http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Malaysia en-us Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:11:42 BST Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:11:42 BST Well made it to Malaysia Kuala Lumpure KL to be more precise. Bus ride from Singapore was comfortable and somewhat quick 5 hrs. Will be exploring the city for 1 week perhaps less and then I'll be heading North for some beach towns. Talk to you soon. http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Selangor/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-331379.html Another trip to KUL to watch the Oresthra at Petronas Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra to our second concert in series for 2008. We go with three person for myself soon cheong and ah im This time we just stay one night in KULThis time we booked Traders Hotel Kuala Lumpur and request for a garden view which could overlooking KLCC This is my second time stay in this hotel. The first time i only http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Selangor/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-330724.html Hi everyone It's saturday night and this is our last night at the lodge. It's been a couple of days since I got a chance to write. We do many hikes daily. We get waken at 0545 and on our first walk at 0600 and we have seen many birds and wild pigs the mouse deer the sambar deer. One of the highlights for Andrew and I was to lay on the ground and photograph the rhino hornbill. One of the m http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/blog-330691.html After 2 days of hectic Eid celebrations 13 hours of feasting on the 1st day we finally loaded up the car escaped Kampung KL and drove the 1.5 hours down to my birthplace the historic and newlyanointed World Heritage City of Melaka. It's been years and years since either of us has visited Melaka and sans Sprog we were on our usual Mission To Eat We checked into the lovely and recentlyrest http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Malacca/Malacca-Town/blog-330334.html Saa sagde vi at vi var i Kuching i staten Sarawak. Her i landet er der public holiday lige nu i 2 dage. Muslimerne har lige overstaaet Ramadan saa der er Hari Raya. Hvert aar betyder dette at guvernoeren sultanen presidenten og alle de andre store byder indenfor til aabent hus. Man ser deres palads og spiser en masse mad. Kuching er hovestad i Sarawak saa her bor guvernoeren i sit store palads http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Sarawak/Kuching/blog-330084.html Hi All We are now at the Borneo rainforest lodge after a long drive from Sakau rainforest lodge. on our way here we stopped at the Gua gumantong cave and saw thousands of bats and swiftlets that nest's are used in the bird nest soup. 1kg of the nest fetches around 2500 in hong Kong but it is realy dangerous getting the nests because you have to climb up a ladder about 100m straight up. when we http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/blog-329946.html Hello from deep in the jungles of Borneo The temperature is 30C and the humidity is 98. After the trip to Mt. Kinabalu we went back to the Shangrila tanjung aru resort. the next day we got on a Malaysian air 737 to Sandakan. It was a short flight. At home it would only have taken 3.5 to drive the 331 km to Sandakan but here it would have been an 810hour drive. We immediately went to t http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sandakan/blog-329224.html Saa er det vist paa tide I hoerer lidt mere fra os i varmen. Siden sidst har vi leget Tarzan og Jane i junglen og vaeret ude at svoemme med Nemo og alle havskildpadderne.Junglen var for fed Vi tog bussen fra Kota Kinabalu til Sukau og efter de havde vist Rambo 1 og 2 glaedede vi os til at se 3'ern men det blev der ikke noget af for bussens motor satte af og vi blev noedt til at vente paa den http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Semporna/blog-328933.html Malaysia and Singapore....the two most built up countries in Southeast AsiaWell we arrived in Malacca not quite too sure of our plans from then on. This was the beginning of something special and expensive relative to our budget. Jodi and I arrived wondering where we were going to stay as usual but ended up staying at the nicest place to date. We decided to treat ourselves to the Hotel Puri http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Malacca/Malacca-Town/blog-328893.html I think the stifling heat and humidity of Kuala Lumpur have finally caught up with me since I have been feeling really drained. Since the rain has been coming down in heavy bursts all afternoon it seems like a good time to lay low.Craig and I are on vacation for the Idul Fitri end of Ramadan holiday. Roughly a week ago we flew from Semarang to Singapore. The flight was a breezy two hours http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Malacca/blog-328884.html Today we had decided to check out of Maya's and move to the larger island of Besar. After saying our goodbyes we hopped into the taxi boat and sped over to Abdhuls Chalets. Alot more expensive but we wanted to live out our last few beach days in style with air con at nightThe chalets were great and nice and quiet. There was even a fenced off section in the water to swim in. We checked in and hea http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Terengganu/Perhentian-Besar/blog-328862.html Today we had another lazy day on Longbeach topping up our tans. We also just had to sample a Mars and MM milkshake There was also a storm in the evening which was very strange. The wind got very strong like something big was about to happen and the guesthouse owners ran around shutting everything up. It just seemed to blow over though and before we knew it we were sat in Amelias enjoying the am http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Terengganu/Perhentian-Kecil/blog-328860.html After a quick breakfast we met Matt the brother of our guesthouse owner for our snorkelling trip. He was going to take us to the best snorkelling sites on both islands for the whole day for only six pounds. We climbed into his fast boat and we were off speeding through the clear waters to Shark Point. There were also two Americans and one Spanish lady joining us on this trip. We were to drop in http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Terengganu/Perhentian-Kecil/blog-328858.html The plan for today was to do nothing Unfortunately when we woke up it was a bit overcast although still quite warm. We got some breakfast and decided to play a few games on the beach. You coulkd tell the sun was trying to push through the clouds but it wasnt quite strong enough. Rachael stayed on the beach most of the day with an occasional break for a swim and I mixed up the day by sitting in th http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Terengganu/Perhentian-Besar/blog-328855.html Our first full day on the island and time to start living in swim wear the electricity shuts off at 7.30am meaning our room fan turns off and by 8am we are awake