We packed up our things (including 50 lbs of new dive gear) and headed out the door to catch the 7am ferry from Roatan back to La Ceiba. An hour later we were in a taxi headed to Puerto Cortes, north of San Pedro Sula. We had to stay overnight in Puerto Cortes and booked one night at the Brisas Hotel on Coca Cola beach (named for it’s proximity to the bottling plant). Puerto Cortes was a little thin on entertainment, so we splashed in the pool, had a bite to eat, and retired early along with a new frog buddy who apparently lived in our sink.

The next morning we showed up at the port for the D-Express, a once a week fast ferry from Puerto Cortes to Placencia, Belize. They loaded our bags onto the boat, which is always an interesting affair. Watching 60 year old porters struggle with our bags down into the hold is still uncomfortable, but they refused any help I offered. I’d estimate we have around 200lbs of gear now, but I’m guiltily looking forward to our next flight to confirm our baggage overage. It’s a bit excessive at the moment.

The D-Express crew then drove us to the immigration office in the back of a pickup and we got our exit visas. After which we chatted for 4 hours with a Norwegian couple while the rest of the passengers arrived and went through the same process. We’re nothing if not punctual…

Around 12:30 we left the port on the 50 passenger fast ferry, bouncing across the waves at full throttle, a girl in the front of the boat yelping with each crash and bang of the bow. Thankfully, we’ve learned from previous experiences that the best seat is in the middle of the boat. Not far enough ahead that the bouncing shatters your spine, and not far enough back that you’d get thoroughly soaked by every wave or scorched by the sun.

2 hours later we arrived in Belize. Holy flatness! I think that if you stand on top of a speed bump you can see the other side of Belize. We went through a funny little immigration and customs process where they unload the whole boat 10 minutes from the port, don’t check anything, then load it all back on the boat.

After a short trip to the dock we arrived at Placencia where we were met with the strangest sight of all… nothing. There were no taxis, no vendors, no porters, no anything. We’re so used to being prey for the various tourist predators that lurk around airports and ferry ports, we were truly shocked by the lack of our usual welcoming committee.

Flagging a taxi van, we had a quick ride to the Laru Beya hotel (our home away from home for the next 2 weeks) just as it started to rain. The storm quickly escalated and I’m glad we arrived when we did because the sea quickly turned ugly and that trip could have been a lot more uncomfortable.

Our first impression of Placencia is that it’s a small quaint town. There’s a few nice resorts, a handful of hotels, restaurants, and bars. It’s looks to be a sleepy little place by the sea where can unwind next to the pool, watch the pelicans and frigate birds soar by, eat a pile of shrimp, do a couple dives, and have a few ice cold beverages.

Read the original article here: From Roatan, Honduras to Placencia, Belize

Related posts:

1. From Tamarindo, Costa Rica to Roatan, Honduras
2. 2 weeks vacationing and diving in Belize
3. Scuba Diving in Roatan, Honduras

Before I jump into the numbers part of this post I want to remind everyone that we’re not budget backpackers. Yes you can do Costa Rica a lot cheaper than we did, but since this isn’t just a vacation for us, it’s a lifestyle, we often make choices that aren’t inline with other travelers priorities.

A comfortable place and a decent internet connection are always first priority on our list of requirements, which often means we stick to more touristy places and don’t venture off the beaten track as much as other travelers. When we arrived in Costa Rica we both had a lot of work lined up and knew we’d be spending the majority of our days online, so it was even more important than usual.

We rented a two bedroom, three bathroom condo similar to any modern condo you’d find in Vancouver (or other large North American City), for $1000/month. We had satellite TV, cable internet, a pool, a dishwasher, in-suite washer/dryer, and even an Xbox. Sure we weren’t getting the ‘authentic Costa Rican experience’, but unless you’re traveling to some of the more remote areas, you’re probably not getting much of it either.

We based ourselves in Tamarindo, or Tama-Gringo as many people call it, which again, for many travelers, may not be the first choice. Some argue that it’s too over developed, and full of tourists but so are a lot of places in Costa Rica. For us it had a lot of the things we were looking for and was a pretty good fit, but after six months we did come to realize that it still wasn’t quite perfect… and thus the search for our little piece of paradise continues.

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Read the original article here: Costa Rica Budget

Related posts:

1. Week 56: Costa Rica and our “Casa del Surf”
2. Handmade Souvenir in Costa Rica
3. From Tamarindo, Costa Rica to Roatan, Honduras

We arrived in Managua around 7pm. Asking at the front desk of the Ticabus Hotel (a bit of a dump, but you can’t get any closer to the bus station) where to go for a quick bite and we were told to head for the Mall for safety and selection, so we hopped in a taxi. 5 minutes later we arrived at an extremely busy food court complete with karaoke. After a quick McBurger; only the 2nd time we’ve had fast food in the last 6 months, we headed back to the hotel, massively over-tipping the taxi driver by mistake when I did the conversion from Nicaraguan cordobas to Costa Rican colones to dollars wrong. Another oops and definitely not the last. We crashed out early, watching the closing Olympic ceremonies on tv.

