Leave my head alone!

Borocay (and the Philippines in general) hosts a large number of excellent dive sites, so we booked a couple of dives with Borocay Scuba Ltd. The day we went out it was spectacularly windy, and  even in the shelter of the island the small dive boat was quickly bouncing around on the short journey.

Heading to Christmas Rock Dive Site with Jonas the dive master

The first dive at Christmas Rock was a shallow dive around a small reef with some interesting coral formations. The best part of the dive were the fish that were everywhere. Using a hired underwater camera it was easy to take shots of the fish, as they were constantly swimming in front of the lens. The reason for this is down to the regular fish feeding tours, which has changed the normal behaviour to the point that the fish will peck at anything when there are people in the water, including the heads of all the baldies present!

Who needs pesky regulators anyway?

The second dive was at the Camia wreck. This dive is based on an old working boat, intentionally sunk for divers entertainment, and to provide an artifical reef. There are numerous swim throughs, some of which were quite challenging as they required a few changes of direction within the ships hold and engine room.

Fellow diver mid way through one of the swim throughs

Brilliant but barmy Borocay

Many of the seasoned travelers we have met have a hard core attitude to long journeys, namely if you book your bus / train / plane journey overnight, then you get to save on accommodation costs, and days aren't wasted with boring journeys.

Using the above principal, we travelled from Malaysia to Caticlan airport (via Manila), arriving with what seemed an alarming emergency stop with very little of the short runway left. Whilst the Uber expensive resort complexes on the island sent representatives to the airport in a combination of new taxis and fast speedboats, the backpackers like us ended up taking the more entertaining combination of motorcycle based tricycles, Jeepneys (WW2 american jeeps converted into taxis) and wooden "Banca" boats. All the assistants and staff were very welcoming, but everything was more than a little chaotic, with the Caticlan ferry port in particular being a seething mass of random boats, resulting in ropes wrapped around propellers and collisions made audible by the sound of cracking bamboo outriggers. Needless to say we arrived very hot and bothered.

Wooden Banca 

Jeepney "Worldwide Lover!"

Motorcycle Tricycle - many with up to 6 locals on board

Borocay is a brilliant place for a stay, so we decided to book in for three weeks, as much as anything to allow us to stay a while and unpack. I'd recommend it for any traveler, as despite being only 7km by 1km, there is a huge range of places to stay and eat. It is also possibly the ultimate in beautiful tropical islands, and although much of the development is excessive and a bit messy, there are still places which are incredibly picturesque.

The other benefit of an extended stay was to allow us to catch up some exercise. Ursh practised yoga regularly at the centre run by the "True Yoga" center. Backed up by the excellent assistance from instructors Louise and Nicole, she got back in the groove, completing advanced moves including headstand variations that I'm confident would have me in hospital were I to try and copy.

Borocay is a well known centre for Wind and Kite surfing, as at this time of year it is one of only a handful of worldwide destinations that are reliably windy. The windstats indicate that for 96% of the time, the wind reaches F4 or more for 4 hours a day.

Mike on a marginal day - it got a LOT windier than this

I have to admit to taking a while to get completely into the venue. After windsurfing in Maui, the lagoon that seems to be the only venue available was very flat and incredibly crowded, requiring some careful route choices to avoid the multiple hazards including students and instructors, downed kites everywhere and endless coconuts and windfallen bamboo. There are also rumours of raw sewage in the water, although I didn't get ill unlike some others.

I did improve a lot however, and could quickly feel some strength and fitness returning which I had lost over the past couple of months. Although the wind didn't match the stats, there were a few days that were nuclear or better, with 40Knot gusts on the water. On the windiest day, I managed to arrive too late to pick one of the 3.7sq m sails, so ended up sailing massively overpowered on a 4.5, which was hairy but great fun.

Arwin from reef riders just about holding down a 2.8sq m on a nuclear day

The kit available was Starboard boards and Severne sails, and I spent most of the time on the freestyle kit, using the "Flare" boards especially. I have used these before and really liked them - shame they are so pricey. Chris the instructor at Reef Riders was an excellent coach, and I bought a couple of lessons practising vulcan freestyle moves, which I've yet to pull off, but at least now I have an idea of what to do!

