garyandlinda – Page 2 – saskatoonie.com

December 8, 2022December 8, 2022

Palm Beach Labuan

Two Weeks In Paradise

Thursday November 24 was a travel day! We had our last breakfast at the Royale Chulan in Georgetown Penang and caught a Grab to the Penang airport. We are headed back to Labuan in East Malaysia. We were in Labuan earlier in our trip and really liked it.

We had two flights – Penang to Kuala Lumpur (a one hour flight) and then Kuala Lumpur to Labuan ( 2 1/2 hour flight ). We got to the Malaysian Airlines check-in and the gal tagged our checked bags as “hot transfer” items as our layover between flights is just over an hour. We had a bad feeling about that. We easily found our gate and settled in to wait. Our flight ended up delayed by almost an hour! Finally we got on board and took off. When we arrived in Kuala Lumpur we had approximately 15-20 minutes before our next flight took off. There was an attendant at the gate calling for us and they had a golf cart and driver waiting for us. They loaded us on the cart and zoomed off through the airport. As Gary said, we even had wind chill on the golf cart as the guy hustled us to the next gate. It was a long drive – we’d never have made it on foot! He dropped us at our gate and took off to save some other poor travellers! First ever golf cart ride at that speed in an airport!

The gates can be confusing in the Kuala Lumpur airport. We’ve witnessed and been part of several chaotic boarding calls as they change gates and then change back and load two planes at the same time at the same desk. For example in Kota Kinabalu airport, gate 6a and 6b use the same departure lounge making seating impossible for latecomers. We were worried they may already have started boarding our Labuan flight but once we checked with the desk they said there was a slight delay and they’d start boarding shortly. Turns out this flight was delayed at least 45 minutes. We finally arrived in Labuan around 6 pm. Sadly, despite being tagged as a hot transfer and even our second flight being delayed, our luggage didn’t make the flight. It was left in Kuala Lumpur! We spent sometime with the lost luggage gal filling out forms and as a result the Palm Beach driver and van (half full of people) had to wait for us making the other guests endure our pain. We actually know better to be prepared for the worst but once again we are caught with no deodorant or extra electrical plug adapter in our carry on. Malaysia uses these huge United Kingdom style plugs. To add to complexity the outlet is 220v and each outlet has a switch on it. We were better off than the other 2 guys at the luggage claim – they were travelling from Bangkok to Labuan and their luggage went to Japan by mistake! Supposedly, they wouldn’t see it for at least another 2 days if they were lucky!

We are staying at the Palm Beach Resort and Hotel for 13 nights. It’s sorta the resting part of our trip. No more running around and making tours happen for sightseeing. We get to spend our days either reading, soaking in the pool or walking along the beach and trees.

Today we walked about an 8 Km round trip down the beach. We walked by many families and groups parked at the beach enjoying the beautiful cooling breeze off the ocean. While it is quite hot, you would never know it along the beach in the shade of the huge trees. We stopped for mini donuts and a cold glass of lemon ice water at one little restaurant. We passed a group barbecuing under the big trees. On the way back towards the hotel we walked by the same group again and they all said hello again. They offered us a taste and we stopped to sample the food. We were offered chicken wings and chicken butt (they are all washed out and clean) nicely barbecued. Gary tried a chicken wing and Linda took a nibble. It was delicious. We declined the butts. Maybe someday. They were a very friendly group of work colleagues out for a Sunday barbecue at the beach. We of course got asked the usual questions like “where are you from sir?” The usual “Canada” reply. We are an anomaly and stick out like a sore thumb. While deep down we know this, we don’t feel out of place, not too much at least. Although Gary is wearing a bright orange shirt on this day, we don’t really feel like fish out of water, at least not too much.

The locals are so friendly here and the usual question is “why would you come to this tiny island?” They don’t know what they have here because it is all they know. If Labuan wasn’t so far from Canada and especially Saskatoon, the place would be flooded with snowbirds. It’s not easy to get here but once you do the price is right, the climate is amazing, and the people are welcoming.

December 2, 2022December 3, 2022

Peranakan

The Peranakan Mansion

Today we walked to the Peranakan Mansion, It was only a few hundred metres from our hotel. An easy walk with our umbrellas.

The admission is reasonable at 25 MYR a mere $7.40 CAD each. We have been here on a previous trip so we opted to not take the guided tour. We wandered around refreshing our memory of this really cool place.

The Peranakans, also known as the Baba’s and Nyonya’s, was a prominent community of acculturated Chinese unique to this part of the world, especially in the Straits Settlement referring to the Straits of Melaka Settlements (Penang, Malacca and Singapore) hence its other name, the Straits Chinese. Adopting selected ways of the local Malays and later, the colonial British, the Peranakans had created a unique lifestyle and customs which has not only left behind a rich legacy of antiques but its cultural influences like cuisine and language are still evident in Penang today. If you look at a map of Penang on the west coast of the Malaysian peninsula you will see the proximity of Penang, Melaka (Malacca) and Singapore. The Straits of Melaka have been a huge shipping route for hundreds of years. Over 94,000 vessels pass through the strait each year (2008) making it the busiest strait in the world, carrying about 25% of the world’s traded goods, including oil, Chinese manufactured products, coal, palm oil and Indonesian coffee.

