Jungle Kayaking in Kuching

So this is part two of the pictures. It started off in the Orang Utan sanctuary where they have 25 Orang Utan - the oldest of which is 38 years old!
Here's Ayu and I watching the feeding.
This is one of the younger Orang Utan catching fruit that the keeper is tossing up to him.
Ayu and I checking out the self-closing leaves. If you touch them they auotomatically retract.
Ayu with one of the pitcher plants. They're carnivorous.
Larger pitcher plants
The river we rafted down.
Ayu and on on the bridge at the end.
A waterfall halfway down the river.
At the beginning.
Also at the beginning.
Ah, sorry - too many pictures at the beginning.
Cocoa beans at the village. Drying out - they may one day be the chocolate you eat!
Ayu and a cat at the village.
Another one.
Really nice cat.
These are how the cocoa beans start out. Then bugs eat the fruit off the outside.
What's left gets dried by the sun and then ground into cocoa (I would assume).
The remains of our lunch went to this dog at the end.
The end. For now.

Pictures from Mt. Kinabalu (and a bit earlier)!

Ayu and I are now in London. With zippy fast internet - yay! So without further adeau, here are all the pictures I wanted to show you all before (in order from past to present).

First, I busted one myth while in Malaysia. Asians actually do buy (and most likely eat) Grass Carp. Granted they don't pay very much for it - about 42 cents per 100 grams (or $1.90 a pound), but the fact that they actually buy and eat it was enough to shock me. So I had to take a picture and prove it to all the people at home who think carp are worthless.
This picture is for Jill - the Jimmy Choo Store in Kuala Lumpur! They have a whole store! Unfortunately, all they sell there are shoes and bags so we weren't able to buy you anything. :(Next up are our Mt. Kinabalu pictures. This one was near the bottom (you can't even see the peak in this picture). Ayu was feeling the nausea from the alititude, so I was carrying her stuff for a short time. I was so proud of how she sucked it up and made it to the top. My hero. Notice in the picture the type of steps we were walking up at first - not too easy, but it'll get harder.
This was about the only wildlife we ran into on the mountain - one caterpillar. But we figured it was interesting enough to warrant a picture so Ayu took this one. It was about 3-4" long.
And this is what other people were carrying up the mountain. Inside here are all the food and supplies for the resthouse that we stayed in over the night. This thing probably weighs over 150 lbs. if I had to guess.
Here's Ayu showing off her climbing technique. The first day there weren't many places you had to use your hands, but the second day there were quite a few. Notice the trail has changed from haphazardly placed steps to rocks.Here are two sunset pictures from the Laban Rata resthouse at 3000 meters (9,842.5 ft).As any photographer knows, low light pictures are difficult. If you don't have a proper camera they become nearly impossible. This was the first picture we were able to take on the morning that we summited.
These rock formations are called the Donkey Ears. They were one of my favorite rock formations to photograph because the sun was coming up behind them (see further down).
I put this picture here just to give some perspective to a picture further down. The sun rises pretty quickly. You can just barely make out the coastline from this picture.
These were slightly lower peaks then the one at the top. Note the Donkey Ears on the right.
And here the sun is really coming out. Sorry I didn't adjust the brightness of the pictures, you may choose to wear sunglasses. :)
This picture was taken from near the top. Notice all the people descending and ascending. It gives you a bit of scale to how enormous this mountain really is. The peak pictured here is a few meters lower than Lowe's peak. I'm pretty sure its not climbable without a harness.
And here is the same picture as earlier. The mountain casts an enormous shadow even extending past the coastline!
Ayu and I made it to the top! Lowe's peak is the highest at Kinabalu - 4,095.2 meters (13,435.7 ft). Notice my gardening gloves (they helped when I had to use my hands such as clutching the rope that ran along certain tricky sections). At this height, I doubt any gloves could keep hands warm, and mine were not designed to in the first place, so it was definitely chilly.
Here's Ayu descending. This is the trail at the top. Giant flat faces of rock angled (sometimes very steeply) and your only help is a white rope that runs the length of the trail; Which is what you see here.
Looking back up at Lowe's peak, you can't see anything, but there are actually people standing on top.
One more picture of the Donkey Ears on the way down at full sunlight.
From here you can see quite a lot. Somewhere down there is where we began our climb.
I have more pictures to post, but I'm going to make them a seperate entry. It will be following this one soon.

