KL to KK to KL (February 18-March 7)

The colonial city of Malacca has been a major port city linking east Asia with the Indian Ocean for the last 700 years. Chinese Admiral Chen Ho came here in 1346 to establish trading rights with the local sultan. Since then, Malacca has served as a cross roads for traders from China to the Middle East. This fact was not lost on the Portuguese, who took over in the 1500s and built a large fort. Later, like several other places in Southeast Asia, control over Malacca passed into the hands of the Dutch, and then lastly to the British. The British did a pretty good job of destroying most of the old Malacca, but after a local outcry, they left some buildings standing. These buildings are what draw most of the tourists to Malacca today.

A guy from Maine that we met during the Super Bowl in Bali convinced us that Malacca is a destination worthy of a stop on our journey back to Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur (KL). Upon arriving, we had some Peranakan food for dinner. The Peranakan people are a mix of Chinese and Malay bloodlines and have an unique culture within Malaysia. The next day, we went to the colonial part of the city. The front gate of the old Portuguese fort, Porta de Santiago, is all that remains. It is quite impressive having walls several meters thick. Right next to it is a full sized replica of the old sultan's palace, a magnificent building made out of dark wood. Built on stilts, the airy structure provided a nice break from the heat.

Above the fort ruins lies St. Paul's Church. Originally a Catholic church under the Portuguese, it was the burial place of St. Francis Xavier until his body was moved to Goa, India. After the Dutch took over, it was turned into a protestant church and then, into a munition depot by the British. Today, all that remains are the walls and headstones of the people buried inside.

After a quick tour of the remaining Dutch buildings, we headed to Chinatown to see Malaysia's oldest Chinese temple called the "Merciful Cloud Temple." The temple was full of people making their ritual prayer offerings. Down the street is Malaysia's most interesting mosque, the Masjid Kampung Kling. Built in 1748, it is interesting because of its unique blending of different styles from all over the world. For example, its minaret looks like a Chinese pagoda, and the arches inside the mosque are Greek. One of the caretakers of the mosque was kind enough to show us around and help us appreciate the beauty of this small mosque.

From Malacca, it was back to KL for a day before flying to the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo. We were able to go there because of Air Asia www.airasia.com, Malaysia's new budget airline. It's very similar to Southwest with no complimentary food or drinks and no seat assignments. But, the seats are cheap and the planes are new. We've come across several older travellers in Internet cafes going onto the Internet for the first time just to buy tickets on Air Asia, so you know it's got to be cheap.

Sabah is the place to go to see wild orangutans, dive with whale sharks, climb 14,500 foot Mount Kinabalu, and watch the harvest of swiflet bird's nests from Gomantong caves for soup. It got a bad rap in 2000 when Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic terrorist group operating in the Southern Phillipines near Sabah, kidnapped 200 tourists from Pualu Sipidian, which is widely recognized as one of the best diving spots in the world. All the tourists were returned safely, but tourism hasn't been the same since. Sabah was also home to the first season of "Survivor". It was filmed on Palau Tiga just off the northern coast in the South China Sea.

We only had 7 days here so we decided to visit some islands just off the coast of the capital city, Kota Kinabalu or "KK" and go to the jungle to see the orangutans. There are about five islands off of KK which belong to the Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park. We joined a Japanese snorkelling group at the last minute to snorkel at two of the islands. While the tour operator told us that a whale shark had been spotted the day before, we were not so lucky. We first headed to Pualu Manukan. Once we got on the dock, you could see straight down to the bottom of the 20 foot deep water. There were large schools of fish swimming next to the boats. It looked like an open aquarium with all of the fish so close to the surface. We snorkeled off the beach for a couple of hours looking at all of the fish. The coral wasn't as spectacular as Bali, and there was sea lice (microscopic organisms that cause a little sting when they hit your body --- almost like little jellyfish but not as painful, more just annoying). After that, we headed over to Pulau Gaya to a beautiful white sand beach for some sunbathing and more snorkelling.

At Pulau Gaya, we met an older woman from San Diego who was travelling by herself through Southeast Asia. She stated that all her friends at home think she is crazy, but she was having a great time nonetheless. She promised to protect our stuff from the maruading monkeys that inhabit the island so that we could do some more snorkelling. This time we saw big groups of sea urchins on the sea floor with very long black needles and blue and yellow stars on top. I also got bitten by an overzealous Sargent Major fish, and had to give it a little kick to get away from it.

When we got back to the beach, we sat amazed looking at the huge monitor lizards roaming the beach searching for food. With their tongues flicking in and out, the monitor lizards were given a very wide berth by everyone on the beach. The monkeys were out in force, too. A small crowd of us stood watching 5 or 6 monkeys descend on some poor tourist's stuff. One monkey grabbed a large plastic bottle of water, bit through it, held it up, and began drinking the water. While I watched this spectacle with the other beachgoers around me, two thoughts occurred to me. Boy, I'm glad that is not my stuff, and why doesn't anyone stop the monkeys? At that moment, a couple of Japanese guys came running up the beach to save what was left of their belongings. When one of the guys tried to retrieve the water bottle from the monkey, the cute little monkey showed its big fangs and shrieked making it very clear who now owned the water. So, that is why nobody is stopping the monkeys, I thought. Good to know, since we were off the next day to see Borneo's wild man of the forest, the largest tree dwelling mammal on earth, the orangutan.

