Lost at the end of the road

We got up early today leaving Tawau heading towards Maliau Basin (Sabah’s lost world) Conservation Area, trying our luck getting in without a prior reservation. It is basically a circular basin with pristine forest inside, has only been open to the public since 1981, and receives very few tourists. It was really pricy but the chance to stay in the middle of a rainforest in the middle of nowhere and nobody else around us was too good an opportunity to miss, so we decided to go for it!

Malau basin was open but no car to drive us in, poo !

In order to get inside, someone had to pick us up, as our little 4-wheel drive wouldn’t make it, so we sat and waited… and waited… Eventually Chris went to go and find what was going on and we discovered that the owner of the place had left with the car keys to Kota Kinabalu, which is about 300km away from here! This was the only vehicle insured to take tourists so we had no choice but to continue on our adventure.

There goes some more virgin Borneon jungle

Roadside cafe, Borneon styley

We then made our way to Sapulut to try our luck with somewhere to stay. Once there we realised that we were once again in the middle of nowhere and stopped at a random shop to grab a drink, which was dirt-cheap and sat surrounded by indigenous locals trying to work out our next plan. A trucker came along after a while who luckily spoke a bit of English and acted as translator for us so we could ask where would be best to stay. He told us there was a missionary just down the road and we could stay in the Catholic Church, but apart from that there was nowhere except to stay with the shop owner and we could negotiate staying at her house. But as she didn't speak any English and quite possibly lived in a tiny shack with all her family and not wanting to offend anyone if we turned up there and it was horrible, we made a quick getaway.

Elephant poo, we were on the trail

All we can say is, not often !

We waited, and waited!

Wee stop #1

Then we headed towards Keningau, which was the closest city in search again of finding somewhere to stay. So after about 11 hours of driving on some very dodgy rounds, written in the Lonely Planet as virtually ‘impossible to travel to on your own’ and only if you were ‘a proficient 4 wheel driver’ you could give it a go, we made it and found a great place to stay for really cheap.

Keningau stop night #2

We then wandered around once again no tourists whatsoever amazed at how happy everyone was to see us in their city, pointing, giggling, and wanting to be our friends.

written by  chrischarly on May 16, 2011 from Keningau, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Borneo 4WD tours Ltd

We checked out this morning heading to Tawau over some pretty dodgy roads in the 4x4 driving slowly and enjoying the scenery of Borneo, as it really is beautiful out here.

Nice smooth road

Jungle storage

If the road can break them what hope do we have !

On the jungle route

More jungle passing us by, literally

Once in Tawau, we found a really nice hotel to stay in for the night being the cheapest as well as the best so we settled in and chilled out for a while before taking a wander about enjoying being the only tourists around and receiving special treatment from the locals.

written by  chrischarly on May 15, 2011 from Tawau, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Outside the Orangutan Rehabilitation Center

Today we woke up after yet again an amazing sleep in a dorm, had breakfast and met Neil and Reggie, who slept in a room instead of choosing the dorm option due to Chris’ snoring! We then got into a minibus to go to the Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre. There are 2 feeding times there, one at 10am and one at 3pm. We decided to go to both to make the most out of our ticket and it was awesome!

An orangutan hiding!

An orangutan holding on tight

An orangutan holding on by it's legs, whilst eating... impressive

Orangutan

Orangutan

Eating

Gorgeous orangutan

Monekys at it yet again....

Monekys at it again...

And again....

Monkeys once again....

Orangutan eating

Orangutan disgusted by the monekys in front of him

An old orangutan with a disgusting moneky's arse

Neil and a monkey

Basically, the centre is for rescued orang-utans either saved from being captured and then kept as pets or orphans alone in the jungle, and their aim is to eventually release them back into the wild when they are fit enough and able to do so, taking around 10 years to accomplish this.

An orangutan

Swinging

Orangutan

He looks like he's about to sneeze!

That pose looks painful

A very thoughtful expression

Orangutan

Poser

Nice bum shot

A hanging orangutan

The orang-utans themselves are 96.4% human, according to the facts and they are just fascinating to watch.

