The capital of any country is always a great way to learn about its history, culture and the people. On the other hand, capital cities also tend to be overpopulated, over polluted, traffic jammed and crime ridden. However, as far as capitals go, Kuala Lumpur, KL (as it’s commonly called) is pretty cool. We stayed in the heart of Chinatown, and walked around the many food hawkers’ stalls, enjoyed fresh tropical chickoo and parisiman (this awesomely sweet orange looking fruit) and I ate chicken and pork!! Don’t freak out, it was mock chicken and mock sweet and sour pork…we found some pretty cool Buddhist vegetarian restaurants. KL is also home to the Petronas Towers, which rise up 452m, and as the world’s tallest building completed in 1998, its floor plan was based on an 8-sided star that is influenced by the arabesque patterns of Islamic art.
We then took a day trip to Batu Caves to see the well known Hindu temple that has been built actually inside the caves.
After KL, we flew north to Kota Bharu and then took a ferry to the Perhentian Islands.
Talk about complete serenity and beauty…we were lucky to take advantage of the low season (no tourists..cheap rooms) and enjoy secluded white sand beaches and clear blue waters. We just relaxed in our beach front bungalow for about $10 a day; Tarak went diving as I was forbidden in the water with my barely healing hand wound. As if to add salt to my poor wound, Tarak went snorkeling and instead of reassuring me that I wasn’t missing anything…he of course saw a huge 5+foot black tipped shark(which was a little freaky considering he was alone snorkeling in the area), blue spotted sting rays and fish like Nemo..and he told me all about them. Anyway, it was much needed R&R after all of our running around, hiking, and jungle trekking. So after 3 days of lounging around, we flew back to Kota Bahru, had another great mock meat meal and headed to the coastal city of Penang. Penang has a lot of character and spunk…to quote Lonely Planet, it was acquired by Captain Francis Light on behalf of the East Indian Company and was renamed Prince of Wales Island. Afterwards, the city of Georgetown was established which not only has an old colonial district but also a traditional Chinatown, tons of great shopping and of course great food. At Tarak’s insistence we trudged out on a bus ride to visit the “Snake Temple”.
It houses several pit vipers (poisonous of course) and tree snakes; however they are supposedly “fixed and slightly doped” by the incense smoke drifting in the temple…yeah right..anyway, we also had a chance to see Penang Hill where we finally saw the Rhinoceros Hornbill and the Kek Lok Si Temple. This is the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia, which was founded in 1890 and is quite impressive with a 3 tiered design…Burmese at the top, Chinese at the bottom and Thai in between.
The next day we left Penang and finished our action packed 3 week Malaysian travels and returned to Singapore to rest for a night before we head out to explore Indonesia.
Monday, March 13, 2006
Sunday, March 12, 2006
The Pinnacles- "Don't Die, Don't Die"
We're back from a literally whirlwind tour of Malaysia, and I had no idea how much this country has to offer!! But before, I began my sweat filled adventure about the Pinnacles, I wanted to address the requests from our loyal blog commenting buddies, Patrick and Vinney, for a map of Malaysia. If you go to this website, it will blow up and show how Malaysia is made up of Pennisular Malaysia and East Malaysia on the island of Borneo.
http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-577736-map_of_malaysia-i
Take a good look at these rocks...I sure did when I finally got to the top. The Pinnacles, as they are called, are a forest of razor-sharp limestone peaks towering 45m above the rainforest...and in order to even catch a glimpse of this beauty, we had pretty extensive journey.
