My Asia Adventure Part II

Now to continue my vacation recap, with much thanks to Mike who contributed:

We got to sleep in a little bit on December 28th as we weren't being picked up for our next adventure until 9am. We woke up and definitely moved around a little bit slower than the last time we were in this hotel (read: before we climbed Mt. Kinabalu). I guess we’re not as young as we thought we were. Our legs were stiff, our backs ached, even our arms were tired, but we looked at today as opportunity to see more of Borneo.

The Borneo Eco-Tour group picked us up from the hotel in a giant 50 person charter bus...and it was only us in the bus! I guess they ran out of mini-buses that day? We rode in style to the the docks where we hopped on a small boat for a 20 minute ride to Gaya Island.

Our guide, JC, took us on a short 2km hike through the rainforest & mangrove forest on the island. Even though the hike was short, I was moving like an 80-year old woman. JC taught us so much about the ecosystem here. We saw a wide variety of plant species, but were a little disappointed with the animal life; it was mostly loud and obnoxious male cicadas singing for the ladies. Most of the interesting things in a rainforest occur in the canopy layer where 85% of the sunlight is absorbed. Even though we didn’t see any, there are flying species of all sorts: rats, lizards, and even snakes. Since most of the tall trees take up the sunlight, the smaller plants and trees have evolved various tactics to survive. Two of the more interesting plants we learned about were ratans and lianas. The ratan is actually a short palm tree. The main palm has several skinny branches that are covered with nasty hooks. These hooks help the branches cling on to other trees as they grow upwards. In turn, the branches get a free ride to the top of the canapy, providing sunlight to the main palm tree. The liana is a woody vine that wraps itself around larger trees in an effort to get to the top of the canopy.

We also got to see a mangrove forest where trees and shrubs survive in salt-water basins, usually protected from direct wave action.

It was cool to finally see a lot of the things that I had learned about in college. It is one thing to learn about them, but it's definitely another to get to experience it.

Most amazing of all though was that I managed to get the award for the most number of bug bites, even though I used the most Deet! Mike had gotten me bug spray as a Christmas present and the bugs were even biting me while I was spraying it on. So much for Mike's Christmas present!

After our tour of Gaya Island, we island hopped to Sapi Island for some rest & relaxation. Here, Mike & I got to go parasailing together – tandem style!!! This was my first time parasailing and I had an absolute blast! Although I'm afraid of heights, the view was beautiful...not to mention that I had a pretty good parasailing partner =) The boat even slowed down and dipped us in the water. It dragged us longer than we expected; it felt like we were going to fall out of our seat, but then all of a sudden, we were 100 ft. in the air! We were lucky it was so gorgeous & sunny out because it had poured the last several days in a row. From our parachute, we were able to see other islands in the area, the shore line of Borneo, the endless seas, and even the peak of Mt. Kinabalu. It was such an awesome experience! Unfortunately, we don't have many pictures from it! We gave the boat driver Mike's camera to take a picture of us up in the air, but he accidentally ended up taking like 13 short videos with it! We took my disposable camera up with us, but many of those pictures didn't come out too well either. On the bright side though, two of my favorite pictures from the whole trip did come out:










The rest of the day we spent just hanging out. We had lunch (a packed lunch was included with our Eco-tours package). We went out for a swim in the ocean out to some rocks where we did some exploring. After showering, we met up with JC again for the boat ride back to the main island. We felt so lucky that it didn't rain the whole day. All of the locals told us that this hot & sunny day was really rare for this time of year.

We were taken back to the hotel (in our private charter bus) where we picked up our luggage and got back into the bus, which took us to the airport. We were lucky that we were the only ones in this big bus because it gave us the chance to change out of our suits and into normal clothes for the plane ride to Kuala Lumpur (KL). We got to the airport like 3 hours before our flight though! Kind of a waste of time of our last hours on Borneo, but oh well. Additionally, I started to not feel well. My throat started to hurt and I was really achey all over. Yes, I know that I had just climbed a mountain, but it felt like it got worse because I started to feel sick. The 2 hour plane ride for me was miserable. But on the plus side, the flight was virtually empty, so both Mike & I each got our own rows!

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur around 10pm. Once there we went to the taxi counter. At the counter you pay a flat fee to take the taxi from the airport to your hotel. We got our taxi and headed into the city for our hotel. It took about an hour to get there. By the time we got to the hotel I still wasn't feeling any better and we went straight to bed.

