On 08.23.2006 we were now able to Bali - the southernmost point and the last stop on our long journey. From here it will only go back to Germany (with a detour via Bangkok), and that's a really weird feeling. Six months but not for too long. However, we enjoy our 2 1 / 2 weeks in Bali very much! We are excited about the varied landscape, from the wonderfully friendly people and many hinduistischeTempel is completed. Yay, my first stay in the southern hemisphere! :-) 
After so much nature in Malaysia, to jungle treks, wildlife viewing, river trips and fantastic dives, we decided now to know at last better, which was in Borneo so far been neglected - the people. So we booked a stay in a traditional Iban longhouse, by bus and boat about 5 hours away from Kuching, Indonesian 
close to the border. Now you probably think of dangerous head hunters, mysterious jungle, hunting with blowguns and longtime tribal wars ... well, which was so many decades ago, but life in the longhouse has adapted over time. There is electricity, telephone and European toilets. Man wears Adidas-shirts is, Christian faith and Beckham has poster on the wall. But there are a large feature containing it: the Iban still live in Langhaeuser. Langhaeuser are (surprise, surprise) long houses, where up to 25 or more families living under one roof. 
this long walk from the huge common room (see photo), in which the largest part of everyday life takes place, smaller apartments for individual families is off, slept in them and cooked (and hang the Beckham poster). For the tourists was built right next door an extra guest house, of course, in long and with lots of small boxes for mattresses and mosquito nets. Once we and our guide Paul for the first time the very 
getting used queen of Asian fruits - the durian had tried directly from the tree (tastes like sausage with mashed potatoes), we were introduced to the long house everyday. We got almost a leadership, saw our first human skulls, which are still kept there for decoration and met the former, charismatic chief of the county, who has since been succeeded by his son. This still had the traditional tattoos on his throat, arms and legs (shows his warrior status) and could We even have a dagger 
presenti his grandfather, which is decorated with real human hair - with red (indicating a Europeans ...). For in that time, the Iban have cut off the heads of their defeated opponents, and hung them as a trophy and lucky charm before their front door. After dinner we went to the tourist part of the trip over, and some of the tribal members led against a whole horde mostly British tourists, the welcome dance in Iban traditonellen costumes, accompanied by rhythmic drumming. This was generous of self-burnt rice wine distributed to the crowd to get into the mood and pleasures of this are a common "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh" washed down. To the subsequent joint dance of the more embarrassing British group with the Iban We expressed our dear .... and remained after the 
event just a bit sitting in the nave, as all the others were already herausgestuermt. Our luck! Soon Paul was born with a great message to us: we were invited by the former Chief in his apartment to celebrate with some family members the first birthday of his great-grandson. Well fine, off you go. As we entered, was already a Christian church service in progress in which Surprisingly, exactly the same songs were sung in German services - just in Malay language. Even the "Our Father" we could have a say to the great delight of all. (At this point thanks to my former pastor's wife Lissner). After about 45 minutes service in the living room, was then cut into the cake and presented the gifts. 
also gave us, again with great joy of all, politely receiving monetary gifts, and were immediately invited to the subsequent (second, but this time authentic) dinner, of course, in the common room sitting on the floor. Froehlich and plenty of traditional food was served until about fish satay and fried rice noodles, to hot cocoa ... uh, yes. The men were separated from women and children and discussed vigorously until the first bottle of rice brandy made the rounds. And the second. Typical 
Malay there are per bottle, a glass from which all drink in turn. Somehow we have received these glasses very often and we soon learned the entire elite of the community know: the incumbent Chief, his son, his father, the priest and Sharman (see photo). Later during the night we said goodbye and fell into our, like Kathi described it so beautiful, horse boxes, when the power went out at 23:30. After breakfast the next morning 
we were trained a bit in wildlife survival. We learned that from the jungle leaves and tubers are edible, such as rubber is produced, how different size traps for animals (or people!) builds and 
how to use the famous Blowpipe (blowpipe) deal, which can with the Iban of 50 m Close kill small animals. We started first with 5 meters, and after a few tries, we met our first guava heart. Hah shot! Viable plant in the jungle! After we were allowed to watch a short, bloodless performance of a cock fight that has been banned since the beginning of the year in Malaysia, we climbed back into our long-tail boats, left so the nave to us to embark on the long road towards Kuching. A highlight was 
Forest man was a distant prospect appeared, an excited Ranger came to us and directed us to a second feeding station. And there he was! Richie! The dominant males of the forest, 27 years old and nearly 200 kg, announced that by terrifying Baumschuettel abbrechgeraeusche-on and, as the T-Rex Jurassic Park shone in his red coat by the rich green leaves and hungry, he set about bananas and coconuts here ... only about 5 feet away from us. A colossus with impressive calm and dark brown eyes. Together with the Rangers, we even went down to 3 yards of him and hardly noticed that even a young orang utan mother with young emerged. We were very impressed for a long time and took many photos ... wanted the Rangers to go home. 
