So I walk into work yesterday morning and the first thing that my cute, elderly supervisor at the child care center asks me is if I've "heard the news??" I say no and then she proceeds to tell me how the King of Pop, dear old Michael Jackson, has DIED. We freak out together for a little bit and she tells me how upset her adult daughter and niece are and how they keep texting her.
Around eleven o'clock when we're in the middle of working on some files, she jumps up and says, "I want to see CNN!" So, for the next hour, we watch the CNN special on MJ's life. Back home, it's still Thursday evening, so it's only been about six-ish hours since his death and no autopsy yet, just video clips, interviews and statements from friends and a historical look at his "inspiring and sometimes controversial life."
One of the child-minders, another old lady, comes in and jokes that MJ was my boyfriend and then my supervisor says, "He was America's boyfriend."
All the radios here were playing his songs and the bars/clubs dedicated last night to Michael Jackson.
So, when CNN and the news and whoever else tells you that the whole world is grieving or at least thinking about Michael Jackson's death, you can tell them that's true - even Malaysia is.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Shameless Plug
If you ever get the chance, please check out the Women's Aid Organization website:
www.wao.org.my
They run entirely off of donations and are a pioneer organization in Malaysia. Even if you cannot donate at this time, there is a link on the website that says "Love to Save" and if you click on it, Digi (a phone company in Malaysia) will donate RM5 to WAO (3.5 ringgit per 1USD, just so you know).
Thanks and happy summer!
www.wao.org.my
They run entirely off of donations and are a pioneer organization in Malaysia. Even if you cannot donate at this time, there is a link on the website that says "Love to Save" and if you click on it, Digi (a phone company in Malaysia) will donate RM5 to WAO (3.5 ringgit per 1USD, just so you know).
Thanks and happy summer!
Food Language
Today was a really good day. It’s my first Friday and I’ve spent the week in the Refuge, hanging with the kids and the women. I’d been nervous about my interactions with the women thus far, but today went really well.
I had the kids paint their hands and put handprints on the back wall of the building to give them something creative to do that will last (got boss’s approval first, of course). As I was doing this, one of the women (she’s only 18 and is from Burma) came and sat with me. She says things to me even though I don’t understand her and sometimes we communicate through other ways. Today, she had a tube of something and said, “eena” and pretended to draw a pattern on her hand. Henna! She doesn’t really know the art of henna but did a nice design on one of my hands and then a woman from Pakistan did a beautiful design on my other hand. It was really fun. That morning, the two women from Burma had made a dessert (similar to tapioca) that they shared with me as well.
In the afternoon, we did an activity where the women had to act out each other and people had to guess who they were. They had so much fun that they ended up just calling out names and doing impressions of one another – including of me! This turned out to be a really positive thing because it was all in good humor. Later, I learned how to say “can I help?” (boleh saya tolong?) and they showed me how to cut and peel a certain vegetable (they didn’t know the name in English and I’m not familiar with it) and promised to cook it for me on Monday. I love how they are in the kitchen, it’s so community oriented. One woman was washing dishes, one was cooking something on the stove and three others (four, once I joined them) were sitting on the floor, peeling and slicing.
The last half hour of the day, one of the other interns (she’s Malaysian so can speak Bahasa) and I sat around with the women eating these sedap (‘delicious’ in Bahasa) crepe-like pancakes that had been rolled with shredded coconut inside. The women were really interested in teasing me and asking questions; “are you wearing contacts or are your eyes naturally that blue?” “Your skin is so nice and pale, it makes me want to kiss and hug you” (I told them I liked their skin and they all laughed and joked about how I should lie in the sun and get darker), “Why do American men come over here and are so nice to the women and buy stuff for them? Malaysian men just want women for other things” – I had trouble answering that one without delving into the details of those arrangements. There was a lot lost in translation; many laughs and jokes, some at my expense, most just because they love to laugh, that I didn’t really understand, but I got the important parts. They promised to teach me how to cook some Malaysian dishes and I said I would show them how to make American cake (well, I meant pie, but that didn’t translate and it will probably end up being apple crisp anyway because the oven is very small) and they laughed and said I could teach them and then they would move to America and become very rich. I was trying to think of something else very American that I could teach them to cook that would be easy and without too many ingredients. Suggestions? For now, I’m going to start with “ants on a log.” They’ll think I’m really crazy for eating things like that (my Swedish roommate in Singapore did) – it’ll be great.
These women have seen such hardship but they are so joyful together. It’s really powerful and so wonderful to be a part of.
I had the kids paint their hands and put handprints on the back wall of the building to give them something creative to do that will last (got boss’s approval first, of course). As I was doing this, one of the women (she’s only 18 and is from Burma) came and sat with me. She says things to me even though I don’t understand her and sometimes we communicate through other ways. Today, she had a tube of something and said, “eena” and pretended to draw a pattern on her hand. Henna! She doesn’t really know the art of henna but did a nice design on one of my hands and then a woman from Pakistan did a beautiful design on my other hand. It was really fun. That morning, the two women from Burma had made a dessert (similar to tapioca) that they shared with me as well.
In the afternoon, we did an activity where the women had to act out each other and people had to guess who they were. They had so much fun that they ended up just calling out names and doing impressions of one another – including of me! This turned out to be a really positive thing because it was all in good humor. Later, I learned how to say “can I help?” (boleh saya tolong?) and they showed me how to cut and peel a certain vegetable (they didn’t know the name in English and I’m not familiar with it) and promised to cook it for me on Monday. I love how they are in the kitchen, it’s so community oriented. One woman was washing dishes, one was cooking something on the stove and three others (four, once I joined them) were sitting on the floor, peeling and slicing.
