Malaysia

We took a five-hour boat ride through the South China Sea to Kota Kinabalu in eastern Malaysia

We took a five-hour boat ride through the South China Sea to Kota Kinabalu in eastern Malaysia

After two days in Brunei, it was back to civilization; we sailed to Kota Kinabalu, on the north coast of Borneo in the Malaysian state of Sabah. There’s plenty to like here: great views of the South China Sea, some nightlife, and markets. But mostly it was about climbing Mount Kinabalu which, at 13,435 feet, is the highest peak on Borneo and was Malaysia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We had great sunsets from our hotel

We had great sunsets from our hotel

Kota Kinabalu has the kind of market that we couldn't find with Lidd in peninsular Malaysia

Kota Kinabalu has the kind of market that we couldn’t find with Lidd in peninsular Malaysia

We went to a bar our first night with a fun live band and sat next to this cute Chinese woman and her husband/boyfriend. The crazy thing about chatting with them was that they're from Dalian. Never heard of it? Neither had we, yet it's a city of 6.1 million people, bigger than any U.S. city except New York. That's China!

We went to a bar our first night with a fun live band and sat next to this cute Chinese woman and her husband/boyfriend. The crazy thing about chatting with them was that they’re from Dalian. Never heard of it? Neither had we, yet it’s a city of 6.1 million people, bigger than any U.S. city except New York. That’s China!

Kinabalu is one of those reasonably high peaks that doesn’t require any specialized mountain climbing gear or experience; it’s just a long, steep climb. Typically you climb it in two stages. On day one you start at the park headquarters at 6,122 feet and climb six kilometers to a “lodge” at 10,730 feet. The next day you finish the climb up by going another 2.7 kilometers to the peak at 13,435 feet and then go all the way back to the park headquarters. In other words on the first day you climb 4,608 feet or nearly nine-tenths of a mile and the next day you go another 2,705 feet up and then the full 7,313 feet down.

Here’s the little secret of hikes like this: going down may be harder than going up. Going up isn’t easy by any stretch; it was a really tough climb. But going down was brutal, using leg muscles that you just really don’t use much. And going down over 7,300 feet in one morning was brutal. We’re bushed.

One peculiarity of the climb. They say the best time to get to the peak is at sunrise. So we were up at 2:00 AM (seriously) and after breakfast were on the trail by 3:00 AM. It took a little over two hours to get to the peak, all in pitch darkness, using headlamps like miners to find the way. Once we got there is was bitter cold and still dark but … it was pretty obvious that with that much fog we weren’t going to see a damned thing. So we waited until 5:45, when the sun was officially up, and headed back down.

Oh, you want to know how the lodge accommodations were for our abbreviated night’s sleep? Pretty basic. OK, really basic. A four-person dorm room with shared cold-water bathroom down the hall. And when Mark went to get something out of his knapsack that he’d set by the bed a cute little rat jumped out, having discovered his bag of cashews for the trail. Made for a great night’s sleep!

Still, there was some real beauty on the trail. Tomorrow we fly to Bali to spend the next six-plus weeks in Indonesia, meeting our old neighbors Bart & Ann & Wil at the end of that time. Here, then, are our last pictures from Borneo.

A view from relatively near the start of the climb. It would be the last clear view we would have.

A view from relatively near the start of the climb. It would be the last clear view we would have.

As we climbed we got into the cloud forest

As we climbed we got into the cloud forest

This was daybreak after we'd started the descent. The landscape up there was surreal.

This was daybreak after we’d started the descent. The landscape up there was surreal.

Mark near the peak. The hat and gloves and winter coat were needed. In fact, we needed more!

Mark near the peak. The hat and gloves and winter coat were needed. In fact, we needed more!

More of Mark and the great landscape

More of Mark and the great landscape

Our favorite rocks

Our favorite rocks

An "exhibit" at the Cat Museum

An “exhibit” at the Cat Museum

A giant feline-themed seal of the city adorns the ornate public building that houses the Cat Museum, among other things

A giant feline-themed seal of the city adorns the ornate public building that houses the Cat Museum, among other things

We intended to stay in Kuching for three days but extended to five. We just loved the combination of adventure activities and nice urban nightlife — to say nothing of the fact that Kuching is known as “The Cat City” and even features its own Cat Museum.

A small sampling of the numerous "artifacts" at the Cat Museum

A small sampling of the numerous “artifacts” at the Cat Museum

The Cat Museum is on the far north end of town, quite a way from the center, but we decided to try to walk there anyhow, just to see whatever was there. It took us about an hour and a half to get there, which is a little crazy since I’d read that the place was “extremely kitsch” and “good for about 20 minutes.”

So kitsch is what we intended to see, and kitsch is what we got. I had feared that they’d try to sneak in some kind of “legitimate” exhibits about cats — maybe something about different types of cats or how cats adapt to different geographies. But I needn’t have feared anything like that. In fact, the use of the work “museum” was a pretty big stretch. It was more like a big collection of random cat junk — cat figurines, movie posters that feature cats, cat plates, cat posters.

A warning before we hit the trail at Bako National Park. I learned what it was about toward the end of the day as I was sipping water and chatting with a Danish friend as she ate a late lunch, when suddenly a monkey pounced on the table and decimated her lunch.

A warning before we hit the trail at Bako National Park. I learned what it was about toward the end of the day as I was sipping water and chatting with a Danish friend as she ate a late lunch, when suddenly a monkey pounced on the table and decimated her lunch.

