Before I get too distracted by my return to NZ, the last ten days of my time in South East Asia needs a brief recap.
Malaysian Peninsula
Arival: 30 December 2010
To some relief we got out of the Philippines – no thanks to the friendly immigration officer who had stamped the wrong date in our passports when we arrived, but the fine avoidance gods were on our side.
So then it was 'Hello' to clean and organised Kuala Lumpur, decent food and shopping! Having saved up all my over-spending for here, I was amped and ready to drag Brett around the shops after a quick stop off at the Patronas Towers to take some tourist pics. Fortunately, for the sake of our relationship, we were in the know of a mall that offered six floors of shopping and 2 floors of boyfriend entertainment – a theme park. So i dropped Brett off on the sixth floor, spent a couple of hours giving my travelcard some serious attention, had some lunch and went to join Brett on some of the rides.
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| Weeeeeeeee! |
We retreated to Chinatown, and some happy hour beers to kick off our New Years Eve. A few beers and a couple of games of pool later we returned to Patronas Towers for the second time that day to watch some very civilised Malaysian entertainment with the very civilised Malaysian crowd drinking their equally civilised iced tea waiting for the fireworks.
What is mangosteen you ask?
The extremely elusive fruit once found in Beijing in 2006, and nowhere to be found in Vietnam, Cambodia and The Philippines in 2010. It is considered the fruit of youth, supposedly. This fruit was so allusive that Brett started to look at me like a mad-woman every time I reminded “It looks like a tomato, but its purple and the inside is like a mandarin, but white.”
So I was the happiest mad-woman around when I finally got to munch into my much anticipated mangosteen with Brett proclaiming “It DOES look like a tomato, but purple and the inside IS like a mandarin, but white.” Pure satisfaction.
And to think it couldn’t get much better than that – our KL experience was topped off by a casual New Year’s Day meander to Little India, where the Saturday market was jam packed with yummy treats, a sneaky half-hour bag and shoe shop in a department store after a toilet break, and the best cheese curry I have ever had.
Departure: 2 January 2011
Sabah, Malaysian Borneo
Arrival: 2 January 2011
Expectations of tiny towns in overgrown Borneo Jungle dissolved quickly once we arrived in Kota Kinabalu and discovered that they have a lot of hotels. But that was ok. We spent a day exploring and snorkelling on Palau Manukan and Palau Mamutik, with a couple of hours break to wait for a passing electrical storm. Back on the mainland, the fresh food markets became a staple for satay sticks, grilled fish and seafood and anything goreng. We could have dined for eternity, but the orang-utans awaited.
Funny how with their blond hair, pot-bellies and constant inappropriate tendencies, they have an uncanny alikeness to some of the other visitors to Asia...
One almost-missed bus, a few beers in a quiet Sandakan club, one courtesy ride home with the club owner, one short flight back to Kota Kinabalu, one unsuccessful search for souvenirs, two swims and one monsoonal down pour later, we found ourselves in the departure lounge, leaving South East Asia behind us.
Departure: 9 January 2011
And it took all of two seconds after touchdown on the runway at Melbourne International Airport for someone to chant “Ozzy Ozzy Ozzy!”.
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| The Patronas Towers are much more impressive at night |
After the show had finished we commenced our civilised line-waiting to get onto the LRT back to Chinatown, which reverted to some not so civilised barging (on Brett’s part) some time later. No sooner had we got back to the not so crowded streets of Chinatown, did I find a fruit stall selling Mangosteen.
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| Mmmm... Mangosteen |
What is mangosteen you ask?
The extremely elusive fruit once found in Beijing in 2006, and nowhere to be found in Vietnam, Cambodia and The Philippines in 2010. It is considered the fruit of youth, supposedly. This fruit was so allusive that Brett started to look at me like a mad-woman every time I reminded “It looks like a tomato, but its purple and the inside is like a mandarin, but white.”
So I was the happiest mad-woman around when I finally got to munch into my much anticipated mangosteen with Brett proclaiming “It DOES look like a tomato, but purple and the inside IS like a mandarin, but white.” Pure satisfaction.
And to think it couldn’t get much better than that – our KL experience was topped off by a casual New Year’s Day meander to Little India, where the Saturday market was jam packed with yummy treats, a sneaky half-hour bag and shoe shop in a department store after a toilet break, and the best cheese curry I have ever had.
Departure: 2 January 2011
Sabah, Malaysian Borneo
Arrival: 2 January 2011
Expectations of tiny towns in overgrown Borneo Jungle dissolved quickly once we arrived in Kota Kinabalu and discovered that they have a lot of hotels. But that was ok. We spent a day exploring and snorkelling on Palau Manukan and Palau Mamutik, with a couple of hours break to wait for a passing electrical storm. Back on the mainland, the fresh food markets became a staple for satay sticks, grilled fish and seafood and anything goreng. We could have dined for eternity, but the orang-utans awaited.
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| Mmmmm... Satay. |
A short flight from KK brought us to Sandakan. We shared a taxi with a friendly Canadian stock marketeer and had a friend for the next three days. So off we set to join the crowds at the Sepilok Orang-utan Sanctuary in search our orange haired relatives.
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| Feeding time at the Sanctuary |
We share 96% of our DNA with them so that’s basically your sister right there! Don’t worry they don’t have to visit if they don’t want to (You can read http://www.orangutan-appeal.org.uk/sepilok-rehabilitation-centre/ for more info).
We were also lucky enough to see a raging male causing quite a lot of tree shaking next to the canopy walk in the Rainforest Discovery Centre down the road.
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| I spy with my little eye... |
We also spent the best part of an afternoon at the Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary, which we were especially excited about. But perhaps not as excited as the Proboscis Monkeys.
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| Proboscis Monkey in all its glory |
One almost-missed bus, a few beers in a quiet Sandakan club, one courtesy ride home with the club owner, one short flight back to Kota Kinabalu, one unsuccessful search for souvenirs, two swims and one monsoonal down pour later, we found ourselves in the departure lounge, leaving South East Asia behind us.
Departure: 9 January 2011
And it took all of two seconds after touchdown on the runway at Melbourne International Airport for someone to chant “Ozzy Ozzy Ozzy!”.