A posing monkey

3 orangutans

The guy feeding the orphaned orangutans

Swinging

We actually got really close to them at feeding times, but the wild masque monkeys scared them away after about 10 minutes, which was irritating.

Eating

Orangutans scared of the monkeys

Orangutans

Orangutans

Full-on kiss

Ahhh...

Orangutans comforting each other from scary monkeys

Kissy kissy

2 Orangutans

Bestest friends

CUTE!!

You wouldn’t think they would be scared of them considering they are 3 times the size of the monkeys! At 4pm, we took a transfer back and relaxed in the bar for Reggie and Neil’s last night with us…

written by  chrischarly on May 13, 2011 from Sepilok, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Way to foggy to see anything decent!

The foggy morning cruise

We had to get up this morning at 5:30am to be in the restaurant ready to leave on our early morning cruise at 5:50. However, when we got into the bar, over the river was thick with fog, so pointless to leave. So we waited an extra half hour when the fog began to disperse praying we could have spent that extra time in bed instead of waiting.

Us on the boat

A big bird

Another hornbill

One of the many kingfishers we saw

A hornbill

This river cruise was really nice as well but mostly the animals awake were birds and considering we are not ‘twitchers’ we can’t say it was as enjoyable! But still well worth it. Then we came back and showered quickly before our transfer back to Sepilok.

Another ginger photo!

We then had lunch before taking a free shuttle to the Rainforest Discovery Centre, which we walked around for 2 hours. There is an opportunity to see lots of wildlife there but to be fair we saw virtually nothing except a few pretty birds, a black squirrel, and a bright green Lizard.

On the canopy walkway

A lizard

A Black Squirrel

In the rainforest, it was so humid it was literally unbearable, it was actually a relief when the minibus came and picked us up at 4pm!.. In the evening, we all just relaxed and played cards before going back to our dormitory. This time before checking into our dorm, Chris picked the one furthest away and luckily we were the only occupants!

written by  chrischarly on May 12, 2011 from Sukau, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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About to go on the boat

Where we stayed

After a surprisingly perfect night’s sleep we awoke to the sun blaring down on us as our wake up-call before having breakfast and waiting for our pick up to take us to Sukau at 11:30am. It was quite a long drive about 2 ½ hours over a bumpy road. However, when we arrived, it was gorgeous to be in the jungle by the side of the river. We had booked a package which included 2 river cruises, 3 meals, tea, and coffee all day and accommodation for £30pp. So we settled into our rooms before having lunch and then we went on a 2-hour river cruise along the river hoping that we would see orang-utans, elephants, proboscis monkeys and so much more.

A probiscus monkey

The lovely river

Our place we stayed

Excited about our trip

Moi

2 probiscus monkeys

A croc

A crocodile's head

A very shocked expression!

A white-crested hornbill we think

2 pig-tailed monekys at it and looking straight at us!

We weren’t so lucky with the elephants and orang-utans but did manage to see loads of monkeys, proboscis, long and pig-tailed masques, kingfishers, a water monitor Lizard and loads of pretty birds. It was really nice and peaceful out there it was great. In the evening, there was an optional night cruise as well, but we decided to give that a miss figuring there wouldn’t be much to see in the pitch black, so we just relaxed and drank the night away!

written by  chrischarly on May 11, 2011 from Sukau, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Neil pointing at a flying squirrel

On the bus to Sepilok

Our dormitory

Chairs we dare not sit in

Once there we spent the evening sat in the bar, relaxing before retiring to our 12 bunk bedded dormitory.

written by  chrischarly on May 10, 2011 from Sepilok, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Outside our lodge

