Sorry for the confessional screencap cheesiness. It's not every day I'm in Pulau Tiga. Wouldn't you have done it too? I borrowed the tribe name from my favorite underdogs, the Aitu Four. Their wins make me bawl every time.

I'm a huge fan of the reality show Survivor. If you ask me if there's a show I would choose over a date, this would be it. *Oh, wait. 

Solo Travel of 2014: BRUNEI x BORNEO from Jennever Pelaez on Vimeo.

First, let me tell you about willpower and how I found out that it can make me try out things I'm scared of doing. The photo below is a screen capture from last month, when I first made an attempt to swim. It's not the real thing--meaning, I fake-swam for about 5 seconds. But before this, I didn't know I'll be able to do it on my own. This was actually the first time I opened my eyes underwater without goggles or a snorkeling mask. My only motivation was the underwater camera rolling in front of me. Sure, you can call it vanity, but it was a good motivation.


Fast forward to when my friends were already trying to teach me how to do it properly and without the camera, I could no longer do it. I freaked out every time they pulled me to the deeper part of the sea. Consequently, I choked on a lot of seawater, got feet and leg cramps, and cried in frustration until I decided to stop the craziness.

As I mentioned on my recent Facebook post, my parents didn't really want to teach me how to swim, even if we live in a city surrounded by pretty white sand beaches. They were afraid that I might drown. The same thing applied to riding a bicycle. I had to learn it from other people during that high school trip to Baguio, away from parent supervision. (Imagine the level of convincing I had to do before they let me study college in Metro Manila! I love them for believing I can survive on my own.)

So hello there, I'm Jennever, 26 years old and a Palaweña who can't swim. Will anyone care to teach me please?

Bang for the buck

Filtered the hell out of this selfie because pimples!

To set your expectations on this post, let me start by saying this is meant to be a wordy and picture-heavy travel diary of what went on during my first solo travel abroad. If you need tips, I'll be more than glad to answer your questions in the comments section. :) 

Introduction
It has been about a month and a half since I went on this trip. Work and other trips aside, I have been procrastinating on writing about what was the best travel experience I've had so far in my life. It's not that it's a requirement that I write about this, but if you crossed off something really big from your bucket list, wouldn't you want to document it in photos, along with your feelings, for all the world to see? No? Okay.

I wanted to edit the photos first to give it a coherent feel, but that was not happening. I'm too lazy and I apparently don't have time for it because in a few days. I'll be off again to another adventure. Just so I can get the ball rolling, I'll just be using the raw photos from the trip.

Of Airports and Airplanes
If you have read what I have written here, you'd already know how much I love airports and airplanes. During this trip, it wasn't any different. I arrived in the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (BKIA) Terminal 2 past 1AM. Due to the excitement from it all, I actually forgot to eat dinner back in Manila. I saw only one convenience store open in Terminal 2 and they didn't sell heavy meals so I decided to try my luck at Terminal 1, where I was going to catch my flight to Miri.

What You Should Know:
Airport taxi transfers from one terminal to another cost a lot. During the day it would cost you RM30, while during graveyard hours, it would cost you RM45. Of course, you can always take the airport bus for only RM5, but it has a schedule that starts from 8AM to 8PM. 

An hour and 45 Malaysian Ringgits (RM) later, I was already in Terminal 1. It took that long for me to decide whether I really wanna spend that much money on a short cab ride to the other airport terminal versus looking for potential cab-mates that I could share the cab fare with. Na-da.

Short sad story
Me: Hi. Do you sell rice here?
Cashier: No.

Being that it was the only open food establishment in BKIA Terminal 1 around 2AM, I had no choice but to eat from McDonald's. Why the Happy Meal? Their chicken meal had two pieces of chicken. I was hungry but not THAT hungry. The only option for a 1-pc chicken meal was to get the Happy Meal. I got to take home a toy so win-win!

The part of the airport near my boarding gate was pretty much deserted. I tried doing jump shots for my collection using a remote control shutter but the timing was off. I was already wasting precious battery life so I eventually decided on just taking a video instead. It is that same clip you'd see on the first few seconds of my video diary.


