Welcome to the Jungle

When we come on a 'domestic' flight to the Malaysian Borneo, the first surprise awaited us just after we left the plane and entered the airport – there was an immigration control counter. Our passports were checked and stamped, in spite of the fact that we entered the same country few hours ago. We arrived to the region called Sarawak, which apparently has a vast autonomy, actually this autonomy is so vast that even other citizens of Malaysia cannot stay there longer than 90 days, unless they have a special permit. 

After we exited the airport we were struck by a hot and humid heat wave. This was not a surprise, however, as the capital city of Sarawak – Kuching sits only one degree North of the Equator.

Kuching is a rather blunt, soulless city; it's few highlights are a river promenade where one might think that you are either in Belgium... 

... or in Kazakhstan ...

The only other place worth a visit, in our view, is a night food market called 'Top-spot'. It is surrealistically set on top floor of a concrete, several-storey parking garage. The quality of seafood served there is as top as it's location. 

The main attraction of Kuching is clearly not the city itself, but the national parks that surround it. We went to one of them on a river trip to look for Proboscis monkeys. Unfortunately that turned out to be very elusive ...

  

... we failed to take good pictures of them, though we wholeheartedly recommend you to look them up in google as they are one of the funniest animals we've ever seen. We visited a village on stilts ...

... the locals seemed to be quite excited to see us ...

... whereas we were impressed by sustainable water collection systems.

Kuching surroundings were just an appetiser; the real jungle experience started once we arrived to Gunung Mulu National Park. The only way there is by a small plane landing at a small airport or rather an airstrip beautifully set at the brink of the rainforest...

Off we went for a hike into the wilderness, crossing streams and rivers...

Very tall trees ...

We came across centipedes ...

Insect that abandoned its body, or rather a body abandoned by its insect...

Lizard snacking on its prey ...

Carnivorous plants, most probably snacking something too :)

Snakes slithered across our way ...

We paid a visit to an indigenous village, where a native lady played a flute in quite a particular way ... 

We made it to vast and beautiful caves. As it was dark inside, the photo material we made did not satisfy the quality standards of this blog, so if you wanna see how they look like ask Google.

The day after we parted separate ways: Mariushki went for a 3-day trekking to see the famous Mulu Pinnacles. First I went by boat up river for around an hour, then I hiked eight kilometers to the place called Camp 5. Eight kms does not seem a big deal, but with an equatorial heat and humidity I sweated buckets. 

Camp 5 is picturesquely set at the foot of a mountain and a crystal clear water stream flows by. 

After I got there, I plunged straight away into the stream with all my clothes on. Not only such a bath was nicely refreshing, but a meticulous washing was a must, as the spot was infested with wild bees. It seems that human sweat must be a delicacy for the bees, as they flock to the unwashed bodies and clothes in thousands. 

Next day, the alarm clock buzzed at 5:15 to start the Pinnacles climb before six o'clock. The trek uphill is definitely not a piece of cake. It mercilessly goes up and up, more and more steeply, to reach 16 aluminium ladders close to the top.  

I sweated buckets again, nonetheless, the vistas on top were worth every drop of sweat :). 

The Mulu Pinnacles are a unique formation of 45-meter high limestone spires. 

Some of them seem to be razor-sharp.

Ievunia went on a canopy walk to admire the forest from above. 

Next day, off she flew to Brunei, a small but oil-rich sultanate on the North coast of Borneo. Her plane was scheduled to leave at 12:55, but at 12:50 she already landed in the capital of Brunei - Bandar Seri Begawan (no one can be bothered to pronounce it whole, so it's better known as BSB). Yes, it was Ievunia's shortest flight ever and yes, BSB is just next-door to Gunung Mulu. Although Brunei is similar in size to Kuwait or United Arab Emirates, BSB does not look like Dubai or Kuwait City. It's a provincial town, with several well-maintained mosques,

and the Sultan palace, which is big, some would say grotesquely big - with 1531 rooms, 257 bathrooms, it's four times the size of Versailles and three times larger than Buckingham Palace. Actually, the land surrounding the palace must be also monstrously big as it was so well hidden that Ievunia did not manage to snap a single photo of it. Apart from the 'invisible' palace, there are not many signs of the oil revenue. 

Most of the inhabitants live in houses on stilts, some more traditional... 

... some more modern ...

Most of the country is still covered with rainforest, and the nature seems to be the main highlight in Brunei, so Ievunia went on another boat trip and on another canopy walk, although this time the greater attraction than the canopy, was the walkway itself - 60-meter high aluminium tower ...

... she enjoyed the view of the waterfall ...

... and got a free pedicure from tiny fish living in the waterfall pool.