Selemat Idul Fitri

The Muslim fasting month of Ramadan ran from 28 June to 28 July this year; during this time Muslims are forbidden to eat, drink or smoke from dawn to dusk. We spent the majority of the month in Malaysian Borneo, where the huge Chinese population (around 40% or higher) meant that eating at any time of the day was never a problem. Often Muslim- run restaurants would continue to cook throughout the day for their Chinese customers. 

Here in Aceh province, in northern Sumatra, it means lots of crackers and two minute noodles...interspersed with the occasional proper meal eaten discreetly behind closed doors. The province has Sharia Law and is probably the toughest place to be in Indonesia if you are a hungry infidel. 

The end of Ramadan is celebrated with the Idul Fitri feast day; a major national holiday that sees Indonesia's Muslim population return to their native villages to seek atonement for any sins committed over the course of the year and cleansed by the Ramadan fast. Since Indonesia is home to some 200 million Muslims, the holiday means traffic chaos, overbooked accommodation and general madness whenever you try to get from A to B. 

Rather than try and brave the chaos, we decided to sit tight on Pulau Weh, an island off the northernmost tip of Sumatra, and found ourselves a sweet little bungalow overlooking the reef for $7 a night. 

The guys who run the guesthouse here are cool- every evening as the sun goes down their friends gather to hang out, eat, drink and greedily suck down the cigarettes they are forbidden from smoking during the day. We are invited to share their food and drink nightly; we reciprocate with cake and vodka/tonics (which are a huge hit).  As with any religion, there are varying degrees of observance- some have only made it through a few days of proper fasting, others don't mind a beer at the end of the day, some are more strict and keep the fast devoutly. 

We woke up exited this morning about the end of Ramadan and the freedom to chow down at any time of the day again- unfortunately Idul Fitri is a feast day only for those with families to cook for them. Absolutely nothing is open in the village this morning...so we're resigned to yet another noodle and cookie breakfast. Selemat Idul Fitri!!

Another trip down memory lane- St Petersburg versus Moscow

As we start to get closer to the end of our trip, we've grown a bit nostalgic for all the places we've visited over the last two years and I realised that although I was too lazy to write about them at the time, Russia's two greatest cities really do deserve a mention. 

St Petersburg is Russia's European face and its second biggest city with around 5 million people. It was founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and modeled on Amsterdam (hence the canals); like Canberra or Brasilia it was an entirely planned city that is obvious in the architectural consistency of its original buildings, a style known as Petrine Baroque. 

Comparing St Petersburg to Canberra may well draw the wrath of many a proud and patriotic Russian down on me so I should qualify this statement by saying that is where the similarities end. 

We arrived in St Petersburg on the first of October and were treated to bright (but extremely chilly) autumn weather. We were also lucky enough to have our stay coincide with the first Thursday of the month- when the Hermitage Museum flings open her impossibly ornate doors and welcomes the public free of charge- thus saving us almost $40!! 

After four days exploring St Petersburg we agreed that although we both loved the city it's probably a place better suited to big budgets. We spied many a cosy bar and hip restaurant but the eye-watering prices meant most of our meals were eaten in our hostel kitchen. 

St Petersburg also gets a special mention for having the most hardcore sunbathing enthusiasts I have ever seen. I swear it can't have been more than about 7° when we saw these two girls sitting beside the Neva River in their bikinis. Those crazy Russians!!!

From St Petersburg we took an overnight train to Moscow- our first experience in a platskaart (third class) Russian sleeper!! We bought a few beers on board to celebrate the start of our Trans-Mongolian adventure. 

 

Moscow is Russia's capital and biggest city, with about 12 million people. Apparently it has the largest number of billionaire residents in the world and (we soon discovered) is rated the second most expensive city in the world. We arrived early in the morning, dumped our bags at our hostel and went for a coffee. Rather stupidly, we ordered without looking at a menu first and only realised when the girl brought our bill that we had just paid AUD$6 each for a tiny cup of black coffee. Welcome to Moscow. 

While St Petersburg seemed like a warm and welcoming place, Moscow gave us the cold shoulder. It's the kind of place where you really need a local person to show you its hidden charms. Our visit to the city coincided with the start of the Sochi Winter Games and sadly Red Square was shut down for the duration of our stay- the large police and army presence didn't really improve the overall vibe. 

 

Having said that, we had a great time checking out the standard tourist attractions- the Kremlin, St. Basil's and Christ Our Saviour Cathedral. Our favourite was the Garden of Fallen Monuments, where communist-era statues have been laid to rest in a pretty park that lines the Moskva River and is a popular place for Sunday strolling.

