Blogs from Sarawak, Malaysia, Asia - page 44

This morning we went to Semenggoh National Park where the Orangs are semi wild, there are none kept in cages, it is a jungle environment with just a walkway for us to see a feeding platform. As soon as we arrived there were 4 Orangs (2 Mums with their toddlers) we watched them for an hour eating and playing in the trees, it was an incredible sight, we had to leave at 10am to give them some peace. We went back to the lodge where we had the rest of the day to ourselves. Sarah, Gemma and I wandered round Kuching as we had the afternoon to ourselves, we stopped for a late lunch, where I had a coke float which was very questionable!!! We played some cards back at the lodge and some pool. Then ... read more

The taxi arrived to take us to the airport at 11am, Julie and Maz waved us off, very sad saying goodbye, but will see Julie again after Borneo in KL. We met Howard and Fiona and Liz and Rose at the aiport, they seemed to enjoy their zoo and we told them all about our time at Negara. We got on our flight and were picked up by taxi and taken to the Singgahsana Lodge, which was fantastic, I shared a room with Sarah, gemma and Faye have a fireman's pole in their room and a den up some stairs as well, very cool, a nice bar upstairs, has a pool table and tv, there's hammocks and places to lay everywhere. We all went upstairs to the bar and met leo, who is our guide and ... read more

Upon Dave's fantastic suggestion of finding a beach shack somewhere in Asia, I was convinced that I should try to discover a bit of Asia before my Aussie visa runs out. When else will tickets be so cheap? So I booked super cheap Tiger Air tickets, Darwin to Singapore, and off to Malaysia I went! I started out on the trip after a 22-hour Greyhound ride up to Darwin from Alice. Had some interesting conversations during those long hours; the most interesting was chatting with the driver who used to guide for big tour company. So I didn't get much sleep and arrived in Darwin pretty tired. In the couple of hours there, I ended up running into people I knew, which was a great way to pass the time before my 3:15am flight. Why most ... read more

Gunung Mulu National Park, (52,000 Ha) in Sarawak encompasses incredible caves and karst formations in a mountainous equatorial rainforest setting. I arrived in Mulu at a small airport in the middle of the jungle and safely made it to the park where I was informed to put my bags in my room and get ready for our first cave visit. It all felt a bit rushed but I am glad I did it on arrival at Mulu because otherwise I would have missed the seeing the Bat Exodus from the caves at dusk - subsequent days the rains meant the bats stayed cozy in there cave homes. So after a quick change me and a Malaysian guy named Low headed for a tour of Deer and Lang caves. Both caves are really beautiful and spectacularly large ... read more

The town of Kuching derives its name from the Malay word for cat and early investigations of its streets, after our ferry ride from Sibu, revealed cat motifs aplenty ranging from discreet logos on manhole covers to rather alarming giant cat statues on roundabouts. The peak of this cat mania was reached at the Kuching Cat Museum, housed in the Town Hall that itself resembled a spaceship. The museum's collection was comprehensive, with exhibits about cats in various civilizations, stages in a cat's life, common ailments, wild members of the cat family, catfish, and a mock-up of a catwalk with 3 models wearing cat-themed outfits. Umpteen cat sculptures and paintings included a good selection of maneki neko or "beckoning cats" (the ones with raised paws that you often see in Chinese and Japanese restaurants and are ... read more