Doha is the capital of Qatar. The skyline in Doha includes a huge number of lifting cranes and it feels like the city is still under construction. The main attraction is the corniche, a walkway running along the bay from the city centre to the ultra modern business district, where all the skyscrapers are located.

 

 

On the way back from Malaysia I stopped in Qatar for three nights to discover what this tiny Middle East country has to offer. My first advice is don't travel to Qatar during the summer months (July-August), because it's extremely hot during these months. It's a desert after all and irrigation systems are a must to keep some small spots green during the hot summer months. Temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius are normal during this time of the year. Luckily there are a lot of air conditioned shopping malls and hotels where tourists, as well as locals, can escape the heat and cool down for a while.

 

My Malaysian monkey collection includes five different species so far. :-)

 

I got a beautiful gift from my Sarawakian friend Didin before I left Sarawak. It is a bookmark in the shape of a leaf from the rainforest. The leaf is hand painted and the pattern is typical for some of the local tribes in Sarawak. It's a very decorative pattern and it reminds me a little bit of Polynesian art.

 

Last week the company arranged a farewell dinner for me. :-) It was very nice to get together with most of my colleagues here in Sarawak and have dinner together. I also received a gift from the company. It was a wood carving in the shape of a hornbill. The hornbill is the state symbol of Sarawak. A beautiful bird.

 

After 1.5 year in Sarawak I have many wonderful memories. Sarawak is a true beauty among the states in Malaysia. In this blog post I'm showing you some of the highlights from my time here.

 

The funniest monkeys I have seen here in Malaysia are definitely the proboscis monkeys. Especially the males have huge noses. The best places to see proboscis monkeys are in Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary outside Sandakan in Sabah and in Bako National Park in Sarawak. (All the photos below are from my visit to Labuk Bay).

 

Once when I visited my Australian friend Colleen, who lived in Kuala Lumpur until December last year, we decided to do a road trip to the Unesco listed town Melaka (or Malacca as it is called in English). We spent a day exploring the old town. Historically Melaka has been both a Portugese and a Dutch colony and you can see some European influenced buildings in the town.

 

Langkawi is a group of islands on the Malaysian west coast. They are located in the north almost on the boarder to Thailand. I like Langkawi because there are a lot of things to do there. When I was there I took the cable car up to Mount Machinchang, I visited Kilim Geoforest Park, Kuah town and I went out on an island hopping tour. Langkawi is a tax free island, which means that a refreshing drink is a lot cheaper here compared to the rest of Malaysia.

 

I think that I might travelled a little bit too much last year. :-) Is that possible? Well, one thing I noticed was that I never could find enough time between my travels to take care of all the photos I took and write about the places on my blog. This year I have travelled less and I have finally had time to organize a lot of photos.

 

I went to the island Penang outside Malaysia's west coast twice last year, thanks to a convenient direct flight from Kuching. The first time I stayed in the resort town Batu Ferringhi on the north coast of Penang. The second time I stayed in the old Uneso listed Georgetown. I had heard a lot about Georgetown, but to be honest there is not much to see there. There are the ruins of an old fort and some interesting street art. In Georgetown I stayed at the old colonial style Eastern & Oriental Hotel, which was very nice. It looks a bit like Raffles hotel in Singapore. I can highly recommend their afternoon tea!

 

 

Last weekend we crossed the river here in Kuching and went to have a look at Fort Margherita. The fort has been closed for renovation for more than two years and unfortunately it was still closed. At least we could have a look at the fort from the outside.

The last stops on my Indonesia trip where on the island of Java. I spent four nights in Yogyakarta at the fashionable Phoenix Hotel. This historical hotel dating back to 1918 is an architectural piece of art and reminds me of Raffles in Singapore. I felt like a queen during my stay!

 

 

 

 

After the amazing days in Komodo National Park we travelled to Gili Islands for some days filled with beach life and excellent sea food. We stayed on Gili Trawangan but we also did a boat trip to see the other two islands. My favourite was without doubt the smallest island Gili Meno.

 

To get the most out of our trip to Komodo National Park we had booked a three days and two nights boat trip through the company Komodo Mega Tours Indonesia. We are very happy with the tour and the service provided by the owner Mr. Yuventius during the planning process. He was very service minded and quick to answer all our questions. We highly recommend him and his company if you are planning a trip to Komodo. 

 

Our trip started in the harbour in Labuanbajo on Flores Island where we stepped onboard the wooden boat that would be our home the coming two nights. Onboard the boat we had everything we needed! We had our own little private cabin, a toilet, a lounge area, a crew of three persons (including a captain and a chef) and a guide.

 

We left the harbour in Labuanbajo behind and travelled out to Komodo Island. A journey that took us three hours. We had dinner onboard and enjoyed the scenery on our way out to Komodo. It was already dark when we arrived so after standing outside and brushing our teeth in the moonlight we went to bed.

 

The next morning we woke up early and prepared ourselves for hiking on Komodo Island. We stepped ashore and met a ranger who was leading our search for the Komodo dragons. The Komodo dragon is the largest lizard in the world and has a maximum lenght of about three meters! We didn't really know what to expect and after spotting the first dragon lying under a tree we were so happy. There were more to come! When we left Komodo Island we had already seen three Komodo dragons! What a perfect start of the day!

 

 

This was actually my second visit to Bali. My first visit was in the beginning of year 2003, which was only a couple of months after the terrible bomb attack that destroyed a nightclub and killed a lot of people in Kuta. It was raining a lot when we were there and because very few tourists visited Bali during that time the local people were desperate for money and didn't leave us alone for a second. After that I thought that I would never return to Bali again.

 

You never know what will happen in the future and this time I was travelling together with my friend Linda and she had not been to Bali before, so she wanted to spend at least some days of our Indonesia trip there. I decided to give Bali a second chance because I have many friends that like the island. Now I'm very happy that I decided to come back.

 

Bali is an allround destination that suits most people. Bali has tourist resorts with all the shopping and restaurants you can dream about. There are also a lot of activities for the active tourists. There are some nice scuba diving sites to explore, you can go hiking on vulcanoes and Bali has a number of beaches with good surf breaks. If you want to relax and reload your batteries you should visit one of the SPA resorts in Ubud.

 

I spent the first night in Bali in a touristy manner at Hard Rock Hotel in Kuta. The following day I had a morning walk along Kuta Beach before I took a taxi to the temple Tanah Lot. The temple is located on a rock in the sea. During low tide you can walk out to the temple.

 

 

Finally I have had time to start organizing all the photos from the second part of mine and Linda's Easter trip. After visting Timor-Leste we spent some time in Indonesia.

 

The trip started in Bali and from there continued to Komodo, Gili Islands, Lombok and finally Java. Travel reports from these destinations will be uploaded during the coming week.

 

Satang Island is one of Sarawak's turtle islands. Every year during a period from approximately May to September female turtles come up on the beach at Satang Island to lay eggs.

 

Sarawak Forestry has park rangers based on the island during that period. Their job is to patrol the beach, collect eggs and transfer the eggs to a safer hatching area. When the eggs finally hatch the rangers collect the turtle babies and release them in the sea.

 

 

I was on the island together with some of my colleagues and we were lucky to witness a mother turtle come up on the beach, dig a hole and lay her eggs during the night. After she had returned to the sea we helped the park ranger to dig up the eggs and transfer them to the hatching area, which is fenced off to protect the eggs against monitor lizards and other egg thieves.

 

During the same night one of the nests was hatching and we helped the ranger to release the baby turtles in the sea. The ranger gave us one baby turtle each and we carried it down until we were some meters from the water line. There we released the babies and they speeded off to the sea. This was a very memorable experience!