The next morning I was still sick & not feeling well, but I couldn't waste our only day in KL. We got up to eat breakfast and headed down to the lobby to figure out our plan for the day. Our main reason for coming to KL was to see the Petronas Towers. From 1998-2004 (when the Taipei 101 tower was built) these towers were the tallest buildings in the world. They are currently the tallest twin towers in the world standing at 1,483ft and containing 88 stories. My dad had told us that you need to get up early to get tickets (which are free) to go up the towers. Of course, after getting in at midnight and getting a bit of a late start, we weren't too sure if we would be able to get tickets. We were sitting in the lobby going over maps and pamphlets of the city when a group of Australians came up to us. They told us that they had woken up early that morning at 6am to get tickets to the towers and that they had grabbed a couple of extra that they would give to us. We jumped at the opportunity and hopped in a cab with them and headed over to the Petronas Towers.
Well, we got lucky bumping into them because when we got there we found out that all the tickets had sold out! We hung out in the visitor's interactive center for 10 minutes before we were called to go up the elevator. The public is only allowed to visit the skybridge that connects the 2 towers at the 42nd floor. So it was kind of a bummer that you can't go all the way up to the top. Being on the bridge was still fun though. They only let about 20 people on to the bridge at a time, so you don't have to fight with other people to try and get a view of the city below.

One of the more interesting things I leaned about the towers is that the architecture reflects various important aspects of Islam. Since most of Malaysia is Muslim, it would only be fitting that their signature building reflect some of the country's values.

After about 15 minutes, we were told that we had to go back down to the ground floor. At the bottom, we said goodbye to our Aussies and headed over to the gift shop. I bought a key chain, and Mike got a postcard to send to his family. Attached to the towers is a mall where we sat down to give me a rest and so that Mike could write and mail his postcard.

After that, we decided to head over to the Batu Caves. Mike had read about it and wanted to visit these limestone caves that have become a Hindu place of worship. We hailed a cab who offered to take us there and back to our hotel for 100 ringget. On a side note, all of the cab drivers in KL negotiate the cab fare. Although all of them have a meter in their cabs, they will almost always offer a fee instead of the meter. We're still not quite sure if we paid him more than the meter would have turned out, but that's the fun in travelling.

To get into the caves, you have to climb 279 stairs! You should have seen my face when I saw all of those stairs. I still wasn't feeling well & I was still sore from the mountain. But you only live once, so up the stairs we went.

There were even wild monkeys running around. You could buy food at the bottom to feed them I think. Even though they look cute, I'm always afraid of them because they do bite. A year ago I went to a place in Bali that had them and one of them climbed on top of my head not once, but twice...and I didn't even have any food! Kind of funny but also kind of nerveracking. And yes, the stairs were numbered. So as I was pain stakingly made my way up and down the stairs, I could tell exactly how many stairs left I had!

The caves at the top were kind of cool, although it did smell a little funky in there. There were many Hindi people there praying and worshiping. It just go to show that a faith can be practiced anywhere, even inside some limestone caves.

After exploring the Batu Caves, we got back in our taxi and went back to the hotel. I just needed to go back and sit down for 10 minutes, during which we contemplated our next plan of attack. We decided to just take a walk down the main street of the Golden Triangle, the area we were staying in. There was a lot of food, people, and shopping. We stopped for a fabulous lunch at a restaurant called Dome. It's a chain and I had eaten at one in Singapore before. After lunch, we wanted to see more of the city. KL has a monorail system that runs through the city and we decided to take a ride. We just got off at a random stop and started to walk around. It's always fun to just go exploring without any plans. It was really hot and humid outside this day and we finally took a rest in the lobby of a hotel.

After re-energizing, we walked over to the KL Tower. The KL Tower is a telecommunications tower. It's built on the top of a hill in the middle of a national park! We had previously heard that the view from this tower is better than the view you can get from the Petronas Towers because you're able to go higher in the air. We bought tickets to go up and decided to come later that night so that we could to see the city at night. Mike bought us an ice cream and water and we headed back to the thotel.

I hate to say this, but I was a total pooper this day. I just did not feel well. I'm not quite sure what I had, but whatever it was it made me whiney all day. It felt like I had the flu, but no stuffy nose or coughing. Just icky-feeling. Mike was wonderful to me though. He walked slow with me (most of the time) and put up with my complaining. He deserves a big gold star for putting up with all of that!

