Selamat datang ke BORNEO

… or in other words, welcome to Borneo!

Yes, you’ve guessed it right, the topic for today would be this island to the south of Singapore that is shared by Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

As some of you know, my time in Singapore is coming to an end, and some of my friends have come to visit me from Spain to join me in some of my last trips, Borneo and India. After that, I will still have one more great and one-month-long adventure, CHINA! But let’s focus… I was going to talk about Borneo!

There has been a lot of sun bathing, snorkeling and above all, a lot of trekking!! The Malaysian part of Borneo has everything that we didn’t see in Kuala Lumpur or Melaka: beaches, forests and very high mountains.

After our exams week, we have taken advantage of these days to relax and change our travel approach for once. We hopped on the plane without anything planed. We didn’t have a hostel, we didn’t have a route to follow and we didn’t have anything to worry about, it was only us, our backpacks and Borneo. At the beginning I thought that it was all going to turn out as a disaster (and disappointment of my friends), but it didn’t!! We had such a fantastic time.

We have taken peaceful rides by boat to desert islands and great snorkeling spots. We have done a lot of exercise trekking in the Kinabalu Park (a very, very, very high mountain, believe me!!). And above all, I have really enjoyed the visit of my friends, it has been very nice to see them again (I know you will read this, so thank you very much!!)

Inspiring BALI

We just arrived from one of our most exotic trips, BALI, and I must confess it exceeded my expectations.

For those of you who haven’t been there, you’ll be surprise to hear (or read) that this island has much more apart from beautiful sandy beaches and surf addictive waves. The interior of BALI is planted with astonishing volcanoes and incredible landscapes, populated with traditions that have not yet been corrupted by tourism and beautiful temples, some of them hanging from breathtaking cliffs.

We had a lot of fun. Of course we also tried the most touristic attractions and spent some days surfing (or at least learning to!). I must say I enjoyed it a lot!! I am seriously considering giving it a real shot :)

I would definitely recommend this trip for those of you who do not believe that tourism can be environmentally harmless. If you follow my advice and spend sometime travelling the interior of Bali and mixing with local people you’ll find out that tourism does not always replace the local identity.

I nearly forget to mention that on our way to Bali we stopped at Kuala Lumpur (the plane departed from there, after a 5 hour bus from Singapore). We had the chance to admire the famous Petronas twin towers and get a taste of a city that has a very different atmosphere than other near capitals such as Bangkok of Phnom Penh. Both its people and its buildings make it a one of a kind.

Fan as I am to admiring things from a high perspective, I truly enjoyed our trip to the top of the towers!