Month: July 2016

Day 93: Bako National Park / Return to Kuching

With all the wildlife checked off our list for Bako, we really didn’t have a reason to stay another non-AC night in the park. We decided we would get up early and spend the day trekking, and catch the 3PM boat back to Kuching in the afternoon. We headed out at 7AM hoping to spot some Proboscis monkeys on our way into the jungle (we didn’t). We had heard from some fellow tourists the day before that it is relatively easy to catch a boat on one of the many park beaches and get a ride either back to Park HQ or to another beach within the park. We headed toward Kecil Beach, which has a view of the iconic Sea Stack, just in case we had trouble catching a boat, we would at least get to see it before walking ourselves back.

 

An early morning start! Off into the Bako jungle, heading for Kecil Beach

 

The trail is getting a bit rougher

 

For some reason we had trouble finding pitcher plants the day before – can’t image how, they are EVERYWHERE today!

 

“Professor Igor” pointing out the myriad of pitcher plants on the trail

 

Checking out the view from above

 

Beautiful Kecil Beach, with the Sea Stack visible in the distance

 

It’s barely 9:30AM, and we are already sweaty and exhausted – taking a break on the cliff before heading down to the beach

 

Luckily for us, we only had to wait about 10min before a boat turned up

Since we were able to catch a boat pretty quickly, we decided to ask the driver to take us deeper into the park instead of returning to HQ. We got off at the Tajor Beach, which would take us past the Tajor Waterfalls (which were supposedly the only croc-free swimming in the park). It took us another couple of hours to get back to the junction for HQ, but by that time we felt we had explored every inch of the park that was open to tourists. We took one final hike down the Paku Trail (still no Proboscis monkeys in the middle of the day), so we hopped on another boat back to HQ. After grabbing lunch at HQ (oh, *there* are the Proboscis Monkeys!), and one final cold shower (both for our benefit and the poor tourists sitting next to us on the 1 hour boat / 1 hour bus back to town), we were back on our way to Kuching.

 

Heading out see the Bako Sea Stack via boat

 

The Bako Sea Stack – stunning from any angle

 

Jelly-Man! When we spotted this HUGE jelly, our boat driver picked it up like it was no big deal! We asked him if it stings, “Only a little bit.” Hard core.

 

Getting dropped off at Tajor Beach – a 3hr return hike to HQ. LET’S DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

We reached the Tajor Waterfalls sorely disappointed. The Park Ranger warned us it was a “small” waterfall. Waterfall is not an appropriate title – perhaps “Tajor Cascades”? In any case, the water was soo shallow and murky for swimming.

 

3hrs later Lindsay is officially *done* trekking. See? It’s so hot out, even the hermit crab doesn’t’ want to walk – he’s hitching a ride on Lindsay’s shoe!

Paku Beach is the end of the trail for the day. We’ll wait however long it takes for a boat – we are NOT hiking back

 

Again – a short 10min wait before a boat pulls up, dropping off more tourists. We are super happy to get on board.

 

This Proboscis Monkey just likes to hang out in the mangroves near the HQ – why torture yourself with a long hike, when you can just sit in the shade with some Tiger Beers and wait for the wildlife to show up? Just guard your Pringles.

 

Igor is so ready to get back to Kuching and some refreshing AC

 

A brief wait at the Bako Village fish market before the No. 1 Bus to Kuching pulls up

Day 92: Bako National Park

Kuching was a nice stop for a day-trip and to get chores done, but ultimately, we didn’t travel this far from NYC to hang out in cities – time to explore a new National Park! Bako is famous as the only place in the world where you can see Proboscis Monkeys in the wild, so we allocated 3 days and 2 nights to make sure we had enough time to find & photograph them.

We had asked for bus directions the night before, and everyone confirmed that the No. 1 bus would pick-up around 7AM from any bus stop on the way out of the city (saves us the trip of going all the way to the bus terminal!). Sure enough, a big red bus drives by around 7:10AM and we hop on and buy tickets to Bako – the end of the line.

 

Taking the bus from Kuching to the Bako boat terminal

An hour later, once we reach the boat terminal, we have to book our boat passage to and from the park, and buy our permits. Since the boats don’t start running until 9AM, we have plenty of time for an egg sandwich breakfast and a cup of coffee. By the time the boats get going, there are at least another two dozen tourists waiting for a ride (they must have taken taxis, since the bus only runs once/hour). After a 45min drive, we arrive in the park, and follow the boardwalk to the HQ to check in. Halfway to the main building we spot out first Bearded Pig! We gleefully start snapping pictures – little do we realize that not only will we see dozens of pigs during our stay, *all* the wildlife we see in the park will be right around the Park HQ.

