It was a 4-hour drive from Borneo Rainforest Lodge to Semporna where we hopped aboard the afternoon boat to Mabul Island. We’ve booked a couple days with Scuba Junkie Sipidan to go scuba diving there. Our cruise today was aboard one of the Scuba Junkie dive boats, serving today as a ferry. Here’s Mabul Island … Continue reading
One of the highlights at Borneo Rainforest Lodge is the Canopy Walk. The trailhead is about 1/2 mile up the road from the lodge at the top of a hill from which you climb up several stairs to a suspended walkway. The Canopy Walk used to be longer than it is now, linking five trees … Continue reading
The evening of our rafting trip we went for a night drive, looking for nocturnal wildlife. Right away we saw Bornean Sambar Deer, frozen in the light. Next was a sleeping bird, whose name I don’t remember. But I do remember the guy on the left: tarantula! About the size of my hand! Back at … Continue reading
Up early Saturday morning, we were ferried across the river for a 2.5-hour van ride to the town of Lahad Datu. There, we switched to a 4-wheel drive Landcruiser for another 2-hour drive to Borneo Rainforest Lodge in Danum Valley, deep in the heart of the Borneo rainforest. I booked this part of our trip … Continue reading
We were up at the crack of dawn Friday (I looked it up on the calendar; by this point I’ve totally lost track of what day it is). We were on a mission to find the Estuarine Crocodile, motoring slowly up a small tributary stream in search of one. Yunis was pretty sure we’d spot … Continue reading
We were up early our first full day at Sukau Rainforest Lodge, ready for a photo safari on the Kinabatangan. Almost immediately, we spotted a macaque. They’re all over the place here and relatively fearless. They can be a nuisance, and we were encouraged, should we come across any on the boardwalk, to avoid contact. … Continue reading
I left off at Sandakan where we saw the orangutans and sun bears being rehabilitated for repatriation into the forest. Now we’re going to see what animals we can find in the wild. In the afternoon of Wednesday, October 8, we left Sandakan Jetty for a boat ride up the Kinabatangan, the longest river in … Continue reading
We took two days to travel from Kuching to Sandakan, stopping to spend the night in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, at the Hyatt Centric hotel. Here’s the view from the restaurant at the top of the hotel. Air travel in this part of the world is notoriously unreliable, so caution and scheduling issues … Continue reading
Beginning with a day hike at Bako National Park, our time on the island of Borneo has been arranged by a travel agency, Borneo Ecotours. If you ever decide to visit Borneo, contact them. The guides they use and the lodgings they book have all been superb. Twenty-five miles from Kuching, Bako National Park is … Continue reading
The country of Malaysia came into being in 1963 as a consolidation of four former British territories: Malaya; Sarawak; Sabah; and Singapore, whose participation was short-lived, seceding after just two years to become an independent nation. As you can see from the map, below, the country today is split between “Peninsular Malaysia,” formerly Malaya (left), … Continue reading
In my last post I called Singapore an “island city-state,” by which I meant it is all three: an island; a city; and a nation. Singapore is a fully developed, urban country and one of the leading financial and high-tech capitals of the world. And yet it isn’t even as old as me. Singapore Island, … Continue reading
The island city-state of Singapore is 876 miles nearly due south of Bangkok, just 85 miles north of the equator. It sits at the southern tip of the Strait of Malacca, connecting the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea at a pinch point between Malaysia and Indonesia. Although it is not the only way … Continue reading
We enjoy being in the countryside while traveling, seeing every day life through the eyes of the common man. So, after spending a few days in the big city, we were ready for something less hectic: the train from Bangkok’s Thonburi Station to Kanchanaburi along the route of the famous Burma Railway. It’s only a … Continue reading
In my last post, I related the history of Thailand’s first 400 years, ending in 1767 with the Burmese invasion and siege of Ayutthaya. Once Ayutthaya fell, the kingdom disintegrated. The story continues by way of a local noble named Taksin who managed to make his way out of the city during the attack at … Continue reading
In order to better describe the culture and history of Thailand, I’m going to tell you about our first days in Bangkok in reverse order. On our second full day as tourists, we hired a guide and driver to take us north 50 miles to visit the Ayutthaya Historical Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site … Continue reading
Seven years ago (has it really been that long?) we spent nearly a month traveling the length of Vietnam. It was our first visit to Asia and an amazing trip. Vietnam is one of the more recent members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, known as ASEAN, an international organization – and formidable trading … Continue reading
When the internet first became a “thing” back in the 1980s, I could sign up for any service with my username being my first and last name, like “markulmer@aol.com.” As the years have gone by, however, I’ve discovered that there are a surprising number of people that share my name. So many that when I … Continue reading
We had our first misadventure of the trip on Sunday as we traveled by Shinkansen bullet train to Mishima, a city near the base of Mount Fuji. The bullet trains we’ve been on have all traveled at a speed of 170 mph. I was so busy writing my Miyajima blog post as we zipped along … Continue reading
Besides the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, there wasn’t much in Hiroshima of interest to us, so on Saturday we went on an excursion to Itsukushima Island, a short train ride along the coast to the southwest. Itsukushima Island is popularly known as Miyajima, which translated means “Shrine Island.” We scooted over to the JR Ferry … Continue reading
We left Kyoto on Friday for Hiroshima, a port city near the southwestern end of Honshu, the largest of the four main islands that make up Japan. Hiroshima’s sister city in the United States is Honolulu, symbolically linking the beginning and end of the Pacific theater of World War II. In Hiroshima city, we had … Continue reading
For our final day in Kyoto, we decided to visit the main tourist attraction, Kinkaku-ji, the Zen Buddhist Temple of the Golden Pavilion. The original Golden Pavilion was created in 1408, but it was burnt to the ground by a mad monk in 1950. A reproduction was built in 1955, complete with gold leaf covering … Continue reading
Having enjoyed our day out of Kyoto, we went on another excursion on Wednesday, this time to the city of Nara, 25 miles to the south. Nara was the capital of Imperial Japan from 710 to 784 A.D., the “Nara Period;” thereafter, the capital was moved to Kyoto where it remained until 1868. In 1998, … Continue reading
Two days in Kyoto visiting congested shrines and temples was enough to make us anxious to get out of the big city for a day. So on Tuesday, we got up early and took the train to the northwestern outskirts of Kyoto for a day outdoors. From the JR Saga-Arashiyama Station, we walked west through … Continue reading
After leaving the Inari Shrine, we visited the Rengeō-in Buddhist temple, commonly known as Sanjusangendo, a short distance to the north. “Sanjūsan-gen-dō” translates to “33-interval-temple” which relates to the building’s architecture of 34 columns, creating 33 intervening spaces. The number 33 has special significance with regard to the goddess Kannon, to whom this temple is … Continue reading
Sunday, April 15th, was a travel day. It was raining in the morning and when we tried to arrange for a taxi to the train station we were told that road closures due to the Spring Festival meant no cabs would pick up on our side of town. Fortunately, our landlord, Hiroto, graciously offered to … Continue reading
The Road Less Traveled 