Should You Visit Sepilok? Inside Borneo's Controversial Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre
Alun's seen Orangutans in Borneo but how? We dive inside Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre and ask whether it's an ethical sanctuary or a zoo-like tourist attraction.
Alun’s final moments in Cebu, Philippines, were action-packed and fraught with danger. He narrowly escaped the island amid the devastation caused by Typhoon Tino. Our hearts go out to everyone affected, and we wish the people of the Philippines a safe and speedy recovery.
Tales of a Trip returns with a Central Asian adventure! No engine? No problem! Expect large amounts of vodka and some traditional Mongolian hospitality.
Submit your travel stories: https://www.tripologypodcast.com/talesofatrip
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - Intro
01:00 - Typhoon Tino and Alun's escape
11:07 - Kota Kinabalu, Borneo
14:20 - Journey to Sepilok: Through the looking glass
19:24 - Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre
25:08 - Tales of a Trip: Mongol Rally
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TRANSCRIPT:
Alun:
[0:02] Hello and welcome to this episode of Tripology. It's the only backpacking show where the hosts are on the road talking travel. I'm Alun and I'm here with the ever windswept Adam.
Adam:
[0:15] Thanks ever so much for joining us for another week guys. We've got another fantastic show for you. This week we're going to hear about Alun's awful time. He's been having typhoons over in the Philippines. And then we're going to hear about an amazing trip he had in Borneo, potentially seeing some big, what colour are they? Bloody orange apes? And then we're going to have Tales of a Trip, of course, where we hear from one of you guys. And in the Patreon section, The Lost and Found, I'm going to tell you why my landlord's been such a knob.
Alun:
[0:42] There you go. So if you're interested in hearing about a knobby landlord, there's a link in the description to our Patreon.
Alan's Typhoon Experience
Alun:
[0:47] But, of course, typhoons and orange apes, both interesting stories and never the twain shall meet. First one happened, then the other. keen-eared listeners will remember that you last left me i was i'd escaped malapasca a typhoon was looming and i was in a little apartment in cebu preparing for the oncoming storm it.
Adam:
[1:09] Was uh yeah difficult time because i felt like i had a lot of information about your situation Alun but there wasn't really anything i could do about it i was just receiving text messages going oh my god mate it's absolutely horrific outside i'm in an apartment block and i think i might be the only one.
Alun:
[1:23] Yeah because we had a meeting that night so we were in communicado quite frequently back and forth and my text i think to you got a little bit more frantic as the night went on at first i took the typhoon a very lax approach i basically people were panicking going oh you need to prepare get food get all this stuff i thought sounds like quite a windy gale i'll just stay inside I'll basically just be here and ride out the whole thing. I did the meeting. At 3am, I woke up.
Adam:
[1:57] I was here.
Alun:
[1:58] It sounded horrendous outside. To the point where... I was like, I've never really heard anything like this. I was in an apartment near a construction site. I heard like metal pipes and girders and things collapsing all around. It started to feel a little bit dangerous.
Adam:
[2:21] Yeah, no, I can imagine. I mean, you did tell me that you'd received a text message, I think it was, from the government saying that if you are in a coastal area, I mean, I would imagine that's the reason why you're receiving the text message, you should get the hell out of there. so it's a shame you took it as a just a I don't know a medium level warning um, I was a bit worried for you, mate. I've got to be honest. I've been in a typhoon myself in Taiwan, where I was cycling on my bicycle, and I didn't really know what to expect going in. You're not too far wrong with a lot of wind. That's kind of what it felt. That was my experience.
Alun:
[2:58] Yeah, I mean, I wish it was a text message from the government. What it was was one of those alerts, and they flashed up every now and again, and they were entirely in Tagalog. They're entirely in the Filipino language. So in order to decipher what the alert said, I had to take a screenshot of my phone with the alert on it, then go into photos, copy the text, and then copy that into Google Translate. And eventually I'd get the answer. It was like, oh, coastal areas are advised to evacuate. And these are the evacuation areas. And then I'd Google where in Cebu is coastal area. And Google would be like, all of Cebu is a coastal area as Cebu is a city in proximity to the sea. And I'd be like, okay, within the coastal area of Cebu, where is there a risk of chronic flooding? And it was like, everywhere in Cebu has a risk of chronic flooding, as you're in a city that's very proximous to the sea. so i texted the owner of my apartment of the airbnb and said mate it's 3 a.m here should i be in this apartment no reply i googled a lot of stuff and essentially there were people evacuating all around me just turns out it was people in much more brittle or rudimentary built structures The winds picked up It got very very horrible There was all these horrible sounds And then.