At the Pinang Peranakan Mansion, the typical home of a rich Baba of a century ago is recreated to offer a glimpse of their opulent lifestyle and of their many customs and traditions. With over 1,000 pieces of antiques and collectibles of the era on display, this Baba-Nyonya museum is also housed in one of Penang’s heritage mansions of eclectic design and architecture. Built at the end of the 19th century by one of local history’s famous personalities, the mansion features a Chinese courtyard house. It was much like a typical large Baba home of eclectic style, incorporating Chinese carved-wood panels and English floor tiles and Scottish ironworks. Having survived the many decades of neglect and decay, the mansion has now been restored to its former glory of a stately home. It is truly an impressive building!

When we were all done it was starting to spit rain so we took shelter in the adjacent coffee shop which has a balcony overlooking the mansion. By the time we took cover in the coffee shop balcony it proceeded to dump rain! We ordered two Nyonya coffee, they tasted great! We paired that with the recommended Pandan square. While we were enjoying our coffee on the sheltered balcony we watched the rain pour down in real tropical style. It finally let up after 45 minutes and we paid our bill and made a dash for our hotel which was about 4 blocks away. The rest of our day was spent indoors looking at the rain.

We headed out for supper with umbrellas in hand, thankful that the rain had let up some. We ate at a restaurant named Bhai Biryani Authentic Indian Muslim Cuisine, a big name for Indian food with no beer. The food was better than expected and we had real fresh mango lassies. Our waiter was from Pakistan, lived in Dubai for 4 years and now works in Georgetown Penang. He spoke very good English, and we chatted lots about his dreams to get to a better country. Malaysia is just a means to and end for him. He is looking to get to Australia, Japan or Canada.

After supper we walked back to the hotel without needing our umbrellas!

November 30, 2022November 30, 2022

Driving around Penang

Penang Island

After our day of hill climbing and temple mountain climbing on Monday we decided to be a bit less physical for a day or so. We hired a driver named Zuri and he took us around to different places on Penang Island. Places you can’t see without a vehicle. For 200 MYR ($60 CAD) we hired him and his car from 10 am to 4:30 pm.

We toured around the Eastern side of Penang heading North to the resort area of Batu Ferringhi. This is where the best beaches are on Penang. There are some white sand beaches but at this time of year they are not suitable for swimming because of waves and undertow. We walked in our bare feet on the sand in the sun. It was pretty nice.

We then headed to The Tropical Spice Garden and toured around the rain forest looking at waterfalls and spice plants growing in this lush tropical paradise.

Our next stop was the handmade batik store and factory. It was a quick stop but very interesting. We saw how the designs are hand drawn on the fabric, some are stamped onto the fabric. It’s a process of using wax to block out colours and then dying the fabric.

Our next stop was the Entopia by Penang Butterfly Farm. Its a huge domed building that contains a forest and walkways with butterflies floating around everywhere. It gives you no protection when it rains as we found out during a brief shower. It was an entertaining experience although the cost of admission was not a real great value, mostly because we had no interest in the indoor exhibits. We were there to see butterflies! The upkeep cost of such an enormous structure must be huge as the large indoor area is fully air-conditioned and the outdoor area is a rainforest and garden in a dome. There were many indoor exhibits which we zoomed past. This is an ideal place for kids to learn about nature and we ran into a few little kids there on day trips.

After leaving the butterflies we drove by the Western edge of the island and looked out onto the Malacca Strait. With some imagination or a very clear day you might see the North end of the island of Sumatra. We were almost level with Banda Aceh Indonesia where the huge tsunami hit on Boxing Day 2004. Probably about 250 km East.

We traveled along the 2 lane winding mountain road until we came to the Tropical Fruit Farm where we turned off and headed straight up the mountain. It was a really really steep hill! Once we levelled off from the vertical climb we stopped in a small parking lot. The store is basically a fruit stand and gift shop. We ordered a pineapple and passionfruit smoothie and a cup of dragon fruit for a snack. We sat looking over the steep drop from the patio as we enjoyed our treat.

Back on our adventure again we headed to the South Penang bridge named Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah Bridge. Construction was started on 8 November 2008 and completed on 3 October 2012. It is the second Penang bridge. The overall length of the bridge is 24km with 16.9km over the water. It is also the first bridge in Malaysia to use Seismic Expansion Joints, Noise Reduction Seismic Expansion Joints and incorporated the High Damping Natural Rubber Bearing (HDNRB) that enables the bridge to withstand an earthquake of more than 7.5 on the Richter scale. The project team gave the bridge several S-shaped curves along its 24km length. This was intended to keep motorists’ attention on the road while driving and reduce accidents.

We shot a video over the entire bridge. It’s combined with the highlights of our day touring Penang Island. Check out the YouTube video below. There are chapter markers in the video description.

We continued North on the mainland of Malaysia towards the North and original bridge back to Penang. This bridge is 13.5 km long. The cable-stayed structure was the first road connection between the peninsula and Penang island and was built in 1982. There is still a very inexpensive ferry operating between Butterworth on the mainland and Georgetown on Penang Island which is used by travellers arriving by bus or train.