The last half hour of the day, one of the other interns (she’s Malaysian so can speak Bahasa) and I sat around with the women eating these sedap (‘delicious’ in Bahasa) crepe-like pancakes that had been rolled with shredded coconut inside. The women were really interested in teasing me and asking questions; “are you wearing contacts or are your eyes naturally that blue?” “Your skin is so nice and pale, it makes me want to kiss and hug you” (I told them I liked their skin and they all laughed and joked about how I should lie in the sun and get darker), “Why do American men come over here and are so nice to the women and buy stuff for them? Malaysian men just want women for other things” – I had trouble answering that one without delving into the details of those arrangements. There was a lot lost in translation; many laughs and jokes, some at my expense, most just because they love to laugh, that I didn’t really understand, but I got the important parts. They promised to teach me how to cook some Malaysian dishes and I said I would show them how to make American cake (well, I meant pie, but that didn’t translate and it will probably end up being apple crisp anyway because the oven is very small) and they laughed and said I could teach them and then they would move to America and become very rich. I was trying to think of something else very American that I could teach them to cook that would be easy and without too many ingredients. Suggestions? For now, I’m going to start with “ants on a log.” They’ll think I’m really crazy for eating things like that (my Swedish roommate in Singapore did) – it’ll be great.
These women have seen such hardship but they are so joyful together. It’s really powerful and so wonderful to be a part of.
Kuala Lumpur
And now I’m settled in Malaysia! Already Singapore feels like a really long time ago, although that is not to say that I have just up and moved on. KL is still a pretty westernized city in comparison with other areas of Malaysia, but it’s very different from Singapore. I get stared at waaaaay more here and it gets very tiring. This last week, I've had at least three strangers ask me my name and where I'm from with no other preamble. It’s also really hot here and it’s not as clean as Singapore (but not as dirty as other cities) so the heat feels trapped by clouds of dust and pollution. My wardrobe is a bit more conservative here, too. I do that for work since I have to look nice, but also because it seems my skin attracts enough attention, no need to show more of it. Plus, I’m living here; I don’t have the excuse of a tourist who is passing through. I’d like to be a little more presentable and respectful of the culture here.
I’m living in a really nice apartment with my landlord. He’s probably in his forties, works from home, and knows every song from the 80s. I have a sizable room with a nice big bed and air-con. The apartment complex has a gym with a treadmill that works some of the time as well as a big outdoor pool which I have enjoyed many-a-day so far. I was borrowing sketchy wifi from neighbors but it was too inconsistent and so I just got my own internet (hence, the onslaught of blog posts). There are a couple of restaurants and little supermarkets nearby that I can get basic stuff at and otherwise, I’m invited to dinner every night with my landlord in an area that has a nice grocery store. It’s not hard to get to where I’m interning either, it’s just that bus from the train station takes FOREVER in the evenings and so I’m always waiting for ages and ages in the heat when I’m tired and trying to get home on a ten-minute bus ride that’s unfortunately waaaaay too far and hilly to walk. Argh.
I am working with Women’s Aid Organization (www.wao.org.my) and just started three days ago. So far, so good! WAO has three different areas: the Admin Office, the Refuge, and the Child Care Center. The Admin Office deals with paperwork and whatnot. The Refuge is a secure building in a confidential location where women and their children can go when they are in need/danger. The Child Care Center is where children whose mothers are starting a new life independently and cannot take care of their children (because of their job or no daycare or restrictions from their landlords, etc.) live for up to two years. I am currently working at the Refuge. I do activities in the mornings with the kids, activities with the moms in the afternoon and for the rest of the day, I either hang around with them, do the odd computer job/busy work in the office, or plan more activities. I’m hoping that as I get more comfortable and used to all this, I’ll be able to be more involved. Interns are encouraged to do their own projects (like make a pamphlet on personal hygiene or how to get a job, etc.) and so I’m starting to consider what I might be able to do.
The one thing that is really difficult and will continue to be a challenge throughout this experience is that I don’t speak Malay. Most of the women that are at the Refuge right now don’t speak English and although many of the kids do, they prefer not to. There are two other interns there right now that both speak Malay and are therefore able to have more in-depth discussions with the women and both bond with and control the kids. I try to smile a lot and look like I want to fit in and I’ve been able to build up what I hope is a good rapport with the women. However, they compliment me a lot (through their kids) on my hair and eyes and ask why I would want to leave America, such a rich country, for a place like Malaysia so I’m feeling very separate from them. Some of the kids like me but others just really don’t try to talk to me and it’s just hard to communicate with them in general.
There have been a lot of really positive things too, though. A couple of the kids really like talking with me and translating for their moms. I was able to bond with the mom who speaks fluent English because she was translating for me too and one of the other moms likes to feed me. I ate lunch with them today and they were incredibly surprised and really excited that I ate with my hands like everyone else at the table instead of with the silverware they gave me. They have yoga classes every Wednesday and I participated in that today, too, which was fun. I got some laughs when I didn’t understand what I was supposed to do, but so did everyone and one mom and I giggled the whole time because we weren’t quite flexible enough. It was all in good humor, of course.
Last weekend I went to a Malay wedding! I met this couple that used to live in Eugene (the wife got her Ph.D at UO - another Duck!) through another FHS student and as soon as I emailed them that I was coming to KL, they were like, "come to a wedding with us on Saturday," so I did! It was great. They were a part of the bride's entourage and so I got there and found myself walking in right behind the bride and groom with the rest of the family. We had a big lunch (again, surprised people by being able to eat with my hand) and then participated in a Hindi blessing of the couple (they're Muslim but still use some of the ancestral traditions) and then lots of pictures. I felt a little uncomfortable about being in their wedding photos, but no one seemed to care, in fact, they kept encouraging me to get in the shot. Really fun. And the couple from Eugene are really wonderful people.
