Monkey Business
My Malaysian monkey collection includes five different species so far. :-)
Beware of the monekys!
1. Orangutan
2. Proboscis monkey
3. Dusky leaf monkey
4. Silver leaf monkey
5. Macaque
Hmm... What is this?! An unknown monkey species from Borneo. :-)
Sarawakian Tribal Art
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.
My Sarawakian sarong has a similar pattern.
Typical tribal pattern decorates the riverwalk in Kuching.
A warrior from the Orang Ulu tribe is dancing during a cruise on Sarawak river.
A visit to an Orang Ulu long house at Sarawak Cultural Village.
An Orang Ulu girl is dancing for us at Sarawak Cultural Village.Hornbill
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.
This is what a real hornbill looks like.
Highlights in Sarawak
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.
Looking out over the misty rainforest early in the morning.
Enjoying the view over the Indonesian side of Borneo at Borneo Highlands.
Wildlife encounters in Bako National Park.
Sarawak Cultural Village.
A rafflesia flower in Gunung Gading National Park.
Kuching - my hometown for 1.5 year!
Mulu National Park.
Witness a turtle laying eggs and releasing baby turtles into the sea at Satang Island.
Watching Sarawak regatta.
Orangutan encounters in Semenggoh National Park.
Spending time by the sea at Damai beach.
Enjoying a relaxing and luxury homestay at Village House in Santubong.
Malaysia
After living in Malaysia for more than 1.5 year it feels like I have seen a lot of this country. Now my time here has come to an end. The project I have been working with here is close to finalization and I'm moving back to Norway later this week. It feels strange to leave this country after staying here for such a long time, but in the same time it feels good, because I will finally meet all my friends in Oslo again and I will be living much closer to my family.
I'm very greatful that I got the opportunity to work abroad. I have enjoyed it a lot! It has given me tonnes of impressions and I believe it will take some time to digest them all. I will remember my time in Malaysia with a smile on my lips and I'm pretty sure that I will come back, if not for work, at least for holiday.
This map shows some of the places I have visited in Malaysia. (Map from MapQuest)
Beauty of Nature
Proboscis Monkey
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).
Melaka
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.
Everywhere in Melaka you can see colourful trishaws.
Langkawi
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.
View from Mount Machinchang, which is easily accessible by cable car.
I went on a day trip to Kilim Geoforest Park and there we went out a boat trip in the mangrove forest. We were so lucky that day, because we managed to se a king cobra swimming past our boat! My hands were shaking, but I managed to take a photo of it before it dissappeared in the mangrove forest.
A living wild king cobra!
The eagle statue in Kuah.
During my days in Langkawi I stayed at Four Points by Sheraton. The hotel had a perfect location next to the beach.
Penang
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!
View over Georgetown and the Penang bridge in the distance, which links Penang with Peninsular Malaysia.
Eastern & Oriental Hotel.
Fort Cornwallis.
In the botanical garden I saw the cannonball tree, which got its' name from the fruits the tree produces.
A dusky leaf monkey was hiding in a tree in the botanical garden.
Fort Margherita
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.
Satang Island
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.
The hatching area is fenced off to protect the eggs.
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!
Mama turtle.
They might look like golf balls, but it's turtle eggs!
The morning after we could see turtle tracks in the sand.
Permai Rainforest Resort
This weekend we have enjoyed a weekend by the sea at Damai Beach. We drove out to the sea on Saturday morning and when we arrived we sat down at one of the beachfront cafes for a long lunch. A perfect lunch place with the breeze from the sea and the sound of the waves surrounding us.
It was low tide when we arrived.
This time we had reserved a treehouse at Permai Rainforest Resort for one night. The treehouses are located about 10 meters above the ground. They are more luxury than you might think as they all have tiled bathrooms and air conditioning.
The "entrance" to Permai Rainforest Resort.
Sea view from the balcony.
Our private terrace next to the sea.
Out at Damai there are four different resorts where you can choose to spend the night and also four different beaches. The largest beach is the one next to Damai Beach Resort and Damai Central, where you can find some restaurants and smaller shops. However, I prefer the beach in front of Damai Puri Resort & SPA, where I stayed with Colleen last year.That beach is common with Permai Rainforest Resort, so we went there for swimming in the afternoon.
