One of my frequent blog haunts is the one written by al. I enjoy his stories much and dream of travelling on weekend jaunts around some of the places he has been to. Apart from bieng a good writer / story teller, oldy is also an exceptional photographer. Check out his photo essays when you have time. I especially enjoyed the one on his trip to Lake Toba and it very high on my to-do lists when I can sneak a week off work. One of these days, I promise myself.

In a recent post, he mentioned this nice looking set of islands off the South coast of Singapore. Looks perfect for a weekend run out of the country and enjoy a day or two of camping and riding. Seems like a perfect way to go out there and enjoy the outdoors without obsessing over preparations. Must. Visit. A. Few. Islands. This. Year.

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Update: realized that the Grand daddy of exploring biking around Singapore has made a mention of Kundur too.

I have mentioned in my chronicles, I had taken a short vacation during christmas. The destination of choice was Bali, primarily due to the fact that it was a place I have never been to, I have a local friend there and it was cheap.

I had not done my research so was not sure what to expect, but I have heard that the place is swarming with hoards of aussie tourists and could get sleazy. Well that partially set my expectations and when I landed there and hung around Kuta, I for first hand sleaze showed on me. Not one to worry about these things (and given that I can easily integrate into local culture), I looked for the real Bali. After a couple of days of being trapped in the tourist mode, I managed to find it.

To experience the real Bali, one has to go out the regular haunts. I decided to go and visit an obscure waterfall near Tajakula. A place known to locals and very few tourists. I highly recommend going there, however it is not someplace everyone knows. I spent long time with a local driver to  figure out the bearings of this waterfall. Anyway, I digress and I will relay the story in another post.

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I would like to discuss the three tall (still active) volcanoes in the Central-East of the island. Gunung Abang is the least known as I suspect it is not attractive to ferry tourists there. However Abang is extremely reveared and famous among the locals and the ‘culture’ tourists. The most commercial is Batur as it is easy to get to and very congested with tourist traps. I longingly looked down the not so beaten path that leads to the lake below and imagined myself trekking there some day.

The three sisters from bali

I guess the gods decided to be nice to me when out of the blue (sic), I was shown this wonderful presentation of the three sisters in harmony. Well, a fulfilling trip to me is a trip with one picture I can come back to over and over and live the moment and this is it for me for Bali.

Recently, I was in Sabah, (east) Malaysia. The trip was long coming and the initial objective that we had (about a year back) was not met. However the trip was wonderful and well worth the time and effort.

The initial plan (about a year ago) was to climb Mt. Kinabalu. At that time, everything I knew about Malaysian Borneo was Mt. Kinabalu. I was not very aware of the geography nor did I know that Malaysia had two states in Borneo. General knowledge aside, I was not planning on doing anything other than climbing. The trip did not materialize and I setup another trip in November hoping to climb Mt. K again. But being me, I do not plan things until push comes shove and when shove came to kick me in the arse, I decided to check out the details for the climb.

To cut the story short, I needed to have booked a place in Laban Rata about mid way in the mountain and the vacancy is small and in high demand. I did not secure any place and the only other option I had (though very adventurous) was a bit too expensive. So the decision was made instead to fly in and bum around in Kota Kinabalu. KK is a nice little town with pretty friendly people and lots of human traffic in the main street. I stayed at a back packers lodge and went around town on day 1. But by the end of the day, we figured it might be better if we could explore outside town – primarily we were excited by the lush rain forest bordering the town.

A little bit of snooping around and chit chat with locals resulted in us renting a car and taking a nice 4 day road trip across the state.

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If anyone is interested, the green portion from KK to Telupid is hilly and chilly The roads are good and the drive is very enjoyable. The Blue stretch to Sandakan is reasonably flat and warm. The yellow road to Sukau is pretty bad once you turn off the highway. the roads are gravel and the scenery is nothing but palm plantations. The red portion is pretty special. It is a lovely river ride that we were very lucky to enjoy. I shall document some of the experiences here. Keep watching.

On a recent trip to Thailand, we decided to take a road trip from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and back. One thing about driving during trips is that it provides great flexibility in planning and scheduling – which means that you can set up ad-hoc visits to places you initially did not intend to visit.

We had planned to visit Kanchanaburi on the way out of Bangkok and it is a pleasant little town – though infested with tourists as is common all over Thailand. A little research led us to discovering a nice monastery called Wat Pa Luangta Maha Bua. I had seen a documentary on discovery channel about this place and how one of the monk’s came about to possess a tiger cub. Anyhow, after finding that the place was within reasonable distance from Kanchanaburi, we decided to head out there and possible see these magnificent cats in a non-zoo environment.

It was a worthy visit since between 1000-1300 Hrs, the tigers are brought out to an open area and visitors are allowed to get really close to them (with supervision of course). The acts looked well fed and happy having their siesta. Some of these fellers even got up and started moving around when people were near them – some of them even started playing with the keepers there. Pretty nice to see that even these wild beasts have a softer side.

If you get to visit Thailand, this is a good place to go to and donate some $$ to fund this project undertaken by the Wat.

What: Wat Pa Luangta Maha Bua aka. Tiger Temple
Where: Off Kanchanaburi, Thailand
Cost: About 200 THB per person.
How: Best by car, one can arrange day trips from Kanchanaburi town.
Place to stay: VN Guest house – good place, cheap stay and great food.