 

Checking in at the jumping off point for Bako

 

Boarding the boat for Bako! We also learn that there are crocodiles in the park, and one in particular has been hanging around the Bako beaches, which means no swimming anywhere in the park

 

On our way to Park HQ, and we see our first Bearded Pig, rooting around near the boardwalk – couldn’t give a shit that he is destroying the lawn

 

Welcome to Bako! Beware of animal attack. Seriously – you can get really close to the animals here – it’s tempting to reach out and pet them…DON’T.

We couldn’t check-in to our room until 2PM, so we dropped off our big bags in the HQ luggage room and picked up a map of the park. The Lintang Trail was the only open loop in the park, and took an estimated 3-4 hours to complete, so it seemed like a good way to kill some time, explore the park, and maybe spot our first monkey! Negatory: other than some mudskippers and crabs, we didn’t see a single animal on the trail.

 

Heading into the Bako jungle on the Lintang Trial – it’s an easy boardwalk for the first kilo or so, but turns into a brutal uphill climb

 

A school of mudskippers, *literally* hanging out in the mangrove beaches of Bako

 

Mudskippers & Hermit Crabs!

 

Taking a lunch break on the Lintang Trail

The “viewpoint” from the top of the first hill – the dense jungle vegetation makes it hard to see the beach below…

 

The trees thin out for a bit at the top of the hill, exposing us to the cruel sun! We’re happy to duck into the shade of the forest again.

 

After 4 hours of trekking, the trail finally leads us back to the beach – if only we could take a swim! Darn that croc!

Once we return to the Park HQ, we pick up our bags and get the keys to our cabin. Online reviews prepared us for the worst, but we didn’t think it was that bad – basic sure, no AC and no hot water for the shower, but honestly a COLD shower was exactly what we wanted after our hike!

We were super excited when we saw that the windows of the cabin had screens – we started to think that maybe we could sleep with the windows open at night. We were warned that monkeys will break into your room if you leave the windows open, but we figured we could air out the room while we sat on the porch and snacked on some cookies. NOPE. About 5min later we heard a crash behind us – sure enough, a macaque had quietly pushed the screen aside and crept into our room and stole our can of Pringles before we noticed the break-in! Lindsay was REALLY pissed off at the monkey, taking the theft very personally. Igor kept trying to reason with her that a wild animal really shouldn’t be held to the same standards as humans, but she refused to cut the thieving monkey any slack.

 

Our cabin in Bako National Park – a detached duplex. Paper-thin walls and no AC, but it was clean and there was a ceiling fan over the bed.

 

Watching a bearded pig walk by our window, before getting down to business and hanging our new mosquito net

 

Macaques EVERYWHERE. As soon as they saw our open windows, they planned their heist. See the thief running off into the jungle with our Pringles?!?

 

Monkeys can be such assholes. After stealing our food, this monkey comes over and starts masturbating in front of Igor – then the whole pack starts fucking with a poor monitor lizard. Jerks.

 

Our first snake of the entire trip. This guy was a lot nicer than the stupid macaques. Just slithering in a bush – not bothering anyone.

After closing down our room, we headed back toward the park HQ to see if we could get some advice on the best place to try and spot Proboscis monkeys at dusk. The ranger suggested either the Delima Trail or the Paku Trail. Since we already walked the Delima Trail as part of our Lintang trek in the morning, we started heading down the beach toward the Paku Trail, when all of a sudden we heard a loud rustling in the trees above us…

PROBOSCIS MONKEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This guy let Igor get about one meter close – no zoom lens needed

A large, male Proboscis Monkey just posing for the camera – look at that belly, THAT NOSE!

 

Celebrating our Proboscis Monkey sighting – we LOVE BAKO!

We no longer had a need to head down to the Paku Trail, so we spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach, checking out the cool rock formations and chasing bearded pigs during sunset. Dinner at the park café was pretty decent (they even had beer!), and we had a beautiful starry sky to end the night. Awesome day.

 

Igor climbing on the beautiful sandstone rock formations

The stunning landscape at Bako’s beach

 

This poor bearded pig just wants to walk on the beach in peace

 

Dinner buffet at the park café

 

Got an ice-cold can of beer? No complaints here!

 

A beautiful end to a great day in Bako

Day 91: Kuching – Fairy Cave & Wind Cave

Readers, I hope you are not tired of caves, because Malaysia has A LOT of caves, and we visited just about all of them. The Fairy Cave and Wind Cave are a short day-trip from Kuching, so we hired a taxi in the morning and headed out early to beat the crowds. Definitely worth the trip – the caves were practically deserted when we visited. Fairy Cave was really pretty – a massive, well-lit chamber filled with crisscrossing paths, flanked by lush greenery growing among the rocks.

 

Our first stop of the day – the Fairy Cave outside Kuching

 

Climbing the four flights of stairs to reach the cave entrance – it least the old stairs have been replaced!

