Kuching, Borneo; The Cat's Meow

Tyler and I have pledged to see more of Malaysia. We figured that it would be a real shame not to have really explored our host-home for the past two years, previously having really only scratched the surface with rendez-vous to Langkawi (any-beach S.E Asia) and Sabah, East Malaysia. So now added to the hopefully ever-growing list of Malaysian cities explored is Kuching. Kuching is located in East Malaysia on the island of Borneo, in the state of Sarawak...as that means very little to me without a point of reference, check out the map.

Tyler and I were meeting an array of people in Kuching. The Chinese New Year crew included Amanda Juray, Hutchy, Danielle, Damian and two new Swiss friends, Johanna and Dino. We had a pretty spectacular welcome to Kuching as we landed at the stroke of midnight marking the beginning of Chinese New Year. Much like the Western New Year, midnight gave the green-light to thousands of fireworks being sent up into the sky. It was a pretty neat perspective to enjoy the show! Upon arrival we checked into our hotel,  The Pullman and chilled. (I would have highly recommended it up until the last night. That hotel is totally haunted...in a 'I don't think I believe in ghosts, but that just got real' kind of way.) Otherwise, The Pullman was host to lounge cocktails, poolside poker games and a whole lotta robe-wearing.

As it was Chinese New Year (Gong Xi Fa Chai!) most of the town was shut and things were pretty quiet. This did not stop us from hitting the parks. First up was the Orangutan Sanctuary. Last year Tyler and I had traveled and trekked in Sumatra, Indonesia to catch a glimpse of our distant cousins (we could probably marry them in some States). As we fell in love with them then (in a platonic way), and they only inhabit two islands in the world, AND we found ourselves on the second of the two islands, we had to go. It was a very easy trip, and we weren't disappointed as we saw 10ish orangutans just hanging, swinging and being generally awesome.

 The next day we hit up Bako National Park to try and catch a glimpse of the weird and well endowed Proboscis Monkey. These monkeys are a rare species with an usually large NOSE (perverts...), and can only be found in Borneo. In order to get to the park you need to catch a bus to Bako Village and hire a boat to the park. Not realizing that there needed to be high tide in order to leave the village, we spent some serious time lounging, pacing, playing charades and puzzling each other with useless trivia. A serious quality I look for when choosing friends is the ability to shoot the breeze; these guys have got it (...said the guy with two NOSES). Finally, we headed off down the crocodile infested river. Having examined the various killer characteristics of crocs during our wait on the pier, we figured we were headed the way of Captain Hook as the boats ran aground. With all hands in tact, we arrived at the park, spotting a big Bearded Pig straight away, and the illusive Proboscis Monkey not too long after. Trip satisfied. Otherwise we walked and climbed along a jungle trail for a an hour or so, then headed back to the boat. With the water levels much higher by this point, we were flying!

It's no Bay of Fundy, but we were appreciative of the rising tides!

Obviously not my picture, but check out that schnoz!

Otherwise, we wandered the lovely town of Kuching for a couple of days. It was awesome being in a Malaysian town that wasn't Kuala Lumpur. We spend 97% of our time in Malaysia in KL (a blind estimation) and as a result, have a pretty one-sided impression of the country. Although the good far outweighs the bad, the things that can grind my gears about KL (insane traffic, never-ending mall culture, obscene piles of trash) were by and far removed from Kuching.  I know things always look shinier and brighter while on vacation, void of work responsibilities, free to have a day-beer, but it really felt like the best parts of Malaysian culture were being highlighted in Kuching-- totally recharging my love for Malaysia.  Gotta love that!

As the town began to slowly open up after the holidays, we indulged in some great food (as always), putted around the river, breezed through the natural history museum with 10 minutes to closing (blowdarts, mutant jungle animals, and headhunters can really capture your attention) and marveled at cat memorabilia. Did I forget to mention Kuching means 'cat' in Bahasa? A truly puuuuuurrrfect fit for a feline fan! (Feel lucky I only managed to throw in one bad cat pun. The trip on the other-hand was riddled with cat gestures, props, puns and sightings).

Kuching is the cat's meow!

Into the Tickle Trunk

Ok, so this blog is being posted at least 2 months after it happen and was written. All I can say is that New Year's resolutions are in full-swing...one being to continue with this blog, finish and post an array of half-written posts. Now that I've written it down and put it out there on the internet....its gotta happen! Thanks for reading!

This year we were very excited to be in KL for Deepavali!  Deepavali is the festival of lights, celebrating the triumph of good over evil (there's a great animation on Youtube that explains the whole story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d2ZJxNxFao)...or as I like to describe it, 'Indian Christmas'. The lead up to Deepavali was great; Malls were decorated, cards were being sent, snacks and cookies were magically appearing.  We really had much more a feel for the celebration this year, as we were invited to a co-workers family home for lunch.The day of Deepavali was a public holiday (again, thank you Malaysia) so we sat around and ate cookies and snacks, had a big ol' feast of homemade curries and lamb, drank beer and visited. Sound familiar? The only difference between Christmas and Deepavali (besides, you know, the cultural and religious aspects -_-) was that instead of everyone sitting around in their jammies sipping Bailey's, our friends were wearing the most beautiful saris and jewelery to match. Honestly, the ladies were stunning! It was a great gathering (and strangely enough, the first time we have been in a Malaysian home since being here..All new experiences to be thankful for!)