I had a lot to complain about BKIA Terminal 2. I could go as far as saying it was worse than any Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) terminal here in Manila. (We have four terminals and one has been dubbed as the worst airport in the world. IN THE WORLD. I silently wondered if the panel who ranked the airports have not been to KK.) On the other side of the spectrum, Terminal 1 was nice. The check in/departure floor looked like our NAIA Terminal 3 and Singapore's Changi Airport, minus the lack of food choices 24/7. But what took my breath away was the atrium where Gate A11 was located.

What You Should Know:
If ever you get to board from Gate A11 onwards, set extra time for the long walk. It is quite far.

It has already been a week since I traveled in Brunei and Borneo (Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Penyu) but aside from my Instagram posts, I haven't written anything yet about the trip yet, the trip I have been saying was my greatest adventure yet. Heck, I still have my Maynila Field Trip Series in draft status (already written half) so I don't know if I can find enough focus to sit down and actually write about how awesome and kind the people of Brunei and Malaysia were to me. I do, however, tell stories about it to people who want to listen to me dreamily yap about the experience.

To those who don't really wanna hear about it or to those who just want to have an idea how happy I looked like the entire trip, here's my solo travel's video clip compilation. Enjoy! :)


Solo Travel of 2014: BRUNEI x BORNEO from Jennever Pelaez on Vimeo.

As for the video above, I was supposed to stop the other day and just continue to add captions and finishing touches the next day, but because the clips were all already laid out and it looked good enough, I proceeded with the upload anyway. I don't think I would be able to write the specifics today so I'll just list down my "itinerary" for this trip below for everyone's convenience.

Note: I went to the airport still not having an itinerary, only an idea of places I wanted to see. As cliche as it may sound, I just went where my feet took me.

Day 0
11PM - NAIA Terminal 3

Day 1
1AM  - Kota Kinabalu International Airport Terminal 2
2AM  - Kota Kinabalu International Airport Terminal 1
6AM  - Miri International Airport
8AM  - Breakfast in Miri
9AM  - Explored Kuala Belait
1PM  -  Lunch in Times Square Shopping Centre
3PM  -  Empire Hotel and Country Club
7PM  -  Gadong Night Market
8PM  -  Dinner in the boardwalk fronting of Kampong Ayer

Day 2
8AM   - Breakfast at Empire Hotel and Country Club
10AM - SOAS Mosque
11AM - Kampong Ayer
1PM   -  Lunch at Kaizen Sushi
2PM   -  Explored Bandar Seri Begawan
4PM   -  Empire Hotel and Country Club to shoot photos
7PM   -  Famous local restaurant (forgot the name) in Bandar Seri Begawan for Ambuyat

Day 3
7AM  -  Brunei International Airport
8AM  -  Kota Kinabalu International Airport Terminal 1
9AM  -  Red Palm Hostel
11AM-  Explored Kota Kinabalu (area around Gaya street)
4PM  -  Time Square Plaza
5PM  -  Filipino Market / The Waterfront night market
7PM  -  Explored Kota Kinabalu (area near The Waterfront)
11PM-  Midnight snack at the Beach Street

Day 4
8AM  - Got instructed to go to the wrong bus station
9AM  - Segama Bus Station
11AM- Kuala Penyu Roundabout / Kuala Penyu Jetty Port
12NN- Explored the small town of Kuala Penyu
1PM  - Lunch at a local restaurant (BEST MIXED CHICKEN RICE)
2PM  - Kuala Penyu Jetty Port
4PM  - Pulau Tiga (First ever secret shoot location for Survivor US)
5PM  - BEACH
8PM  - Dinner at the restaurant of the neighbor resort

Day 5
9AM  - Kaya breakfast in my chalet
10AM- Explored the island
11AM- Mud Volcano
12NN- BEACH
2PM  - Pulau Tiga Port
3PM  - Kuala Penyu Jetty Port
5PM  - Kota Kinabalu
6PM  - Sunset dinner at The Waterfront
7PM  - Explored some more

Day 6 HOME

I tried my best not to make comments on the itinerary yet because I'm saving everything for when I actually write the blog posts. But this is pretty much it. It doesn't look like much now but the journey on how I got from one point to another made the trip more special.