Back at our hotel we got cleaned up and walked to Kapitan Indian Restaurant for supper, the meal cost less than $10. The cool thing about the restaurant is that a robot brings your drinks to the table. It speaks in Malaysian and expects you to pick of your drinks from the tray and press the green button on the screen. We guessed what to do and after tapping the green button on the screen the robot toddled off bleeping and chirping.

November 28, 2022November 28, 2022

The Habitat

Penang Hill

This morning we decided we’d head to Penang Hill. We thought a week day would be a better option and hopefully not as busy as the weekends.

We had our breakfast and headed out just after 10 am via Grab to Penang Hill. The cab driver we had was a chatty guy and we enjoyed our 20 minute drive with him. He did tell us that it was very last minute but the government announced yesterday that today (Monday) would be a holiday. Our cabby said some government offices were closed and some people had taken the day off but many were working because of the short notice about the holiday. We had some concerns what that would mean for long lineups at Penang Hill. Thankfully when we arrived the ticket line up was quite short and once Gary had the tickets we only had a short wait to catch the funicular up the hill. Even better we got directed to the front of the funicular and although we were standing had prime spots to watch our trip up the hill. It’s a little disconcerting how quick the funicular goes up the hill. You watch the cables and wheels/pulleys that bounce around and you wonder if there is an accident just waiting to happen. We were at the top in about 5 minutes.

Once everyone disperses at the top of the hill the crowds seems very manageable. There are so many areas and trails you can take that everyone kind of spreads out and disappears. We took some photos of the Georgetown skyline and enjoyed the view. Although it had rained first thing this morning by the time we arrived it had cleared and our view was quite good. The peak of Penang hill is 833 metres, the viewing point was somewhat less at 712 metres.

We decided to have a bite to eat before we headed to The Habitat a park on Penang Hill that has suspended walkways and trails through the rainforest. We barely made it to the restaurant and it started spitting rain again. We shared a pizza and had a couple of cold soda water. About the time we finished it was raining fairly heavy so we waited a few minutes and it eased off. Good thing we brought our trusty umbrellas. We felt like Mary Poppins, snapping them open and closed again as soon as the rain let up!

It was a short walk from the restaurant to The Habitat Penang Hill. The Habitat Website The park offers an authentic and diverse experience of the rainforest. The park sits on the fringes of a forest reserve protected since 1911 and consists of a 1.6 km nature trail that was built by the British East India Company in the early 1800s. There are breath taking views of Penang and surrounding areas atop the 13-meter high Curtis Crest Tree Top Walk, the highest public viewing point on Penang island, 800 meters above sea-level.

We stood and watched Dusky Leaf Langurs (monkeys) eating leaves which was followed by the monkey sitting on the tree with his back to us – taking a poop. Gasp!

Did you click on the video above to see the Dusky Leaf Langurs?

The Habitat Park also features the Langur Way Canopy Walk, the longest two-span stressed ribbon bridge in the world and the only one that sits within a pristine rainforest.

The Habitat is one of our favourite spots and was part of the reason we came back to Penang. Several hours later we felt like we had covered all the trails, walkways and sights and we headed for the funicular to take us back down the hill.

The Curtis Crest Tree Top Walk is a 13 meters highest public viewing platform located on the plateau just above the Mid-Point Rest Area and Museum. In the 1890s this plateau was used as one of the first English tennis courts in Malaysia by people holidaying on the hill.

Not far from Penang Hill is the Kek Lok Si Chinese Temple. It is the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia and is also an important pilgrimage centre for Buddhists from Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore and other countries in Southeast Asia. The entire complex of temples was built over a period from 1890 to 1930. We caught a Grab there.

The temple and surrounding building are spread out over a steep hillside. We started walking up the winding driveway to the temple. It started raining again and walking became slightly treacherous as there are many tiled walkways and staircases that become like skating ice when wet! We made it up to the main temple and had a look around. There are a number of other smaller buildings/shrines or temples. The colourful buildings and beautiful landscaping are something to see. We finally found a funicular station and bought a ticket to the 36.57-metre-tall (120 ft) bronze statue of Guanyin (Kuan Yin), the Goddess of Mercy. By then it was almost 4:30 and we were fading fast. We caught the funicular back down and then started to find our way back. We noticed a buggy and inquired and you could take it to another funicular station that then took you down to to base of the hill to the main parking lot. We opted to pay for the buggy ride and another funicular ride rather than spend another half hour or more walking back down the steep hillside. Besides, we weren’t confident that we wouldn’t get lost in the maze on our way down.

We headed back to the hotel where we dropped our stuff off and headed out for supper. We ended up back at Holy Guacamole again. On the way home we picked up more water and beer to restock our hotel room fridge. It’s important to stay hydrated!

We walked 11.1 KM and up 35 floors. We definitely got our exercise today.

