Day 385 - 31 Jul ‘24 - Kuching. I love chocolate milk, and I especially love having it for breakfast when we have no other option. Last night we’d been unable to find any milk to have with our cereal other than individual cartons of chocolate milk. When Alex asked if he could have his leftover pizza, as well as chocolate milk, he was overjoyed to be answered in the affirmative! What a way to start the day!!
Our driver from the airport, James, had offered his services for the day for just $110NZD, which we were thrilled at. He picked us up at 9am and took us to a crocodile farm that he recommended.
Having seen alligators (yes, I realise they’re different) in the wild in Alabama, Dan and I were not entirely enthused, but thought the kids would enjoy it.
There were a number of different animal types also on display, from pythons to porcupines, goats to iguanas, a bearcat, and a holy-crap-that’s-huge Arapaima (which can grow to three metres!). Big fish really freak me out - in fact, anything bigger than a salmon I find disturbing. No idea why!
Some of the enclosures were unpleasant to look at, with concrete floors and walls and not much else. Rabbits were in a wire care with a wire bottom. Turkeys were crammed into a small space and half their feathers were missing.
Walking around the crocodile breeding areas, and then past the feeding ponds, were also rather freaky. The crocodiles blended into the mud and plant life so incredibly well, that they were hard to initially see when you scanned the pens. And the ponds…well…
“How many crocodiles can you see, daddy?” Abi asked.
“I can see one,” Dan replied.
“Only one?” I joined in. “I can see five!”
“I can see seven,” said Abi.
“Now there’s only three,” said Alex.
Scary, huh?
At feeding time, a man attached bits of chicken onto wires strung across the pond, and reeled them out over the water. Crocodiles would jump up and bite them off the rope, with immense power, reaching almost two metres above the water.
Some of the crocodiles were seriously massive, with some reaching 15 feet. Seeing the strength and size of these animals was both incredibly impressive and terrifying.
After the crocodile farm, James took us to a local food court to try Malaysian food. Alex and I had mee goreng, and had nasi goreng with a fried egg. Abi refused to have anything, until Dan’s meal came out and she decided to have his. Then discovered loads of dried anchovies, and spent the whole time picking them out!
We had some time to use up after lunch, so James took us to a local pitcher plant garden. There were a few different varieties, and it was amazing to see how nature had created such bizarre plants!
It was then time to go to the main reason for coming to Kuching - the Serenggoh Wildlife Park, where orphaned or surrendered orangutans came to be rehabilitated before (hopefully) being released back into the wild.
The park was over 600 hectares, and the orangutans were free-roaming, but would come in (if they wanted to) for two feeding times a day.
We had planned on getting a ride on the buggy from the entrance gate to the feeding area, but the guy behind the counter said we should walk as we had lots of time until the feeding began.
One-and-a-half kilometres was not a long distance, but in the heat and humidity, it easily felt twice as long. By the time we got there, sweat was running down our backs and fronts, and beading on our foreheads.
While we waited, we could hear some park rangers calling out to the orangutans. After about half an hour, we were led to one of the feeding platforms, where three orangutans had come to eat: a juvenile, an adult, and the alpha male.
Orangutan translates to “people (orang) of the forest (utan)”, and it was wonderful to get to see some in the semi-wild. The young adult at one point stole the fruit from the hand of the juvenile, even though he was already holding some food of his own!
We watched them for a few minutes, and then a warden came to tell everyone that another orangutan had come down out of the trees to a second feeding platform!
One thing that really astounded us was the size of the animals, which was made strikingly apparent when a keeper stood close to the platform.
When we got back to the car, James told us we were very lucky to get to see so many; usually it’s only one or two.
We had had a wonderful animal-filled day, and spent the evening relaxing in our apartment and getting some dinner at the mall underneath.
Day 386 - 1 Aug ‘24 - Kuching. The world’s largest flower, the Rafflesia or corpse flower, (which isn’t actually a flower and is really a parasite that grows out of the ground), is endemic to the area of Sarawak, and grows in a park only an hour-and-a-half drive away from Kuching. However, the blooming of the flowers is sporadic at only 10-20 times a year, and they only last for five days before turning into a large patch of slime.
I spent half an hour on the phone trying to get through to the park, and on their Facebook page trying to find bloom information, but was unsuccessful.