After my previous lessons kite surfing, I was keen to see if I could do more. Despite excellent tuition from Lenny and Nicos at the Ocean republic kite surfing centre, I didn't seem to get any better during the two lessons I had, which I think was probably down to being knackered from the windsurfing (a hangover on one day didn't help either!)

Other than Yoga and Windsurfing, we spent most of our time wandering around relaxing, as well as going for swims off the perfectly named white beach.

Can't take any credit for this unfortunately

Sailing Banca

Borocay is an entertainingly manic place, where you get used to the unexpected. It really pays to keep your eyes open, as there are often electrical cables hanging at head height, and there are holes in the pavements everywhere. Road safety is a completely alien concept, with the tricycles being used to transport everything from 10m lengths of bamboo to the proverbial kitchen sink

How else would you get the fridge home?

We thought without the sleep deprivation the trip back was going to be easier. We hadn't however counted on some last minute drama at Caticlan airport however, as the welders renovating the area above the departures room managed to cover the area below in sparks (which came through the gaps between the lights and the ceiling). Unsurprisingly all the westerners jumped up and rushed to the doors (locked of course), whilst the locals looked on in amusement.

Does what it says on the tin

Tropical Rainforest

Tropical - geographically true, and hot and humid to go with it

Rain - Oh yes!

Forest - The oldest (130million years apparently) rain forest in the world

Mid way across the Malay peninsula is the most famous national park in Malaysia, "Taman Negara". Getting off the bus, we chose to take the boat up to the park, as this is the most scenic way to arrive.

Jetty at the River Tembeling

Our patience with travelling has improved a lot on the trip, to the point where 10+ hour plane journeys don't really faze anymore, but even so the 3 hours sat on the wooden floor of a smallish boat was a bum numbing episode I wouldn't repeat in a hurry. The last boat we went on that had an outboard was the NZ dive RIB with 250bhp, so despite its best efforts, the 40bhp engine struggled upstream against the monsoon powered river flow. It didn't help that the boat was full of heavyweight western tourists and their luggage.

Arriving at the park, we realized that we didn't have enough cash for the hotels, so would have to pay on CC. Only one resort took cards, and this happened to be the best and most expensive (the Taman Negara Mutiara). After the previous nights awful beach accommodation, this was a mistake we were happy to put up with, especially when we got a free upgrade to a beautiful ensuite chalet in the jungle.

Mutiara Jungle Chalet

We stayed two nights, and were treated to Wild Boar and long tailed Macaques running (and climbing) free amongst the chalets.

Long Tailed Macaque

The rain and mud dampened any desire for long forest hikes, but we did make it to the "Canopy Walkway" near to the resort. Although in reality the walkway is made up of aluminium ladders strung up 40-50m above the forest floor, it felt quite safe, if a little bouncy, and was an excellent insight into a monkey level view of the forest. The walkway is the longest of its kind in the world, at 550m, and took quite some time to navigate.

Canopy Walkway

Precious, Moi?

Heading north from Cameron Highlands, the island of Penang beckoned, with its pleasant seaside climate, and its busy city of Georgetown providing easy bus access. We didn’t realise that a short ferry trip was not included in the bus transfer, but as with all the public transport in Malaysia so far this proved to be cheap and efficient.

Arriving without accomodation booked, we checked in to a budget hotel, which looked ok, if a little sparse. Unfortunately we’re not 22 anymore (the phrase is rapidly becoming the quote of the trip), and we both felt we couldnt stay much longer in such dingy accomodation. Other budget places had more than made up for a lack of creature comforts with a good atmosphere, but this hotel was poor and dull. With our tails between our legs, we found the nearest Starbucks (yet more shame) with internet, and using the excellent wego.com, we booked a nice hotel, which was to be our base for the next couple of days, and also meant we had accomodation sorted for the tricky new year period.

The Bay View hotel we stayed at was really nice, and we partly justified the cost by the fact that it would have been several times the cost anywhere in Europe or the US. We both are trying hard to maintain the tag of traveller rather than toursit (although I’m not quite sure what the difference really is), but posh hotels and insisting on a Super VIP bus seats aren’t really helping our cause, or our budget.