We left the northern part of Borneo, from Kota Kinabalu and flew to Miri. From here in order to get to Gunung Mulu National Park we took a little "otter" plane that seated only 10 people to Mulu. Once we arrived in this massive park, we visited the Deer Caves, where tons of bats exit daily at dusk and prepared ourselves for our upcoming 3 day adventure. The first morning we took a small boat ride for about an hour that took us to the jungle entry site, after which we trekked a grueling 9 km in the HOT, HUMID jungle infested with leeches, mosquitoes and other equally unfriendly creatures with ALL of our gear (which I should clarify that Tarak carried oh about 92% of the gear, and I whined about how heavy the 8% I was carrying) to finally reach Camp 5. Here we dipped in the refreshing cool waters of the river, enjoyed the serene beauty and had our first "noodle party". Our Pinnacles group consisted of 5 people, well 6, if we count our absolutely USELESS guide. It was us, a Dutch couple, and this hilarious Japanese guy, Kenta, who was fresh out of university and had enough energy for an entire tourist bus of Asian people. Anyway, we cooked our own food and basically ate Maggi/Raman noodles every night..so after our treks, we always were ready for "noodle party" as Kenta would say. Well, as we were attempting to "carb load" for the next day, I started looking through the comments book (since there wasn't much else to do, except a sketchy deck of cards with like 10 missing)....and I was a little surprised to see so many people talking about how hard it was and how some groups didn't make it up. (foreshadowing, hint hint). In fact, some hilarious person wrote about how if you wanted inspiration for the climb up, sing the song from Sienfeld “don’t die, don’t die”…I laughed at the time….but, little did I know….
After sleeping on basically a row of mats in the open air, and serving as mosquito bait, we all awoke and were ready to go by 630am. Of course, our guide has told us NOTHING...no idea what to expect..how long it will take..what we should bring, etc. Off we go..our guide leaping ahead and literally within the FIRST 200 meters, I trip over some SHARP rock and cut my hand. Only after I let out a piercingly loud scream does the guide stop and come back...I of course, am bleeding nicely and have noticed the cut is deep enough so that some of the fatty tissue is oozing out (sorry)...of course, in the states, this would require an ER visit, some good irrigating, cleaning, stitches and a lovely co-pay. What do we do?? My doctor, Tarak pours 2L of water (that we had boiled from the river-our drinking water for the trip), pulled out the pieces of rocks embedded in my hand and then dumped a bunch of iodine over it. He then busts out some steri-strips and our guide goes and gets this lovely first aid kit. We basically just wrapped it in gauze and I put on this gardening glove (definitely UNsterile) which we luckily bought in Melaka..and then did I turn around head back to the camp??? No, of course not...I asked the guide what he thought and he just shrugged his shoulders. So, I continued 1-handed to do this crazy 2.5km steep upward hike in the hot humid jungle. 3 hours later, and after much cursing (mostly at Tarak for getting me into this) we arrived at "the first ladder"...I, of course, thought we were basically at the top...WRONG!! Now the next hour was pure hell...we were already exhausted, dehydrated, hungry and myself, quite cranky..and then I became terrified. Not only was it tiring, but was FLIPPIN' dangerous..there were these super STEEP ladders and rocks that if you fell, you would land into an abyss of razor sharp rocks and basically die. If that wasn't bad enough, everything was wet and covered in slippery soppy tree roots....I somehow managed with 1 hand to pull myself up to the top, where we scarfed down our PB&Js and a bunch of chocolate, and then admired (and cursed) the Pinnacles. I will admit that the view and the Pinnacles themselves are quite an incredible natural wonder that is unlike anything we have ever seen..Tarak at this point, loves to interject that “well, and I’ve seen a lot and this is pretty unique/awesome”..thanks Mr. 2nd around the world, been to so many countries I can’t keep track of….