“I think we’re going to have to give it a miss,” I sadly said this morning. “There’s no point in driving out there if we don’t know if there’s a flower to see or not!”
I sent James a message to say we would not be needing him after all, and gave everyone the exciting news that we would instead be going to the Borneo Cultures Museum.
“And it’s got five storeys!”
Ha ha ha ha ha!
Despite Abi sulking in the car, and proclaiming that she HATED museums, as soon as she and Alex had a map, they were off!
Each floor was well laid out, with a one-way path through each exhibit. This kids explored ahead of us, generally finding the interactive pieces, which would keep them entertained and gave Dan and I a chance to read the information boards undisturbed.
There was a section displaying the amazing handicrafts of the local people, which included carving, weaving, beadwork, and basketry. Some of the patterns were incredibly intricate, and the thickness of the material used was at times super thin. I reckon it would take a good few decades to get to the same level of skill as the people who had made the items in the museum.
One amazing section was the findings of Niah Caves! We all really enjoyed seeing the skull, bones, funeral boats, pottery, and tools, that had come from the place we had just been a couple of days before.
We had lunch at the adjoining restaurant, and after finishing off the rest of the museum, we went for a walk to the waterfront.
It was my turn to navigate, much to Dan’s amusement (his phone battery was at 10%).
“Oh no! Mummy’s directing the way. This never ends well!”
“It will be fine!” I asserted. “It’s a straight road. But first, let’s go to an icecream shop Lonely Planet recommends. It’s near the waterfront.”
Except it wasn’t. It was five minutes’ walk back the way we came.
And it was closed.
“Muuuuuuum!”
“It’s not my fault! I didn’t know it would be closed!”
“That’s why you should look it up on google maps, as it shows opening hours,” Dan ‘helpfully’ pointed out.
We were all hot by now, so made a detour to the nearby shopping mall, and had a McDonald’s icecream sundae while enjoying the air conditioned comfort.
Reinvigorated by frozen animal fats and sugar (pretty sure there’s no icecream in their icecream), we made our way back to the waterfront and crossed a squiggly bridge over the Sarawak River. We had an amazing view of the Sarawak State Assembly building, a fantastic structure that had a roof that kind of looked like a golden umbrella.
In the distance was the tallest flagpole in Southeast Asia, which stood 99m high and flew the Sarawak flag. I’ve no idea why they didn’t put an extra metre on the top!
My plan was to catch a boat back across the river, but we just missed one at the pontoon we were near.
“That’s okay,” I said. “There’s more pontoons over there, so we’ll get a boat from that one.”
“Whaaat?! We’ve got to walk even more?!” Abi wailed.
“Yes! It’s not that far!”
“I don’t want to walk there! Why can’t we get the boat from this one?”
“Because I want to see what’s over there!”
The distance I’m talking about was a mere 200-or-so metres. Yes, it was hot, and no, there wasn’t any shade, but it wasn’t that far really.
“There’s no boat,” Alex pointed out when we got there.
“Yes there are, there’s two on the other side. They’ll notice us soon and come over.”
One minute passed. Then a second one. Followed by a third.
“HELLO OVER THERE!” Alex suddenly yelled out. “CAN YOU COME AND PICK US UP PLEASE?”
At the same time, I’d noticed the first boat back upstream make a detour towards us. The ‘captain’ of the traditional Borneo boat had obviously seen that we were standing on the jetty waiting, and the other boats weren’t coming, so came to get the fare himself.
We walked along the waterfront under the shade of some trees, then got a ride share back to the apartment. I took the kids to the complex pool for almost an hour, then we ordered in some sushi for dinner.
Day 387 - 2 Aug ‘24 - Kuching to Penang. It rained overnight, and it was still raining when we woke up. Yesterday I’d suggested we visit a traditional Bornean longhouse, or perhaps go to the cultural village, but the rain meant everyone was far happier staying snuggled up in bed!
We spent the day in the apartment, apart from a quick trip downstairs to the mall for some lunch, and around 3:30pm, we made our way to the airport.
When we got to the departure info board, Dan said we had to go to check-in desk ‘D’ and walked to the right. I read ‘A’, and saw departure gates to the left.
“What?” Dan asked me, when he saw my face.
“Nothing.”
“What?!”
“I’d say, but you get annoyed when I debate the departure board with you. I read desk ‘A’, which said Penang, and ‘D’ said Kuala Lumpur.”