 

Igor venturing into the Fairy Cave

Fairy Cave – a magical place, especially when you have the WHOLE thing yourself!

 

Meandering paths run throughout the cave

 

The Fairy Cave is so green, it feels like a long-lost garden

Wind Cave, on the other hand, was made up of several tunnels that traverse the inside of the mountain – flashlights are essential here! These tunnels are filled with roosting bats and nesting swiftlets, and thanks to the low ceilings, we got up close and personal with the animals!

 

Following the map of the more extensive Wind Cave system

 

Entering the dark passageways of the Wind Cave

 

Hundreds of bats roosting on the ceiling of the Wind Cave

 

The bats are so cute! We find a thousand more inside a crevice

 

We saw tons of swiftlets & their loogie nests – the birds build these nests using their saliva to “glue” twigs and bits of grass together and secure them to the cave walls. Apparently, eating these nests is considered a delicacy in China, so many of the caves in Malaysia allow people to “harvest” the nests at the end of the swiftlet breeding season

 

Eggs & baby swiftlets!

 

Inspecting the cave formations and fossils – including an ancient scallop, proving this area was once under the ocean

 

A fantastic visit to the Wind Cave!

We got back to Kuching in the late afternoon and headed downtown to pick up some lunch and shop for a new mosquito net for our trip to Bako National Park the next day. It took us several hours and Google Translator to finally find a mosquito net. Once again! – maybe just our Capitalist mindset – but you’d think the jumping off point for a major park would have a few stores that carry trekking gear. Instead, every store seems to sell the exact same options of everyday clothing, accessories, etc.

 

Lunch in the food court at the Plaza Merdeka Mall – the only place we could eat in air-conditioning

 

Malls bring out the juveniles in us! Stopping at the arcade for a few games

 

Walking through the outdoor markets, as NO ONE in the mall sells mosquito nets

 

Finally found a Chinese shop in the India Street Market that is the *one* place that sells mosquito nets. The Chinese get it.

 

Walking back along the riverfront in Kuching

 

If we didn’t know before, we certainly now know that the name of the city of Kuching literally translates to “cat” in Bahasa – hence, cat statues EVERYWHERE

We headed back to our hotel in the Chinatown neighborhood and got our bags ready for the next day. Also, after four weeks of washing our clothes n hotel sinks, Lindsay finally broke down and visited a real laundromat.

It’s been a month since our last laundromat (in Australia!) – the 24-hour self-wash in Kuching’s Chinatown was an easy stop – their washers even had detergent pre-loaded!

Day 90: Travel Day

Before leaving the park, we made one last ditch effort spot some wildlife. The animal hide was clearly a bust the night before with a half dozen tour groups stamping along the trail, but we thought there might be a chance to see something if we approached the hide quietly at dawn. We set the alarm and snuck out through the trails at 6AM. A valiant effort, but no payoff.

When we got back to our bungalow, we had 30min to kill before breakfast started, so we packed our bags and turned on the TV. We didn’t realize how loud we were being at 6:45AM until a very angry Swedish tourist walked over to our room, banged sharply on our door and told us to keep it down. Oops!

The animal hide at 6AM. Still no animals.

Since Taman Negara is a very remote location, we didn’t schedule any sight-seeing for the day – our only task was to get back to KL before our 4PM flight. We had spoken to the owner of the Rayyan Hostel the day before about booking seats on the bus, however the buses that go to Kuala Tahan are notorious for last minute cancellations if there are not enough passengers to make the trip worthwhile (most tourists take the 2hr scenic boat ride back down the river to Kuala Tembeling). Sure enough, the bus wasn’t running to Kuala Tahan that day. We had two options: take a minibus to the larger town of Jerentut, where there are plenty of reliable buses, or hire a private car back to KL for 800 RM.

OR…THIRD OPTION: get into a car with a complete stranger we had met the day before who offered to drop us off at the airport on his way home to Malacca!

Road trip to KL with our new Malaysian friend!

The owner of the Rayyan Hostel introduced us to his friend Ned*, who joined us on our morning boat excursion and lunch the day before. He was a very gregarious guy who seemed happy for some company on the road and a little extra gas money (We offered him 280 RM – which is about USD$70 – he didn’t even try to negotiate! We got a huge deal, as the bus & commuter train would have cost us 250 RM). However, Ned warned us that if for any reason we got pulled over by police during our drive, to pretend that we are old friends and not to mention we are paying for the ride.