Of course it was organized into thematic sections like “Cats in Movies” (the movie posters), “Cat Naps” (pictures of cute felines napping), and even “Cat Food” (random packages of cat food). “Cats in Cards” included a wall covered in greeting cards and postcards that feature cats, along with a description of how millions of cards with cats crisscross the globe every year.

Having hit our limit of cultural intake at the Cat Museum, we spent our final day in Kuching at the beautiful Bako National Park just outside town, where a hot, humid, strenuous hike rewarded us with a stunning beach. Then we caught a flight to Bandar Seri Bagawan, the capital of the Sultanate of Brunei, which we will report on next.

On the hiking trail at Bako National Park

On the hiking trail at Bako National Park

Arriving at our first view of our gorgeous beach destination at Bako National Park

Arriving at our first view of our gorgeous beach destination at Bako National Park

Jim gets carried away at the Cat Museum

Jim gets carried away at the Cat Museum

Best picture ever - bagging up the Chinese New Years decorations. We're free!!

Best picture ever – bagging up the Chinese New Years decorations. We’re free!!

We’re still lovin’ Borneo, and not just because Chinese New Years is over and things are finally open again. Here’s what we’ve learned.

While Malaysia is a Moslem-majority country, Christians make up a plurality of the population in Sarawak, the state we’re in; Sarawak in fact has the largest Christian population in the country. Interestingly the Malaysian constitution apparently officially designates all ethnic Malays as Muslim but most people here are not ethnic Malays; they’re Iban, Dayak, Chinese, Bidayuh, Orang Ulu, etc., etc. And since the Christian missionaries converted lots of them before the Muslims got here, well, that means there are cool bars and happening restaurants here. Who knew Mark & I would become such big fans of Christian missionaries??

Ramsey (though I'm sure it's not spelled that way) - our favorite bartender at Drunk Monkey

Ramsey (though I’m sure it’s not spelled that way) – our favorite bartender at Drunk Monkey

Seriously, we couldn’t make sense out of Kuching until we figured that out. When we were in Penang, there was precisely one classy restaurant in town – the one in our hotel – despite the fact that it’s a big tourist destination. We asked the GM at the hotel why there weren’t others and he told us that too many Muslims simply wouldn’t go into a restaurant that served alcohol and except for his place no one else could afford to give up on locals even with a significant tourist presence. It was just as bad or even worse in Langkowi, Malaysia’s premier beach resort and tourist destination. But here in mid-sized Kuching we’re in foodie paradise?

Well, that’s what you find in a city where the Muslim presence is significantly understated. And I’m OK with that.

Now, onto the really cool stuff. The jungle. Head hunters. Kayaking. Orangutans! Yesterday we did a day trip outside of Kuching. First stop was an orangutan rehabilitation center at feeding time. We were somewhat skeptical of this, since it sounded like we might just be looking at monkeys in a zoo. We needn’t have worried. The Semengoh Wildlife Center is a legitimate research and rehabilitation center in a large nature preserve where dozens of semi-wild orangutans live. They’re not wild anymore, but it’s not as though you could walk up and pet them or anything.

The Thinker. We watched her for probably 15 or 20 minutes and took dozens of photos. This one worked.

The Thinker. We watched her for probably 15 or 20 minutes and took dozens of photos. This one worked.

They were amazing to watch. So human-like, and yet so different. Watching them maneuver through the trees using whichever of their four limbs seemed appropriate at the time. Watching them break open and eat through coconuts with their bare hands. The power in their arms and legs and jaws was phenomenal. And, for me at least, doing that just after reading a great book about human evolutionary biology and seeing the links between us and other primates that the author described was really something.

The power in their hands, arms, legs, and jaws was phenomenal. I guess that's what happens if you really use them hour after hour, day after day, year after year.

The power in their hands, arms, legs, and jaws was phenomenal. I guess that’s what happens if you really use them hour after hour, day after day, year after year.

Moving through the jungle. It was fascinating watching how their feet functioned for all practical purposes - as far as we could tell, at least - as third and fourth hands.

Moving through the jungle. It was fascinating watching how their feet functioned for all practical purposes – as far as we could tell, at least – as third and fourth hands.

Yup, human skulls

Yup, human skulls

There was a walk-through of a local village. These things can be painfully touristy – “Oh, look how poor and backward these people are!” – but it wasn’t bad. Short, to the point, and the tour company pays the village something for us to walk-through. This being Borneo, of course, they had to include some human skulls from headhunter days, so we got to see those, too.

Finally, the bulk of the day was spent lazily kayaking down the Left Sarawak River. That really felt like we were in Borneo. The sounds and the smells were all very jungly. They assured us that it was a safe river – no crocodiles, no piranhas, no leeches – so it was pretty comfortable. A couple stops for a waterfall and swimming and we were happy little boys.

Mark & Jim in a kayak

Mark & Jim in a kayak

Mark & Jim in the pool of a small waterfall

Mark & Jim in the pool of a small waterfall

A bridge over the Left Sarawak

A bridge over the Left Sarawak

Fruits from the jungle

Fruits from the jungle

A jungle butterfly

A jungle butterfly

We’re going to spend another day or two here – still haven’t seen the cat museum, a national park that we can walk around in – and then we’re off to Brunei. It’s supposed to be a painfully boring place, but when you’re counting countries, have the time, and are this close, you just have to go there. Then we’ll cross back into Malaysia – still on Borneo – in theory at least to climb Mount Kinabalu, the highest peak on Borneo. And then? Who knows?

And, since Jeanne said she wanted more pictures of us, here they are:

Mark tasting a jungle herb

Mark tasting a jungle herb

Jim and Mark on their village walk

Jim and Mark on their village walk

This is what you call a Jungle Jim...

This is what you call a Jungle Jim…