Tuesday May 28 2013 9:15 am
In the airport once again. This is becoming an excelling place for writing and reflection for me.
We arrived in Kuching in Saturday May 25 in the evening. Some of the funny little things that I enjoyed on MASwings is that they served complementary Milo (chocolate milk) and because you have to walk outside from the plane to the airport staff hand you an open umbrella as you leave the plane that you return as you enter the shelter of the airport. Certainly cheaper than those movable boarding gate hallways that they have at home!
We found a pristinely clean hotel with hot water, A/C, and dry toilet paper! N went exploring and I crashed. A system that he apparently really enjoys. I always feel bad that I tier so much more quickly but he says he gets the best of both worlds travelling with someone and freedom to explore on his own. I have still been feeling lousy during our time her but thankfully no more vomiting. (I am not pregnant for those of you who are wondering. After meeting a Dr who told us the type of malaria pills we are taking could cause serious issues to a fetus, I checked to be sure. So all rumours can now be dispelled).
We went to see the orang utans Sunday afternoon. For a dollar you can take the local bus to the Semenggoh Nature Reserve. It is about a hours drive outside the city. Entry for non-Malaysians is about $3 each. It was raining quite hard but was still very cool. We walked about ten minutes down a little path to a feeding area totally surrounded by jungle. You can hear the orang utans coming through the trees and shaking in the distance before they arrive. We were glad to have the zoom lens because they are quite far away to get photos without it. No flash is aloud. You have to be very quite, no eating or drinking or kissing (apparently they interpret it as fighting). On our walk back down the path one of the younger curious orang utans came across us in the trees, only then his branch broke and he fell out of the tree not far from us. I was pretty nervous to be so close to him and also disappointed at the camera card was full at that point. It felt pretty wild to be within five meters of a mostly while orang utan.
The orang utans are semi-wild, meaning they live in an enormous jungle area, we aren't sure if connects to the rest of the Borneo jungle or if it is fenced in. They do feed them here though, which is really the only way you'd be able to see them. There are 26 orang utans that live here and they don't all come for food every day. It seemed like the ones who came were mostly young or mothers with young or the very old male (didn't see until the second day).
In the evening we randomly bumped into a guy from Argentina that we'd met at our hostel in Gunu Mulu and talked with he and a Dr from USA, living in Botswana, that he had just met. She specializes in maternal mortality and was there for a conference. We sat with the and talked for a big long time. She was great!
The next day (Monday May 27) we went back to get better photos (1000 of them!) with her. I was glad we went back because we got to see another mother baby pair and the big male, who the park staff said was 52 years old.
This female was a bit of a show off. This was right over our heads connecting the main jungle are to the main feeding area
The park staff deliver the bananas in there for a size reference. The park staff seem to have some relationship with the orang utans, since they bring food every day but they. Were still very caught opus with them and did not touch them at all.
The big male. All the others cleared out when this guy arrived for breakfast. He moved pretty slow but he could obviously hold his own if it came to it.
We had planned to go see some other monkeys, with long floppy noses, that only live here but I was to sick. And we were hoping to see the worlds largest flower but unfortunately it wasn't in bloom. It only blooms about 30-50 times per year for a few days so we weren't banking on seeing this one.
I wasn't feeling well after the orang utans so I rested and N went exploring again. In the evening we went to a movie theatre and saw Gatsby and then still feeling like garbage I went to bed at 8:30 pm.
I'm hoping my health cooperates for our last month in Asia. I didn't feel like I got to see as much of Kuching as I would have liked to. It's a really cool city. N and I think it's really the perfect mix of developed and undeveloped. It's very cute and there is tons to do and eat. I was disappointed I was unable to eat so little. Every few steps there is a little food stand with candy corn, hamburgers, waffles, iced coffee or noodle soup. The river front is very attractive and we enjoyed walking down it in the evening, after dinner. You can just mosey along listening to the buskers and buying snacks for less than a dollar. The people are very friendly and helpful! When we were trying find the bus to the reserve an elderly Muslim woman set down her four bags of groceries in the middle of the sidewalk to guide us to the information booth and then point us to the right bus. We were kind of blown away by this hospitality from a complete stranger. We didn't experience any scams in this city either, which was great! To me from our brief stay it seems like quite a nice place to live, a great mix of the familiar and the more interesting flavours of Asia. Really enjoyed our time here!
Now we're headed to Bali (after a long layover in Singapore) where we will join some friends who are off on their own adventures. I'm really looking forward to familiar faces and easy conversation!
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