That’s all Folks… – Saturday 20th Feb 2010

Our last day of holidays…

We were going to attempt to see the orangutans today but decided against it, as the chances of actually seeing them are extremely slim as there is still abundant fruit in the forests at this time of year, so they prefer to stay tucked away than come to the feeding areas where big scary people leer at them! Also, my sunburn is a little ouchy…

A nice relaxing morning before the chaotic uni year starts again! We start placement three days after our return and I have lots to do in that time! Like move house… :D

We arrived at the Kuching airport, about an hour before our flight was scheduled to leave, only to find out that it had been cancelled. Panic struck! We thought we would miss our connecting flight in KL not get home until Monday morning! I am slightly dubious about any flight involving Kuching now… our flight on the way here was changed due to technical difficulties as well…

We have been placed on the 6:50pm flight to KL… and have been assured that we will make our connecting flight at 9:45pm. People will be waiting with signs for us when we get off this first flight to take us straight to our next gate. That’s nice of them!

We now have plenty of time to waste in the little Kuching airport… so decided to have some dinner. We went to ‘Marrybrown’. Jess and I decided that it was originally meant to be ‘Mary Brown’ but went wrong somewhere and couldn’t be fixed once the signs had been made. The service was equally as comical (yet frustrating) for us. I clearly ordered 2 combo meals… to only receive one combo and then nuggets on their own. We tried to explain this to the man working there – he smiled, walked off and came back with our receipt saying “it passed already.” To which we replied with something along the lines of “Yes, but it is wrong. I asked for 2 combos. We would like our other chips and other drink please.” Again - “it passed already”.

We still insisted it was not our fault they got it wrong, and could we still have our drink and chips, as it would be much more expensive to buy these items separately.

Next, two smiling men appeared at our table, and once again showed us the receipt and said “but it passed already.” We were getting rather frustrated by this time, but they just kept smiling and doing nothing. Eventually I just told them not to worry and left it at that. Gah.

After rushing to our boarding gate when they said over the PA system “last call for flight MH 7148” we were thoroughly confused to find our plane just rolling up full of people waiting to get off, luggage needing unloading and ours needing loading after… apparently it doesn’t board for another 55mins…

So now we wait

Well we have come to end, I am not sad it’s over, I have been quite excited about coming home – back to normal food, non-humid weather, safe tap water etc etc.

This has been an experience I will never forget, I have learned so much and met some wonderful people! The highlights include talking with Awi, Nani and Lin about life as a Muslim woman in Malaysia, learning about the culture of Malaysia from May Ling and Zaidee, petting an elephant, celebrating Chinese New Year in Melaka, hiking through a Borneo rainforest (even though it was painful and resulted in severe sunburn!), meeting fellow hostel-dwellers in KL and of course, some successful communication with the deaf children at the school!

Bye Bye Malaysia…

5.2km 0f Climbing and Falling – Friday 19th Feb 2010

Bako National Park was our destination today, it is the oldest national park is Sarawak. Alan drove us to the jetty where we had to get on a boat to access the park. The process of actually getting onto the boat once we had paid our park fee was unnecessarily complicated. The idea of us wanting to wait to find 2 more people to share our boat with (so it was cheaper) seemed to completely baffle the staff… eventually we found an English man travelling with a guide and were able to share their boat (and get a lift back to our room at the end of the day with his driver which was handy).

The boat ride began… it was fun! A little bumpy but quite fast and it was a nice way to see the national park from the sea!

Jess and I looked super sexy in our garbage bag green ponchos!

The ponchos lasted us for the boat ride, but after that we decided it was nicer to be soaked from the rain than simply from sweat, so we quickly abandoned them! The man at the registration desk suggested we take the Pandan Kecil Trail, which would take us to the nicest beach in Bako National Park – now either he grossly overestimated my fitness, or simply thought it would be funny. The trail was 2.6km long one way, and was supposed to take 1.5hours (one way also). Thus, 5.2km long in total. We did do it in the expected time, which was encouraging - but it was not a nice, flat stroll… oh no. The trails at times had turned into rivers, we climbed nature’s staircases made of tree roots, slippery stones and the occasional man-mad rickety wooden ladders. I fell over rather impressively twice, ending up with mud all over my back and bum. Jess managed to stay upright the whole time,  goodness knows how, with only a few unsteady slips and slides of the feet. I blame my shoes with zero grip – it couldn’t possibly be my lack of coordination.

