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Published: June 21st 2008
Batu Caves
That's a lot of steps for 2 fat white tourists!To all our loyal readers (fans) out there... (Hi Mum) We thought we might as well put our latest adventure up for the world to see.
So, I'm feeling rather lazy and pressed for time, so you're going to get our whole trip in just one blog, so here goes....
We left Aus last Sunday and headed for Kuala Lumpur thanks to our new fave airline Air Asia and their unbelievably cheap fares (good for you Air Asia, we're sure to become regular customers.) It was an overnight flight, arriving in KL at 4am, urgh, not good, why do we never look like the celebs when they get off an onite flight, nope we had messy hair, sticky eyes and swollen legs, so yep, looking a treat. We decided since being experienced 'tubers' we'd navigate our own way to the hotel (an hours drive from the airport) by catching various forms of transport. It was working out rather well til we couldnt find the damn monorail. Well, we could see it, we just couldnt figure out how to get to it, and spent a good hour walking around in circles with people pointing and staring at us. Which was probably a
Batu Caves
Batman!! (Mick said to call him that) good thing, cos it got us used to all the constant staring that we'd (mostly me) have to endure over the next week.....it's obviously been a while since these folk have seen an Albino!! Anyway, we finally got to the hotel at 7am. Luckily we were smart enough (and not quite tight-arse enough) to book an extra night so that we could check in early instead of waiting til the check in time of 2pm. So we got to have a shower, a snooze and join in the days buffet breakfast...woohoo...now feeling much better.
So the first tourist attraction (besides Mick downing enough breakfast to last him the entire 8 days in just the first sitting) was to visit the Batu Caves. These particular caves are HUGE. They're said to be around 400 million years old, and are some of the most popular Hindu caves, attracting over 1.5 million pilgrims at the annual Thaipusam festival. Its 272 steps to the top and yes, despite our poor fitness levels, we managed to make it to the top. We were then stuck up top for a good extra hour as a storm passed over causing flash flooding down below, before we could
Petronas Towers
They're so sparkly! make our descent.
Next stop was the twin towers. The Petronas towers used to be the tallest buildings in the world, although now they're just the tallest twin towers at 452 meters tall. They're rather impressive.....and so shiny!!
Next stop was China Town. We met up with an old highschool friend, who happens to be chinese and was unbelievably handy as she talked the talk, and bargained like a true professional in order for us to get the best deals.... and deals we got. We both walked away with some absolute bargains, brilliant fakes, or as they say '100% non original' ...but who can tell :-) Jeannie and her family then took us out for dinner and drove us back to our hotel. It was a looooonnnngggg day, but very enjoyable!
Next day we flew out to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah in Borneo. First day we didnt do much, decided to rest up after the hectic day before, and frankly, couldnt keep our eyes open, so just chilled.
Next day we decided to take the 'wetlands cruise' (or rather were talked into taking by a smooth talking tour guide) and enjoyed every second of it. The tour guide
China Town Markets
You want DVD.......... first warned us about Mosquitos, and as we hadnt bothered to take our malaria tablets, we decided to practically 'bathe' ourselves in aerogard which really came in handy for the 2 mozzies we saw.
Anyway, we took a 2 hour bus ride down south to spot the infamous, and only found here, Proboscis Monkey. Known to the locals as 'big nose monkey' and known to us as 'dick nose monkeys' (mature I know) these pot belly monkeys really do have HUGE noses, especially the males, and as our guide cheekily informed us, the leaves that they eat are like Viagra, so the male monkeys are..... the guide chuckled, held his arm up in the air with a clenched fist, then shouted, "lucky girl monkey's".....we got the drift. We managed to spot about 12 or so monkeys up in the trees, it really was a sight to behold. I was loving every moment of it until the guide (again chuckling) told us that the river was full of alligators.... my arms didnt leave my side from that moment on. After a couple of hours cruising through the jungle rivers, we stopped at a candle lit hut beside a swamp and watched
the sun set, while feasting on a chinese buffet...It was brilliant!! On the walk back to the bus we stopped to watch the fireflies that light up the trees like xmas lights, quite a sight.