After buying our tickets for the KL Tower, we went back to the hotel so that I could take a nap. I was just so exhausted. Mike decided to go for a walk as I slept. He came back about an hour later to wake me up and we headed back to the KL Tower. While going to the top wasn't free, the ticket did include a little audio tour that was informative. Most of all though, we got a cool view of the Petronas Towers at night:

Afterwards, we went over to Chinatown. There was so much going on there! A lot of people selling fruit, roasted chestnuts, and every piece of clothing imaginable. It was fun to see all of these people bargaining for stuff. Mike chose a place for dinner and we had the spiciest dinner ever! I think I was even sweating from it!

We woke up the next day and started packing. More importantly, I was back to my normal adventurous self!! After an eventful cab ride (the driver didn't really know where to go) we finally made it to the bus depot to catch our bus to Singapore. This was the nicest bus I have evern seen! Each seet had it's own TV & automatic foot rest. And once you reclined the seat, it was almost like being in a bed!

While I would love to finish this post, I need to get to my homework now! So this is going to have to suffice for now.

More to come later...

My Asia Adventure

So here's a recap of my vacation in Singapore & Malaysia:

Mike & I left on December 20th and arrived in Singapore on Dec. 22 at 1am. We spent the first few days hanging out with my family. As usual it was a full house with my mom's aunt, uncle, and 2 cousins visiting as well. But for the first time in a while, I actually got to sleep in my own bed! We mostly spent the time adjusting to the time change and, of course, eating!

On Christmas Day, Mike & I took a bus from Singapore to the airport in Johor Bahru (JB), Malaysia. Singapore is connected to Malaysia by a bridge and the ride to JB took less than an hour. We then took a 2 hour flight from JB to Kota Kinabalu (KK). Here is your quick geography lesson: KK is on the island of Borneo. Borneo is actually occupied by three countries: Indonesia in the south, Malaysia in the north, and Brunei which has a tiny part of land in the north as well. KK is part of Malaysia and is located in the northeast portion of Borneo.

We were met at the airport by a Borneo Eco-tours (who we booked the trip through) representative who was holding a sign that said "Michael David Meloney and Partner." We both thought it was amusing that my name was totally omitted and that I had been reduced to being Mike's "partner." What's up with that? :)

After checking into our hotel, we took a walk around the town. It's small and right on the coast. There are a lot of outdoor markets with people selling everything from cheap batteries & souvenirs to fresh fish & spices. We stopped for dinner at a restaurant along the boardwalk next to the ocean. After stopping by 7-11 for a few supplies, we went to bed early since we had an early wake-up call the next day.

The next morning we checked out of our hotel because we were going to be gone for the next two days. We were picked up at 7am and we made the 2 hour drive to Mt. Kinabalu. Mt. Kinabalu is the highest point in Southeast Asia at 13,500ft. And yes, we were driving to it so that we could climb it. And yes, of course it was Mike's idea (and a good one at that). After arriving at the park ranger station and registering, we were given our guide. His name was Richard and he had just come down from climbing the mountain the day before. He guides people up the mountain about 3 times a week and has been doing it for 5 years (he thinks he's climbed the mountain close to 1000 times). A race is held on the mountain every year and Richard has gone all the way up and and back in 3.5 hours (the record is 2.5 hours). And as if those credentials weren't enough, he wore flip flops to hike the trail (you should have seen the look on my & Mike's faces). I felt a little wimpy compared to him in my hiking boots and Gortex pants.

At about 10am we started our hike. Mike carried a pack with most of our stuff that we would be needing over the next couple days while I carried a smaller backpack with our jackets. The trail has an infinite number of wood stairs that have been put into the ground. Since we were in the rainforest, it was only appropriate that it rain...the whole time while we were hiking. There were little rest huts every kilometer or so where we could sit and be dry for a few minutes. Richard the guide stayed behind us and let us go at our own pace. We were given a pack lunch to eat along the way that consisted of a hard boiled egg, cheese sandwich, a fried chicken wing, a banana, and water. We also snacked on a couple of Cliff bars as well. Since there were no switchbacks, the trail was incredibly steep. There was rarely a flat portion where you could take nice easy strides. It was just stair after stair.

Finally, after 4 hours we had completed the 6km hike from 8000 to 11,000ft and arrived at the rest house Laban Rata.
At this point we were both soaked, tired, cold, and miserable. Next time we do this we're definitely bringing less stuff. Although were were offered a porter to hire to carry our stuff, Mike declined it and carried all of it (bless his heart). He was definitely feeling the weight of his decision!! We asked Richard how long it took his slowest client took to reach the rest house and he told us that it once took him 16 hours!!