But, regardless, I couldn't quite fully enjoy the view, because all I kept thinking was..oh my God..I know I somehow climbed up by the grace of God, but how the HELL am I going to get down these slippery passages with 1 hand? Anyway, the first part down, I literally alternated between praying and cursing. My favorite part (laced heavily with sarcasm) was at this point where I had to climb down the wobbly ladder and place my hand and foot on 2 sharp rocks quite far apart for balance to get down..and Tarak who had gone first, stopped to comment.."Woah! Man, if your foot slips here or you lose your grip, you would fall all the way into those jagged rocks and probably DIE"....thanks, honey...always has my back that husband of mine..at least he could have waited until AFTER I passed that point...But honestly, doesn't this sound like advanced rock climbing?? I mean to me, it was nothing short of freakin' Tom Cruise in the opening credits of Mission Impossible...but even so, in the states, dude, we would have signed 10 forms, waived all liability, taken 3 questionnaires to assess our level of rock climbing expertise and gotten at least a freakin' harness...here...oh no...ask your guide after you CUT your hand open if you could do this 1-handed and he SHRUGS!!! Needless to say, poor Tarak had to endure me for the entire 5 1/2 hours it took me get down...along the way were of course frequent bursts of crying, anger and cursing everything in my way...from mosquitoes to tree roots and of course, our damn guide. But all in all..we did it...when I got down, my poor group (the Dutch couple and Kenta who were all quite worried about me) actually started clapping...I literally felt like I had finished something massive!! And then the next morning we trekked back the 9km through the jungle, to our boats and hung out at the National Park itself.
After Miri, we took off eastward for the city of Kuching, which means "cat" in Malay and it is Sarawak's capital. It definitely was a charming city, with a great waterfront, an amazing museum and great handicrafts.
We spent a couple of days walking around immersing ourselves in
the city, along with doing some shopping. We then headed out to Bako National Park where we spent the night. Here we did this incredible hike which culminated along the beach where we saw at least 50 proboscis moneys (the very distinctive noses) searching for food and taking care of their young. It was so incredible to be standing on these planks watching, being completely mesmerized by these rare creatures.
On our way back to the park headquarters, Tarak stopped (or should I say parked himself) to take pictures of the macaque monkeys…at first they didn’t mind..but he (Tarak) was all up in their faces with his camera, and the next thing we knew, we got growled at and they started running for us…of course, Tarak gets away and I got cornered and attacked (well more like slightly scratched) by a monkey. Tarak ran over and had to rescue me…man, first my poor hand and then being attacked by a monkey.
After we left Bako, we left Kuching for Peninsular Malaysia and landed in the capital of Kuala Lumpur.
http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-577736-map_of_malaysia-i
Take a good look at these rocks...I sure did when I finally got to the top. The Pinnacles, as they are called, are a forest of razor-sharp limestone peaks towering 45m above the rainforest...and in order to even catch a glimpse of this beauty, we had pretty extensive journey.
We left the northern part of Borneo, from Kota Kinabalu and flew to Miri. From here in order to get to Gunung Mulu National Park we took a little "otter" plane that seated only 10 people to Mulu. Once we arrived in this massive park, we visited the Deer Caves, where tons of bats exit daily at dusk and prepared ourselves for our upcoming 3 day adventure. The first morning we took a small boat ride for about an hour that took us to the jungle entry site, after which we trekked a grueling 9 km in the HOT, HUMID jungle infested with leeches, mosquitoes and other equally unfriendly creatures with ALL of our gear (which I should clarify that Tarak carried oh about 92% of the gear, and I whined about how heavy the 8% I was carrying) to finally reach Camp 5. Here we dipped in the refreshing cool waters of the river, enjoyed the serene beauty and had our first "noodle party". Our Pinnacles group consisted of 5 people, well 6, if we count our absolutely USELESS guide. It was us, a Dutch couple, and this hilarious Japanese guy, Kenta, who was fresh out of university and had enough energy for an entire tourist bus of Asian people. Anyway, we cooked our own food and basically ate Maggi/Raman noodles every night..so after our treks, we always were ready for "noodle party" as Kenta would say. Well, as we were attempting to "carb load" for the next day, I started looking through the comments book (since there wasn't much else to do, except a sketchy deck of cards with like 10 missing)....and I was a little surprised to see so many people talking about how hard it was and how some groups didn't make it up. (foreshadowing, hint hint). In fact, some hilarious person wrote about how if you wanted inspiration for the climb up, sing the song from Sienfeld “don’t die, don’t die”…I laughed at the time….but, little did I know….