We left Kuala Tahan around 8AM, and took the scenic route to KL both to avoid highway tolls and because we just weren’t in a hurry. Igor sat up front with Ned and picked his brain about Malaysian culture, especially his thoughts on Islam as the national religion. Ned had a very unique viewpoint, as he is ethnically Indian and was born a Hindu, but converted to Islam as an adult. He himself was on the secular side (he didn’t fast during Ramadan and his wife and daughters do not wear hijab) and believed that one’s true relationship with God was a private matter between the person and God as, “No person can know what is really in your heart.”

Ned explained that while Malaysia allows religions other than Islam, everyone must declare a religion, which is stated on their Government-issued identity card. If someone wants to convert to Islam (like he did), that is allowed, but it is forbidden to convert *from* Islam to something else. Also, as a declared Muslim, he could potentially get in trouble if caught breaking fast during Ramadan! Now, we’ve seen plenty of Muslims eating during the day during our stay in Malaysia, so it’s clear that police crack-down on fast-breakers is not common, but the threat was enough that around lunchtime, Ned asked if we could run into a McDonalds for him (as Westerners, we were not legally required to observe Ramadan)! We ended up finding an Indian food restaurant where he could safely eat lunch in public, as he could “pass” for a Hindu and was not likely to get carded.

 

A delicious lunch with our new friend at a roadside Indian restaurant.

Ned dropped us off at the KL airport with plenty of time to spare. Unfortunately, we discovered that our Priority Pass lounge access only works for international flights, so we had a lot of time to kill in the terminal before our flight to Kuching.

 

This Famous Amos cookie shop was EVIL: they were baking fresh cookies and pumped the terminal full of the delicious smell! (Much better than durian candy – eww!) After a few hours we broke down and had cookies for dinner.

Ready for our next adventure – BORNEO!

*Ned is not his real name

Day 89: Taman Negara – Day 3

For our last full day in the Taman Negara jungle, we booked a couple of boat tours to get us out of the resort. We shopped around town while checking the bus schedule for getting back to the KL airport the next day, and wound up chatting with the owner of the Rayyan Hostel, who gave us a much better deal that the resort prices – score!

For our morning tour, we met up with the long boat at the dock and headed down river to the Kelah Fish Sanctuary, where you could feed the fish. Too bad the water is so murky – you can’t really see the fish unless you are practically in the water. Naturally, that made Igor literally get in the water for a chance to interact with the fish. After the Kelah Sanctuary, we headed out on a short jungle path to Lata Berkoh – a series of cascades and swimming holes – for a refreshing dip, then a quick stop at an animal hide.

 

Heading off on a boat tour to the Kelah Sanctuary

 

Igor feeding fish-food to the kelah. Fishing is prohibited around the sanctuary, so hundreds of fish thrash around each time you toss in the food. But it’s too hard to see them from far away…

 

Naturally, Igor decides to jump in the water to see the fishies better! The fish were swimming all around him – he tried really hard to catch one with a borrowed sarong, but they outsmarted him.

 

Walking through the Taman Negara jungle. Technically, there are elephants in this park – as evident from the large poops found on the side of the trail! – but they are rarely seen.

 

The cascade swimming pools of Lata Berkoh

 

Swimming break!

 

View from the animal hide

 

Apparently this big hole in the ground is a salt lick (I was expecting a big chuck of salt-rock). Animals are attracted to drink the salty water, however the best time to see them is at dawn or dusk. In the middle of the day all we saw were butterflies.

We returned to Kuala Tahan for lunch, then headed out on a second boat toward the Orang Asli traditional village for a blow dart and fire-making demonstration. Normally Igor is very unimpressed by these “cultural activities,” but the Orang Asli village was fascinating – mostly because this was not a tourist re-creation – this was an *actual* aboriginal settlement. You could tell by looking at the huts, these people really lived there. Or at least, they do for now – we learned that the Orang Asli people are nomadic – they typically only live in one location for a few months before moving on to find new hunting & gathering locations. Their lifestyle is very barebones – it has to be if you need to pick up everything and leave at a moment’s notice.

Before returning to the resort, our boat took us “rapid shooting” – basically driving really fast through the rapids so that everyone gets splashed – and stopped on the riverbank for one last swim.

 

Our guide introduces us to the tribe elder at the Orang Asli village, and explains how the aboriginals make their famous poisonous blowdarts, which they still use today to hunt game in the Taman Negara jungle. Only the Orang Asli are permitted to hunt within the park – mainly birds, small rodents and monkeys (not tigers or elephants, although those do live in the park).

 

Show & Tell! The elder passed around a pipe and dart for us to hold

 

Our guide also gave us a look at some “live” darts with poison on them. Unlike the poisonous darts of the Amazonian tribes (who use the poison from frogs), the Orang Asli use the sap from Ipoh trees. The poison is strong enough to kill an animal within 10min of being shot.

