Don't believe the travel agencies that tell you that you must have booked 6 months in advance to climb Mt. Kinabalu, we did it in just a few days. The key is to book your overpriced accommodation with Sutera Sanctuary Lodges (the company that has the monopoly on accommodation on the mountain) directly. Everything else can be arranged the morning of your hike at the Park HQ. Our good friend Laura who we were happy to be hangin around with because of her witty demeanor who went well with our smart alec comments laid out the pros and cons of climbing [View Full Entry]

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The Orangutan Sanctuary in Sepilok was listed as one of the must sees in Borneo. I was not sure what to expect at the Orang Utan Sanctuary. In my mind I had an image of a zoo and the orang utans being fed by rangers. Well I was wrong the Sanctuary seemed like it legitimately supports the Orang Utan (literally "men of the wild" in Malay) back into the wild. A few platforms were supported by trees and cables within the jungle and food was laid out for the orang utans by the rangers. The orang utan came to the platforms [View Full Entry]

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We met our new friend Laura at a guesthouse in KK (Kota Kinabalu) the capital of Sabah state in Malaysian Borneo. Laura motivated us to see as much of Borneo as time would allow. After spending a couple days lurking in KK we set off to the Kinabatangan River for a three day two night stay in the jungle to look for wildlife. We sped off on a bus up the twisty mountain road past impressive Mt. Kinabalu with jungle valleys spotted with villages and mountain farm plots on steep terraces. Very impressive country. A bit of a mixup at our [View Full Entry]

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A few reasons why we visited Singapore, it was close to where we were but the main reason was we wanted to bring back a quicker pace into our lives after living the 'island time' for awhile. The huzzle and buzzle atmosphere was not something we missed but we were craving for modern amenities and there might be reasons why. We came across a page titled "Life on the road" in the lonely planet that we have briefly read before our trip. We skimmed it again and we started laughing to ourselves and realized we have experienced 99.9% of what the [View Full Entry]

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The thought of waiting out "Nyepi" the Balinese New Year which is celebrated by staying indoors for two days without food didn't seem too appealing so we decided to join the exodus to Lombok and its satellite islands "the Gilli's". The ferry ride was nice for the first hour or so sailing slowly over calm blue waters past green islands... and then it got "hot!" really "hot!!". We had secured a nice bench on the top deck along with some other silly people where we sat and baked underneath the sunny cloudless sky with only a hint of breeze. Luckily we [View Full Entry]

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Indonesia was not on our list at first but we had talked to other travelers and they highly recommended Bali and Indonesia. After browsing Air Asia's website there just happened to be an extremely cheap plane ticket from Kuala Lumpur so we decided there was nothing to lose and we went for it. So, we were off on another adventure! We arrived in Denpasar late at night and our first impression was that it's more developed then we thought it would be. Developed but definitely not the same as your usual high tech society (like Hong Kong). As we were to [View Full Entry]

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We sure enjoyed Thailands delicious food and friendly people. I (mazi) could not resist asking a family working at Jungle Pizza (owned by two Germans) to teach me a few tricks and thai recipes. The family did not resist and asked me to join them the next afternoon to cook. Well I kind of invited myself to get groceries and ingredients with them before our cooking session. We made tofu lemon grass salad and pad thai. YUM The beach on Koh Lanta is not mouth droppingly gorgeous or the cleanest but you can still find a place to relax. Many restuarants [View Full Entry]

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Koh Lipe After realizing how close we were to Thailand from Langkawi we decided to hope across the border. It took us a few days to decide on where to go since there were so many options. After a full day of research we bought tickets from a local tour company in Langkawi called TCY...aka "Travel Cheap...Yes" which is our style so we went with them for speedboat tickets to Koh Lipe. Our destination was Koh Tarutao one of Thailand's National Park but we had to hop to Lipe for the border crossing before getting to the park. When we arrived [View Full Entry]

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Diving with East Marine at Pulua Payar After seeing the scenery at Pulua Payar as we were heading to Langkawi, we had to organize a dive trip out to the beautiful clear water. Pulua Payar is a Marine Park well known for its' snorkelling and diving. We dove with East Marine from Langkawi and the shop was very helpful and organized. The boat was full of divers and snorkellers but there were so many different dive sites around the island, all divers were nicely spread out. Pulua Payar was full of marine life and we spotted many colourful fish. While we [View Full Entry]

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Langkawi When we arrived in Langkawi we were greeted by a large eagle statue at the pier, I could tell it was full of tourist attractions. After settling in at one of the guesthouses along the Tenga Beach, we had to explore the sandy beach. Pantai (beach) Tenga was less and the water was clearer than Pantai Cenang. Food is really good if you can find a local stall. Our favourite was a stall across from the Underwater World, this family made the best lemon tea and milk tea (in a bag). The fried noodle and fried rice was also amazing. [View Full Entry]

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