Singapore and Borneo -- Part 2

After that, we made the arduous trek over the border to Malaysia. We took the subway, then a rickety bus which shooed everyone off at the border to go through immigration, border patrol and customs. We could have re-boarded the bus, but opted for a taxi instead since we just needed to make it to the hotel for the night. We flew out to Kota Kinabalu (the capital of Sabah, the northern province in East Malaysia, on the island of Borneo) the next morning. The city itself is rather boring but the thing that impressed me the most about Sabah was the fact that everyone was soooooooo friendly and nice! Guys might have stared at us like they do everywhere, but apart from the old muslim men who looked at me as if I was a whore for wearing shorts, most of them would just smile and say hi, or wave. It was really cool. (Note: I saw many local girls wearing shorts, so it wasn't like it was inappropriate attire.) Plus the men there are taller, beefier and more gorgeous than mainland Malays. I think they might have more Polynesian blood in them. Whatever it is, I like it! How I ended up with a pasty white boy who can't tan is still a mystery to me, haha! ;)

There are a few islands off the coast of the city, but they were just ok. Not nearly as nice as some of the ones in Thailand and Vietnam, but they had beaches and coral and were fun anyway. One day we decided to go white water river rafting! That was an adventure for sure! First we had to take a mini-van out to a po-dunk little town called Beaufort. From there we had to catch a po-dunk, clittety-clack, 30-year-old train into the middle-of-nowhere-jungle where the river was! This train, despite ONLY being 30 years old, might as well have been from the mid-1800's. The tracks themselves were "100 years old and haven't been rebuilt at all!" (And this is meant to instill confidence?) Anyway, it was a steam-engine little thing with no lights, no A/C of course, and hard bench seats. The windows, I noticed, were new and you could open them for a nice sticky tropical breeze. In any event, it was a very rough one and a half hour long butt massage and sauna experience, but very interesting! The country side was gorgeous and I have some footage from the train as well. We passed one house where a mother was attempting to bathe her little girl but she was having none of it! Screaming and crying and hitting her mom away.... I guess kids do the same thing everywhere, huh? It was pretty funny actually. What also amused us to no end was the group of Korean girls that were on the same train. For some reason they thought it'd be a splendid idea to wear clubbing clothes and high heals to go river rafting. The rest of us normal people were wearing appropriate clothing and rolling our eyes at these girls. Not only were they dressed for a night on the town, but they would shriek and squeal at every bump or turn (pretty much the entire friggin' ride). I don't know what they thought "white-water-river-rafting" was exactly, but someone lied to them!

Anyhoo, we finally get off the train in the middle of nowhere jungle and are briefed on the safety procedures and padding technique and then whisked off to our boats with our gorgeous local guides! (Ours were named Andre and something like Julius I think....) Kendra and I were very gung-ho about being in front where all the action was and had these manic perma-grins on our faces the entire time! The front was pretty hard but definitely the most fun. Once we were in the river we had to learn what to do when the boat capsized so he made us all jump out and swim back to the boat. The water was mocha-colored from all the silt, but it was so warm compared the the rivers back home where you need a wet-suit. The only part that sucked was when water got in your eyes -- there was so much silt and crap in the water, it kinda stung. Anyway, it took us about an hour and a half to get down the river and some of the rapids were REALLY big. We had the choice at one point to go down a particularly treacherous part of the river so we could capsize, but one girl who was with us couldn't swim very well and was nervous about it so we didn't do it. Kendra and I were a bit disappointed, but on the last big set of rapids, two big waves were converging and we hit them at just the right spot to launch me out of the boat and into the river! I was in the water before I knew what had happened! Luckily, our hotty guide, Andre, came to the rescue and grabbed me as I went by. Everyone took a hold of my life-jacket and I was back in the boat within seconds. Interestingly enough, Adam, who was in front of me, didn't even notice I had flown out until I was back in the boat again! (Thanks a lot, hun....)

