Borneo - Kuching

From Bali I flown to Kuching - Borneo. I had really high expectations on Borneo and was super exited to get there. Borneo has a lot of Jungle and national parks all over the Island and they are home for one of the richest population of wild animals and birds in the world. An other reason to go there, was that its not that touristic like other countries in Asia. But it son figured out that traveling in Borneo is not as easy as in Indonesia. Everything is much slower here, you need to get used to wait. Its not usual here to go by scooter, most people here own a car ore go by bus. So its not easy to find a scooter for rent as well and the buses are driving when they are full and without a timetable. It can be really frustrating to get up at 6 am to be early at your destination and then to wait about one ore two hours till the bus is full. Also the most things here are only possible with a guid and guide are expensive, especially when you are traveling on a budget. 

The forests and the national parks are really beautiful. Especially now, because its raining season and everything is super green. When you are walking through the rain forests you can proverbial feel that everything around you is living. You here screams, twitters and all kind of sounds all the time. But spotting an wild animal in the forest here is about same as challenging as it is in the forests in Europe. The animals and birds are really shy and can sense you coming way faster than you can spot them. On my first day in the forests I was so lucky to see a wild peacock. The next three days I saw not a single slug. But obviously something saw me, because I detected a bite on me left leg when I went to the shower back in the hostel. I got constantly better with my sneaking skills. The first days I had more in common with a hippo. But after a few days I managed to move less noisy through the forests and on my fourth day I saw a group of about six orang-utans. One big male and a few smaller ones, even a mother with a baby. 

To spend the day in a rain forest can be really exhausting some times. You are sweating a lot because of the high humidity and and its raining every 20 minutes. I guess thats what a rain first supposed to do, but after a week I had enough. So due to this and to the fact that its really hard to move around, its was hard to keep up my motivation to spend an hour ore more every day on my laptop researching. And most times your well conceived plan is worth nothing in the practice. 

Don't get me wrong, Borneo is beautiful, you just have to learn to be patient. 

I am in Miri now and going to explore the area here, before I flight to Bangkok on 29. November.