Blogs from Sarawak, Malaysia, Asia - page 59

I have always dreamt of traveling to distant lands. Part of this dream was realized in 2005 when Dr. Linda Burton, the senior Anthropologist at the Department invited us to travel with her to Sarawak. I thought then that Sarawak was a part of Indonesia. When people inquired about my trip, I always tell them I am going to Indonesia. The Travel Begins December 25, 2005 8:00 A.M. 25 December 2005 -I reported early to work notwithstanding that it is Christmas. The previous night I went home late so I will be able to generate more data for my Boss to work on during my absence. 10:00 A.M.-still having a date with my computer.... 11:00 A.M.-went home to pack my clothes (bad idea to start packing on the same day of travel) 12:00 NN-still packing. Wanted ... read more

Today we visited a Longhouse. About 2 hours out of Kkuching and in the Jungle. The guide that we had was not real good with English but it turns out his family comes from the tribe that owns the longhouse. It was a very interesting tour as we got to see some traditional Malay culture. The guide told us about the conflicts that his tribe had with other tribes (years ago) and how they used to keep the skulls of their enemies for trophies. We witnessed the making of some traditional musical instruments and sat down with a family to have lunch. On the way home the guide invited us into his modern home - his grandchildren were very interested to see white people in their house. ... read more

Today we had a tour of a Orangutan sanctuary. This is an open air sanctuary for orphaned, injured or captive apes that cannot be immediately let back into the wild. It is a huge place with no fences - quiet amazing. There is a real hierarchy with two dominate males struggling for dominance. The babies were so cute. ... read more

After the comforts of an air conditioned apartment and the hustle of city life, Sara and I opted to go back to our roots..... We flew from KL to Sandakan (Malaysian Borneo) and checked into a bamboo hut in a jungle resort metres away from the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. Very similar to our Mexican jungle experiences - only marginally cooler. That afternoon we ventured along the jungle floor on the elevated board walk to the feeding station for the orangs. Here wardens provide a basic fruit diet for many of the recently released orphans. And we waited..... Ropes began to sway in the distance and we caught our first glimpse of these amazing creatures swinging their way towards us hand over hand and foot over foot. Silence reigned over the small group of onlookers who ... read more

And so to proper Asia. As we left Singapore for the Malaysian mainland then jumped on a plane, we were heading for real adventure at last - Borneo. The name conjurs up images of headhunters, dense jungle, unpleasant Japanese POW camps, misty mountains, and untamed wildlife. So with this image in mind, I was surprised to find a large, developed city with around 3000 mobile phone shops in the form of Kota Kinabalu. With it's shopping malls crammed with people fueling the Asian economic miracle, it wasnt what I had in mind. Luckily, after a couple of days arranging things, I had what I wanted - firstly in the news that cerebral malaria and TB are very real health threats here, secondly in the discovery that even in our 3rd millenium, the waters here are still ... read more