“Well, we’ll see soon.”
Desk ‘D’ had no signs for Penang. Just then, a notice came over the loudspeaker that check-in for Penang was closing soon.
“Okay, let’s go to ‘A’.”
We went to desk ‘A’, where Penang was, in fact, getting checked-in. And further to the left were the departure gates.
I could have said “I told you so”, but that would have started an argument, so I stayed silently righteous instead!
I’ve often wondered why some airports have put a volume requirement on fluids you can take onboard, yet things like baby bottles are excluded. Why 100ml? Is 150ml of moisturiser seriously going to cause major problems? I reckon it’s a completely arbitrary figure. It sure can’t be weight based, as not one single person we’ve seen recently, had onboard luggage weighing less than 7kg (TOTAL, I might add, between two bags).
Imagine our delight when we managed to take on board not one, but FOUR 500ml bottles of water and cordial! No need to quickly skull all our drinks before the X-ray machine, only to have to pay exorbitant prices for water afterwards.
On almost all of our flights, we have booked the three seats one side of the aisle, and the opposite aisle seat. I have usually had the seat between the two kids, and Dan has had the single seat on the other row.
As we walked towards our seats, Dan offered me the single seat.
“Sure, okay,” I replied.
I took my seat and waited to see who would be sitting next to me. People kept coming on board, but nobody came to the back of the plane. The doors closed, and the flight crew began their safety briefing.
I turned to Dan with a massive grin. His good-humoured glare said enough, but he followed it with:
“Every time!”
“That’s not fair,” I retorted. “I’ve only had the single seat twice!”
“And both times you’ve had nobody beside you!”
“Yes, well…” and I grinned some more.
“I’m surprised you haven’t moved to the window seat!”
“Ooh, yeah, I didn’t think of that! That’s a great idea!”
I offered the empty seats to all three of my family; Abi wanted to sit next to daddy, Alex wanted the window, and Dan couldn’t leave the kids without an intermediary. Oh well, yay for me!
The flight was just under two hours long, and once we retrieved our bags, we sat in traffic for almost half an hour. We first had to stop at a carpark, where Dan had to collect the keys to our apartment from an unlocked car.
Nothing dodgy about that…
Our apartment building lift had large signs saying “no homestays or short term rentals”, so Dan reckoned that’s why the keys were located away from the building.
Day 388 - 3 Aug ‘24 - Penang. I had a disastrous start to the night in regards to sleep; at one point Dan asked me what was wrong, to which I replied ‘everything’. I eventually managed to tune out the air conditioner, and the fan, and the aeroplanes, and the cars, and had the best sleep from 7:30-9am!
Our apartment had supplied breakfast in the way of eggs, bread, tea, and coconut biscuits, so we all had either fried eggs, toast, or French toast to start the day. It ended up not being breakfast, or even brunch, but more like an early lunch, and we left the apartment at midday.
Today’s plan was to explore the nearby area of Georgetown. Our car dropped us off at Lee Jetty, a collection of houses over the water.
British colonials imposed a land tax, and Chinese immigrants refused to pay the hefty price tag, so built their houses on stilts at the water’s edge!
It was a beautifully decorated jetty, and rather quiet, which was the total opposite to Tan Jetty, and then the hawker-filled tourist-trap one called Chew Jetty.
At the start of Chew jetty was a temple with some stunning carved granite pillars, and we sat in the shade of the temple while we had some drinks.
We next caught a trishaw for a half-hour public art tour around the streets of Georgetown. Some of the art was interactive, and Dan and the kids climbed in and out of the trishaws to be in the pictures.
Unfortunately, a lot of the art had been damaged or had faded, which was such a shame, especially as people were at times queueing up to get their photos.
It was again super hot and humid, so we bought drink number two. Alex and Abi had icecream smoothies, while Dan and I opted for the more refreshing fruit slushies. When they eventually arrived (the guy seemed more interested in taking orders than actually making them), we both wished we’d had the icecream. Dan’s papaya slushy was fibrous, and my mango one was the most insipid flavoured drink I’ve ever had.
“He only put three slices of mango in, mummy!” Alex told me.
“Well, that would explain why it tastes more like water than mango.”
“Do you want to leave it?” Dan asked.
“Nope - I’m thirsty and we’ve bought it, so I’ll drink it.”
I changed my mind by the time I got halfway through the cup - it really was that bad!