I think I’m really going to learn a lot this summer. I went to a meeting last week with the director of WAO for planning the second annual conference on sexuality rights in Malaysia (Seksualiti Merdeka). It’s this group of people that represent different organizations and are exploring the issue of human rights, specifically related to sexual orientation and gender identity. The conference will be in mid-August and since I’ll be here that long, I get to help plan, hopefully. This is the kind of thing that is exciting and important in the states, so I’m really interested to see how powerful it must be over here where there are even less rights. Plus, they have to take in to account the religious aspect (Malaysia has two courts) and how that plays a direct role (as opposed to a more indirect role, like in my country).
It’s going to be a powerful, difficult, inspiring summer, I think. I’m glad I’m here and doing it, I just hope I don’t burn out too early or miss camp too much.
I’m living in a really nice apartment with my landlord. He’s probably in his forties, works from home, and knows every song from the 80s. I have a sizable room with a nice big bed and air-con. The apartment complex has a gym with a treadmill that works some of the time as well as a big outdoor pool which I have enjoyed many-a-day so far. I was borrowing sketchy wifi from neighbors but it was too inconsistent and so I just got my own internet (hence, the onslaught of blog posts). There are a couple of restaurants and little supermarkets nearby that I can get basic stuff at and otherwise, I’m invited to dinner every night with my landlord in an area that has a nice grocery store. It’s not hard to get to where I’m interning either, it’s just that bus from the train station takes FOREVER in the evenings and so I’m always waiting for ages and ages in the heat when I’m tired and trying to get home on a ten-minute bus ride that’s unfortunately waaaaay too far and hilly to walk. Argh.
I am working with Women’s Aid Organization (www.wao.org.my) and just started three days ago. So far, so good! WAO has three different areas: the Admin Office, the Refuge, and the Child Care Center. The Admin Office deals with paperwork and whatnot. The Refuge is a secure building in a confidential location where women and their children can go when they are in need/danger. The Child Care Center is where children whose mothers are starting a new life independently and cannot take care of their children (because of their job or no daycare or restrictions from their landlords, etc.) live for up to two years. I am currently working at the Refuge. I do activities in the mornings with the kids, activities with the moms in the afternoon and for the rest of the day, I either hang around with them, do the odd computer job/busy work in the office, or plan more activities. I’m hoping that as I get more comfortable and used to all this, I’ll be able to be more involved. Interns are encouraged to do their own projects (like make a pamphlet on personal hygiene or how to get a job, etc.) and so I’m starting to consider what I might be able to do.
The one thing that is really difficult and will continue to be a challenge throughout this experience is that I don’t speak Malay. Most of the women that are at the Refuge right now don’t speak English and although many of the kids do, they prefer not to. There are two other interns there right now that both speak Malay and are therefore able to have more in-depth discussions with the women and both bond with and control the kids. I try to smile a lot and look like I want to fit in and I’ve been able to build up what I hope is a good rapport with the women. However, they compliment me a lot (through their kids) on my hair and eyes and ask why I would want to leave America, such a rich country, for a place like Malaysia so I’m feeling very separate from them. Some of the kids like me but others just really don’t try to talk to me and it’s just hard to communicate with them in general.
There have been a lot of really positive things too, though. A couple of the kids really like talking with me and translating for their moms. I was able to bond with the mom who speaks fluent English because she was translating for me too and one of the other moms likes to feed me. I ate lunch with them today and they were incredibly surprised and really excited that I ate with my hands like everyone else at the table instead of with the silverware they gave me. They have yoga classes every Wednesday and I participated in that today, too, which was fun. I got some laughs when I didn’t understand what I was supposed to do, but so did everyone and one mom and I giggled the whole time because we weren’t quite flexible enough. It was all in good humor, of course.
Last weekend I went to a Malay wedding! I met this couple that used to live in Eugene (the wife got her Ph.D at UO - another Duck!) through another FHS student and as soon as I emailed them that I was coming to KL, they were like, "come to a wedding with us on Saturday," so I did! It was great. They were a part of the bride's entourage and so I got there and found myself walking in right behind the bride and groom with the rest of the family. We had a big lunch (again, surprised people by being able to eat with my hand) and then participated in a Hindi blessing of the couple (they're Muslim but still use some of the ancestral traditions) and then lots of pictures. I felt a little uncomfortable about being in their wedding photos, but no one seemed to care, in fact, they kept encouraging me to get in the shot. Really fun. And the couple from Eugene are really wonderful people.
I think I’m really going to learn a lot this summer. I went to a meeting last week with the director of WAO for planning the second annual conference on sexuality rights in Malaysia (Seksualiti Merdeka). It’s this group of people that represent different organizations and are exploring the issue of human rights, specifically related to sexual orientation and gender identity. The conference will be in mid-August and since I’ll be here that long, I get to help plan, hopefully. This is the kind of thing that is exciting and important in the states, so I’m really interested to see how powerful it must be over here where there are even less rights. Plus, they have to take in to account the religious aspect (Malaysia has two courts) and how that plays a direct role (as opposed to a more indirect role, like in my country).