With a 3am wake up call and a 5am boarding, we were headed next for Tegucigalpa, Honduras. We arrived at the border and into Honduras with minimal effort. Arriving in Tegucigalpa 7 hours later; we split a taxi with Peter – another Canadian who we’d met on the bus and was going the same way, and headed to another bus station. When we arrived at the station, the taxi driver wanted $15 a piece for the 10 minute ride. Oops. Always negotiate the price beforehand! We bartered and complained him down to $5 each. Still not exactly a deal.

We grabbed a quick lunch of chicken and rice from a little cafeteria and then got onto another bus headed for La Ceiba. This time with no air conditioning and another 7 hours still ahead of us. After a very sweaty ride and a few liters of water we arrived in La Ceiba. Staying downtown near the ferries there weren’t too many options beyond a Pizza Hut and a Wendy’s, so we went for a pizza and a beer. Unfortunately, the restaurant had run out of beer! Ugh, the hardships of being on the road. ;) Downtown La Ceiba didn’t really seem to have much in the way of options, so we headed back to the hotel.

The next day we woke up early again and caught the 9am ferry to Roatan. We caught a collectivo taxi and headed south to Casa Calico where we’ll be staying for the next couple months. We unloaded the car and checked in, only to realize that in all the bustle I hadn’t grabbed my laptop bag! Shit. Panic ensued. My laptop, my dive computer, my backup drives, everything was in that bag. We ran up the street to where Peter was staying, but the driver had already been there and gone, headed to the hotel of the 3rd couple in the van. While I went to the main road to possibly catch him if he headed north to the ferries again, Kelly went to the house and talked with the front desk about how to get in touch with the driver’s company and made a few calls. 15 heart pounding minutes later, they’d tracked it all down and he was headed back our way. Needless to say, the driver got a bigger tip than the one I had previously miscalculated. But lesson learned, don’t carry your backups in the same bag. Kelly and I will swap drives from now on instead.

And so ended 3 very long, uncomfortable days on the road with over 20 hours spent in a bus. Kelly and I are very happy to have arrived. We’re not really emphatic travelers, preferring the destination over the process of getting there.

So far, we’re loving Roatan. It was cold when we first arrived. Around 27 degrees Celsius, which was an adjustment after the months of 36 degree weather we’ve been having in Costa Rica… but it’s warmed up considerably already.

As is the case with most dive destinations, the people are very friendly. Will from the dive shop even took us out scouting for apartment options when we first arrived and the dive crew are a hilariously good time. We’ve already made some new friends and gotten a ton of advice about living on Roatan. We’re stocked up with a kitchen, have done a few dives already, and had a few good nights out on the town with our new friends. So we’re settling in nicely, back to work, and enjoying our days off in the water.

Read the original article here: From Tamarindo, Costa Rica to Roatan, Honduras

Related posts:

1. From Roatan, Honduras to Placencia, Belize
2. Scuba Diving in Roatan, Honduras
3. Week 56: Costa Rica and our “Casa del Surf”

We started off catching the local bus to Liberia from Tamarindo around 11am. It meanders through each locality on its way to Liberia and took us around 2.5 hours to arrive at the main bus station. A quick taxi ride back one station brought us to where the road from Tamarindo meets the main highway. Having no idea where we were, we had just missed our stop. The cost for the 1 minute taxi ride nearly equaled the $3 we had paid for our 2 hour bus trip. We stopped for a bite to eat at the restaurant beside the Ticabus stop and awaited 3:30 when the bus from San Jose to Nicaragua was supposed to arrive. 2 hours late, the bus finally showed up around 5:30. We kicked a couple people out of our seats and 6 hours after we began, we were finally on our way to Nicaragua!

An hour from the border, we began passing the queue of semi-trucks. Some of them would be waiting days for their turn to cross border inspection. There being only 2 lanes, we were passing in the oncoming lane and often had to stop while the bus driver finessed the bus past traffic on the soft shoulder.

Arriving at the border and exiting the bus to obtain our exit stamps, we were bombarded by money exchangers snapping their wads of Nicaraguan Cordobas. We then had to go through Nicaraguan customs where the bus was unloaded and searched. We gave our passports to the customs official and with our few bags, limited Spanish, and repeating “Turistas, turistas…” we were simply waved through.

