Blogs from Sabah, Malaysia, Asia
May 14th 2012
Today was an amazing day. An epic day. I got to do something that few people in the world will ever get to do. I spent my day wrangling orang-utans. Last week I arrived in Borneo to start my 2 months volunteering at the Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre near Sandakan, Sabah. After a week of quarantine (primates are very susceptible to human diseases, and do not have the anti-bodies to defend themselves against most of what we give them), today was the first day the real work began. While here, I will do 4 different rotations, each one helping with a different aspect of the work done at Sepilok. My first rotation is in the outside nursery. The outside nursery is where the 2 to 6 year olds live, and they are taught critical tree climbing and ... read more
April 26th 2012
When Sunjay first told me about Borneo, I admit I had to research it. Borneo had been on his list of destinations for some time and when we had an opportunity to take a vacation during Maya's Spring break, Sunjay contacted an agent from Borneo Adventures and made all the arrangements. It was quite reasonably priced package given that we had decent accommodation everywhere with breakfast and lunch included most days. The TV shows Survivor and Amazing Grace have been shot in Borneo. From my research, I discovered that Borneo is the 3rd largest island in the world after Greenland and New Guinea. Interestingly, it is divided among three countries Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia with 73% owned by Indonesia followed by Malaysia (26%) and Brunei... read more
April 18th 2012
Sorry for the delay in this blog we have been so busy so ive got lots to write about.(Weve also been out of internet range) We started our Borneo adventure in Kuching (Kuching also means cat in Malaysian.) After only one night there we headed off to Pontianak, Kalimantan, Indonesia. One of the highlights about Pontianak was visiting the equator. Again we only had one night there. The following day we headed off to Pangularbun. We were met by our tour giude Edi. He was our tour giude for a three day klotok(a wooden boat)ride. (And we also had a learner tour gide helping Edi out Abu) The klotok took us to Tanjun Puting national park. At each station there was a feeding platform where rangers put out some bannans for the orangutans to eat.There was ... read more
KL, Semporna, Kalimantan River, Sepilok, KK
Published: April 16th 2012Asia » Malaysia » Sabah » Kota Kinabalu
April 8th 2012
We flew from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur in the peninsular part of Malaysia. After getting used the the "coolish" cloudy skies of Indonesia it took some getting used to the sun. My tan from Australia seems to be taking good care of me and I find I'm not even tanning much more and just takin my usual precautions to cover with my sarong and stay out of the sun. It's always nice to get your hit of vitamin D. We spent a few days in KL, walking around, eating good Indian food, visiting the shops in Little China and Little India, visiting the eleven story shopping mall with an amusement park inside and going to the Batu caves. I'd say the last part was my highlight. The caves are a Hindu place of worship and have ... read more
March 27th 2012
Today we didn’t really get up to a lot. We went on foot all day to just have a look around our immediate area. We went and had breakfast at Starbucks – coffee, danishes, and muffins. Good fill to start the day. We walked a few blocks. One thing we have noticed is that although most of the drains here are open, it is nowhere near as stinky as some areas we have been in Asia. After walking around the block we came across Central Market shipping mall. We had a look around and it had the usual department store, food court, many brand name stores, (although not high end) as well as market type stalls. Was good for a look around but nearly all malls are similar in any case to look around. We went ... read more
March 26th 2012
Today started with Danika being up before everyone (not actually sure of the time as we woke up to find her sitting out on the balcony reading) as we had booked Dani and Zav in to be “Ranger for the day” at the Rasa Ria Resort where they have an Orang Utan rehabilitation centre. Before heading off to the Rasa we headed to the Gaya Street markets that are held every Sunday in KK. We got there by 8 and it was hot, noisy and bustling with people. There was a lot of the same same throughout the market but they were still worth a look around. There was lots of souvenirs, jewellery, cheap and crappy toys, clothing, handbags, live fish, puppies, kittens, guinea pigs, mice, turtles, and even toad wallets there was local coffee beans ... read more
March 26th 2012
Today was a rather massive day...We woke up slightly later than we would have liked this morning and didn’t get on the road till 9am by the time we had breakfast and got the kiddies organised to leave for our drive to Mt Kinabalu. The drive to Mt Kinabalu took about 2 hrs, but somewhere along the way we took a wrong road so it maybe could have taken slightly less time. The drive was nothing like we expected. I expected it to be fairly flat with Mt Kinabalu just sticking up. It wasn’t this way at all. It is very mountainous the whole way. Not easy driving at all. Once at Mt Kinabalu National Park we decided to do the walk up to view the mountain and the waterfall. By the time we got up ... read more
March 24th 2012
After having a great night’s sleep we were up and had breakfast and Stu went down to the pool with Danika and Zavanna while I stayed here so Frankie could have a sleep after breakfast. The pool is a fairly decent size and the girls even got some laps in. The apartment we are staying in was built in 2000 so is only 12 years old. The inside is absolutely lovely with everything a family like us could need. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, (not that we cook on holidays – would rather enjoy and try the foods the area has to offer ;) ) balcony overlooking the pool area as well as out to sea (that won’t be for much longer though as there is another hotel and shopping mall being built right ... read more
March 23rd 2012
Well today we are setting off on our family holiday to Malaysia after getting into to bed at 11:30pm we were out of bed at 4:30 to drive to Coolangatta to catch the plane. After check-in we grabbed some brekkie and a cuppa with Scotty Prince and the Titians. They were on their way to play the warriors. They’re some big boys, man! We hopped on the plane and got settled in for the 8 ½ hour flight to K.L. We managed to get seats at the back of the plane so we could have a bit more room with Frankie which was great. We soon took off and made our way over the top end of OZ... We soon had lunch and the kiddies were keeping themselves busy drawing and asking all sorts of questions. ... read more
February 29th 2012
When planning our trip, we were keen to do something other than pass through the places we visited. Looking for volunteering opportunities abroad can be a daunting prospect. Thankfully, Ben’s mum is still in contact with “Borneo Anne” Keyworth, who set up a children’s home in Kota Kinabalu (the capital of the Malaysian state of Sabah), almost 25 years ago. Bukit Harapan (Hill of Hope) is home to 44 children and young adults who’ve suffered abandonment, neglect or abuse. Many have physical or mental impairments. But all are loved and cared for by Anne, her daughter Audra with husband Jerry, and their dedicated multi-talented team. There we arrived, not knowing quite what to expect. Certainly, we didn’t anticipate gaining a whole new family, and extending our stay to well over a month. As soon as we ... read more
