Borneo and Brain-eating Monkeys

It has been more than a year since I've written anything. I am pretty sure it is because Monkey Baby has eaten my brain. I had no idea that monkeys even liked brains, but the more I've checked around, the more it seems that brain is standard fare for the wily creatures.

Anyway, earlier today I found part of my brain in a corner of the dining room next to a dried broccoli floret. It appeared still to be usable, so I brushed it off and put it where Monkey Baby couldn't reach it. In order to protect its future usability, I have to use this remaining piece of brain sparingly. Hence, this will be short and make use of many pictures.

We went to Malaysian Borneo with Viking Man's parents in October 2011. The bit of rainforest that is left in Borneo is full of the most spectacular wildlife imaginable. From insects to elephants, Borneo has it all, including more than 1,000 species of ants. Ants! Large and lumbering, small and industrious, they were everywhere. We also saw proboscis and red leaf monkeys, a crocodile, regal birds of all kinds, deer, lizards, a marble cat, and a bunch of other things that I made note of somewhere.

My brain fragment is starting to overheat, so I will finish by making a list of recollections from this trip followed by a slideshow.

• I had to deal with Air Asia which is like being stabbed in the eye with a hot poker. 
• I really liked watching wildlife from a boat. 
• The orangutan sanctuary was good, but seeing a man of the forest in the wild gave me goosebumps.
• The drive to Borneo Rainforest Lodge was long and jarring and totally worth it. 
• One of our guides saw an animal he had only previously seen in a zoo. 
• Leech socks may have been overkill, but they kept out the leeches. 
• Getting up early to hear the rainforest wake up was also worth it (it almost killed me to just admit that). 
• Viking Man can totally pull off wearing a sarong. 

Tioman Island, Malaysia, 4.2010

-Tioman Island Album Link

Jeju-do, Korea, February 28 - March 3

My last day of school--graduation day--was February 28. I showed up to discover that all of my kids had decided not to attend. Very disappointed and slightly bitter, I went to the graduation anyway. After school I went to my sewing class, and when I got home from that, Morten called from Jeju Island to say the weather was really nice, so why not book a flight ticket for the 29th to join him for the weekend? I checked into it, but the only tickets before the weekend was over left in an hour and a half on the night of the 28th. Being that Gimpo Airport itself was nearly an hour away, this seemed nearly impossible, not to mention the fact that I had begun to feel quite feverish. However, also feeling that this would be my last chance to see Jeju before leaving Korea, I literally threw a pile of laundry and toiletries into a suitcase, ran out the door, and crept through rush-hour traffic in a taxi to Gimpo. In a panic, I bought a ticket and started running for the gate only to realize I had nearly fifteen minutes to spare (!) which meant time to buy some much needed juice. Morten picked me up in Jeju, and we ended up having a great weekend touring beautiful Jeju-do in spite of my fever and lack of appetite.

Gangwha Island, January 27th, Korea

I almost forgot about this day we went for a little drive out to Gangwha Island on the northwest coast of Korea. We started with some good BBQ then drove until we couldn't drive anymore. Being so close to North Korea, razor wire seemed to grow like vines along fences and roadways, and the road along the northern coast was heavily guarded and accessible by permit only, much to our disappointment. At one point we pulled to the side of the road to take some pictures. A motorcycle officer approached and slowed as if to speak to me through the passenger window. I pretended I didn't see him, so he caught Morten's attention. 'Are you American?' he asked. 'No,' Morten replied as he always does, and like the proudest Dane in the world, 'I'm from DENMARK!' Turns out the cop had actually worked in Denmark as an engineer for Siemens. He invited us down to his little police station for coffee and told us to come again for a tour. I shall end here as the power just went out.

Ulleungdo, August 1-3, FINAL PART

It turns out that Bryce did NOT kick me in the head while we slept. The next morning we decided to go hiking. Please follow the photos through our day.

We found the unmarked trail thanks to one of our guide books

We passed many hillside farms on the way.

It was a beautiful day, and the view got better and better as we climbed higher and higher.

I suffered a toenail fracture (but certainly not because I kicked my own foot).

We stopped to rest on some benches and snap some promotional photos for Pocari Sweat.

When we reached the top, we were very frustrated by the lack of view.

There was, however, a nice lookout facing the other side of the island.

After the hike, we showered, hung our wet clothes on the roof, and begun a fresh set of activities.

We sampled some delicious mineral water purported to have great health benefits. Bryce couldn't keep his hand steady on the camera.

Next we took the cable car up to the viewpoint.We saw a bird's eye view of the city...

...and looked in the direction of the highly contested Dokdo.

That night we sat in the harbor and talked and watched people and boats come in and out.

On our final morning, I snapped a picture of squid drying in the harbor before we caught our ferry back to the mainland.

