back to basaga

Dear travel journal,
Last day in Borneo :( woke up around 5am and saw heaps of cloud cover, so not a good view of the sunrise, so i was back to bed for a couple of hours. Then it was up for breaky and Alvin made us ginger tea and then time to pack up. We all got too it and Packed our bags and cleaned our rooms. Then we all stood around with the people from the village who have helped us with cooking and shell necklaces and boat people and we all said our thankyous and goodbyes. Then Alvin got us to sing our 'tour song' again and then we all shook hands and the chief gave us a shell necklace each made by the ladies of his family. When the malay people shake hands they often use their right hand to shake and the left to hold the outside of your hand. And then with their right hand touch their heart. They do this because it signifies greeting/thank you with sincerity. And then we all took loads of pictures with each other, which was fun. After the goodbyes we took all our stuff and headed off down the beach to the boats. Callam, Sam and I were in the smaller boat with a bunch of stuff and everyone else was in the bigger one. I cannot believe how calm the ocean was for most of the journey. Crossing a section of the south China sea and the water was completely flat and went out for what seemed like forever. Once we got closer to the jetty we had to cross a sand bar and the waves where a bit choppy there, the boys kept slowly sliding to one side as they were bouncing around. Sam said he thought he saw something in the water and when we got off the boats Paul said he saw a splash and Anne saw a dolphin tail. The chief said that there are quite often pods of dolphins seen when crossing the channel. They get lots of bottle nose and black dolphins in that region. At the jetty the tide was out so we pulled the boat in as far as possible. Standing on the hull of the boat the bottom step of the jetty was just below shoulder height. A couple of people climbed up and then helped pull everyone else up. Once most people where out we stood in a row up the stairs and everything was passed in a chain up to the jetty. Once out we gathered everything together and went over to a local cafe. We had cold drinks, changed into dry cloths and ate chilli noodles which were tasty. Frankie met us for morning tea. Once again the strange whities walking around town got a lot of looks and attention. Once done we said our good byes to the chief and piled into the vans. From sematan, (the jetty) we headed off to soar, Sitar beach , lulu. This is a new spot that has been built by owners of the monkey bar (the guys that help run matang who run the great projects tour last time I was here. The monkey bar proceeds help with funding for matang). This expansion is actually more of a super fancy basaga. Its a small resort that opens out and looks over the beach. It will eventually have 40 rooms, a salt water pool and a restraunt and then looking over the ocean is an open bar. There is currently 1 Lady from Perth who has already been here for 2 months and a girl who, arrived today from Germany who will be staying 1 month who are helping to build the resort. Then off to lundu for lunch. The cafe was in a food court above a little market place. Then on to basaga. The drive back was fun, Sam, callum, Jason, maria, Kirsty and I played 'would you rather...'. And it started bucketing down. We had to cross the river on the barge which with the rain had the river really high. Just before we got back to basaga Frankie said he had a song for us and started playing Barry white - can't smile without you. Then when we arrived. We unpacked and said our good byes with Frankie and checked in. Back at basaga. We got all of our stuff together and unpacked everything, had a hot (well warm) shower and headed back down for dinner. Alvin and Christina joined us for dinner which was awesome. Then we all piled in the van and off to the monkey bar. We had such an awesome time which continued back at basaga. Then we said good bye to the boys and headed to bed. Can't believe its the last night :(Read more