After sleeping on basically a row of mats in the open air, and serving as mosquito bait, we all awoke and were ready to go by 630am. Of course, our guide has told us NOTHING...no idea what to expect..how long it will take..what we should bring, etc. Off we go..our guide leaping ahead and literally within the FIRST 200 meters, I trip over some SHARP rock and cut my hand. Only after I let out a piercingly loud scream does the guide stop and come back...I of course, am bleeding nicely and have noticed the cut is deep enough so that some of the fatty tissue is oozing out (sorry)...of course, in the states, this would require an ER visit, some good irrigating, cleaning, stitches and a lovely co-pay. What do we do?? My doctor, Tarak pours 2L of water (that we had boiled from the river-our drinking water for the trip), pulled out the pieces of rocks embedded in my hand and then dumped a bunch of iodine over it. He then busts out some steri-strips and our guide goes and gets this lovely first aid kit. We basically just wrapped it in gauze and I put on this gardening glove (definitely UNsterile) which we luckily bought in Melaka..and then did I turn around head back to the camp??? No, of course not...I asked the guide what he thought and he just shrugged his shoulders. So, I continued 1-handed to do this crazy 2.5km steep upward hike in the hot humid jungle. 3 hours later, and after much cursing (mostly at Tarak for getting me into this) we arrived at "the first ladder"...I, of course, thought we were basically at the top...WRONG!! Now the next hour was pure hell...we were already exhausted, dehydrated, hungry and myself, quite cranky..and then I became terrified. Not only was it tiring, but was FLIPPIN' dangerous..there were these super STEEP ladders and rocks that if you fell, you would land into an abyss of razor sharp rocks and basically die. If that wasn't bad enough, everything was wet and covered in slippery soppy tree roots....I somehow managed with 1 hand to pull myself up to the top, where we scarfed down our PB&Js and a bunch of chocolate, and then admired (and cursed) the Pinnacles. I will admit that the view and the Pinnacles themselves are quite an incredible natural wonder that is unlike anything we have ever seen..Tarak at this point, loves to interject that “well, and I’ve seen a lot and this is pretty unique/awesome”..thanks Mr. 2nd around the world, been to so many countries I can’t keep track of….
But, regardless, I couldn't quite fully enjoy the view, because all I kept thinking was..oh my God..I know I somehow climbed up by the grace of God, but how the HELL am I going to get down these slippery passages with 1 hand? Anyway, the first part down, I literally alternated between praying and cursing. My favorite part (laced heavily with sarcasm) was at this point where I had to climb down the wobbly ladder and place my hand and foot on 2 sharp rocks quite far apart for balance to get down..and Tarak who had gone first, stopped to comment.."Woah! Man, if your foot slips here or you lose your grip, you would fall all the way into those jagged rocks and probably DIE"....thanks, honey...always has my back that husband of mine..at least he could have waited until AFTER I passed that point...But honestly, doesn't this sound like advanced rock climbing?? I mean to me, it was nothing short of freakin' Tom Cruise in the opening credits of Mission Impossible...but even so, in the states, dude, we would have signed 10 forms, waived all liability, taken 3 questionnaires to assess our level of rock climbing expertise and gotten at least a freakin' harness...here...oh no...ask your guide after you CUT your hand open if you could do this 1-handed and he SHRUGS!!! Needless to say, poor Tarak had to endure me for the entire 5 1/2 hours it took me get down...along the way were of course frequent bursts of crying, anger and cursing everything in my way...from mosquitoes to tree roots and of course, our damn guide. But all in all..we did it...when I got down, my poor group (the Dutch couple and Kenta who were all quite worried about me) actually started clapping...I literally felt like I had finished something massive!! And then the next morning we trekked back the 9km through the jungle, to our boats and hung out at the National Park itself.
After Miri, we took off eastward for the city of Kuching, which means "cat" in Malay and it is Sarawak's capital. It definitely was a charming city, with a great waterfront, an amazing museum and great handicrafts.