A few short hours later, we arrived in Granada and grabbed a cab to our quaint colonial hotel near the central park, appropriately named “The Colonial Hotel”. 12 hours after leaving the house, we had arrived approximately 200km from our starting point. Kelly and I are pretty easy going, but our first experience with bus travel in Central America had proved to be a test of patience.

Granada itself is a quaint colonial city on the shore of Lake Nicaragua. It reminded us very much of our favourite town in Brazil, Paraty. Plenty of places to stop for a drink or a bite to eat. Many of them set up in the courtyard gardens of the old colonial homes. We wandered around the downtown district for a few days exploring the local markets, the bell tower of a church which gave a spectacular view of the city, and stopping in various cafes and street side bars with tables set up on the sidewalks.

At one of these sidewalk tables we met a local brother and sister with her American husband who were having a round of ‘Micheladas’. It’s a Latin American drink, sort of similar to having a Caesar or a Red Rooster with breakfast. A rumoured hangover cure (or just a refreshing afternoon drink), it’s made by pouring a beer into the juice of one lemon, a dash of soya sauce, Worcestershire, and Tabasco, salt, pepper, and ice. Some insist on adding a shot of tequila as well. It won’t replace Caesars for us Canadians, but it’s a nice alternative when Clamato juice is scarce.

I’m also a fan of the local Nicaraguan rum, which I was introduced to on my previous trip to Costa Rica 7 years ago. It’s made in Chichigalapa (just outside of Leon, about 2 hours north of Granada) at the Flor de Caña distillery. We tried to arrange a tour but unfortunately it wasn’t open on Sunday, or wasn’t open for just the 2 of us. We’re not sure which. It was the last day we had available for a tour before we headed home, so we opted instead for a boat ride amongst the nearby islands on Lake Nicaragua.

We were driven around a maze of small islands and given a fairly lengthy lesson of Granada’s history by our guide. We stopped to roam an old fort and then floated around multi-million dollar homes owned by Nicaragua’s elite, stopping to feed a troop of monkeys that were rescued by a doctor who resides on a nearby island. At one point, we were given the option to go for a swim… but after seeing the amount of trash on the shores and viewing the framed jaws of the bull sharks that apparently still patrol the waters of Lake Nicaragua, we passed and stayed dry.

After 5 days in Granada, we boarded the Ticabus again to return to Costa Rica. Things began a little smoother with the bus arriving from Managua on-time around 1pm. We went through the border and arrived in Liberia around 7pm. We had some conflicting information on when the last bus to Tamarindo was, so we ended up waiting for 2 hours with a group of surfers who were also en-route to Tamarindo, before it became apparent we had missed the last bus. We arranged for a large van to drive all 9 of us (plus bags and surfboards) home. It was a tight fit in a slow van, but eventually we arrived home around 10pm. Only 9 hours this time… not bad! ;)

We’re happy to be back with the comforts of home and have since spent nearly everyday on the beach soaking up the sun. It’s unlikely we’ll need to do another visa run following the next 3 months since we’ll be moving on, but we will have to follow the same route once more when we make our transition to Honduras. Now that I’m in the know, I’ll be packing a few Micheladas to-go to ease the journey.

A few more Granada pictures:

Read the original article here: Nicaragua Visa Run from Tamarindo

Related posts:

1. Our ATV Tour from Tamarindo
2. From Tamarindo, Costa Rica to Roatan, Honduras
3. Week 56: Costa Rica and our “Casa del Surf”

Computer Gear

• HP HDX 16 Laptop
• Macbook Pro 15″
• Laptop Cooling Pad
• 2 iPod Touch mp3 players
• Skype headset
• 2 sets of ear-bud headphones
• 6 backup hard-drives
• DVD software backups
• Wireless router
• Various network & USB cables
• Various power cords
• Waterproof laptop bag
• Laptop Backpack

Camera Gear

• Canon D40 Camera
• CompactFlash card reader
• Ikelite underwater camera housing
• 2 underwater lens ports
• 4 camera lenses
• Cleaning kit
• Small tripod
• Speed-light
• Underwater strobe & battery pack
• Various battery chargers

Clothes
Mike:

• 2 pairs of reading glasses
• 2 pairs of sunglasses
• 1 pair of jeans
• 10 shirts
• 5 shorts
• 2 pairs of socks
• 5 boxer-shorts
• 1 pair of flip-flops
• 2 pairs of shoes
• 1 hoodie
• Hat

Kelly:

• 1 pairs of sunglasses
• 1 pair of jeans
• 12 shirts
• 3 sundresses
• 6 shorts
• 2 pairs of socks
• 1 pile of underwear
• 3 bikinis
• 3 pairs of shoes
• 2 pairs of flip-flops
• 1 sweater
• 1 hoodie
• 1 sarong
• various bits of jewelry

Dive Gear

• 2 sets of fins
• 2 sets of booties
• 2 rash guards
• 2 dive masks
• 2 dive computers/watches w/mini compass
• 2 metal ‘pokey’ sticks
• Retractable 40m spool
• Dive buoy
• Fin bag
• Dive charts
• Dive log books
• Dive light (broken) :(
• Dry bag
• Large dive duffel bag

Misc

• Passport Folder w/travel documentation and backups of IDs and cards
• Kelly’s purse and wallet
• Mike’s wallet
• Waterproof wallet
• Multi-tool/Swiss Army Knife
• Small backpack for day trips
• 2 toiletries bags
• Unlocked GSM cellphone and charger
• Portable alarm clock
• 8 books
• Resistance bands for work outs
• Small first aid kit
• Small flashlight
• Baggage locks
• Padlock
• Pacsafe (wire mesh to wrap and lock around bags)
• 2 towels
• Padded neck cushion
• Inflatable neck cushion
• Deck of cards
• A pair of dice
• Bottle opener
• Lighter
• Various shampoo, deodorant, lotions, sunblock, toothpaste, etc
• Hair clippers/shaving kit
• Nail clippers
• Tweezers
• Bug repellent
• Tylenol
• 2 toothbrushes
• 3 months of contact lenses
• Plastic bag of receipts for tax time
• Laundry Bag
• 4 mesh bags
• Notebooks and a few pens
• Electrical tape
• Various electrical plug adapters
• 2 huge rolling bags with shoulder straps to pack it all in

No matter how much stuff we get rid of from our bags, we consistently repurchase the same items in the next country we visit. So we’ve pretty much decided to stop culling the inventory unless it no longer fits into the bags or one of us develops serious lower back issues.

Read the original article here: The Long Term Travel Gear List

Related posts:

1. Malaysia and Canada travel budgets
2. Philippines, Thailand, and Bali travel budgets
3. Friendships and long-term travel

What it cost us to live for 2 months in Malaysia:

And this brings the grand total for our year in Southeast Asia to roughly $51,000. We didn’t travel too cheaply. We always stayed in decent accommodations. We always ate well and partied often. This also includes around 170 scuba dives (approximately $6000) for the two of us combined and about $3000 in computers, parts, and peripherals.

Back in Canada we were prepared for a costly month, running around to see family in various cities and catching up with all our friends. We had a few big nights out, and stocked up on all the clothing and travel essentials we’ll need for the coming year. We only spent 4 nights in hotels, staying with family and mooching off them where we could. ;) Also, a big thanks to Rod who let us stay in his place for a couple weeks while he was away in Amsterdam. It was much appreciated! We probably would have had to spend another $2000 on hotels or an executive apartment otherwise.

What it cost us to live for 1 month in Canada:

I don’t know that our Canada budget is a realistic gauge of an average cost of traveling in Canada. We spent a lot stocking up on supplies for the next 6 months in Costa Rica. We were eating in a lot of nice restaurants when catching up with people or in meetings. A lot of time was spent in coffee shops using the WiFi. A few lattes a day is an extra $10-20 a day we’re not accustomed to anymore. But, it is the cost of doing what we do. Thankfully we were able to curb some of the costs by staying with family and friends.

Read the original article here: Malaysia and Canada travel budgets

Related posts:

1. Philippines, Thailand, and Bali travel budgets
2. Week 41: From Bali to Malaysia
3. The Long Term Travel Gear List

So a while back, John from JetSetCitizen.com asked us if we’d like to do an interview with him about our nomadic travel lifestyle. We took him up on it and the resulting interview was just posted.

Have a look here: Interview with Nomadic Couple, Kelly Hale and Mike Schimanowsky

Thanks John! It really made us think about our lifestyle, traveling as a couple and how that impacts our journey and relationship.

Read the original article here: Interviewed by JetSetCitizen.com

Related posts:

1. Nomadic Professionals – Interviewed by The Professional Hobo

Bryan and Terry, along with Terry’s wife Rose (and 3 year old David) operate Borneo Biking Adventures (BBA). For the last 4 years they’ve taken racers, recreational riders, slowpokes, and even a few lunatics on treks through the roads and trails of Malaysian Borneo. Midday Tuesday, Terry arrived to pick us up from our hotel in Kota Kinabalu. 30 minutes spent navigating a bit of city traffic, and a perilously steep 5km gravel driveway and we arrived at Sinurambi, their house in the hills. With 6 guest rooms, an infinity pool, beautiful furniture and finishings, and staff creating a range of tasty meals, Sinurambi was a pleasure to come home to at the end of each riding day.

