Perhentian Islands - Malaysia

IWe woke up at 4:30 am to get ready to the airport for our 7:00 am flight. Perhentian Islands is about one hour flight time away from Penang. We took a

taxi to the ferry station and then a speed boat for about 30 min before arriving on the island. The Reef Chalet is right in front of the beach with individual chalets. We arrived at about 10:30 am and the room was not ready and we had to wait till 12:30 pm before allowed to get into the room. We rested a bit and had a late breakfast before snorkeling. 

The boat took us to a shallow area for our first snorkeling. The water level was knee high and there were many fish swimming. Some of the fish was so used to human that if you stand still, they would mistaken you as food source and bite you. We had a few bites from these aggressive fish. We were subsequently taken to two more places to snorkel and each location is deeper and deeper. We saw a huge sea turtle eating something on the bottom of the sea. There were Nemo clown fish swimming in and out of the coral reef. We also saw many reef sharks - their size is quite small in comparison to other sharks and best of all, they don't bite :). The coral reef was not colourful at all. 

I had not swam in the sea for so many years and had forgotten how bitter sea water can be. It took a bit of time for me to know how to use the snorkel properly and by then, I had enough sodium in my system to last for a month :(

The sea water is surprisingly clear in this region. However, the types and number of fish was no comparison to the snorkeling experience we had in Red Sea.  It was not as colourful.  The water was very warm and I wonder how the fish can tolerate such warm temperature. We snorkeled for three hours and were quite tired by the time we got back to the chalet. We will have another snorkeling in the morning tomorrow. This is a high season as school is out for two weeks and many families take their kids to vacation on the islands. 

George Town - Penang

Another hot and humid day in Penang. The blazing sun and humidity are so much more obvious when we explored the city on foot. We only walked a few hours and our energy was gone. We returned to our hotel to rest in the mid day and went out again in early evening. This has never happened before as Commander Wu will keep charging on for a full day and only return to the hotel at night. I think we are getting older or that our adjustment to the heat and humidity is declining. 

There are many Street Art in George Town and people all want to post in front for pics. I did my share as well :)

We tried many local food and ate like locals - standing on the side street, with hot temperature and busy traffic. I just hope that our system can adjust to all these new food and (germs?).  Preston has bounced back to his normal self after rested an entire day at the hotel yesterday. So thankful. 

Heading to the Perhentian Island tomorrow morning for beach and snorkeling. 

Kuching Airport

The airport system is different from what is generally expected in NA. Despite the initial confusion and the long lineup in every counter, people were quite efficient in getting us on board the plane (from check-in to boarding in less than one hour - quite impressive).  The plane landed 30 min before boarding and managed to get everyone out and ready to fly for its next flight. AirAsia is a budget airline and offers nothing on board, not even water which you have to pay for. However, there is little difference in prices with the other airlines at this point. We chose the airline by availability and connection times. The flight to Penang was about two hours. 

George Town in Penang has been designated by UNESCO and its streets are full of historical and cultural implications. We also tried the most well known dish - Char Koay Teow. Quite yummy. 

Bako National Park - Kuching

The national park is well known for the Proboscis monkey and the iconic sea stack. We saw one proboscis monkey  just as we entered into the park but he was eating right at the top of the tree and my iPhone camera did not have a good zooming function to capture the picture, except its back. We hiked up to the top of the mountain (my leg muscles were screaming the whole time as they have yet to recover from our strenuous climb of the Pinnacles).  At the end of the trail, we came across a beautiful and idyllic beach area to rest up before boarding the boat to take us to the sea stack. There were many rock formations and each resembles to something or an animal (some really need good imagination to see the resemblance). 

We had lunch at a restaurant near the park that is well known for its marinated jelly fish but unfortunately, it is not the right season. We did see some fishermen fishing for jelly fish and they can fetch some good dollars. The jelly fish usually are abundant right after the monsoon season. We order a dish called fish head noodles and it tasted really good. I also tried their famous three layer tea (palm sugar on bottom, milk in the middle and tea on top) and liked. 

The orchard garden is massive but due to the wrong timing, not too many were flowering this time of the year. 

We will have a very late dinner tonight and meeting two guys whom we have not seen since our McGill days. One of them is flying back from KL to meet us and he can't be back to Kuching till 9:30 pm. There will be so much to catch up!!

Kuching

We have a private tour guide to take us to site see the city. Kuching is the capital of Sarawak province and within the city, it is separated by north (mainly Muslim) and south (mainly Chinese) and each has its own mayor. 

We were taken to the local noodle house for breakfast. This restaurant makes its own noodles (Kolo Mee and Lasak Mee). Very tasty. 

Santubong (望夫山) - second highest mountain in Sarawak. 

Spent the morning visiting the Sarawak Cultural Village and getting to know the many different cultural groups: Bidayuh consists of 8.4% of Sarawak population, Iban lived in axe-hewn timber long houses, Penan lived in the dense jungles of central Bonrneo, Orang Ulu - up river dwellers, Melanu consists of 5.8% of Sarawak population and eat sago palms rather than rice, Malays and Chinese. Quite a diverse culture. 

For lunch, our guide took us to a seafood restaurant that you pick your own seafood from the tank and they cook for you. During our visit to the cultural village, we met a couple, Janet and Ben, from UK and they were leaving Kuching in the evening but also would like to visit the Semenggoh Nature Reserve to see the Orangutan. We invited them to join us for the rest of the trip since the van can accommodate more people. We had fun getting to each other during the short time. 

We arrived at the reserve just in time to see some orangutans during their dinner time. This would be the ideal time to see them as it is a reserve and mimic natural habitat for them and there is no guarantee for sighting. We went wild with photos, including a baby and mom. 

Dinner took place at 101 - a place similar to Taiwan's night market where there are 101 different stores for you to choose food from. We had a tough time to choose as there were so many things unique and different. We ate soo much!  It had been a busy but fun day!

Brunei

Brunei is land of plenty - lots of oil, land and wealth. The king who governs the country is also very generous in sharing some of its wealth. There is absolutely no tax - income, sales/goods or property. In fact, the land is given to its citizens for free!! For this reason, the government wants to control the immigration and it is very difficult to become citizen of the country. Because it is an oil producing country, the gas is very cheap, only $.59 per litre. It does not seem hard to cumulate wealth but we were told that most people seem to be quite content with what's given and are not too driven.   

We have been treated like royalty by our friends, Karen and Yong, who have been living in Brunei for many years and are well established here. We stayed at their  humongous rental house all by ourselves. It is on top of a hill over looking the Brunei river. Karen also took us to their private resort about 45 minutes from the city. The resort is located right between the river and the South China Sea and has its private access to the sandy beach. Our stay is too short to enjoy the wonderful facilities.