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The next day, we grabbed a cab to the airport to pick up our flight to Sarawak. Sarawak occupies the north west flank of the island of Borneo and our first stop was Kuching. Kuching is the capital of Sarawak and relatively small and quiet in comparison to KL. You can cross the road easily here! We were picked up from the airport by the hotel shuttle and the hotel was great. Cheap but with all mod cons and very comfortable beds! It is right in the city so close to everything. We were hungry so headed for some food before having a look around the city. We headed to the waterfront where we took a walk and took in the sights and sounds of the river, past the Astana, formerly the Brookes residence and now the home of the Head of State of Sarawak, as well as Fort Margherita. We then walked to the Sarawak Museum which was a group of museums (Art, Islamic, National History and Ethnology). It was a well put together museum. At the museum we met Desmond Kon, a freelance guide and researcher at the museum and we arranged to take a day trip with him to the south of Kuching, near the border with Indonesia to see local villages and longhouses.
So early the next day, we had breakfast and then met Desmond and spent a very interesting day with the locals. We drove about an hour before stopping at a market in Serian where we had time to look around the fish market, pork market and jungle market. The jungle market was full of local produce, most we didn't even recognise! We bought some water apples which were delicious! Max was hungry so bought a delicious snack - live maggots, followed by snake soup and catfish! :o)
From here we went to see the fish market, where most of the fish were still alive...they also sold python which didn't look too appetising to me! As we were walking through, a huge cat fish jumped out of it's box and started thrashing around on the floor. Not so kindly, they started kicking it around like a football!
From here we drove further towards the Indonesian border to visit a couple of villages where there were no tourists, just locals going about their day to day business, kids playing in the streets etc and like all villages here, the people were friendly towards us. We also visited a pepper plantation as well as a cacao plantation where Max tried the fruit. The cacao nut is covered in white goo that you eat and then spit the nut out. The nut is then made in to a girl's two best friends - chocolate and lipstick :o)
Our main destination was a village right on the border, where we visited a 260 metre longhouse where around 30 or so families live together. The longhouse is made of timber and mainly bamboo. They aren't as primitive as they used to be given the government gave families generators a few years ago as kerosene and timber don't mix and many longhouses burnt down. This means some families have TVs and there are a few satellite dishes however, that is about as far as it goes. These families spent the day in the rice fields, bringing rice back to the houses to dry outside in the hot sun. They also do the same with pepper. It was interesting to see the process. There has to be someone watching the rice at all times with a big bamboo stick given the chickens came to steal it!!
We also met the oldest couple there (he used to be the chief) and he cut down coconuts for us - the juice and the coconut flesh tasted nothing like coconut!
We spent quite a long time with the families, giving out presents (crackers and drawing books we had bought) as well as cigarettes to the adults - not that I approve but hey, this is what they like. One old lady with no teeth and boobs down to her ankles took a shine to Max and started slapping his calves and tried on his sunglasses. Desmond told us she was a bit funny! He also had a game of football with some local boys before we headed off to have a drink with the chief of the village and then the journey home. I was so tired from the hot sun that I fell asleep for most of the way and then had another snooze when we got home. Wr then headed out for dinner - great noodles, before heading back to the hotel for football and sleep.
Our last day in Kuching was spent at a disappointing beach about 45 minutes north called Damai. We thought it was a village with a beach and resorts etc but in actual fact, it is just a resort, where you pay 3 ringitts for day entry to use the beach (the pool is off limits) and you get given free ice tea (yuck) and a security guard escorts you - all way over the top. The beach wasn't great and the sea so different than the Cook Islands, but it was hot and so we read and had a swim before having lunch at the resort. We got the shuttle bus back to town later, had a look around the shops, relaxed in the hotel then went to our usual for noodles - the whole meal with drinks cost 18 ringitt (about 4 euros)
The next day we caught another flight to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah and arrived to beautiful sunshine and blue skies (and it was super hot and sticky). We got a taxi to the backpackers lodge which was fine for 5€ each...at least we had aircon in the room. Kota Kinabalu (KK) is not what I expected. Its much more modern, cleaner, more vibrant than Kuching which had the air of a downtrodden city but here there seems to be more money to spend and to show - people drive huge 4x4s here. We had a walk to find some food as we were hungry. We found a lovely Italian where we demolished a pizza before heading to the waterfront as we are on the coast, and went to the handicraft market as well as the local mall where I stocked up on a book ( I am now on book 47 of this trip) and a postcard for Matilda before heading to the supermarket and then back to the hostel for a rest and to cool down. After surfing the net and sending emails and looking at accommodation in Vietnam, we headed out for dinner and ended up back at 'Little Italy' which was a comedy of errors. We ordered 2 starters and 2 main courses and got one starter and then a main course...so it went back...then the 2 mains came again and were sent back...then a main came AGAIN and was sent back..finally, we got 2 appetisers (not together) and 2 mains but at least in the right order....crazy!
We then headed back to the hostel for a read and a sleep.
The next day we caught a bus from KK to Sepilok which took 6 hours and was interesting. First of all we were on a disco soft rock bus with Air Supply, NSYNC and Bryan Adams blaring out before switching to pirate DVDs where we watched Legion (ice cream van zombies and an angel called Gabriel) Dance Flick (the worst mick take of all dance films ever made) and then Avatar which had the worse subtitles ever.....they needed them to 'evacuate the area' and they translated it as they need to 'vacuum the area!'
We finally reached our destination and met our driver who took us to our accommodation which was great. In the jungle, in a wooden stilt house with outdoor bathroom, nice comfy bed and a mosquito net which is defo needed here. The next day we headed to Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation centre which was great. Here is where orphaned orangutans are brought to be rehabilitated before being set free in to the rainforest reserve. It can often take years to teach them everything they need to know to survive. We saw two close up who came for feeding time as well as lots of Macaque monkeys who were cute too. I could watch an orangutan (man of the forest) all day - their faces are so expressive and they are so tactile with each other, it's a beautiful sight. After lunch we headed to the souvenir shop only to be confronted with an orangutan peering through the window at us. He had come from the reserve and wanted to play. He was beautiful and we were very close to him. He wouldn't let the rangers catch him, he was having too much fiun!
In the afternoon, we took a trip to the proboscis monkey sanctuary (those are the ones with the huge noses and the men have another big red appendage (see the photos) too!!! We went for feeding time where tens of them came for the apples and breadfuit that the rangers fed them, and we got some great up close action..again very interesting to watch, especially the power the dominant male had over his 19 wives and tens of children! I thoroughly enjoyed our monkey day!
Our final day in Borneo was spent relaxing at the retreat as well as taking a trip to the Rainforest Discovery centre where we spent a couple of hours walking through the rainforest and the botanical gardens before coming back to read, surf the net and do some more planning for Vietnam and Laos. We have had a great time in Malaysia and Borneo - very different than what we have experienced so far in terms of weather, landscape, culture and food (Max misses his bread and Albert Heijn sandwhich fillers- kip kerrie, worst & Dutch cheese - only 6 more weeks to go!!
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