Kimberley Adventure Tours (KAT)

The alarm went off at 5am to begin my trip to the Kimberley and across the western part of Australia.  Simon, driver/guide, from Kimberley Adventure Tours promptly picked me up at 6am, where I first met Silvan from Switzerland, and then proceeded to pick up other travelers - Abbi (England), Natalie (Belgium), and Pipo (Italy).  Maybe because we’re all “westerners”, we quickly bonded and became friends.  Off we go!

We traveled south down the Stuart Highway to visit Edith Falls for a late morning swim.  Edith Falls was the perfect spot to start our adventure, with amazing series of waterfalls and a picturesque pool at the base of the falls.

Edith Falls

Pristine gorge @ Edith Falls

Then onto Katherine to pick up supplies (aka, booze) before traveling west towards The Kimberley and Western Australia to set up our first bush camp along the Victoria River.

First Sunset along the Victoria River

The Kimberley region is located on the northern-most part of Western Australia and covering some 421,451 square kilometres (approximately 261,000 miles), an area three times the size of England and three fifths the size of Texas, the Kimberley is home to only 40,000 people meaning that there are fewer people per kilometre than almost any other place on the planet.

Tonight is the first night where I get to sleep in a “swag” - essentially it’s a heavy canvas bedroll.  They were originally carried by “swagmen”, who were migrant farm works or sheep shearers, that walked from job to job in Australia’s outback during the late 1800’s to early 1900’s.  So in keeping with the authentic outback experience, we all get to sleep under the stars in swags.  This is possibly best way to see millions (or billions?) of stars on a crystal clear night, especially when I get to sleep by a campfire.  Let's hope the alligators stay on their side of the river!

First campfire in The Kimberley

Thankfully we didn't see of these critters during the night!

Time Warp to 1955 in Darwin

Traveling from Borneo to Darwin consisted of 3 flight changes on AirAsia (Sepilok (Borneo) - Kuala Lumpur - Bali -  Darwin) for 20+ hours, including four hours in Bali's airport where I had to pay for a Visa to 'enter' the country and then pay a departure fee 30 minutes later when I walked over to an outbound terminal.   Finally in Darwin, I have 24-hours to enjoy the city (and Holiday Inn's comfortable bed) before embarking on a 10-day tour throughout Australia's outback.

Darwin is the capital of Northern Territory, on the top end of Australia.  Although Darwin is considered a 'city', it has more of a small beach town feel...and time stopped in 1955.  Overall, it's a very laid-back city and perfect starting point to the wild Kimberley journey.

To celebrate my solo travel for 3 months, I decided to treat myself to a nice dinner at Hanuman Restaurant - a wonderful combination of Thai, Indian and Nonya cooking.  As much as I wanted to check out all the bars along Mitchell street, I needed to get some sleep since I didn’t get much sleep the night before and I have to be up early tomorrow morning.

Walking Around the Jungle...at Night?

My original plan of the Australian outback got pushed up by a day since it's the end of the dry season and I didn't have many options in terms of signing up for a tour.  I also had to reverse my route from Broome to Darwin, thus missing out on Kakadu National Park.  It also means my visit to the Orang Utan Sanctuary in Sepilok need to be canceled.  Unfortunately I had already paid for my flight and hotel in Sepilok, so it'll be a quick trip to the Borneo jungle.  Essentially I had few hours in Sepilok and my options were limited...a night jungle walk around the Sepilok Jungle Resort or nothing.  I really wanted to see the Orang Utans but a jungle walk at night with snakes, bats, birds and leeches should provide plenty of excitement.

I'm told it's a viper snake...I was more worried about the leeches on my feet

Tomorrow, I'll be flying for 20+ hours on three AirAsia flights - Borneo to Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur to Bali, Bali to Darwin - of course, since AirAsia is a point-to-point airline, I'll need to drop-off/pick-up my bags three times during the course of the my journey.  Ugh...I'm too old (and spoiled) to be flying discount airlines!  What was I thinking?