 

May I point that there was NO SUN in the rainforest, it was cool, humid and completed shady!! (Later, this fact would baffle me as I am horrendously sunburnt – the worst I have ever been.)

The trail took us significantly less time on the way back as we had become so much more reckless with where we put our feet – on the way there we didn’t want to step in mud or get our shoes too wet, but by the time we reached the beach (the end of the 2.6km trail), despite our best efforts, our shoes were full of water, covered in mud and soggy as anything. Thus, it seemed pointless to care where we stepped on the way back!

Despite the hideous amounts of sweating, the slips and slides, and the very hard work navigating the trail, I am definitely pleased that we did it. It’s satisfying knowing that I completed it, even though I thought I would die… I did not! Yay.

The beach was gorgeous, albeit a little overcast, but deserted and peaceful.

On the way back, I began to feel a little nauseas and developed a headache… I assume due to dehydration. Thus, when we got back to the canteen,  I consumed a can of 100 Plus (which is a rehydration drink) in approx. 2mins, but then proceeded to throw it all back up again. Not happy Jan. I must say I was pleased to say goodbye to the park, it is not an experience I will soon forget – with falling over, throwing up and getting terribly sunburnt!

I am still glad I did it. You cannot go to Borneo and not go hiking in a rainforest. You just cannot.

Home in less than 36 hours!

NOrangutans and Crocodiles – Thursday 18th Feb 2010

Well, attempt #2 at seeing the orangutans failed. They were only open from 9-10am and 3-4pm. That’s all. We may try again on Saturday morning. Luckily Alan drove us there so it wasn’t a big taxi fee for nothing. On to Plan B – The Crocodile Farm.

This was slightly exciting (read superduper exciting!) for me as there were also monkeys – and a baby monkey :D. We watched the crocodiles during feeding time, they truly are a creepy creepy animal with the way they lurk underwater, slither up to the surface then pounce on something. I would not enjoy meeting one. At all. The baby monkey was possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen. It was so scrawny and unbalanced… at one point the mother had to catch it when it fell off the wall. Very cute. I also saw my first Porcupine. One of my top 5 favourite animals is an echidna… now I assumed that Porcupine was just the American term for an echidna – I was wrong. They are the oddest looking creatures, with a head somewhat like an otter (but spiky) and a bottom that seems to balloon to a size very disproportionate to it’s neck and head. I like them, though not as much as an echidna.

We thought we better take the obligatory tourist photo outside the crocodile farm…

Back into the city for a spot of shopping, free WIFI and then home to collect our beautifully clean clothes from the laundry. Yay for having something that isn’t bathed in sweat… gotta love this humidity!

Afternoon tea was a beautiful cake bought from a street vendor. They had all sorts of flavours, like Honeydew flavoured cake, but alas she had no more honeydew, so it was the most colourful one we could find that we ended up deciding on!

I had a delightful swim in the pool here, my first swim this trip! I would also like to point out that today, I used a ‘hole toilet’ for the first time. I have now officially experienced Asian toilet culture!

Dinner was at an extremely rebellious non-halal restaurant that specialised in pork. Mmm. It was amazing, and both Jess and I managed to finish our entire meals (I think that is a first for this trip!) After dinner drinks for Jess and I at the ‘Terminal 1’ Bar consisted of 2 cosmopolitans and a man in his mid-30s trying very earnestly to buy us a drink. Our taxi arrived just in time and we hurried out the door just as the man was attempting to tell us something about Melbourne… it was nice to go out at night and have a drink and a chat!

Tomorrow (if all goes according to plan, which is a not a regular occurrence in this country), we will be heading to Bako National Park, which sounds awesomely touristy and beautiful. I may even get to see a proboscis monkey… eep!

Colourful Dresses, Cruising and A House – Wednesday 17th Feb 2010

This morning I was awoken by a phone call at what seemed like 2am in the morning (it turns out is was actually 7:15am). Thinking it was some kind of emergency, I was happily mistaken! William rang to say we got the house we had applied for in Adelaide – so this put me in a very good mood for the remainder of the day!

After an unplanned for sleep-in, we had to do the household chores, which meant taking our clothes to the laundry across the street where they will be cleaned, dried and folded for approximately $2 AUD. Our chores also involved removing the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign from the door, so our room could be cleaned, fresh towels supplied, beds remade and toilet paper restocked. It’s a hard life here in Kuching!