It’s going to be a powerful, difficult, inspiring summer, I think. I’m glad I’m here and doing it, I just hope I don’t burn out too early or miss camp too much.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Singapura, lah
Mom and I spent a few days in Singapore before we both had to leave and (besides my one night and day of food poisoning, which is weird, considering we ate basically all the same things) it was really lovely. Even though I wasn’t living at “home” anymore, it was good to be back in a city I am familiar with and can navigate easily. Plus, we did some things I’d always meant to do but hadn’t gotten around to. We went to the SAM (Singapore Art Museum), which was pretty nice. I’m not really sure what I was expecting, so I’m not really sure how to interpret what I saw. We saw an outdoor performance of Much Ado About Nothing on its last night in a park called Fort Canning right behind where we were staying. It was such a lovely evening. The set was beautiful and everyone in the audience brought mats to sit on and picnic dinners. We got a nice spot far enough away from the stage to see it all and right in the middle for a prime view. The acting was really great, too, and Much Ado is just such a fun show (good ole Will). As was the cheese, crackers, avocado, dried apricots, apples, wine and chocolate that we had for dinner. All the things I’d been missing in one night!
Mom and I also went up to the top of the Fullerton Hotel, a tall building with a bar on the 70th(+?) floor that looks out over much of Singapore. Mom had a lot of fun identifying buildings she’d seen from the street and figuring out exactly where she was when she got lost. I enjoyed seeing this city that I’d grown so comfortable in from a bird’s-eye-view with the sun setting over it and everything. Although Portland is my first love and the most beautiful city in the world to me, Singapore certainly held its own. When I was flying to Thailand for the last time (way back in the beginning of May for the FMP), we left in the evening and the plane circled around and gave us a beautiful view of the whole island of Singapore. It was so unreal to actually be able to see it all at once, just the way it looks on maps. You can’t ever see Oregon like that (go figure – state lines are manmade) or the states (except maybe from space). That was a pretty bittersweet moment because even though I knew I was coming back, all of my friends were leaving for the last time and going off to other areas of SE Asia. It all went by so fast.
Mom and I also went up to the top of the Fullerton Hotel, a tall building with a bar on the 70th(+?) floor that looks out over much of Singapore. Mom had a lot of fun identifying buildings she’d seen from the street and figuring out exactly where she was when she got lost. I enjoyed seeing this city that I’d grown so comfortable in from a bird’s-eye-view with the sun setting over it and everything. Although Portland is my first love and the most beautiful city in the world to me, Singapore certainly held its own. When I was flying to Thailand for the last time (way back in the beginning of May for the FMP), we left in the evening and the plane circled around and gave us a beautiful view of the whole island of Singapore. It was so unreal to actually be able to see it all at once, just the way it looks on maps. You can’t ever see Oregon like that (go figure – state lines are manmade) or the states (except maybe from space). That was a pretty bittersweet moment because even though I knew I was coming back, all of my friends were leaving for the last time and going off to other areas of SE Asia. It all went by so fast.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Borneo v.2: Vegetable/Animal
And now for round two:
Next stop was Danum Valley, a jungle conservation area that has a resort that's a two+ hour drive in on a run down and extremely bumpy logging road (in fact, on our way in, a bridge had collapsed, toppling a logging truck and delaying us until another car could come from the other side and we could cross on foot). Once we were in, though, Danum Valley turned out to be one of the coolest places. It's the furthest place you can go into the Bornean jungle as a tourist. Mom and I have never stayed in a resort before and so everything that might be expected by more experienced resorters came as welcome surprises to us. It wasn't just the resort, though, it was also the incredible diversity and magnitude of wildlife that we saw. We spent two nights and one full day there (we both thought this was much too little) and enjoyed jungle treks, a canopy walk, night walk/drive, delicious meals served in a big, wall-less lodge facing a river and a beautiful, fancy room with an outdoor tub (shielded from human eyes).
Here is a condensed list of the animals we saw: wild boar, long-tailed/pig-tailed macaques (monkeys), red-leaf monkeys, flying squirrels, black hornbills/Rhinoceros hornbill (Bornean birds), mouse/sambar deer, giant squirrels, a whole host of lizards/bugs/birds, and…(drum roll, please)…a family of wild elephants (twice) and two wild orangutan (separate occasions, but both relatively young and medium sized). We also heard the warning call of a huge adult male orangutan, which was very intimidating and powerful. So, yeah, Danum Valley. Pretty awesome, yes?
Note: the other creature we saw in abundance was tiger leeches. These are very different than the fat and black fresh-water leeches that appear in many films. Tiger leeches look like elephant trunks that are standing upright and moving their nose around searching/smelling for an unlucky mammal to feast on. When they want to move, they put their nose on the ground and creep like an inchworm. When they eat, they suck from one end and slowly fill up long ways until they’re nice and fat. I got a couple on me but was able to pull them off before they broke my skin and Mom apparently got “leeched” but didn’t notice until we got back to the room and she was bleeding. Another nightmare-of-a-time (literally, I had nightmares about leeches and would wake up and remember that I was in an impeccably clean room where they could get me, thank goodness), we were getting ready to head out again after a between-trek-rest and Mom found a leech crawling around the inside of the shirt that she was about to put back on (it had been hanging in the room for about an hour). Interesting creatures, leeches, but not ones that are the best to have around.
Speaking of creatures! The next ones we witnessed were all underwater because Mom and I ended our trip on SIPIDAN! Well, actually, we stayed on Mulu, an island nearby, because a few years ago everyone was kicked off Sipidan to preserve the nature and use it as an army base. Sipidan, if you haven’t heard, is one of the top dive spots in the world and is currently up for election for the 7 Wonders of Nature. Basically, it was awesome. Our dive masters and the boat captain were really fun and patient and the diving was INCREDIBLE. I’m not even going to write about the resort we stayed in 1. because it didn’t compare to Danum Valley and 2. because it just doesn’t even matter when it comes to talking about the diving we did. The island is basically surrounded by coral reefs that drop from 6meters to 600meters, so most of the dives are wall dives, which, I’ve discovered, I prefer. Some dives were pretty deep (25 meters) and some were shallow but all of them were amazing.