Rose and company are superb hosts, quickly making you feel at home and taking care of anything you might require while including you in the family atmosphere. Our first evening was spent relaxing in the pool with a cold beer, following which we were invited down to the river for another swim and a game of Frisbee with some of their friends. It was a refreshing change from the typically stoic “sir” and “ma’am” approach. Returning to the house, we chatted with Terry and Bryan about the next days events over a dinner of local freshwater crab and wild boar. Terry asked, “Tarmac, off road? What kind of rider are you?” “I came all the way here for twisties,” was my response. Being a sport bike rider, gravel was almost a feared occurrence. “I think we’ve got you covered,” he replied with a smirk.

Up early the next day at 7am, we showered and went down to breakfast. Following a quick briefing, we geared up and got our first look at the bikes. BBA has a fleet of 12 Aprilia Pegaso 650‘s. A great mix of trail and street, the Pegasos performed brilliantly on tarmac, clay, gravel, mountainous ascents, tight corners, traffic jams, and even the occasional river crossing.

BBA also provides full riding gear for both riders and pillion passengers. A must have for us, given our beach oriented wanderings have left us with nothing but board shorts and flip flops. Next item on the itinerary, “Would you prefer to ride down the ‘driveway’, or drive the support vehicle?” Given my lack of off road expertise I opted for the air conditioned option. The 5km of steep, rutted gravel is quite intimidating and tossing my shiny untested new ride off a cliff, was all too prominent in my mind. Following behind Bryan in the support truck was a sobering experience as he quickly outpaced my 4 wheels with his 2. I shouldn’t feel too badly, he’s a British motocross champion.

Climbing onto the Pegaso at the base of the driveway with Kelly behind me, we took off down the road on our test run. Following Terry we meandered through traffic and the sloping turns heading into town. Driving on the left side of the road, merging through roundabouts, and a complete disregard for any road rules whatsoever was a bit of an adjustment, but we’ve grown somewhat used to it after the last year in Asiatic traffic patterns. Getting used to the weight of the bike and reacquainted with the concept of speed also took a few corners, aside from airplanes it’s been months since we’ve been moving faster than 70 or 80 km/hr.

In no time we were outside town lines, cruising little used back roads which eventually led us to a drive up the beach. We stopped for the first of what would be many re-hydrating points over the next few days. Sabah is hot in the summer, around 35-38 degrees Celsius at midday; and while the wind keeps you moderately cool while riding, you’re constantly sweating in all that protective gear. We pulled out of the beach and within a few turns ran into a police roadblock where I was asked for my license. The officer in charge asked me what Class 5 and Class 6 were for in Canada, where I was going, then quietly “How many cc’s and how fast does your bike go?” Motorcycles are a rarity in Borneo. BBA has imported all of their bikes and renting them is illegal. Technically, we were paying for a guided tour, not a bike rental. Aside from one 150cc Yamaha cruiser I never saw another motorcycle on the road.

We then set off for the barren stretches of highway and huge sweeping turns comprising the newly finished Crocker Mountain Range pass. At the top with a cup of tea in hand, the view was a breathtaking vista of untouched first growth jungle, mountains, valleys, and small villages interspersed amongst the vast palm oil plantations. The trip down from the peak of the pass provided endless corners and every kind of turn imaginable. A challenging ride for someone as out of practice as myself, I overshot a tight corner apex a couple times veering dangerously into oncoming traffic… wait, oncoming traffic? Aside from the odd off-road logging truck chugging up the pass in low gear and the occasional family touring the pass in a Daihatsu doing 40km/hr there was no traffic.

To round out our first ride, Terry took us along more highways, back roads, and unmapped routes to see where our wild boar from the previous night came from, how locals harvest the sap from rubber trees, past a few suspension bridges, and across a weir where we posed for posterity. Most of this was almost completely lost on me amongst the never ending deluge of twisty corners. The first 8 hour day alone put nearly every other ride I’ve done to shame. Pulling into the base of the driveway from Hell, we parked the bikes and the support vehicle picked us up for the trek to the top. We returned to Sinurambi to find a tray of drinks and a snack awaiting us before a dip in the pool and another fantastic spread for dinner. Early to bed, I fell asleep with slow motion replays of pavement blurily passing by.

