Borneo Blog :: possibly the best day of my travels so far...

Wow, what a day. I've seen more of Borneo today than I have over the last 17 days! It all started earlier this morning. I had my bikini on ready to go to the islands but I wanted to pick up my t-shirts from the print shop before hand so I started walking over. I hadn't realised it was 9:30am and I'm pretty sure the shop didn't open till 10am so I was summing up whether I should just sit outside and wait or have a coconut instead. 

The coconut won because I didn't have one for breakfast and it's a good job I went else I would not have met Des, aka Chew. He's a 52 year old Malay from Kuala Lumpur and let me tell you I was so shocked when he said he is 52! He looks at least 10 years younger in my opinion. He loved that comment so bought my coconut for me! 

What a man he is. Well travelled, knowledgeable in raja yoga, tai chi and vegetarianism (his mother is 90 and is a thriving vegetarian!). I don't think he is vegetarian though,but when he was with me he only ate fruit and salad (with mayo but still no meat). He is married and has a son, but not biological (this man has some great stories!) 

So we talked for a long time in the morning and instead of going to the islands I'd agreed to meet him back at the coco place at 2pm so he could show me some waterfalls and watch the sunset high in the mountain on his motorcycle. Well of course when someone mentions motorcycle I'm in. I get such a thrill from riding motorcycles, although this was not the case as a child, I was frightened of my uncles bikes. 

Well I was early and had another coconut whilst I waited. I ended up having a conversation with an American stay at home dad. It's crazy how many people I've spoke to recently, my dream definition was right! 

I'm going to cut it short because I need to research the place names and it's way past my bed time so here goes, 8 hours condensed into a few sentences. 

We went up to the mountains, it was gorgeous, so many trees. The buildings looked very Americanised in my opinion. The river was stunning. The first waterfall was lovely but I got attacked by mosquitoes. We ate durian and then left. Onto the second waterfall. I got such a numb bottom on the bike so I started doing butt clenches to try to build up my muscle and natural padding! The second waterfall was also amazing but we didn't stay long. We ascended a really steep hill for the views of KK at sunset. 

When we got to the top there was cloud cover everywhere. We were in a restaurant and had ordered some fruit juice and salads. The juice was delicious by the way, pineapple, orange, celery and apple. I suggested that we both close our eyes and imagined the cloud moving away so that we could see the sun and KK below. After 2 minutes or so I say enough and within 10 minutes the clouds started clearing! We had some amazing views of the city but unfortunately the clouds covered the sunset. I was so amazed that it worked and it solidified my belief that what we think has a lot of power. 

After the food we head back down. Des showed me many places, the tour wasn't over. We went up another steep hill closer to the city, he took me to his shop and showed me his house and then we watched a water fountain show. 

I have had one of the best days of my life. I saw my first firefly and fell in love all over again with motorcycles, KK and the generosity of a stranger. 

I am so blessed to have met Des and I appreciate everything he did for me today. I think he was sent to me to show me that not all men are a waste of space! 

Borneo Blog :: locals, coconuts and durian

This morning I went out on my bicycle first thing to buy a coconut. It is my current routine to do 10 minutes of oil pulling, whilst I stretch and brush my teeth, drink about 1 litre of filtered water followed by a coconut water and meat and then a whole 3.5kg watermelon for breakfast. 

This sets me up to cleanse my colon, pee clear and rehydrate after a long sleep. I stopped drinking in the middle of the night because it disturbed my sleep and I was told that our mouths contain so much bacteria in the morning that we should do oil pulling without having a drink. So that's what I do. 

I love getting young coconuts that are slightly maturing inside, so the meat is a bit harder and whiter. I find the slimey meat to be just that, too slimey so I opt for the higher fat option. 

I sat in the place where I bought the coconut and drank it with my reusable glass affirmation straw. I bought this in Bali and I love it. The message says "I love who I am and all that I do". Perfect. After I finished I went to the sea front and sat down to eat my watermelon. 

As I was taking some selfies, a local young man walked past. He saw me taking pictures and decided he would come back to ask if he can have a photo too. "Sure" I said. I thought he would just take one but no he climbed over the ledge where I sat, put his arm around me and took a selfie with me. To him this meant it gave him full access to my personal life and his leading question was "so are you single? What is your name?"

There's something that's been grating on me over the last few weeks and that is that the men here all seem to assume that because I'm alone, beautiful and generally always smiling that it gives them a right to hit on me, that I want a boyfriend and that it's OK to ask really personal questions. Well it's not OK, I don't want a boyfriend and I would prefer my own privacy. 

Fair enough I am travelling in their country and yes I do appreciate friendly conversation, but as I found out in Turkey many years ago Muslim men and women cannot be friends, so if you are talking to a Muslim man they generally want something. I have been patient, I have been friendly, but when it's the first question someone asks I will not stand for it. He interrupted my peace so I told him that I would like to eat my breakfast in peace. Thankfully he respected my wishes and left. 

Now I'm not so vain to think I'm the desire of all men, but it certainly feels like it here. To them I'm classed as exotic! I haven't seen many single Western women walking around, but that doesn't mean that I am here to get a husband. I had exactly the same problem in Turkey. People in Bali left me alone for the most part and in Thailand I don't recall having this problem. That's why I enjoyed being in the cinema yesterday, I blended in because it was pitch black! The attention was no longer on me because I'm white, female, blonde and cute! 

Moving on, I decided that the durian here was actually pants, I haven't really been enjoying it, mainly because it costs more than I want to pay so I've been buying the cheaper packaged fruit. Well after my second Ionic Detox Foot Therapy I went to the guy with the cheap packaged durian. I took about 5-10 minutes just looking at the fruit because he has piles of durian stacked on the road, 3-4 fruit for 10 ringgit. This fruit looks really old so I sniff a few, no smell and decide that I don't want to get them in case they sucked! 

I then started opening his 5 ringgit packaged durian and decide it looks a bit battered, so I just asked if I could buy one from his baskets (where he's replenishing the old ones from). He also sells fresh durian too for 12 ringgit /kg but I don't want that. The one I picked was mediocre, nothing to write home about. Then one of the guys picks out a small one and it is the sweetest and creamiest durian I've had since Bali. Oh sweet heavens you answered my prayers! Then I got the taste for more and so I got another durian and it too was so creamy. I wanted it to last forever... The best thing about eating durian is the leftovers on your fingers. I licked them clean hahaha

So now I'm sat on my bed writing this blog, feeling super full from 3 durian and day dreaming about how good is tasted. So much for giving up durian... I might go back tomorrow. 

*passes out from durian coma*