Thursday, October 1, 2009

Transborneo / Kota Kinabalu,Brunei,Sarawak,Indonesia


The rain was heavy 0n the 21st Sept 09 morning and we waited while hopping the rain will slow down so we can start our long ride. as we load up our luggage the on the support vehicle the rain started to slow down and drizzled we didnt waist any time, we sadled up and started riding towards south headed for brunei which was a 354km ride across the Sabah,Sarawak and Brunei Boarders. we had lunch at sipitang and continued the ride across the 1st boarder entering sarawak it was an easy transit not long we had to enter brunei which we had to cross to rivers by ferry. the total boarder check points was 8 my passport was full of chopped of red green and blue stamps. Checking in and checking out it took to much time and we only arrive at the brunei hotel at 2100hrs had dinner and did my briefing for the next day ride. since it was hari raya the kings palace was lighted up and look beautiful we enjoyed the fire works too while riding in brunei. the people was friendly and was suprised to see a group of japanese riding bikes.for the next 6

fays our ride went through villages and farms acrros the back bone of borneo island. stoping along the way to enjoy the view of padi fiealds and forest swamps, the most important thing to cross the boarder is to have compleat documants of your bike,passport, intention or a later from national seciruty of malaysia but if your traveling on a bus all you need is your passport to enter every boarder up to pontianak. But indonesia will be the most difficult to enter as many may know that the country is base on corruption so you need to have a lot of patiance and money to bribe officers even if your documant is compleat. we got stranded almost 3 hours just to pass through.They will make things difficult by giving all kinds of excuses just to delay your entry to the country...in other words you pay me something and we will give you the pass. Thats what i had to do,....by having compleat documants i thought it would be easy to just enter but i found out thats not the case.

We spent our knight at 3 star to budget accomodation and stratigicaly in town so we can

find easy food stores aroubd and not fare from the hotel. its best this way since we arrive in the evenings and dont have the energy to walk a couple of blocks just to have dinner. The ride per day basically cover 300 to 380 km but from bintulu to serian its its 507km and that was a very long ride. we stop every 40min riding so as to relax our body at the same time visiting the villages along the way.