Seven adjectives for Southeast Asia

Ted. With only four weeks experience in just three countries I have presumptuously come up with seven ways to describe this part of the world:

1. Ancient.  OK – I have heard of ancient China and India but not the many kingdoms that dominated this region such as the Khmer and the Javanese. And they had huge cities when most people in Europe were huddled in dirty little villages. 

2. Hot. I’m talking “dog days of August in Georgia” hot. Luxury hotels, the nicer restaurants and malls are air conditioned but we don’t go there. When we get hungry (which is not as often in this heat) we look for a café with an open table, under a fan…that is turning. Then we run back to our hotel and hop in the pool. But before you feel too sorry for us, we do insist on hotels with a/c in the room. 

3. Wet. Rivers, lakes, oceans, irrigation canals, paddies…and rain. Water is everywhere.  Need I mention the humidity? But surprisingly few mosquitos!

4. Verdant. As one might expect, every unpaved surface is teeming with plant life. Trees, vines, bushes, grasses and incredible flowers are everywhere.

5. Wild. They have elephants, bears, leopards, rhinoceroses, monkeys, apes, snakes, crocodiles, giant lizards.  Darned near any kind of animal you can think of and a bunch you haven’t (google pangolin).

6. Complicated. Each country is a vast swirl of languages, cultures, religions, foods and traditions.  There are minority peoples everywhere; Hindu minorities in Malaysia, Muslim minorities in Thailand. There are Chinese in every city and indigenous peoples in the countryside. And no, they don’t always play nicely together. Countries born out of the post WWII nationalist movements are still trying to create their national identities. It reminds me of something an Italian patriot said upon the unification of Italy in the 19^th century; “We have made Italy. Now we must make Italians.”

7. Friendly.  Everyone smiles at us! And they go out of their way to speak to us - in English. I’m not just talking about waiters – children in the streets, husbands walking with their wives, tuk tuk drivers all greet us as we pass. They just seem thrilled that people from other countries are visiting their town. The only people we occasionally see scowling are European tourists. Maybe they’re hot!

A huge help

Judy. OK, after eight weeks on the road, I have to do an unsolicited, unpaid commercial for e-bags.  Check them out on the web. They’re little fabric suitcases (I bought mediums) to keep your clothes separated, and they are wonderful.

In the past when we traveled, I invariably needed to look for something in the bottom of my suitcase, which upset the carefully organized packing I’d done, so if we stayed only one night in a hotel, I had to pretty much repack each night.

Now I keep my shirts in one e-bag, my pants and skirts in another, my underwear in a third, and my workout clothes in a fourth. For an overnighter, I can easily locate what I need, and if we’re in one place for a while, they fit neatly into a drawer. And the four bags fit perfectly into my suitcase. They’re usually on sale—I paid about $28 for three of them—and worth every penny.

My friend Linda uses them as well, but instead of a medium-sized one for workout clothes, she uses her fourth for dirty clothes.  She also bought small ebags:  one for toiletries, one for laundry supplies and bug spray and one for meds.

Whatever you use them for, they’re great for organizing. Sure are making this trip easier.

Sepilok

Ted. Since my college days, I have been fascinated with primates, especially the great apes. When we decided to visit Malaysia, my first question was, could we see orangutans?

The place to go is the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre in Sabah
(North Borneo). Home to 60-80 rescued orangutans, we were able to see 15 or so during our day there. They are free to wander the 10,000 acre preserve and we actually got pretty darned close to a few curious juveniles.

We also saw other critters during our days here in the rain forest; sun bears, snakes and foot long Malayan forest geckos.

So why do they need animal sanctuaries here? Two words – palm oil! Check Wikipedia for the details but, essentially, thousands of square miles of the rainforest in Borneo are being clear-cut to create palm oil plantations. This is naturally devastating to the indigenous species so the lucky few orphaned orangutans, sun bears, pygmy elephants and other species that are rescued end up in places like Sepilok.

While the sanctuaries are great, I wanted to see apes in the wild. And in Sabah, that means going down the Kinabatangan River (do I sound like Marlin Perkins now?).

