In Brunei

Made it to Brunei, enjoying a slight change of pace from Malaysian Borneo, though much of it is the same. That being said, had a great time in Batu Niah – the park full of incredible caves. More to follow later, just quick updating.

A Quick Update from East Coast Malaysia

In the land of the Pangs!

The Perhentian Islands really were spectacular. Beautiful scenery, great jungle trails, awesome beaches and snorkelling, awesome corals, and incredible wildlife – we swam with sharks basically every day – including some big 5ft+ black tip reef sharks (not dangerous) – its really scary the first time you see one as they appear suddenly, move quickly, are way bigger than any other fish, and look predatory. One of them took an interest in me at one point, and I ended up swimming backwards as quickly as possible while Connie looked on in horror – but I think he/she (the shark) was just curious, as the shark quickly dashed away when I started running. We also got to swim with some giant sea turtles – not Volkswagen sized like the ones in Costa Rica, but large enough. They surfaced by us close enough to touch – again, super impressive.

Now we are down the coast a bit in the capital of Terrenganu province – Kuala Terrenganu. Its fine – but its like backpacking through Regina – the city is ok for what it is, but there’s no reason to stop here other than as a transit point. We’d hoped to transit from here to a one or more resorts via a place reputed for getting cheap package deals – but we’ve been traveling much more cheaply than what they’ve offered so were back on our own for the moment, and trying to figure out what our next step will be.

One thing I noted in a reply to Mark vR today: Spring sure sounds good – I’m missing the biking already. Being here where its hot continuously, I’m really starting to appreciate the seasons – I think that having seasons adds a lot of zest to each part of the year – the anticipation of change and possibility of new activities and so on really spices up the years in ways that you can’t appreciate until you’ve been away for a while – and we haven’t even missed much of it yet!

Anyway – happy trails all!

-R&C