Yum yum eat 'em up!

At this moment in time I am sitting at a computer terminal at a hostel in the heart of Kota Kinabalu, the largest city in the Malaysian province of Sabah on the island of Borneo. Borneo is incredible, the people are friendly and almost everyone speak english to some extent, making travel extremely easy (this is true of everywhere I have been in Malaysia) but the culture is different enough that its an adventure just walking around.

I don't have too too long to spend writing as I have to pay for this terminal but I will leave with a few highlights of the past 10 days in Malaysia.

- Met up with Meagan, a friend from way back home in my Tim Horton's days. We made it to the hostel from the airport when she realized that she had lost her passport, all her plane tickets, and her ID card to allow her to work in Korea. We spent a stressful couple hours looking around Kuala Lampur before returning to the hostel and having the taxi driver show up not too much later with the passport and everything intact.

- Was hassled by a man selling bootlegged DVDs in a night market after having just remarked on how considerate people were when you said no, they just left you alone. Not so this fella, I thought I had a perfect out when I said I was travelling and didn't have a dvd player, when he volunteered to find me a dvd player and tv to watch my movies on. Eventually he gave up, but only to reappear 20 minutes later as we were leaving. He didn't stick around that long, but I apparently need to learn a lot more about dealing with people in markets.

- I missed my flight from Kuala Lampur to Kota Kinabalu and had to buy a brand new ticket.

- I travelled to Danum Valley Field Centre, a station out in the largest continuous forest in Sabah (a state in Malaysian Borneo) where I found my camping facilities to be quite nice, however I was alone in the woods. And when you are camping alone in the rainforest where there are bears and elephants, and leopards, and cobras, etc, etc, you really do feel quite alone out there. Oh, and 2 of the 4 bathroom stalls were homes to the largest spiders I have ever seen in the wild, easily the size of my fist.

- While travelling to breakfast my first full day I spotted some pig tailed Macaques (see photo below), and made the mistake of trying to see if what I was looking at in the forest was a monkey or a log. Apparently my obvious staring was taken as aggression and I was charged. Luckily my first reaction was to sprint the opposite direction, as these guys have been know to attack people and are considered quite aggressive.



- I saw a wild Orangutan!

- Also saw, a bearded pig (which blocked my way to breakfast one morning), red leaf monkeys, samba deer, mouse deer, 3 different types of centipedes (all very large), a malay civet, the emperor cicada, a massive hornbill, the largest monitor lizard I have ever seen, and heard some gibbons. Not a bad haul.

- Realized that I paid less for my entire week, including food, guides, internet access, accomodation, and taxi to get to and from the centre, than I would have for 1 night in the lodge an hour down the road.

And now I am done, because I have hit a half hour and I need to go get some food from the market. Tomorrow to Kuala Lampur, then South Africa, then to Madagascar!

I will talk to you in a while.

The end of Australia.

So its been a while, I am aware. I was down in Tasmania, out in the wilds of the North West Coast, where there was no internet, so I couldn't update. But you can all breathe easy now, cause here's an update.

As I mentioned, when you last heard from me I was heading to Tasmania. I flew out of the Melbourne airport and in my rush made a very unwise move, and got food from Hungry Jacks (Burger King). In a normal situation I would never do this, I rate Burger King significantly lower on the taste and quality of product scale than even McDonalds. But it was all there was and I was very hungry. So I got some, and subsequently got a mean case of food poisoning. Or swine flu, or Ebola, or something that made me feel quite sick for a while. Luckily the nausea and headaches ended quite quickly, however the intensely sore throat lasted for at least a week.

But I stuck it out and headed up North to help with the Save the Tasmanian devil program, monitoring how far the Facial Tumor Disease has spread since the last survey. It was a great experience, and got to see practically all the animals that I could have wanted to (the exception being the platypus) wild and free, and I got to visit places that tourists to Tasmania tend not to visit (ie: clear cut forests - which is essentially all of Northern Tasmania, and a mining camp - where I was surprised to find a large proportion of young 20 somethings, and a large proportion of females. Not at all matching my preconceived ideas that miner were burly middle aged men, apparently they are all burly 20 year old girls).



My crew was made of 3 people, Drew - the team leader, Clair - the assistant, and me - the volunteer. We only caught a single devil with disease, which was great in that it didn't seem to have spread much, and great that I didn't see any really traumatic sights (apparently its really nasty when you see it). However, the other 2 teams which were further north and east, caught a bunch of diseased devils.