Damai Beach Resort.
Mind your head!
In the evening we sat down at one of the beach cafes at Damai Central again for a sunset drink. It's a very nice place to watch the sunset from.
The island to the right that you can see from Damai is called Satang Island. I have been there together with some of my colleagues once and we witnessed something amazing out there. :-) I will tell you more about it in the next blog post!
Tioman Island
Earlier this month we had a public holiday here called Gawai. That is a harvest festival celebrated by the local tribes here in Borneo. My plan this year was to spend the holiday on Tioman Island, off the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, together with Didin to celebrate his birthday.
First we stayed two nights close to the "capital" of the island Tekek. We stayed at Swiss Cottage Tioman in a sea view chalet located on the beach. It was about ten metres to walk down to the sea for a refreshing swim and we had a nice terrace whith a sleeping mat and some chairs where we spent some time reading and watching the sea.
When we got bored of just relaxing on the terrace we rented a stand up paddle board and tried our balance skills. It was very fun and a little bit challenging when the boats drove by and created "huge" waves that we had to master.
In the evening we went out for a walk to the tax free shop. Tioman Island is a tax free zone where you can buy alcoholic drinks for reasonable prices! During our walk we heard a strange sound above our heads and looked up to discover that the trees were full of bats!
On our second day on Tioman we were hiking from one side of the island to Juara Beach on the other side. It took us about three hours to get there. We had a well deserved lunch at Juara Beach before we visited a turtle conservation centre. We had a guide that showed us around and explained about the work they are doing to protect the turtles. We donated some money to the project to support their good work! The centre is popular for tourists who want to do some vounteer work during their holiday.
The last night on Tioman we spent at Japamala Resort which is a boutique resort on a private beach on the south west side of the island. We took a taxi boat and landed at their private jetty and were greeted with a refreshing drink. The room we had booked was a sea view chalet and it was located a little bit up on a hill. The view from the chalet was amazing. We had our own private balcony hanging over the sea! That was a perfect ending of our Tioman holiday.
The only thing that I can complain about is the ferry company that serves the island. On our departure day we had a four hours delay of our ferry without any explanation or what so ever. Due to the delay we missed our bus back to Johor Bahru from where we were flying back to Kuching. We had planned to spend the day at Johor Premium Outlet before flying back to Kuching. We had to cancel that plan and take a taxi from Mersing (the access point to Tioman Island on Malaysia's east coast) and drive straight to the airport. Luckily we were in time for our flight! My advice for all of you planning to making this journey is to allow for extra time in your schedule! I talked to other people at the jetty and heard that delays are quite common!
Perhentian Kecil
Tuesday was a public holiday here in Malaysia and that means a possibility to extend the weekend and travel on a weekend trip. Of course I took the opportunity to do that! I headed to the Perhentian Islands and discovered a true paradise with crystal clear water and white beaches.
A 40 minutes boat ride east of northern Peninsular Malaysia you can find two paradise islands. The smaller island is called Perhentian Kecil and the bigger Perhentian Besar. I had decided to go to Perhentian Kecil this time. The most popular beach on Perhentian Kecil is Long Beach and I can see why. :-) The sand is so white and soft.
First I spent two nights in a simple chalet a bit up in the forest, because every other place I checked was fully booked. The last night I stayed at Bubu Long Beach Resort, which is the best resort on the island and I really liked the place. All rooms have ocean view.
Long Beach on Perhentian Kecil.
Beach life on Long Beach.
Bubu Long Beach Resort.
Bubu Long Beach Resort.
The view from my room at Bubu Resort.
Evening cocktail.
Perhentian is a good destination for scuba diving. There are a number of dive sites around the islands and the visibility is normally very good, but you don't have to go diving to see a lot of fishes, a snorkelling trip is a good alternative. I even saw a black tip reef shark when I was standing on the jetty!
A black tip reef shark was swimming under the jetty.
