Kuching - Borneo Part II

We flew from Kota Kinabalu over to Kuching, which is in the Malysian state of Sarawak. The city of Kuching is small and cute. It's split by a river. We spent most of our time on the more populated side, but I crossed the river and got good and lost for a few hours (walking along a freeway...how'd I get here?). The first few nights, while the whole crew was still around, we stayed at a nice hotel, took taxis, and went on guided tours. Weird. Living it up while it lasts, once everyone left I found myself back in hostel land.

The several hours after landing and checking into the hotel, we headed to the orang utan (turns out there's no "g" at the end of that word) reserve. There were around 20 "semi wild" orang utans living there, and we got to see a few of them during the daily feeding (hence semi wild). I was pretty impressed with the acrobatics of these two:


One night, Laurel and I had a sister night. We did some shopping, got foot and back massages, and then we went out to eat at a nice restaurant. I got wine ($$, muslim country, sin tax on booze), and we had delicious italian food.

We were lucky to be in town during the weekend, to catch the weekend market. Lots of stalls. Lots of crowding and fish smell. Made more difficult by pushing a baby in a stroller. Cool market, though. Lots of weird fruits and veggies.

Laurel and crew left Sunday morning. I hung out at the hotel pool and took a long, hot shower, then checked out at the last possible minute and headed back to reality. The first thing I did with my alone time was to get lost across the river, as mentioned previously. Figures.

Today I went to Bako National Park. Lots of pretty technical trails through the jungle and many monkeys to be seen. I, unfortunately, didn't see any (directly, I saw the trees move as they jumped through them). I didn't mind too much, have already had lots of monkey sightings this trip. I mostly just enjoyed hiking for a few hours. Hiked a couple km out to a beach, caught a boat back to park head quarters. Got sweaty. Good times.

Hermit crabs!

The one on the right looks like a face.
Early flight out tomorrow to Kota Bharu. On my way to the Perhentian Islands. Looks like it's pretty much a tropical paradise. Going to do some diving, beach hanging, snorkeling, and some nothing.