Malaysia – saskatoonie.com

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 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.

November 3, 2022November 3, 2022

Beach Vibe

Welcome to Palm Beach Resort

With the internet so poor at the previous hotel we spent extra money on our cell phone data plan to upload videos. Overall the Tiara Hotel’s internet wifi gets a zero rating. The internet just didn’t work. Disappointing! Check out the tour of our new hotel room at the Palm Beach Resort below. Also, the internet works like a charm at the Palm Beach!

October 31st, we moved to the Palm Beach Resort at the north end of the island. We got to Palm Beach Resort about noon. We were fortunate that they had our room ready. We checked in to 2317 which is room 317 in the 2nd building. What are the odds of having the same room number at two different hotels in a row? More strange things to come in a bit.

We spent some time getting unpacked, logging in to wifi, and getting to know the place. We checked out the pool which was being cleaned and closed until 3 pm. We went for a walk on the beach instead. When we got back to our room we decided to take the hotel’s free shuttle bus to town. We went to the lobby to register in advance. The shuttle was scheduled to leave at 4:15 pm and return back to the hotel at 7 pm. Perfect timing for us to get Indian food once again at JJ Nazar restaurant.

While in the lobby with almost an hour to kill we decided to take in high tea. The future diabetic version available here is chocolate hi tea. We ordered tea and ended up with coffee, but given the time restraint we drank the coffee. The hi tea tray was a sight to see! Chicken satay (2), bruschetta (2), churros (4) with chocolate dipping sauce, cream filled chocolate cake (3), white cakes covered in chocolate and flaked coconut (2), chocolate cream tarts with a chocolate crust (2), chocolate dipped bars or fudge (2) and candied orange slices (4). All that for 39.90 MYR which is a mere $11.50. Peanuts compared to the cost of diabetes! It was so sweet, what seemed like a brilliant and economical idea almost made us feel sick.

Once we were done eating we paid the waiter and caught the shuttle to town. We enjoyed another great Indian supper but we definitely had an underlying blah, sickly sweet feeling. When Gary went to pay the bill he noticed a guy wearing red coveralls, the kind that look like Halliburton. He took a double take when he saw the guy’s name on his coveys – David Lawrence. Plain as day. He asked the guy if his name was really David and yes it was. A whole conversation ensued, the irony of meeting someone with your last name, written on his coveys and the name of your brother is beyond belief. We exchanged info and will see if we can get some tourist tips from Mr. Lawrence. Apparently he worked in tourism before starting work in the oil industry so was going to reach out to some of his former co-workers on our behalf.

As soon as we stepped out of the restaurant it started raining. We opened our umbrellas (a sound investment that has paid off many times). We have felt like Mary Poppins a few times when the wind picks up but so far these two bit umbrellas have not gone inside out! We walked back to the Financial Building, our pickup point for the ride home at 7 pm. We bought a few beer for our room as the location of our resort is a bit remote and there aren’t any shops nearby. It’s about a 15-20 minute ride from town back to the Palm Beach Resort and Spa. It rained on and off for the evening, a normal evening in Borneo during the rainy season. Keep in mind it doesn’t get below 25ºC here. As Canadians we are so conditioned to seeing grey stormy skies and wind and thinking it’s cool outdoors but in reality you walk out the door and get hit with a wall of humidity and heat whether it is cloudy or sunny! So far we have really enjoyed the weather, rain or shine. We have also enjoyed the the extremely friendly people here Labuan. They are very welcoming to foreigners. In fact, the waiter at the JJ Nazar Indian Restaurant gave us a warm welcome and had to shake our hands when he saw us return. We are so glad we came here.

November 2, 2022November 2, 2022

Moving up island

We are off to a new hotel

The Tiara Labuan Hotel suite we had was great, the air conditioning worked well and the breakfast was good. They’ve had water issues there, not so much the hotel but the supplier, according to the info note left in our room. A few times we had low water pressure but nothing serious. The worst thing was poor internet, so poor it didn’t work. Disappointing! Check out the tour of our king suite at Tiara Labuan below. The internet was so poor at the Tiara that we couldn’t upload this video using the hotel wifi.

We are moving to the north end of the island. It’s a lot farther from town and hopefully quieter. We are hoping for some new scenery in that area so we’ll check it out at the Palm Beach Resort and Spa. Yes they have a spa, we plan on a massage!