As the weather was somewhat monsoonal this morning, our plans to visit the Orangutans fell through, so we spent a relaxed day in the city, where I bought 2 colourful dresses (each about $6 AUD) and finished my gift shopping. We sought out free WIFI in Starbucks again, where we spent a ridiculous amount of time before deciding we had not been sufficiently touristy for the day. To combat this, we took a teksi (taxi) to the Sarawak museum. This is what we saw:

Unfortunately, we did not go inside as it was 10mins from closing time… but hey, at least we tried! Off to the waterfront to try attempt 2 at being touristy. We took the River Cruise, which took 1.5 hours. I REALLY liked all the colourful fishing boats and ramshackle houses that lined the river’s edge, there was something utterly charming about them.

As is to be expected with any touristy adventure here, cultural dancing was a feature of the cruise. It was very similar to the dancing we saw yesterday at the Cultural Village, but entertaining nonetheless.

Dinner = amazing ‘Wild Borneo’ Laksa washed down with lime juice.

It was amazing – my favourite meal here so far! Sujoy very nicely collected us from the city and took us back to the condominiums. Our plans for the next two days sound very pleasing (let’s hope they go ahead)– so Kelly is one happy chappy right now :)

Death Defying ladders and Pole Dancing - Tuesday 16th Feb 2010

Off to be cultural today! A quick stop at Sujoy’s office, which is in the new convention centre for Sarawak. It’s modelled on the Adelaide Convention Centre which I think is pretty cool. Yay for Adelaide having an influence in an Asian country!

Driving around Kuching is possibly one of the prettiest and most serene places you could drive around. It is SO green, which pleased me greatly. My Gran loved green as “there are so many different shades of green in nature” (as she always said) – she would have loved it here!

It was raining and COOL this morning, I still managed to raise a sweat in the cultural village however, – but I was not hot. Amazing. We were told the Sarawak Cultural Village was a must see, and having a driver – Alan, made it much easier to get to! On the way, we stopped off at a secluded beach, where children were looking for sand crabs and mammoth snails apparently. It was beautiful… the endless sand with green trees and mountains in the background hidden half in the clouds made for a perfect scene!

The cultural village was nothing like I was expecting – which was a Kuching version of Mini Malaysia in Melaka. But it was awesome. There were 7 houses in total, which people actually lived in. Each house represented a different area/culture and had short performances to watch or freshly baked cookies for sale. Lunch first, which was quite delish – Air Bandong (cherry milk) and kolok (noodles).

Some of the houses were quite a challenge to get into, or to go upstairs (to be honest – going back down was the hardest) as some of the staircases were carved out of a log…

The houses were gorgeous, made from wood, with authentic furniture and fittings, such as old wood ovens and traditional… things… for making cookies, weaving beautiful cloth and such…

They were quite impressive and I would like one myself, as long as it was decked out with all the modern conveniences of a Western home!

Jess and I also tried our hand (mouth actually) at the blowpipe shooter. Our lung capacity did not make the grade, although one of my arrows made it onto the target board! Go me.

At 4pm, there was a cultural performance, which was very impressive. Different dances from the various areas each with different meanings – one was a dance performed at weddings, another was to show the strength and endurance of a warrior in which he danced holding a 20kg mortar with his teeth! There was also a pole dance, not in the Western dirty manner – it was very impressive. A man scaled the pole and spun around on top of it, on his stomach from what I could tell… ouch.

Another touristy day comes to end, we will be back in RAdelaide before we know it!

Ca-ching! – Monday 15th Feb 2010

We were running amazingly on time this morning! May Ling collected us at 10am to take us for a light breakfast… light involved many rounds of food. I would hate to see a heavy breakfast! The place was packed and there were many weird and wonderful things to try. More weird than wonderful. It seemed to be the worse it looked, the better it tasted. May Ling’s husband was eating chicken feet (below)… we passed on that option.

 

We made it back to the hostel by 10:45, for Zaidee to pick us up at 11am to leave for the KL airport. We were gobsmacked at how punctual everyone was today. It turned out it was unnecessary to be so early to the airport as our flight was delayed by an hour due to “technical difficulties.” We were quite pleased when we found out we would in fact be taking a different plane to Kuching, than the one experience problems. The flight was uneventful and the baby sitting behind me thankfully fell asleep soon after take-off which meant it ceased the constant kicking of the back of my seat – greatly appreciated.