because of the heatWe were going to walk to longbeach today so we packed up our beach essentials and headed into the jungle. Longbeach is on the opposite side of the island to coral bay so we had to walk up and through the jungle. The p http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Terengganu/Perhentian-Kecil/blog-328853.html At 7.55am sharp we were at our pickup point ready to be transferred to Jeranut. The bus was already waiting for us but we had to wait until 8am for other guests. The trip to Jeranut took only 1.5 hours and was very uneventful and bumpyAt Jeranut we ate breakfast and then transferred to another bus that would take us halfway to Kuala Besut Jetty our entry point to the Perhentians. This journey wa http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Terengganu/Perhentian-Kecil/blog-328850.html After much persuading on Steves part I agreed that it would be fun to take a boat down the Kinabatangan river into the heart of Borneo rainforest. We were put up in a jungle lodge which turned out to be a really nice room and did two boat safari's one at sunset and the other at sunrise.My fears of tarantulas were laughed away by our guide who said that they dont live there. Put at ease I actuall http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Kinabatangan/blog-328847.html The Orang Utan rehabilitation centre is on the northern side of Sabah in Malaysian Borneo and is home to between 60 80 Orang Utans. Most of them have been rescued and then rehabilitated to life back in the Kebilli Sepilok reserve. We arived at the centre in the afternoon to view the great apes taking advantage of the milk and bannana subsidies they recieve while trying to adapt to there natural http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sepilok-Orang-Utan-Sanctuary/blog-328835.html First off I just want to apologize for the lack of updates regarding Singapore and Malaysia during my tour there. There are two reasons for this the first reason is I had no Internet access and the second is the schedule was so cramped I didnrsquot have much time to type out any blog entries. Herersquos my tour in a nutshellSeptember 12 2008I arrive at the airport to meet with my tour grou http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Selangor/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-328335.html Hi all we are Millingabout the Mt. kinavbalu area. we are staying at the Celyn resort on the top of a foothill of the mountain. The temp here is 18C. It rained yesterday alot in the early afternoon. I don't think quest did that great of a job planning the first part of this trip. The accomodations are good transport is good. I appreciate that we are with an older group but they still shoul http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Mount-Kinabalu/blog-328329.html Travel Period 25 Apr 11 May 2008Back to Kuala Lumpur to visit my family. I had a fantastic time and had spent a few days going out to different towns to eat a typical food trip as we call it. http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Selangor/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-328141.html I plan to go to Pontianak after Hari Raya so needed a visa to enter Indonesia at the TebeduEntikong border because they don't have Visa on Arrival facilities there. You need to obtain a prearranged visa from the consulate in Kuching. So I jumped on the 11.30am boat from Sibu to Kuching. Such a smooth trip downriver to Sarikei and Tanjung Manis and across the Sth China sea to Cat City. For once t http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Sarawak/Kuching/blog-328100.html Today would be our first full day exploring the oldest rainforest in the world and we were very excited. Promptly at 8am we were at the floating restaurant where we sat down to breakfast. Egg and toast was presented to us along with traditional iced tea not exactly to rachael's liking in fact Rachael has developed a strong disliking for egg ever since a 'don't talk about it again' incident back http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Pahang/Taman-Negara-National-Park/blog-327835.html Hi We made it. 40 hours of traveling and boy is this place worth it. The flight to hong kong in cattle class is the best motivator I know of to work hard to be able to afford first class. A typhon went through HK just before we arived and the wx was great though. We did a city tour from the airport and saw the worlds longest bridge. Lap kok airport is amazing considering the Island that it http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Kota-Kinabalu/blog-327695.html I decided to spend the rest of my travel time doing as little as humanly possible I longed to kiss the mid day rays while stretched flat out on beauteous beaches. I promised myself not to engage in anything too taxing as I had finally reached that turning point in my journey where cultural saturation levels had peaked my brain weighted with worldly experiences my entire being felt drained of pa http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Kedah/Langkawi-Island/blog-327637.html We finally got to the famous Sepilock Orangutan Sanctuary. This Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre is located about 25 kilometers west of Sandakan in eastern Malaysia on the island of Borneo in the state of Sabah. It was started in 1964 for rescue and rehabilitation of orphaned baby orangutans from logging sites plantations and illegal hunting. The orphaned orangutans are trained to survive again http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Kinabatangan/blog-327486.html Up early again to pack up our things and head to the hotel where we were going to be picked up to go to Taman Negara. We boarded a small coach just before 9 which took us to Jerantut. We had decided to go for the full board option and so we had some lunch at the tour office and sorted out our permits. After this we boarded another coach which took us to the boat in Kuala Tembeling. The boats we tr http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Pahang/Taman-Negara-National-Park/blog-327484.html We set off on 6 September for Kuala Lumpur via a family get together in London for the sad farewell. After the gruelling although surprisingly spacious 12.5 hour flight and a rather hot and sweaty 4 hour wait until checkin time we checkedin to the Swiss Inn China Town KL. It's a place we stayed last time but wither our standards have raised or their have gone downhill as they say you sho http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Selangor/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-327464.html Hi. Within August 2008 I have been to Malaysia travelling independently and using public transport. My route included the Crocker Range NP Tambunan Kinabalu NP Kota Kinabalu Niah NP the Rejang river from Belaga to Sibu Kuching incl. visits of the Bako NP Kubah NP Santubong NP and Semenggoh WRC Tioman island Melaka Taman Negara NP and Kuala Lumpur.When preparing the trip I used in http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/blog-327441.html