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Home >> Articles >> Life of Myden
Borneo To Be Wild
May 7th
We arrived in Seoul and checked into our hotel, E&A Suites. After getting settled, we made our way to Bar Abyss for a cocktail. The reason we picked this place is because they apparently had two cats roaming freely around the bar. We had a bit of confusion about how to get in. Once we were in, we got seated. We were the only people in the small bar. Unfortunately, no cats.
We ordered some cocktails, which were quite good. Chris had one that featured a fig liqueur that we hadn't heard of before (Feigling). I had one with mezcal that was smoked. It tasted very smoky to start with, but improved as I went on. We also had some really delicious tomatoes. They were the sweetest ones we've ever had. It was a little bit odd that the drinks were served with a platter of two tomatoes, some almonds, and three packs of chocolates.
After dinner, we walked to Cheonggyecheon Stream. It was lit up with some brightly colored lanterns and had a small waterfall at the start of it. We went for a short walk, but didn't last too long as I was getting very tired as my jet lag was starting to catch up to me. We headed back to the hotel for an early evening.
May 8th
We started off our day by walking through Namsan Park up to N Seoul Tower. It was a park in the middle of the city. We climbed to the top of the hill, enjoying some nice city views along the way at several viewpoints. Once at the top, we sat and admired the view of Seoul. We could see all the city to the north of us, but unfortunately the tower area was closed so we couldn't get a view looking south.
After enjoying some time at the top, we decided to make our way down to Myeongdong area. We took the path. It turned out it was a set of stairs after set of stairs after set of stairs. We were really glad we hadn't come up this way as it looked like a lot of work. Once in Myeongdong, it was a little early to go to the cat cafe as it wasn't open yet, so we tried to go check out a couple of cat stores in the north. Chris found one and bought a t-shirt. We took the way back to Myeongdong along the Insadong shopping street where I bought some socks with cats on them.
We arrived at the cat cafe Roof Me just as they were opening. We put on our cat slippers and went into the room with the cats. There were some very cute fluffy cats. We decided to get our free drinks to start with and went into the room and used the self-dispensing beverage machines to make our drinks. When we left, Chris accidentally let a cat into the drink room. He was waiting at the door to come in. We spent quite a bit of time at the cafe, relaxing with the cats and seeing all the different breeds. Among them were a British Shorthair, a Russian Blue, a few Maine Coons, Ragdoll, and several others that we probably couldn't name. There were a few that had really short legs. They all had really interesting eyes, very big and blue. Some of the cats wore clothing around their neck to make them look extra cute and others had to wear vests to warn you that they might not be friendly.
While we were there, they fed them their lunch at the cat hotel. When it was lunchtime, they rang a gong and all the cats came running towards the hotel where their food was dispensed in each of their dishes. The cats ate very quickly. After feeding time, they came and played with us for a little bit. They all seemed to enjoy the game where you hide the toy under the rug and they pounce on it. After we had heard the same soundtrack at least three times, we decided it was time to leave.
After the cafe, we went to Myeongdong Kyoja Main Restaurant. It's a famous dumpling spot in Seoul. We shared some spicy noodles which were very spicy and Chris had some dumplings which he said were very good. After that, we headed back to the hotel to relax for a little bit. For dinner, we took the metro to Gosari Express. We put our name in at a little terminal and we were 15th in line so we decided we had some time to walk around.
We strolled around the neighborhood, checked out the stream again, and then came back to the restaurant in time for our name to be called. It was a very small restaurant that would only seat about five parties at once. We were seated at the bar and the seating was quite tight.
We got a little snack to start with some pears and kimchi. I tried an interesting drink called makgeolli which is a Korean rice wine. It had an earl grey flavor and it was very tasty. We shared some noodles, momo, and a scallion pancake. It was all delicious. The noodles were nothing like we had ever had before with a very interesting umami flavor. The restaurant had received a Bib Gourmand recommendation from Michelin. Again, it was a very efficient meal and we were in and out in probably less than 40 minutes.
After dinner, we headed to check out the Dongdaemun Design Complex. It was a bit of a letdown as we had heard it was lit up nicely at night, but when we got there, there didn't seem to be much going on and all the indoor exhibits were closed.