Similarly to Christmas, Deepavali is celebrated for many days...which really jived well with us. Each night (and oddly day) the city was lit up with fireworks, and we continued to celebrate through the weekend, including a school celebration all day on the Friday. Complete with my own sari, henna and bindi, among other activities, we had one of the funnest dance parties I've been to in a long time. Bollywood dancing (lead by the superstar Magesh) with 40 laughing, bouncing kids all banging on their own instruments was a riot. A noisy, noisy riot. Teaching can be ridiculously fun sometimes. Needless to say, a great way to finish the school day before a two-week holiday.

Topical, eh?

Because of our school holiday being a couple weeks later than last year's, we also spent Halloween in Kuala Lumpur. Knowing that Halloween is pretty frowned upon by particular religious groups, we weren't expecting the level of sugar-induced spookiness we can all appreciate from home. However, we headed to a house-party in our condo, which struck a strong resemblance to a party at home...except there was about 30 nationalities present and no one was wearing their snowsuit under their costume ;) Seriously though, Hutchy did a great job making sure the place was strewn with cobwebs and Danielle did not disappoint on candy duty. Thanks neighbors!

The next morning Tyler and I headed to Langkawi for a week of beach sitting on the duty-free island that serves as a cheap and quick getaway to the expats of KL. Throughout the week we had a brief cameo from the wonderful Amandajuray, and were eventually joined by the whole KL gang as the week progressed and people shrugged off their work (or otherwise) duties. Our first order of business was to buy a cooler, stock it with ice and 50 cent beers. After 4 days of lounging, reading and general sloth-like behaviour we peeled ourselves off the lounge chairs and scooted to a couple waterfalls on the island. When we last visited Langkawi the waterfalls had been dried up, but being as we were teetering on monsoon season, the falls runneth over! We visited both Seven Wells Falls and Langkawi Falls, swimming in the deep pools of cold fresh water (I hate to be a complainer...but sometimes the ocean and pools are just too warm..and what's the deal with salt-water!?). It was such a good day, we had no qualms about doing it again the next day with our friends. It's no secret we love a good roadtrip, and nothing makes a roadtrip sweeter than a convoy...so we were pretty content to zip around the island with our swimsuit clad gang. Otherwise, we celebrated Sasha's birthday on the beach, watched some killer sunsets and generally chilled the eff out.

Camping in Kapas

Generally speaking, we try and avoid the craziness of Asian mobs. In the past we've been caught in a few human traffic jams and general situations where personal space is not an option, leaving us feeling generally annoyed and harboring misdirected hatred for the entire continent. As our years in Asia have ticked by, we generally weigh out the pros and cons of the festival:people ratio. Unless it's a must-see situation the festival wins less and less most days. This past weekend was not one of those times.

We can all agree that the novelty of a three day weekend pretty much trumps all else. So when Hari Raya Haji fell on a Monday, we were very much committed to making the most of it. We quickly found out that the rest of Kuala Lumpur had the same level of dedication. However, through hard lessons learned, the pending Asian-mob mentality was not lost on us, so we prepped accordingly. To make the five hour journey out of KL with the plans of catching the first boat to Kapas we were ready to leave at 3am. As we all congregated in the parking garage, watching club goers stumble home (thinking "Is that what we look like!?") we all agreed that it was a bit mad to be leaving in the middle of the night. As the old saying goes "Crazy loves company" (ok I just coined that..you heard it here first!) we were stopped within half an hour by a traffic jam for probably 2 hours. A bumper-to-bumper traffic jam at 3:30am for TWO HOURS. During that time there was certainly wavering from members of our two-car convoy (Ahem, Hutchy&Bing) whether or not we should continue...but we were in it to win it. We ventured on....to the next traffic jam. Another hour an a half waiting to get through a toll booth. Throughout the 7-8 hour drive we kept wondering why, on a highway we could just be stopped...like all the time?

Not really expecting to find a logical explanation to an Asian 'why' question, I Googled it. Based on various articles (which I am not going to reference, nor can verify the validity of the research... which may have taken place in the last 1-3 years) Malaysia, and in particular Kuala Lumpur has a pretty high car to people ratio. So just in KL there are 3,332,767 registered four-wheeled vehicles (excluding motorcycles). With a population of only 1,720,000 it seems that every man, woman and baby enjoys themselves a Sunday drive. That, coupled with small highways, continuous toll booths incapable of maintaining high volumes of cars AND a rare long weekend, I can sit here with a smug, knowing look on my face. A look I was certainly not wearing while sitting in a car for a 16 hour round-trip.

Ok, so those who enjoy the cliche "It's all about the journey, not the destination" are usually not trying to get the most out of a three-day weekend (On the half-full, sunny-side of things- spending some long hours in the car gave us the opportunity to chat, laugh with and get to know new friends Ellie and Kenny). We were all beyond happy to arrive on Kapas Island, settle into our campsite, pour a drink and chill out on the beach. On an island with only 100+ people, things got very relaxed very quickly. We were a group of seven so at any point there was company to snorkel, eat, drink, dive or nap. We brought the fixin's for a killer BBQ (nice job boys!), did the island jungle trek, played poker and bon fired on the beach. Even as the stormy season threatens Eastern Malaysia, the water was clear (better visibility snorkeling than diving) and the beaches were clean. As lovers of camping, it was a great change of pace (and cheaper) from the guesthouses we usually stay in. And camping! Who doesn't love chilling out around the picnic table, making the classic bacon and egg breakfast in the morning? Especially when the campground provides, sets up and takes down your tent for the mere price of $5/night. What a little slice of heaven!

 Although the islands on the Eastern coast of Malaysia are entering into their stormy months (and are generally considered to be 'closed'), we are looking forward to returning to Kapas in the Spring!....Collectively agreeing that we will either fly or take the bus to get there.