Get up at 4:45 am, walk a few kilometers to a bus station, take an hour long bus to the airport, catch a 1.5 hour flight to Kuching International Airport, walk a few more kilometers to a bus stop, catch a bus that is (hopefully) going into town, and finally spend 2.5 hours looking for a place to stay.

We made it to Borneo, Malaysia!  Megan and I were walking into a week of real cultural adventures and were completely unaware of it.

We stayed at a nice little guesthouse, recommended by friends, which had a full kitchen and complimentary eggs/bread/oats so you could make your own breakfast.  I ate copious amounts of toast all week long!  Franky, who owns and runs the place, is a Malaysian of Chinese heritage.  She is a fast talking, super excited, and constantly on the go kind of person.  Franky was the key to our very memorable week.

(Us and Franky)

On our first full day we explored Kuching.  We stopped off at the planetarium and watched a show on life and evolution.  This was my first time in a planetarium and it was pretty awesome!  We were the only guests there and it only cost about 75 cents to see the show.  Afterwards, we made our way back to the guesthouse to cool down and relax.  Franky caught us back at the guesthouse and was super excited to take us to a Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival.  We had no clue what was going on but she said something about burning money, houses, cars, and seeing a “shaman” in a trance.  All I could think was they are going to burn a house and car!  We headed out with another couple in Franky’s car around 7pm to see this festival.  Upon arriving there were tons of Chinese people making their way to a small building that was so crowded and filled with incense smoke that we couldn’t make out what was going on.  Franky explained that people put their names into a queue so they can visit the shaman.  We didn’t fully understand what the deal was with the shaman, but he is apparently possessed by a spirit and can provide advice or knowledge to a current situation.  Because there were so many people that night, he was just blessing (or approving?) gifts to the spirits (ghosts) that each person presented before him. We found that they had a huge tent full of food offerings to appease the hell spirits; pig heads, shrimp, lobster, beer, liqueur, potatoes, pineapples, cakes, and so much more.

(Food offerings)

As Franky was explaining all of this to us over a nice plate of noodles covered in chili sauce (I went back for seconds), she decided to put Megan’s name into the queue.  Megan was completely lost at what was going on, but the other couple with us were freaking out because they needed to get back and pack for an early flight.  So we headed back to the guesthouse to drop off those two and crammed four others into Franky’s tiny car.  I think Megan was secretly hoping they would have passed her number by the time we got back, but it was going to be a long time before Franky and Megan’s numbers were drawn.  While waiting, the amount of Chinese people were slowly thinning out and we were able to see the shaman sitting at a table acting really strange, tongue sticking out and eyes closed, while stamping things people brought before him.  Typically it was some sort of paper, a couple of gutted orange peels, and a flag of some sort.  People took the orange peels, filled them with oil, put in a wick, said a prayer, and then set them in a pool of water to float.  Time to enjoy some more noodles and chili sauce.

(Orange peel candle pool)

Finally it was Megan’s turn around 1:30am.  Looking nervous she sat next to the Shaman who sort of stared at her, started rambling something in Chinese, and then quickly stamped the orange peels she brought.  People all around were entertained as we were the only foreigners at this festival.  Megan walked away unscathed but still had to wave the oranges over some incense while someone rang a bell, then she got to add hers to the collection of lit orange peels in the pool.

(Megan and the Shaman)

After that excitement we still had to wait for everything to come to an end, so we helped some others burn fake money.  They literally go out and buy stacks of fake, paper money to take to a festival and just throw into a fire, and they burn a lot of fake money!  Finally we reached the time to burn a house and car!  Woot!  Out of nowhere a guy walked around a corner carrying a big paper house.  Excitement gone…  There was a large square with a bamboo fence that we filled with a few paper houses, cars, shirts, shoes, and copious amounts of fake money.  There was so much it ended up being a pile roughly 10 feet tall within a 30’x30′ area.  It took an hour to fill.  The shaman came out and ran around the food tent chanting and then off to light the big pile of paper.  Once lit, people bum rushed the food tent to take the offerings no longer needed by the hell ghosts. Megan destroyed little kids, stealing their precious pineapples!  Not really, but we did end up with a lot of fruit, sweet potatoes, and some MSG coated goodies.