Inside the rest house, to our surprise, they had a drying service. For a fee, you could give them your clothes and shoes to dry. We did just that & for about $20 we got all of our stuff nice and dry for the next day. While we were waiting for that to finish, we took the opportunity to sit and rest indoors. We wrote a few postcards, had some hot tea, and ate dinner.

The rest house had a patio that stood over a cliff. You could see the clouds go in and out within the blink of an eye. At one point it would be beautiful & sunny, and in the next second it would go back to being dark & cloudy. When the clouds did clear out it was nice to go out there and look over the ledge at the mountain and clouds below.

After getting our clothes and shoes back, we packed up to walk to our own rest house about 5 minutes away. The rooms were dorm style, each containing 2 bunk beds. We shared our room with 2 Malaysian school boys. They looked like they were in middle school. They had come to the mountain as part of a school trip. Mike & I went to bed around 8pm since we had to get up the next morning at 2:30am so that we could make the summit by sunrise.

It was still pitch black outside when got up the next day. It was also freezing! I put on 2 pairs of pants, a t-shirt, fleece, and rain jacket. We met Richard at 3am and started our hike to the summit. We left most of our stuff in our bunk and only took the small backpack with us. Using headlamps, we were able to navigate the trail. Above the treeline, the trail just becomes almost vertical rock and a rope is put in place to help you climb it. I was lucky that it was dark out otherwise I would have been scared of the height!

About 2.5 hours later we reached the summit. It was 2.7 km from our rest house to the summit. It was so cold up there!!About 20 minutes later, the sun started to peak from above the clouds.

Although we were cursing the rain the day before, were both so glad that it had rained then instead of right now. The sky was pretty clear and there was no rain in sight. The sunrise was gorgeous to watch and made the trip most definitely worth it. Richard told us that if there were no clouds at all, that we would be able to see the sunrise over the ocean and that you could often see all the way to the Philippines. Although there were no clouds above us, there were clouds below us which blocked that view. Nevertheless, it was still a beautiful sight to see.

There was a fair number of people up there who also shared the experience with us. Although Mike & I were the only people in our little group, groups can be as big as you want to book them. The only stipulation is that there must be one guide for every 8 people. The rest houses can house up to about 200 people and I think that they were fully booked while we were there.

We spent a few more minutes looking at the landscape below and taking a fair amount of pictures. Our Malaysian schoolboy roomies even asked to take a picture with Mike. Earlier that morning before we left he gave them one of our Cliff bars. He always makes friends everywhere we go.

With the sun out now, it definitely got warmer and we shed some of our layers as we made our way down. And now I could see how steep the rocks really were and how treacherous those cliffs really were. Needless to say, getting off the summit wasn't exactly fun for me. We arrived at the rest house to pick up the rest of our stuff and to eat breakfast. We were both starving (what else is new). At about 10am we started the hike back down the mountain.

A look back at the peak

Going down was just as bad as going up. The constant pounding on my feet was pretty harsh and the ground was slippery from all of the rain. Mike & I both had our close calls with injuries. Luckily I don't really have problems with my knees, so those were not a problem. But my calves and quads were definitely feeling the pain. The previous day Mike had expressed an interest in seeing a carnivorous pitcher plant, and Richard took us a little of the trail to show us pretty big one.

Although we thought we made pretty good time going down the mountain because we only stopped once to rest, it still took us about 3.5 hours to get down. It didn't rain for most of the hike except for the last hour or so. And the biggest kick in the pants is that the last 500 meters is uphill! That was so the last thing I wanted.

At the bottom we were picked up by a mini-bus and transported to a restaurant to pick up lunch. We thanked Richard and said good bye to him. He was an awesome guide. He really took care of us and answered all of our questions.

After getting our lunch to go, we were transported to the Poring Hot Springs. The rest of the group we were with had planned on going on a guided tour of the rainforest park. But seeing as how Mike & I had just spent 2 days in the rainforest, we weren't all that interested and were in no mood to go for a walk. So we rented a hot tub for an hour to soak our aching muscles and to clean up.

Afterwards, we met back up with our group and set off in the mini-bus to go back to our hotel. We both passed out for the 2 hour ride back to KK. We were so exhausted from the previous 2 days that we couldn't even muster up enough energy go out to eat. Instead (and I can't believe I'm admitting this) we ordered room service. Sad but true. For our last night in KK I had fish & chips and Mike had buffalo wings. Both were mediocre, but I don't think either one of us cared. After barely staying awake through dinner, we went straight to bed. It was such sweet relief.

To be continued...