November 23, 2022November 23, 2022

Georgetown

Malaysia

Sunday, the day after the Malaysian Federal Election we should know the results, but … not yet. Malaysia is like Canada and the USA, split into 2 or more political beliefs. After the previous former PM got sent to jail, there is a move to voting along moral and religious views. It’s hard for Canucks to understand Malaysian politics because we can’t even pronounce the candidates names. We know enough to say that there is no winner by majority in Malaysia this time around and a coalition of members will likely make the next government.

Before we leave subject of the election in Malaysia, did you know that voters are required to dip their finger in an ink pad which dries fast and stains their finger. This is to show that they have voted. The ink lasts for many days. You can tell a good citizen here by the colour of their pointer finger, you know they voted. It’s a simple way to prevent fraud. They also put their criminal Prime Minister in jail. We should do the same in Canada. Ink on the finger, maybe jail too.

Today, we walked the streets of Old Town Georgetown, Penang. As we have been here before we have a faint memory of some streets, particularly the street art. We also discovered some places we haven’t seen before.

Armenian Street (Lebuh Armenian) has some very cool street art. Some of it needs retouching because it has faded and peeled from the sun and rain. We stopped at a huge food court for a refreshment drink about 11 am. It seemed that it had just opened. They had a sign up that there would be live music from 9 pm til midnight. We chatted with a couple of kiwi guys looking for some fruit to eat. Seems like they weren’t impressed with the local food, most of it being of Chinese origin. Penang has a huge Chinese population and is known for the great ethnic food. There is also a “Little India” area too. Most tourists here are Malaysians with a few foreigners from India and other Asian countries as well as Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America. A real hodge page of races and languages. Thankfully most people speak a bit of English! We are really fortunate to speak English!

We visited the Cheah Kongsi Temple in the Armenian Street area. We met a couple from Melbourne Australia. We offered to take their pictures and they returned the favour. It seems if you offer, couples are happy to have their pictures taken together. It’s a win-win situation although you always wonder after touching someone else’s phone, and them touching yours – how soon can you wash your hands! This whole post pandemic thing sucks.

We returned to an ice cream place that we visited in February 2020. We showed the store owner a picture from our previous visit and he was tickled that we returned. The mango float we had hit the spot but hardly seemed cold enough considering how hot and sweaty we were.

November 21, 2022November 21, 2022

A day late.

I'm Mistaking

A day late and a dollar short. Isn’t that the saying we heard as kids? Yes, and then we thought we were going to miss our flight too! That would add insult to injury.

Sometimes you wonder if all the events happening are trying to tell you something!! Maybe something like “Don’t get on the Boeing 737 Max 800!” This will be our second flight on the previously defective airplane. Keep on reading….

A few days ago we booked hotel rooms and flights for the rest our vacation here. We had only booked a couple flights and hotels of the three or four we needed and next thing Gary’s cell phone buzzed. We had a missed call from the Fraud department at Visa. We tried calling them back and the automated system told us we should have a case number that was provided in our voice mail. Guess what – no case number was provided so we couldn’t talk directly to the Fraud department. We had to contact Customer Service, verify our identity and finally get the case number. Then we had to call the Fraud Department again and work our way through the automated system and enter our case number, listen to a lengthy robot message of all our charges for the past several days and then verify we had actually the the purchases. Yes, we made them and still had more purchases to make! The Customer Service rep had assured us our card would work after we completed the fraud verification. We do rely on our Skype account for free phone calls to North America on our adventure. We also rely on our Ooma Voice Over Internet (VOIP) phone number while travelling too. We get calls directed to our cell phone anywhere in the world where we have data coverage. Both of these subscriptions cost peanuts and save a bundle when you need to send or receive calls back home.

The other screw up was with Agoda, the hotel booking system we use. We searched hotels for Penang where we are heading next. The web browser kept changing the dates and search filters we set. We finally selected a hotel and booked it. Then we got the email confirming our booking and realized that we were booked one day too soon! We immediately called the hotel who said “phone Agoda” and we phoned Agoda and they told us we can’t cancel without someone from the hotel giving their approval. Well many calls later and even one call with an Agoda rep on one phone and the hotel rep on the other phone and we couldn’t get the booking changed! This will be the first that we eat one night of hotel charges because of our gaff. Apparently, the hotel uses another company as middle man between them and Agoda, so Agoda and the hotel couldn’t speak directly to each other – needless to say we were very frustrated. We had no luck getting any one to give us one day back out of a 6 day booking. To make us feel better we did discover that Agoda was anywhere from 20% to 50% cheaper than other booking websites like Momondo or Tripadvisor.