 

Firemaking demo – using the friction from string rubbed on a special type of wood to create a spark in the tinder

 

The tribal elder shows the group how he makes the darts, melting tree sap to form the tail of the arrow, then using “sandpaper leaves” to smooth out the edges & point

 

No blowdart demo is complete without target practice!

 

The thatch-weaved houses of the Orang Asli

 

Heading back to the boat after a great visit to the Orang Asli village

 

Time for some splashy fun! Shooting through the rapids and swimming in the river

Our final activity for the day was our Night Walk, which we organized with the resort. However, had we known that the group size would be 12 people walking single-file down the same boardwalk we had hiked the day before, we would have saved our money. The sound of our massive group, and the two other tours ahead of us, would certainly scare away any self-respecting animal that might be in the jungle. The only thing we saw were bugs. Actually, Igor and Lindsay didn’t even get to see the bugs, because we ended up at the back of the line and with a group that size, we couldn’t see or hear anything the guide was pointing out. When the tour ended at another animal hide (yeah, don’t hold your breath), we took advantage of our spot at the end of the line to book it out of the jungle and beat everyone back to the resort. Oh well – not everything can be spectacular.

 

Seriously? What are we going to see on this Night Walk with this massive group ahead of us?

 

No animals at the hide. Big surprise.

Day 88: Taman Negara – Day 2

We had two full days at Taman Negara, so we decided to split up all the possible activities so we didn’t do too much in one day. Since we were feeling fresh and well rested, we decided to do a little day-trekking. Taman Negara is very proud of their canopy walk – which they claim is the “longest canopy walk in the world”. Igor read reviews from people complaining that the canopy walk can get very crowded, so we decided to get up early and be the first ones out the gate. The hotel manager told us it opened at 9AM, so we were sitting out front at 8:45AM. Turns out it opens at 9AM on Fridays only, and 9:30AM every other day, however, when the park staff showed up at a quarter past, they let us up as soon as they finished their morning rounds.

 

It’s a beautiful day in the jungle – view of the Kuala Tahan village across the river

 

Encoraging words as we venture into the jungle toward the canopy walk

 

The path to the canopy walk is a boardwalk, but Igor is taking no chances! Trying to prevent getting leeched with girl’s hair-ties

 

First ones on the Taman Negara Canopy Walk @ 9:15AM

 

Not the most exciting moment on our trip, but who doesn’t enjoy a good canopy walk? It was very nice.

The canopy walk only took about 15min to complete, so at 9:30AM, we needed something to do. The manager at the hotel had recommended we do the hike up Bukit Terisek as the path up is the same way as the canopy walk, so even though we had only brought one bottle of water, we decided to go for it.

 

Reaching the summit of Bukit Terisek – no problem!

 

Rockin’ our long hair-cuts on the hilltop

View of the jungle from the top of Bukit Terisek

Once at the top, we had to decide how to get down – should we return the way we came? A bit boring, but we hadn’t really planned to do a large hike after the canopy walk. Or, should we continue down the trail and see if it was a loop? We had a map with us – unfortunately it was a map of the entire Taman Negara Park. Given that it is the largest park in Malaysia (at 2500 square KM, its name literally translates to “*The* National Park”), our little 2KM trail was a very tiny section and hard to read. In the end we decided it was very early in the day to just turn back – surely the path is a loop! – so we continued down the trail on the other side of the hill.

 

Heading down Bukit Terisek, our fancy boardwalk is suddenly in terrible condition or nonexistent

The walk down the hill is very steep, and we keep going forward simply because we don’t want to climb back up. However, while the path for the first half of our morning trek was extremely well maintained and well-marked, the second part of the path was falling apart and we had not seen a single sign since we left the summit of Terisek. Lindsay was starting to get really nervous – it was now mid-day, we were over halfway through our meager water supply and had no idea how long this loop would be. We finally reached a river, which we were pretty sure we remembered running along the left side of the hotel. Surely if we followed it, we would eventually run into the hotel!

If the trail had only been better marked (or if we had enough spare water for the whole day) we would have kept going, however the path split about 50 meters along the river without any signs indicating which way was which. Lindsay put her foot down (as Inna has recently sent us an email warning us, “Don’t do anything stupid.”) and insisted we turn back while we still could. It would suck climbing Bukit Terisek again, but at least we knew we would get back to the hotel within 2 hours.

 

Lindsay crying because we don’t have enough water to safely continue. Hiking back up Bukit Terisek

 

This jungle doesn’t even have any animals! Just bugs.

 

Igor chasing all the butterflies

 

Returning to the hotel exhausted, and very disappointed. When we looked at the park map later, we realized we were on the right trail and turned back when we were ¾ of the way back! Argh!