Alun:
[4:24] Power goes out Cell service goes out.
Alun:
[4:30] No internet, no data, no mobile phone reception.
Adam:
[4:35] Oh, shit.
Alun:
[4:36] It's about 4, 5 a.m.
Adam:
[4:38] Were you genuinely scared at any point?
Alun:
[4:41] Yeah, I'd say I was genuinely scared. I'd say that I had a creeping fear because I didn't really know what to expect. They say in a typhoon, stay away from the windows. My one side of the apartment was a window.
Adam:
[4:55] Oh, really?
Alun:
[4:55] So to stay away from that, I'd have had to shrink into a corner and cover myself in cellophane. I didn't know what to do.
Adam:
[5:02] Floor to ceiling window. It's fantastic. I don't know what I've done. So you didn't really know with any forewarning that you shouldn't have been there. You could have only been reactive based on the information that you had available to you, I suppose.
Alun:
[5:18] Yeah, I was reacting, but slightly too slowly.
Adam:
[5:23] Certainly more than your landlord.
Alun:
[5:25] Yeah. But then I was getting...
Adam:
[5:26] Texting you back, who's this?
Alun:
[5:28] Presumably I was still getting those same alerts on my phone.
Adam:
[5:32] Ah, right.
Alun:
[5:32] But they were now just falling on dead ears, essentially. So what I did, at some point I just resigned to try and sleep. I put a pillow over my head in concession to if my window explodes, most of the glass would land into the pillow.
Adam:
[5:47] Oh, God.
Alun:
[5:48] And outside, there was just howling wind. And the last alert I received said, like, risk of terrible flooding. Make sure you don't have anything plugged into the walls because there might be electrical surges and things like that. I just tried to get some sleep. Successfully, I got a couple of hours. And that was when the real party started. Because when I woke up, still no power. I realized that probably I should have stockpiled some food because the whole of Cebu is just completely locked down. I have a flight in about 10 hours. And the streets are just completely flooded. I mean, the flooding was exceptional. There was no way to get anywhere.
Adam:
[6:28] I thought the food situation may have played into your hands because you're intermittent fast, don't you? I thought that would have been all right.
Alun:
[6:34] Yeah, I was getting terribly fit whilst I was waiting for that typhoon to pass.
Adam:
[6:38] Yeah, God. Well, I mean, what's the takeaway from this then? Do you think you just got lucky?
Alun:
[6:42] There weren't any takeaways. There weren't any restaurants, any takeaways. Nothing was open. That was what was so hard about it. Sorry, I thought I made that more clear.
Adam:
[6:50] So, yeah, well, hang on. What about the flight then? It wasn't cancelled because of the severe weather warning.
Alun:
[6:55] Right. So the flights for the whole day were cancelled.
Adam:
[6:58] Oh, right.
Alun:
[6:59] My flight was just late enough that it was considered the next day and therefore wasn't cancelled.
Adam:
[7:07] Oh, okay.
Alun:
[7:08] It was the very first flight that wasn't automatically cancelled on the day of the typhoon.
Adam:
[7:13] Oh, yeah.
Alun:
[7:13] What I basically did was pack all my bags eight hours early, wade to the bottom of my road, Went to the one establishment that was open and under a meter of water. It was the Shell Garage because you need to supply gas in an emergency.
Adam:
[7:33] Oh, when you say waded, you mean like you're walking through knee-high water?
Alun:
[7:38] Yeah, I mean, there were sections that were a little bit less than knee-high and sections that were a little bit more. So it was kind of like a game of Frogger. I was just going through different sections of varying water depths.
Adam:
[7:50] Oh, my God. That's awful. How terrible.