After a short flight to Sandakan, we made preparations to attend the Uncle Tan's Jungle Camp (www.uncletan.com) located on the Kinabatangan River. This river is billed as one of the best places to see wildlife because unfortunately most of the area on both sides of the river has been logged and replaced with huge palm oil planations, which are everywhere in Sabah, leaving a relatively narrow strip of protected forest along the banks of the river. There are many birds to been seen, including colorful kingfishers, owls, and hornbills, as well as crocodiles and monitor lizards. The big attractions include the macaque monkeys, which are everywhere, the unique looking Proboscis monkeys, wild pigs, orangutans, and even elephants.

Our trip to the jungle camp began with a short visit to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. It is one of four rehabilitation centers for orangutans in Borneo, and the only one left that allows tourists to visit and maintains its goal to reintroduce the orangutans back into the wild. Some of the orangutans were pets keep by locals or were found near palm oil planations. Many orangutans are brought to the center when they are babies because their mothers are killed. The baby orangutans are kept in a nursery where they are nourished and get to play with the other baby orangutans. The goal of the center is to teach the orangutans how to forage for food in the jungle and to climb, skills the apes learn from their parents and are not instinctual. Once the orangutans are healthy, they are taken to the forest surrounding the center where there are feeding locations. This way the orangutans slowly adapt to the jungle while not left to starve. Then, the staff slowly cuts back on the amount of food forcing the ape to seek more food in the forest.

One of the feeding locations is open to the public. On the day we were there, a huge crowd of about 50 people waited on wooden platforms across from the feeding station waiting for the orangutans to show up. Because the orangutans are free to go where they want, there is no guarantee that any orangutans will show up. We were lucky because three orangutans came swinging in for some food. They are amazing to watch, mostly because of how human they look (they share about 96 percent of their genes with humans) and how gracefully these large animals move about the trees and ropes the center has set up. Their feet are shaped like hands, so they have no problem hanging upside down or moving from branch to branch. Watching the orangutans at the center did have the feel of a zoo, but given the important work the center is doing, it's a good trade off to see the orangutans.

After the orangutan center, it was off to the Kinabatangan River to the jungle camp. It took us about 2 hours by minivan and 1 1/2 hours travelling by boat to get to the camp. The camp lived up to its advertised claim as being rustic, with small open shelters on stilts lining a small boardwalk. Each shelter contained three thin foam mattresses with mosquito nets. We shared ours with two English couples, one living in Malaysia and the other travelling around the world like us. While most of the guides were inexperienced, the food was bad, and the accommodations were worse because of the heat, we did get to see a lot of wildlife---including several crocodiles, loads of macaque and proboscis monkeys, and even two wild orangutans, a male and a female. The male orangutan wasn't that happy we were there, and dropped branches to scare us away, which worked. The female orangutan was more accommodating, and we got to watch her eating and moving about the trees for a long time.

We even had wild boars roaming the camp, and one visited our shelter in the middle of the night causing quite a stir. The proboscis monkeys only live in Borneo and are very unique looking because the males have huge noses and big pot bellies. We weren't lucky enought to get any good pictures of them, but you can see pictures of them at this web site www.proboscis.cc.

With a thorough scrubbing and speedy recovery from our jungle adventure, we were back on a plane to KL. KL feels like an up and coming city. While not as modern and clean as Singapore, the city straddles the line between old and new Asia. Arriving in KL's new international airport, KLIA, you are quickly wisked away on the new KL express train passing through Malaysia's answer to Silicon Valley, the KL Multimedia Corridor. The train is fast, quiet, has LCD screens displaying the latest English football scores as well as Dow Jones stock market closings with classical music playing in the background. From this, we headed to Chinatown for our cheap hostel. KL's Chinatown is old, grimy, filled with merchants selling counterfeit goods, and crowded with people. It is near the bus and train stations and is located in between the colonial and the new modern areas of KL.

KL's biggest attraction is the Petronas Twin towers, the tallest towers in the world at 451 meters and 88 floors. Visitors can visit the skybridge connecting the two towers at the 41 & 42 floors. The views are even better from the nearby KL Tower, which is the fourth tallest telecommunications tower in the world. KL also boasts the tallest flagpole in the world. Yes, this country is obessed with very tall things. From the Petronas towers, we visited the Kompleks Budaya Kraf, which showcases traditional Malaysian arts and crafts. Amy was invited to play a traditional marble game called congkak with some local girls. She won several games and had to convince them repeatedly that she really had never played before. We also enjoyed KL's Islamic Arts museum with a superb collection of old Korans, beautiful textiles, and minature replicas of 20 of the world's great mosques.

To escape the heat in KL, we travelled north to the Cameron highlands. At an elevation of about 4,000 feet, the cool air rejuvinated us. We explored the local jungle walks and visited the Boh tea planation. From the Cameron highlands, it was back to KL and on to Thailand for our one night in Bangkok.