PALAWAN

I seek out karstic landscapes when I travel. My list is growing, and right now I don’t have a favorite because they’re all awesome. With only a week to spend in the Philippines and so much to see, my karstic attraction drew me to Palawan. Like Halong Bay in Vietnam, or the islands of the Andaman Sea in Thailand, the Bacuit Archipelago in northern Palawan geographically juxtaposes precipitous mountains and limestone cliffs against a sea of turquoise blue. Of course I wanted to go there. 

Natalie and Merissa are two adventurous sisters from England on a yearlong journey around the world. (I want to travel the world with my sister!) I met Nat and Mo back in April when I first arrived in Kota Kinabalu and we were quick to become friends. We stayed in touch as they continued to circle the globe, and since they happened to be spending most of June in the Philippines, we decided to rendezvous in Palawan for a week. I’ve had great luck with travel buddies, and these two were no exception! The three of us met at the airport in Puerto Princesa and were greeted by mother nature with a wet smack in the face. Welcome to paradise, now why don’t you suck on this typhoon for a while!  Bleh. That night we matched the downpour by pouring down a storm of beverages at the local watering hole. And then danced on stage with the house band. That was fun. But after a dreary day in Puerto Princesa we caught a bus north to El Nido to do some island hopping and explore the Bacuit Archipelago. The bus ride was long, but like any trip through pastoral southeast Asia, I enjoyed it thoroughly.

El Nido sits wedged between massive limestone cliffs and a white sand beach. The town looks out across a glassy bay scattered with fishing boats towards a steep and jungly island rising from the sea. The crappy weather may have followed us north, but there was no escaping the allure of El Nido. And it's not just the scenery, but the people as well, with the town's laid-back temperament mirroring the quiet and gentle waves that lap its sandy shore. The scattered rain and dark skies were menacing and the glassy water we looked out across was a deceiving front, for outside the protected bay that El Nido faced, the lingering typhoon had been chopping up the sea and capsizing boats! Our plan to explore the Bacuit Archipelago was put on hold until the weather cleared up. But passing the time in El Nido was fine by me, especially since I was in good company. And it didn’t hurt that a bottle of local rum cost a little more than two bucks. 

El Nido literally popped after the typhoon blew over. It was like someone hiked up the saturation in my contact lenses. With the addition of blue skies and sunshine the scenery took on a whole new perspective and I was seeing colors that I hadn’t seen in previous days. I didn't think the water could get any more blue, but I was wrong. And the seas were calm once again. It was time to do some island hopping...

WILD BORNEO

And he's also a tour guide! Yet another facet of Charlie's interesting and diverse livelihood - always up to something fun and crazy, now that's the way to live! In mid-June Charlie had a huge trip booked with a group of ten prosperous Americans, and it definitely wasn't your average week long adventure through Malaysian Borneo. For starters, the whole journey was carried out in a squadron of helicopters. Don't worry about the hike back down after we conquer Mount Kinabalu, we're gonna have the choppers pick us up at the top and take us straight to a beach resort for massages and a lobster dinner. Yeah bro, it was really like that. Way to rough it!

The week before this extravagantly meticulous excursion went down, Charlie was bopping around Borneo with a colleague, ironing out the details and making sure that everything fit according to plan. The expedition was to kick off on the east coast town of Sandakan and make it's way west, so Charlie asked me if I could come along on the last four days of the run-through in order to drive his car back to Kota Kinabalu after he embarked on the tour. 

The first stop on the expedited adventure was the Kinabatangan River. It was a long drive from Kota Kinabalu, and as we made our way east we entered the land of palm oil plantations. Palm oil plantations sure are pretty to drive through - rolling hills covered with manicured forests of fern-covered palm trees, but don't be fooled, they're horrible! Palm oil is a major cash crop, but the resulting deforestation leaves Borneo's abundant wildlife homeless, and is the reason why the Kinabatangan River Valley is overflowing with fauna - they have nowhere else go.

We stayed the night in a lodge on the river, and bookended our brief stopover with a couple of riverboat cruises, including an early morning jaunt where we caught an amazing sunrise over the jungle. Unfortunately we didn't spot any of the pygmy elephants that notoriously roam the riverbanks, but we did see a ton of other great wildlife, including the cartoonish proboscis monkey. These creatures are like caricatures of the primate family, especially the males with their big droopy noses and rotund bellies. And almost as a counter to their flaccid snouts, male proboscis monkeys romp around the jungle sporting perpetual erections. It's as though the end of each protrusion has attracting magnets that are constantly pulling at each other over their bulbous tummies. They must be the laughingstock of the jungle.

Our next stop was Danum Valley, a massive land conservancy with primary rainforest, bountiful wildlife, and a first-rate research center that attracts researchers and scientists from around the world. Oh yeah, and a stunning five-star resort with helicopter access. It was another long drive, mostly on a slow and muddy road, and by the time we arrived and checked things over with the resort, all we had time for was an awesome night trek through the jungle. I've been on a bunch of these with Charlie since I've been in Borneo, and the list of creatures that I've seen gets longer and longer with every hike. They are truly amazing! If only my nocturnal photography skills could do any justice.