Alun:
[7:53] You know, so I'd like put my swimming cap on, go across one bit, take it off, put wellingtons on, paddle through another. And then some of it I was just skimboarding across, like pretty cool. Got to the Shell garage. They had a little bit of Wi-Fi, which I used to contact a driver on a taxi app.
Adam:
[8:13] A little bit of Wi-Fi?
Alun:
[8:14] Yeah, just a small amount.
Adam:
[8:16] Right. Okay. But they allocated to you.
Alun:
[8:19] Because they had a generator.
Adam:
[8:20] Oh, yeah. Still no takeaway.
Alun:
[8:23] I got a taxi using the Wi-Fi, drove to the airport eight hours early and just waited out the rest of the situation.
Adam:
[8:30] My God. It was, I know they weren't, I guess, because I've read a few news articles and that sort of stuff. But were the people in Cebu hit particularly hard? I mean, I assume there was a lot of loss in terms of housing and local businesses and stuff. It was just devastation.
Escape to Borneo
Alun:
[8:44] Yeah. And people passed away. It's like it was really hectic typhoon, man. and there's a lot of corruption stuff that goes on that means that the infrastructure in the city is just not equipped to deal with it properly and there's flooding every time and there's people in such rudimentary housing that, every year it gets destroyed when there's typhoons and every year they evacuate and every year they start again it's really a horrendous situation i was very lucky just to be able to to flee i mean you realize in situations like that how lucky you are just to be able to get to an airport and leave and and my heart goes out to all the people in sabu it really does because what what an awful thing to to have happen to you and the filipino people are so great i've seen videos on social media of them like diving off their roofs into the flooded streets and stuff sounds dangerous but i mean you gotta keep a a light hearted attitude when you're experiencing such terrible loss but long story short mate i was able to escape i was able to get to the airport my flight was the first flight for air asia that went that day and uh i escaped to borneo amazing.
Arrival in Kota Kinabalu
Adam:
[9:53] Well i can't wait to hear more about it.
Alun:
[9:55] Well you will hear about it after this ad, So there we are. I've escaped the typhoon, Typhoon Tino in Cebu, and I've landed in Kota Kinabalu in Borneo. What a wonderful place to be.
Adam:
[11:14] It is amazing. It's somewhere I've been. Not somewhere I remember that much. Although, refresh my memory, is there a kind of a harbour with a fish market, local market, a few restaurants and that sort of stuff, diving shops and things?
Alun:
[11:31] There certainly is, mate. And I took to forcing other travellers in the hostel in Kota Kinabalu. I walked into that hostel and I saw a girl eating a McDonald's and I thought, rest assured, in the next 48 hours, I will take you to that fish market and you will eat a fish with me.
Adam:
[11:49] Okay, why not?
Alun:
[11:50] And that lived out. That did happen.
Adam:
[11:52] I know that this isn't the way that this part of the show is going to go, but I am quite interested in hearing how you navigated that situation with a backpacker who had chosen to eat anything other than the local cuisine in the form of some mass-produced fast food. How do you approach that without sounding judgmental?
Alun:
[12:15] You would have checked out of the hostel and gone somewhere else, but I didn't say anything.
Adam:
[12:21] Sorry, is this a backpacker's hostel? Because you look like you're eating at McDonald's. You can't possibly be a backpacker who's interested in mindful travel and the experience of local culture.
Alun:
[12:35] I said, are those fries cooked in sugar to make people more addicted to them? She said, yes. No, I simply looked at her out of one corner of my eye in a manner that said... I'm going to save you.
Adam:
[12:50] Oh, okay.
Alun:
[12:51] Tomorrow. I'm going to take you to see some great cuisine. I said nothing, and I didn't interact with her 24 hours later. Then we bumped into each other, and I said, I'd like you to come for dinner with me, because there are better things out there than what you consumed last night.
Adam:
[13:09] And are you going to tell us what you had in the fish market? I think I've eaten in that fish market.
Alun:
[13:15] Just a fish, mate.
Adam:
[13:16] Just a fresh fish.