Saturday, Nov. 19 we were up in decent time and down to breakfast early. Obviously there was a major change in guests since yesterday as this morning the breakfast room was filled with many German speaking people and few from India. After a quick breakfast we headed back up to the room to finish packing up. Shortly after 10 am we checked out and called a Grab. The driver profile showed it was a woman driver. So we waited for her arrival. She pulled in, got out of her minivan, looked at our luggage and said you need to call for a six person Grab. We were like, we haven’t had to do that before, every other driver just helped us load our stuff and off we went. Not her!! We finally said we are cancelling and will get someone else. Which we did. The irony of it was that the original driver’s car was much bigger than the car we got and could have had ton of room to spare to fit our stuff in. The smaller car we ended up with easily fit all our bags in the trunk! So we were off to the airport! At least we thought we were!! The new driver asked us where we are from. Then she says something about us taking the train to Penang? No, we said we are flying to Penang from the Kuala Lumpur airport (KLIA) and out of the International terminal. Well she says you have the train station selected as your destination! Panic by all ensued!! She was having a fit that we’d never get to the airport in time for our flight! We just wanted to get to the airport, KLIA to be exact! Not get dumped on the side of the road and have to get another Grab!! We finally cut a deal with her and she zoomed off to the airport with us. She was an amazing lady and got us there with time to spare. While we had time to decompress at the airport we reflected on the lady cab drivers we’ve had over the years while using Grab. As much as we don’t want to profile any one ethnic group, the women muslim cab drivers we have had over the years have been the most difficult to deal with, rude, grumpy or otherwise. The Asian, Thai and other women drivers have been so accommodating and pleasant to deal with. We’ll have to see if we get a lady Muslim driver one day who totally changes our current perception. And just to be clear, all the male muslim drivers we have had, we’ve had no issues with any of them – only the women – go figure. Overall today’s screw ups cost us about $115 CAD. We ended up paying $9.50 for the Grab ride to the wrong destination – because we couldn’t change the destination back to KLIA (instead of KLIA – ERL train station). We paid her 120 MYR ($35 CAD) in cash. The cost of the extra night hotel booking was $80 CAD one of the priciest places so far. We’re out $115 CAD due to the two screw-ups. While the Grab error we accept as our mistake by being unfamiliar with what the train station acronym was, the Agoda error was predatory on Agoda’s behalf. In the past we took a screen shot of a hotel booking before confirmation and when the screen flickered Gary noticed the price had increased. When looking at the screen shot we confirmed the underhanded tactic. Buyer beware! Yes, Caveat emptor! As far as booking Grab, we entered KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) as the destination but for some unknown reason we don’t understand we got switched to ERL Train Station. FYI: The KLIA Ekspres train provides a non-stop express train service from KLIA ERL station to the KL Sentral in Kuala Lumpur. In the end the ERL station is in the basement of the KLIA main terminal. FFS.

Thankfully our flight was on time and non eventful. The 737 Max 800 plane is nothing but an old plane with bigger engines. When we arrived at our hotel we got checked in quickly. As we unpacked we found that the last guest had left the safe open but the deadbolt in the locked position. Linda called the front desk to get someone up to fix it. The front desk guy arrived and spent some time trying to get it to work. He finally said he had to get maintenance to come and replace the batteries. Several minutes later they both returned and changed out the batteries and messed around with it. Still no luck. He said he’d be back. So we waited and waited. By then it was 5:30 and we were famished so Gary went down to the front desk and said we really need this rectified. The guy came back and before you could say Bob’s your uncle we had a working safe!

With our valuables safely stowed in the safe we headed out to find something to eat. We thought we’d try a nearby Indian Restaurant. We had no luck finding it – there were reviews on it not that long ago. We aren’t sure if we just couldn’t find it or if it has closed. We headed further away to an Indian Restaurant we ate at a few years ago when we were here. The place was pretty much full and any empty tables were littered with dirty dishes and hadn’t been cleared. We finally found what we thought was a clean table at the back of the restaurant only to have one of the employees tell us to sit in the front section! Still no clean or empty tables there so we left. We hiked another couple of blocks and got to Holy Guacamole, a small Mexican Restaurant we’ve eaten at before. By now we were hungry and thirsty and couldn’t wait to get seated!! We enjoyed a few beer with our chicken fajitas. It was a great meal! We picked up some extra water at the 7-11 and made our way back to the hotel at a brisk pace. The sky was black and threatening rain. We encountered some thunder and lightening.

We got back to the hotel to find that housekeeping had never delivered our bath robes or hand towels that we’d requested before we left. This time they arrived promptly after our phone call. Hopefully tomorrow is a better day and we’ll wander around and check out all the street art if the weather cooperates. We particularly want to visit Penang Hill again but with the weekend crowds we won’t plan a visit there until at least Monday.

November 20, 2022November 20, 2022

TITBITS & DRY FRUITS

Kuala Lumpur

Today we headed to the Berjaya Times Square and purchased 2 new GoPro batteries, both for about $41 CAD. They are knock off brand batteries but our original brand GoPro batteries were only a year old. They have expanded and are now JUNK. If you do get them pushed into the camera you will never get them out. After we left the camera shop Gary said “it sounds like a roller coaster in here.” WTF, there is a theme park inside this mall. The roller coaster looks to be a bit scarier than the mind bender in West Edmonton Mall! It hadn’t opened yet but the rails for the coaster were looking pretty gnarly! Not our cup of tea! Berja Times Square

We bought some fruit for lunch, a tall cup of pineapple, another of mango and one of dragon fruit. Total cost for lunch was 9 MYR or $2.65 CAD. We paid with a 100 MYR note which the guy refused because it was taped with scotch tape due to a 2 cm tear. The bill came repaired from the ATM in Kota Kinabalu. Who knew they were so picky with their cash?