Short Story, little sense. had settled on the Kuching Festival, the Philip us, we came across a number of wedding photographers, who offered very cheap really nice pictures. I was kind of excited the price / performance ratio and the next morning after some initial hesitation, we agreed a date for the same day. My birthday present for myself :-) 
raussuchen I Outifits 3 ... and after 10 hours, 4 different Outifits (their own) and funny (some Asian kitsch) shoots (with artificial snow - in a country where it does not snow) were Kathi and I then choose 22 images ... yippee! Some pictures I'm through Pony or smooth Hair barely recognizable. Completely exhausted, we thanked the brilliant team (see picture) and then went in the evening with an employee nor a typical eating chicken rice at a local restaurant before we fell into our beds. 
When British adventurer James Brooke upon his arrival for the name of the animal asked what he was first over the way the locals responded: "Kuching" - Cat. Since the city is called the "cat" and is full of these. There are a few rights, but even more spurious, in the form of still images rather kitschy, distributed everywhere in the city. They come in all souvenir shops, in every imaginable shape and color and there is an even Cat Museum. Today, the state capital Kuching Sarawak and about 1 hour flight from Kota Kinabalu and about 1 1 / 2 hour flight from Kuala Lumpur is located. (This time we were smarter with our backpacks and were dressed like 5-ply to the airport). 
us from time to invite him for coffee or dinner and he was always with us. You get to know each containing a city very different if you know a local. And the whole thing goes to prove the incredible hospitality of the Malaysians that we encountered during the entire time and time again. 
long time we strolled through the colorful streets and tried out some new dishes and fruits. The prettiest on the market was that is all fruit and vegetables on small colorful plastic plates neatly portioned offered. The colorful small plates bring even more color to the already very colorful world of Tropenfruechte us and vegetables are for an otherwise wueseligen Asian market but not typical - but it pleased us. The very nice atmosphere of the city is complemented by a long waterfront promenade, a kind of "old town" with market and Chinese shophouses and the many very stylish cafes that are scattered everywhere in Chinatown. There are coffee, tea and snacks at slightly higher prices, but first-class ambience. Kuching we liked a lot, yet there was the last stop in our beloved Malaysia so much so we left the city only veeeery heavy heart. 