Alun:
[13:16] I had a fish with her. Yeah. I said to the waiter, what's your best fish? And he said, oh, it's actually McDonald's do this, like Nasi Lemak with a fish on the side. That's one of the best things we do. But if you were just seeing Kota Kinabalu's second best fish, I've got this line caught snapper. And I said, I'll have to do.
Adam:
[13:34] Nothing says Borneo like a fucking Happy Meal.
Alun:
[13:37] Yeah, exactly.
Adam:
[13:37] So that's wicked, mate. But you've liked the food so far in Borneo, have you?
Alun:
[13:41] Well, that was my first impression of Borneo was, oh my God, the food here is so much more to my palate than the food in the Philippines.
The Orangutan Quest
Alun:
[13:48] I really love Malaysian food. I was having laxas. I was having fishes. I was having a whale of a tithe. But my primary reason for being in Borneo was, of course, seeing the most orange of the great apes, an animal that has captured my heart as one of the most charismatic megafauna existing on the earth. I am, of course, speaking of the orangutan.
Adam:
[14:14] How good, how good.
Alun:
[14:16] Very shortly after arriving in Kota Kinabalu, I set my sights on going, on heading east to Sepilog, to Sandakan.
Adam:
[14:28] Mm-hmm.
Alun:
[14:29] Kinabatangan. A river where you can see a plethora of animals, orangutans included. So I set out very early on my journey on the bus. Most people fly. I took the bus because Greta Thunberg has persuaded me that it is wrong to fly.
Adam:
[14:44] Yeah, as long as you're in a bus that's driving past miles and miles and miles as far as the eye can see of palm oil plantations.
Alun:
[14:51] I did a journey where I'm paying such respect to ginger apes. I think it was only... I can't actually say that. Hold on.
Adam:
[14:58] I've taken that same bus, Alun.
Alun:
[15:01] In a journey where I'm paying such respect to the ginger community, I think it was only fair that I heeded her word and took a bus instead. So I was on the bus and I just, you know me, what happens to me when I'm riding a bus, Adam?
Adam:
[15:16] You often fall asleep.
Alun:
[15:18] Yep, you've got it. Vehicular somnambulism is what we call it. I get very soporific, very tired, moikensado on the old buskin.
Adam:
[15:28] You can imagine it now. Headphones in.
Alun:
[15:29] I was riding and I fell asleep.
Adam:
[15:31] Tape on? No tape?
Alun:
[15:32] No mouth tape. I was fast asleep listening to a Greta Thunberg podcast going fast down the motorway on the bus. I fell asleep. Woke up, mate. And you know what happens when you wake up from asleep? Your eyes are a bit tired. You're feeling a bit tired.
Adam:
[15:47] Yeah.
Alun:
[15:48] And I just adjusted my contact lens. Thought nothing of it. I've done that a million times before.
Adam:
[15:52] Okay.
Alun:
[15:52] I checked into my hostel in Sepilog. I noticed in the corner of my eye a little bit of pain of some kind. Like, oh, that feels a little unusual. Perhaps my contact lenses are irritated. I'll go to sleep, take my contact lenses out, give my eyes a rest, wake up in the morning. I'll go to the orangutan sanctuary to have a preliminary look at some orphaned orangutans before I see the wild ones. I'll visit the Bornean sun bears. I'm going to have a great time. Let's get a good night's sleep.
Adam:
[16:19] Okay, wonderful.
Alun:
[16:20] Woke up the following day.
Adam:
[16:22] Yeah.
Alun:
[16:23] With one of the largest eyes I've ever had in my life, the whole lower lid had swelled up like a squash ball.
Adam:
[16:33] Oh dear. That's big.
Alun:
[16:35] I had inflammation, like puffy eye, going down my face.
Adam:
[16:39] Right.
Alun:
[16:40] An itch that I've scarcely experienced before.
Adam:
[16:44] Did you immediately know what it was?
Alun:
[16:45] I knew there was something wrong with my eye, if that's what you mean. I suspected it was some sort of ocular issue.
Adam:
[16:56] Yeah, yeah. Oh, dear. That's a big shame.
Alun:
[16:59] Yeah.