Picture this: you’re swimming through a school of some pretty big, really colorful fish while checking out some smaller fish swimming around the coral and you go in to look at some brightly colored sea stuff, maybe a clown fish in some anemone, on the wall while still moving slowly and then you realize you’ve come across a turtle, not more than three feet away, that is taking a nap in a little nook. You stare for a bit, but don’t want to disturb him and then you turn around just as another massive turtle is swimming out from the coral right in front of you and you watch it swim up to the surface and then back down and as you’re looking down, you realize there are white-tipped reef sharks that are swimming below you surrounded by some other fish that are almost the same size as the sharks. Whoa whoa whoa. I kid you not; we did nine dives of about 40minutes each over a course of three days that were ALL like this. It was crazy. The problem is, I have no idea what most of the stuff I saw is called. Literally, the ENTIRE cast of “Finding Nemo” was there, including all the extras and about a thousand of each character. Plus, we saw a gigantic eagle ray (they swim rather than settle on the bottom), several puffer fish – including a huge pregnant one and a little orange one with blue spots, an angel/paper fish thing, a small octopus (that was coooool), huge schools of barracuda, a million turtles of all ages, orangutan crabs, several kinds of cuttlefish, big tiger fish, eels, really big sea cucumbers/slugs, gray reef sharks (those are bigger than the other ones) and the list just goes on and on.
Our last day there, Mom and I had to skip the last dive because we were flying too soon afterwards and so I went snorkeling out on the drop-off instead, near where the dive was happening. Even snorkeling was amazing. As soon as I put my face in the water, I got to six turtles before I lost count and they were swimming right next to me, so close I could’ve touched them. I ended up finding the divers and swam over them for a while. I noticed one white-tipped reef shark that swam startlingly close to me but still far enough away but later I found out that when I was looking at that one, the divers were watching another one that was directly under me, so close that I didn’t even see it. Haha, whoops. Lucky for me, reef sharks generally leave people alone.
As you can imagine, mom and I feel pretty spoiled by all we got to see and really, I’m just going to be disappointed by the dives I do after this. I’ll have to keep an open mind and remember that everywhere has something to offer, even if it’s not Sipidan.
Next stop was Danum Valley, a jungle conservation area that has a resort that's a two+ hour drive in on a run down and extremely bumpy logging road (in fact, on our way in, a bridge had collapsed, toppling a logging truck and delaying us until another car could come from the other side and we could cross on foot). Once we were in, though, Danum Valley turned out to be one of the coolest places. It's the furthest place you can go into the Bornean jungle as a tourist. Mom and I have never stayed in a resort before and so everything that might be expected by more experienced resorters came as welcome surprises to us. It wasn't just the resort, though, it was also the incredible diversity and magnitude of wildlife that we saw. We spent two nights and one full day there (we both thought this was much too little) and enjoyed jungle treks, a canopy walk, night walk/drive, delicious meals served in a big, wall-less lodge facing a river and a beautiful, fancy room with an outdoor tub (shielded from human eyes).
Here is a condensed list of the animals we saw: wild boar, long-tailed/pig-tailed macaques (monkeys), red-leaf monkeys, flying squirrels, black hornbills/Rhinoceros hornbill (Bornean birds), mouse/sambar deer, giant squirrels, a whole host of lizards/bugs/birds, and…(drum roll, please)…a family of wild elephants (twice) and two wild orangutan (separate occasions, but both relatively young and medium sized). We also heard the warning call of a huge adult male orangutan, which was very intimidating and powerful. So, yeah, Danum Valley. Pretty awesome, yes?
Note: the other creature we saw in abundance was tiger leeches. These are very different than the fat and black fresh-water leeches that appear in many films. Tiger leeches look like elephant trunks that are standing upright and moving their nose around searching/smelling for an unlucky mammal to feast on. When they want to move, they put their nose on the ground and creep like an inchworm. When they eat, they suck from one end and slowly fill up long ways until they’re nice and fat. I got a couple on me but was able to pull them off before they broke my skin and Mom apparently got “leeched” but didn’t notice until we got back to the room and she was bleeding. Another nightmare-of-a-time (literally, I had nightmares about leeches and would wake up and remember that I was in an impeccably clean room where they could get me, thank goodness), we were getting ready to head out again after a between-trek-rest and Mom found a leech crawling around the inside of the shirt that she was about to put back on (it had been hanging in the room for about an hour). Interesting creatures, leeches, but not ones that are the best to have around.
Speaking of creatures! The next ones we witnessed were all underwater because Mom and I ended our trip on SIPIDAN! Well, actually, we stayed on Mulu, an island nearby, because a few years ago everyone was kicked off Sipidan to preserve the nature and use it as an army base. Sipidan, if you haven’t heard, is one of the top dive spots in the world and is currently up for election for the 7 Wonders of Nature. Basically, it was awesome. Our dive masters and the boat captain were really fun and patient and the diving was INCREDIBLE. I’m not even going to write about the resort we stayed in 1. because it didn’t compare to Danum Valley and 2. because it just doesn’t even matter when it comes to talking about the diving we did. The island is basically surrounded by coral reefs that drop from 6meters to 600meters, so most of the dives are wall dives, which, I’ve discovered, I prefer. Some dives were pretty deep (25 meters) and some were shallow but all of them were amazing.