(Paper houses submerged in paper money in a bamboo cage)

A couple days later we got up pretty early to head to a nature preserve to see some orangutans!  The preserve has a viewing area to watch while rangers put a bucket of fruit on a platform for the semi-wild orangutans.  While waiting we watched the tree tops until we finally saw trees swaying back and forth.  Orangutans are like tree ninjas moving through the canopy.  We got to see nine of them, a few just little babies.  Later we took in some of the museums as they are free across the state.  That evening Franky surprised us with dinner, a vegetable dish with salted duck eggs.  To eat, you put a spoonful of the vegetables and egg into a lettuce leaf.  I called them Malaysian burritos.  After that nice dinner we went to see the waterfront at night.  In the central area we found a large tent set up for a formal dinner, and other tents full of local food vendors and tables.  Military and police were all over the place, and people were pouring in and out of the vendor tents carrying all sorts of good looking food.  Megan and I were quite perplexed at what was going on, and as we stopped to observe an officer took us into a tent where another officer handed us both some ice cream explaining everything was complimentary.  Free food! Again! We just barely stepped into the tent and an old lady, not speaking any English, led us through the crowd to a vendor and got us a couple of food dishes.  She was so excited to help us.  After that we grabbed a couple of drinks and then found a vendor handing out murtabaks!  Oh this has to be heaven.  With our arms full of food we found a place to sit.  Most scrumptious!  I am pretty sure Megan and I put a few pounds on after that.  The event was put on by the police and was free for everyone.  The Chief Minister of Sarawak showed up a bit later by a large police escort, and he got to enjoy the nice dinner tent.  Bet he didn’t get a murtabak.

(Orangutang)

The next morning we headed out to Bako National Park. We met a couple of Canadians at the bus stop that we shared the boat with to get into the park.  If you don’t stay overnight at the park it is said that it can be pretty difficult to see the infamous proboscis monkeys that are known for their rather large noses.  Stepping off the boat we had to follow a path to the headquarters to check-in.  Just in that short walk we saw three proboscis monkeys and a few bearded wild pigs.  Woot!  Seeing anything after this was just gravy.  Megan and I decided to take a nice hike to a cliff edge overlooking a beach, and got to see a ton of carnivorous pitcher plants along the way.  I was pretty excited to see these.  After heading back we took a small detour to check out another area where the proboscis monkeys are known to hang out.  Luckily we saw a handful more, yelling and grunting at each other.  Great trip!  When we made it back to town we decided to have some beers with the Canadians, which didn’t end until about 3 the next morning when we drug them back to their hotel.

(Proboscis monkey)

For our last full day we were supposed to go on a hike with Franky and a few others, but the others cancelled. In style, Franky had another event that she could take us to if we were interested.  It was a luncheon put on by the Ministry of Tourism for the Sarawak Homestay group.  The different homestays were supposed to bring tourists to the event for yummy free food and to watch a mock traditional wedding ceremony.  We ended up being the only tourists there.  Through the beginning of the event everything was going well as we got to see examples of different wedding attire from different villages.  Halfway through the event the Minister of Tourism gave a speech and had to promptly leave, but before heading out, he stopped by our table to most conveniently use us as PR puppets.  The reporters took tons of photos of him shaking our hands and talking to us.  This started a chain of events that we can only laugh about now.  We immediately were asked to have photos taken of us eating some of Sarawaks famous layered cake.  They wanted to use it for advertising, so you might see us on a billboard or tourists brochures in Malaysia.  After looking ridiculous while pretending to eat cake, Franky introduced us to some tribe’s people that she commonly takes her guests out to see in their village.  After taking a photo with them, the news people saw and asked to take more photos of us, but this time with us trying on their traditional garb.  This made for some awkward moments, but we were laughing the entire time.  In the middle of the photo shoot one of the national news channels came over and interviewed us.  I am not sure how much longer we took photos, but some Chinese Nationals that were guests of the event also had to be part of some our photos.  In the end we ate some really good food, had our photo taken way too many times, and even helped Franky collect little cake gift packages that were left on tables to take back to the guesthouse with us.

