TrekFeet

The International Shenanigans of Two Fools on the Run, Part One: The Hong Kong, Macau and Kota Kinabaul Chronicles October 9, 2007

Soon I will regale you with stories - adventure yarns of painful journeys up jungle mountains and glorious summits in the coldest hours of dawn.

But for today, I’m going to level with you.

I’m sick as a dog from some unknown but surely delicious meal and either the mountain descent left us mostly paralyzed or Kraabel has begun to beat me in my sleep. All I know is that every muscle in my body hates me and I shrieked in pain stepping off a curb on our ill-advised walk this morning in search of breakfast and traditional medicine.

I couldn’t be happier!

But before I retire (aka roll back over into the fetal position), a quick recap of the trip so far:

A 15 hour flight deposited us in Hong Kong - a city I fell in love with at first sight last spring. Coming back to her this fall was a warm reunion: The enchanting skyline, the gentle pitch of the romantic Star Ferry, the silent, slow motion Tai Chi each morning in Victoria Park and most importantly, heapings of hot salty fried calamari.

In the less-than-24 hours we had in town, we covered an impressive number of sights, walked for hours upon hours and then caught the ferry for Macau.

Macau feels like exactly what it is - the half charming, half tawdry love child of Portugal and Asia rising from the South China Sea. Colonialized and developed by the Portugese and eventually handed back to China when such aggressive nation building fell out of fashion, the island is now a hodge podge of European cathedrals and cobble stone alleys and South Asian noodle joints, curio shops and of course, casinoes. Gambling is legal in Macau and from what we saw it is also BIG business. The Wynn hotel and casino stood glimmering at sea’s edge and behind it a line of “less tasteful” local casinos sashayed and shimmied and fanned out across town. For my taste, a half day was enough time to admire the strange concoction, enjoy a great meal and get on to our next destination.

The next couple of days were spent adjusting to Borneo - a welcomed, warm and far less developed change of pace. We explored Sunday street markets where secular and Christian Malaysians and hundreds of veiled Muslims bought and sold goods to one another in surprisingly respectful harmony. We toured history museums bringing us from tribal heritage to the long line of British Rajs to Borneo’s latter day division between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. We ate, we walked, we snapped a million photographs and just enjoyed the peacefully exotic.

As Kraabel pointed out after we landed in Kota Kinabalu that first evening at midnight (still sans hotel room), we’d made it through three countries in less than 24 hours. Heading out to an all-night curry joint, jet lagged and oblivious to sleep patterns, I could only grin in response.

This is the dream.

I hate to wake you up to say goodbye. October 1, 2007

It’s that beloved time of year again, in which we impulsively cobble together travel plans, purchase procrastinated tickets and dump all the sensible and exotic contents of our combined backpacking arsenal in the middle of the living room floor.

Head lamps.  Mole skin.  Thermal long underwear.

Bolivianos, West African Francs, Thai Bahts. Drain plugs. Sleep sheets.

Yellow fever cards.  Sarongs. Flip flops.

Check.

We pace the house and deliberate packing lists with the shared understanding that we must be prepared for anything.  Thin nylon rope may be a necessity should our planned mountain climb go terribly wrong ala that tragic fellow who, trapped in a crevice, had to hack off his own arm (I really only mentioned that horrific story so I could use the word “crevice,” which I pronounce in my head with a jaunty British / French Canadian hybrid accent - “crehvaaasss…”).  The army-issue mini can-opener my dad gave me? Of course; should we stumble upon some Lost-inspired buried hatch resplendent with ancient generic tins of processed meat, it’ll be our salvation.

100 percent Deet. Cipro. Polarized camera filter. Waterproof Uno cards. Journals. 900 page book. Q-tips.

We’ve got it all.   

And yet…. And yet, we have not a single hotel room booked - even for our initial night in Hong Kong on a busy national holiday.  We are not entirely certain of our destinations other than “Borneo” at large and Mount Kinabalu in general.  After that….well, we have to fly out of Bangkok eventually.  The highlands or islands might be a nice diversion, but then again, Cambodia is enticingly close.  The route we’ll weave between the certainties of arrival and departure is still the unknown lottery, hidden under that alluring flinty silver.

And that’s the paramount fun of the adventure.

This is the rub I love most - in the trips and in my companion. The fact that he shares this giddy, brave new world, colonial explorer mentality is such a delight.  No matter we’re flying commercial coach instead of chartering steam ships and indigenous crews to cut a swath into the heart of darkness. Kraabel is still as drunk as I on the notion that there is unexamined territory left to conquer, unfathomable experiences yet to explore.  

Back home, the biggest mysteries in so many routine days are whether Crazy Mary will show up to paint at the coffee shop today and how many periwinkle Morning Glories might appear on the vine.  

Lovely secrets in their own right, but I will admit, I am craving Headhunters Trails through thick sweating jungle, where your heart beats slow and heavy in the heat.  I am dying for frantic, pungent markets where you watch your step and your bag.  I am counting the days until I hunker on cold mountain tops enchanted by the view, lungs clamoring for breath and hands for cameras.  I am longing to negotiate, barter, navigate, take chances. I am ready for eating and transportation to be a gamble and an escapade.

And just in the nick of time, the next adventure arises.

We leave Thursday. We’ll be gone just under two weeks.

These are the knowns.

Everything else is ours for the finding.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borneo