Best of North Sulawesi

I found my Sulawesi gem as my last few days and my last destination in Sulawesi. Tankoko Reserve hit me with a mellow atmosphere and lots of wildlife to see. It's easy to get to and there are several trips available there from most dive resorts and travel agents. However the local transportation there is a bit trickier, but a lot cheaper. Besides a couple of hours of "rough" travel only makes it more genuine. Just ask the microlet drivers how to get there and they will help you catch the connecting microlett, buss or back of a tiny truck. One can easily get there from Manado, Tandano and Bitung.

My favorite part was walking around in the Jungle and seeing all the cool animals. The best part might have been the lack of mosquitoes. I don't think I encountered a single one. Which was a releif since I had no malaria meds. From what I heard the risk was non existent to low locally but looking at the maps from home most of Sulawesi lit up as a malaria zone. It seems as this is no longer the case however.

Some of the awesome animals we encountered where giant tarantulas at night, über cute primates known as Tarsiers, Makaks, exotic birds and Dolphins.
My only regret is that I did not have time to do any muck diving close by but that's ok. I'll soon be diving in some new cool places.

After some checking around we stayed at a home stay for 200.000 IDR per night. This included 2 meals a day for 2 people. In other words quite cheap. Fresh fish was on the menu just about every day. Breakfast could be a bit small for people like me who are used to a proper meal for breakfast but one can always request some Nasi Goreng instead which was much to my pleasing.

In this place I met an Indonesian - German family which was quite interesting. Although their kids where about 10 years younger than me, I kept thinking that it could have been my life would we have not returned from Indonesia after moving there as a child. This could have been a defining moment in my life and I become a tad bit happier every time I think about it. I'm very happy I got to have the background that I finally got. But more about that another day.

If you are ever in North Sulawesi, pop by Tankoko for a few days of relaxing and enjoying nature.

Sällskapsresan - På Tur

This weekend I had a true Sällskapsresan like experience as we headed north for a mini expedition of hiking in the Swedish "wilderness". first of all It might be good for me to explain the concept of sällskapsresan. It's  a classic series of movies written, directed and starred my the Swedish icon Lasse Åberg. The movies all star a quite geeky and a bit lost guy who is not always in touch with the times.
Read more about the original movie here. there are however several follow ups and the one called snow roller is definitively my favorite.

Our mission this weekend was to climb Sweden's tallest mountain, Kebnekaise. Despite only bolstering a 2102 meter rise above sea level it's trickier to climb than one might think due to fickle weather and that it's way into the polar region. There are two essential ways of getting to the top. The west route and the east route. Taking the west one is the technically easier alternative but also more physically demanding, while the east path heads over a nice glacier and sport a short stretch of climbing. I'ts about the easiest climbing one can think of and would most likely be a French 3 on the free climbing scale (basically a ladder or a stair). We aimed for the est path, booked a guide and got ready to get up. After walking up by, not the alarms, but by the wind pounding the canvas over our heads, I had my suspicions. Although out alpine tent managed just fine in the wind it was soon made clear to us that the wind might be a bit rough. Estimating it to be around 15 m/s we figured we'd give it a go. The guide disagreed.

The wind was in fact 25 m/s. It was cloudy and snowing. Although hoping for better weather throughout the day and night so that we might see the top, no such luck was to be found.
The back up plan was walking around in the area, taking in the sites and enjoying trading stories with other hikers. All in all a quite leisurely time spent.

I learned and relearned a lot from this trip and I think it was a great refresher for my trekking experiences. After three days and 54 kilometers my muscles are remarkably ok considering I haven't exercised trekking or any serious attempt at running in years. What I felt was a problem physically was my endurance, my tendons (particularly my paterllar tendon) and my ankles.