We decided to hide out from the jungle heat for the rest of the day, and chill in our resort AC. We booked a Night Walk for the evening, and headed across the river for dinner at one of the floating restaurants in the village. As we were finishing dinner, rain clouds started to roll in, and since we didn’t feel like walking in the rain, we postponed our night walk for another day. Whatever – we earned the right to be a bit lazy.

 

Crossing the river for a cheap, delicious dinner before the storm hit

Day 87: Taman Negara – Day 1

Our next destination is a pretty popular stop on the typical tourist route. Our hostel had several posters advertising transfers from Tanah Rata to a handful of locations – Penang for diving and Taman Negara for jungle trekking. Our tour the day before had been great, so we decided to book our transfer with the hostel as well. At 8AM the minibus picked us up direct from the hostel, and drove us to the Kuala Tembeling Jetty where we had a 2-hour wait for the boat transfer to the Kuala Tahan village just across the river from Taman Negara.

We had heard from the German couple we met the day before that Taman Negara was notorious for leeches – the girl had apparently gotten 20 leeches during her trek, yikes! – so we walked around the small town to see if we could buy leech socks. Not a single store sold them. We even asked at the Taman Negara Park Office (which had a ticket counter in town) where we could buy leech socks and the guy said, “Maybe in the village.” We asked him to confirm if there were leeches in the park and he yes, “Yes – but don’t worry – they only like Swedish and Germans!”

Maybe it’s just our American capitalist thinking, but if *we* had a store in a town right next to a major national park, we’d stock some leech stocks. Just putting up a sign that says, “WE SELL LEECH SOCKS!” would scare tourists into thinking they need them – you could charge whatever you want and make a fortune! Best thing is, no one would ever ask for their money back if it turns out there aren’t any leeches – you can just claim, “No – the socks just really work!” Just an idea, people of Kuala Tembeling…

 

Minibus transfer from Tanah Rata to Kuala Tembeling

 

An early lunch at the Kuala Tembling boat jetty during our 2-hr wait.

At 2PM, we boarded the first of three covered long boats for our scenic 2-hr ride down river to the park. We were warned that the river is quite low at the moment – as it is the dry season – so all the male tourists would be expected to occasionally get out of the boat and help push if it gets stuck in shallow water. Sure enough, we hit a couple of shallow spots – Igor dutifully hopped out and helped move us along. Everything was going just fine until we hit another rocky patch and heard a loud metal clang. The boat slowed to a halt, and our driver steered us to the shore. We were in the middle of nowhere, so clearly this wasn’t our stop. The driver then started walking in the middle of the river very slowly…kinda like someone who’s dropped something in the water…uh, oh, did we lose a propeller blade?!

No one is exactly sure what the problem was – the driver didn’t speak any English, and there were no Malaysian tourists on the boat – just all Westerners. The driver was trying to call someone on his cell (although we doubt he had service out there). Eventually the other two boats heading for Kuala Tahan passed by…but they didn’t stop! We had been sitting on the side of the river in the afternoon heat for over an hour – during which time our driver quietly swam to the other side of the river and disappeared into the bush – when our driver finally returned and got the engine to start working. We proceeded very slowly, but we eventually got to the park just before sunset. Over-heated, tired and hungry, we did nothing else that day but check into our hotel room (which thankfully had AC, and even cable TV!) and eat dinner at the resort restaurant.

 

Our longboat for the river transfer to Kuala Tahan

 

Igor getting out to push the boat through the rocky shallows

 

The scenic views from the boat – including our first sighting of water buffalo!

 

Our driver taking off across the river after our engine trouble. Taking it all in stride, I’m sure we’ll be moving soon

 

Not moving soon.

Day 86: Cameron Highlands – Day 2

We had a busy, busy sight-seeing day scheduled for our only full-day in the Cameron Highlands – we booked a half-day tour through our hostel, Father’s Guesthouse, to visit the BOH Tea Plantation and the Mossy Forest. On the way back, we had the option to get dropped off in the neighboring town of Brinchang to continue exploring on foot. We needed a lot of energy to keep going, so we had a hearty breakfast at the hostel café – as long as no sickies cough on us and get us ill, all will be fine.

A girl was coughing up a lung behind us – Lindsay has now developed an “I hate sick people” face

Our tour guide, Francis, picked us up from the hostel in a 4×4, along with a French tourist (we’ll call him “France) and a German couple (yup – another one). On the way to the Mossy forest, we stopped at the BOH tea plantation for a quick photo-op (we would do a full tour on our way back down). It was so beautiful – there was even a bride and groom getting their wedding photos taken along the roadside as well.

Quick stop in the BOH tea fields, where our guide gives us a basic introduction into tea harvesting. While many postcards show native women walking through tea bushes with wicker baskets strapped to their heads, that is just for show. All harvesting is now mechanical – basically a team of two will slice off the top of the bushes with a hedge trimmer with a bag on the end to collect all the young, tender leaves.

