From the rainforest to urban jungle

The last 2 weeks have taken us through distinctly contrasting worlds- from rugged Borneo to the Vegas of Asia in Singapore!  

In our planning of this trip, Malaysian Borneo was never our destination to see incredible wildlife of the tropical rainforest, instead we thought we would go to Java's neighbor Sumatra island or to Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) but in the end we chose it because transportation was a bit easier, treks were a little less effort to organize and overall it met our needs for this point in our trip.  Having so much flexibility has been an amazing part of this trip as we never have flights booked more than one step in advance, and hotels one place booked at a time we can and have changed our mind at the drop of a hat.  Borneo gave us everything we wanted.  The highlights were undoubtedly the final climb to the summit of Mt. Kinabalu, and the 3days spent in the jungle.  Kinabalu is the highest point in south-east Asia and took us 2 days to climb staying at Labban Ratta hut on the mountain for a few hours of rest before we started our final summit ascent at 2:30am.  At first we were part of a mass group being herded up permanent fixture stairs and I got the impression that it was going to be a less than impressive morning.  But, within 30 min we had distanced ourselves and gotten to a position that it was just Matt andI, pulling ourselves over sheer granite with ropes under a blanket of incredible stars.  It was dark, quiet and every few minutes if you looked to the sky you would see shooting stars and heat lightning.

  
Unfortunately we reached the summit an hour before the sun and had to wait in the freezing cold watching the long path of headlamps weave there way wearily to the top.  It has been a while since I have summited a mountain and it was amazing to revisit that euphoric feeling you get when you push your body really hard and then get rewarded with a feeling of immense accomplishment and incredible views from the top.  Oh and we also had to walk down which was at times harder and more painful than going up and I am certain was the cause of my inability to walk for almost 4 days after!  I did take a LOT of joy from doing mini rapels down the ropes I had used to climb up- life's little moments.

With a day break we found ourselves limping like a pair of 80 yr olds (sorry grandma) into Uncle Tan's to go on our jungle trek.  First stop was to Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Center....I was really hesitant to go as I am always stubbornly determined to see my wildlife in the wild, but was convinced when I learned that the feeding platform where food is put twice a day is in the jungle where the rehabbed apes are free to roam, and many don't come back to the platform once they have sufficiently learned to get there food from the forest (the Center uses bland repetitive food to try to encourage the apes to fend for themselves). I have always loved monkeys, especially apes and have been really fortunate to see Chimpanzees wild in Uganda, and now Orang-utans.  Although the 2 that came to the platform when we were there were small (both under 10) to watch the swing through the trees and interact was breath taking.  

This species of ape is genetically the most similar animal to humans sharing 97.5% of our DNA and it was obvious in the short time we had the pleasure to watch them that they were intelligent, affectionate and playful.  Unfortunately in Borneo and Sumatra orang-utans are under serious threat as habitat is being cut and replaced by Palm plantations at a rapid rate.  Driving through Borneo was sad, for hours we saw nothing but Palm.  The worst areas were where forest had recently been cut and land had been tiered and recently planted.  I these areas as far as we could see was exposed soil and emptiness instead of luscious layered forest.  From an environmental stand point I am horrified, but when we talked to locals almost all saw the plantations as positive for the economic and  social improvements they provided. And, is it worse than oil or coal mining- at least there is still vegetation helping to clean the air? A topic for further inquiry and debate.....mega side track.

We stayed in a jungle camp with 4 other tourists that we reached by boat on the Kinabantangan river.  We slept on wooden platforms with mosquito nets open to the creatures and sounds of the jungle.  The first day we caught a rat running off the platform when we were coming back from dinner and later Neils heard it hanging out while we were sleeping....I was happy to share my place with a rat and thankful that it wasn't a snake instead!  We went on a day trek and a night trek in the jungle with a guide named Leo.  I am inspired by this mans enthusiasm, care and respect for the wild creatures big and small.  He could literally speak with frogs, birds and apes and was the most excited person in the group for a sighting of even a tree frog which he has probably seen 1000.  He showed us how scorpions tun fluorescent green under a blue. UV light at
night, how lantern bugs change over their life cycles into the most beautiful, colourful little creature (that was getting eaten by a group of soldier ants...), and how birds sleep with their head tucked into their wing.  Despite searching we saw no wild oragutans, BUT we also did 4 boat safaris and saw 5 Gibbons (another species of ape).  I could have cried watching them swing high in the trees from branch to branch with their giant long arms - I was penguin sighting excited.
 
Also hung out with proboscis monkeys and their giant round noses and fat bellies, and tons of macaques aka the mafia of the jungle according to our guide.  

Then we went from JFC ( jungle fried chicken) to KFC (which we didn't actually eat but they are everywhere in cities of Malaysia and Singapore).  We said a temporary goodbye to Malaysia and flew to my favourite airport in the world Changi in Singapore.  A quick 3 VERY expensive days of indulgement.  Singapore is clean, orderly and full of amazing food and malls.  I am pretty sure that if Singaporeans are not eating at one of the delicious hawker centres throughout the city then they must be shopping because I have never seen so many malls in my life.  If you arrive at a bus terminal you are in a mall, train stop...in a mall, and you can guarantee that that mall is connected to three more through underground tunnels or overpasses.  We are talking mega malls connected to mega malls often with duplication of stores.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel Complex...has a mall, casino and that is a swimming pool spanning the top of 3 buildings and is the size of 3 football fields. They did not let us go up.

 WE spent much of OUR time eating.  Because of its multicultural past Singapore is diverse in its population with massive Chinese and Indian populations mixed in with Malays.  The food was even more diverse and with specialties like chicken rice, chili crab, BBQ stingray, dumplings, red bean curd, fish head curry, we have been on quite an eating adventure!  We also decided to do something educational and went to the Asian civilization museum...the history of Singapore is romantic, dramatic and definitely fascinating. To imagine the history of trade stretching hundreds of years and comparing it to the success story they are today is exciting.

Now back to Malaysia...more eating, more shopping, and certainly more great adventures!