Malaysia II - Kuching, KL and Melaka

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(M) Mulu was pleasant. We met some nice people, learnt a fair bit about conservation, and did some nice walks. But wild jungles or an epic experience, it was not. Flying into Kuching we were encouraged by seeing a long snake-like river running through expansive mangroves on its way to the sea, and thought perhaps Kuching might prove to be a touch more exciting. So we did our utmost to make the most of our time there, and did manage a few great adventures although it has to be said that the main reason we enjoyed Kuching was our hostel called Nomad. The hostel was extremely well decked out, comfortable and run by an Iban guy called Chris with some help from a few of his awesome friends.

It was also very centrally located, so we rented a scooter and explored the surrounding area ad nauseam in search of Orang Utans, Proboscis monkeys, Irrawaddy dolphins and whatever other rare indigenous creatures we could lay our eyes on. We were successful on two out of three counts, although – surprise, surprise! - one can only see Orang Utans in Borneo in sanctuaries when they descend on feeding platforms. Nevertheless, seeing them so close was pretty incredible and we were also treated to a visit by Ritchie, the grand daddy who sports arms two and a half meters in length! They are quite incredible creatures given their size and the way they manoeuvre so effortlessly through the trees, often resting on nothing more than a hanging vine to eat their daily rations. The physical and behavioural resemblance to humans, especially of the mothers with their young babies, is quite uncanny and you really do appreciate how close we are on the evolutionary scale – well, some of us anyway!

The quest to see the Irrawaddy dolphins and Proboscis monkeys was a tad more tricky as we had to find someone with a boat to take us through the river mouth and into the mangrove forest. Again, the organised tours were prohibitively expensive so we jumped on the scooter and went to the local villages near the harbour to proposition some locals. After a few hours of fruitless searching, all roads seemed to lead back to the same two individuals who arrange organised tours, and it dawned on us just how different Malaysia is to the rest of South East Asia – in a good way for Malaysians but no so much for independent travellers, as Nina has already alluded to. For all the right reasons the people of Malaysia are pretty well off and their standard of living is comparably much higher than in other SE Asian countries. You see precious few down and out people in the streets and their way of life affords them far more modern luxuries than their neighbours. So finding someone with a boat on the look out for a quick buck was extraordinarily difficult! But persistence is a wonderful thing and after negotiating hard with some guys down at the harbour we arranged to go out for a couple of hours at about half the cost of the organised tours. Matt and Nina - 1; Malaysian Tourism Board - 0.

The tour was excellent and given it was just the two of us we could pretty much go where we pleased, so we cruised along one of the tiny tributories for a bit into the heart of the mangroves. Although the dolphins remained elusive we did see a few Proboscis monkeys, and the scenery at dusk was quite incredible. They are peculiar looking creatures; their big, bell-shaped noses having suitably earned them the nickname “the Dutchmen of Borneo”. This sighting, though, paled in comparison to what we were in store for in Bako National Park, set on some exquisite coastline just north of Kuching. After a long jungle walk on the first day to a beautiful beach set in between two sheer cliffs, we returned to our bungalow quite exhausted by the idea that we had to go on yet another trek to look for the monkeys. To our complete surprise and joy, we didn’t even have to venture past our balcony, because as we arrived we saw a troop of Proboscis monkeys jumping between some trees overhead and we spent the next half an hour sitting and watching them covorting no more than three meters away. This, coupled with the fact that the long tailed macaques were out in their droves and wild bush pigs were roaming around doing their daily forraging, meant it really was like something out of an episode of Planet Earth. On day two we did a couple of less remarkable but very scenic forest walks, and our overnight trip to Bako really was one of the highlights of Malaysia given its uniquely beautiful surroundings.

Unfortunately back in Kuching, we missed out on what would no doubt have been a travel highlight. Chris sometimes takes a chosen few of his guests to a traditional Iban longhouse (a communal house shared by a number of families) deep in the jungle, providing a truly unique sample of Iban daily life (as opposed to tourist villages). But he had just got back from a trip the day after we arrived and he couldn’t leave so soon again. It’s a real shame as Chris deemed us “very suitable” to fit in with the vivacious, drink-loving Iban people, and perhaps the experience would have been the saviour of our opinion of Borneo - but as the title says, you win some, you lose some.

