Tuesday, August 22, 2006
i think i'm being hesitant about posting my photos for two reasons. one, because i'm lazy, and two, because they are crap.
so instead (while i stuff around uploading them) i'll bore you with stupid travel tales.
the trip over was quite interesting. with even less than my usual pathetic lack of attention to detail, i didn't even realise that i had to pass through another country to get to borneo. actually what i really didn't know was that borneo is divided into 3 countries. indonesia to the south, malaysia to the north, and a tiny bit on the mid west coast for brunei. so when we landed in brunei i thought i could just change all my american dollars (i was told to convert to american first, presumably so the money changers could get their cut twice) into brunei ringgits. but i was told they wouldn't work where we were going. more confused than usual i didn't change them.
fortunately the shops in the brunei transit lounge took american dollars. unfortunately twisties are not necessarily normal twisties. the first two packets were too spicy for me, i finally found a cheese variety that was just crap. fortunately i won't remember brunei forever just because of crap twisties, but exotic souvenier shops and beautiful ornaments. unfortunately the most beautiful were made from elephant or rhinocerous horns. killing a big animal just for it's horns is a bit nasty for me. if you're gonna eat it, and it's not endangered then i'd probably be ok with it. but my limited knowledge says that's not how it works.
anyway, the people were very friendly and helpful. imagine if a malaysian or brunei-ian person came to oz and didn't speak the lingo, they wouldn't get very far. the dunnies weren't so good. maybe it's a cultural thing, but i don't feel like picking up a hose that's laying on the floor of the dunny and hosing my bum off with it. besides thinking that i'd end up looking like i'd been hit by an upside down mini-squall, i wasn't real keen on picking up some hose that was laying on the floor in the dunny! it's probably not that bad once you get used to it and know what you're doing, but i was suffering information overload at the airport, i settled for the one with the paper roll, even if it looked a bit grubby. in malaysia when i came across a few really nasty ones, i just figured i'd wait until we found another.
heh, travel. travel the world, find interesting dunnies.
anyway, we then caught a flight to kota-kinabalu. i think kota means city and kinabalu is the name of a mountain nearby. it was a nice joint. again there were friendly people and despite our hotel undergoing a bit of renovation, the staff were nice. they stayed up late to give us dinner and some tiger beers. and they got up early to give us brekkie, check us out, and ferry us back to the airport.
the whole airport-bus-hotel thingo seemed a bit disorganised. but they didn't panic and it seemed to work out ok. so i wasn't worried.
i'll leave the next day's travel for another days post. might as well draw it out and bore you for days :-)
so instead (while i stuff around uploading them) i'll bore you with stupid travel tales.
the trip over was quite interesting. with even less than my usual pathetic lack of attention to detail, i didn't even realise that i had to pass through another country to get to borneo. actually what i really didn't know was that borneo is divided into 3 countries. indonesia to the south, malaysia to the north, and a tiny bit on the mid west coast for brunei. so when we landed in brunei i thought i could just change all my american dollars (i was told to convert to american first, presumably so the money changers could get their cut twice) into brunei ringgits. but i was told they wouldn't work where we were going. more confused than usual i didn't change them.
fortunately the shops in the brunei transit lounge took american dollars. unfortunately twisties are not necessarily normal twisties. the first two packets were too spicy for me, i finally found a cheese variety that was just crap. fortunately i won't remember brunei forever just because of crap twisties, but exotic souvenier shops and beautiful ornaments. unfortunately the most beautiful were made from elephant or rhinocerous horns. killing a big animal just for it's horns is a bit nasty for me. if you're gonna eat it, and it's not endangered then i'd probably be ok with it. but my limited knowledge says that's not how it works.
anyway, the people were very friendly and helpful. imagine if a malaysian or brunei-ian person came to oz and didn't speak the lingo, they wouldn't get very far. the dunnies weren't so good. maybe it's a cultural thing, but i don't feel like picking up a hose that's laying on the floor of the dunny and hosing my bum off with it. besides thinking that i'd end up looking like i'd been hit by an upside down mini-squall, i wasn't real keen on picking up some hose that was laying on the floor in the dunny! it's probably not that bad once you get used to it and know what you're doing, but i was suffering information overload at the airport, i settled for the one with the paper roll, even if it looked a bit grubby. in malaysia when i came across a few really nasty ones, i just figured i'd wait until we found another.
heh, travel. travel the world, find interesting dunnies.
anyway, we then caught a flight to kota-kinabalu. i think kota means city and kinabalu is the name of a mountain nearby. it was a nice joint. again there were friendly people and despite our hotel undergoing a bit of renovation, the staff were nice. they stayed up late to give us dinner and some tiger beers. and they got up early to give us brekkie, check us out, and ferry us back to the airport.
the whole airport-bus-hotel thingo seemed a bit disorganised. but they didn't panic and it seemed to work out ok. so i wasn't worried.
i'll leave the next day's travel for another days post. might as well draw it out and bore you for days :-)