May 9th
We arrived at the Changgyeonggung Palace at 9 am and stood in line to get our tickets. There was high demand to visit the secret garden part of the palace. Once inside, we strolled around the grounds and enjoyed the interesting colors of the architecture on the palace, which included lots of pinks, greens, and whites. We did an AI tour to learn a bit more about it.
Once the time of our tour arrived, we were led into the secret garden, where we started off with a guided tour. But quickly we decided to separate from the group and do a walk on our own to the gardens, which were quite nice and included lots of ponds and some little houses overlooking them. After the palace, we headed towards the traditional villa area, full of the Hanoks. It was here that we ran into many, many more tourists than we had encountered anywhere in Seoul so far.
Our first stop was the Bangkok House. It was a newer built Hanok, but still made in the traditional style. We walked around it quickly, but we were too hungry to enjoy too much of this area, so we quickly made our way to the Chatul Tea House, where we were seated at a little table on the floor. We ordered some teas and desserts to share. We shared a sampling of traditional Korean desserts, as well as a steamed rice cake, which was quite dense in filling.
After our tea and snack, we decided we didn't need lunch anymore. We continued on our way and made our way to the next palace, Gwanghwamun. Here we encountered many crowds of people. It was way busier than when we had visited the other ones in the morning. There were lots of people taking photos wearing traditional hanboks. You got free entry into the palace if you came wearing one.
By this point, we had done a lot of walking and were getting a little tired, so we decided to head back to the hotel for a bit before dinner. We headed out to dinner at Alt A. It was another Michelin Bib Gourmand recommendation that had vegan food. All the food was quite good, but maybe not quite as good as the night before, we decided. We shared some sweet and sour beef, as well as some black bean noodles and some dumplings with some cinnamon buns for dessert.
After dinner, we made our way to a bridge that had a light and water fountain show. It was quite a long walk to get there. It was a much longer walk to the Banpo Bridge than we had expected, and not that enjoyable as it was along a very busy road. Once we arrived at the bridge, we stood off to the side and watched some of the light and fountain show, and then we continued on our way underneath the bridge.
Once under the bridge, we could hear the music that the water and lights were playing to. It wasn't a very enjoyable walk though, as it was very crowded and there were lots of cars driving along the bridge, so we couldn't really stop and enjoy the show. Once on the other side, there were lots of people there, many picnicking, out walking, or exercising in the evening. We strolled along the river, but it turned out to be quite a long stroll to get back to the metro station to catch the train back home.
May 10th
We woke up early to catch the 5 a.m. bus to the airport. When we were checking out of our hotel, we noticed that one of the front desk clerks was playing with a cute cat outside. They had a toy, and the cat looked like it was having fun.
The night bus was right on time, and we took the hour drive to the airport, where we checked into our flight, and after some confusion over paying for our luggage, we boarded our plane to Borneo. We had a change of planes in Kota Kinabalu, and then arrived in Sandakan. We grabbed the Bornean equivalent of an Uber to our hotel, Sepilok Tanini.
We checked into our room, and then quickly grabbed our stuff to head out towards the Rainforest Discovery Centre. On the way there, we stopped at the White House Bistro for a quick bite to eat. We both had a curry and milkshakes. We continued our walk to the Rainforest Discovery Centre. We had a little bit of time, and walked around a bit before the tour started.
Then we headed into the Discovery Centre, where we could see some monkeys in the distance playing in a tree. Before the night walk, we were separated into groups. There were seven people in our group, and we headed up to try and catch a glimpse of the flying squirrel. We watched as it started to poke its head out of its box, and then eventually emerged. And then it took flight. Chris thought it looked like it was a cliff jumper wearing a wingsuit.
We watched it fly a couple times, and then headed on to watch a different one. And then we continued on our night walk. We walked for quite a ways in the dark. Every so often we would stop, and our guide would go off searching in the bush with his red flashlight to try and find something interesting. We repeated this process many, many times, but he had no luck on finding anything.
We covered quite a bit of ground on our walk. Finally, when we were almost near the end of our tour, he got lucky and spotted a tarsier in the forest. We all clambered into the forest to try and get a look at it. We were able to follow it for a bit as it hopped from tree to tree, and so I watched it until another group arrived to get their turn to see it.