Nevertheless, we had plenty to keep us occupied and Chris and his friends were excellent hosts, taking us out to their favourite local restaurants for some great seafood, while we spent many an entertaining evening hanging out with them in the hostel drinking cheap Chinese beer while he strummed away at his guitar. A great place to chill for a few days to catch our breath.

It has to be said that the food in Malaysia, as expected, was a real highlight and we had many a memorable culinary experience. The cheap Chinese beer, on the other hand, became par for the course because another disappointment about Malaysia was the cost of alcohol - not entirely surprising for a Muslim country, of course, but it doesn’t bode well for the budget traveller. Prices also go up once a year on everything across the board, and while we were in Kuching the beers at the local supermarket more than doubled in price overnight! So we took this as a sign that it was time to move on, and with much excitement we boarded the plane for Kuala Lumpur, where thanks to Angus (from Mabul island) an empty 25th floor, two bedroom serviced apartment suite awaited us.

Now I can’t think of any better way to illustrate our excitement on arriving in the luxurious apartment than to mention Nina’s little dance, which more closely resembled retarded star jumping than dancing, but you get the point. And wipe the smile off her face you could not! When you’ve been on the road for as long as we had by then, it really was a dream come true and it wasn’t long before we had our clothes unpacked in cupboards, had a load in the washing machine and were tucked up in our dressing gowns on our own sofas in front of the 60-inch plasma screen, with a fabulous view of the thunderstorm ferociously lashing at the city centre 25 stories below. Welcome to KL!

Not surprisingly, that pretty much summed up the rest of the week we spent in the flat, but we did take in a few of the KL sights. However, when you’ve got free breakfast in a great little Italian restaurant around the corner thrown into the deal, two swimming pools, one of which is on the roof of the building at a cool 30 stories up, with a jacuzzi and a view of the Petronas Towers in the background, anyone would be hard pressed to leave the comforts of home. Despite the extravagant cost of eating in (there’s an abundance of great, cheap food everywhere) we did also cook a couple of times in the flat, savouring every minute of the experience and every drop of the bottle of red wine we treated ourselves to on each occassion – trust me a backpacker’s luxury given the cost! When we did venture out, we explored the city and some of its shopping malls, and in the evenings took to the streets and markets to enjoy some great food and a few of the excellent bars frequented by a burgeoning ex-pat community. We both felt right at home and agreed that this was a city where one could live an extremely comfortable existence – at least for a while.

We broke up our week in KL with a weekend trip to Singapore to see one of Nina’s best friends, Dave, and his lovely Singaporean girlfriend Natalie, which was absolutely a highlight of our SE Asian adventure. We had left with muted expectations - Nina visited four years ago, and let’s just say she was less than gushing about the place - but Nina’s excitement about seeing her old friend Dave was pretty near stratospheric so it was with all the best intentions that we decided to go. When we boarded the bus for our five hour journey, saw how ultra comfortable it was, had the world’s quickest border crossing and arrived at Singapore bus station exactly five hours after departure, we realised that we were entering a completely different world... and that’s exactly what Singapore is.

For me as a first time visitor it had the wow-factor of the rich man’s playground that it is, but despite the extraordinarily elaborate high rises and artificial just about everything, it still had a certain degree of charm and Nina found it to be considerably more soulfull than on her previous encounter. On a visit downtown one evening, young people spilled out onto the sidewalks in front of just about every little bar and cafe, and when we went out clubbing in Clark Quay we found ourselves walking around streets covered by giant air-conditioned awnings with back-to-back bars and clubs of every description imaginable, oozing with young, up and coming trendy Singaporeans who clearly have a lot of money to burn... As we very quickly learned in Singapore, nothing comes cheap! Fortunately for us backpackers, Dave and Natalie were more than generous hosts and proved to be excellent contacts - Natalie works for one of the nightclub owners so we paid no entrance fees and drinks were a fraction of the price we should have paid. So we had an absolute blast! Actually, rather counter-intuitively, despite alcohol being so expensive there we still managed to drink more in Singapore over the four days than we did pretty much anywhere on our travels... perhaps that says something about the company we were keeping ;-)

Dave and Natalie live in a very cool apartment with an English guy called Julian and Shasha, his lovely Chinese girlfriend, all of whom were extraordinary hosts. They showed us around the city, took us to some of the best little eateries and restaurants in town, treated us to an extravagant barbeque at the apartment complex’s giant swimming pool and partied with us into the wee hours of... erm... pretty much every morning we were there! Excellent form all round and heaps of fun. We’re already trying to find excuses for going back!

