Malaysia (Kuching)

We fly to Kuching in Sarawak, Malaysia Borneo, to do some trekking and hopefully see the orangutans and others bits of wildlife. The flight over was okay however the more I fly on this trip the worse my fear of flying becomes, give me a train any day. We land in Kuching and get a taxi for a fix price to the hostel. The hostel is clean, nice and not too far from the centre. We plan what to do and speak to hostel manager who helps with transport and bus times etc.

Day one we spend exploring the city, it feels very different than KL, smaller and the people operate at a slower pace which is nice. We visit the two main museums to get some history about the local tribes and history of Sarawak. An easy day and we book a few nights stay at a national park about 2 hours away called Bako National park. We visit a large mosque and walk down the promenade which gives a beautiful view over the river which seperates the city in two.

The next day we get up and eat breakfast at a small Chinese cafe, fish and chicken noodles soup which wasn't the best to be honest. Our goal to visit the local orangutan rehabilitation centre where the semi-wild primates swing from tree to tree and occasionally come to some man made feeding platforms where visitors can hopefully see a glimpse of the magnificent orange beast. We got the public bus to the centre and were joined by about 50 other tourists. After a short 2km walk to the platforms we sit and wait patiently and a ranger comes and tells us to not use flash, keep quiet, don't get close if they come down and don't try fighting if one of them takes your bag, he hasn't seen anyone win yet. After an hour or so we see a few trees move in the distance and slowly two orangutans can be seen assessing the situation ahead. The rangers bring some fruit to try and entice them closer and it works. A large hairy man like creature comes swinging closer and eventually is in full view. The farcical expressions give them such a humanistic feel and character and they are so much bigger than I expected. One of them takes a coconut from the rangers hand and starts to crack it open using a twig and banging it against the tree, drinking the contents before nibbling the flesh. They were really interesting to see even if like other things sometimes other tourists can make it hard to appreciate due to their lack of respect and inability to follow simple instruction.

The next day we packed a small bag and got our trekking clobber on ready to head to Bako national park. After a shortish bus ride we arrived at the park head quaters where we organise a boat to take up river about 30-40mins to the national park base where you can stay overnight and go on several differing treks of various difficulties. The main draw for coming to the park is to try and see some animals in the wild as well as doing some of the trekking through the forests. The park was well kept and clean, we ended up seeing three different types of monkey, wild bearded pigs, flying lemurs, several different snakes, spiders, scorpions and bats on our treks. The thing we really wanted to see were some Probiscous Monkeys with there huge red noses, we thankfully saw several. A gang of macaque monkeys had taken up residence near the lodges so we saw lots of them, they had got used to people and were very cheeky stealing food from people so you need to on your guard when you're eating. We did 4 treks in total, nothing more then a few hours but still really good, reminded us a lot of being in Brazil in the Amazon and the Pantanal. The only downside was that there was a water shortage and showering from a tap with a bucket and cold water certainly woke you up and was a new one for us, I don't think izzi enjoyed that experience. On the eveing we went out with some rangers on a night trek which is were we saw florescent fungi which glowed as well as the flying lemurs and other night creatures.

Our final stop in Kuching is to go visit a traditional long house, normally tousits head to a few which have been built for tourists and are really just for show. This doesn't sound that bad but we meet and read about someone called Desmond Kon who worked for the national museum and has done some work with the BBC (I believe), after getting in touch we decided to take a full day trip with him to see a real working and loving village with a longhouse which is 200m in length. The drive was nearly 2 hours from Kuching to the boarder of Indonesian Borneo, Kalimantan. We stopped at a few places where he showed us cocoa plantations and a jungle market where produce from the jungle is sold by locals to locals. On the way we stopped at a small village to see some old carvings which are to keep the spirits away. Whilst we were there we got introduced (by accident) to a very drunk man and his friends. They were friendly and inquisitive and insisted we drank with them and Desomnd said it was fine. 4 shots and a beer later I felt a bit merry and considering it wasn't even 12 o'clock yet we headed quickly off before being drawn in to more boozy antics. When arriving at the house where we were warmly welcomed and began to hand out some small gifts to children including pens, papers and educational material. It was a bit awkward we thought, this was a very traditional villages and we felt a bit of culture shock. Some of the elderly women were topless and they seemed to live a very self sufficient and simple life. It was interesting and better then visiting a fake tourist built house but still so different from our lives at home or even when travelling. The longhouse is like it sounds, initally a family builds a house then as the family grows and others come to the village more houses are added and you end up with a stright long house. This one had two floors and backed directly on the a small stream and the jungle. A huge communal veranda style front seemed to be where people ate and socialise, like the focal point of the whole house. I asked what Desomnd thought would happen in the future and he said it would survive as they practice and pass on the traditions to others but I'm not so sure. We saw the odd TV and give it time the younger generation we tried to speak to went to school, spoke some broken English and had football shirts on (always Manchester united!), unfortunately people will move closer to a more developed society even if that may not be the best thing.

Kuching was a pleasant and activity filled stop off for us, a short trip to Borneo due to time and costs. Next we head to Singapore for a few days before jumping over in to Indonesia.