Neil and Reggie woke up early to head to an island just off from Kota Kinabalu making a brief stopover at the dentist as poor Neil’s Wisdom tooth is coming through whilst me and Chris enjoyed a relaxing lie-in! The reason why we didn’t go with them was because I had to once again go back to the clinic and it’s pointless us all going. The clinic was nice and the doctor was friendly and spoke amazing English so it was pretty easy. I finally got the remaining 4 stitches out of my knee and it wasn’t as painful as I expected it to be, luckily. I do however have 2 holes in my knee where the stitches have moved which isn’t good. The doctor also wasn’t too pleased about it and considered putting in more stitches, which thankfully he decided against. He then contemplated gluing my knee back together, but it wasn’t clean enough to do so, so I now have to keep it covered again and rest it as much as possible as well as keeping it straight. Exactly the opposite to what we all thought would be best, which is probably why the stiches have moved. Not exactly ideal with Neil and Reggie here and trekking that we’ve planned to do this coming week, but never mind.

The food court where I had to scramble through to get to the bathroom

We then went back, chilled at our hotel, and got chatting to some other travellers especially a NZ girl called Justine who is a crazy ass traveller who is now planning to meet us in Sepilok once the others have left.

written by  chrischarly on May 9, 2011 from Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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Mount Kinabalu

Today was a really sad day as Haze left… We woke up at 6, were showered and then drove to KLIA. Chris and Neil then dropped Haze, Reggie and myself off to get Haze checked in whilst they took back the hire car. Checking in was pretty easy and then we sat and waited for the guys to show back up so Haze could say goodbye to them before she went. I walked Haze as far as I could before security and guided her as best as I could in what I thought to be the right direction hanging over the balcony waving for as long as I could until she eventually disappeared. As soon as she was gone, I missed her loads. It would be so quiet without her and a long time until I saw her again. We then took a bus to LCC terminal in preparation for our flight to Kota Kinabalu, which took 2 ½ hours.

The market with lots of lovely fresh fish but too much blood

Once there we took a short taxi, ride to our hotel, and instantly fell in love with the place and the town. This side of Malaysia is so different; you would think you were in a different country if you didn’t know any better. It is nowhere near as built up as the Peninsula and seems a lot poorer but in spite of this, we love it even more. We once again feel like we are travelling again!

Bloody vigin shots!!! Yummy!!!

In the evening, we walked around a huge night market full of locals selling fresh fish, vegetables, and cooked foods. We decided to eat there for dinner and then went to a cheesy locals bar called ‘BED’ afterwards.

written by  chrischarly on May 8, 2011 from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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All dressed up and looking good

Neil and Daise

One of the stops on the Heriatge Walk

A mosque

A tortoise

Lizard

Today was our last full day in KL for a while and everyone except me went to the Heritage Walk, which was about 2 hours long before Chris came back to meet me and the others went up the KL Sky Tower.

The view from the sky tower

We decided not to go as we had been already and we met them at the Pavilion for something to eat before heading back and meeting Christina and some of their friends to continue exploring. As we had a hire car, it made sense to explore some other places instead of just staying in the centre.

Reggie looking like she's loving the durian

The beloved durian

Durian

Eating durian

Our first stop was to get some durian for the others to try and Neil seemed to quite like it, whilst Reggie hated it and Haze slept in the car.

Neil and his new friend

Monkey with a HUGE tail

On the train to see the monkeys

A monkey with it's baby, a different colour when under 2 weeks old

Neil

Reggie

Haze petrified at the monkeys trying to grab food

We then went to Kuala Selangor to see some tame monkeys to play with and feed before going to a tasty seafood restaurant for dinner and to watch the sunset over a pretty river.

A lovely sunset over the river

A cute boat

At the breakfast food court

Houses on stilts

A man and cute child

We then took a further drive to go and see thousands of fireflies.

Chris squeezing into a life-jacket!

The best photo we could get of the fireflies... aka nothing

Apparently, there are only 2 places in the world to see fireflies in huge groups and we went to one of them at about 10pm at night taking a rowing boat along the river to see them in groups on trees. It was pretty incredible to see them all together and flashing in unison 3 times a second. Then after the fireflies, we took the long drive back, exhausted, and then packed to leave tomorrow before finally going to sleep at around 2am. Another long day.

written by  chrischarly on May 7, 2011 from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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