The fireworks on New Years were nice (the local rock band entertainment was at best “interesting”), but the highlight of the Penang visit was the excellent food hall serving yet more cheap and varied food, and the impressive Kek Lok Si temple. Sadly New Years was a very sober affair, as we both had “travellers colds”, which almost all the travellers seem to pick up on crowded buses and the like.

Food Court on New Years eve

Kek Lok Si Buddhist Temple

The next bus journey was to be our biggest yet, with a 9 hour trip to Kuala Terranagu on the east coast of the Malaya peninsula. This town wasn’t particularly touristy, which made an interesting change as we didn’t see a single other obvious traveller in town, and our backpacks provoked quite a few laughs amongst the locals.

Our main east coast destination was the town of Cherating, which the rough guide (aka the Oracle) suggested was a chilled out traveller village. One of the main aims of the trip was to find an idylic beach hut to stay in, on a perfect beach. The Cherating beach partially delivered, with warm temperatures and lots of sand, but the atmosphere was largely non existant, and there was litter everywhere, including beer bottles liberally scattered over the beach.

The beach hut turned to be unmitigated disaster. Such was our rush to check in to a likely candidate, that we ended up with a hell hole, with health and safety disasters everywhere (light bulb level with and 30cm from the shower head anyone?). It was also in a foul state, and there was graffiti everywhere, most of which was bizzarely dated, with the oldest scribed in 2004.

Dream Beach hut? Maybe not......

The liberal holes in the building meant we both got more mosquito bites than we could count, and I think I have a few bed bug bites to add insult to injury. Needless to say we only stayed one night, but we should have demanded our money back and left before even stepping inside.

Large mug of tea please!

Heading for the hills after the heat and humidity of KL was an easy choice, so we booked a bus from KL to Tanaha Rata, in the centre of the Cameron Highlands. This area is where much of Malaysian tea comes from, and its mild climate also lends itself to other plantations, including flowers and strawberries.

We strayed at the excellent Fathers Guest House, which served excellent breakfasts ranging from fruit salads up to full on cooked english, as well as huge mugs of tea, something we hadnt found anywhere else previously. The guest house also had a great chilled out vibe, with travellers from a wide range of countries staying.

The town also had a plethora of tasty budget food available, the pick of which for us were the curry houses serving spicy food on large banana leaves for less than 15RM each, including drinks (about £3).

We walked on our own into the jungle near to the town, and were immediately slithering around in the mud on the path as the rainy season is well underway. The walk went past the Robinson Falls, but the jungle itself was the best part.

Dead Snake - I bravely poked it with a long stick to make sure

Robinson Falls - Tanaha Rata

Foot long millipede in jungle

The next day we booked on a Rafflesia guided tour day. The main aim of the day was to visit the Rafflesia “flower”. Little did we know quite what was going to be entailed getting to the flower. After a bumpy 45mins on the road cramped into the back of a Landrover, the off roading started. The rainy season had made the track more of a river than road, with deep red mud everywhere. The track soon became impassable, so we all hiked to the flower, most of the time in ankle deep red mud, and often crossing streams and rivers by jumping from rock to rock or via rickety bamboo bridges. Overall the round trip took over three hours of walking, and the reward was - you’ve guessed it - a single large red flower....

Land rover getting sketchy on the way up the hill - fuzzy photo taken through glass of vehicle in front

Ursh concentrating on a very wobbly bridge

The flower is actually quite interesting. The Rafflesia, named after Sir Stamford Raffles of Singapore governership fame, is actually a very rare, large parasitic fungi, that feeds off tree roots. After a very long development period (several months) it “blooms” for a period of about 1 week only, at the end of which it decomposes to what the locals refer to as elephant poo... The flower we saw was about 80cm wide, but some examples in Borneo get to over 1m.

Rafflesia Fungi

The rest of the tour consisted of a trip to a butterfly, insect and snake zoo, and then on to the “Boh” tea plantations, where we drank several more large mugs of strong tea, and had a brief tour of the old school tea production machinery. A quick visit to a strawberry farm followed (strawberry shakes, cakes, ice creams and more all consumed), before a tired and muddy return to the guest house.

I was told to stay very still - I obeyed........

Boh Tea Plantation