Adam:
[16:59] That's a big shame. I wouldn't say you're prone to things like that, especially not when you travel. You've got a pretty hard stomach, sturdy, and you don't get ill that often.
Alun:
[17:08] Yeah, I've been a bit more prone recently. I think it's known as the antibiotic cascade. I think that I've had some infections in the Philippines due to my lifestyle and jiu-jitsu.
Adam:
[17:17] Oh, yeah.
Alun:
[17:18] And just the jiu-jitsu, not my lifestyle. The lifestyle of jiu-jitsu is what I mean. okay jesus why is the audience persecuting me yeah.
Adam:
[17:26] Because the lord knows you weren't doing you weren't doing anything else were you than.
Alun:
[17:29] Jiu-jitsu i was basically doing jiu-jitsu i was like a jiu-jitsu nun over there and indeed now quite non-like so anyway i took some antibiotics because of jiu-jitsu in the philippines and now i'm getting a lot of these sort of low-grade infections because my body's forgotten how to fight them my eye was a mess i went about the day in sepulog anyway but now it's a little bit less sexy because i'm wearing big old glasses and i'm having just to navigate you.
Adam:
[17:57] Don't want to give orangutans the stink eye mate.
Alun:
[17:59] I know i.
Adam:
[18:00] Mean that's like that's orangutan 101 if they think you're giving them a stink eye they'll be on you mate.
Alun:
[18:05] Well all my eyes were pretty bad at this point because of the infection so stink eye was everyone was getting a bit of stink eye i went to sepulog and it's just it's a bit annoying when you've got glasses on because I almost feel like I'm not really looking at the animals like I'm looking through, sort of a quarter inch thick shaved pane of glass.
Adam:
[18:28] As if you were looking at the wildlife, but they were inside a cage and there was just a perspex, like a zoo almost.
Alun:
[18:36] Well, ironically, at my local zoo back in Manchester, the glass was slightly less thick than my glasses prescription. I mean, at the point where you have to look at an animal through glasses, I always say best just to watch on the tv.
Adam:
[18:49] I am i am interested in knowing what your experience of sepiloc was like because i think you're probably uh slightly more what's the word i'm looking for would you scrutinize a conservation sort of environmental thing like that orphanage i think it calls itself an orphanage doesn't it rehabilitation center that's i.
Alun:
[19:14] Gave him a good bit of scrutinization mate yeah and let me give you my review of sepulog and the sun bear center.
Adam:
[19:21] Of course all.
Alun:
[19:23] Jokes aside all glasses aside all eye infection bothering me aside i did i mean it's something i've been geeing myself up for my whole life to see orangutans and uh i thought sepulog was definitely worth a visit.
Adam:
[19:37] What's funny, yeah so i mean did you do much research into the sort of work that they do for the the orangutans because from my memory it's it backs onto the jungle and it is open so it's basically for anyone who doesn't know sepulock is it must be some sort of organization foundation whatever and uh an orangutan orphanage and care center let's say and there are a number of uh i don't know what you call it climbing frames apparatus platforms all that sort of stuff some walkways through the jungle and the orangutans are just sort of walking around and stuff but they they can choose to leave it's just that they're often fed at one of the platforms yeah so i.
Alun:
[20:17] Think i think that is a misleading concept the idea of them being able to choose to leave but, this is what I think of Sepulog and the Bonet and Sun Bear Center is that they are release-focused, centers that take animals that otherwise wouldn't have had a chance at a very good life and help them in innumerable ways when they're infants and then give them the opportunity to live as close to a natural life as possible, having been raised fundamentally by humans. The idea that they have the choice to leave because the center is adjacent to the jungle. I mean, an animal very scarcely would leave if it's been born in those conditions and knows it has access to food.
Adam:
[21:01] Kind of incentivized to stay.