After our lunch we walked back to the Swiss Garden Inn and relaxed reading.

After 7 pm we met our long time friend from Portugal and had dinner at the Grand Sky Restaurant on the Jalan Alor night street. We drank a few beer and got caught up on our past. It’s been over 3 years since we last saw each other in Porto, Portugal. He is currently travelling with his Mom on a 100 plus day trip. We had a great night and planned to see them the next night at an Indian restaurant nearby.

There is something about air travel that depletes you for day or so. Tomorrow we will do some touring in Kuala Lumpur, likely the Botanical Gardens including the Orchid Garden and Butterfly Park.

When tomorrow finally came we had a day of disappointment. The Orchid park was closed, the butterfly park was closed and we had paid a Grab to drive us to the closed venues. This is not the first time we have been led astray by Google. If Google says an establishment is open they may be closed. This could still be COVID fallout. There are a pile of closed businesses in Malaysia. We ended up at the National Museum which was great until several school groups showed up with busloads of screaming 6 year old kids. We caught a Grab back to the hotel through the gridlock traffic which is normal by 3:30 pm.

The bellman took a liking to us when we told him we were from Canada while checking in. He’s a great guy and said “don’t take pictures of the tree until tomorrow. There are gifts to go around the tree.” We showed him a picture of our back yard in Saskatoon from last winter with our neighbours huge fir tree covered in snow. He was impressed.

November 17, 2022November 17, 2022

Mangroves

Proboscis Monkeys & Fireflies

We weren’t exactly jumping out of bed this morning!! We were pretty tired from yesterday and both of us had headaches when we got up. Not hangovers. Think we didn’t drink enough water yesterday!! After our morning breakfast we spent some time in our room and called both of our Moms. We caught a Grab over to the Imago Mall and had a salad at the Souled Out restaurant. We both ordered a chicken caesar salad – one arrived and after asking the waitress several times the second one finally showed up! We ate here the other day and had a similar experience – Gary was done his meal and we sat waiting for Linda’s to arrive for ages. We finally had to beg the waitress to go see what was happening! The irony is it was only a sandwich so not like it was difficult to make. They did give us 10% off our meal because of the delay so we decided we’d give them a second chance. Obviously a poor decision! While the food is good the service isn’t so we won’t be back which is kind of a shame as the facilities and outdoor seating area is very nice. The staff are nice but their English may be the problem with understanding our order. Many places here repeat the total order before leaving the table, these guys don’t.

We caught a Grab back to the hotel and got our stuff ready for the afternoon tour. Albert picked us up a 2 pm. This afternoon we are off to the Klias River to see the mangrove wetlands, Proboscis monkeys and fireflies. It was over a 2 hour drive to get there. When we arrived the tour company had coffee and tea, fried bananas, fried sweet potatoes and small Pandan cakes for us to enjoy. Actually the fried sweet potatoes were almost better than the bananas! There were several other tour groups that arrived and once everyone was there they handed out life jackets and we headed down to the boat. We headed down the river to find the monkeys. The first monkeys we sighted were the Proboscis monkeys.

Proboscis monkeys are endemic to the jungles of Borneo, never straying far from the island’s rivers, coastal mangroves, and swamps. They are distinctive with their large noses, reddish brown colour and long tail! They are a highly arboreal species and will venture onto land only occasionally to search for food. They live in organized harem groups consisting of a dominant male and two to seven females and their offspring. The various groups often congregate near water at night to sleep. Proboscis monkeys are the primate world’s most prolific swimmers, frequently leaping from tree limbs and hitting the water with a comical belly flop. They’ve evolved webbed feet and hands to help them outpace the crocodiles that are some of their main predators. Proboscis monkeys survive mainly on a diet of leaves, seeds, and unripe fruits but will occasionally consume insects as well. Over the last 40 years, Proboscis monkey populations have plummeted due to threatened habitat. They are currently protected from hunting or capture in Borneo.

A little further down the river we found some Silvered Leaf Monkeys. They are a medium-sized monkey with a long tail. It has grey-tipped, dark brown or black fur, giving it a uniform silvery appearance. Unlike some related species, there are no paler markings on the face or body, except for a patch of whitish hair on the groin of females. A crest of fur runs along the top of the head, and the hair on the cheeks is long, often obscuring the ears. The hands and feet are hairless, with dark coloured skin, and have opposable thumbs and toes. They were quite a bit smaller than the Proboscis monkeys we saw.

We continued down the river and found a larger harem of Proboscis monkeys that we watched for some time. They are very shy and many hide in the dense treetops. Getting pictures is next to impossible without a really good camera with a zoom lens. We just enjoyed watching them and making the memory! Even a zoom lens on the camera would make for difficult photography when you have 20 people rocking the boat. People rented binoculars and ended up setting them aside because of the unpredictable movement of the boat. Our video and pictures were not that great. Watch the video and you get a good idea of the mangrove trees that grow in the river which is tidal. The high water mark is seen on the branches and leaves in some places. We were told “back in the olden days” that the locals drank the river water when the river was flowing out to the sea. It’s normally muddy due to the heavy rain but nowadays they don’t drink raw river water.