(Megan and I with a homestay village group)

After so much excitement, our day had to come for us to fly to Kota Kinabalu.  While waiting for the plane I walked into a duty free store, and Boom! Right in the middle of the newspaper stand was a big photo of Megan and I.  Of course I bought a paper, for now the best proof of what we went through.

Kota Kinabalu was just a junction point for us to fly into Bali, Indonesia.  We didn’t really do much there but tour the town and enjoy some different types of Malaysian cuisine.  Malaysia was a great time and I would consider it the easiest S.E. Asia country to get around in thus far.  There are a ton of photos from Kuching so be sure to check them out.

Being in Kuala Lumpur really seems to be a mild escape back to the western world.  KFC, McDonalds, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Subway, and so many others are to be found on just about any block.  Although, I can’t say we have visited any of them.  We spent a nice couple of days in Kuala Lumpur heading checking out the Petronas Towers and KL Tower.  Locally the Petronas Towers are called the Twin Towers.  At one point they laid claim to the tallest building in the world.  They are an impressive sight to see with their design based on Islamic art.  We didn’t go up into the towers as it was pretty pricey, but just down the road there is the KL Tower which is the seventh tallest communications tower in the world and is taller than the Petronas Towers (because it is on a hill).  The KL Tower gives you an amazing 360 degree view of Kuala Lumpur.   While in Kuala Lumpur, tons of people were streaming into town by the bus loads as it was the end of Ramadan.  At this point nearly everyone walking around the city was a tourist and at times you were shoulder to shoulder down the sidewalk.

(KL Tower)

After a couple days in Kuala Lumpur we headed back into central Malaysia to visit the famous Cameron Highlands area.  Cameron Highlands is a montane forest area that has an altitude ranging from 3500-6000 ft. and boasts a broad range of flora.  The area is home to many tea plantations, strawberry farms, and plant nurseries.  On our first day we jumped on a local bus to head about 5km north to see the BOH tea plantation.  This might not have been a great idea, as the traffic was so bad from everyone still being on holiday because of Ramadan.  Once we made it to our drop off we had a 3.5km walk to the plantation up a winding single lane road.  It was amazing looking out into the valley and seeing all the tea plants.  Along the road we could also see beautiful flowers everywhere.  This was quite the escape from the city.

(BOH Tea Plantation)

After we toured the BOH tea plantation we started our trek back to our guest house.  Unfortunately for us that meant we would have to walk through the regular afternoon rain shower.  It already had been a bit cloudy so after getting a little wet it was a bit chilly.  While walking back we strolled by the many strawberry farms, plant nurseries, and few cactus houses.  This entire area is just a natural green house for growing just about anything.

(A little strawberry farm)

That evening we were exhausted from the day and sat down to enjoy some yummy naan, dhal, and curries.  As we were just finishing up our food four people sat down at the table next to us and one of them immediately started talking to me.  When he found out we are from the U.S. he got super excited.  He was a 22 year old from Pakistan visiting two of the others who were also Pakistani, and the fourth was a lady from the Philippines.  This was the first time this guy had met someone from the U.S., as it was the first time I have gotten to talk to someone from Pakistan.  He was super nice and immediately got started about how terrorist make his country look really bad when it isn’t.  For most of the Pakistani population get really upset with the terrorists and wish Americans would understand that. Side note: looking back at this conversation with him it was almost at this very time that Pakistan had opened fire on India during a cease fire.  He explained how most of the people are very simple people and it seems that a vast majority of them don’t really know what is going on in the country.  Megan noticed while he would look at her and listen to her, he had a hard time directly talking to her, as he would direct questions about her to me.  The other two, who had been living in Malaysia for awhile, talked to Megan easily.  While we talked, which ended up being for a couple of hours, he insisted I eat with him from his plate.  He was very insistent, and I found out later that it would have been very disrespectful if I didn’t.  Megan spent most of the time talking to the Philippine lady, who was so energetic and bubbly it seemed like she was on speed.  She worked at a hotel as housekeeping to send money back to her children and parents in the Philippines who she hadn’t seen in four years.  This was definitely one of those fun and interesting cultural moments.

The following day we lounged around a bit in the morning and decided to head out for a small trek to a waterfall and see if we could see some more jungle flora.  All around town there are small trails that make for some very scenic hikes.  During the hike we stopped every few feet to take pictures of some other flower, tree, or fungi.  I think we were like excited little kids running around with cameras.