We spent a couple of days walking around immersing ourselves in
the city, along with doing some shopping. We then headed out to Bako National Park where we spent the night. Here we did this incredible hike which culminated along the beach where we saw at least 50 proboscis moneys (the very distinctive noses) searching for food and taking care of their young. It was so incredible to be standing on these planks watching, being completely mesmerized by these rare creatures.
On our way back to the park headquarters, Tarak stopped (or should I say parked himself) to take pictures of the macaque monkeys…at first they didn’t mind..but he (Tarak) was all up in their faces with his camera, and the next thing we knew, we got growled at and they started running for us…of course, Tarak gets away and I got cornered and attacked (well more like slightly scratched) by a monkey. Tarak ran over and had to rescue me…man, first my poor hand and then being attacked by a monkey.
After we left Bako, we left Kuching for Peninsular Malaysia and landed in the capital of Kuala Lumpur.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Borneo Adventures!!
Selamat tengah hari! (This means good day in Malay). So, Tarak and I have spent basically the last 2 weeks in Borneo, the eastern island of Malaysia, having a great time!! The first few days in Singapore were basically a huge culture shock after 6 months in the homeland...I felt like a little Indian village girl...I kept telling Tarak, "wow..it's so clean here"..."wow, it's so quiet...how come no one is honking their horns??"..."where are all of the cows and camels?".."wow, $2 for that meal, that's expensive".....anyway, we left Singapore and made a day trip to our first Malaysian city of Melaka. It was only a 4 hour bus ride, and the city definitely has some unique charm. We took a city tour in a local "trishaw" (basically cycle rickshaw) and it's amazing the combination of Portuguese/Dutch architecture along with Victorian, Buddhist, Taoist, Islamic and Hindu influences. We rode up and down harmony street which housed nearly all houses of worship along this simple street.
Afterwards, we left Pennisular Malaysia and flew to Borneo to the city of Sandakan. Here, we stayed in the Sepilok Jungle Lodge and visited the Orang-Utan Sanctuary. It was pretty neat...it is one of only 4 orang-utan sanctuaries in the world and it has so far, rehabilitated 100 or so orang-utans that have been usually orphaned or injured along the way (so sad). Our little tourist group was allowed on the "public" platform where the orang-utans are fed fruits twice a day, and we were lucky enough to see them come and claim their bananas and milk.
Initially our plans were to catch a glimpse of Borneo's infamous rhinoceros hornbill bird, however the Kinabatangan river was flooded so we re-routed to Kota Kinabalu National Park. Along the way, we met some fun people, Peter and Sara, who also accompanied us to the park. Here we enjoyed some cooler temperatures thanks to the altitude, and were persuaded to climb Mt. Kinabalu. Although it's no Everest, it is 4100m, and it's the highest mountain between the Himalayas and New Guinea. Most people climb it in 2 days, and of course, at first we didn't think we were "fit" enough to do that...so what do we end up doing?? Trying to do it all in one day..it was kind of crazy. The initial 6 km was basically ALL ASCENT...it was painful, but the views up the mountain were gorgeous. We saw many orchids, rhodendrons, and the well-known insectivorous Nepenthes (pitcher plants).
Once we got to the highest camp, Tarak and I decided against the last 2km up, since we wanted to actually be breathing for our upcoming Pinnacles trek. This was actually a good thing, since the 6 km trek down nearly killed us...our knees were so wobbly by the end and let's just say for the next 2 days, every time we quickly sat up or down (much worse), we looked like we were little 80 year old women. Afterwards, the four of us we went to the Poring Hot Springs (more like glorified bath tubs) and loosened up our muscles. We then left for the capital of Sabah, Kota Kinabalu and had a very nice, very long overdue Italian meal including wine!! Our next stop after the state of Sabah, we headed out to Sarawak to conquer Mulu National Park and to see the Pinnacles.
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