We finished our night walk by seeing a pit viper curled up on a tree branch, as well as a scorpion. Oh, and we also saw a couple of frogs. We walked back to our hotel, and we were pretty tired after our early morning and all the walking. It was quite hot walking through rain forest at night.
May 11th
We woke up early to try and get a little bit of bird watching in before breakfast. We wandered around the hotel and saw quite a few birds, but most of them we didn't know what we were looking at, since Chris's Merlin app couldn't identify them. We did find a friendly cat, though, that sat with us for a bit on the stairs of the resort while we watched some birds.
We then headed to breakfast. The food was pretty tasty, we both enjoyed the noodles, and they also had an omelet station. After breakfast, we made our way to the orangutan sanctuary. Once inside the sanctuary, we made our way up to the end of the walkway, where there was an area where they were about to feed some orangutans. We watched some monkeys, which I think were common macaws, as they were congregated in the feeding area when we first arrived.
Fairly soon after, a young orangutan came swinging in. The guide told us it was about six years old, her name was Didi. She entertained us for a while, and then a few more orangutans came in for feeding time, including a mom and a baby, as well as a single one. We watched as they put the food on the platform. The six-year-old orangutan came in first and picked up four bananas, carrying two in each foot, as she swung away into the forest to eat them. The mom made her way up to the feeding platform next to have her breakfast. The baby wasn't too interested in eating, though.
We watched the orangutans for a bit, and the six-year-old came back. After the orangutans were done eating, all the macaws came running back in and had a feeding frenzy on the leftovers, which included some bananas, cabbage, and corn on the cob. After we finished watching this feeding, it was announced that the main feeding was starting. We then made our way back down to an outdoor platform, where we found a spot to watch one single orangutan have her breakfast. We couldn't stay for too long, as we had to get back to our hotel to catch our shuttle to our next resort.
On the walk back to the hotel, we stopped on the side of the road to buy some coconut water, which was served in nice cold coconuts. It cost us two ringgits extra to get cold instead of room temperature. We quickly checked out of our hotel, and then drove to the jetty, where we boarded our boat to the Kinabatangan Wetlands Resort. It was about an hour and a half boat ride to get to our resort. First across the ocean, and then in and up the river. On the way, we saw a couple different monkeys. We believe the first one we saw was a proboscis monkey, followed by some macaws.
We arrived at the resort, and were given some juice and a cold towel on check-in. We then were served our lunch. After this, we went to our rooms, which was a surprisingly large one. We were very impressed with the room and the comfortable furnishings it had. However, we didn't get any phone signal, so Chris commented, "We're really off the grid now!" as he was staring at his phone, searching Reddit using the wifi. We then made our way back to the restaurant, where we were served an after-lunch snack of banana fritters.
After this, we boarded our boat for our first river cruise. We headed up the river, and soon after we started, we had our first monkey sighting. We sat and watched them for a little bit, and then continued on. The next thing we saw was a single silver langur sitting in a tree. It was fairly far in the distance, so we couldn't get too close of a look. Next we saw a collared kingfisher, followed by the lesser adjutant. Our guide told us it was very unusual to see this bird, and most birdwatchers come to Borneo with this one on their list, as it's one that they hope to see.
We then continued on, and were able to find a couple different groups of the proboscis monkeys. We also saw another group of silver langurs hanging out in a tree. Once it started getting dark, we headed back to the resort. We quickly went back to our rooms and got ready for dinner and the night walk. After dinner, we met our guide and set off along the boardwalk into the forest to see what we could see. On the walk, we saw a frog, some stick insects, a big spider, and a flying squirrel, although it wasn't flying, we just saw it going scurrying through the trees.
May 12th
We got an early start to head out on our 6:30 river boat cruise. There was just four of us in the boat today as the other part of our group had decided to do a private tour. We headed out onto the river. Our first sighting was of a Brahminy kite bird. It was fairly well camouflaged in the trees, but we got a good view of its back. Apparently a lot of bird watchers get excited when they see this bird.
We continued on to look for more things. The next thing we came upon was a cat snake that was sleeping in the palms in the shade. It was quite a bright black and white colored. After that we continued along the river and were surprised when we saw a large orangutan right down at the water level looking for something to eat for breakfast. We watched as the orangutan broke some things off showing his great strength. Eventually he found what he wanted to eat and took his breakfast up just into the trees to eat. We were able to watch the back of him before he moved off a little further into the bush to eat in more privacy.
