Singapore was a blur of big city, Chel was sick and we breezed threw in a few days, but checked out some cool sights like a botanical garden with more than 50,000 kinds of orchids and a whole bunch of ukuleles!!!
Arriving in Borneo, we saw that Kota Kinabalu was a big and developed city with huge shopping malls and great food and not everything was exactly as we expected it...
... but then again some things were exactly as expected!
Life was reminiscent of Honey I Shrunk the Kids, and the Jurassic Park theme song was song quite often for a month or so.
We took a Jungle Safari down the Kinabatanagan River, a huge mud brown crocodile "infested" flow of water that went through some of the most bio-diverse rain forest on the planet. Chelsea and Tom take turns narrating like a PLANET EARTH DVD while we float past families of 8 different species of primates including wild orangutans, monkeys and lemurs and thousand of species of brightly coloured birds.
Trekking through the jungle at midnight we stopped to hear the growls and trumpets of a herd of WILD PYGMY ELEPHANTS that we stopped to watch through the trees - an unforgettable experience!
A family of wild Probiscus monkeys at the river side.
A glimpse of the WILD PYGMY ELEPHANT... Celebration Dance.
Taking place after our jungle trek discovery!
Just when it seemed Borneo couldn't get any more unforgettable... Chelsea Cowle decides that she will attempt to climb the highest peak in South East Asia. Full stop.
Super Majestic.
At over 4000m Mt. Kinabalu is almost half the height of Mt. Everest! It was a serious hike to the high camp at 3600m where we stayed the night before ascending the mountain at 3:00am to be at the peak for sunrise. Chelsea and Tom were the second party to reach the top, even before groups of spandexed super hikers who cleaned out MEC on the way to the airport.
At the top, sunrise was replaced by a torrential downpour and we hightailed it off the summit. But as if we wouldn't get a picture to prove this one!
Rain drops and headlamps of other climbers from the summit... basically the view from the top!
Doesn't this look fun!?
Quote "Okay. Joseph (our guide) snap it and get us the **** off this ******** mountain. ****."
Yes, we have been taking French lessons on the trip!
Anyway onto Kuching, the beautiful capital of the other province of Malaysian Borneo.
Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre.
A close relative - the Orangutom.
Discovered in Borneo after Tom didn't shave for a month and made Malaysian children cry at the mall (haha seriously).
With sore legs making us walk like cowboys for a few weeks after the mountain, we decided that the near freezing temperatures on the mountain were too close of a call to seeing snow this winter (sorry) so we headed to Pulau Langkawi in West Malaysia!
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