The next day we were back on the bus for Kuala Lumpur.  Most of our time before our flight to Borneo was to be used to research out the rest of our S.E. Asia trip and get ready for South America.  While we did get to do this, we spent maybe a little too much time in the shopping district.  I ended up caving, go figure, and buying a netbook (Thinkpad X120E) to help keep some of my programming/IT skills fresh.  At least that’s what I keep telling myself.  We also had to pick-up a new tripod for our camera as the other was junk.  We did go out a couple times after sunset to see the Petronas Towers at night.  There is a huge park next to the towers and it made for an amazing viewing area when the towers were lit up.

(Petronas Towers)

Before heading out we also had to make a day trip through the Botanic Park.  This was most rewarding, especially the orchid area.  I think most of the pictures tell a better story.

With just two little spurts of internet access in nine days, I really felt disconnected from the world there for awhile. Funny how we have become so dependent on constant connection!

After leaving Krabi in Southern Thailand, we entered country number six on our list, Malaysia. Getting into Malaysia was the easiest country to enter yet, as the country is in good standing with most of the world and allows U.S. citizens a free 3-month visa. Our bus dropped us off in the City of George Town on the island of Penang. There are two impressively long bridges that connect the island to the mainland and it is so large it doesn’t feel like an island at all. George Town is an old imperial city with cute European architecture and colorful culture galore. The two heaviest cultures in the area are Chinese and Indian, and the town has somewhat distinct “China Town” and “Little India” areas. George Town was also sprinkled with beautiful Chinese clan houses, temples, and Islamic Mosques. Being a very historical area, instead of plaques to provide information, all over town we discovered these really neat wrought-iron artistic depictions on the sides of buildings that told about the area like a comic strip. What a cool way to add character and provide information! While in George Town, we also happened to see the largest number of Ferrari sports cars either of us had seen in our lives combined! We had walked to a ritzy part of town where a brand new shopping center just opened a couple days before. I guess the cars were a show-off, grand opening presentation.

 

(wrought-iron display)

Our two favorite things to do in George Town: Eat and explore bookstores! The food was incredible. Being that it was (and still is) Ramadan, very little Indian food was available during the day light hours, so we usually hit up the various Chinese vendors for lunch and headed to Little India for a vast array of dinner options. It has been such a long time since we have had access to really good, really cheap street food, so we went all out. We were able to eat more and still work on getting our budget back down after the expensive places in Thailand. I even had the energy to go for morning runs while we were there! We were a tad disappointed after the first used bookstore we found turned out to be pretty expensive ($30 for one used book that sells new in the U.S. for $20), but after a quick internet search we found a smattering of used/new combo stores in a really rundown market building. There were maybe 8 sellers in the place each with a small room stacked floor to ceiling covering every imaginable place and no order. You could barely scoot sideways through the isles. We returned at least three times because there was just so much to peruse!

(Books!)

After missing out on so many good underwater photo opportunities while diving in Koh Tao, we decided to buy an underwater camera. George Town turned out to have a lot of camera shops and our next stop would be another island, so we spent a day comparing prices and online reviews. We settled on a CamOne Infinity which is about the same as a GoPro but cheaper and with a few more built-in options. The picture quality isn’t quite as good as a GoPro, but it was by far our best option since we can dive with it to 40 meters depth.

(taking pictures at Little India with CamOne)

A night bus dropped us off at 5am in Kuala Besut, the jetty access point to the Perhentian Islands, but the ferry speed boat wasn’t leaving until 8:30am. Just as we were getting into a good sleep on a wooden bench like bums, we were awaken at 6am by the singing voices of a couple men over loud speaker – the prayer calls from a couple mosques nearby. I couldn’t help but really enjoy the moment, it was such a foreign experience to us! Sleeping on our bags on a bench with the strange and beautiful sounds blaring over us.