We sat and watched for a while as he moved around a bit and eventually had a second helping of breakfast. The first view we got of him was definitely the best. Next we continued on along the river to see what else we could find. Our guides noticed some spots where some branches had been broken off freshly and thought there must be another orangutan in the area that had been eating. They were able to spot him camouflaged in the trees having a nap. We were able to get quite close to this orangutan as apparently he was very used to people and boats. He was sleeping and very difficult to see in the shade though. At one point he got a little mad and showed his teeth when our boats got too close to him.
We then headed back to the lodge to have a breakfast. After breakfast we decided to go for a little walk along the boardwalk to see if we could see anything interesting. We mostly saw some bugs and butterflies but we did see one interesting bird that was a rust reddish color with some blue and looked like a woodpecker. We're not sure what it was. We went back to our room and relaxed a bit before lunch. We headed out for lunch and along the pathway we saw some Silvered Leaf monkeys. We stopped and watched them for a while and took some photos before continuing on to eat our lunch.
After lunch we went back to our room and relaxed a bit more before our next activity. We headed out again at 4pm. Back on the boardwalk the Silvered Leaf monkeys had moved a little closer to our cabin. We got some good views and some close-up photos of them as they moved about in the trees. We had a quick snack and then headed out on to our evening safari. Tonight's was an extra long one as it was the safari at dusk combined with a night safari. We headed back out onto the river in search of more wildlife.
The first thing we came upon was a white-bellied fish eagle. As we were sitting watching this bird a white-bellied woodpecker flew above us. After the bird sightings we continued on and found a group of proboscis monkeys. We saw and watched them for a while. Our guide said it was a group of males. However, quite close to the males was a family group that seemed to be somewhat threatened by the males right beside them. At one point the male in the family group went crashing through the trees to try and show his dominance. For a second we were worried he was going to fall as one of the branches snapped beneath him.
While we were watching the monkeys a little kingfisher was beside us. The blue-eared kingfisher caught a fish right beside our boat. A little ways down from the proboscis monkeys was a group of common macaws. They were quite rambunctious running around. One little one had a stem of flowers that he was eating. While watching these we saw an oriental kingfisher come flying in from nearby.
We also saw a few crocodiles. The first one we saw at our lodge was very small swimming down the little stream. The next one we came across on shore was bigger and was sleeping with its mouth open to try and show its dominance. The third one we found was very large. Our guide said it was about four meters long but we thought maybe closer to three.
Next we went in search of the hornbill rhinoceros as our guide could hear it calling in the distance. We got lucky and it came flying out from the trees and perched on some branches in front of us. We watched it for a while and then we followed it across the river where it landed on another tree.
While we were watching it some common macaws nearby started giving off a warning sign so our guide moved us down the river where we saw a crocodile lying on the beach. The macaws were squawking to warn each other of the danger. We saw it and waited for it to get dark for a bit and then headed back to look at some fireflies. There were two trees lit up with fireflies that looked like Christmas. Apparently the fireflies only congregate in the tree species that they like.
We then went in search of some sleeping birds. We saw two kingfishers. Both were the stork build type. They were sitting on a branch and we were able to get quite close to them to get a good look. We then spotted a buffy fish owl perched on a branch. He had bright yellow eyes when he turned to look at us.
After our successful night safari we returned back to the lodge for dinner. As we were walking back up to the lodge we spotted one deer as well as another buffy fish owl. We were able to get quite close to the owl as it was on a branch right beside the boardwalk.
May 13th
We woke up early again and went for a walk to see if we could spot any animals on our own. We headed off down the boardwalk loop that we had done on the previous evening's night walk. We mostly just heard a lot of birds that we couldn't identify, and couldn't find any interesting animals.
We walked down to the river and sat by the water for a little bit, and watched some birds and listened to their noises. We headed back to our room, and as we walked up onto our porch, we startled a bearded pig that was sleeping beside it. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a good look at it.
We had our breakfast and then checked out of the Kinabatangan Wetlands Resort, and made our way on a two-hour boat ride further upstream to Hornbill Lodge. The boat ride wasn't that enjoyable as we went very fast, so it was really windy, and so we had no chance of spotting wildlife on the way. We arrived at the resort just in time for lunch.
