Hot News - October 2006 (Kota Kinabalu/Sabah / Malaysia, Oct. 11, 2006)
- Website statistics: In September we were able to welcome on our website 30'006 visitors who did 661'569 hits.
- (August = 27'879 visitors – ??? countries* – 699'031 hits)
- Record days since 12/17/1998 - the birthday of our website: March 20, 1'474 visitors; August 29, 47'038 hits
- (*= the country counter, which stopped working March 23, 2006, has still not been repaired by the
- ISP Goldnet - frustrating! - usually there were monthly between 100 and 118 different countries!)
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- Since our LandCruiser's successful "rejuvenation", we drove over a thousand miles again and slowly, we are getting
- back our confidence into our Toyota's reliability. During this stretch, we crossed six times a border line, not only
- because Brunei is sandwiched twice within the Malaysian West coast, but also because its two provinces of
- Sarawak and Sabah are so autonomous that they have their own customs and immigrations at their shared border.
- Soon after leaving Brunei's exclave of Temburong, the palm oil plantations became very obvious again, interrupted
- by virgin rain forest only in the proximity of Mt. Kinabalu, because the spectacular mountain road climbs to a height
- of approximately 5'000 ft. However, soon after the descent – about 75 miles before Sandakan – the palm oil fields
- are omnipresent once more, from horizon to horizon, as far as the eye can see. Just 14 miles short of Sandakan –
- Malaysia's main port in the Sulu Sea – there is a small stretch of natural rainforest of 15 square miles left, containing
- the rehabilitation center for the endangered Orang Utan's – besides the gorillas and chimpanzees the third species of
- big apes. It is very impressive and also moving to experience the idealistic attempts to save desperately these lovable
- human-like creatures from extinction. There is no doubt, however, that their natural habitat is continuing to shrink
- pretty fast.
- There are still a few more protected wildlife and nature areas towards the Northeast of Borneo, but currently, their
- access is becoming very difficult or even impossible due to the heavy downpours and thunderstorms – a clear sign
- that the rainy season is in full swing. The main road conditions are actually not a problem. The infrastructure – even
- in this remote part of the world – is pretty good due to the intense agricultural and logging traffic, although more and
- more damage is caused by too heavy trucks. Our biggest headache however is the difficult bureaucracy of the
- Philippines. We were supposed to ship from here (Sandakan) to Zamboanga in Mindanao. Somewhere along the
- long line of the Philippines' customs procedure for our car, somebody made a mistake in Manila. The Department
- of Tourism of the Philippines is trying now to remove this obstacle, but this might even involve a change in our
- itinerary due to the slow processing. However the wet weather conditions in this region makes an ongoing
- postponement – possibly for weeks – not the best solution.
Therefore, please check the progress of our Borneo trip on our pictured site!
New Reports/Pictures
- SOUTHEASTASIA: mouse over picture shows comments
- click a picture to see details
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| + our Borneo Trip | Sarawak, Brunei, Sabah, Kalimantan – Sept.-Nov. 2006 |
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| + our LandCruiser on a "Rejuvenation Cure" | in Miri/Sarawak - the East Malaysian province on Borneo June-Aug. 2006 |
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| + added from a earlier visit to the USA: | Las Vegas (Millennium change) |
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| + added from our Arabian Peninsula round trip: | Pictures from Yemen (May-June 1996) |
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| + Flashbacks of our Worldrecordtour: | Pictures from "all the continents" (Oct. 1984 - April 1997) |
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