Borneo

The next port of call on our homeward leg is the island of Borneo. We stopped off briefly to sample the culinary delights of Kuala Lumpur before basing ourselves for most of the last week in the Sarawak regional capital of Kuching to explore some of the surrounding natural attractions.

The city has surprised us with how orderly and cosmopolitan it feels compared to both our expectations and our last few weeks in Sri Lanka. The highlights so far have been the remarkable friendliness and openness of the people here, as well as the amazing food, and exploring the beautiful forests and rivers in the region!

We stopped over for a day in Kuala Lumpur and went for a dip at the park next to the Petronas Towers

Undoubtably, the best thing about our short stay in KL was the enjoying the fusion of Malay, Chinese and Indian food!

Then it was back on the plane – this time to Kuching in Borneo

We bought a football top for Liam of the local team. This was a big hit and through one of the many conversations it started, we found that the team was playing that night against KL.

We decided to head along and check it out for the atmosphere and we were well rewarded before we even got into the stadium – outside it and all around was buzzing!

It was a bit of an obstacle course to get to our seats

Once inside, the atmosphere was great. The team had recently been promoted into the top league and the 30,000 fans were loving it!

…and so was Liam!

Surprisingly, there was no public transport or even taxis after the game for the 11km journey into town

Luckily, we were able to hitch a ride with this guy, who generously went out of his way to drop us back at our hostel. He even gifted us a durian fruit which they say ‘tastes like heaven but stinks like hell’.

…unfortunately we couldn’t take it past the door of our hostel because of the smell. It didn’t taste like heaven either.

The next day, the kids made friends with this little fella who had some hilarious gestures, including a bow below his knees as he farewelled us.

We spent much of the day exploring town

The following day we paid a visit to our cousins at the Semenggoh Nature Reserve. We were lucky enough to see seven orang utans during their feeding time.

And then it was time for an excellent day of kayaking in the rainforest

We stopped of along the way at Kpg. Danau to check out some native plants and herbs

Then it was onwards among some pretty spectacular scenery

That evening we ventured across to the north side of the river

…where we met Ramon (left) and his buddies along the pier. We’ve been amazed at how open and friendly people are in this part of the world and are always just up for a chat.

The next day we headed off to the beautiful Bako National Park

These monkeys were cute…

…but nowhere near as endearing as this fella!

Seeing the proboscis monkey was our main reason for coming and it was well worth it!

…yet another cheeky little monkey

A carniverous pitcher plant

The scenery heading down to Cecil Beach was pretty cool

Unfortunately, up close it wasn’t quite so impressive. The amount of trash flushed out to sea by the monsoon rains and washed up on an otherwise beautiful beach was deeply saddening.