Archive for July, 2011
Malaysia Pictorial
By Tony on July 31, 2011 | No Comments »
From the futuristic Petronas twin towers to the stunning reefs of Sipidan, the colonial backstreets of Malacca and Penang to the wildlife of the great Kinabatangan River, Malaysia truly deserves the cliched title of “the land of contrasts.”
As we move on to the remote Indonesian state of Kalimantan in southern Borneo, we have put together another pictorial to capture just a bit of the visual overload in Magnificent Malaysia.
Malaysia: What a Dollar Can Buy You
By Thomas on July 29, 2011 | No Comments »
In many ways, Malaysia reminds me of the Philippines. It’s a country torn between development and deterioration where one can find open sewers right next to super-mega malls, biological wastelands next to intact jungle, and sea gypsy settlements right next to high-end resorts. While much of the Malaysia experience is decidedly third-world, the prices don’t always reflect that. In fact, Malaysia can be downright expensive.
Dragon Fruit
Although some food options can be quite cheap in Malaysia, accommodation and transportation are more expensive than other parts of Southeast Asia. But the greatest shock to the wallet is the very high cost of activities here. Although most temples and mosques are usually free, other entry fees are often quite pricey. And experiencing Malaysia’s natural heritage (or what’s left of it) can border on extortionate.
Prices are especially high when leaving peninsular Malaysia and traveling through Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo. There, fueled by the logging and palm oil industries, prices can get a little crazy leaving visitors scratching their heads in disbelief and seriously asking themselves whether the trip was worth it. Here a dirty dormitory bed can cost more than an air-conditioned hotel room with cable TV in Bangkok. Anyone up for a $1000 3-day camping trip? Yikes. Let’s just say with the money we put out in Sabah, we could’ve spent a month in Paris.
But not to worry. Malaysia is not a lost cause for the budget conscious. There are still a few affordable things to be had for three ringgit or about a buck:
- 3 roti canai and a small plate of curry (great lunch)
- 1 hour of Internet access
- 2 cans of coke
- 9 minutes on a Rest’n Go massage chair
- 1 mango lassi (if you look very hard)
- 1.5 visits to the “premier paid toilet” at Suria mall in KL
- 4 liters (1 gal.) of drinking water
- 3 ferry crossings from Butterworth to Georgetown
- 6 vegetable samosas
- 1.5 km in a taxi (after the initial flag-down rate)
- 3 Granny Smith apples
- 1/2 kg of clean laundry
- 1 large dragon fruit
- 300 g of steel chain (don’t ask)
Naked Light
By Tony on July 28, 2011 | No Comments »
Man, the morality police won’t even cut the lights some slack here in Malaysia.
A Different Kind of Palm Desert
By Thomas on July 26, 2011 | 4 Comments »
“Wow, Sabah is so beautiful. There are so many palm trees everywhere,” the Dutch tourist blurted out as she walked into the restaurant opposite Sukau Greenview. Tony and I looked at each other, jaws dropping. Our eyes said it all. How can you come all the way here and not realize that massive deforestation and palm oil plantations are the reasons the planet’s oldest rainforest is disappearing before our very eyes?
Sadly, the Dutch girl was right in one respect, there are » Continue reading this post »
The Kinabatangan River
By Tony on July 23, 2011 | 3 Comments »
The Kinabatangan River is tragic and miraculous at the same time. One of Sabah’s premier attractions, the river flows through a stretch of surviving secondary and tertiary forest sandwiched between the industrial-scale palm plantations of the Kinabatangan region. Perhaps the strongest testament to wildlife’s ability to survive and adapt under desperate conditions, I can personally say that, in all my travels, I have never seen such a boxed-in forest region with so much wildlife and such diversity – it is simply incomprehensible.
Our first outing on the river was especially well timed just moments after the end of a tropical storm which had cooled the air significantly. Within the first ten minutes, we had spotted four of the eight hornbill species found in Sabah, including the phenomenal rhinoceros hornbill. We saw more hornbills in that one outing than we’ve seen in our entire four years traveling in Asia. The river was lined with troop after troop of proboscis monkeys and crab-eating macaques.
As if that weren’t enough, 30 minutes into the trip » Continue reading this post »