Abi started to complain about a sore tummy, and after finding her a toilet, we walked to the Pinang Peranakan Mansion.
Originally the home of a wealthy Chinese businessman in the 1800s, his descendants let it fall into disrepair, until it was bought by a developer in the 1990s, who repaired it, painted it bright green, and turned it into a museum.
It was filled with thousands of Peranakan artifacts, including furniture, porcelain, and an incredible collection of vaseline glass epergnes’.
To be honest, it was all too much. There were too many things on display, so that it looked very cramped and also a bit gaudy. For example, the bridal chamber, with its exquisitely carved bed, was surrounded by other carved dressers, and a ewer stand, and cabinets, and then pictures and paintings, and fabrics, as well as glittery leaves adorning ceramic babies inside glass domes.
The museum itself was also super busy. So many people had decided to visit, that we couldn’t hear the English-speaking tour guide. We ended up walking away from him and explored on our own.
Abi’s tummy was still a bit sore, and we were feeling pretty hot, so we pulled the pin on the rest of the day, and called four hours of sightseeing enough. I took the kids to the apartment pool for an hour, while Dan stayed in the room and ordered some drinks and snacks online.
“I’ve got dinner sorted too!” he said when we got back. “They’ve got fish and chips, and some grilled Moroccan chicken, and smoked salmon pasta!”
Perfect! Dinner delivered, no need to go out again. Time to relax in air conditioned comfort while I enjoyed a glass of apple and aloe juice, followed by mini mars bars!!
Day 389 - 4 Aug ‘24 - Penang. Our apartment was fitted with state-of-the-art single glazing and not-very-well sealed doors. It was also a convenient U-shaped building, which ensured sound was encapsulated and reverberated. Both of these amazing design features meant that we could hear EVERY SINGLE THING! Aeroplanes roared overhead until 1am then started again at 4am, and sounded like they were flying approximately 10 metres above our heads. At one point there was a motorbike that had an engine with poor timing, sputtering and banging at the traffic lights 21 floors below us; it gave me enough of a fright that I thought our air conditioning unit had suddenly crapped out.
“I need to buy some new earplugs!” I moaned to Dan in the morning.
The bags under my eyes were only slightly smaller than the kids’ rucksacks, and a fetching shade of “oh-my-god-are-you-not-feeling-well?”.
After breakfast, we got a car to the Dhammikarama Buddhist temple, which was built in the Burmese style.
There was gold leaf everywhere, and a very helpful series of painting depicting the creation of Buddha and some of his teachings. The complex also housed lots of religious statues of Buddha and mythical creatures such as two chimera.
The temple provided some well-timed refuge from a sudden rain shower, which helped to bring the temperature down…although it also increased the humidity!
We all had turns throwing coins into a moving wishing well, where there were spinning bowls marked with goals like prosperity, health, and happy marriage.
I threw my coin successfully into Good Luck, but I think that was the entire extent of my good luck, as my next coin missed!
We next went into the main shrine where stood a huge golden statue of Buddha, surrounded by hundreds of smaller white buddhas with people’s names on them.
Across the road was the Wat Chaiyamangalaram Thai Buddhist temple! This also had a lot of gold, but also some amazing colourful dragons, completely covered in mirrored mosaic tiles in red, green, blue, and gold. They were simply stunning!
Inside the main temple was one of the world’s longest reclining Buddha statues, which measured almost 33 metres and also served as the storage for cremation urns.
We grabbed a car back into George Town, to buy a seriously cool souvenir - an image that gets lasered onto a bay leaf! The details were phenomenal, and once they were done, the leaves were laminated and then put in a frame. And all for just $7.50NZD each! Of course, now it meant we had two wooden and glass frames to carry.
We had some lunch at a nearby street restaurant, and were all rather disappointed with the result, apart from Abi, who had ordered a plate of chips. Dan got noodle soup made from Maggi two-minute noodles, Alex got fish and chips (five chips, and fish that was fried for three weeks), and I had mee goreng that had scrambled tofu or egg mixed through it, and nothing else.
“Oh well,” I said once I’d eaten as quickly as I could. “No need to eat here again!”
After lunch, we grabbed another car to the Penang Botanical Gardens, where we wandered around for an hour or so.
The gardens themselves were under a fair bit of renovation, but we did get to see some dusky langurs! They looked super cute, with fluffy grey fur and white rings around their eyes.