Next stop...Western Australia.

Sinking Slow, Floating Fast...in Kapalai

Wow, I can't believe I'm going from top of Borneo to the bottom of Borneo in just 24 hours!  For the next four days, I'll be spending time underwater to get certified for open water dives at the Sipadan-Kapalai Dive Resort in Pulau Kapalai.  After all these years of saying I want to get certified for diving, I'm finally doing it, but I'll have to pass the swimming and floating tests before I can became a certified diver...ugh!

"Breathe slow...no slower, slower".  "Try to stay buoyant, don't use the BCD to control your buoyancy, use your breathing to control your buoyancy".  Thank goodness Linda (my dive master/instructor) was patient enough to teach me how to breathe slowly and control my buoyancy (it still needs work).  I thought I was going to ace the diving course but harsh reality sank in - I suck.  Sorry everyone, I don't have any photos of me sucking...but just picture an Asian pot-belly pig, in a wetsuit, trying to swim, dive, and float.

After four days of learning how to dive, I just need to pass the 200 meter swim and 10 minutes of floating to become a certified diver.  First attempt to swim 200 meters was a complete disaster, after 100 meters of splashing water and then sinking like a rock.  Yup, I got thrown the doughnut and had to swim back with it...how embarrassing!  Linda couldn't stop laughing as she watched me 'swim'...then she suggested I could swim 300 meters with a mask, snorkel and fins.  Now that I can do...I think.  Back in the water (just need to relax) and swim 300 meters (frack!).  Linda sends a support kayak to assist me if I start to panic...but I'm happy to report no doughnut was needed this time (ok, I barely made it back but I passed the swim test).  Next up, 10 minutes of floating...I know I could do one minute, maybe two, but 10 minutes?  Tick-tock, tick-tock...just relax, tilt my head back and breathe for 10 minutes...

As of September 6, 2011, I'm now a PADI-certified open water diver.  Maybe I'll go diving in Australia!

Sipadan-Kapalai Dive Resort...my bungalow is the 8th one from left

View from my private balcony...I was greeted by sea turtles in the morning and evening

From my balcony...Sunset - Day 1

Sunset - Day 2

Sunset - Day 3

Sunset - Day 4 (I'm still wowed!)

Mt. Kinabalu

What was I thinking...I must have been drunk when I booked this trip!  I'm going to hike and summit a 4,000+ meter mountain?  What happened to relaxing by the beach idea?  Well I've already paid for the trip so I guess I'm going to summit Malaysia's highest mountain (and third highest in SE Asia).

I joined up with 6 other fellow travelers (Ben from England, Evy and Tom from Belgium, Niels and Karin from Holland, and João from Portugal) to hike up to Mt. Kinabalu.  It's a two-day trip - 3,000 meters the first day, overnight at the 'half-way' station and leave early next morning (2am!) to see the sunrise.  The day started out cloudy and warm, and as soon as we started our hike, it started to rain...right, it's rainy season in the topics!  By the time we got to the half-way station, the temperature had dropped and we were now wet and cold.  Oh, we just learned there's no heat or hot water at the station...yeah!

Dinner at 5pm and sleep for few hours, so we could be off by 2am for the final 1,000 meter climb to the peak.  We went to bed when it was raining, so our hike could be canceled (ugh!).  By the time we got up the rain had stopped...crap.  Off to the top!

By 7am, everyone made it to the peak for the sunrise - not much of a sunrise since it was mostly cloudy but still felt I was on the top of the world (ok Borneo).  For me, the best part of going up is going down.  Yes, I'm one of those crazy ones who prefers running down the mountain, and my favorite sections of the climb were the guide rope portions where I just ran down as if I was abseiling...now that was fun!

Trail leading up the mountain...yes, it's a jungle

Clear view of the island (before the rain)

Top half of the mountain covered in fog

"The Lodge" at the half-way point

Kinabalu Peak @ 4095 meters...and of course, it's raining

Kinabalu Peak...thank goodness for the guide ropes!