After the devil program we headed home to Hobart, where I stayed with Drew for a night. That day I headed out to the Hobart Museum and watched a video on the rigours of Antarctic research and proceeded to return to Drew's to find one of the people interviewed in the movie to be in the kitchen. We then had a nice little conversation where I was told that winters in Canada are far worse than anything they had experienced in Antartica (mind you, it was coastal and in the summer) and they were all impressed with my eyelid freezing shut over my eye story.

Hobart was a nice little place, although quite cold without heating in any building. I toured around for a while, however nothing too too exciting happened while there, so I will save you the time and not write about it.

After Hobart I flew into Melbourne and was lucky enough to stumble upon the opening ceremonies of the Arts Festival where there were a number of free events going on around the town. I was able to see some incredible shows that involved people playing bells on extremely bendy stilts, and then people playing drums and bells dressed in jester costumes while spinning and suspended a good 30 meters from the ground.



Melbourne is a great city, and I would advise anyone going to Australia to budget more time in Melbourne than in any of the other cities (at least those that I visited). There are plenty of little side streets (called arcades) full of coffee shops and interesting little shops to look into. Plus there are lots of free things to do. And a pretty impressive market.

But now I am back in Wollongong and I fly out to Malaysia tomorrow afternoon. I got a surprise a few days ago when I found out that my friend from back home, who now lives in Korea, was able to get a week off and in coming down to Malaysia with me! Much nicer traveling with people than on your own. So as the plan stands, 10 days in Malaysia (with 5 days spent in the wilds of Borneo at the Danum Valley Conservation Center searching for wild Orangutans) and then a one night stop-over in Christopher Cornish's old house in Jo-burg South Africa, then on to Madagascar. In 2 weeks time I will be at my destination in Beza Mahafaly. I have no idea where the last month went.

I'll make sure I get something typed up after Malaysia and before Madagascar, just don't expect anything for about 10 days.

Ayden

I wanted to see the outback....

So this has been quite an eventful week.

When I last left you I was leaving to call my host for the next 2 days down in Brisbane. They weren't there. So I was forced to wander around the city for about 2 more hours with my massive pack on before they finally picked up the phone. I took the bus down and when I got there I had a bit of a surprise. Now, I know that people who do couch surfing are a certain type, not too reserved, almost a bit hippyish. Well, I guess these people took that to the next level. The house had 15 people staying in it while I was there. 10 permanent residents and 5 couch surfers (one of whom had been there for 3 months - so the line between permanent and non was a little blurry). And apparently this was one of the slow times, they said that at one point in time, in addition to paying permanent residents they had 28 couch surfers staying. Well, I set my stuff down on my matress (the one right near the door, that didn't lock and the window beside was smashed out) and set about trying to find someone who lived there. It turned out that they were all really great people (although involved in perhaps a few too many illegal things), and there was even a zoologist that lived there that told me all about the various things that can sting and bite you in Australia. After talking with them for a few hours I decided that I would head out to the city and do some site seeing, making sure to take all my important and expensive things with me - not that the people that lived there would take them, but I couldn't be so sure of the dozens of people that were coming and going constantly.

Brisbane is a cool city, its got some nice architecture and a bit to do if your a tourist. I ended up just wandering around for a few hours and visiting the botanical gardens to see if there were any bats. There weren't but there were tons of water dragon lizards and tons and tons of people. I went back to my "house" and they were beginning to make supper. The tradition in that house, since there are so many people, that you pitch in a couple bucks and they will make up some food for you. Well that night the resident Italian, who also happened to be a professional chef, was making roast pork and lamb with yam and beans. Surprising classy in a house that I wasn't certain if it was owned or a squat.

The next day a few people were heading down to the coast to do some surfing. I tagged along with them and we went do about 15 minutes past surfers paradise to a less populated beach. I didn't go surfing, there was only 1 board and I didn't want to go out on my own with no practice. I did however go swimming, and I have never swam in such massive waves (small by aussie standards, massive for lake erie standards), the entire time keeping an ever vigilant eye for sharks.

After the beach we went to a night market, pretty interesting, but nothing too exciting. The best thing was that the food there was actually of a reasonable price, unlike the rest of Australia.