We then got settled in our room, and that afternoon we headed out on our first river cruise from Hornbill Lodge. We got in our boat with our guide, Adam, and followed a parade of boats that was already out on the water, down a smaller tributary to spot some wildlife. We saw quite a few different groups of proboscis monkeys, a couple different types of macaws, some kingfisher birds again, and a few crocodiles.
The most interesting thing we saw today was probably some Komodo dragons. There was a family of four of them, including one that was fairly large, although Chris commented that he's seen bigger in nature documentaries. One group of macaws was quite close to the river, so we sat for a while watching them as they had several young babies with them who were quite playful and scampering around the trees.
We then turned around and made our way back to the resort. On our way back, we noticed a large group of boats up ahead of us watching something. It turned out to be a herd of elephants grazing close to the river. We saw about five or six elephants in total, so we sat and watched them for a while. The elephants that can be found in Borneo are called pygmy elephants. They're the smallest elephants in Asia.
By this time, it was almost dark, so we headed back to the lodge for dinner. After dinner, we joined our guide again and headed off on a night walk. On our night walk, we saw several frogs, lots of different types of insects, including stick insects, a whip scorpion, and large ants. One interesting bug that we saw was a large red one called a True Bug.
May 14th
We had another early start to our day as our boat tour departed at 6 AM. We loaded into the boat and headed further upstream the river. Along the way we saw a ruffalo bird, a monitor lizard, several crocodiles, monkeys, and a black hornbill.
Once back at the lodge we had some breakfast and then headed out on a morning walk. We walked up a steep hill to the viewing platform, but there wasn't much to view. We had a nice view of the river, but didn't see any animals. On our way back down we spotted a couple of hornbill birds. It was pretty hot and we got quite sweaty on the walk in the jungle humidity.
After breakfast we relaxed for a bit and then went and had our lunch. We sat on the patio and played some games and then I did some yoga before it was time for our afternoon boat cruise. We once again got back in the boat. Our first sighting was of the rhinoceros hornbill bird. We then continued on our way and saw one of our bigger crocodiles. Near it was a monitor lizard. We thought we might witness a scene out of National Geographic if the crocodile went after the lizard, but it seemed to be waiting patiently for its opportunity to strike.
Other birds we saw included a Coucal, a lesser adjutant, purple crane, and a bristle something that we couldn't remember the name of (Bornean Bristlehead?). One highlight was that we saw two orangutans. We stopped and watched them for a while, but they were fairly far in the distance in the tree so we could see the outline of them moving around but couldn't get a close up view. We saw a couple silverleaf monkeys as well as several groups of proboscis monkeys. The proboscis monkeys are my favorite to watch because they make the largest jumps from tree to tree.
Once back at the lodge we had some dinner and then we once again headed out on a night walk. We went with a different guide tonight and took a slightly shorter route as they were concerned that the elephants we saw the day prior might have moved into the area near the lodge. Our guide told us if we saw an elephant we had to run back to the lodge.
As we set out we saw a sleeping bird beside the lodge. It had rained quite a bit this afternoon so the trail was a little more wet tonight, but it made conditions favorable for sighting a lot of frogs. We saw several different kinds including a tree frog that was posing nicely. We once again saw some unique insects as well as another sleeping kingfisher. We saw a millipede, a giant ant which was bigger than a large ant we saw the night before, a snail, one that looked like a leaf, a cricket, a stick figure thing we weren't sure what it was, and a big red bug with a black dot on it.
May 15th
Another early morning and we got up to start our 6am river cruise. We boarded the boat and headed downstream. Today we saw several things that we had already seen before such as crocodiles, rhinoceros hornbills, proboscis monkeys, macaws, and monitor lizards.
One thing that we saw that was entertaining was a group of macaws crossing a bridge that was designed for orangutans. It was basically a rope strung across from the trees on each side of the river. The macaws crossing it were the pigtailed kind so our guide said because they didn't have a long tail they didn't have very good balance. So they would start off walking across the top of the rope and then lose their balance and then flip to the underside and have to go hand over hand across it. We sat and watched them for a while and it was quite entertaining.
We came back to the lodge and had some breakfast. It was quite tasty with some more traditional breakfast items in Malaysia such as roti canai, dal, aloo gobi, and a vegetable curry. But there were still also waffles and omelettes.