We also saw three small monitor lizards, or perhaps they were water lizards…google wasn’t too sure with the lookup. (By small, I mean around two feet long).
The medium-sized one crossed the road in front of us, the smallest one scurried away (“they move so fast, mummy!”), and the largest one escaped up a tree - had we not seen it do so, I doubt we’d have spotted it…
Once we’d finished walking around the garden, we got a 4x4 drive up to the top of Penang Hill. It was a bit pricy at $60NZD for a 12 minute drive (plus the return trip), but as we started the 5km steep and winding path, we were very glad we bought the ticket!
I’d read in Lonely Planet that the top of the hill had become such a tourist trap, that a US magazine had voted it the worst place to visit. It wasn’t hard to see why - trinkets and tat being sold everywhere, an escape room (!), multiple cafes and eateries, a heart-shaped photo booth with a rubbish background of a shed, and even an elevated tree walk to get you just that little bit higher up the hill.
There are hiking trails throughout Penang Hill, and also a 100-year-old funicular, that passed through the world’s steepest tunnel. It would have been good to have a ride on it, but because we already had the four-wheel drive tickets, we didn’t bother.
On the way back down the hill, we passed some walkers and even a cyclist!
“Good lord!” I said. “That guy must have some killer legs!”
By the time we got back to our apartment, it was too late to take the kids to the pool, much to their extreme displeasure. Instead, we walked to a nearby restaurant and got some dinner. I also popped in to a pharmacy and got some new ear plugs. Fingers crossed they work!
Day 390 - 5 Aug ‘24 - Penang. Either there were no planes or cars or motorcycles last night, or I was too tired to notice, or my new ear plugs were made by angels themselves! Soooo quiet, I only stirred because of the heat. Fantastic!
Today’s original plan was to go to another village on Penang, but to be perfectly honest, nobody could be bothered.
Instead, we stayed in and watched TV, played games on Nintendos, did computer stuff, and swam in the pool.
We ordered in sushi for lunch, and in the afternoon went for a quick walk to a local shop to buy supplies for our train trip tomorrow. After that, we went back to the pool, ordered in some dinner, watched more TV and movies, played more Nintendo games, and did more computer stuff.
Quite a relaxing day really!
Day 391 - 6 Aug ‘24 - Penang to Kuala Lumpur. Today was our last full day in Malaysia. After breakfast and packing up, we called for a car to drive us to the train station in Butterworth, on mainland Penang.
We saw the car pull up to the complex, then watched as it parked outside the gates.
“Can you come inside the gates please?” Dan called the driver to ask. “We have lots of bags.”
…
“Come inside the complex please, come through the visitor gates.”
…
“Yes you CAN, there are visitor gates.”
…
“There ARE visitor gates, we have lots of bags, and we don’t want to carry them!”
We heard the horn beep. We picked up our bags and walked outside the gates.
“No come in,” said the driver.
“Yes, you can, there are visitor gates!”
“Can’t use visitor gates.”
“Yes you can! We’ve had, how many Nic, seven cars? And they’ve all come through the visitor gate!”
He then grumbled about having to lower the rear seat and move his backpack, then stared warningly at Abi’s closed bottle of juice, and told her off for moving the doormat he’d put on the middle seat.
Fun times!
Dan had more enjoyment when we got to the train station, and discovered there were no shops for him to buy lunch.
“I think I made a critical error yesterday,” he said, “when I didn’t get food when you guys did!”
“Told you to get something!” I laughed.
The train journey was about four hours long, and as we neared Kuala Lumpur Sentral, Dan asked me how quickly I could get my rucksack on.
“Less than one minute, why? You’d need to get it down from the rack for me.”
“We can get the connecting train at 5:03pm or wait for the next one at 5:18pm.”
“How long have we got to make it?”
“About five minutes!”
We tried. We even got to the turnstiles. But for some reason, once the kids had been scanned through, neither Dan’s nor my tickets worked, so we had to get help from the staff at the counter.
We watched the passengers offload up the stairs, then heard the train leave.
”Oh well! At least it’s only 15 minutes and not an hour!”
Our apartment was close to the airport, which would make it easier in the morning. We ordered in some dinner, and then took the kids to this apartment’s pool.
At least this apartment was not U-shaped, and not directly under the flight path!
Comments