of the world and not take the time to go see. David and I
decided that we would go to Banaue and Batad: two towns that are very
well known for their spectacular displays of rice terraces. The rice
terraces in this area were built more than two thousand years ago with
gravity fed irrigation systems that looked to be still in use today.
At Banaue the terraces are visible from the highway. We walked from
town up the highway for two kilometers to the viewpoint. The scenery
here is stunning. The rice terraces are sculpted into the sides of the
mountains in graceful curving lines. At the viewpoint old people
waited wearing traditional costumes in the hopes that tourists would
give them a few pesos in exchange for a posed picture or two. I made
David photograph a group of particularly cute ladies who were finding
the rainy afternoon chilly and wearing toques under their head dresses
and jackets over the rest of their costumes. The next day dawned
bright and sunny (and hot). We hired a tricycle to take us to the
Batad junction. A tricycle is a motorcycle with a cute little side car
that (sort of) fits two. The road was rough and steep. As a result the
pace of our journey was quite slow. When we got to the junction we
gratefully hauled our battered bodies out of the tricycle and set out
for a fairly demanding, but beautiful, two hour hike to get to Batad.
In Batad we found a very nice guesthouse with great views of the
terraces. In Batad the terraces are in the shape of a giant
amphitheater. The acoustics are great; in the evening one house put on
their radio and everyone in town listened to the music (it's OK though
because everyone in town - probably in most of the Philippines - would
choose to listen to country music). I forgot to mention in my last
post about our trip to Sagada that on our six hour bus trip we
listened to possibly every Garth Brooks song ever released - even some
Christmas ones. You may be interested to know that yes, there are
enough Garth Brooks songs to last for most of a six hour bus trip.
Another interesting fact about music in southeast Asia is that no one
is shy about singing aloud whenever and where ever they feel like it.
Sometimes they sing along with the radio, but many times they just
sing. I'm a little concerned that we might be picking up this habit
and one day will get some very funny looks when we start singing on
the c-train. On the topic of music, the Philippines is a very
Christian country. We were in a major mall today and the music they
were playing loudly throughout the mall was Christian pop. Dave says
he even noticed they were playing "As the Deer" in the coffee shop. In
Batad we went hiking on the terraces. I don't know if you have
noticed, but rice terraces are steep. We walked up and down an
unfathomable number of stairs. We climbed up as high as we could to
see the terraces from the top then we went down one very long flight
of stairs to see a really lovely waterfall at the bottom of the
valley. By the end of the day I was exhausted. We went to bed very
early and were up very early the next morning to hike back out in time
to catch the 9:00 jeepney back to Banaue.

Off to Sagada

Yesterday we took the bus north to Sagada. The trip is only 150 kilometers, but because of the incredibly steep and winding roads it takes around six hours. For much of the trip we were surrounded in thick fog and could only see the occasional black and white silhouette of a pine tree. From time to time the fog would lift like the red velvet curtain at the beginning of a play and reveal mountainsides covered with magnificent pine forests, or, more often, the giant, emerald stairs of vegetable or rice terraces. Once I saw a giant billboard listing the ten commandments lest some traveler forget them on his or her journey and fall into sin. We passed places where part of the road had fallen down the hill leaving a big gash in the highway. There were also places where the rocks from recent landslides needed to be lifted from the road for our bus to pass.

When we arrived in Sagada we found a quaint touristy town that reminds us a bit of Waterton. There are nice restaurants, great scenery, and souvenir shops selling locally made crafts. We found a very nice guesthouse to stay in, and we plan to spend a few days here.