The next morning we got up for our second sunrise in a row and took off for a hilltop observation tower overlooking the jungle. I've seen some great sunrises in my life, but I think this one might top the list. From the observation deck we sat perched above a sea of fog that blanketed the forest floor. Only the tallest trees in the canopy peeked out from below, and the hills and mountains that rose above the cloak of dawn looked like an emerald archipelago sprawled out over a white sea. As the sun came up over the horizon, the misty tide retreated, and the greenery of Danum Valley appeared to face the day. 

After breakfast we took off for Sandakan, and the next morning, after dropping Charlie off at the airport to meet his tour group, I hit the road for the long drive back to Kota Kinabalu. It had been a quick but memorable tour of northeastern Borneo. And while Charlie was heading out for the week to explore the region by helicopter, I was packing my bags for a quick trip to the Philippines...

BRIGHT AND STORMY

A return trip to Mantanani Island!

Amanda is from Kuala Lumpur but lives in England where she’s working on getting her masters degree in anthropology. Her summer research project brought her back home for a journey to Mantanani Island in order to gain some insight on the burgeoning tourism industry and it’s effects on the local population. My friend Jess recently started working for an NGO that is planning some projects on Mantanani, and since Amanda’s research lines up with their interests, they decided to work together and sponsor her trip to the island. Where do I fit in? Well, apparently Amanda’s parents didn’t feel too comfortable with her being on the island alone, so Jess asked me if I wanted to spend a week there and keep her company while she did her research. Twist my arm.

Unlike the glassy cruise that I had on my first trip to a hot and sunny Mantanani, the boat ride bounced along over choppy seas, dark clouds hovered above, and we arrived on a damp island that had just soaked up a morning shower. I stayed on the island for a week, and the stormy weather ended up being par for the course throughout my visit. Mantanani? More like Manta-nasty! Not really. While the weather could’ve been better, I soon realized that even the darkest storm couldn’t blemish this island paradise, and the beauty that revealed itself under the circumstances made me fall for this little gem in the South China Sea even more. While still vibrant, the normally smooth turquoise and blue striated water was a shade darker and spotted with white caps. And with the ever-shifting ominous clouds overhead, the banded breakers progressed above the horizon into layers of striped stratus, adding an extensive range of grays and blues to the celestial landscape.

Amanda and I stayed in a little stilted house on the outskirts of the village, a stones throw from the sea, surrounded by gentle palm trees and friendly neighbors. It was a wonderful backdrop for a week on the island, and on top of the natural beauty, a new side of Mantanani’s charm became apparent during my stay. I’d already walked most of the island, and had strolled through the village a number of times on my last visit, but being immersed in the tight-knit fishing community added an ethnographic richness that I hadn't experienced before. Whether it was watching life unfold from the front porch on a windy morning, sharing meals with the neighbors, or being transformed into a human jungle gym by the local kids, my sojourn revealed a Mantanani that most visitors don’t get to see. But I guess that’s what happens when you hang out with an anthropologist.

THE SAMSUNG GOAT™

I thought it was a joke at first, but then I remembered where I was... and it still didn’t make sense.

The rice harvest is celebrated in small villages all across the State of Sabah throughout the month of May, with the last two days marked as a public holiday called Kaamatan, or the Harvest Festival. In Kota Kinabalu they hold a two day event at the fairgrounds on the outskirts of town, with singing, dancing, eating, drinking, and cultural festivities aplenty, and with over thirty different ethnic groups in the region, the festival is full of unique cultural traditions. The fair was an ethnographic delight, but surprisingly, one of the more enlightening moments occurred when I noticed a series of banners hanging up around the beer tents. Carlsberg was sponsoring a raffle - buy three beers and you could enter to win some prizes. And while Samsung was supplying the loot for the runners-up, the grand prize winner was to receive... a live goat!

I don’t know why, but this totally blew me away. I’ve always enjoyed checking out advertising when I travel as a way of gaining geographical insight, but this little piece of marketing had me asking all sorts of questions about where I was in the world. I think mostly because (except for the fact that I’m not from Borneo) I’m probably a pretty good fit for the target demographic. It’s interesting to think about the market research that must have gone into this contest. New technology seems to have a universal appeal these days, but how did winning a live goat reveal itself as the ultimate draw? And I wonder what the people at Samsung thought about their latest and greatest smartphone coming in second behind some time-honored livestock? I can just imagine how the conversation went...

Carl: “Thanks for partnering with us on this give-away, but do you think you could also throw in a live goat? The grand prize really needs to hit home with these guys and your smartphones just aren’t cutting it.”

Sam: “Uh, wow. Don’t you think we should stick to one category for the prizes?

Carl: “Yeah, well it’s either that, or the runner-up gets a brood of chickens.”

Sam: “Ok, fine. We’ll throw in a live goat, but do you think it would be possible to brand it with a Samsung logo? And we’ll really need to push the fact that it can double as a garbage disposal...”

Who knows if this contest appealed to its target demographic, or if it was a botched marketing ploy, but either way it was a perfect example of why I love to travel - it’s the littlest things sometimes that put my experiences into perspective, and make me realize that I’m not in Kansas anymore...