Lost in the Jungle

July 21, 2009

Hello from Malaysia! Kevin and I are coming to the end of our second country, so I thought it would be a good time to give you an update on our amazing first ten days.

We started off on July 11th with a reunion in the Singapore Airport. After not seeing each other for over six months, the first moments in Singapore felt surreal. We were both zombies that day, as I had just flown for 36 hours straight and Kevin had spent an uncomfortable night in the Guangzhou airport.

Singapore was certainly impressive at first glance, with its lightning-fast subway system, beautiful skyscrapers and impeccably clean streets, but for all the city’s flair, it lacked substance. It didn’t provide the culture shock I was hoping for, as we quickly found that English was spoken everywhere and the city felt more North American than Asian. That being said, we did enjoy our time in Singapore and we had fun exploring the Kapong Glam (Arab) district, the Esplanade River walk and the Central Business District on Saturday evening.

On Sunday we went to Sentosa Island, a small and very touristy island just south of the city. We walked around the manmade beaches and watched some kids fly down the sentosa luge course, which essentially was a go-kart speeding down the side of a mountain. The verdict on Sentosa: tastefully tacky. After Sentosa we went to my favourite part of Singapore: Little India. Little India was more raw than any other part of the city, and felt like one of the few places in the city which had remained untouched in Singapore’s recent industrial boom. The streets were narrow and packed with shops and restaurants and there was a huge Sunday afternoon Bazaar (market) operating at full-force. We headed to the airport Sunday night to catch a flight to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. This is where things really started to get good.

Kota Kinabalu is located in the northwest part of the Malaysian province of Sabah and on the island of Borneo. Our experiences in Borneo were nothing short of incredible. We spent our first day snorkeling, swimming, and hiking in the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, which are a group of islands just off the coast of KK. The water was beautiful! Later that day we discovered, to our initial dismay, that most of Sabah’s best attractions we very far from KK and were only accessible via expensive tour buses…that is unless you have your own vehicle. Kevin and I decided to take the plunge and rent a car. In doing so, we became Sabah’s first non-Malay drivers! To boot, Malaysians drive on the left side of the road and almost all the highways are single lane. Let’s just say that we didn’t need any coffee to stay awake well on the roads.

In the end, having the car made the trip. The car made the island completely accessible and we were able to stop and check out anything that we were interested in. It also made the trip much cheaper, as, thankfully, we were able to avoid booking any tours. On our first day with the car we drove from KK to Lahad Datu. Our drive took us through the mountains and past the incredible Kinabalu National Park. The views as we traversed the winding roads were spectacular! The park is filled with lush green mountains, deep valleys and rich green foliage. My mouth was hanging open for at least the first hour of the drive. Later in the day, we stopped in at the Batu Puteh caves, which are some natural caves that were formerly used as a Muslim burial site. The cave humidity must have been close to 100% and after climbing to see them we were literally dripping as we admired the thousands of bats and stalactites.

From Lahad Datu, we had hoped to go to visit the jungles of Danum Valley, but after learning that one night would cost RM1000 ($300) that dream quickly died. Luckily we discovered the Tawau Hills National Park, whose admission fee of RM10 fit nicely into our budget. The drive from Lahad Datu to Tawau Hills proved to be quite the experience, as it rested almost entirely upon directions from Malays who spoke less than ten words of English. Normally this wouldn’t be too big a problem except for the fact that we received multiple sets of contradictory directions! After a fair bit of detouring, we made it to the park. The park was incredible! It is located in some of Borneo’s most dense jungle and to our surprise we found that we were literally the only ones (besides workers) in the park. This was exactly what we had hoped for: to explore the jungle on our terms. We spent two days hiking through the jungle and enjoying many of its beautiful sights. The density and richness of the jungle truly amazed me. It seemed like a different world: there was a perpetual layer of steam located about 100 feet above the ground, certain spots were fairly dark even at midday, and life was everywhere. We spent a good part of our first day at the spectacular Bukit Gelas waterfalls, which is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The falls came down a large rock face, into a pool that we swam in, and were surrounded by thick jungle. It was our little piece of paradise. The park is also home to some gigantic trees, including the world’s tallest tropical tree, which is an incredible 88m in height.

On our second day we quickly discovered that not everything about Tawau Hills is perfect: the walk, while beautiful at first, turned ugly fast. Leeches!! Apparently when it rains all the leeches come out of the ground, looking for victims. i.e. the only two human beings in the entire park. We literally got leeches everywhere. Thank god, we had bought leech socks before we left, or else the walk would have been unbearable. We were very relieved when we finally reached the beautiful, and leech-free, natural hot springs. The hot springs were a great spot to relax and take in our surroundings. Later that day we came across a big family (about 30) of Macaque monkeys. They were so much fun! Not surprisingly, they seemed a lot more playful and energetic then the monkeys I have seen in the past in zoos.

After our Tawau Hills adventure we drove to the city of Sandakan. This marked the first time we had seen a white person in 2.5 days, a streak we were pretty proud of. From Sandakan, we went to visit the Sepilok Orang-Utan Rehabilitation Center, a center which is dedicated to nursing sick, injured and orphaned Orang-Utans back to health. Sepilok was incredible! The Orang-Utans were so friendly that they would come right up to us, close enough that we could have touched them. We got there early (before the banana feeding and the hordes of tourists) and had a chance to spend some very personal moments with two Orang-Utans and a big group of monkeys. The feeding can be described as an epic battle for bananas between the Orang-Utans and the monkeys, in which the Orang-Utans asserted their jungle dominance. Even still, the monkeys were sneaky enough that they were able to steal quite a few bananas over the course of the feeding. The next day we drove from Sandakan back to Kota Kinabalu, stopping at Kinablau National Park on the way, where we spent the afternoon hiking the trails. This would have been really impressive earlier, but it didn’t compare to Tawau Hills Park.

From KK, we flew to Kuala Lampur, where we spent two busy days. We explored Chinatown, Little India, and the Colonial District and spent some time admiring the stunning 452m Petronas Twin towers. On our last night, we found out that Manchester United was scheduled to play the Malaysian National soccer team, since Man U’s game in Jakarta had been cancelled due to the bombings. I’m not much of a soccer fan, but the game was a lot of fun. Kevin and I, and two friends that we met from Quebec City, suited up in Malaysia headbands to support the hometown team. The Malays loved it. We felt it was necessary, as most of the fans at the game were ardent Man U supporters.

Throughout the course of our travels in Malaysia, we have been amazed at the kindness and hospitality with which the Malay people have treated us. Normally a simple terimah kasih (thank you) is all it takes to get a giant smile out of them. Even when we couldn’t communicate verbally, the mutual respect was clear.

Next, we are off to Siem Reap, Cambodia and the temples of Angkor!

-Mitch