Early rise this morning again as our hostel arranged “tour guide” was picking us up at 8am. Decided to go for the eggs and toast this morning rather than the pancakes which was a nice change. Still don’t get how people can eat rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
Our “tour guide” arrives on time….his first question….where do you want to go today??? As you can imagine having a few too many the night before neither of us were in the best of moods this morning so I let Becky answer that one. Thinking we had booked onto a guided tour we only had a vague idea of popular things on the island…
Turns out he was just a driver that the hostel had got us to drive us around all the “tourist” attractions. GREAT!
Our first stop was the chocolate hills about an hour away. My head started to nod and before you know it I was fast asleep, Becky not being too impressed with that as the driver was trying to make conversation gave me a few elbow shots to the ribs to wake me up. I just kept falling asleep and the driver even handed me a travel pillow ,she gave up trying to keep me awake in the end.
The chocolate hills were actually really cool to see. It’s made from limestone and the reason they call them it is because in the summer they turn a chocolate colour due to the sun. As we walked up a few more stairs to the top of the viewing point we were once again treated to fellow tourists posing for photos.
Now the best part of the holiday by far….some guy was trying to look through the binocular set that was mounted in ground….. the wrong way round. I almost fell to the floor laughing. He kept trying to look round to see the hills and couldn’t work out why he couldn’t see it.
More and more tourists were posing for photos so we decided to have a go,half taking the Mick out of them.
Think we should just stick to smiling in future.
Back to the car and it was off to our next stop the butterfly sanctuary. We were greeted with a guide who spoke great English, it must have been near her lunch break as we flew through the butterfly sanctuary…no pun intended 😉. She was keen to take pictures of us throughout so why not eh? When we reached the enclosure section she said they must be sleeping and decided to rag doll the netted cover to “wake them up”- a bit harsh!
Our next stop on our taxi service would be the zip line experience. Becky was nervous at first as it wasn’t exactly the best safety equipment. Basically a blanket was put across the front of your body then clipped in down your back. They even clipped in our flip flops so we didn’t lose them…nice touch… Asked then to move into a press up position to be lifted off the ground. This is when Becky became very nervous saying repeatedly “I don’t think I can do this” TOO LATE we were off. I ended up out in front and as Becky put it heavier lumps go faster. I put it down to my streamline figure or I was let go first 😂 the views were awesome as we were over all the trees and it opened up onto the river. Our ticket allowed us to zip line back the way too which was good this time I took the camera to try catch a picture of Becky. Unfortunately I was let go first again and despite my best efforts I couldn’t get one.
Our chauffeur then decided it was lunch time as we were dropped off at the floating restaurant. A conveyor belt of tourist. Grab a ticket when your number is called step forward and board the boat. It was too expensive and mass touristy for us so we attempted to find the driver to take us to a cafe or somewhere to get a sandwich he was nowhere to be seen. Our only option then was to have pot noodle style lunch or crisps. The hot and spicy noodles it was. Not that bad actually considering it was yet another noodle dish. Our driver finally arrived and we left.
There was a brief stop off at the man made Forest for a picture. He couldn’t answer why they planted a Forest there in the first place. Quick picture then we were on the road again heading to the Tarsier sanctuary.
Tarsiers are nocturnal animals and they pretty much look like gremlins or Yoda (queue Yoda quotes in my head).
Our final stop off on this trip would be the python and wildlife centre. Oh how we were wrong. Once we paid the entrance fee we had a short walk to the start of the park, we were surrounded by tiny rusty metal cages of primates, wild cats, and reptiles, most with no water, the monkeys sat on a cold concrete floor staring at the corner. Becky was horrified and looked for the nearest exit. We turned a corner to find a ladyboy singing at us and making a real show of all the depressed snakes around, trying to get us in their cages and holding them. He was given some sharp words from Becky,voicing the cruelty seen. Every member of staff on the way out were screaming at us to hold all these poor animals and take photos. Becky slammed the tickets back into the entrance booth and the driver was told we would be leaving immediately, she was absolutely devastated that we had paid into the institution. I assume the driver clocked the sensitive situation unfolding by our visit of less than 5 minutes and nervously offered me a peanut on the way back to the car!
On the way back to the hotel we asked to stop at a bank or ATM. We were taken to a shopping mall which might have been the highlight of the trip as the first shop I see was a cake shop. Time for Becky’s birthday cake! The cakes in the window were whole cakes only. I did consider it but after asking we managed to get smaller ones. I could not have been happier to get some actual chocolate. As we arrived back at the hostel and hour and a half early the driver had a chat with the manager before leaving.
Becky was straight on the iPad to write a review on the “wildlife centre”. All other reviews were along the same lines. I decided to look into Borneo and also for a hotel on the Thai islands.
Later that night we had dinner at the hostel again as there was nowhere else to go. I decided the veg curry again and Becky opted for the fish and chips. Bad decision on both parts, the veg was rock solid and Becky’s fish was soggy. The only positive would be Becky’s chips. I immediately ordered a side of chips and left the curry.
Few games of pool to complete the night before heading to bed to sort out tomorrow’s adventure of getting to the diving centre and how to celebrate my birthday!(sitting on a ferry and bus all day woohoo!)
South East Asia 2019 