Kota Kinabalu (driving on Borneo island)

Two weekends ago we took a trip to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia on Borneo Island. It is located southeast of Singapore, and was a short flight away. Fortunately, we were able to fly out in the morning and had time to figure out the car rental situation when we arrived. After renting a car and a GPS, we were out the door and headed for fun! We drove through downtown Kota Kinabalu on our way to the resort, and then realized we were going to get local currency at the hotel, so we kept driving.

Mount Kinabalu from a bridge (very far away & covered by clouds)

After arriving at the Shangri-La resort, and surprising the local staff by not having arrived in a taxi, we checked in and figured out what activities to do for the weekend. Intrigued by the local markets we saw in downtown Kota Kinabalu, we decided to drive back into the city for shopping and a local dinner. The market we found was in a huge covered building, and was crammed with every hand-woven basket, woven purse, carved mask and Borneo island trinket you could think of! We bought a large woven bag (to use as a beach bag), a nice mask, and a cool banana leaf candle holder. Everything was pretty cheap, similar to touristy things in the US, so we were happy with our purchases.

We asked one of the local shop owners to recommend a local place for dinner. She picked a place 5 stores over that served several local Malay dishes. The seating was on a worn, wooden deck with a great look of the sunset over the ocean. Looked great! We found a familiar Pineapple rice and then got adventurous with Coke fried rice (amazing!), Spicy Thai Beef (our fav dish!), Red Curry Beef, and Spicy Thai Lamb. We got some great sunset pictures and enjoyed the night so much, we decided to go back later in the weekend.

Sunset from the restaurant (no photoshop - promise!)

The next morning, we drove up to Mount Kinabalu. Getting to the park was a challenge, because our car (Proton) had an extremely tiny engine, and with the petal to the metal, it only peaked at about 55 mph max! (Did I mention that was only downhill?) On our way up to the mountain, we saw a small craft complex on the side of the road and decided to pull over. There were so many beautiful, locally made wooden handicrafts that we had a hard time choosing what to get! For about 35 USD, we got 2 wooden fish traps (look like decorative side table lamps), a wooden woven flat basket for drying vegetables (doubling as wall decor), a bamboo woven fruit bowl, and a bamboo woven flat bowl. The pieces all look very rustic and yet modern, so we are very excited to put them in our house when we get home!

Kevin in the car we rented - notice the side of the car he is on to drive!

After that, we headed up to the mountain. We ate a local lunch in the park, did a short walk through the botanical garden area, and hiked a trail back to our car. The trail was very short but it was very steep and curvy! The signs were also not very helpful - didn't correspond to the map's directions - so we took a bit longer than we expected. Once we were done with the hike, we decided to head back to the resort, and I got to drive back! I didn't think about the fact that driving down the mountain might have been more stressful than driving up, especially with a pack of 50 motorcyclists trying to pass you down a mountain with very narrow lanes! We survived, managed not to kill any motorcyclists, and made it back safely. For dinner, we decided to go to a local seafood place recommended by the resort. After driving up, seeing the "pick your dinner from the tank" style menu, we were thankful we had a car to drive back to the resort in! We ate dinner at the Indian restaurant on-site at the resort, and went through our pictures that night.

The next day, we ate a late breakfast and went to the Orang Utan (orangutang) Rehabilitation Center on site at the resort. This facility provides Stage 1 of 2 rehab for Orang Utans that have been either kept as pets and won't survive in the wild on their own, or have lost their habitats and have nowhere to go. We started our walk at 10:00am, and went into the jungle to see the morning feeding. Because of the large crowd of visitors we were with (about 30 people), the orangutangs put on a show! They went spastic and jumped from tree to tree, hung upside down, and even fell out of the tree and almost rolled down the hill into me! The trainers put a bucket full of cut up veggies and fruits on a platform for the orangutangs to eat, and also had a waterbottle filled with an orange juice and milk mixture. In order for them to drink the juice, they had to hold out their lips (looked like they were kissing the air) and wait for the bottle to be brought to their mouth to drink. Otherwise, they just grabbed the bottle and would run off. It was an awesome experience to see, and we got tons of cool pictures.

That afternoon, we went back into Kota Kinabalu to see the weekend market. We got there about 30 minutes before they closed the market down. The market actually closes down streets in the middle of the city, and once they start taking down their tarps, cars are already pushing their way through to start utilizing the streets again. I bought some great Malaysian earrings before one of the tents closed down, so the visit was a success.

Since it was early in the afternoon, we headed back to the resort to relax, and then went back into the city that night for dinner at the same place we had eaten 2 nights before. We ordered the Coke fried rice & Spicy Thai Beef again, but decided to go for 2 new dishes - Lemon Chicken and Black Pepper Beef. I loved the chicken, so I ate about half of that dish, and half of the Spicy Thai Beef. I had 2 bites of the Black Pepper beef but wasn't really into it. Apparently, Kevin liked the Black Pepper Beef dish, so he ate the whole thing. Once dinner was over, we went through a local seafood market and saw fish being cut up and cooked right in front of us. I just love walking through a wet alley only to find out I am walking through fish blood! After the seafood market experience, we were ready to head back to the resort.

On the morning we woke up to leave, I found out that Kevin and the last night's dinner dish had not gotten along well. We think he may have gotten food posioning from the beef dish he ate, but somehow I felt fine, and was able to take care of him on our way back to the airport. Trying very hard not to look sick, he made it through the airport in Malaysia and in Singapore, and he slept the rest of the day and night.