We arrived in Kuching to be met by Sujoy (Pritika’s dad). Our accommodation is… amazingwonderfulexcellentdelightful. It is beautifully decorated, air-conditioned, has a fridge, an ensuite and an enormous pool out the back. And it’s free. We did not expect this and after staying in budget hostels and bare dorm rooms, it is a welcome surprise!

 

Kuching seemed like a beautiful city from the air…

and from ground level it’s just a nice so far. It’s so clean (apparently it has won an award for the cleanest city in Malaysia for a few years running), modern and alive looking. I can’t wait to explore it some more!

Walking along the riverfront reminded me a little of walking through Elder Park in Adelaide when there is a festival on, with all the lights and the shimmering water, but maybe that’s just a little homesickness creeping through. Jess had a different version of an ice cream sandwich – not ice cream between wafers, but instead, ice cream in a bread roll. She said it tasted like ice cream. And a roll. Combined. Not entirely bad, but not something she would eat again…

Sleeping time now, in our beautifully cool, free room :) Thanks Sujoy!

Happy Lunar Valentines Year - Sunday 14th Feb 2010

After trying to convince May Ling (unsuccessfully) that we wanted to sleep in this morning, being the morning after Chinese New Year festivities, we got up at 9am to be ready by 9:15am-ish. May Ling had said she would pick us up at 9am, and as Malaysian time is usually slower than the rest of the world, we thought we had prepared by getting up at the designated ‘pick up time’. We should have known better. We could have slept in until 10:30am as she did not arrive until QUARTER TO ELEVEN. Sigh. On a side note, we got chatting to an Australian brother and sister in our hostel while we waited. His feet were burnt quite badly as some bar he’d been in recently took to lighting the bar on fire and some idiot thought it would be funny to pour too much lighter fluid on his feet – and they just kept on burning. Fire and alcohol should not mix – let that be a lesson to you kiddies.

Back to the topic, May Ling arrived (rather late) and we set off to some of her former students’ houses. There was lots of smiling, lots of being talked about in Malay and most of all, lots of food. The aim was for us to experience how families celebrate New Year’s Day, and it was  very interesting to the see the three different families, with three very different houses. The first family we visited were vegetable farmers and their toilet was outside of the house – positioned over a river. The waste goes into the river and then consequently continues on to fertilise the vegetables. I am unsure if I will  be able to eat vegetables here again…

All three houses had the same food. They had cookies (one of which tasted and felt like sand… I discretely disposed of that one in a napkin!), peanuts, sweet and sour things… not sure exactly what they were, but rather unpleasant all the same, and my favourite of all (insert sarcasm here) was the Kuihee (a.k.a Balls of Clag). They looked like fruit, so into our mouths they went… BIG MISTAKE. Hardly any flavour, but the consistency of clag glue. Ew.

It’s a very nice tradition Chinese New Year – everyone visits their friends and families, the children all receive envelopes made from beautiful paper containing some money. It is not about the amount of money in the envelope, the theory is that the receiver will be blessed with good luck and good fortune and a prosperous future. The packets are also given to unmarried guests – which we were. We ended up getting 5 packets each in total, equalling 45RM. How Nice. 

On to the Melaka Megamall. We intended to watch a movie, in air-conditioning for a couple of hours and that is exactly what we did! We saw ‘Valentines Day’ on Valentines Day, how very cliché of us. We also managed to see a Lion Dance in the shopping mall. They are cute and somewhat terrifying at the same time! They move like giant puppies but have the faces of lions mixed with clowns… a scary combination.

For dinner, it was off to an out-of-the-way Indian restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet and our hostel manager. It was delicious, we had (you could guess) Butter chicken and cheese naan. It was rather an awkward dinner for me as I was facing a table with two Indian men sitting at it… who were constantly staring at us. Like open mouthed, eye contact continual staring. Even the man who was facing away would turn around to look – not at all subtle guys! I don’t think it’s rude to stare here, but it should be! I do realise we look different, we have blonde hair, pale skin and thin noses -  but it’s still RUDE TO STARE.

Back to the hostel to pack for Kuching tomorrow and sleep!

Ta ta