 

Our other favourite thing about Moscow is the metro, which is not only one of the world's most heavily used and extensive networks, but surely the most beautiful, with many stations resembling ballrooms more than public transport hubs. 

Moscow also enjoys the distinction of having the world's largest population of underfed woman on staggeringly high heels. Just how these girls stay upright is the source of some amazement, since most of them look to be damn-near starved and Moscow's cobbled streets pose serious challenges even for sturdy walking shoes. At least they weren't in bikinis. 

Surfing at sunset- Tip of Borneo

Tanjung Simpang Mengayau- where the sea meets the sea.

After trying to wrap your mouth around Tanjung Simpang Mengayau a few times it becomes clear why everyone refers to this part of the world as the Tip of Borneo. 

 

If you look at a map of Borneo you can see exactly where we are- that little sticky-uppy bit on the north-east coast which just peeks up over the 7th parallel; where the South China Sea meets the Sulu Sea. Both of those seas are ridiculously clear, blue and gorgeous. 

 

We came here on a bit of a whim after a recommendation from an English woman we met and loved it so much we ended up staying fourteen nights, instead of the planned four. 

  

 

We spent the first four nights at Tampat Do Aman Jungle Camp, about a 20 minute walk from the beach, before moving down to a longhouse located right on the beach and next door to Tampat Do Aman's awesome little restaurant. Longhouses are built by indigenous people all over Borneo and although they are pretty simple (bamboo partitions between rooms, mattress with mosquito net and a fan), they are also solidly built and quite lovely to look at!

Plus you can't really fault the view from our verandah....we wake up to this:

And we enjoy a sundowner with this: 

All of which is going to make it rather hard to leave...but we have a flight back to Kuching on 10 July so I guess we're going to have to!!!

Beijing: a long overdue nod to China's ancient capital

We've met a lot of people along the way who have followed a similar route to us, and come down through China to enter South-East Asia. Since most of those people hated Beijing and the soup-like blanket of air pollution that hangs over the city most days of the year, we've started to realise just how lucky we were with the five days of glorious sunshine and clear blue skies that we had in November.

It took us a while to crack the Chinese government censors to be able to access the blog, so I never got around to posting anything from northern China. That's a shame, because we loved Bejing, Pingyao and Xian...but better late than never I suppose.

Neither of us had very high expectations for Beijing. After all, most of the press you read about China's capital is negative and the reports about the city's air pollution are nothing short of grim. But contrary to all of our preconceptions, Beijing turned out to be extremely well ordered, very easy to negotiate with excellent public transport, clean (at least superficially), friendly and, in short, awesome. With a population of around 23 million, you'd expect Beijing to seem ultra crowded, noisy and hectic. This could not be further from the truth. Compared to Bangkok (7 million), Beijing seems almost serene.

We stayed in a hutong north of the Forbidden City, a district of interconnected laneways and picturesque pedestrian streets lined with traditional houses, temples and chic boutiques and cafes. After nearly walking the soles of our shoes off the first day, we rented bicycles for the remaining days and cruised through tiny backstreets and down Beijing's remarkably relaxed thoroughfares, with many a dumpling break between sightseeing stops. 

 

Like everyone else who comes to Beijing, we made the obligatory trip out to see the Great Wall of China (or rather, the small section between Jinshanling and Simatai), which has the distinction of being every bit as spectacular as it's cracked up to be. 

The wall is an amazing feat of human engineering and the scale of it is difficult to appreciate, even when you're standing on top of it. Perhaps even more amazing is that you get to experience it all in relative tranquility...we saw just one t-shirt tout over the whole 6km stretch. 

And then of course there's the food. It was in Beijing that we realised extra meals would have to be scheduled to accommodate the vast quantity of awesome things we wanted to try. The Inverse Law of Asian Restaurants applies here as much as anywhere...the best food we ate was always in the shabbiest places. 

The owner would take our order with a fag hanging out of his mouth while large tables of Chinese men (Ladies Who Lunch has definitely not taken off in China just yet) were slamming down beers and screaming ganbei (cheers) at anyone who happened to make eye contact. There would be bins next to all the tables for patrons to hawk into (which is better than them doing it on the floor. Just.) and the air would be thick with cigerette smoke. But the food was always sensational. 

So thanks Beijing. We loved you and I hope we'll see you again someday. Maybe next time around we'll even duck in and visit the super-creepy embalmed body of Chairman Mao (and while we're at it, we can zip over to Moscow and check out Lenin, who we also missed).