On my way up I had just thrown the stuff I could fin on very short notice and some extra stuff that I had managed to get on the way, resulting in a extremely poorly packed backpack and plastic bags. Having struck camp I finally managed to fix this and the rest of the walk was quite different in terms of weight and comfortability of my backpack.
I'm a bit interested in going again as we never hit the top but I might be even more interested in doing it winter time.

during our time in the region we realized me and Stefan where quite like the main characters in sällskapsresan. Stefan sporting shorts and knee socks was obviously playing Stig and me wearing my colorful clothing, taking about gadgets, and to random people, took on the role of Ole, despite not being Norwegian. We even added an excited Brit to our party, Snowroller style. We met him on our way up to the fjällstationen (alpine station) and he was the only party we did not overtake trekking up there. I think he was the most stoked about climbing the mountain of all the people in the region. As this Scotsman was as hindered as we were from climbing we ended up sharing a few cold ones instead which was not at all a bad way to go when you can't trek.

Trekking Prepp

I haven't been hiking in a long long time and so when we booked our trip up north to climb Sweden's tallest mountain, Kebnekaise, I was stoked.
I soon realize that I was firstly way out of shape for hiking and secondly that my gear might me equally out of shape.

This is what I planend to bring:

Clothing and Footwear

• Rain Gear
• Underwear
• First Layer/Second Layer
• Second/Third Layer
• Third/Shell Layer
• Hat and Gloves
• 1st layer socks
• 2nd layer socks
• Short Pants or climbing pants
• Hiking Boots
• Rock climbing Shoes

Shelter

• Ground sheet
• Sleeping Bag
• Hygiene Bag
• Alpine Tent

Cooking and Hygene

• Water bottle/Hydration System
• Thermos
• Portable Kitchen
• Cooking Fuel

Tools

• Sharp Knife
• Multi-Tools
• Lights

Safety

• Sun Glasses
• Tape
• Sun Screen
• Med pack

The Gadgets

• GoPro Camera
• Lumia 800, Smart Phone 
• Nikon D200
• Sony HDR CX-180

This is what I forgot to bring or did not have time to find:

• Sun Glasses (can't find mine)
• Tape (forgot)
• Sun Screen (Not a priority)
• First Aid (don't have one)
• Multi tool (I got my knife)
• Lights (not a priority as it's light all night and day)
• Water bottle/hydration system (frustrated over not finding any of my systems. I would have liked to bring my camel-back system.)
• cooking fuel (no time)
• ground sheet (can't find it)
• gloves
• Salt, pepper and spices

I also noticed I might need:

• Utensils
• Washing equipment
• Mosquito repellent
• Lighter

Since I have a few hours during work today and also between work and catching the train I'll try to get these items in the following order of importance:

1. Water bottle
2. Utensils
3. Mosquito repellent
4. Ground sheet
5. Lighter
6. Washing equipment
7. Gloves

I'll outsource the cooking fuel to Stefan ;)

I'll let you know how the trip went.

The Man Who Was a Bird; Backpacking Pulau Tioman

If your version of a paradise island is long white beaches, turquoise waters and rain forest covered mountains with a sprinkle of heavy sunlight, Tioman is the place for you. Offering fair diving and some jungle trekking one could spend several days here. Unless one is me that is. For me it's gets old quite fast and after a few strolls in the jungle and a dives in the ocean it turns mundane. A hard life, I know.

For a short getaway this destination fits like a glove.

Walking along Juara Beach

For budget travelers the ABC or air batang beach and harbour area is the way to go. Salang used to be the place but not caters mainly to Asian families and travelers from Singapore. There are still a bit of young blood here though. Even though the island was fully booked and people had a trouble finding accommodation the beaches felt almost empty so there is definitely room for some solitary time if one wishes. In ABC there aren't too man y places to go after late a clock. Things close early and that includes the bars, all two of the. Well there are a few more but the only ones I'd recommend are sunset bar at the southern end of ABC and the B&J dive bar a couple of minutes north of the pier. Getting to Tioman will cost you 45 or 35 RM depending on if you take the first ferry or not. The early one is 10RM more expensive. But it will give you an advantage over the other backpackers when securing housing.