After watching all the monkeys we headed back to shore where a nice buffet meal was waiting for us. There was rice, curried chicken, chicken rendang, green beans, cooked cabbage, soup, watermelon and bananas. We were just finishing up eating when it started to thunder and lightening. They got everyone organized and back out to the boat. Then it was back down the river to the darkest parts where we got to watch the fire flies in the treetops. We have never seen so many fire flies! It looked like mini lights strung throughout the tree tops and they synchronized their flickering! It was such a cool experience. Again you can’t capture it on our phones or GoPro. It continued to thunder and lightening and started to spit a bit of rain so after a bit we headed back to shore. We started for home in the Albert’s truck and the sky opened up once again. We drove about half the way back to KK in torrential rain. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive back so it was well after 9 pm when Albert dropped us off. We logged well over 500 km on our 3 days of touring with Albert for a price that would barely cover the cost of fuel in Canada. We really enjoyed the tours with Albert. He is fluent in English and is such a knowledgeable guy and so happy to share about his country and culture. Besides that, his Dad lives in Vancouver!

One of the funniest things he told us is that men should be so lucky as to be reincarnated as a male Proboscis monkey – they live in a harem, have a permanent hard-on and mate with many females, however the mating is only maybe 6 seconds long so life isn’t perfect! We hit the bed totally exhausted again! No monkey business!

November 14, 2022November 16, 2022

Adventure

Borneo Off Road Adventure

We were at breakfast when they opened at 7 a.m. It was the first time we’ve had all the fruit available and there were even some hot items! Seems the hot food is brought out hot, it just doesn’t stay hot with the lids off! Entirely different breakfast experience. Maybe it pays to get there early!

Albert picked us up 7:30 in his Toyota FJ Land Cruiser. We were heading to the base of Mount Kinabalu. He asked if we were comfortable with going on an off road experience and on some gravel roads. We said sure no problem! It was an interesting ride through the twisty mountain road. It’s very narrow, although Albert assured us two vehicles could meet and get by, which did happen, but it was very tight!! We did make a wrong turn once and had to drive some way before we could find a spot wide enough to turn around. His version of gravel road if a far cry from what we think of gravel roads. We even drove across the river in one spot. We stopped and he put the vehicle into 4 wheel drive (low range) several times. The river was really moving and there was a sharp drop off the passenger side of the vehicle – we had a moment questioning if we could get across without getting swept over the edge! All was fine and we crossed safely. We arrived at a look out point where we were fortunate to see the peak of Mount Kinabalu. From there we navigated across a wooden creaky bridge and back through the mountain roadway to the main road where we headed through the town of Kundisang and on to the town of Ranau where we would eat. Albert took us to a large food court building where there were dozens of tables in the centre of the complex with food vendors all around the perimeter. We enjoyed sweet and sour chicken, ginger fish, mixed vegetables and steamed rice for 53 MYR ($15 CAD for 3 people). There was a separate booth where you bought your drinks so we all had a calamansi juice with sour plum.

From Ranau it was about a 15 minute drive to Poring Hot Springs and the Rainforest Canopy Walk. The canopy walk was pretty impressive and just a little nerve wracking! It was a fairly sweaty hike up the walkways to get to the canopy walk. You zig zag your way on walkways up the side of the mountain. When we finally reached the first canopy walk we both did a double take. The suspended walkway has ropes and netting along the sides and the plank you walk on is like 2×10’s end to end. You have to walk carefully one foot in front of the other as it is so narrow. The signs say maximum of 6 people at one time on the suspended walkways. It was very quiet so we went one at a time to minimize the sway and bounce! Some of them were very long spans and if you looked down you could get vertigo! It was a VERY long way down. The trees and plants were incredible. The sheer size of the Menggaris trees is breathtaking, there is a reason they are called the King of the Forest. The walkway is 157.8 m long and 41m high.

If we weren’t sweaty enough from the canopy walk we then hiked to a waterfall. It was pretty cool. From the waterfall we made our way back to the hot springs. The water temperature where it comes out of the mountain is very hot – 59 degrees C! Apparently the hot springs are known for their therapeutic properties and sulphuric minerals are supposed to ease aching muscles. Many climbers of Mount Kinabalu come here after their 2 day/1 night climb. We had originally discussed stopping and renting a bath house and soaking for a while. By the time we were done hiking around the canopy walk and waterfall it was getting late and we decided to just sit at the foot baths and soak our feet! Also the thought of soaking our hot sweaty bodies in hot water seemed less appealing. There were several foot baths to choose from with varying temperatures. It did feel good to get our shoes off and soak our feet for a while.

From the hot springs we headed back to our hotel. It was a 2 – 2 1/2 hour drive back through the mountain range. It was very picturesque. We did stop at the Mount Kinabalu trail head where the climbers start and return. After our morning view of Mount Kinabalu it was shrouded in clouds and mist pretty much all day. However, on our drive back, while at times we were driving in thick mist, it did clear and the mountain top was visible again. We stopped and managed to get a few more pictures. It was just after 7 pm when we arrived back at the hotel. We changed and got a grab and headed back to the El Centro Mexican restaurant. The food was the hottest we’ve had in Malaysia (temperature not spice level), it was really tasty after a long day, the service was pretty sporadic and not that great. The cold beer really hit the spot.

