The Final Day

After a bit of a sleep in this morning, we packed up our rooms and stored our luggage before spending the day doing whatever we wanted. I had a couple of gifts still to get, as did some of the girls, so we headed out shopping (back to the market that was closed yesterday) and others went to the shopping centre. The boys went to the indoor theme park, and came back a little seedy!

This afternoon, Jodee took the group to try Durian - a disgusting fruit that smells and tastes revolting - which is a local fruit and 'must do' on the list of things for Malaysia (apparently)! Then back to laze around the pool for an hour or so before the bus comes to pick us up to go to the airport.

At the airport, there was just enough time to have a quick bite to eat, and hand over some gifts. Of course, we also had the final Kurung Pandir award (this is an award Jamie started at the beginning of the trip, inviting students to nominate each other for silly things they had done or said each day). Each days winner was noted and voted on, with the winner being a surprise entrant who didnt actually win any of the days, but did get his fair share of nominations - Jamie! I think this is called students revenge!!

Schools in!

This morning was early to rise, difficult after such a late night last night...

After breakfast, we went to a local high school. It was an amazing performance, we were 'drummed' in to the school, and met by such friendly students and teachers. After hearing about the school, the students put on some amazing performances. The first was a singing group, who were so good, and looked like they were really enjoying themselves. Next was a poem recital, which took some skill - I couldnt have remembered the monologue! Then there were some dance recitals = traditional malay, indian and chinese. Such beautiful costumes. Finally their choir sang some traditional songs.

Afterwards, our students sang Advance Australia Fair and Waltzing Matilda in both English and Indonesian. One of the students, Johnny, has his birthday today, and the Malaysian students got so excited when Jodee announced we were going to sing Happy Birthday in English, Malay and Indonesian - they joined in very enthusiastically!

Gifts were exchanged between the schools and students (including the boys giving some Aussie Rules footballs to the school, which of course they had to teach the students how to kick!), and we were provided with a traditional 'breakfast' (which became lunch) of rice, Sambal (chilli), peanuts, boiled egg and anchovies. This gave all of us a great opportunity to speak with the students and staff. All the students had such a great time, as they were able to spend quite a bit of time sharing (dancing, kicking the footy, dancing etc) with the students. When it was time to go everyone was really disappointed, although heaps of photos had been taken and email addresses exchanged.


After the school visit, we went to the Royal Selangor factory to see how the pewter goods are made, this was just a quick visit as it was just down the road from the school. This was followed by a wander through the bird park, which was lovely, but a lot more birds were in cages than I expected. Finally it was back to the hotel for emailing, resting (and some shopping for those who were interested) before heading out for Teppanyaki for dinner, and back to the markets for another go! The Teppanyaki was disappointing, it was really just a japanese restaurant, where the service was extremely slow - it took an hour to serve our 20 meals! Everyone was tired and grumpy, and wanted to go shopping, so it wasnt the best meal we have had... But Jodee did well with Johnny's birthday cake - Chocolate Mud YUM!!!

The market was crowded, and the part of the market I was interested in closed 5 minutes after we got there, but didnt matter. It was a late night by the time we got back to the hotel.

Around Kuala Lumpur

Well this hotel is definitely a few steps down from the one in Kuching, which is disappointing. When we went back to our room after breakfast, the power wouldnt work in our room, so we had to call maintenance. Then when we arrived back after our day out, it wasnt working again, and there werent any bath towels. Took a bit to get things working, but seems to be all OK now (with a few work arounds). The breakfast was so good at Kuching, this one is a let down as well, but on the positives, the beds are comfortable, the hotel is really central, and we are having a great time!

This morning we went to the Cultural Village in Kuching, to try our hand at batik painting. It was great fun, all sorts of animals and flowers had been drawn on the silk in wax, and the colors of the dye's are so beautiful. We had time to look around the village, which was hosting a bridal exhibition - some lovely dresses and jewellery!


After finishing here, we went to the Menara Communications Tower = the 4th highest communications tower in the world. Up in the lift that took 58 seconds to go up 300+ meters - very fast. From here, although it was a really cloudy day, we could still see quite a way, and it would have been such a lovely view if it was clear.

Next it was over to the Petronis Twin Towers, although we didnt have time to go on the skywalk, we did get some great photos of the towers, and went in to the shopping centre for lunch. After a quick lunch, we went on a city tour, which took in the National Mosque, which was fantastic, although we had to wear an interesting 'cloak' to cover ourselves (including covering our head) which was quite warm, we had the opportunity to hear one of the people from the mosque speak about Islam, and ask a few questions (although none of us asked the hard ones we really wanted to...).


Next we went to the National Monument, commemorating the two world wars and independence(I think thats what it was), it was a beautiful, peaceful place with some lovely statues.

We finished the city tour passing lots of wonderful buildings, there is such lovely architecture. When we were back at the hotel, we didnt have long before heading out to the monorail for a ride to the markets. First it was central market, with such great batik, sarongs, wall hangings, and other bits and pieces - I could have spent a lot there!!!

Next it was on to the Chinese market, which was more like the markets I had experienced at Hong Kong. It was packed! Everyone got such great bargains, and had such a great time negotiating prices - A great experience for all of us!