When we arrived to Coral Bay on Pulau Kecil, the small island, I was instantly in awe over the scenery. From the jetty we were looking down at this perfectly turquoise water over patches of coral, a cute and not-too-developed beach in front of us enclosed by rocky sidewalls, and backed by a very green, thick jungle. Paradise! After settling into a little bungalow we spent some time playing with the new camera in the water and getting run off by these mean black fish who would bite our legs if we went too close to their homes, which happened to be every rock or coral mound off the beach! It was only a short walk across the narrow island to Long Beach on the opposite side, the most popular area, so we went to check it out. The beach was quite large with perfect white sand and turquoise water that went on forever. As soon as we got to the water, WHOA! There were no words, only a gasp! I have never seen anything like this place. The white sand continued as far as we could see, which was a really long way because the water was clearer than a swimming pool. I think the pictures tell the story better than I can.

(Mira Beach)

Even though the water was more pristine at Long Beach, we really did like Coral Bay better for the scenery, the food, and the atmosphere. All over the island we kept spotting monitor lizards, some small at a couple feet and some about four feet long. With such good snorkeling around the island, we decided to forgo the much more expensive SCUBA diving and rented snorkel masks the next day. We took a 25 minute jungle walk along a trail to the small, secluded beach called Mira that claimed to have the best snorkeling on the island. It was fantastic! Along the rocky coast we saw huge needle fish which are still interesting no matter how many we see, parrot fish of all colors and sizes, a squid that changed colors before our eyes, a beautiful little blue-spotted stingray, a huge school of shiny minnow-type fish, and a couple black-tipped sharks! This was the first time I had seen these types of sharks, Bryan had spotted one in Railay. They were just little guys, maybe three to four feet long. After lunch we went back over to Long Beach to see what the snorkeling was like. The white sand really did go on forever! We had to walk south in waist-deep water a long distance from the end of the beach to finally reach some rocks and coral. I was still so impressed with everything we saw. Although we had seen many Parrot fish, the ones on this side were enormous, which is especially cool when it is bright pink, blue, yellow, orange, and purple all in one! I spotted about 4 or 5 Black-Tipped sharks. I could have had great pictures because one of them swam right under me twice! Bryan had the camera, but it didn’t matter because he had taken the SD card out over lunch and forgot to put it back in. Ha ha, so no pictures of that area! That night we tried crab for the first time. It was good but not worth the work for the little bit of meat. They didn’t have very big crabs.

(Clown fish!)

The third day on the island was our 3rd wedding anniversary! We spent most of the day relaxing over tea/coffee while reading our books. We were able to continue the tradition we started while I was in grad school and we were poor: Splitting a cheap meal and a movie! We tried king fish that night (pretty tasty) at a restaurant with a projector and a different movie every night. We didn’t see the end though because a storm came in. Now we don’t know if The Rock kicked ass at the end in Snitch.

(Three years!)

For our final day on the island we took a snorkeling tour with 5 stops. One of our coolest sightings yet was a spotted eel fighting a bunch of fish for a piece of a dead clam on the edge of a coral mound! It was slithering in and out of the coral, hiding for only a second as I got close with the camera before snapping at the fish and slithering its head into the open clam shell. There were some mean teeth on that thing! Bryan pointed out a couple swimming squid to me that were going along at the bottom of a school of fish and blended right in with their tentacles and skirts tucked in. We also had a lot of fun with the playful clownfish here who seemed to pose for the camera! I held out my hand to see what they would do, and one swam into my palm just like it was going to take a seat. On our third stop we putted around a deep pool between the two islands until one boat guide spotted the main attraction, a huge sea turtle swimming along the floor. Everyone from two boats flew into the water at once, frantically kicking each other in faces and stomachs, and Bryan was the first one to take a deep breath and swim down to the turtle’s level. He got a couple good pictures. It was maybe 4 feet in length and just casually swam along under this horde of people until one idiot went down and touched it on the shell. It didn’t stick around too long after that.

(Turtle!)

I have been eagerly awaiting our next Malaysian stop for a long time, Taman Negara National Park. This is the first country we have been in that has real National Parks, not just expensive traps for rich tourists. Not only was it cheap to get into, but we could hike on marked trails on our own, WITHOUT A GUIDE, a service every other country has required and charged hundreds of dollars for. This was also the first time we got to experience real jungle, which actually seems pretty well protected unlike what we have seen elsewhere. Mind you, this is not a large portion of jungle compared to what used to exist (we passed cleared jungle – turned palm plantations all the way to the NP). On the bus ride we made new friends with a couple from Ireland and talked the entire way there, then enjoyed dinner with them as well. We look forward to hopefully seeing them in the U.S. as they are completing their long trip in 2015 before going back to Ireland.