After breakfast we boarded our little van that transferred us to Lahad Datu. They dropped us off at the airport where we checked in to the Tabin Wildlife Cabins office. We then waited around a while for other members of the group to arrive. Once everyone came we got in a van and drove for an hour and a half to Tabin. It was over quite a bumpy road. 26 kilometers on it and it took quite a long time.
Once at Tabin we were shown into the main lodge and we had our lunch and got a briefing on our activities. It was pouring rain so unfortunately we couldn't do the mud volcano walk as planned so we went out on a dusk and evening drive instead. To start with we saw several different types of eagles including the Wallace's hawk-eagle and the crested serpent eagle. We also saw quite a few hornbill rhinoceros again. We saw a group of short-tailed macaws sitting on the palm oil plantation.
We drove on a bumpy road for about an hour. There were eight of us plus our guide in the back of the pickup truck. The setup was not very comfortable as you sat on a narrow seat with a bar either behind you or in front of you to hang on to and it was a little cramped sitting in the middle. Once we reached the end we got out to stretch our legs. While we were walking around our guide spotted a civet darting across the road behind the vehicle. I only caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye.
By this time it was getting dark so we got back into our vehicle and started the drive back. Our guide had his light out looking for things in the forest. The first thing we came upon was a little deer called a samba deer. He said there were three species here and it was the biggest one but it was still pretty tiny.
We then saw another civet go darting across the road in front of us and then it went into a tree where we could see it moving around a little bit. We continued on our way and found another couple of civets in a tree which we sat and watched for a while. And then we were lucky enough to come across a third civet trio where three little ones were in a tree eating the fruit that our guide said were figs. We saw both the Island Palm civet (AKA the Asian palm civet) and the masked palm civet.
Once we arrived back at our lodge our dinner was ready. They made me a special vegetarian set. As I was getting up for dessert I saw a cat on the other side of the balcony. It turned out it was a Malayan civet. In addition to the civet there were also a few house cats around.
One thing I forgot to mention is that while out on our drive, we also saw a storm stork. Our guide said that there were only 50 left in the entire world. Googling it later, the real number appears to be between 300 and 1750.
May 16th
This morning we got to sleep in as breakfast wasn't until 6.30. At 7.30 we loaded back into the back of the pickup truck and headed out to check out the mud volcano. We drove for a little while and then got out and walked the last 700 meters to reach the mud volcano. The walk was pretty muddy so we all wore our rubber boots. We reached the mud volcano around the same time as a construction crew did, so unfortunately we didn't get a serene experience. The guide also said the construction was keeping all the animals away, so not even a bird was sighted. On the way to the mud volcano we did see an Oriental darter and a Trogon.
We walked out onto the volcano. The guide mentioned very quietly that we shouldn't step where the mud was soft. Unfortunately not all the group heard this and went ahead. One person went wandering off and immediately sunk into the mud knee deep and couldn't get out. He struggled for a while and we tried to think of ways to help him.
Eventually the guide went over to try and give him some instruction. Unfortunately the guy's wife also went to help him and then she too got stuck. The two of them struggled for quite a while to get out. We tried offering them a stick but it was useless. Eventually one of them was able to free themselves, however the boot was stuck in the mud and it took quite a while to dig out. And then the wife was able to free herself next. Both of them were covered in the mud so got an extra body scrub treatment exfoliant in the clay.
We then made our way back up the wet trail to the truck where we once again loaded in and headed on to our next stop. It was another short walk to reach the Lipid Waterfall. It involved a river crossing. The guide went across first and not much instruction was given to the rest of us about what to expect. Chris and I decided to take off our socks but keep our rubber boots on. We held on to the rope and made it across the far side. Once on the far side we noticed the lady in front of us had a leech stuck to her back. We then checked our boots and I found one leech in my boots. The guy in our group was nice enough to try and get it out for me. We then carried on to the waterfall which was quite spectacular. We opted not to swim given the leech situation. We made it back across the river without any more leech incidents and back into the pickup truck where we came back to the resort for lunch.