One of the absolute highlights, though, was the food. Given it’s mix of Malay, Indian and Chinese influences (but predominantly Chinese), the cuisine is out of this world. And you really don’t have to spend a lot of money to get it. Nina introduced me to the ‘steamboat’, which she had been bashing on about for as long as I can remember – and boy was it not a disappointment. The concept is simple but the result is spectacular: they put a bowl over a low flame in the middle of the table and fill it with spicy soup (think tom yum) on one side and chicken broth on the other; then you go to the buffet and take as much of absolutely anything you like from prawns and crabs to beef and chicken to dumplings and fishballs to broccoli and string mushrooms; drop them in the broth to cook and then dip them in a sauce you’ve concocted from the sauce counter and voila! Sounds complicated but it’s culinary fireworks and washed down with lashings of cold beer, it’s an ultra-social outing. With Shasha there to do the ordering (not safe otherwise!) we also went to an authentic Sichuan restaurant in Chinatown where the food was literally mouth-numbingly good... If you’ve never tried it, do. It’s Chinese food at its best, but not for the faint-hearted!

Given the trip to Singapore and the easily justifiable amount of time we spent in KL, we were left with little time to explore more of the Malaysian peninsula although we did make time to visit Melaka, an extremely quaint little town on the west coast. Having been dropped off outside a huge and extremely ugly shopping centre in an utterly charmless part of town trying to find a hostel from our guide book, we were completely despondent when we arrived. But after switching to plan B, we made our way to the old Chinese quarter where we were relieved to find the other, delightfully bohemian side of the city where we would spend a very pleasant next three days. The Chinese quarter is alongside a canal which is beautifully flanked by old buildings, quirky restaurants and bars and colourful flowerbeds. The tiny streets are pretty much the preserve of pedestrians - bar a few mopeds and the occassional car squeezing past – and we spent quite a bit of time just walking around window shopping in some of the great little shops and art galleries and again eating excellent food from the restaurants and food stalls. We also met some great people but it’s a pretty small place and after three days, the prospect of another couple of days in our luxury apartment before flying to Indonesia was enough to lure us back to KL.

This proved to be a God send, because Nina was ill for the next couple of days with terrible stomach pains (the abundance of rich, spicy food eventually took its toll!) and after a trip to the doctor and being dosed up with pills of every discription, there was no better cure than the couch and the TV, so we didn’t venture out too much on our return leg. But it meant we had ample time to get some much needed blogging and internet research in and it also gave me time to shop around for a dive computer ahead of our underwater ventures in Indonesia. Having also taken advantage of some good shopping in Singapore, with our new camera, hard drive and dive computer in tow and with Nina back to near 100%, we headed for the airport, sad to have to come down to earth but brimming with excitement about heading for Indonesia, our last - but unbeknown to us at the time - probably favourite country in all of our travels.

Reflecting on our almost full month in Malaysia, as Nina said it was on the whole a bit disappointing. Although we did take away some excellent memories and made some good friends, so all was not lost. Diving at Sipadan was undoubtedly one of the highlights of our trip and thanks to a sterling effort on Nina’s part I had one of my best birthdays. She even managed to produce a birthday cake on an island in the middle of the Celebes sea, for heaven’s sake! The little that we saw of Borneo’s natural beauty we had to go a long way to find, but the glimpses of it that we got were very rewarding. The caves and landscape in the national parks were exquisite and the creatures of the Borneo jungle extraordinary. I sincerely hope that the environmentalists have their day in the sun so that the next generation might still get to see them rather than having to rely on documentaries. Looking back it was a worthwhile trip but we’re not clambering to go back.

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