All the things I've been too busy to do

So, as per usual, I'm getting behind on my blogging. I blame it mostly on slow internet, but in all fairness it is my lack of motivation. It's not that I don't want to tell you all about our exploits (in great detail - sometimes too great or so I've been told), but uploading all the pictures is a long and slow process, and feeling inspiration to write sometimes needs to be forced out.

I'm going to try harder from now on. And I'm going to put pictures up soon (internet is not able to do it now - sorry).

The past few weeks have seen a lot of action. From KL, we left for Kota Kinabalu (the East end of the island of Borneo in Sabah, Malaysia) on the 28th of November. The day after, we set off to climb Mt. Kinabalu (Southeast Asia's highest peak @ 4,095.2 meters (13,432.26 ft)). The first day was 6 kilometers of trail, strait uphill. There were stairs for half of the way, and the other half mainly consisted of rocks that loosely resembled stairs. In that first day we started at 1,800 meters (5,905.5 ft) at the Timpohon gate and at the end of the day ended at the Laban Rata guesthouse at 3,000 meters (9,842.5 ft). Ayu did amazingly well dealing with the climb (we did basically no training at all beforehand) and with the altitude (the air was noticeably thinner even at the beginning). That night we befriended Phil from England, ate dinner, played some scrabble and called it a night.

The second day started at 2AM and consisted of another 2.7 km uphill, in the dark (we had flashlights). This time the trail was twice as steep - the average angle that we hiked the first day was 11.5 degrees, the second day it was 23.93 degrees! So we were struggling. The peak was at 4,095.2 meters (13,432.26 ft), and the higher we got, the colder and windier it became. But what a sight seeing the sun rise from the top of Southeast Asia.

Our success was short lived though. We had to go back down soon after reaching the top (we spent maybe 15 minutes up there) for breakfast and to checkout of the resthouse. On the way down we had to stop occasionally, but we made good time and had a nice breakfast of toast and eggs. Then it was time to continue down (the whole way) to the bottom. We were doing great at first. Making excellent time and looking like pro's.

However, this couldn't last. Our knees were shaking more and more, and our rest breaks became more and more frequent. By the last 2-3 km our guide was laughing at us because we looked like crabs going down the trail hunched over and pidgeon toed (trying to minimize the impact on the knees). The last mile coming down was the worst for me (for Ayu it was the last mile to the top because she was feeling nauseous and didn't sleep much at the resthouse).

After returing to Kota Kinabalu, we rented a hostel and spent our remaining days there trying to recover. I lost quite a few personal items during this our time in KK, including my LED flashlight and camera (both of which I need to replace because they are vital to my travels - hint, hint - they would make excellent Christmas presents). Haha. Oh well. The Lord giveth, and he taketh away. On top of all this I got sick for 24 hours (I'm not sure why actually, it could've been the massive altitude changes or something I ate). So I was throwing up everywhere - including on the plane to our next destination - Kuching!

Kuching is on the West of the island of Borneo (and in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia). The name literally means cat, and its obvious that they love cats in Kuching as there are feline statues everywhere and even a cat museum (they claim to be the only one). We didn't see the cat museum, but we had fun at the cultural village. Ayu and I played Congkak (Westerners might know the game as mancala), an Orang Ulu tribesman taught me how to play a traditional guitar-like instrument (called a sape - pronounced sah-pay) and we tried our luck at a traditional blowgun. It was quite educational and fun and at the end there was a dancing performance that is not to be missed. The day after we went jungle kayaking and saw Orang Utans, and then it was back to KL.

Now, Ayu and I are sitting in a cafe, looking for airline tickets for our upcoming flight to Denmark. Her work permit was approved, and I have a job interview lined up. So keep looking, and we'll keep updating :D

Back in Malaysia... But where's the Water?

It seems that no matter what Ayu and I do, fate always has a way of bringing us back to Malaysia. The amount of time spent away from Malaysia usually dictates the way I feel the first time I realize where I am - this time the feeling was frustration, and the object of my frustration was water (or the lack thereof).

Water is an addiction for Ayu and I. At any given time we are very likely to be carrying 32 oz. (or about 1 liter) around with us. We have a Nalgene bottle made out of #2 plastic (not the kind that leeches Bisphenol-A into the liquid and could potentially give you cancer) that we take everywhere. I suspect it won't be long until Ayu gives it a name. While living in the US, this water bottle was constantly full. Even when travelling, we make sure it stays topped up. The trip here was no exception.