Perhentian is a paradise and I hope I will have the opportunity to come back soon. Next time I want to sign up for a scuba diving course and discover what it looks like under water. I hope that I will meet my friend Mr. Shark again. :-)
Easter Holiday
This year I will have the longest Easter Holiday ever! Three weeks! :-) I'm going to travel around in Timor-Leste and Indonesia together with my Swedish friend Linda. Now I'm on my way to Bali where I will meet Linda. We will continue to Timor-Leste tomorrow, where we will start our Asian Easter Adventure.
Happy Easter to all of you! 🐰
My little collection of chocolate Easter eggs. :-)
Kuala Lumpur
Tomorrow I will travel to Kuala Lumpur again. The capital of Malaysia. This time I will just have a transfer at the airport and catch a flight to Indonesia. I'm going on holiday! :-)
I have been to Kuala Lumpur a couple of times before, my Australian friend Colleen used to live there, so I was visiting her some times. Unfortunately she has moved back to Australia now. I really miss her!
The major tourist attraction in KL is definitely Petronas Twin Towers. The towers are housing the headquarter of the largest oil company in Malaysia, Petronas. From the sky bridge which is connecting the two towers you have a good view over the city. To get a very nice view of the towers I can recommend a visit to the Sky Bar at Traders Hotel. It's the best place to have a drink around sunset and watch as the towers are lit up.
Some other attractions in KL are the Central Market and Merdeka Square, but I would say that they are of modest interest. The market is very touristy and the prices are quite steep compared to Kuching. If you are interested in architecture there are some nice old buildings to have a look at around Merdeka Square, but that's all.
One thing I can recommend is to visit KL Bird Park. The main attraction there are the hornbills. The hornbill is the symbol of the state Sarawak (where I live at the moment) and the expression the Land of the Hornbill is used for marketing Sarawak. In the wild the hornbills are quite shy and not very easy to spot, so the bird park is a good destination if you want to have a closer look at them.
Mr. Hornbill.
Another graceful guy that I met in the bird park.
Lazy Weekend
I have been in Kuching the whole weekend and enjoyed a lazy weekend at home without any plans.
I think I needed that! I didn't feel well on Friday evening and I actually fainted in the elevator on the way up to our floor. I fell backwards and hit my head in the wall. That resulted in a headache the whole Saturday. :-( It was a little scary to wake up laying on the floor in the elevator and not knowing where I was, but I guess it must have been a small chock for the woman who found me laying there. Well, I feel good again now!
We participated in Earth Hour yesterday by switching off all lights in the apartment and then we went out to the plaza in front of the hotel. It was some happenings and music out there in the darkness during Earth Hour.
When I went grocery shopping this week I noticed that they had started to sell Easter candy. Since I'm not going to be here during Easter I bought some chocolate eggs already now. :-) Another good thing is that the magazine ELLE has published the first issue of ELLE Malaysia this month, which I read during the weekend.
ELLE Malaysia and a chocolate egg.
Books
I had never been a person that liked to read, not until quite recently! Some years ago me and my friend Marte decided to have a New Year's resolution, which was to read at least twelve books during the coming year.
After that I have just continued, but now I'm actually reading more than twelve books every year. :-) I managed somehow to develop a new interest and I feel like reading is good exercise for the brain. I like to read books from which I can learn new things, like travel and expedition documentaries, self development books and books abouts historical events and famous persons.
They have a couple of good book stores here in Kuching. When I spend the weekend in Kuching I often go to one of the book stores to have a look and quite often I find something interesting to buy. Now I have noticed that I'm very good in buying books, but I'm too slow when it comes to read them. I found a whole pile of books that I have not read, so now I'm not allowed to go to the book store for a while. First I have to read all the books I have at home!
Reservoir Park
The weekend started with a power walk in Reservoir park. If you want to go out for a power walk in the morning here you can't stay in bed too long, because then it becomes too hot outside. :-) After the walk we went grocery shopping and on the way home I stopped at Starbucks and picked up a free coffee and a doughnut because March is my birthday month and then all Starbucks card holders get a birthday gift.
This week is the New Zeeland week here in Kuching and from my window I have been able to watch rugby games on Plaza Merdeka in front of the hotel. They also have a Maori art exhibition at Sarawak Museum. We are on our way there now to have a look.