Back in Kuching...

We had a fantastic dinner last night at Top Spot - thanks to all that recommended this place! It was quite interesting, and difficult to work out how it all worked, but eventually we realised it was simply a whole heap of restaurants providing pretty much the same thing and you just choose which one you want to go to! Delicious food though...

This morning it was off to Saracraft, where the local crafts are being kept alive. There were demonstrations of beading, weaving and basket weaving, which were very intesting. Most of the students had a go at either the basket weaving or the beading. They had a great shop there too - very reasonably priced, especially for a tourist destination!


After a few hours here, it was back on the bus and off to the birds nest factory. This is a very interesting process, where the birdsnests are taken from caves or birds are kept in special 'rooms' where they make their nests and these nests are 'recovered'. The nests are then soaked, and the feathers are plucked out one by one by very patient ladies. It is such a laborious process! But the birdsnest is supposed to be very good for the lungs and immune system, so it is very popular.

Next it was off to lunch. Again, we went to a place for the locals. Everyone had something different - I had wonton soup, which was delicious. The drinks were amazing as well, freshly squeezed juices with crushed ice - so refreshing in the heat.

After lunch we went to a pottery factory, which was a little dissapointing as the pots are all from moulds and finished by hand (I had expected the pots to be hand made, but should have realised, given it is a factory...). The expertise of the artists carving the designs on the pots/vases etc was quite impressive though.

Back at the hotel, it was a quick trip to the laundry to pick up our nice clean clothes, then on a water taxi and quick walk to 'little India street'. Along the way there are little shops that sell all sorts of interesting spices, dried fish, dried fruits and other things by the gram. The smells were quite strong (especially the dried fish) but the spices were fantastic!

Day two at Bako National Park

After a restless nights sleep, it was up early for a quick (cold) shower, before packing everything up ready for our morning walk after breakfast. The walk we were to do this morning was much longer (about 3 hours) in much more difficult terrain.

Breakfast was interesting - noodles, chicken rice, mini sausages, chips and banana bread. The banana bread was beautiful, but the bananas are so good its not surprising (they have little bananas that taste just like lolly bananas!).

After breakfast had settled, it was off up the hill. The paths are really just sandy paths where the tree roots are used as steps, very in keeping with the environment! There were some very very steep sections, but the last third of the trip was very easy. It was so much cooler up on the top of the hill - above the rainforest was not nearly so humid, and there was a lovely sea breeze
.

On the way up the hill, we saw pitcher plants, that look like a little jug and trap flys. Amazing to see some of these things in their natural environment. Going down was not nearly as hard as I expected, although there were a few 'interesting' sections...

After getting back from the walk, it was time to finish packing the bags and check out. We had a lovely time at Bako, but we were all looking forward to coming back to Kuching and some variable temperature water and airconditioning (although the fans were quite effective!). After getting back to the ferry terminal, it was time for lunch in what looked like a very dodgy cafe. After quite a wait (they were very busy) we had a delicious lunch of fried rice, sweet & sour fish (with fresh pineapple), palm fronds in garlic, fried tofu with vegetables, and rice noodles. It was really really good!

We came back to Kuching via bus, ready for a quiet afternoon/evening. After checking into the hotel (with welcome drinks - even though we had been at the same hotel just one night before!!!), it was a quick shower, get all the dirty clothes out of the bag then off to the laundry.

Tonight we are heading to Top Spot, which has been highly recommended by a few people, so I am very much looking forward to it...

Off to Malaysia!

I know the title of the blog is the travelling two, but this time Im off without Andrew...

Andrews Mum, Barb, invited me to go with her on a school trip to Malaysia - how could I say no to a cheap holiday! So Thursday night we headed to the airport, where I met the kids (15 of them) and other adults going.

It was an uneventful flight, and I think everyone got some sleep (we left at midnight), and arrived in to KL airport early friday morning. We had a 4 hour wait till our next flight, but that just meant we had plenty of time to check out the airport! Eventually we made our way on to the flight to Kuching.

Arriving in Kuching, we started to feel the heat. everyone was tired, but really well behaved = particularly seeing as the hotel didnt have the rooms we were expecting (It turns out the company we booked with subcontracts a company in Malaysia who in turn subcontracts to a local company in Kuching who stuffed up the booking and missed one room!).

This was soon sorted, and it was out for a quick lunch before heading out on the bus to take a drive around Kuching. this was interesting - the architecture is such a mix, as there are predominently Malaysian and Chinese settled in Kuching, with some other minor races. The city is divided in two - the malaysian section (north Kuching) and Chinese section (South Kuching). There are similarities to Hong Kong and China, but it is so different all the same.

This morning we went to the Kuching Cultural village, where they have replica houses of each of the different tribes from Kuching, as well as a show of the costume and dance. It was all really interesting. The show included some audience participation, and the girls were only too happy to jump up on stage!

This afternoon has been spent catching up on emails, and then a quick trip to the market. All in all, it is interesting, but the heat is exhausting.

The next few days will be even more interesting - tomorrow we head to the jungle, with a trip down the river to a long house where we stay overnight. Should be quite an experience...