While on the plane from Chicago to Tokyo it was constantly filled up by the best flight attendant in the world. While in Tokyo briefly, a public water fountain contributed to our cause, on the flight to Singapore I had to "steal" water because the flight attendants were quite mean (so it was full then too), and while in Singapore it was still full thanks to plenty of drinking fountains (even though some were out of order - see below).
However this could not last forever....

To get from Singapore to Malaysia we took the Aeroline bus. If you are unaware, Aeroline is really the only way to go when it comes to long distance bus rides in Malaysia. They have the best seats, the best service, food served on the bus, a bathroom (for light use only), flat screen TV's with movies playing, and even a lounge on the lower deck. Aeroline gives each passenger a bottle of water when you board, so Ayu and my thirst was still well-quenched (and our bottle happily full).
Once we got off the bus in KL for our layover between buses, I was for the first time aware of where I was as I realized suddenly that I was out of water! I searched high and low in the hotel (which has the bus station attached to it) with no luck. Not one water fountain! A woman who noticed me looking all around asked me if she could help me, to which I inquired about the water fountain location(s) and she said there aren't any. All of a sudden it dawns on me - I had forgotten that in most parts of Asia they don't trust tap water (even though I've heard its just fine). Tap water in the bathroom was out of the question for this reason, and since Aeroline had no place for us to leave our luggage, we entrusted it to a fellow Penangite who was waiting for his bus as well and went off in search of mineral water. We eventually found it and had lunch, and everything was dandy, but I'll never make that mistake again. Its hard to describe how much Ayu and I believe we NEED water, but if you can imagine it then you can also probably imagine how much I was stressing out when we didn't have any.

After this we took our next bus to Penang (the island Ayu is from), and had a nice day and a half there full of good eats and old friends. We also explored Fort Cornwallis. One of the more famous sites in Penang as it was a British outpost for many years. The items in quotations are copied verbatim off the website.
"Fort Cornwallis is situated at the spot where Captain Francis Light was supposed to have landed in 1786. Originally a wooden structure, the fort was rebuilt between 1808 and 1810 with convict labour. It was named after Charles Marquis Cornwallis, a distinguished Governor General of India, and designed to protect the harbour from possible French attacks."

Below, Ayu and I are re-enacting the French (me) trying to invade the British (Ayu).
"Today, much of the old fort remains, but its precincts have been converted into a public park and an open air theater. It is still guarded by old cannons, which were retrieved by the British from pirates who had captured them from the Johore Sultanate."

I caught this picture of a mom and her daughter swinging from a tree swing in the courtyard.
And here are some of the old cannons that are still in place.

"The most famous of the cannons is Seri Rambai, which dates back to 1613. Local beliefs have it that childless women can become fertile by placing flowers in the barrel of the cannon and offering special prayers."

Here's Ayu, Claire, and Ween with the Seri Rambai. Unfortunately, they forgot their flowers.

I spotted a sign that made me nervous. But then I laughed pretty hard when I found what docile creatures it was referring to...

By far the funniest part of the Fort was seeing how they cope with the fact that the British have left - By trying to re-create them as best as possible - With an Indian guy and a wooden barrel.

Two days ago we arrived in KL with 4 backpacks (two big, two small) and two duffel bags. Which basically encompasses all the gear we intend to take with us to Denmark next month. No single piece is particularly heavy, but all strapped up, its a considerable load. Ayu and I moved all of this first to the LRT station (the inner-city commuter train), then to KLCC (where the twin towers are located) to have lunch with Ayu's sister, next to the Danish embassy (to get Ayu's visa - until they told us we have to go to the Swedish embassy to apply - which was now closed), and finally to Ayu's cousins apartment where we crashed for the night. By that time, our backs were nearly broke and we spent the next 14 hours or so sleeping.

Yesterday was spent finding a hostel downtown, meeting up with friends, and escaping the flash floods that frequently plague the city of Kuala Lumpur. Actually, flood is not the right word because the drainage system is amazing. But it was as if the skies had opened up and let loose everything they had stored up. Luckily, we were in a mall at the time, so Ayu and I hid in a theater and watched the new James Bond movie - Quantum of Solace (It was rubbish by the way). Which brings me to today, where we got some much needed excercise walking all about KL, and eating our way through the world's fish supply at a sushi buffet. Pretty Crazy. The late update is due to dodgey internet conections that have kept me from uploading pictures - and I didn't want to tell the stories without them. More later... Love and Kisses...