Guarding the guesthouse

In terms of diving I encountered four dive shops but only looked into two of them. Eco divers and B&J dive center. Eco divers being the cheaper one I'd have normally gone with them since I'm quite self sufficient in the blue. However it turned out that two of my dive buddies from Koh Lanta, Thailand now worked at B&J. Did my diving with these guys and they seemed to run a good shop. At lest first. One day a dive master didn't turn up so we dove with one Dive Master(DM) short. No biggie, but I did have to haul a OW diver back down and hand him almost 4kg of weights for him to stay down. Still there was some nice diving to be done. I'd say it was on par with the perhentians, gili trawangan and koh lanta/phi phi.

My two French musketeers

Accommodation is quite easy to find. Getting of the Pier the cheaper places are to the south and the tad more costly are to the north. There are exceptions though. I'd stay away from Johan's since there are bedbugs there at the moment. I ended up staying at merwas or some place with a similar name for a staggering 30RM per night for my own bungalow with a big bed and a fan. The veranda with my own little ocean sunset view was definitely an added bonus. There was only cold water but in this heat I'm not one to complain, much.

Considering that this is one of the cheapest places to buy alcohol in Malaysia the nightlife is near pathetic. During happy hours (5pm-7pm)at sunset bar you will get 3 tiger beers for 10 RM which is damn good for Malaysia. If one feels frisky enough (I did) to traverse the little hill separating ABC from the neighbouring town to the south one can find a couple of duty free stores selling alcohol much cheaper. I scored 3 Hogarden for 10RM or 5 Jazz beer for 10 RM. There are also crates for sale at discount prices. Vodka, whine and other spirits are also cheap, for Malaysia. 45RM for a big bottle of Absolute Vodka or 120RM for some champagne.

There is only one accessible ATM than I know of and it's located about 20 meters north of the airport. No fees are declared on the machine which refers to fees online, somewhere. Dive centers will charge you 3% for card payment so if you can withdraw money without fees in your previous destination it might be a good choice.

When it comes to the beaches the Juara beach is in my opinion the best one I've tried here. It's long white shores are purely sand but can have hints of organic(seaweed and such) degree at times. The second beach I'll recommend is Salang which have some nice sandy beaches with proper snorkeling not far away. The ABC beach is by far the lesser one is this trio of comparison with plenty of little rocks. It is however very nice for snorkeling and and other water activities like sailing and windsurfing. There is no really strong wind though so don't expect anything mind blowing. After all we are on a rest and relaxation trip.

The Juara Path's stream

Walking around the island is an option for the hardy but is quite rewarding for nature loves and people with ants in their pants (like me). The Juara trek is a 7km mountain forest trek which means a lot of steps and ups and downs. There is a small stream close to the drinking water station which one might play around in. Not sure if this is entirely advised by the local administration though. From ABC it's definitely another 1-1-5k to the beginning of the trail. So walking one way or taking a return trip will be a while. I'd book 2-3hours, one way minimum. There is also a route for 4WD vehicles on which one might stroll. This route is a fair bit longer. I'd guess 4km longer from ABC.
Another green hike is the one to monkey bay. Somewhat shorter than the Juara one but I never got around to walking it. It is however rumored the monkey bay is quite the looker when it comes to beaches. Walking around one should keep those eyes open. There are plenty of snakes and large reptiles around. I only spotted one two meter long black snake but king cobras and boas are known to show up in the area. Did spot a 1.5 meter long lizard swimming around though. In fact it's said that the reason there are so few cats on the island is  because they become reptile food if they stray too far. The native monkeys in the island don't seem to share this problem and there are plenty of them to steal a bit of fruit if left unattended. Another addition to the wildlife is the range of raptors (birds) that roam the islands. The legend goes that once when a British traveler visited the island he pointed at it and asked what it was named. A local responded with "Tio" I am, referring to the black bird. This being pronounced "Tioman" the explorer understood it as the name of the island and so it got it's name.