Frozen
I went to the Spring shopping mall today with my friend to get some winter and Christmas feelings. It's hard to get that when you are living in a tropical climate without any variations between the seasons.
At least they had a lot of Christmas decorations at the Spring, but I must admit that the Christmas tree doesn't belong on the grass. The snow is missing! :-)
I was looking for a new camera at the shopping mall. My old buddy has decided to give up after five years together. :-( After looking at some different models I have decided that I want to buy a Canon EOS 100D. It's a lot smaller and lighter than my old one. Now I just have to check out where I can buy it for a reasonable price.
After the "shopping" we went to the cinema and watched the Disney movie Frozen. The snowman Olav and the reindeer Sven where really funny! :-)
Bako National Park
There are a number of national parks around Kuching and one of the best is Bako National Park. I have been to Bako two times and the last time was together with my friend Beate, who was visiting me earlier this month.
In Bako you can see proboscis monkeys which look very funny with their huge noses. :-) The males have the largest noses. You can also find silver leaf monkeys, naughty macaques that are stealing food from tourists, wild boars and snakes in Bako. The tree lemur is also seen sometimes, but it is more active during night time, so I have not seen it yet.
Some parts of the national park is covered by mangrove forest where a lot of crabs and mudskippers are found during low tide. If you walk up to the higher altitudes you can find a lot of pitcher plants.
Bako is a really nice place to go to for a day tour and you can see a lot of exotic wildlife concentrated in a quite small area.
The sea stack rock.
A wild boar eating a jelly fish on the beach.
Proboscis monkey.
Silver leaf monkey.
A snake.
Pitcher plant.
Ninja Sushi
Today we decided to go to one of our favorite restaurants here in Kuching to have dinner; Sakae Sushi. They have some really nice menus for kids also. My favorite is the Ninja Sushi. :-)
Rafflesia
In Malaysia you can find the world's largest flower, the Rafflesia. I thought that if I will be living here for more than a year, then I should have pretty good chances to see one flowering.
When they are flowering the bright red flower only lasts for about five days before it dies and becomes black and rotten. The Rafflesia is a parasitic flower and it can be up to one meter in diameter.
Earlier this year I got the opportunity to see one in Gunung Gading National Park. Gunung Gading is famous for the many Rafflesias that grow in the area. The only problem is that it's hard to predict when they are going to flower and when they do you have to be quick to be able to see it before it dies.
I had heard that the Rafflesia smells really bad and that attracts flies to the flower. The smell was not that bad and you almost had to stick your head into the flower to smell it.
Tiny girl or a big flower? :-)
Just some days earlier this was a red Rafflesia flower.
Annah Rais Longhouse
This weekend I did a little road trip with my friend Colleen. We went to Annah Rais Longhouse and the nearby hot spring.
The longhouse belongs to the Bidayuh tribe, which is one of the native tribes on Borneo. Some of the tribes still live in longhouses, which are built up of a number of houses, attached to each other. One for each family.
Historically the Bidayuhs were headhunters and they killed their enemies and kept their skulls in a baruk (head house), which is a common house with a big fireplace in the middle. Above the fireplace the enemies' skulls are hanging.
One family had a Carlsberg poster on the wall!
Inside the Baruk, the house were the Bidayuhs keep their enemies' skulls.
Walking over the bamboo bridge.
After exploring the longhouse we went to the nearby hot spring for a foot bath. The climate here on Borneo is not suitable for a bath in a hot spring, you are overheated anyway, so dipping the feet was enough. Close to the hot spring a lot of excotic fruits; like pineapples, cocoa and rambutan were growing. I think most of the trees were planted, but it's always interesting to see where the fruits come from.
Pineapple
Cocoa fruit
Rambutans
The Smelly Season
I just walked along the Main Bazar here in Kuching and suddenly a terrible smell hit me. At first I thought that they had not emptied the garbage bins for a long while... Then I found the source of the smell. Durians! The King of Fruits! The durian season has just started so Kuching will smell like garbage now...
Jungle Trekking
Here are some photos from the jungle trekking that I and Colleen did at Damai last week.
Damai Puri Resort & SPA
Last weekend me and my Australian friend decided to have a girl's weekend. After work on Friday we headed for Damai Puri Resort & SPA, where we had booked a two nights stay.
After arrival on Friday we had cocktails and dinner at the resort. On Saturday we started the day with breakfast followed by 1.5 hours jungle trekking in the nearby rainforest. It was so nice to be outdoor in the fresh air after spending one week working in the office! After our trekking we spent some time by the pool before we went to the SPA for one hour massage. After the massage we watched the beautiful sunset before we had dinner. That was really a perfect Saturday!
Looney Tunes Live in Kuching
Me and my friend are two kids in their early thirties, so yesterday we went to see the Looney Tunes musical. They are traveling around and performing and now they were here in Kuching.
I remember that I watched Looney Tunes on TV as a child. My favourite character is Taz aka Tasmanian Devil. Unfortunately he just appeared in one of the songs yesterday.
The best song was sung by Bugs Bunny who where singing about all countries in the world. Impressive! The song went faster and faster towards the end. :-)
To the Philippines with Love
Looks like my blog posts not have been very frequent lately... I have no excuses for that, other than the fact that I have been a little lazy (just a little bit) and the big problem is that the Internet connection here on Borneo is not what it should be. So to use Internet you have to be very patient and I have to admit that I'm not. :-)
I have just downloaded an app that I can use to publish my blog posts, so this might help. At least it looks very convenient in my eyes! I really want to keep my friends and family in Scandinavia updated about my life on Borneo. I want to feel that we are close even if the distance between us is far.
Earlier this week me and two of my Sarawakian friends donated money to an orphanage for children in the Philippines. They were heavily affected by the typhoon and they need all money they can get to build it up again. Hopefully we will get a lot of good karma now! :-)
