2018 S.E. Asia: Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

August 29th we left home, Victoria, B.C., and a month has passed in our temporary home(s) in Southeast Asia. It feels as if much less time has passed – the next two months will go quickly.

In two of four of our different accommodations on our travels so far we have seen little lizards in our room. We like them – in the two rooms where we had no lizards there were some nasty bugs (which we eventually got used to, anyway). In our room last night one of the lizards (we soon discovered there were two) was chirping loudly, but stopped after Bob tried to encourage the pair outside. They went under our bed and didn't make a sound the rest of the night after their big run around away from Bob.

We are currently (September 27-30) in Northern Borneo, in a rustic room 2Km from the park entrance of Mount Kinabalu (4095m at its peak – the highest mountain in Southeast Asia and 20th highest in the world). From our room (at about 1,500m) we have an elevated, jungle canopy view across a sweeping valley with foreground vegetable green shelters to lush foothills and beyond to Mount Kinabalu above.

There have been some spectacular sunrises and sunsets and a moon rise on the night we arrived. There is a little balcony where we can sit just outside our room to listen to the jungle sounds and scan the canopy below and beyond for birds. At this elevation it is cooler and often breezy so there are fewer mosquitoes. It is a beautiful, tranquil area.

Yesterday we went for a 20 Km hike in the foothills of Mount Kinabalu. Day hikes beyond the foothills to the peaks are closed “until further notice”, which was a bit disappointing for Yolanda to find out as she imagined scrambling to the peak. It is 8 Km to the top from the controlled-entrance gate, Tinpohon Gate, so 16 Km round trip, which is similar in scale and scope to a few of the hikes we like to do in the Yoho area of the Rocky Mountains.

We had a transition day (September 26) in Koto Kinabalu (K.K.) before traveling up to Mount Kinabalu. We walked about 16 Km around K.K. over Sentinel Hill, through Koto Kinabalu Wetlands Centre – a wetlands conservation area with an extensive mangrove swamp, and to the edge of a lagoon (which we didn’t spend much time at as Yolanda wasn’t too keen about the “AWAS: Crocodile” sign). In the mangrove we saw many crab species and a Crimson Sunbird. The mud-skippers are funny little fish that jump across the water and mud!

In the big Southeast Asian cities (for instance, K.K. has about 400,000 people and K.L. has over 2 million) we have learned that there are glitzy malls with American and European chain outlets. For us, they are similar to downtown Vancouver malls, only more glitzy. However, there don’t seem to be many shoppers around, and we have seen malls in smaller communities that seem to be abandoned (similar to ones we have seen on our bike ride across Canada).

We were told by Victoria pals that the S.E.Asia KFC is not at all like at home and is really good, but we likely won’t try it out. We did, however, walk into a K.K. Starbucks to find out what it was like. It smelled the same! And the coffee was $5 CAD equivalent! And it tasted the same – yes, we caved! We cooked most of our own food for the three and a half weeks at the K.L. apartment, as we knew we would be eating out a lot on our travels around Malaysia and Indonesia.

Now that we are out on our excursions, we are eating local food as much as possible. On the first night out of K.L., in Koto Kinabalu, we ended up downtown where the fishing boats
come in with their daily catch. On the dockside, they have set up a fresh-fish food market, with barbecues, fat fryers and a lot of seating. After watching the sun set, and trying to ignore the occasional pile of non-bio-degradable waste*, we jostled through the market and were offered dinner by each stall, but we found it confusing, as the place was, incredulously, candle-lit. Suddenly the lights went up and everyone cheered, then they dimmed again and everyone groaned, and then they came on and everyone cheered and snuffed out their candles. The temporary power outage made for a dazing, dazzling show, but it was easier to figure out with the lights on. While we didn’t order a fresh-off-the-boat dinner, we did try an egg fried pocket with chili sauce, which was delicious!

We are happy to be out of the city and up in the mountains. Bob is seeing interesting birds and bugs and photographing some (they are quick and there are many leafy spots where they can hide away in a flash). This morning he was up at 5:15am to take a cab 7Km up to Timpohon Gate so he could be there at sunrise. He birded for about two hours and then was driven back to the accommodation for breakfast.

This afternoon we wandered down through the vegetable and herb gardens and looked out to other nearby hillside vegetable farms. Otherwise we relaxed and got some blogging done (we were going to do laundry today, but did it last night instead to give extra time for things to dry in the high humidity).

Yolanda is particularly enjoying the kind and friendly people and we have learned a few phrases in Malay (for instance, please “tolong”, thank you "terima kasih", good morning "selamat pagi", and good-bye “selamat jalan”. It is also super to see the art making with traditional and modern materials and the woven arts are fantastic. We are both enjoying the out-of-doors exercise and have walked 135Km since August 31st.