Waking early again, Kelly and I were driven down the driveway to the bikes at the base, washed clean by the rains during the night. We took off climbing the same range we had descended at the end of the previous day. Ascending giving us more control as we could easily roll off the power in the decreasing radius corners and not get caught in the opposite lane. Terry now familiar with my riding style pointed us on our way and give us a head start. Initially in 4th and 3rd gear, we were soon dropping into 2nd and 1st as the corners became faster and tighter as we climbed to higher altitude. Sure enough, Terry caught up with us in short order and set the pace a little higher. Riding with a passenger, it was tough work keeping up with him. Plus we had to stop for the obligatory photo sessions. :)

Terry took us up a gravel ridge where a landslide had previously cleared away the cliff face and road, telling us a story about coming across the road shortly after it had washed out and finding a vehicle still sitting on the road 100m below in the valley, driver and all. Lunch at a local cafe at the peak provided another stunning view with a meal of fried rice with shrimp, soup, and sweet and sour chicken. We then ran more twisty roads till we ended up at the Kundasang War Memorial where the death marches ended. We continued up to the Mount Kinabalu Golf Club where we finally got above the clouds that had been hovering for the past few days. We got our first clear view of Mount Kinabalu, as well as a tour of the first 4 holes of the golf course as we snuck down the golf cart lane on the bikes. We then spent a good hour and a half doing a perfect run from mountain top to bottom, only to be followed by zipping in and out of traffic back home. Day 2′s ride had set the bar even higher. Arriving at the house, we caught up on some emails and then joined in the celebration of David’s 3rd birthday.

On day 3, Kelly went to see the orangutans at Rasa Ria so I had a day of riding solo where I could throw the bike into corners without worrying about her on the back. I promised I’d come back alive and in one piece. Terry on the other hand promised that he was going to take me onto the gravel. We started out doing a little standing on the pegs while navigating some easy tarmac sections, then moved up to some simple gravel bits. Within an hour, my legs were aching because I hadn’t been balancing my weight properly at the start and we’d already moved up to some pretty daunting off road bits. We parked at a waterfall for a while before the actual challenging stuff to give my muscles a break and to re-hydrate, then proceeded up some steep paved bits to end up on a clay and gravel road descent where the balance point tutelage of Terry finally clicked. Buzzing down the road with the back end sliding all over the place and trying to pick the smoothest line around the jutting rocks, I found an appreciation for something other than speed and perfectly apexed corners.

We rode through highway traffic for a while then turning onto a nondescript road, Terry motioned for me to pull up alongside him. “This is where everything you’ve done over the past few days comes together”, he said to me. He points and lets me lead the way. What follows can only be described as the most amazing twisty road I’ve ever encountered. More then 200 turns of every kind of camber and radius imaginable, one following the other with no straightaways in between. Dragging pegs through hairpins, throwing my weight across the bike while rolling the power on through the curve. I’ll be dreaming of that road for years to come and I don’t have enough expletives to properly describe it to you.

The twisty dead-end came next. Riding it semi-cautiously on the way out, just to get a feel for it. Then going balls to the wall on the way back and really pushing my own limits. Having only a vague memory of the next corner, I was definitely jealous of Terry and Bryan being able to frequent these amazing runs. Riding in Borneo gave me a sense of over-confident ability with its lack of traffic, police, speed limits, and rules, but I tried to stay wary and alert. Terry had warned me of the mid-afternoon waning when a rider’s brain gets numbed by the amazing riding and the heat. There were a few too many buffalo in the streets, dogs sunning themselves on the tarmac, blind corners, slow moving cars, and little children running around to be totally carefree. But the sheer freedom of riding in Borneo is incomparable to anything I’ve seen elsewhere. It’s really something special.

Terry had saved the best runs for the last day. “This next section is 60km of insanity,” he quips before sending me off. I tear off down this unimaginably empty road where I hit 170km, then brake into huge sweeping corners at 140km, slowing into 90km inclined hairpins and I just kept trying to ramp more speed into each corner. Motorcycles really are a rarity in Borneo. Locals wave and stare everywhere you go. Whenever we’d stop for a drink or a bite to eat people would crowd around the bikes asking questions and taking pictures. Cars would pull over to make room for us to pass and flash headlights or beep horns as we’d roll by. Not in annoyance or anger as you’d expect in North America, but as if to say “Yah! Go faster!” On our speed run we came across 5 or 6 trucks with tarpulined backs that were the local school buses and the children on the benches would clap, cheer, and wave as we passed. It was almost as if we had attained near celebrity status. It made me want to go faster.

Headed towards home, we hit the traffic in Kota Kinabalu. It was almost a game. We passed everything. We split lanes. We blew by cops, raced pickup trucks, rode on the shoulder. As if everything your mother (and the DMV) ever told you not to do was now totally A-OK. Go play in traffic.

