The Places In Between
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| John (27th Oct 2009) |
| Charlie's Kura Kura 'resort' |
| Not exactly heaven for travelers who, unlike you and I are expeccting something close to the Lonely Planet's desccription. Here's my opinion and some of it posted to Thorn Tree: August 2009. Yes, I went to the Lonely Planet listed isolated ‘resort’, Kura Kura (means turtle), “Snorkelling with turtles in chrystaline waters, sailing, etc, etc..” before coming north over the border from East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo, to Sarawak. Well – it was just a dirty shack on the beach run by a desperate Scotsman, Charlie, veteran of the Faulklands and Iraq and now fighting some terrible skin infections. I doubt he’d ever seen a turtle or even owned a boat and the water was muddy and there was a pack of undisciplined dogs and if you wanted to eat you had to wash one of their plates as ALL of them were outside on the ground. He charged me double the advertised rate but I was sorry for him even though he bawled at the poor girl that he had working there and sharing his bed – “I don’t have to pay her but there’s nay money anyway” he said. He took my money in advance and headed off with the girl on a motorbike that looked as decrepit as himself and he was back in 10 minutes (the dogs still running behind) to repair a hole in the fuel tank – off again and back with enough food to cook lunch and dinner (there was nothing to eat in the shack before I arrived) and he brought a live chicken and a dozen litre bottles of beer which were gone before the day ended. He grumbled that there was no money in the tourist trade because he’d just spent everything –forgetting about the beer being 90% of what I’d paid him! The chicken was placed in a cage on the table among the dogs and even the goat was occasionally on the table too! Rather than buy back a beer at his exorbitant asking price I traded the chicken’s life for one and that evening we had vegetable curry instead of chicken curry. He was looking at me so dolefully, the chicken – it may have been a ploy on mad Charlie’s part. However, in his drunken state he was kind enough to warn me to hang up all my gear before going to bed as the rats were mad rampant at night. As the evening wore on Charlie’s stories got longer and longer and faded to a whisper and I was glad to escape to bed in spite of the rats and decided then I would leave in the morning but I didn’t tell William the goat who followed me to bed - Charlie advised he'd be good as the rats were afraid of him. William had followed me into the sea that day and we swam all over the place, looking quite odd with his gas inflated stomach rising to the surface. William’s sad cries nearly had me turning back as I hiked the miles to the road next morning. The dogs followed me all the way and chased and demolished several chickens along the road causing mayhem as we passed Charlie’s neighbour’s yards. www.johnahern.net |
| Oi Pez (20th Sep 2007) |
| Whatever |
| Just wanted to write some shite up here so here it is.... Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah.... Hahahhahaha... Sounds like you're having an awesome trip mate.... Keep up the good work. Sitting in a bubble for an internet booth in Munich at the moment. Will wait for you to do the Lycian trail next year alright? Cool 500 clicks. Lets go!!! Talk to ya soon big fella. Keep on a posting. Jase |