Alun:
[21:03] There are some animals there which were born in the center and they live in the area of the center. They're fed every day. They're incentivized to stay in that way. And they'll never really leave. But they are procreating. And I saw one orangutan who was born in the center, had that life, but it's
since had a child. And the child may well grow up and leave the center, as they often do in adolescence, leave the company of their mothers. So they are helping healthy orangutans to procreate and be wild. So I think from that sense, it is a very ethical endeavor. However, the Bornean Sun Bear Center, a different model, really, in the sense that those bears are pet trade, captive animals who are being given a second chance, healed up. They get over all their issues and any health issues they have, any psychological issues they have. And then the ones that are equipped to do so, they'll dart them, take them way out into the jungle and then release them, which is, of course, that's the best thing you can do for an animal to give it a second chance of being wild.
Adam:
[22:08] Yeah, you know, regarding you seeing those orangutans, I told you in great detail what it was like emotionally for me to see them. I don't suppose you didn't vomit or you didn't cry or anything along those lines, did you? What was your experience like?
Alun:
[22:22] I'll say that is the one qualm about sepulog. And I almost wish it wasn't my first experience seeing an orangutan because I do think that it's difficult to feel the feeling I expected to see when seeing an orangutan in the wild, when you're seeing it in the context of a place where you're guaranteed to see orangutan, and a place where fundamentally like there's there's a an orphanage um infant sort of nursery where they're there they're being fed you can see them and then there's like a feeding platform where you're really in quite close proximity and it feels very zoo-like despite the fact that you're in a jungle context. So I think it was hard to have that feeling of awe that I expected and hoped to get when seeing Orangutan for the first time. But it was very... It was very beautiful to see that, you know, there was such a dedicated staff and humans making such an effort to keep those orangutans safe and do such good conservation. So it's worth talking about sepulog and the Borna in some way, just because I think they are worthwhile pursuits.
Adam:
[23:38] I don't remember having a feeling of thinking that it was kind of like a zoo or just sort of built for tourists. I mean, I was very lucky when I went to Kinebatangan because I saw, I did see a mother orangutan up in a tree with her baby as well, albeit from quite a far distance away. And I think the sun was setting as well, but it was still magical. You could sort of see their silhouettes in the tree and it was lovely. And then, of course, we all know that the other experience I had very, very fortunate in the Danham Valley seeing an orangutan very, you know, very close, almost too close. um yeah so you know i just sort of wondered how you felt about sepilok and and the the center itself um because i think overall you don't really get that feeling
Reflections on Sepilok
Adam:
[24:20] that it's just sort of built for tourists.
Alun:
[24:22] No it's a functional rehabilitation center and i you know i champion that sort of experience uh you know we talk about travelers who go and work in unethical elephant sanctuaries and stuff like that all the time so when somewhere does something right and caters to tourists who want to see something like an orangutan and also does good ethical animal conservation i do think it's worth highlighting on the next episode of tropology i'm going to talk about the river cruise where i finally or did i get the opportunity to see a real life wild orangutan we'll do all that next week because to now we've got to hear another traveler's greatest travel story there's a link in the description if you want to submit one tales of a trip let's hear what another traveler's greatest travel story was right now hello.
Tales of a Trip:
[25:09] Doogie here long-time listener first-time caller my tale starts off as two of my best friends and i cross the border from kazakhstan via a short jaunt through russia into mongolia and a fiat panda called heather, While rolling through the desert that night, an almighty bang brought us to an abrupt halt. A full roadside inspection the next morning revealed that, well, the engine fell out. Not to be deterred by this minor setback on our cross-continental road trip, we pushed on. Out came the tow rope from the back of the car, up went our thumbs at the side of the road, and so began the Great Mongolian Tow. We barely waited five minutes for our first tow, and once hooked up, eight feet from the back of the nice man's Mitsubishi De Laika, he put pedal to the metal and had us cruising over dirt roads at 60 miles an hour. Unfortunately, after only an hour or two and three stops to refill his radiator, we had to concede that the mighty De Laika just wasn't up to the job, and he would have to leave us behind. Feeling so remorseful that he couldn't deliver on taking us as far as he had promised, He gave up his fresh ham and egg sandwiches made by his wife that morning by means of apology and went on his way.