Picture this: you’re swimming through a school of some pretty big, really colorful fish while checking out some smaller fish swimming around the coral and you go in to look at some brightly colored sea stuff, maybe a clown fish in some anemone, on the wall while still moving slowly and then you realize you’ve come across a turtle, not more than three feet away, that is taking a nap in a little nook. You stare for a bit, but don’t want to disturb him and then you turn around just as another massive turtle is swimming out from the coral right in front of you and you watch it swim up to the surface and then back down and as you’re looking down, you realize there are white-tipped reef sharks that are swimming below you surrounded by some other fish that are almost the same size as the sharks. Whoa whoa whoa. I kid you not; we did nine dives of about 40minutes each over a course of three days that were ALL like this. It was crazy. The problem is, I have no idea what most of the stuff I saw is called. Literally, the ENTIRE cast of “Finding Nemo” was there, including all the extras and about a thousand of each character. Plus, we saw a gigantic eagle ray (they swim rather than settle on the bottom), several puffer fish – including a huge pregnant one and a little orange one with blue spots, an angel/paper fish thing, a small octopus (that was coooool), huge schools of barracuda, a million turtles of all ages, orangutan crabs, several kinds of cuttlefish, big tiger fish, eels, really big sea cucumbers/slugs, gray reef sharks (those are bigger than the other ones) and the list just goes on and on.
Our last day there, Mom and I had to skip the last dive because we were flying too soon afterwards and so I went snorkeling out on the drop-off instead, near where the dive was happening. Even snorkeling was amazing. As soon as I put my face in the water, I got to six turtles before I lost count and they were swimming right next to me, so close I could’ve touched them. I ended up finding the divers and swam over them for a while. I noticed one white-tipped reef shark that swam startlingly close to me but still far enough away but later I found out that when I was looking at that one, the divers were watching another one that was directly under me, so close that I didn’t even see it. Haha, whoops. Lucky for me, reef sharks generally leave people alone.
As you can imagine, mom and I feel pretty spoiled by all we got to see and really, I’m just going to be disappointed by the dives I do after this. I’ll have to keep an open mind and remember that everywhere has something to offer, even if it’s not Sipidan.
Borneo v.1: Mineral
So Mom and I went to Borneo! Our trip was about 17 days with four main stops around Malaysian Borneo, so I’m going to split it in half for blogging purposes.
After two nights and one day in Kota Kinabalu, which consisted of us planning our trip with a travel agent and finding our favorite Italian restaurant that we ended up going to every time we were in KK (it’s surprising how good you can convince yourself mediocre pizza is when there hasn’t been good pizza to be found for four months), we flew to Mulu to explore the caves. If you’ve ever seen Planet Earth and remember the episode on caves, recall the Bornean caves they talk about. Yeah, we went to those.
There are four major caves that you can tour and we did them all in one day. The smaller ones (they’re longer and not that tall) had really cool stalactites and stalagmites and other features that I can’t remember the names of. My favorite cave was the biggest one in the world until about three weeks before we got there when a new cave that’s almost twice as big was found in China or Vietnam (two guides told me different places). The cave we were in was HUGE, big enough – according to Planet Earth – for a flighter jet to fly through. It was awesome to listen to all the bats (too hard to see them in the dark) and walk over underground rivers and everything. Every evening at sunset, swarms of millions of bats circle around the entrance of the caves and then fly off in groups to go find food for the night. There’s a lookout place below the cave for prime picture taking of this event. We got really lucky because it was raining the evening we were there and they usually don’t come out when it rains but they did. It was funny too, because we saw some groups fly out, decide it was too wet, and fly back in again.
Our last day there, I got to go adventure caving which was incredible. We walked into this little cave with just our headlamps (all the caves you tour have pathways and are dimly lit so you can actually see things) and crawled up and down walls of rocks (there were ropes to hold on to) and went through passageways and it was just so cool. We saw little bats that had lost their way and ended up clinging to rocks and walls a long way from their friends. There was also a racer snake that can sense heat but can’t see, really big crickets and really, REALLY big spiders. And these spiders don’t build webs, they can just sense movement and they HUNT. Talk about freaky. I am not a fan of spiders. But that did not stop me from enjoying awesome adventure caving. At one point, in the back of the cave, we all turned off our lights just to see what it was like to be somewhere where there isn’t even a memory of light. It was so tiring. My eyes opened really wide automatically and I kept moving my head and searching for something to see but there wasn’t anything. People’s voices just came out of empty space. It was a little scary but also very interesting.
Moving on: We flew back to KK and went straight to the park at the Mt. Kinabalu. The next morning, we set off up the tallest mountain in SE Asia with our guide, Maikin. We started quite late by mountain climber time (about 11am) so we met a lot of people on their way down. A word to the adventurer: if you are finishing the journey and see people who are just beginning, do not say things such as “Oh, you’re starting LATE” or “Wow, red and sweaty already!” Try for something a little more encouraging.
It took us five hours to get from the starting point to the guesthouse and boy, was it HARD. Maikin must have been bored out of his mind with the pace we were going – he’s been working as a guide for eight years and climbs the mountain TWICE A WEEK. If you think that’s crazy (even if you don’t, I do), you should’ve seen the porters that had to carry everything up to the guesthouse (all the food and gas, etc.). Most of them carried loads that were strapped to boards on their backs that they would hang from straps across their foreheads. We saw one guy carrying a box full of piping that was at least eight feet long and he was balancing it on his head. That really looked like it hurt. All of the porters had these massive thighs and ranged in ages. They were a periodic reminder that I shouldn’t have been complaining about how my body hurt.
