Singapore and An Extended Vacation...

Next day, we went to Singapore. You have to get on and off the bus a couple of times with your luggage in order to go through customs and get your visa stamped. Singapore reminds me a lot of a big city, perhaps San Francisco, except it's emaculate compared to SF. The Inn Crowd hostel is the place to go. Only S$18/night and there is a pool table, fooseball table, books, TV, bar kind of area to hang out in, guitars lying around just waiting to be played, and a ton of friendly people from all over. Posterboards cover the walls with announcements for shows, plays, bars, and various events taking place in Singapore.

Jess and I met up with Ben, a friend from Thaikea who had a job lined up in Singapore, a few hours after arriving at the hostel. We all watched the Australia v. Uruguay soccer game at a bar with a bunch of Aussies who were just as entertaining as the game, which went into overtime and a shootout- the Aussies won and are now going to the World Cup.

We walked around Singapore, through Little India, China town, and along the river, briefly seeing a mosque and a temple during our walk. We had to catch a bus back to Johor Bahru (JB), Southern Malaysia for our flight to Borneo at 6p, so our time in Singapore was unfortunately very limited.

The monsoon that booted us out of Taman Negara must have followed us to Borneo. Once we arrived at the Mt. Kinabalu park, we walked around for about 20 minutes before experiencing terrential downpour for the rest of the day. This meant no hiking, and without much else to do in the local area, we jumped back and forth from a lodge to a cafeteria, read our books, watched a little soccer and bought a deck of cards to play with. It was the first time I had been cold since arriving in Southeast Asia.


Mt. Kinabalu Park

The next day we were blessed with decent weather for a few hours, so we decided to try a hike. About 3/4 of the way through our hike, it began to rain and as we came to the end of the trail, we discovered we were about 5 km from the entrance to the park. One guy tried to charge us a ridiculous amount to take us back, so we started walking in the monsoon and eventually got a hitch back. I definitely want to return to Borneo when the weather is better. There is an overnight hike up Mt. Kinabalu that sounds spectacular. And, one of the world's 4 orangutan locations is in Borneo.

Jess and I missed our flight from KL to Phuket. We had arrived too late to catch any transportation from JB to KL the night before, so we slept in a ghetto for a few hours and then got up early to catch the first bus available to KL. We couldn’t get to the airport until 20 minutes before our flight left. They wouldn’t let us check in, so we had to buy a new ticket for the next flight (same time, next day). We returned to our fave Number Eight Guesthouse and took some much needed time to ourselves in KL. When I returned to the hostel that night, I saw 2 volunteers from Khao Lak, Scottish Chris and Phil. They were both passing through for a few days before leaving for Australia. So random running into people the way I have been in Southeast Asia.

The Number Eight Guesthouse...Home Sweet Home

Overall, a good trip. A lot of traveling, but a lot to see and learn. After catching our flight to Phuket and hitching home, I was exhausted and glad to finally be back in Khao Lak.