Finally we ended up at the bottom of the driveway from Hell. Terry had been building me up for this all day. He didn’t even stop at the bottom, just rolled on the gas and headed up. I stood up on the pegs and followed. The next 5km had some sketchy moments where I thought I was going to lose the front end, and even a point where Terry had to pull ahead of me and flag me to slow down before we nosed into some particularly sketchy rough spots. But in the end, we made it up to the house, home, alive, bikes and bodies intact, sunburned, sweaty, and riding such an adrenaline high that even now days later I’m still in a state of grinning euphoria.

There were a couple close calls. There are more roads yet unexplored. There will be a day when I go back.

I can only hope that Sabah will still retain most of the magic that made it such a memorable finale to my year in southeast Asia. The hospitality of the people. The amazing scenery and wild expanses of jungle and mountain ranges. The wild west atmosphere of unfettered exploration and lawless self-indulgence in speed. Go, do it now. Before it’s too late.

Read the original article here: Week 49: Borneo Biking Adventures

Related posts:

1. Week 48: Kota Kinabalu, Borneo
2. Week 47: Diving Sipadan and Mabul
3. Two dudes, one bike…

The Philippines pretty much had it all as far as I was concerned. Great macro and muck diving in the Dauin area. Fantastic wall dives at Siquijor. Beautiful soft corals and schools of fish at Apo Island. Turtles at Moalboal and sharks at Malapascua. It’s a package that was hard to beat. Traveling through Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia, I never came across a place with the diversity that the Visayas offered. Sure, there were some amazing hi-lights along the way like the whale shark in Thailand and manta rays in Indonesia, but never matching the sheer range of corals, creatures, and dive opportunities. Until Sipadan…

Early Tuesday morning we left the Perhentians, taking a spine crushing speed boat ride to the mainland while we hugged our laptop bags away from the spray and rain. 10 hours of taxi rides and planes later we arrived in Tawau, Borneo. Another hour later, we were in Semporna hunting for a late dinner.

The next day we woke at 7am to catch the boat to the island of Mabul. Upon arriving at the Billabong Scuba homestay, we found out they had overbooked and moved us to the longhouse next door. We soon found ourselves in a rundown 2m x 3m room with only a couple grungy single beds in it, shared bathrooms, and set meals. The thing is, there’s no middle tier options on Mabul. It’s either $30/night per person at a homestay/longhouse, or $3-400/night at one of the few resorts. So we were expecting things to be a little rustic and rundown, but even then it was a bit of a shock. We don’t do a lot of budget hosteling.

Billabong was the only place that had been able to guarantee us 2 full days at Sipadan, and we booked a month and a half before we arrived. Most places had no availability at all, and many people we met said they had booked their 2 and 3 day Sipadan trips 4-6 months in advance! Sipadan has a very strict permit system allowing only 120 divers a day on the site.

We did a number of dives at Mabul over the next 5 days. Initially, we weren’t overly impressed with the south side of the island. It’s touted as a macro paradise, but we saw surprisingly little and the visibility was quite poor. We did eventually end up seeing a ghost pipefish, some interesting nudibranch, crocodile fish, and quite a few crinoid shrimp and anenome shrimp at a site called Coral Garden.

There’s also a very large man made reef on the south side with large schools of fish. On the north side of the island, there’s a 25m wall with a few great sites on it. Lobster wall (alas, no lobsters were found) and Ross reef, as well as Eel Garden were great dives. We saw a number of turtles and stingrays, some shrimp, moray eels, plus 20 or 30 nudibranch. I also found 2 huge cuttlefish at Eel Garden, and a big Flying Gurnard which was a first for me.

There’s also a site called Seaventures. It’s an old oil rig that was gutted and ended up being turned into a dive resort. While interesting and there’s lots of sea life under it, it’s also a bit depressing. The site is basically a big pile of trash dumped off the rig. From toilets and iron bars to filing cabinets, they just threw everything overboard and 10 years later it’s now a faux reef. While it’s full of life now, I can’t imagine what else was originally swept away into the ocean and I don’t want to promote dumping trash into the ocean because 10 years later fish can hide in it… but we did see a frog fish.

Our first day at Sipadan, we took a speedboat to the island around 9am. Signing in with the permit people, they gave us a flag to identify our boat. We geared up and headed off to South Point, which is known for shark sightings. :) Jumping in, we first noticed the amazing reef. Beautiful hard corals as far as you can see, huge fans, and thousands of tiny fish everywhere. Dropping over the edge of the wall, we saw our first shark within a minute. A meter long white tip reef shark, cruising around 12m.