Overall, we had a great time in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. Borneo Island had some awesome smaller islands off of it we could have taken some day trips too if we had more time and had booked it in advance. We may have to do that next time, if we ever decide to go back!

Monkeys in Langkawi, Malaysia (March trip)

PICTURES at this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2380203&id=11832762&l=546849d4c2

On our 2nd weekend in Singapore, we headed off to Langkawi, Malaysia. We flew out Friday night after work and arrived at our hotel around 9pm at the Datai. It was a beautiful resort - in the darkness it was breath-taking and intriguing. We decided to explore the resort, put our bags down, and walked to the beach. The resort is amazing - all the buildings are on stilts (like treehouses) in the midst of a 50 million year old rainforest! And the walk to the beach is no disappointment.

We finally neared the ocean as we felt the path become sandy and our ears began humming with the sound of crashing waves. We turned a corner and reached a clearing...wide open sky and a beautiful stretch of unoccupied beach. All ours!!! We pulled out 2 chairs from under the low branches of the nearby forest and laid down towatch the stars. It was so quiet, and more sky than I've ever seen before - a moment we will never forget!

The next morning, we checked out bikes and decided to go biking around the island. Before we even left the resort, we saw a side street to a parking lot and there was a monkey sitting in the middle of the road! We took a few pictures on our small cameras, and then I held Kevin's bike and watched the monkeys while kevin went back to grab his big camera. We took pictures of 3 adults and 2 babies, and when they ran up into the trees, we followed them down the hill to get a closer look. We were shooting pictures up in the tree (bad shots as the bright sun was the background) and some local workers said, "Look down there - lots of them in the trees, very close". We looked into the parking lot, and on a smaller tree, there were 2 adults and a baby monkey, about eye level, just hanging out and eating leaves!

We got very close and took tons of cute pictures and learned that these are the nice monkeys on the resort. They (black fur with white around the eyes) only eat leaves and don't bother humans. The other monkeys on the island (brown colored) have learned that food comes from humans, and for them, food is stolen from someone lower on the food chain. So, since they can get food from humans, they think we are lower on the food chain, and they will break into rooms to steal it, throw things at you, and make growling noises at you if you come too close. Fortunately, we were able to get close to the nice monkeys!

We didn't realize at the time, but soon found out, the crazy windy road we took to get to the resort was indicative of the entire area around the resort! We left the entrance and decided to head uphill...went about 10 minutes until the road dead-ended and came back down. The other direction we could have gone out of the resort was downhill, but we knew it would be a grueling struggle to get back up the hill when all was said and done. Not to mention the close to unbearable heat that was melted away by a downhill rush of wind. Back to the lobby we went.

we went back to the beach for some sun, swimming, and kayaking. After laying out and a short swim break, we checked out the last canoe and headed for an uninhabited island in the distance. Our journey took about 2 hours, but that was long enough for me to get completely fried in streaks across my body. After reaching the beach, we had our lunch on the sand, under the shade of the rainforest, and had the most amazing fruit smoothies (apple mint and strawberry mango) ever! After lunch, I realized how burned I was, and we headed back to the room before our Night Nature Walk and dinner.

We signed up for the Nature Hike and this was, by far, the coolest experience of our entire trip! Our guide walked us down from the main road of our resort, showing us wild live species and pictures of the various native animals. The best part was, he lived and breathed that jungle. As we stood there, he narrated the story behind the bird and monkey calls we heard - showing us the predatory bird that was being chased away by both the other birds and monkeys we saw. He also showed us native figs and explained for every one of the 1,200 fig species, there is a unique fig wasp that can only pollinate the specific fig it is designed for. Our tour ended with a description of native "flying" species on the island - squirrels, frogs, and SNAKES! Apparently, there ARE flying snakes. And apparently, they HAVE been spotted in the wild of Langkawi! I was now not concerned about snakes I can see on the ground, but snakes in the air as well...

After the Natur Walk concluded, we got ready for dinner. For dinner, we had reservations at the Gulai House, the resort's "in-jungle" restaurant. The food specialties were authentic Malay & Indian cuisines, of which we sampled and loved both! We were told we could walk back to the resort along the beach (even though we took a bus to get there) - so we did. Night walks on the beack - STRIKE 2!!!

(History- the 1st time Kevin & I walked on the beach at night, I had a scratched cornea (eye), was wearing glasses, and decided to walk barefoot. It was romantic until the ghost crabs followed the light of our flashlight and freaked us out by running right in our path the entire walk...STRIKE 1!)

This time, the path was not well lit, it was narrowly cut between the thick of the jungle, and was right after our Nature Walk where we learned this island has flying squirrels, flying frogs, and flying SNAKES! A wild boar had also been spotted by 2 different guests during the week that accompanied us on our Nature Walk. PERFECT. Each rustle in the bushes gave us more pep in our step and made us wonder if it was a flying reptile or a wild boar that was coming to get us! We made it back safely...needless to say...but not without a story and a memory we will never forget!

The next day, we explored the rest of the island - in 5 hours! We stopped at a local food stand on the side of the road to buy banana fritters - which tasted like fried balls of banana bread dough! Yummy! We were expecting slices of banana fried in dough (like we find in Singapore, even though it is a Philipino dish) but it was better than that! We went shopping for souvenirs - especially a vase & bowl we saw used in Malay custom to wash your hands before eating. We could not find a good one, so the hunt will continue when we are in Malaysia again!

As I write this, it has been almost 2 months since the trip, and while my sunburn is healed, I still have a splotchy tan to correct! =) It was an amazing trip, one we will never forget!