Ulleungdo, August 1-3, Part 2

I'm simply going to pick up where I left off at the end of part one.

If you look closely between the big tan building and the big white building, you might be able to see the little white bungalow with red doors that became our home for two days

We trekked up the hill after the minbak owner to our mansion on a hill. The sliding front doors opened to reveal three small rooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom. The middle room was occupied, so we had a choice between the impossibly small box of a room on the left (pictured left) or the slightly larger room on the right (pictured right). Given that Bryce would not likely have been able to fully stretch out in the smaller room, we did not hesitate for a second to pay the higher price for the 'big' room. It also looked somewhat occupied, but if it was, it apparently wasn't a problem that we were using it for two nights. We paid the man our money, learned how to lock up the house, then changed for dinner.

Bryce and I are terrible together when it comes to making decisions. It's a wonder we even made it to Ulleungdo. But we did, and we were faced with the horrible decision of 'what to have for dinner.' Seafood? No. Fish? No fish. Beef? Maybe. Pork? I don't want pork... Beef? Yes, let's have beef. Okay, where do we find beef on an island covered with seafood restaurants? In the end, we found a place with meat but ended up eating pork anyway. It was pretty good, and after three days of low food consumption on the beach, it felt great to fill up on substantial food.

Looking into the harbor--photo by Bryce!

After dinner we walked out through the harbor to a pathway that snaked along the rocky edge of the island and sat for awhile watching and listening to the waves on the rocks. We couldn't think of anything to do after that, so we hiked back to the room, picking up waters and ice creams on the way. We ate our refreshments on the edge of the cement hill, slapping mosquitoes and brushing away weeds. And then we turned in for the night, crossing our fingers for a good sleep on our thin floor pads in the heat of the small room. Bryce wanted the fan on his head, and I wanted the fan on my feet, so it worked out, and, being exhausted, I quickly drifted to sleep hoping Bryce wouldn't kick me in the head.

And now you can keep YOUR fingers crossed for part three of the Ulleungdo trip!

Ulleungdo, August 1-3, Part 1

After lying on the beach for three days straight, Bryce and I thought that maybe we should do something semi-worthwhile with our vacation. We spent part of our Monday beach time flipping through guide books and arguing amicably about what to do, and in the end, we chose to visit Ulleungdo, an island a little bit south off the east coast.

Tuesday morning we took a bus forty minutes south to Donghae. We left in such a hurry that on arriving, we realized that neither of us had much money and had to make an emergency out-of-our-way trip to an ATM before finding the ferry terminal. Once there, we obtained our tickets without too much hassle, though they kept telling us adamantly that we didn't have the reservations that we actually did have. But we got tickets, so we didn't care.

The ferry was large but not overly luxurious. Bryce wanted more leg room, and I wanted my seat back to tip any other direction than rigidly upright, but the 2 1/2 hour ride passed fairly quickly, and we were soon stepping into the bright, steamy sunshine of Dodong-ri on the rock sticking out of the water that is the island of Ulleungdo.

Dodong-ri Harbor

A few relatively factual notes about Ulleungdo--It is about 12km across at its widest point with rugged, mountainous terrian. It was used mostly as a military outpost until the late 1800's. Its current population of about 10,000 people supports itself with fishing, farming, and summer tourism. Seonginbong (Seongin Peak) is the highest point of the island at 984m.

We walked up toward the town with little clue as to what we were doing. We had decided to travel to Ulleungdo, but the planning had pretty much stopped there. We spotted the tourist information booth and picked up a map of the island and a bus schedule, both in Korean (though Bryce and I both read Korean, it can be tedious slogging through maps and schedules).

After hemming and hawing about what to do, we settled on finding a bus to Jeodong-ri, thinking it would be less touristy than Dodong-ri. The bus schedule was not quite clear to us, as was the location of bus stop, so subsequent to turning in many circles and almost becoming really frustrated with each other (or was that just me?), we went back to the information booth to have another useless conversation about the bus schedule with the woman at the window. A Korean man who spoke a little English jumped in to help us out, and by the end of the conversation, we started to understand these key pieces of information: 'There are no rooms, the island is booked, you should stay here and let us help you find a room.'

Okay....Bryce and I would have been content to not sleep and simply roam the island with our backpacks, but they were very concerned about us, not to mention probably horrified that we had undertaken a trip with no reservations, so we tried to figure out what to do. And then our angel came. A man who spoke perfect English introduced himself as a sort of liason for English speaking tourists on Ulleungdo. Had I been less grumpy, I might have kissed him. He was very helpful to us and got us space on a floor in a minbak, a private home with very basic rooms. He told us we could choose between a small room or a slightly larger room for a little more money. He gave us his 'business card' and sent us off with the minbak owner, telling us to call him if we needed help at any point.