At 3am the next morning, Maikin and I set off for the summit (Mom decided she’d had enough getting to the guesthouse). It took me three hours to get to the top and it just got worse and worse as we went. The day before, I’d figured out that if I sang musicals in my head, from start to finish, I was able to distract myself pretty well by concentrating on remembering the lyrics and the order of the songs. On the way up, I’d done Rent. For that morning climb, I did Sound of Music and just when I was getting to the steepest part of the mountain I was having the hardest time remembering what song came next when I realized is was “Climb Every Mountain.” Very fitting. And so cliché it was almost annoying. The mountain was enveloped in a cloud for the last stretch to the top and it was so cold. I kept thinking we were there, but then Maikin would show me where I had to keep going. In fact, when I actually got to the top, I collapsed onto a rock and tried to make my hands feel enough to get out my camera for a misty picture of the sun rising, but Maikin made me get up and actually climb the last few feet to the sign that was really considered the TOP of the mountain. Then I basically had him run down with me until we got to a point where the wind wasn’t as strong. It was really hard to breathe up there because the air was so thin and I seriously could not feel my hands. I also thought it was going to start to rain so my morale was really low but then the sun came up and some of the clouds cleared from the view and I wasn’t climbing UP anymore, I was going down, so I felt better. Plus, I’d made it to the top so there was no turning back anymore because the only way to go was down. Which, by the way, is also incredibly hard. Mom and I were slow going down too because of our knees and it took us much longer than anticipated (about 4 hours?) and I was just way pooped by the end of it. Our legs hurt for four days after that and we tried not to let people see us walk up and down stairs.
I'm really glad I did climb the mountain (and conquered it) but I'm not so sure if mountain climbing is really my thing. I think I'd rather just go climb a rock. You know, with ropes and a harness and stuff.
After two nights and one day in Kota Kinabalu, which consisted of us planning our trip with a travel agent and finding our favorite Italian restaurant that we ended up going to every time we were in KK (it’s surprising how good you can convince yourself mediocre pizza is when there hasn’t been good pizza to be found for four months), we flew to Mulu to explore the caves. If you’ve ever seen Planet Earth and remember the episode on caves, recall the Bornean caves they talk about. Yeah, we went to those.
There are four major caves that you can tour and we did them all in one day. The smaller ones (they’re longer and not that tall) had really cool stalactites and stalagmites and other features that I can’t remember the names of. My favorite cave was the biggest one in the world until about three weeks before we got there when a new cave that’s almost twice as big was found in China or Vietnam (two guides told me different places). The cave we were in was HUGE, big enough – according to Planet Earth – for a flighter jet to fly through. It was awesome to listen to all the bats (too hard to see them in the dark) and walk over underground rivers and everything. Every evening at sunset, swarms of millions of bats circle around the entrance of the caves and then fly off in groups to go find food for the night. There’s a lookout place below the cave for prime picture taking of this event. We got really lucky because it was raining the evening we were there and they usually don’t come out when it rains but they did. It was funny too, because we saw some groups fly out, decide it was too wet, and fly back in again.
Our last day there, I got to go adventure caving which was incredible. We walked into this little cave with just our headlamps (all the caves you tour have pathways and are dimly lit so you can actually see things) and crawled up and down walls of rocks (there were ropes to hold on to) and went through passageways and it was just so cool. We saw little bats that had lost their way and ended up clinging to rocks and walls a long way from their friends. There was also a racer snake that can sense heat but can’t see, really big crickets and really, REALLY big spiders. And these spiders don’t build webs, they can just sense movement and they HUNT. Talk about freaky. I am not a fan of spiders. But that did not stop me from enjoying awesome adventure caving. At one point, in the back of the cave, we all turned off our lights just to see what it was like to be somewhere where there isn’t even a memory of light. It was so tiring. My eyes opened really wide automatically and I kept moving my head and searching for something to see but there wasn’t anything. People’s voices just came out of empty space. It was a little scary but also very interesting.
Moving on: We flew back to KK and went straight to the park at the Mt. Kinabalu. The next morning, we set off up the tallest mountain in SE Asia with our guide, Maikin. We started quite late by mountain climber time (about 11am) so we met a lot of people on their way down. A word to the adventurer: if you are finishing the journey and see people who are just beginning, do not say things such as “Oh, you’re starting LATE” or “Wow, red and sweaty already!” Try for something a little more encouraging.
It took us five hours to get from the starting point to the guesthouse and boy, was it HARD. Maikin must have been bored out of his mind with the pace we were going – he’s been working as a guide for eight years and climbs the mountain TWICE A WEEK. If you think that’s crazy (even if you don’t, I do), you should’ve seen the porters that had to carry everything up to the guesthouse (all the food and gas, etc.). Most of them carried loads that were strapped to boards on their backs that they would hang from straps across their foreheads. We saw one guy carrying a box full of piping that was at least eight feet long and he was balancing it on his head. That really looked like it hurt. All of the porters had these massive thighs and ranged in ages. They were a periodic reminder that I shouldn’t have been complaining about how my body hurt.
At 3am the next morning, Maikin and I set off for the summit (Mom decided she’d had enough getting to the guesthouse). It took me three hours to get to the top and it just got worse and worse as we went. The day before, I’d figured out that if I sang musicals in my head, from start to finish, I was able to distract myself pretty well by concentrating on remembering the lyrics and the order of the songs. On the way up, I’d done Rent. For that morning climb, I did Sound of Music and just when I was getting to the steepest part of the mountain I was having the hardest time remembering what song came next when I realized is was “Climb Every Mountain.” Very fitting. And so cliché it was almost annoying. The mountain was enveloped in a cloud for the last stretch to the top and it was so cold. I kept thinking we were there, but then Maikin would show me where I had to keep going. In fact, when I actually got to the top, I collapsed onto a rock and tried to make my hands feel enough to get out my camera for a misty picture of the sun rising, but Maikin made me get up and actually climb the last few feet to the sign that was really considered the TOP of the mountain. Then I basically had him run down with me until we got to a point where the wind wasn’t as strong. It was really hard to breathe up there because the air was so thin and I seriously could not feel my hands. I also thought it was going to start to rain so my morale was really low but then the sun came up and some of the clouds cleared from the view and I wasn’t climbing UP anymore, I was going down, so I felt better. Plus, I’d made it to the top so there was no turning back anymore because the only way to go was down. Which, by the way, is also incredibly hard. Mom and I were slow going down too because of our knees and it took us much longer than anticipated (about 4 hours?) and I was just way pooped by the end of it. Our legs hurt for four days after that and we tried not to let people see us walk up and down stairs.