Tales of a Trip:
[26:19] Several more tows carried us through that day before we pitched up for the night. And in the morning, feeling encouraged by how far we'd already come, we packed up our tent, speculating on the mighty towing truck, which was, no doubt, just about to swing around the corner and carry us all the way to our destination. Well, the next tow was indeed a good one. The rumble of the V8 could be heard well before the Land Cruiser came into view. Once they had stopped and, through mostly hand signals, figured out our plan, the driver agreed and gestured OK. One of you in my car, the other two in your car. So I obliged and jumped into the comfort AC and leather seats of the Land Cruiser. In the car was three generations, the father driving, his father beside him, and his two adult sons squeezed next to me in the back. Not long after we started off, the granddad pulled out a bottle of vodka, poured a large cup and handed it to me. Bearing in mind this is about 9am, I took a sip and thanked him, offered the cup to share which was met with an oh no that's for you to enjoy hand gesture.
Tales of a Trip:
[27:23] Thankfully the driver didn't imbibe but the rest of us enjoyed glass after glass of top-notch mongolian hooch through the morning feeling like i should check on my comrades i peeked over my shoulder and was met with concerned faces and some white knuckling of the steering wheel i would later find out we'd been averaging about 80 miles an hour and seeing as our car wasn't running it had essentially no breaks. Unaware of this situation though and having such a wonderful time in good company, good comfort and plenty of vodka, I didn't worry too much. Another few tours the next day, we eventually arrived in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, more than 1,500 kilometres since we last moved under our own power. That adventure did continue, but that's for another tale. Keep up the good work, boys. Cheers.
Alun:
[28:08] Dude, one of my favourite tales of a trip of all time. I mean, what a cool story. What an amazing like so beautifully told. Sounded like an audio book that I wanted to listen to forever. And yeah, just this tale of resilience, of hopefulness, of human kindness, of sojourning from one place to another off the back of other people's generosity.
Adam:
[28:33] Gorgeous you're effortlessly leading us into a cliffhanger that i really hope we hear the end to uh what an amazing story uh i i don't know what i would have been like in that situation i hope doogie's far more handy than i am but the engine falling out of your car albeit a fiat panda i think he said um not sort of situation i want to be in the middle of nowhere with uh with no engine and only your only hope is to stick out a thumb and pray that it's someone that you want to be spending some time with.
Alun:
[29:02] You'd have been better than me in that situation i think because i think your brain would have gone like dookies to like oh this is fucked like we need help like let's hitchhike let's get some people to help us i'd have been like on the side of the road trying to download an ebook about engine repair.
Adam:
[29:16] Well no you're probably right but also maybe i know so little about cars i wouldn't have realized that the engine falling out is so big of a problem that you probably should just hitchhike it's.
Alun:
[29:28] Okay guys i've seen the flintstones we just poke our feet through where the engine used to be.
Adam:
[29:32] And run to... Oh, that's amazing. So Kazakhstan, little nip up into Russia, then Mongolia. I mean, they're places that we've not been to, Alun. They're places we want to go. Is hitchhiking the way? Is that what Doogie's saying? If we want to meet locals and get drunk while they're driving, is that sort of, sounds like it could be one of the better ways to experience it.
Alun:
[29:53] Sounds like the adventure that me and you ought to go on. So thank you very much, Doogie, for sending that in and inspiring us. I think not more needs to be said about that tale. I think it stood alone as a beautiful and inspirational travel story. If you listening to this have a travel story just like it, there's a little link in the description. You can head there and submit your own tale of a trip. It could be anything. Don't worry about it too much. If you think, oh, it's not as good as Doogie's. My story's a bit boring. We'll be the judge of that. If it's boring, we just won't play it and no one has to know. Just send it in anyway. We might like listening to it. Do you know what I mean? It's not a big deal. Just send one in. Much love. Thanks.
Tales of a Trip
Alun:
[30:31] next week I'm going to tell you about the time I saw a wild orangutan or did I and got that special feeling deep inside like oh my god there's an animal that I've been looking for for ever so long, there's going to be some brilliant stories next Tuesday make sure you stick around for them now though we're going to go to the lost and found section in Patreon where.
Adam:
[30:51] I'm going to tell you all about my knobby landlord thanks ever so much for tuning in guys there's a link in the description if you want to join us over in the lost and found section. We'll see you there.
Alun:
[30:58] We'll see you there. Bye!