4008 meter marker at the bottom of the peak

Road Trip to Roluos

Desperately needing some exercise (felt like a blob after 30-days of sitting in a Russian van and snacking on chocolate and crisps), I hired a bicycle and ventured out of town to visit Roluos Group (Wat Bakong and Preah Ko).  The temples are located 20 km outside of Siem Reap and it's usually not on the Angkor Wat tour, so they were quiet and crowd free.

In context of Angkor's architectural timeline, Roluos Group was the capital of Indravarman I (877 to 889) and considered to be the forefathers of Angkor's main temples. These were the first temples built to last and are made of brick with some carved plaster reliefs. The group is made up of the three temples of Preah Ko, Bakong, and Lolei.

Preah Ke

Preah Ke

Wat Bakong

View from top of the central tower

One of the towers in Bakong

I think I'm 'templed' out!  I couldn't visit anymore temples in the afternoon....I just wanted to chill, have lunch in town and watch the day go by.  There's so much more to see but my brain is sensory-fried.

Of course, having a drink in the tourist area means you get to see some weird stuff - such as a woman dancing out on the street, in front of a bar (I assume the bar hired her), to "lure" tourists into the bar.  This video just doesn't do any justice of the weirdness...

I'm definitely looking forward to sitting on a beach and decompress from all this...Borneo should give me that.

Faces of Bayon

Having visited most of the temples around Angkor Wat, I decided to spend more time at Angkor Thom today.  But first, a quick visit to Banteay Kdei and Thommanom before heading over to Angkor Thom.

Banteay Kdei
Thommanom
Angkor Thom via Victory Gate
Bayon
Bapoun
The Royal Palace
Elephant Terrace
Leper King Terrace

This morning was no different from yesterday...rain.  Luckily it wasn't as bad as yesterday's continuous rain, it was more cloudy and misty.  Again my day started late but I got to update my journal and fb status.  By late morning, my Tuk Tuk driver was getting eager to leave the hotel (he was probably concerned that I may not need his services today), so off we go to Angkor!  Angkor Wat may be the largest temple in the world but I loved Angkor Thom more (“the great city” in Khmer), for its massive stone face carvings and intricate rooms.  My favorite was just seeing the monks in their classic brilliant orange robes in contrast to the huge stark stone blocks.

Angkor Thom, built by Cambodia's greatest builder, Jayavarman VII, is a ten square kilometer city enclosed by an eight meter high wall and encircled by a hundred meter moat (said to have been inhabited by fierce crocodiles). There are five twenty meter high gates in the wall in each of the North, West and South walls and two in the East Wall. Access is via causeways over the moat that are flanked by the statues of fifty-four Gods on the left and fifty-four devils on the right, all seemingly engaged in a game of tug of war.

The central temple, Bayon, is one of the most famous temples in Angkor.  Interestingly, the Bayon is a Buddhist temple built during King Jayavarman VII rule, but the temple adheres to Hindu cosmology with links to the natural world references.  It has four huge stone faces of Avalokitesharva, each facing out to a compass point.  Bayon is also wrapped by two long walls with bas-relief scenes of legendary and historic events.  At one point, the temple was host to 49 such towers; now only 37 remain.  The number of faces is approximately 200, but since some are only partially preserved there can be no definitive count.

On to other complexes within Angkor Thom, following the marked path from Bayon to Baphuon and around the Royal Palace, I walked over to Elephant Terrace and Leper King’s Terrace. 

The clouds started to lift in the late afternoon, so I went back to Angkor Thom after spending few hours around the Royal Palace.   And of course, my Nikon P7000 camera battery dies just as I get to Angkor Thom!  Luckily my iPhone (this has become my trusty back-up camera) still had some juice left to capture great photos in the afternoon light...or maybe it's the photographer who can shoot amazing photos with anything?  Haha.