I'm really glad I did climb the mountain (and conquered it) but I'm not so sure if mountain climbing is really my thing. I think I'd rather just go climb a rock. You know, with ropes and a harness and stuff.
Monday, June 1, 2009
FMP, yo
By the time I got back to Singapore from Chiang Mai, Mom was on a plane flying over the Pacific, I had an exam in two days and I had to move out of my apartment and be ready to go back to Thailand in four days. The time constraints were really pushing it, plus, (if you've ever met me you'll know) I tend to get pretty emotional and nostalgic so my vocabulary in my last two days in Singapore was limited to little more than, "Oh my God."
My exam was okay, the studying I managed to do ended up being really helpful and Mom helped me pack a little (more like spread all my things around the apartment in little piles - luckily, I have understanding roommates) and she took me and Karlijn on a nice boat dinner that cruised up and down the (or I should say "one of the") coast(s) of Singapore.
I managed to get all my stuff packed in a semi-orderly fashion (what needs to go to KL, Borneo, home, Thailand...), check out of my apartment, say goodbye to the area and have my first meal of laksa as my last meal. Laksa is kind of a curry soup with noodles and beancurd and chicken or prawns or both and Singapore is supposed to have very good laksa, I just never tried it until my last lunch at the Commonwealth hawker center. It was an appropriate (and delicious) last meal.
My friends and I flew to Phuket in southern Thailand, stayed a night there, and then traveled by bus and ferry to Ko Phangon (an island) for the Full Moon Party. This is a party that - you guessed it - happens every full moon. Ko Phangon also has the Half-Moon party, the Dark-Moon party, etc. etc (you can imagine how the island is built around tourism) but the FMP is the most famous. I had several people tell me that if I went to SE Asia, I had to go to this, so my friends and I decided to make it our last adventure together before parting ways.
I had a good time because I was with good people, but it's not really my scene. Literally, it's just a massive beach party of thousands of Westerners who have all been told that they HAVE to go to this party and then they do, discover that really, it's just a party like any other on any other beach (except the massive amounts of glowing body paint), but then leave and go spread the word across the globe to thousands of more Westerners that they HAVE to go to this party. The thing is, most of the time you lose all your friends and your shoes (I wore cheap flip-flops and on the ferry back, I saw a guy wearing one of mine and a different one on his other foot. He looked like he really needed it, though, so I didn't try to get it back) and then you're just kind of there by yourself surrounded by thousands of people. I was lucky I hung on to my two close friends and we had a good night (besides the part where one of them fell on a rock and cut up his foot and elbow - but he's okay!).
On Monday (the party was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday), I had to head back to Singapore to meet up with Mom (who, during this time, was getting SCUBA certified on Tioman) and begin our adventuring in Borneo while my friends were continuing to travel north. It was really hard to say goodbye to everyone, especially Karlijn and Gerrit who were my family over here. I remember before I left the states, I told my friend Katie that I hoped I would meet good people over here and she had assured me I would. Lucky for me, she was right.
My exam was okay, the studying I managed to do ended up being really helpful and Mom helped me pack a little (more like spread all my things around the apartment in little piles - luckily, I have understanding roommates) and she took me and Karlijn on a nice boat dinner that cruised up and down the (or I should say "one of the") coast(s) of Singapore.
I managed to get all my stuff packed in a semi-orderly fashion (what needs to go to KL, Borneo, home, Thailand...), check out of my apartment, say goodbye to the area and have my first meal of laksa as my last meal. Laksa is kind of a curry soup with noodles and beancurd and chicken or prawns or both and Singapore is supposed to have very good laksa, I just never tried it until my last lunch at the Commonwealth hawker center. It was an appropriate (and delicious) last meal.
My friends and I flew to Phuket in southern Thailand, stayed a night there, and then traveled by bus and ferry to Ko Phangon (an island) for the Full Moon Party. This is a party that - you guessed it - happens every full moon. Ko Phangon also has the Half-Moon party, the Dark-Moon party, etc. etc (you can imagine how the island is built around tourism) but the FMP is the most famous. I had several people tell me that if I went to SE Asia, I had to go to this, so my friends and I decided to make it our last adventure together before parting ways.
I had a good time because I was with good people, but it's not really my scene. Literally, it's just a massive beach party of thousands of Westerners who have all been told that they HAVE to go to this party and then they do, discover that really, it's just a party like any other on any other beach (except the massive amounts of glowing body paint), but then leave and go spread the word across the globe to thousands of more Westerners that they HAVE to go to this party. The thing is, most of the time you lose all your friends and your shoes (I wore cheap flip-flops and on the ferry back, I saw a guy wearing one of mine and a different one on his other foot. He looked like he really needed it, though, so I didn't try to get it back) and then you're just kind of there by yourself surrounded by thousands of people. I was lucky I hung on to my two close friends and we had a good night (besides the part where one of them fell on a rock and cut up his foot and elbow - but he's okay!).
On Monday (the party was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday), I had to head back to Singapore to meet up with Mom (who, during this time, was getting SCUBA certified on Tioman) and begin our adventuring in Borneo while my friends were continuing to travel north. It was really hard to say goodbye to everyone, especially Karlijn and Gerrit who were my family over here. I remember before I left the states, I told my friend Katie that I hoped I would meet good people over here and she had assured me I would. Lucky for me, she was right.
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