We were prepared for the average 30C heat and the average 100% humidity, but we didn’t know that there would be lightning and thunder showers almost every day – guess the heat and humidity add up that way! There are incredible downpours almost every afternoon. The days start sunny and end sunny, but at about 2pm, the sky darkens, on most days lightning flashes around, and then the rain starts. But then it ends. It all takes less than an hour and everyone seems ready for it to happen. As the sky darkens, the motorcyclists pull over to shelters along the highway and moms with children duck under one of the many shelters along their way. In public garden or forest areas, there are shelters frequently along the path where one can wait out the downpour.

The highways, sidewalks, farm gardens and hills are designed to take on the water and pass it along. There are troughs along each sidewalk and at the roadsides, and banks are terraced trough-ways that funnel water to lower systems of troughs. Embankments near building developments have water spouts in a regular pattern down the side, and most have plants growing intentionally within the wall. Furrowed farm gardens have plastic sheeting elevated on wooden poles a gardener’s height above the crop. As a result of all this water, the plants are large and prolific and the jungles can thrive. Right next to each city is that oozing jungle, ready to take over when allowed to do so at an abandoned site (even sometimes in the developed areas, where tree roots have completely up-heaved laid stone-work or concrete slabs).

Yolanda bought an umbrella almost right away and Bob has one now. It is too hot to wear our rim Tilly hats, so the umbrella helps us make shade for our head and shoulders and disturbs the air flow dynamics resulting in a small turbulence at our face. The umbrella comes in handy in the afternoon rain - as soon as the downpour part is complete, we can head out from shelter with our umbrellas protecting us (and our gear) from the final sprinkles. We have also purchased more bug cream, and some spray, as Dengue Fever and Malaria are a serious community health concern in Southeast Asia. We are taking anti-malaria medication, but there is no pill protection from Dengue Fever. The mosquitos that carry Dengue Fever are out during the day and the Malaria carrying mosquitos are out from the evening to morning. They are not large (but other bugs are), but they are ever-present. In some public recreational areas there are seemingly no bugs and almost no birds, so we suspect some community broadcast spraying.

In July and August this year, there were a series of devastating earthquakes in near-by Lombok,

Indonesian, and many perished. Yesterday evening, there were a series of earthquakes near Sulawesi, Indonesia. We did feel (and hear) the quakes from our Mount Kinabalu, Borneo room. We don't feel concerned for ourselves. We feel badly for the loss of lives yesterday from the ensuing Tsunami and mud flows that hit one small town (Palu) at the end of an inlet on Sulawesi. The epicenter of the main quake was about 500km from where we are in Borneo. It should not impact our tour plans. We heard and thought we felt something last night at about the same time the big quake hit. It was as if someone’s bass was briefly turned up way too loud. Reports of over 20 aftershocks on Sulawesi over the past 24hrs have been in the 4 to 5 range. On our hike yesterday we passed a lookout and plaque dedicated to the lives of 18 hikers who died as a result of a landslide caused by a quake in 2015. Five guides perished along with 13 hikers and it looks from the ages that more than half of the hikers were a grade seven class from Singapore, 12yo-13yo. It happened at 7:15am. So, they would have woken up at 2:30am to make the ascent from base camp to the peak to watch the sun rise at about 6:00am. Likely they were just on their way down when the 6 magnitude quake hit.

Tomorrow we go to another near-by mountain (Mount Mulu) for more days of jungle hikes. We are splurging for a cab ($58 CAD equivalent) to pick us up at our accommodation in the mountains and take us to the Kota Kinabalu airport (a 2 hour drive away, depending on who is driving). It was a bumpy 2hr crammed go-when-it-is-full economical van ride up the mountain. Our other choice down is to stand by the road side in the morning to hail a bus to Koto Kinabalu and then a cab to the airport. We aren’t quite that open to timeline risk.

We have 5 other stops on this three+weeks of exploring Borneo & Bali (and including five National Parks - some of which are World Heritage sites - and some of which we will be staying in park dorm cabins in order to get out early to hear and see the park waking at sunrise).

* A note about waste and debris: The piles of garbage seem to mostly be near the cities, even in K.L. at the civic centre, where the river has small rafts of plastic bottles and scraps. The ocean by K.K. was turbid and did not smell like an ocean. It did not smell like sewage, more like kitchen waste and fats. We didn’t endeavour to find out the source of the smell. The other form of debris is abandoned building projects. In some cases, there is another glitzy, modern building next door, or a block away. A few seem half-built, as if the developer ran out of funds, or maybe there was some other mis-hap – anyway, the monkeys and plants are happy enough with the state of the accommodation. Other condo projects seem empty and maybe are slated for demolition. UPDATE October 5th: We have since learned that the abandoned civic and development projects is due to Government mis-management of funds and their introduction of GST, now repealed. There was also billions that were siphoned to personal accounts and overseas properties by corrupt political leaders, now on trial and two days ago pleading not guilty to all charges - this has been in international news. The people speak positively about the new government and see that abandoned projects are getting underway again. The new government has also increased minimum wage to $1.50CAD equivalent per hour and full-time employees to not earn less than $350CAD equivalent per month.