It was a great day of touring but with the heat and humidity and lots of hiking we were pretty tired and dehydrated. We hit the sheet exhausted.

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November 13, 2022November 14, 2022

Mari Mari

Borneo Head Hunters

Today we were up in good time. We have been trying to book a flight back to Kuala Lumpur for the past day and we keep running into issues. We even called the credit card company to see if the issue was with our card which, thankfully, it was not. We tried again this morning before breakfast and still had some issues so we finally left it and headed down for breakfast. It wasn’t as busy today but there was less selection and things were extremely slow getting replenished.

We have a tour to the Mari Mari Cultural Village today. Our guide, Albert Lai, picked us up in front of the hotel at 8:45 am. The Cultural Village is located in the countryside outside Kota Kinabalu about a half hour drive. Along the way we asked about a post office as we had some postcards we wanted to mail. We had bought stamps in Labuan but didn’t find postcards until we were in Kota Kinabalu. There was a post office nearby and we parked while Gary ran into the post office. What was supposed to be a simple errand ended up taking 15 minutes or longer as Gary found out the postage the other place sold us wasn’t sufficient. The gal was forever figuring out what stamps she had and then there was going to be an issue that the stamp might cover some of the writing!! Good grief. He finally left the cards with her after she assured him she’d get the stamps on and mail them. In the end it cost us 7.75 MYR or $2.25 CAD per card to mail them. Obviously no one mails post cards anymore!! We can only hope they arrive. In 2019 while in Penang, Linda spent ages writing up 12 cards and adding the stamps the post office sold us. We left them with the front desk and they promised to mail them – to this day not one card has ever arrived. We now suspect the postage amount may not have been correct!

After the post office fiasco, it was a short drive to the Mari Mari Cultural Village. The Village offers a glimpse into the lives of Sabah’s rich culture with its distinctive houses, costumes and traditional skills of five major ethnic groups in Sabah. It was interesting to see the homes, costumes, food and drink for the Dusun (farmers), the Rungus (traders) the Lundayeh (hunters) and the Bajau (cowboys and sea gypsies) and the famously feared warrior tribe Murut. We heard all about the various tribes, who were the farmers, the feared head hunters, who had stingless honeybees and how they lived and celebrated in their community. I think we all remember hearing about the Borneo head hunters. These are the guys, they are no longer quite so scary! But we were told, back in the head hunting days the groom had to provide a head as a dowry.

We visited each of the 5 homes. At each home they had demonstrations related to each tribe. Some it was making rice wine, distilling the rice wine, cooking a tasty dish in a bamboo stick, making cookies and pancakes from rice flour or sampling the honey. At one home, they demonstrated how they started a fire with some bamboo shavings and their bamboo “starter” sticks. It was amazing how quickly they had a fire going! Following the tour and demonstrations we went to the performance area where they put on a show highlighting their music and traditional dances. It was really interesting and entertaining. At the end we made our way through the forest up a staircase to a dining area where they had a buffet lunch for us. The weather cooperated until we were ready to leave and it started spitting rain.

Check out our video below on Youtube.

Once back to the hotel we finally managed to book our November 15th flight back to Kuala Lumpur. Keep in mind it is November 11 as we write this. With that task finally out of the way we headed out to the Maybank just down the street and across the bridge from our hotel. We had only got part way and it started spitting again! Last time we used a Maybank ATM we were able to get 3,000 MYR in one transaction. This ATM informed us it’s limit was only 1500 MYR. We decided we’d check out another bank’s ATM and see what we could find. There was a Bank of Islam a block away so we walked over there and found their ATM machines don’t support any of our card types. There was also a BSN building in between the Islam Bank and the Maybank. Linda googled BSN and found that it was also a bank. We tried there. The security guard told us you could take out a maximum of 5,000 MYR in one day but it had to be in transactions of only 1500 each and one for 500. We threw caution to the wind and immediately tried for 3,000 MYR on one transaction. The ATM surprised both us and the security guard by spitting out our cash! “Just like Las Vegas” said Gary to the astonished security guard! We managed to get back to the hotel without getting soaked. After we returned it really got down to business with lot of thunder, lightning and pouring rain.

Our recent lesson learned on financing in a foreign country. 3000 MYR cost us exactly $888.70 CAD which means $1CAD buys 3.375 MYR (Malaysian Ringgit) through BMO at an ATM. Believe it or not, with our Home Trust VISA card, $1CAD buys 3.45 MYR. On our 3000 MYR cash we received 66 MYR less than if we had used our credit card for tap purchases through Apple Pay. Approximately $19. CAD. It would be ideal to use our VISA card everywhere but some places only accept cash. The real appeal of using our VISA is that it’s the funding source for our Apple Pay and it is 100% secure. We are not sure what the limit on the Apple Pay tap is but so far we have had no problems up to 150 MYR.