Our first adventure in Taman Negara was the famed Canopy Walk. I imagined a solid walkway built high in the trees for spotting and photographing birds and other tree life. Not at all! It was a series of swinging rope bridges linked to small platforms in the trees and as high as 45 meters (147 feet) at some points. It was really pretty cool as we were walking just under the highest canopy level, a view not seen otherwise, but being such a popular attraction we had to rush through and were unable to stop for photos while on the rope portions. Not that we would have seen anything because all wildlife was scared away by the sheer quantity of people. To get that real jungle experience I have been longing for, we decided to spend a night in a hide deep in the park. The hide we chose, Bumbun Kumbang, was 11 km out (6.8 miles), with two trail options. On the way there we took the inner-jungle trail and saw nobody after the first half. It was fairly dry and flat, and we relished the foliage and colorful mushrooms. At one point I spotted a cat print in the trail, pretty fresh but not too big. Maybe the size of a medium dog. During a rest stop we were listening to the sounds around us and heard this szchoooooooooom (like a baseball flying past your head) BANG CRACK! *(#&!#*#%!  All kinds of things flew out of my mouth as we took in what had happened. A small stick fell from a very high tree and landed about 6 feet from us and then broke on the log we were sitting on. That was the end to that break! Just before reaching the hide we came to a large creek we needed to cross. As we were pulling our pants up I spotted blood on Bryan’s leg and we realized a leech had had its fill and left him bleeding. Ha ha, little things love to torture him! The hide turned out to be pretty cool, maybe 20 feet off the ground with 12 hard wood bunks inside and a long window and bench overlooking a small semi-clearing in the jungle. There were three Spanish guys there already who didn’t seem to be very experienced in the outdoors. Pretty soon the trees were starting to come alive with sounds and we were getting in place at the hide window. No luck. The guys kept going in and out and were not that quiet. All we saw was a squirrel and fireflies. Just after crawling in bed a downpour began, sadly drowning out all the jungle sounds, and continued all night. I took post again in the morning but never saw anything. We heard from a guide later that the previous night a group stayed up all night with a spotlight and saw an elephant, 2 tapirs, and a spotted leopard. Next time we will bring a big light! For the hike out we took the trail that followed the river, now made muddy by the rain. The trail continuously dipped down and up muddy embankments and difficult inclines, which kept it interesting but exhausting. Thanks to the rain, the leeches were feasting. With me walking ahead of Bryan, I alerted them and then they scored their catch when he passed. Too bad for them he was paranoid and checked every few minutes and managed to get away with zero bites for the day despite maybe a hundred leeches on him! Much better than me, being that I wasn’t as paranoid. I had many fewer on me, but nearly half scored with a total of 9 bites! I also stirred up another surprise for him when I passed a huge scorpion and put it on defense. I didn’t see it among the leaves at the base of a tree, but with its tail up, pinchers open, and looking at Bryan, he didn’t miss it! The body alone was at least 4 inches long not including the tail, and it was a deep turquoise color. Really odd color being that it was on brown leaves but maybe it hides well into the shady green undergrowth. Beautiful! A little while later we heard crashing through the tree tops and after a few moments of straining our necks finally spotted a monkey very high up. Shortly after that we heard something grunting and rooting around the undergrowth not far off the trail but couldn’t see it. We think it may have been a tapir. In the end, we didn’t spot anything big and rare, but I didn’t expect we would. What is important is that I have checked off another item from the Life List – trekking in a real jungle! I am really happy with our experience, and it won’t be the last. Pretty soon we will be in Borneo with more National Parks and jungle treks.

(Jungle hide)

We are now having a quick stay in Kuala Lumpur before heading to the Cameron Highlands where we will get to cool off at a higher altitude. We checked into a cute little guesthouse we chanced upon here, and to our surprise, our new Irish friends we met up North were in the room right next to us. Of all the places to stay in this huge city, we ended up at the same one! This is a pretty cool city so far, but we’ll save that for the next post.

By the way, if you have any suggestions or requests for more/less information or pictures on certain subjects, leave a comment and we will do our best.