The next day I was picked up by my next hosts, a couple that lived in about 10 minutes from where I was staying the night before. They brought me back to their apartment, where I dropped my stuff and we headed out to the Belgian Beer Club where one of my hosts lab partners was celebrating his successful completion of his PhD. Now remember how I just said that Australian food is expensive? Well while there I got a pint of Hoegaarden or however you spell it. Normally a decently expensive beer, well apparently its half price in Canada cause mine came to $15. For one pint. It was an enjoyable night, there was a great deal of drinking (apparently no one else was disturbed by the pricing there - I stuck to my single pint) and things were moved to a different bar, or at least attempted, as no one would let them in cause they were too drunk. So I left with my hosts and went to sleep.

The next day they both had to either work or go to school, so I headed out to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary on my own. An interesting little place, not too big, but containing essentially only Australia animals. I got to see my first Koalas, wombats, dingos, tasmanian devils, and I think very briefly my first Echidna. No platypus though, however I was able to feed some kangaroos and hold a koala.



Thats night we went out and had a bbq at Kangaroo point and then went outdoor rock climbing up the cliff face there. I have never been rock climbing before, and I have quite a strong fear of heights, so I was a little apprehensive. But I tried, twice. It looks significantly easier while on the ground, looking at the bumps in the rocks you picture that the hand and foot holds are a good 20 cm, but when you get up there, you have about enough space to slip your finger tips in and thats it. The first time I went up I got about halfway. About 15 feet up. Not very impressive at all, but it seemed much higher than it actually was while I was up there. The second time I decided to be slightly more risky and but some more faith in the rope holding me up and I was able to make it all the way up to the top. It was incredibly fun, even if I was quite bad at it and frightened, and the view off across the Brisbane river to the city centre was great.



Afterwards I headed out of Brisbane early in the morning for the 2 full day trip out to Broken hill, my adventure into the outback. On the bus ride up I met CJ from Pennslyvania who was planning on staying at the same hostel as I was. Broken hill itself was nothing too exciting, its the largest city for hours and hours around and its surrounded by near desert. We spent the first day exploring the city, visited the main mine that was the reason the city existed (200 billion dollars of material mined from it) and went up and down the streets. That night there was a dust storm, or what I thought was a dust storm. The power went out for a couple hours and the entire city shut down as we found out when we tried to get something to eat. Eventually it came on and we made some food back at the hostel. But the real dust storm was to happen the next day.

CJ and I decided to rent a car and head out to Silverton the next day. Silverton is a ghost town from the 1800s about 25km from Broken hill. Its got a few houses and a couple artist studios, and was the base for the Mad Max 1 and 2 movies. The only bar has Max's car out front in the parking lot. The town was really cool to wander around, it really felt like you were in the middle of nowhere. We spent a few hours there wandering around checking out the houses and digging for treasure. Well, that was more CJ, I went looking for kangaroos and found 2, which I chased around for a while trying to get some good pictures. We left Silverton and headed out to White Cliffs, an opal mining community 300 km away. We arrived into town with the gas light on riding on fumes, and filled it up in the only gas station in town. White Cliffs is, in my opinion, the closest I could get to an actual wild west frontier town. It had a single restaurant/store/gas station across from the only bar/hotel which is run by a man that serves as the bar tender, the man in charge of coordinating emergency plans, and the only pilot.

White cliffs is known for the fact that due to the intense heat in the summer the opal miners turned their old mines into houses. So many of the buildings are invisible except for a door in the side of a hill. Now, if there is anyone still with me, is where the story gets interesting. We were talking to some old opal miners on the outskirts of town, about 1 kilometer from our car. As we talked I saw that the sky behind their house was starting to get quite dark. We attempted to leave so that we could get back to our car before the storm came but, despite agreeing with us, they continued talking, this continued until the storm was essentially on top of us. CJ and I ran from the house and by the time we hit the road leading to town we couldn't see 10 feet in front of us. The wind was so strong that it was picking us small stones and smacking them into us, and the dust was getting into our eyes and mouths. At some point in time CJ turned around to get me and we passed each other without knowing it. Once I realized that I couldn't see CJ anymore I stopped at which point he came out of the dust and smashed into me. We continued to run down the road where CJ jumped over a fence which I didn't see and ran right into it, pulling it down with me. We made it back to the car, and eventually made it down to the local bar where we got a room for the night. Apparently the dust storm that we were caught in essentially the eye of out in the middle of nowhere, was the largest in living memory and the next day covered Sydney with a thick layer of dust. But in the meantime CJ and I spent an interesting night getting to experience what true outback life was actually like. We talked for a few hours to a local miner, who was undoubtedly the most racist man I have ever met. Who felt like the United states wasn't doing its duty to maintain the white man's supremacy. How could they do their duty? By nuking all of China, and Africa, thats what. He felt like Barack Obama (aka: Eric Cabana as he called him) needed to be shot. He didn't much like it when I told him that if I was in the US I would have voted for Barack. But luckily he was drunk so he soon forgot. Oh, and I forgot to mention, in the 70s he murdered someone. After this fella went to sleep and everyone could breath slightly easier, I got to talking to some of the others in the bar, and as it turned out they were all stuck in town too. We talked for an hours of two and I went to sleep in my dust covered bed.