Okay, next day, lets see, oh yes, we decided to take an island cruise, to visit 2 islands off the coast of KK. They're both only a 30 minute boat ride away, and are absolutely covered in the thickest jungle you'll ever see and surrounded by sandy beaches. We enjoyed the best BBQ lunch ever, with over 30 dishes to top our plates with, including lobster, lamb, pasta, vegies, you name it and it was there......and not a banger in site. If it seems like we're eating a lot.....that's because we are! Oh and we met a couple of Aussies that were enjoying the BBQ so much that they put Homer Simpson to shame. Actually they put Australia to shame, they were the biggest pigs we've ever seen. The bogons from brisbane had food all over their faces and clothes and had the rest of the table staring at them, while trying to hold down our own meals as looking at them was making us
Jungle Cruise
The guide took this for us then jokingly asked for 10 ringgit....smart arse! :-) all sick. Eeww, some aussies give us all a bad name.
Anyway, we took a walk around one of the islands and as we left behind clear skies on one side, we were greeted with black skies on the other. No sooner had we commented that it looked like a 'ripper of a storm was coming' than folk were running from the water screaming. So the screaming was probably a little unneccessary, but the storm surely was a ripper. Within a couple of seconds, table and chairs were being blown around and fruit from the trees was being catapulted at unsuspecting tourists. We joined the herds and ran for cover until our tour guide came and got us. It didnt last long but sure was ferocious, and oddly enough, we really enjoyed watching it. We were drenched from head to toe by the time we got back on the boat.
This is turning into the worlds longest blog, but this is the last day.....okay, today we headed over to Sandakan, the other side of Sabah, a 30 minute flight (apparently you can drive, but it takes all day and they cant guarantee the quality of the roads) so we visited
the Australian War Memorial and the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. The Orangutan Rehab is the worlds biggest, and rescues orphaned and captured orangutan, rehabilitates them then releases them back into the wild, (or as close to 'the wild' as you can get) in their 4000 hectare jungle. The orangutans have very little human contact, except for when they first arrive there, and are taught to fend for themselves. Each day we, the tourists can trek to a platform in the middle of the jungle to catch a glimpse of any orangutans that might want to come and get some food from the keepers. Unlike a zoo, there's no guaranteed sightings, it just depends if any of them want to come for food. There's a couple of lazy ones that regularly hang out at the feeding platform as they're up for the free feed, but its pot luck if you see any. We got lucky and saw about 10 of them. A mum and her baby came up (apparently she's quite bossy and scares the sh*t out of the rest of them). It was an amazing sight to see them in their natural habitat.
We walked through the Sandakan Australian Memorial,
It's snorkal man!!
Nemo took this photo with his fish cam! where 2500 POW's were killed between 1942 and 1945. The RSL paid for the memorial to be built, and its a beauty. It was actually really moving to walk through it and read their stories. Of the thousands that were held their by the Japanese, only 6 survived. They were held in appauling conditions, and were tortured daily, but the Aussies still kept their sense of humour, and secretly sabotaged everything they were forced to build.
We caught a cab back to the airport and almost got killed on the way. The cabbie, who had his seat laid back almost horizontal so micks legs couldnt fit in, had the music absolutely cranked, and was driving like a maniac. He then pulled some stunt that didnt quite go right and we missed the back end of a truck by about ooohh, a bees dick. He apologised that we were almost thrown from our seats, then blamed something in front, but we couldnt figure out what he was saying. Meanwhile, we were trying to figure out how to say 'you been driving long?' in Malaysian :-) After our hearts started beating again, Mick made gestures to me in the back seat, that
Jungle Hut
This is where we enjoyed our buffet dinner in the jungle. And where mick upset the locals by throwing a cat off our table (it was about to get our food) he thinks they were unhappy with their now 'bruised' delicacy! I interpreted as 'the taxi driver has been drinking, there's cans under his seat' I wasnt surprised but thought to myself, his driving more sensibly since the near miss, so hopefully we'll make it to the airport alive...Mick on the other hand was worried about his can of drink that went flying through the car, landing under the drivers seat...hence the hand signals, he was signalling that he just dropped his full can of coke under the drivers seat. Once I realised what Mick was on about, I couldnt stop laughing all the way to the airport.
Well I think that's it, considering I have the memory of a fish, I think I've done alright to remember that much. I'll upload a couple of pics now incase anyone is interested.
Thanks for reading, sorry for waffling!
(btw: millions of photos, but can only upload a few, so stop your whinging, we'll show you the rest later)
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Rach
non-member comment
Orangutans
Hi there you two, great blog. How about an orangutan photo? My fav animal. You'll have to tell me more about them next time I see you. I'm off to UK in just over a weeks time. Trying to cram as much sight-seeing into a month as I can.... Luv Rach