After the rafting, there was a huge buffet lunch with drinks and an opportunity to watch and buy the DVD of everyone going down the river. We didn't get the video but opted for the pictures and a t-shirt. At about this time, some thunderheads rolled in and it started to pour. Now, if you've been to the tropics, you'll understand that when I say "pour" I don't mean a nice steady rain like we get in Seattle.... no, no, no. I mean more of a complete monsoon/shower, if-you-step-out-in-the-rain-you're-soaked-to-the-bone-in-2-seconds-flat kind of "pour". I love it! It's just so dramatic!

We then had to re-board the rickety contraption that brought us out there, so we ran to the platform and jumped on the train only to be told to get off again because the train had to turn around....?? In any event, I was standing on the platform with a miniscule umbrella, which was pretty much useless, when 3 of the most gorgeous guides came running over and wanted to get under my umbrella as well. No argument from me, muahahahaha! :) That was nice!

A couple days later we decided to rent a car and drive to another city in Sabah called Sandakan. Had we had more time, I would have liked to stay there since there's a lot more to do around there. Anyway, we were preparing ourselves for the possibility that the car would be 4WD and stick shift. In that case, only Kendra and I would be able to drive since neither of the 2 Brits, Josy and Marc, could drive stick (Marc didn't even have a license and Josy had just gotten hers!), and Adam wasn't comfortable with stick either. However, we lucked out and it was automatic. We still had to drive on the left side, but at least we had 3 drivers to make the supposed 6 hour journey. Keng ended up driving the whole way there since it was "just like home!" in New Zealand and she was really comfortable. And I'm soooooooooo glad she did! on our last leg of the trip that actually took us around 8-9 hours, it got dark.... and then started to "pour". And on those roads there are no street lights and since we were driving through a huge palm oil plantation all the roads were riddled with pot-holes from all the big trucks. Luckily, the truck we were following wasn't going unbearably slow so we decided to follow him all the way to the city. It's a good thing we did, too, because there were definitely a couple times we would have gotten lost had he not been there! Once we reached the city we searched for a hotel and on the 5th try we finally found some rooms in a ratty-yet-clean establishment above a curry shop and across from some bars. Outside, though, we saw some of the biggest rats I've ever seen in my entire life. One that was squished on the road was the size of a small cat! Didn't phase me much and I was actually more fascinated than anything, but Kendra and Josy were totally grossed out so we stepped over it and went to the hotel to sleep....

The next morning we headed to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center for the morning feeding at 10am. We saw a film beforehand about the project and it brought tears to my eyes. Basically, the center was set up because the wild population of orangutans is declining due to deforestation etc. They'll take in babies who have been orphaned, adults who have been caught and sold to circuses or zoos and mistreated, or others who have been trapped and kept as pets illegally by locals. The point is to rehabilitate them to be able to live in the wild again. Many of the babies who were orphaned didn't have their mothers to teach them all the essential skills, so the handlers have to help them. The feeding we were watching was a platform in the jungle where a handler would go and set out bananas and such. Those orangutans who were living in the jungle but still not quite ready or able to find food for themselves (or maybe they were just lazy and couldn't be bothered?) came to eat there. They were soooooooo beautiful and fun to watch!! I got quite a bit of videotape of them as well. I was thinking what a wonderful and fulfilling job that must be. Sad that there's a need for a rehabilitation center, but I'm glad they have one. Some of the orangutans take 5-8 years to finally move out to the forest and some never do, but others move out quickly and never come back. It seems like it'd be a bittersweet experience to raise these apes who are so eerily similar to humans and then have to let them go after a few years -- not unlike being a parent of some sorts. Anyway, that was definitely my favorite part of the trip :).

Interesting tidbit: The word "orangutan" is actually two words: orang - which means man/person, and hutan - which means forest. So "orangutan" literally means "man of the forest". Cool, huh? (This is in the Malay language.)

I was able to drive for a couple hours on the way back to Kota Kinabalu which was an interesting experience. Driving on the left made me feel 16 all over again and I had a tendency to hug the shoulder, especially when huge tour buses, semis and trucks would rumble by.... eek! I made it, however, and by the end was much more comfortable driving on the left. Adam drove the rest of the time and was also very good.

I'll leave the rest for Part 3 since my fingers are cramping and my eyes are getting fuzzy. (And so I have something to do tomorrow.... hehe.)