Victory Gate, Angkor Thom

Buddhist Monk at Bayon, Angkor Thom

Bayon

Did I found inner-peace?  Oh please...

One of 200+ faces on the Upper Terrace

Only 37 out of 49 "face towers" remain today

Definitely not a monk (and I don't know him), but still a great shot

Elephant Terrace

Elephant Terrace

Leper King Terrace

Sunrise + Angkor Wat = Rain

Today was going to be an "off-the-beaten" path day of sight-seeing, I had all the good intentions to head 30 km north to Kabal Spean (known as the "River of a Thousand Linga" - relief carvings that line the river beds are believed to purify the water that flow to Angkor) and Banteay Srei (a small, unique and charming temple), but had to turn around as the steady rain completely soaked my Tuk Tuk driver (it was only 8am!).  We modified our itinerary to do the 'Grand Tour Loop' around Angkor.

(Rainy) Angkor Wat at Sunrise

Angkor Wat (“City Temple”) is a temple complex built for the King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city.  It is the world's largest religious building.  As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation – first Hindu, dedicated to the god Vishnu, then Buddhist.  The temple is at the top of the high classical style of Khmer architecture - combining two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture: the temple mountain and the later galleried temple, based on early South Indian Hindu architecture, with key features such as the Jagati. It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology: within a moat and an outer wall 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers. It is estimated that over one million people lived there making it the largest metropolis in its time.  

Angkor Wat (sunrise)

East Mebon

Ta Som

Neak Pean

Preah Khan

Ta Keo

Ta Prohm

Angkor Wat (sunset)

I know Angkor Wat is the star attraction within the Angkor complex but my favorite temple is Ta Prohm.  The combination of trees growing out of the temple ruins created a splendid atmosphere when the day became cloudy and foggy.  Now if I only had charged my camera battery...thank goodness for my iPhone!

Ta Prohm was built in the Bayon style largely in the late 12th and early 13th centuries and originally called Rajavihara. Located approximately one kilometer east of Angkor Thom and on the southern edge of the East Baray, it was founded by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Ta Prohm has been left in much the same condition in which it was found: a photogenic wonder of trees growing out of the ruins have made it one of Angkor's most popular temples.

After lunch, the sky turned clear blue and I was able to finish the day with a picture-perfect sunset view of Angkor Wat.  Now this is awesome!

Angkor Wat at Sunset

The amazing gold color of Angkor Wat at Sunset

Afternoon Rush Hour at Phnom Bakeng

I got up to a puddle of water in my room...hum, I wonder if this is a foreshadowing to what's to come.   It had rained all night and the water had flowed into my room through the door - my room was next to the exit door that was slightly open.  Oh wait, I'm still in Southeast Asia and it’s August (the wet season).  I decided to wait out the rain, relax in the morning and catch up on current events since I haven't had internet connection for some time.  

At the hotel, I hired a Tuk Tuk with a driver to take me to the temples and around Siem Reap.  Riding around town in a Tuk Tuk felt like being in the French colonial era...somewhat decadent yet felt wrong too.

By late afternoon, the rain had stopped and my Tuk Tuk driver was very anxious to start his hire; otherwise he doesn't get paid for the day.  It was too late to head over to Angkor Wat and visit the temple, but I had just enough time to see the sunset from Phnom Bakeng, just past Angkor Wat.  Phnom Bakeng is known for its amazing sunset view since it's on top of a steep hill; and on the eastern side of the temple, the upper terraces of Angkor Wat just peak above the tree tops.  Getting up to the top of Phnom Bakeng was sort of like an evening rush-hour in midtown Manhattan...complete chaos.  The stone steps were tall with very little footing and steep - did monks have really small feet and long legs back then?

Ok, the sunset was spectacular, well worth the agony of dealing with crowds...what a wonderful way to begin my Angkor exploration!

"Rush hour" at Phnom Bakeng for the sunset!

View of Angkor Wat, looking east

Sunset over Phnom Bakeng