We dropped down to about 25m. With visibility stretching out to 50+ meters, we quickly saw small groups of white tip and black tip reef sharks patrolling. Then, looking down below to 40 or 50m, we found big grey reef sharks around 3-4m long. Spinning in circles trying to see all the sharks passing within meters of us, interspersed between them were turtles headed to the surface for air, or camped out on the rock shelves. For 50 minutes we just drifted along in the current, flabbergasted at the sheer number of sharks and turtles. Coming back above the wall, we were again in a vast field of coral full of every kind of fish imaginable. Easily the best dive I’ve ever done.

The following 5 dives at Sipadan followed a similar script. Beautiful coral entries, deep walls, surrounded by sharks and turtles, only to return to the huge coral beds for our safety stop. Easily, we saw 75 sharks and 100 turtles over those 6 dives. Plus, it’s trigger fish nesting season. At Hanging Gardens we came across hundreds of trigger fish ascending the wall and when we came up for our safety stop, we found them nesting in pockets of coral as far as you could see. Unbelievable. Even better, almost every creature we came across is so unaccustomed to human contact that they hadn’t developed fear or aggression towards us, so Kelly got some fantastic pictures.

The 5 sites we dove were:

• South Point - Shark Central. Black tips, white tips, grey reef sharks. Lots of turtles. Trigger fish everywhere. Slow drift.
• Barracuda Point (twice) - We saw a barracuda tornado, big trevallies and schools of jackfish. Lots of turtles. Fast drift.
• Hanging Gardens - More white tip sharks, turtles, and nesting trigger fish.
• Mid Reef - White tip/black tip sharks and turtles.
• The Drop Off (Turtle Tomb) - Too many turtles to count. A school of bump head parrotfish at 8m, schools of batfish, white tip sharks. Briefly explored the turtle tomb where many turtles (and some divers) get lost and have perished in the twisty caves and tunnels.

All in all it was an amazing experience. Easily the best 6 dives I’ve ever done and more than making up for the cramped quarters, food, and long travels. Plus the other travelers we met were so genuinely excited to be diving one of the worlds premier sites it was impossible to be put off. We’ll be retelling and reliving tales of the shark that passed within inches of my face or the turtle that chased us into the tomb for what I hope will be a long time.

(More pictures to come, Kelly just hasn’t gotten around to editing them all!)

Read the original article here: Week 47: Diving Sipadan and Mabul

Related posts:

1. Sipadan & Mabul Pictures Uploaded
2. Week 14: Diving, diving, and more diving
3. Learning to Dive in the Philippines

You’ll notice that we spent significantly less in the Philippines on a per month basis than anywhere else. I primarily attribute this to being settled in a beach house with a full kitchen for a 4 month stretch and being fairly remote which limited restaurant expenses to local options. This illustrates my previous post about how to keep costs down by traveling slowly and minimizing food expenses. There’s also no international flight costs included in the Philippines expenses. I’m not sure if something like that should be averaged over the whole trip, or attributed to the arrival country. In which case, Hong Kong cost us $3400. :)

What it cost us to live for 6 months in the Philippines:

What it cost us to live for 3 months in Thailand:

What it cost us to live for 1 month in Bali:

What it cost us to live for 1 month in Vancouver:

This is no way accounts for every expense in Vancouver because the situational differences between ‘nesting’ back home and the travel lifestyle don’t allow for the same expenditures. There’s no longer any need to be buying new work clothes, a new tv, kitchen gadgets, or other furnishing luxuries. Which is where much of the remainder of our paychecks usually went. There are obvious economies we could have taken advantage of in Vancouver. We could have moved in together and gotten rid of one apartment. We could have gone out less. We could have minimized expenses. But this is a fairly realistic outline of our recurring monthly costs before and during the trip. Also, I suppose diving expenses aren’t a recurring monthly cost, but it’s a major line item on our budget and to exclude it would paint a significantly cheaper and considerably more boring travel option.

So the question would now be, are we making more or less money working abroad? It’s hard to definitively answer this. Kelly (on advice from her accountant) intentionally worked less during the last quarter since selling her apartment. With the economy as it is, we’ve also seen a reduction in new freelance contracts. Still, business is coming in and we’re covering our monthly expenses. Without the excess expenses of nesting our disposable income ends up in our bank accounts instead of furnishings, but varies greatly depending on if we’re on the move or stationary. Short answer? We’re making less money and our disposable income is less, but by removing nesting costs, the money stays in our pockets. Call it ‘forced savings’. All in all, working online while traveling has been a financially and personally rewarding experience.

Read the original article here: Philippines, Thailand, and Bali travel budgets

Related posts:

1. Malaysia and Canada travel budgets
2. Philippines Recap
3. 100th post: Traveling vs Vacationing. 10 ways to keep costs down.