2018 S.E. Asia: Excursions

Of the next 62 days, for at least 48 days we have plans to tour more parts of Malaysia and also some areas of Indonesia and staying in a range of accommodations, many of which we hope have lizards (see lizard realization in next post).

September 25 to October 16 we are on a three+week tour of World Heritage and National Park areas in the Malaysian provinces of Sabah and Sarawak in the north part of the Island of Borneo; the island of Bali, Indonesia; and with a side trip by air to Komodo on Flores Island in Indonesia. At the end of the three+week escapade, after Bob’s Komodo National Park visit to see dragons, we fly back briefly to be in the apartment in K.L. Oct 17&18.

October 19th we are returning to a spot we visited in early October, Kuala Senangor to see the Mangrove again. From October 21- November 5th we will tour Peninsular Malaysia, and including a wow-day in Singapore.

We have already done a number of birding day-outings near to and on long drives out from K.L. in Peninsular Malaysia (see September 25th Blog post): West 64Km to see Kuala Selangor (a wetland mangrove swamp), North 115Km to visit Bukit (Hill) Fraser, and South 130Km to see the shoreline of Tanjung Tuan (Park) at Cape Rachado, which is a protected fly-way funnel for birds migrating further south via Sumatra, Indonesia.

In early to late November Bob’s plan is that we go to areas in Sumatra & Java for about 16 days.

Skipping around on Air Asia is relatively inexpensive, and cabs, food, and accommodation are about 1/3 or less of what we pay in Canada. The objective is to visit World Heritage areas, many of which are also National Parks and conservation areas, such as the three wetlands conservation areas we have already visited.

2018 S.E. Asia: Kuala Lumpur (K.L.), Malaysia

We are at the K.L airport today heading out on a three+week tour of World Heritage and National Park areas to the Malaysian provinces of Sabah and Sarawak in the north part of the Island of Borneo; to the island of Bali, Indonesia; and with a side trip by air to Komodo so Bob can visit Komodo National Park and see dragons. We can’t believe that almost a month has passed since we left Victoria August 29th, 2018 to be at home in Southeast Asia.

When we arrived in Southeast Asia, we didn't experience jet lag, in part because Bob took us on a few walks when we arrived (7K, 12K, 6K, 7K), to explore the very modern city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Apparently, exposing oneself to daylight hours in a new place helps your body/brain figure out the time change. We settled in well to the apartment in K.L. by spending a few days “nesting” with shopping, and doing laundry (and more walking outings).

We bought some spices and local groceries and made a giant chicken and red lentil curry that we were working our way through and then on the fourth evening we decided to freeze the fourth serving and made spaghetti carbonara a la primavera, with no bacon, lots of steamed vegys and no parmesan (we have not yet sourced a good one). Bob was pleased when our checked luggage showed up, as it had his box of Cheerios from home (and we’ve since found were we can buy some – breakfast of champions, says Bob!).

 In K.L., we are in a modern, aesthetically pleasing apartment with black marble counters and metallic gold cabinetry and hardwood floors.

The apartment is rented from the Hong Kong owner by our Victoria neighbours Tony and Susheela Dason for their son Oliver, who was on a work experience at the school where Susheela worked before the Dasons moved south from K.L. to Port Dickson, Malaysia, in their transition process to Victoria. They offered the apartment to us while they would be back in Victoria September to December and we accepted! They also provided us with two helpful orientation sessions in K.L., before they headed back to Victoria. Tony generously loaned his car so we could make outings in Peninsular Malaysia - Bob looks forward to getting used to left lane drive again (last time was in Ireland).

The apartment is in a complex of four 30-story buildings, Verve Suites, with gardens, trees, koi ponds, tennis courts and swimming pools all around. Each of the four Verve towers has a special feature on the upper floor: One has a beach and bay of water (including lots of real sand); one has a movie theatre and athletics room; one has an infinity pool and barbecue area; and one has a pool with jets and rock wall. The 5th floor, which adjoins the four towers, also has a mini-forest/jungle with ponds and two more swimming pools. Also, there are children's play areas on the 5th floor and a children’s pool with a slide. Inside, from the 5th to ground floor are a day care, health facilities, shops and restaurants, and parking. Wow, we had a bit of an idea of the place we would be staying, but the offerings around are far more extensive than we could imagine.