the evening was staggered us then - just follow your nose-on "Phillipinenmarkt", a huge Sammelsorium Essenstaenden with all sorts of offers, by the sea with beautiful views of the gaudy sunset in all imaginable shades of red and leaking fishing boats. The backdrop looked like a painting. In the market Kathi and I were then also again an attraction and is always smiling photos with different state operators that develop later we left and they brought the people the next day gone. The locals here are really incredibly warm! The next day we 
since the island of Borneo, especially for its species diversity is known, we decided a "Wild Life Tour & Stay" to book with Uncle Tams in the area of the Kinabatangan River in simple Wildlife Camp. Together with Benn, we arrived around noon in the office of Uncle Tam's and have been for a local lunch (that is always rice and Vegetables down) to the pier in the vicinity of Sukau. From there it went to the small boats in the middle of nowhere (well, in the jungle) nearby camp. The journey was a real river safari, we saw iguanas, macaque monkeys and some small crocodiles. From a distance we could admire and even the first Nashornvoegel which are significant for this area is very typical. Once in camp, we obtained the simple wooden crates, after all, equipped with mosquito net and mattress on the floor, and had even more luck. As the camp was well overbooked, we could not (!) Find no place in the 6-person cabins and more have been in the room to the bedroom converted 
dislodged office of the Chief - Three of them. Much better and with 4 walls. Shortly after the camp appeared to also have some funny-looking bearded wild boars, which ran about for a while, looking for food. We headed to the local dinner on our first adventure, a river safari at night. Since it is quite dark, of course, you need a very good guide that we got even with Lan. He really discovered every little frog at 50 m distance, mocked every little sleeping bird on any of these branches. The highlights were definitely a huge owl, which we could go very close approach, a whole horde peeing Santander macaque monkeys, a sleeping Monitor Lizard on a tree branch and two in the distance across dangerous crocodile bright yellow eyes, but quickly dives, as we approached. Completely tired, we trudged the long, muddy path in the middle of the night back to the camp and tried against 23 clock at a auesserst sonorous Dschungelgeraeuschkulisse some sleep to get, because the next morning was at 6:30 clock, even before breakfast, the next River Safari at. Because wildlife can be seen most Early morning or late afternoon, as we have learned. So we tortured us readily swollen by our mattresses and we went off to boot. This time we saw again a lot of macaque monkeys, and especially a number Nashornvoegel from a distance. Distance does not matter, because the big horn on its nose (as the name implies), is really its own characteristic Characteristic and to marvel in the flyby. A highlight of this time was a pack of golden monkeys, which had settled comfortably in a tree crown, also called the Proboscis Monkey. This species is really very rare and occurs only in Borneo. They are very fun to watch, for not only its huge nose is bright red. On the way back to camp we saw even a group of beavers who amused themselves on 
a sand bank and driving past us in the boat eyed curiosity. With empty stomachs, we trudged their way back to camp and took a fortifying French Toast breakfast included us, and learned that another group, even a wild orang utan could find in a tree. Not that we would have once had a break no. Immediately after the breakfast included, it went on foot to the insect world and of course in the mud around the town. At this point: thanks dad for the hiking boots! So we fought our brave through the marshy hinterland of the camps and by the often bizarre-looking nature. Again it we had a brilliant guide who was next to a Tausendfuessler its second-smallest frog in the world between the tree trunks. This is not even as big as a fingernail, but can jump over 1 m wide. Our absolute favorite was the cotton-bug, which, as its name suggests, really like a little piece of running Bamwolle crawls by aligning bubbles and in snow white. Past giant trees we were close to reaching the Camps have been attacked by a screaming horde of macaques, whose territory we had not considered obvious, but our guide suggested she bravely on the run. You remember: arm quickly screaming macaques with a stick. After lunch we have had the hot afternoon, time to rest, because that's what the animals do too and are not to see anyway. A 
again stood against 17 clock now at a final River Safari. Same river, same animals, and now a rather sagging buttocks .... The night hike to explore the insects (especially spiders, you know how I like it) and frog World of Borneo through the mud we left for the benefit of some cans of beer with two Scottish Oelplattformarbeitern he prefers from ... and we were right, because when everyone else just marched on foot through the jungle, there was a strong downpour - and we sat in the dry. Haha. Later in the evening 
The Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre is located in northern Borneo, and was founded in 1964 in order-as the name implies-orang utans and other animals that were taken out for any reason from their natural environment to rehabilitate, so again . auszuwildern Above all orphaned orangutan babies. Once belonged to the entire Southeastern area of distribution space for the orang utans, now they are only found in small numbers in parts of Borneo and Sumatra. They are the largest living animal on trees and build a new nest every night, because they are solitary and constantly move around. Only for mating purposes find them together, the mothers take care of then around 5 - 8 years of their offspring before they both move on again alone. 
found orphaned in the endless palm-oil plantations in the area or by local families illegally kept as pets. In the 43 sq km large area on the edge of Kabili Sepilok Forest Reserve, which is covered with tropical rain forest, the young people of the forest, which means Orang Utan translated, so again prepared for a life in freedom. This may however take many years, because often the kids can not climb still independently obtain food. For this, we Pfleger, the monkeys Slowly and carefully taught, what they would otherwise have learned from her mother and also a buddy system where older orangutans for something to help the younger people. Have the children learned the basic properties, they are left in the vast forest, but still provides two times a day with milk, bananas and sugar cane. The menu is deliberately designed so monotonous, so the orangutans learn to care independently for more varied diet. In time, the food is brought deeper into the forest and the animals have more and more about themselves. 
