Sunday, October 28, 2012

Borneo

Malaysia is split into two parts, peninsular Malaysia (where Kuala Lumpur is located) and Borneo Malaysia. This past week our family visited Kuching in the state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. Borneo is the 3rd largest island in the world and is made up of 3 countries: Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei. Malaysia takes up the top quarter of the island and includes the states of Sarawak and Sabah. 

Visiting Borneo was a wonderful change from the high rise landscape and hectic pace of Kuala Lumpur. Kuching means cat in Malaysian and as you can probably guess, their  city mascots are cats and you can see them everywhere. Kuching has a population of 1 million, but consists mostly of low rise buildings and lots of green outside the city. So we spent most of our time outside the city ; ).

In the week that we spent visiting Kuching, we went to Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Center (semenggoh wildlife rehabilitation centre), Kubah National Park (http://www.sarawakforestry.com/htm/snp-np-kubah.html), Bako National Park (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bako_National_Park), and Sarawak Cultural Village (http://www.scv.com.my/main.asp). At Semenggoh, we viewed wild orangs during an afternoon feeding. At Kubah, we took a walk to a waterfall through the forest (no bugs?!?). After a taxi and boat ride to Bako, we viewed all kinds of great wildlife (poisonous tree and sea snakes, wild hogs, macaques, proboscis monkeys, a kingfisher, mud hoppers, and one clawed crabs). Finally, on our last full day in Sarawak, we walked to the Sarawak Cultural Village, right next door to our beach resort. The SCV is a living history village showing some of the indigenous Borneo tribes including the Iban, the Orang Ulu, the Penan, and the Bidayuh. Amidst the hot, humid jungle walks, we ate good food, walked along the Sarawak river, enjoyed a beach (on the South China sea), played some table tennis, put-put golf, and chess (Gabe), and Madeline got an air brushed tattoo!!! All in all, a great week.

Here is the Borneo Post for the last full day we spent in Kuching (take note of the first article about cats) http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/10/25/ferocious-thief/. This article might ring a bell with all the Davisites, just replace the crocs with coyotes...The most ironic part of this was that the article immediately next to the cat article was a piece about a group releasing baby crocodiles in an attempt to repopulate the crocodile population!

Hope you enjoy the pictures...  


Kuching (Cat)

Damai Beach, South China Sea

Madeline w/new tattoo

Orangutan at Semenggoh

Orangutan at Semenggoh

Gabe on rooftop pool deck

outdoor pool shower (I want one!)

meditating in rooftop pool

praying to the air con god

Ritchie the orangutan at Semenggoh

heart in nature (for Jan)

trail at Kubah

trail at Kubah

end of waterfall trail at Kubah

Madeline and Steph at waterfall

boat to Bako

sandstone at Bako

iron rich waters at Bako

tree viper

mangrove forest in the South China sea

mangrove roots searching for air

wild hog

adolescent male proboscis monkey

proboscis monkey eating tree fungus

too hot even for the hogs!

wild hogs at the South China seas with Mount Santubong in the distance

trail at Bako

roots everywhere on the trail

dreamy macaque
poisonous sea snake sneaking up on mud hoppers
Gabe in chess heaven at Damai Beach resort
bungaolow at Damai Beach resort
put-put golf at Damai resort
Sarawak Cultural Village


inside tribal longhouse

longhouse decorations

Iban tribal woman

longhouse

Penan nomadic Orang Ulu

welcome dance to the longhouse

longhouse decorations

Steph at Chinese longhouse

tribal Sarawak dances

hey, it's Madeline with the blow dart

Joe and the kids on Damai Beach on South China seas

No, Gabe didn't grow wings on his head

dinner overlooking South China sea

tribal swingset!
Orang-ulu batik and wood carvings we bought

1 comment:

  1. Lovelovelove the pictures! It looks like such an interesting trip. What a perfet way to usher in your birthday!

    ReplyDelete