Eye-Catching Buildings and Sambang Rides in Kuching (Sarawak, Malaysia)

I'd ride a tambang (river taxi) to cross the Sarawak River from the gorgeous waterfront, a dreamy riverside esplanade in the city center. It wont cost you more than 0.40 RM (PhP5.50/$013 cents) to cross their sungai. You can either wait at the dock or hail a passing tambang (if they're not occupied).

The Parliament Building looks like an inverted cone with serrated edges. It is in fact possible to visit but some permissions have to be secured prior to a visit. I ended up visiting Fort Margherita, a deserted fort nearby, which I loved. Kuching has one of the most picturesque promenades in all of Malaysia, and deserves to be visited. People are accommodating, but taxi drivers and their contact hotels have to be dealt with caution. This is also one of the most expensive places to use a taxi in.

Kuching is the capital of Sarawak; the largest city in the island of Borneo. There's a 2,617.9 kilometer distance between Kuching and Kuala Lumpur and clocks an air travel of barely 2 hours.

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Rowing down Sarawak River with a penambang.

The Roadless Steppes of Khustain National Park (Mongolia)

Hours pile up traveling through the steppes of Mongolia. With mostly flat or winding grasslands stretching as far as the eyes can see, it's easy to get lulled to sleep or get hypnotized by the sheer "emptiness" of the landscape ahead of you. I was simply mesmerized.

Khustain Nuruu National Park is located in the Tov aimag (province) southwest of Ulaan Baatar. Also known as Hustai National Park (or "Birch Mountains"), the park has been declared a protected area after the re-introduction of the wild horse, the takhi (Przewalski's horse) to Hustain. The animal sanctuary is a vast 50,600 hectare land.

My travel outside the capital required a tour agency (duly registered by the authorities) that supplied a 4x4 vehicle and a driver, a daily tariff fee, payments to ger camp accommodations and the driver's food (as well as petrol). I'd have chosen to share the burden with another tourist, but on an off-season like May, just before Nadaam, their major festival in June, visitors weren't exactly a dime a dozen.

Make no mistake. Traveling through Mongolia is not cheap. The hotels in Ulaan Baatar are relatively expensive, despite paucity of the most common amenities, even in 5 star hotels. The gorgeous Blue Sky Hotel and Tower, for example, doesn't even have air conditioning - or electric fans, for that matter - due to weather conditions in the country. On its fleeting summer days, rooms swelter.

The steppes feed Mongolia's major industry, the cattle. This is why a good number of the population still lives the life of a nomad. They have to intermittently move around the grasslands to provide adequate "food" for the cows, the goats, the sheep, etc. Steppes are mainly unmarked so I was dumbfounded by my driver's "intuition", as he drove on roadless patches of grass to get to my ger camp. No GPS needed, apparently.

If I wanted adventure, this couldn't be far from one.

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Manila Golden Mosque and a Piece of Islamic History (Philippines)

Manila Golden Mosque is located in the heart of Quaipo's Barter Trade (aka the land of pirated DVD's). I gathered enough courage to visit it after its renovation (basically repainting and some colorful tile patchwork on the exterior walls). 

Entrance to the Golden Mosque

I was greeted by an imam at the gate. I handed him P20, which was unusual for a mosque. I've never paid for visiting a mosque anywhere in Islamic Asia, except at Jamai Masjid in Delhi (India). But what's 20 bucks, right? The imam wanted small talk and when he heard where I lived, his eyes lit up. "Can you tell Santanina Rasul to come visit us," he said. I told him I have no idea where the former lady senator lives. Nor do I have any intentions of visiting her, I thought.

Inside the mosque, people were either praying or sleeping on the cool, glistening tile floor. Even in Malaysia, people would use mosques for sleeping when they should be for praying. But then that's their territory so who am I to say? Some kids walked with me to check out the grounds, and I knew I'd be alright. 

The Golden Mosque isn't in anyway as grand as the ones in neighboring countries. After all, there are only about 5 million Filipinos who practice the religion - or 5% of the country's 100 million population. There are ongoing debates about this statistic, declaring that this number is gravely "under-counted", but until proven otherwise, let's agree on that and avoid subjective estimation.

Islam is considered the oldest monotheistic religion to have entered the country between 12th and 14th century, by way of the natives’ trading relations with Muslims from the Persian Gulf, the Malabar Coast in Southern India, and the Malay archipelago. Arab trader Karim ul’Makhdum arrived on the islands of Sulu in 1380. Accompanied by "hui hui" (a term essentially referring to Muslims from mainland China who were also spice traders in Yemen, Egypt and India), he subsequently built the first mosque in Simunul Island in Tawi Tawi; the first in the country - the Sheik Karimal Makhdum Mosque, now declared a "national treasure". Makhdum is credited for establishing Islam in the Philippines. Such is his legend that others believe that he could "walk on water". However, this could be an intrinsic reference on "sufi saints".

Isn't that a crucial page of Philippine history that hasn't been adequately told? One wonders why there's not even a single photo of Makhdum available anywhere.

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My young "guides".

Uneven coat of gold paints the domes.