The Verve Suites are on the edge of a green space (hill - "bukit"), and Bob had plotted out a few trail walks on the bukit for us to do, but we soon discovered the area is closed for hiking as it is being developed for a series of housing/shopping complexes. We had hoped to walk via the trails to an IKEA store to pop in to get more water glasses to match the ones in the apartment. We eventually drove to IKEA and spent a long time in a queue for parking and then did not find the matching glasses, so picked up six new ones and a very nice latte mug for Yolanda. The mug has provided morning-time coffee bliss for Yolanda, as we brought along our tear-drop trailer espresso maker and have found our favourite Italian espresso coffee in a local shop, and the local milk is delicious, so the combo is fantastic!

On our outings in K.L. we included nature and culture stops: Lake Park, K.L. Tower and canopy walk in the K.L. Forest Eco-Park, K.L.C.C., The National Textile Museum, and The Islamic Museum.

On our first walking outing (August 31st) we crossed through Lake Park, where we saw many exotic-to-us plants and birds. There is the World’s largest aviary in the park and a butterfly garden, but we stayed out-side. At the entrance to the aviary there were a lot of monkeys darting around, and signs saying “please do not feed the monkeys”. We ended up at the very tall K.L. Tower, which until recently was the tallest communications tower in the world and located in the middle of an ancient jungle, the K.L. Forest Eco-Park. One can either drive up the road to the tower, or walk up through a series of suspended canopy walks. We chose the canopy walk and found it interesting and exciting. It was an exhausting day in the heat and humidity, but we enjoyed the experience and seeing new sights.

The National Textile Museum houses an extensive collection of woven and printed textiles and accessories. There was also an area with textile technology displays and a case with full costumes using original textiles. Yolanda plans to visit again, and possibly again.

At the Islamic Museum, we enjoyed learning about the calligraphic and illustrative artistry of the Qur’an, and a bit about the content of the chants. The museum also has extensive collections of arts and crafts and Yolanda appreciated the costume and textiles section and learning about Muslim modesty and style. There were two temporary installations when we visited: one installation had mosque maquettes and a chronology of mosque architecture and included adobe examples from Mexico, pagoda examples from Japan and contemporary U.S. examples; the other temporary exhibition displayed ancient medical texts, highlighting the text illustrations, including normally-forbidden stylized human images. The medical exhibition also showed artifacts used in the developing public medicine system and in the promotion of cleanliness, health and well-being through diet and exercise. This exhibition included a children’s health and well-being interactive area.

Since arriving, Bob has been photographing for his i-Naturalist database (birds mostly), and carefully planning the flight, accommodation and excursion details for our forays beyond K.L. Yolanda has set up an art area in the apartment and has been putting colour into a tapestry for a group exhibition in which the tapestry designs will each have a horizon line and the set of tapestries will be installed in the gallery with the horizon lines aligned.

We have done many birding day-outings near to K.L. We have also done three long-drive all-day birding outings:
- West 64Km to see Kuala Selangor (a wetland mangrove swamp) and Bob’s first big drive out of (and back in to) K.L. The driving, which is left-hand, went really well and we loved seeing a mangrove swamp for the first time. We hope to be able to get back for another day at this site.
- North 115Km to visit Bukit (Hill) Fraser, on what turned out to be a national holiday, which we didn’t find out about until we arrived. Happily we had left K.L. at about 6am in order to get to Bukit Fraser by 8am to see the morning time bird activity. We saw and Bob photographed some new species (mostly birds).
- South 130Km to see the Paya Indah Wetlands; the shoreline of Tanjung Tuan (park) at Cape Rachado, which is a protected fly-way funnel for birds migrating further south; and the Port Dickson waterfront. On this outing, one of our car tires went flat – happily we discovered the issue at 6:25pm, and were just across the road from a tire repair shop due to close at 6:30pm! Within 15 minutes the mechanic had repaired the tire and we were on our way – he asked for 10MYR (~$3.25 CAD) but we gave him 20MYR.

Yolanda is pleased that her horizon weaving is moving along. It is about 3/5 done by September 24th. A moon shell Yolanda found in Tofino and is part of the design is next to be woven. Figuring out a technique for moving-on has been super - a two-piece dowel at the top of the frame pulls out in sections to loosen the warp. The piece is 35cm × 70cm on a small frame made by her uncle Benito for some lessons Yolanda taught. Bob suggested to use Cheerio box cardboard to protect the moved-on weaving at the bottom of the frame, and it has turned out to be a nifty trough for bobbins! Yolanda has woven a few shells and one barnacle in previous of her tapestries, so she is hopeful the weaving will progress smoothly during the few days we will be in K.L. in October and November.