No, we missed the pygmy elephants and crocodiles but our trusty guide and boatman showed us everything else on our list including snakes, monitor lizards, silvered leaf monkeys, long tailed macaques, acrobatic proboscis monkeys and three wild orangutans. One was a mother and juvenile that we watched for 10 minutes! We also saw a host of brilliant birds including herons, broadbills, hornbills and kingfishers. My photos are lousy so just google anything you are curious about.

I should add that we almost didn’t go on the river. It is important to stick to a budget when you are two retirees traveling the world and I was reluctant to spend the money. However… there are times when you just need to forget about the money and follow your heart. That is why I finally took a big gulp and agreed to spend the princely sum of $160. And boy, am I glad Judy talked me into it!

Flying around Malaysia

Judy. Crazy few days with lots of plane time, which can be exhausting. From KL (Kuala Lumpur) we flew to Kota Bharu, which is a conservative city in the east. Our hotel room had a ceiling sign pointing to Mecca, and we heard the lovely sound of the call to prayer. Only one night there before some R & R in the Perhentian Islands off the coast there—lots of beach time, rest, and snorkeling, when we saw a sea turtle, magnificent coral formations, and gorgeous fish. Nemo even put in an appearance.

After three days, we headed back to KB, then flew through KL to Kota Kinabalu, which we really liked.

This is in the state of Sabah, on the island of Borneo.

It seemed to be a cross between KL & KB, just the right size with interesting things to see. 

The icing on the cake was that our friend Rina’s cousin, Fareena, and her mother, Landong, met us at the airport and drove us to our hotel.

At their suggestion, we went to the Mari-Mari Cultural Village for an evening tour of tribal life of the five groups. It’s definitely different from the rest of Malaysia! 

After two nights, we flew to Sandakan on the other side of Sabah to stay at the Sepilok Nature Resort. This was big on Ted’s list, and was as amazing as we’d been led to believe. I’ll let him fill you in on that. 

Back to KK and Fareena and Landong. It’s amazing how quickly you realize you want to know someone better.  Landong made us cookies—bahulu, a traditional tea cookie--for our trip, and we’re now friends on Facebook.

One more story:  We flew from KK to KL, where we changed terminals and planes to fly to Indonesia (where we are now). Our schedule was a little tight, but doable. Only—our flight to KL was delayed. Still, not a big problem.  We did an OJ through the airport to the train, and arrived at the international terminal, where we were completely lost! A flight attendant walked with us to find where to drop our bags, and while we stood in line, Ted thought he heard final call for our flight. We dashed through the terminal, Ted asking if we could break in line (one passport check, three security checks). People were so kind, and no one complained or yelled at us. Staff pointed the L O N G route to our gate, and Ted flagged down a cart to drive us there. We flew down the ramp and around the corner—the plane was GONE!!!  When Ted went to the gate agent to ask about what we should do, she said, “No plane yet!” What could we do but collapse in chairs, eat Landong’s cookies and laugh our heads off. We do have adventures. And fun. 

Continuing Education

Judy. Twelve things I have learned in the last few weeks:

1) Don’t spend all your time taking pictures. You’ll miss what’s really happening.

2) If you’ve come all this way, take the tour. In six months you won’t remember what it cost, but you’ll have the memory.

3) Many tourists (quite a few, actually) take signs such as “no flash photography”, “silence”, “remain in your seats until the captain turns off the seatbelt sign”, to mean “except for me.” Try to let that go.

4) Most people are incredibly kind.

5) If you want to get a huge smile from a parent, smile at their kids. And mean it, which is easy. They’re adorable, as are the parents in their joy.

6) Seeing wild animals in their natural habitat can make your day.

7) My favorite thing orangutan babies do is cartwheel along the bottom of a rope.

8) Accept with gratitude and graciousness the kindnesses extended to you. Pass it on.

9) In Asean countries, no matter how cheap or expensive the restaurant, your two meals will not arrive at the same time. It’s ok.

10) “Free WiFi” at your hotel does not mean it’ll actually work. Go do something fun.

11) Eat the local food as much as possible. The Western versions are never as good, and cost a lot more.

12) Make sure you get the toilet paper from the roll at the door when you enter the bathroom. It’s a bit late when you’re in your cubicle. Or keep tissues with you all the time.