 

So many great photo-ops in the tea field!

 

This poor couple was trying to get their wedding photos taken when a half-dozen tour groups showed up.

 

Inspired by the romantic scenery…

The BOH Tea Plantation

Before hiking into the Mossy Forest, our guide took us to the top of Mt. Brinchang for a bird’s eye view of the Cameron Highlands. There are several “jungle walks” in the Mossy Forest (including some multi-day treks, for those who want to find the big stinky Rafasia flower) – our guide took us through an unmarked trail he preferred because it was quieter. Indeed, it was – the moss acted like sound-proofing, muffling any ambient noise outside the trees. The Mossy Forest truly lived up to its name – it felt like we were on a Lord of the Rings movie-set.

 

Climbing the observation tower on Mt. Brinchang

View of the Cameron Highlands from Mt. Brinchang

 

Descending into the Mossy Forest

 

The forest was magically creepy – you could easily pretend you were on an adventure in a fairytale land!

Igor exploring the Mossy Forest

 

Moss!

 

A pitcher plant and a thistle – you know – for a bit of variety

 

Back to the moss.

After our little hike, we drove back to the BOH Tea Plantation for a self-guided tour of the factory & museum. The BOH Tea Estate was founded by a Scot back in the early 1900s and is still a family-run business – the granddaughter of the original owner is the current CEO. In the factory there is a short hallway with windows looking in on the different production departments so that you can see the five stages in progress: Withering, Rolling, Fermentation, Drying and Sorting. After all that learning we made a stop in the cafeteria for – you guessed it! – a pot of tea!

 

Short, self-guided tour of the BOH Tea Factory

 

We have never been so thirsty for a spot of tea

 

Enjoying a pot of BOH Tea…UMMPH!

View from the BOH cafeteria

When we reached Brinchang, we asked the driver to let us out. The German couple and France also wanted to do some additional sight-seeing, so they got out as well. Since we were all planning to see the same attractions, we fell in step with the German couple. France, however, must not have wanted to hang out as the fifth wheel with two couples, as he power-walked ahead of us. We kept running into him throughout e day. Whatever – France can be a loner if he wants to.

 

Visiting the Sam Poh Temple in Brinchang

 

Walking through the streets of Bringchang, we saw tons of homes and hostels with elevated strawberry gardens above their roofs – giving us new ideas for redesigning our backyard garden when we get back!

 

The Cameron Highlands have strawberry-fever – there are giant strawberry statues all over town. It’s impossible to not get a craving, so we headed over to the Big Red Strawberry Farm

 

So much strawberry!

 

Igor embracing the love of the strawberry

 

In addition to strawberries, they also grow a fair amount of lettuce – this pic is for my Mama – getting my GREENS!

 

While a taxi back to Tanah Rata was only 10RM (USD $2.50), it was still early in the afternoon, so the four of us decided to take the jungle route

 

The German couple had taken a photo of the map of the jungle trails the day before so we knew which trail we needed to be on (No. 3 to No. 5) – even so, the signs on the trail were so far apart we were constantly worried we were going the wrong way. Apparently we were not the only ones – about halfway into the walk, helpful graffiti starting showing up on the official signs, giving more detailed instructions on how far you had to go.

 

Ending the day with another delicious Indian food dinner at Caermon AA Cury House, and bringing a bottle of wine back to the hostel

Days 85: Cameron Highlands – Day 1

Today was mostly a travel day from Kuala Lumpur to the Cameron Highlands – a district high up in the hill-country that is famous for tea production, strawberry farms and a very mossy forest. What was particularly appealing to Lindsay, is that the higher elevation almost means that it is significantly cooler than the almost every other destination in Malaysia – she needed a break from the equatorial heat!

Getting to Tanah Rata, the main city in the Cameron Highlands, was incredibly simple – we took a taxi to the TBS Bus station, bought tickets from the kiosk (first try, this time!), and we were off in an air-conditioned coach bus. Simple, no hassle – a far cry from some of our Indonesian experiences (much to Igor’s appointment – he misses the “adventure”). We had two choices of bus operator to get to Tanah Rata – one which is known to have cockroaches and one that is known to downgrade everyone to a non-AC minibus if they don’t have enough passengers. Since they were both the same price and left around the same time, we selected the cockroach bus. Sure enough, we spotted some crawling in the florescent lights on the ceiling of the bus – but other than that the drive was very pleasant. We even pulled out our laptops and started to get some work done, at least up until the halfway point when we started going up twisting mountain roads. After about 15min, we both started getting carsick and had to put the computers away.

 

Buying tickets at the TBS Bus station, and waiting for our bus at our gate. Easy-peasy.