The next day the skies cleared and we drove back to broken hill, where we relaxed for the rest of the day and I did some light sightseeing with a German couple from the Hostel (light sightseeing consists of walking 4 km to see a mosque that was actually closed, to do the 4 kms back). We watched some Mad Max and backed up our stuff to head out at 4 am that morning for the 19 hours of traveling back that I had to eventually make it to Wollongong.

And thats that. That was waaaaay too long. If you've made it through to the end, congrats, I wouldn't have. Tonight two of Teresa's friends are having a birthday party and its the last day before a week long holiday, so it should be a good night. Perhaps next post will either come sooner, and therefore less will have happened, or I'll edit slightly. We'll see. Next week is Tasmania.

You think that's a knife?

Well, I made it to Australia safe and sound, despite the 35 hours of travelling time (that includes stop over time in airports). The trip over was a strange mix, the 13 hour flight from Chicago to Tokyo was cramped and uncomfortable, stuck between a grumpy old man and a confused little child, I couldn't sleep or get comfortable. I was dropped off in Tokyo at the airport, quite groggy and very dissoriented. I wanted to make sure I had something Japanese to eat in Japan, but I only had a choice between a couple coffee shops and single cafeteria. So I chose the caf. I got a prawn tempura and noodle bowl, which was both expensive and not particularly tasty. But the surprise for the meal was the fact that, over the speakers in the restaurant, I heard the same Beyonce song repeated 7 or 8 times. It was the only song they played the entire time I was in there. No one else seemed to notice it (or at least, no one said anything I could understand, but that might be because they were speaking Japanese. But on the flight out to Sydney, I was placed into a first class seat, complete with a fancy tv and plenty of leg space.

I got into Sydney early on in the morning and was picked up by my friend Teresa to go back to her rez down in Wollongong. On the train ride I was explained all the various rules to Cricket and the differences between football, aussie rules, and rugby (I think those are the three) by an Australia biochem prof, an old englishman, and an eldery italian couple who gave me the phone number of their relatives in Canada so that I can stop in if I am ever in the area.

The country here is incredible. The culture is remarkably similar to Canada but the tree and animals are completely different. There are pine trees that grow right next to palm trees, but both are full of macaques and parrots. I've already seen some dolphins one day when I was down at the beach, and got to see hundreds upon hundreds of flying foxes in the Sydney botanical gardens. I tried to stir some up by knocking a tree they were on, but instead they all just woke up and stared at me, which was kindof unnerving.



But right now I'm in the Queensland state library, just checking to see if there were any messages from my couchsurfing hosts. Which there weren't. So now its off to find a phone and give them a call so that I can meet up with some locals and ditch my massive pack.

Ayden

The magical mystery island tour.

To those of you that don't know, I am about to head out on a trip around the planet. The whole thing started as a result of getting a job down in Madagascar assisting PhD research on the ring tailed lemur, and snowballed from there as a result of getting an MNR job that actually paid. I decided to visit Australia beforehand. Then when booking flights I realized that it was slightly cheaper to spend a while in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. So I decided to spend a weekend there. But then I thought, no way am I going to not go to Borneo if I'm in Malaysia, so I looked into how much it cost to get and stay in Borneo. Turns out its quite easy and cheap. So I decided to spend 10 days there. Then I found out that two of my friends are planning to go to the World Cup in South Africa, at a time that is reasonably close to when I will be there. So they invited me along, and I extended my planned stay in Madagascar by 3 months to accomodate (now, not sure if I will be able to spend 3 months in Mada alone, but that will be determined once I arrive). So that leaves me with 5 months on the job in Mada and then 3 months travelling around, then about 2 weeks in South Africa for the World Cup. And then on to England and the rest of Europe for an undetermined amount of time.



And thats my next year. It should be incredible. I am going to update this blog as often as I can, which may not be that often as internet is about 5 hours away by ox cart while in Madagascar.

I leave tomorrow. I'll see you all in a year.

Ayden Sherritt