07.05.
We are back at our favorite Malaysian State Sarawak, but this time for a short period. We stop to eat at the last town of the state – Lawas. The atmosphere is more Muslim than the other towns we passed through. The people from the off-road team treat us to lunch at a very nice restaurant in otherwise not so interesting small town Lawas.
The Malaysian part of Borneo consists of two states – the huge Sarawak and the so called North Borneo, Sabah State.
The beach at Mukah
28.04
In the morning while we bathe in the South China Sea Mr. Shushtari is stung by a jelly-fish. He later told me that his heart had stopped for a second and he felt excruciating pain from the strong neuro-toxin. The tentacles touched his neck, chest and leg and the moment he got out of the sea red blisters started forming.
By the look of it we decide that this is not the most dangerous kind of jelly-fish and we run to the tent to put ointment on the blisters. Later the fisherman, we communicated with before, shows up (he is from the Melanau ethnic group, a Catholic) and tells us that this is the pink jelly-fish and though the sting is quite painful it is not dangerous. He says that he has been stung by the white jelly-fish that can cause fainting and medical care could be needed. Well obviously we were very lucky to be stung by the pink one.
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22.04
In the morning we go out together again. We eat some roti at a Malaysian eatery and the two of us continue walking around Saratok. People here are mostly Malay, which is not typical for Borneo. Usually towns are inhabited mainly by Chinese.
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15.04
We head to the outskirts of Kuching on foot. The city is called “The city of cats”. At almost every roundabout we see figures and statues of cats, but we couldn’t understand why they are so honored here and we didn’t see much cats on the streets.
One comes to Borneo in order to see natural wonders, endemits, rare animals and plants. Historical landmarks and architectural buildings are not the strong sides of the island.
Our next destination is Gunung Gading National Park. We want to visit it in order to see the parasitic giant flower Rafflesia. Here grows a rare kind of Rafflesia that blossoms only at the territory of this park.
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Long-nosed monkey
04.04
We have two options: to take the ferry back to Sumatra, Indonesia or to first visit the Malaysian part of Borneo. The things is that there are no ships sailing to Borneo, the yachts going in this direction are just a few, so the only option left is to find a cheap flight. On this journey we travel only by land or on water, but we decide that Borneo is worth it so we will make an exception. In addition the flight with Air Asia costs just 25 Euro per person (luggage and all included). So we will visit the oldest tropical forest in the world, a dream come true for every nature lover and explorer and we will also see the sultan of Brunei :)… or at least the sultanate.
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24.03
In the morning the boy from the poor Muslim house brings us coffee. His grandmother, who sent him, waves us merrily from inside the house. There is so much goodness “lurking” behind every corner!
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07.03
In the morning we acquaint with a retired American who is photographer and his Thai wife. They are the only tourists we meet here. They give us eggs and some bread and then they agree to take us to the close-by town Gua Musang.
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28.02-06.03
In the morning we recharged our camera in one of the floating restaurants close to the river bank. After that we took a boat. On the opposite side there were many giant tree with branches hanging over the water. We paid the tickets (just 0,25$ per person), took a map from the headquarter, made a photo of a diagram with the altitude of the base camps and around 12 o’clock we were absolutely ready to be swallowed by the jungle.
Malaysia
Capital: Kuala Lumpur
Population: 28 million
Official religion: Islam with the freedom to practice any other religion
State system: Constitutional monarchy – the monarch is chosen every 5 years among the seven sultans of the different states 🙂
The clock tower, gift for the birthday of Queen Victoria in Penang Continue reading
Magic Kervan 