We arrived in Tanah Rata in the late afternoon – too late to do any sight-seeing activities, so we just checked into our hostel (uh-oh – a hostel! Lindsay strikes again!) and organized an excursion for the next day. After getting settled, we walked through town, exploring the food market and climbing the hill to the former Catholic convent (now a school). For dinner, we checked TripAdvisor’s list of top restaurants and had a FANTASTIC Indian food dinner at Singh Chapati – apparently there is a pretty large Indian population in the Cameron Highlands, and Tanah Rata is full of Indian restaurants to choose from. After dinner, we picked up a bottle of wine from the local minimart, and relaxed in our room.

 

The former SK Catholic Convent – now a primary school

 

Tanah Rata Food Market – a feast for the eyes as well as the tummy! Fruits, meats, sweets – all of it looked so tasty!

 

Fryers cooking up chicken and dumplings in the Tanah Rata food market

 

Loving the tudor-style buildings in Tanah Rata

 

Very delicious and very filling Indian dinner

 

Kicking back at the hostel with a couple of mugs of wine

Day 84: The Batu Caves

So even though we knew it was going to be a disappointing tourist trap, we planned a day trip out of the city to visit the Batu Caves. We found an *awesome* bakery on our way to the monorail where we had breakfast before heading out on the KL public transit system.

Coffee and pastries! #omnomnom

 

It’s like an “Alice Through the Looking Glass” version of New York – instead of tickets, the kiosk gives you plastic tokens – let’s give these poker chips a whirl!

 

The subways in KL come with some extra rules: No Chewing Gum, No Making-Out, and no men in the Women’s Car. We found some empty seats next to the window, only to realize two stops later when an announcement came over the loudspeaker that we were in the Women’s Car and had to move.

There are four caves at the Batu Caves – we visited 3 out of 4 before we called it a day. The first (and our favorite) was the Dark Cave, which focuses on the natural flora and fauna of the limestone caves, rather than religious or cultural uses. The Dave Cave is near the top of the staircase to the main Temple Cave – it’s quite a climb to the top, so we decided to take a breather and go on the 45min Educational Tour for 35 RM each (about USD $20 total). We stuck close to the front so we could see everything our knowledgeable guide, Zarris, pointed out – which unfortunately wasn’t much: mostly bat guano and bugs. Apparently the rarest spider in the world – the Trapdoor Spider – lives in the Dark Cave, but they are really hard to spot. According to our guide, there are only estimated to be about 250 spiders left, and they are only found in the Batu Caves (their scientific name, Liphistius Batuensis, even specifies the word “Batu”) – apparently there are bug collectors out there who want to catch and pin the body of the “rarest spider in the word” to a poster board. Never thought I’d feel sorry for a spider…

 

Lord Murugan statue guarding the stairway to the Batu Caves

 

Gearing up with a hard hat for the Dark Cave guided walk

 

Our guide, Zarris, pointing out all the bugs – including a y tiny scorpion (about the size of a thumbnail)

 

Natural wonders of the Dark Cave

After the Dark Cave we continued up to the Temple Cave, where there are several Hindu shrines. Since we are more interested in nature, this cave was not our cup of tea, as all the worshippers and tourists made it really difficult to admire the cave’s natural beauty.

 

A hungry macaque enjoying a coconut snack and the view of KL in the distance

 

A very busy atmosphere at the Temple Cave

 

The Hindu Shrine inside Temple Cave

 

Luckily Lindsay brought her own sarong as the dress code on the Temple Cave forbids shorts for women

The final cave we visited left a really bad impression – the Cave Villa was just awful, for many reasons:

 

There is a reptile house full of sad, sad animals – worst zoo experience possible. There were so many animals, like this turtle, that were kept in tiny cages. Apparently people think it’s OK to treat live animals like a wishing-well.

 

Koi pond in the front of Cave Villa, with LOTS of fish, but most of them were kept in an enclosed net.

 

We stayed an extra 45min to catch the next dance performance, which was just terrible. With a tourist attraction as big at the Batu Caves, you’d think the attraction would put in a little effort – this was painful – like watching a bad elementary school recital. The girl with the orange sarong was at least trying.

 

An Art Gallery and Museum Gallery with statues depicting various Hindu gods/legends would have been interesting if we could follow the context. But many of the Hindu gods have multiple names, and the descriptions kept changing the name, so we were just lost.

 

Trying to keep track of all the gods

 

Not following the story – sorry.

We were so done with Batu by the time we left Cave Villa, we skipped the Ramayana Cave. No idea if it’s worth a visit – someone ever goes, let us know what we missed. Instead, we headed back to KL, picked up some groceries for dinner and relaxed with a bottle of wine.

 

Missed the Ramayana Cave – first one when you get off the train at Batu – probably should have started with that one. Oh, well.

 

Back in the city enjoying a quiet evening in