The feeding takes place on specially constructed wooden platforms. These flows are then both flat as well as individual tourists in large flocks, because rarely can you get such an opportunity again to see the animals at such close range in their natural environment and without the grating. Although many passengers the spectacle was too touristy, Kathi and I enjoyed it very much. When some of the first morning we were at the station and we were a short walk through the jungle just enough for you right now the best places near the Fuetterunsplattform. Just over an hour we watched the many younger and some older orangutans who the heck rejoice in the food and then a bit of rope around the specially fitted climbed and played. Then we watched another movie about the reintroduction of the "forest people" and visited the directly adjacent Museum with some interesting info about the unfortunately seriously threatened species from which it is estimated that only about 15 000 copies. At least provide facilities such as Sepilok reason to hope that these animals do not like so many other species die out before them. 
Only a small (rat gnawed) Day pack on his back, we were on 9.8. deposited on Mabul, a wintzigen island in the Celebes Sea from Borneo. After a full day of stunning dives we would stay overnight in a traditional long house with a family. The path led us past the mosque, before the whole squad played a boys football, passing many fishermen's houses through the entire village, 
where we were welcomed most of the cute kids excited. They jumped us excited before the cameras and were keen that we took pictures of them. The inhabitants of the village, all either fishermen employed by diving schools and hotels were probably come straight from work, for it seemed everyone in place to be. Most village houses are built on stilts in the water, because right in front of the island begins a large reef, about which lights up the water at low tide is generally only about 30 cm high, but 
but all the time in beautiful Tuerkistoenen . In just one long stilt house we moved into our room and sat down with a hot tea on the large veranda overlooking the sea and the surrounding Langhaeuser. Dinner was of course fresh fish, rice and vegetables, but was very tasty was prepared by the family. After I had read a bit, I was already dead tired by 21 clock in my bed and fell asleep. But often it is indeed the way one does not expect it ... Kathy sat down Meanwhile, on the terrace over the sea and organized the unbelievable: a party. Shortly before 24 Clock 
they woke me up - even slightly giggle-up and I was picked up by a local policeman, me still in bed clothes, accompanied on the terrace. And there sat also been very happy party company, the French from a this couple, who lived with us in the nave and 6 Malays, who had somehow found together: a security guard, police officers, instructors, etc., all obviously already for 22 clock had been pushed on me and I sang a now 
Geburtstagsstaendchen. Kathi had balloons, the local gin and cola organized (they had to the store owner must destroy out of sleep). As Jaque (the French) then Burma cigars in the round and threw Kathi music was bringing in a really long night, no more obstacles. As a birth gift from the police I got their guns and caps pressed into the hand and we took pictures. Do not worry, we have not been kidnapped so! That was probably then 
also one of the most interesting birthday photos I have ever I am .... Late in the day then there was also another serenade serene Malays and they are known to sing their national songs about the Mount Kinabalu and Sipadan diving in front of - and associated dances. Very nice, entertaining, and everything on video noted. After 7 bottles of gin, we ended the evening as against 3 clock and fell completely ready in our beds (Good thing I was wearing my pajamas anyway), under which we could hear the water rushing softly. 
After we had rested and had breakfast, we rested on the porch over the reef and watch the many fishing and children with brightly colored plastic buckets, which is now under investigation at low tide the reef to fish and crabs. What a relaxed atmosphere and quiet. Except for the crackling dive boats, which now and then drove some distance over, was out 
waves do not listen to, but many. After lunch, another Malaysian Inslerundgang led back the thriving village and on the other side of the island with some poor conditions, where we - constantly got photos of children making exclusively in a beautifully situated luxury dive resort. The resort is far from completely dark wood built out into the water and offers perfectly furnished aircon bungalows. The dive boats can equal 
start before the door or you can just jump into the water, one is yet in the depths over the reef. Something has to be a Travel Agent of course also view and here is how it was then a Geburtstagseis. From there we strolled slowly back to the pier, from which we picked up our Scubajunkie-dive boat around 16:30 again. Too bad that we have this small friendly Island already had to leave now, here we would probably still be holding a week. 