After lunch we headed up for a foot soak. We entered the building and were asked if we would also like a facial. We were then shown to the bathroom where we put the volcanic mud on our faces and then returned where our foot soak was brought out to us which was a bucket consisting of some rocks and various remedies to help soothe your feet. The rocks were used as an exfoliant to remove any dead skin. We were then brought a chrysanthemum tea to drink while we waited the 20 minutes for our feet to finish soaking. The next step was drying your feet and applying moisturizer and then we removed our mud face masks and left the area feeling rejuvenated.
We had our afternoon snack of pastries and tea and sat on the deck with the pregnant cat hanging out with us. The waiter informed us that her name was Auntie. After our snack it was time for our next drive to look for animals. It was probably our most unsuccessful yet. The only thing we caught a glimpse of was a brief sighting of a monitor lizard. We did drive into the old-growth rainforest where the trees were quite a bit bigger and it was cooler and shadier. On the way out we stopped at a birding tower and climbed up the steps to look at the view. Unfortunately still no animals.
After dinner we headed out on a night walk. We saw a few bugs, some frogs, two snakes and then capped it off when one member of our group spotted some eyes high up in a tree. It turned out they belonged to a giant red flying squirrel. Soon after we spotted it, it climbed up to the very top branch and took flight soaring right across over top of us into another tree. Our group roared with delight. It was quite the finale to the end of our night walk.
May 17th
Today was our last day at Tabin. We woke up early again and headed out on a short walk. Our first stop was a tree by one of the lodge buildings in which Gibbons usually frequented. We were able to see a family and watched a few Gibbons, including some young ones, play in the tree. After watching them for a while, we headed back to the restaurant for some breakfast. We were impressed that the staff member remembered our omelette ingredient preferences from the day before. So far, Tabin has had the best omelette station of the trip.
After breakfast, we took a short walk and then relaxed for a while. We had lunch and then played a card game while we waited for our 1.30 shuttle ride back to Lahad Datu. Once in Lahad Datu, we checked in to Hacks Bed and Breakfast. We enjoyed a refreshing swim. Upon check-in, we were given a blue drink. It was a very pretty plate decorated with watermelon and flowers. The drink was a deep blue made out of the butterfly pea flower. Our host then poured in some calamansi juice and the drink turned to purple. And then we added some simple syrup to taste to make it sweet enough. The drink was very refreshing.
We then headed to the pool for a swim, which was also nice and refreshing. We stayed in the pool for quite a while and watched some birds landing on the roof. We also met two of the cats that lived at the guesthouse. For dinner, we weren't that hungry, so we decided just to head to the grocery store to pick up a few snacks. We ordered a Grab car, the equivalent of an Uber, and took the short drive to the grocery store. Upon arrival, all the grocery store employees were very excited as they seemed to be having some contest giveaway and they were all loud and screaming and cheering each other on. We couldn't quite understand what was happening.
We grabbed a few things from the store, which had a pretty good selection of snacks. We tried to buy a bag of mandarin oranges, but they wouldn't let us take the bag as they noticed that one of the oranges in the bag had gone rotten. We took a Grab back and sat on the balcony and Chris ate his Mr. Noodles and I ate my protein bar and chips.
While we were there, an Australian couple who was also staying there came out into the balcony to chat with us. We chatted with the husband for quite a while. While we were chatting, there was quite a few coincidences in our conversation. Turns out they had stayed at the same lodge as us back in Sepilok and they had also met another couple who also happened to be from Calgary.
Once back in our room, I realized that we had met these people before. We had met them at the airport and then ran into them again at our lodge in Sepuloc and it turns out we were the couple that they had met from Calgary. But neither of us realized this during our conversation!
May 18th
We had breakfast at our bed and breakfast. It was delicious. Our first course started off with some fresh fruit and a light sugar syrup with calamansi juice. We also had a smoothie. And our main course was a black bean tofu and cheese roti that was also very tasty with some pickled cabbage on the side.
After breakfast we headed to the airport which was quite busy and our taxi couldn't even get into the parking lot to drop us off. It turns out it was just a large group of people excited to meet their friends who were arriving on an earlier flight. We checked in for our flight and boarded the plane. We were headed to Mulu with a quick stop in Kota Kinabalu. We were originally a little hesitant about making the connection as it was only 25 minutes long.
When we deplaned in Kota Kinabalu, an airline person was there to meet us and told us we had to go through immigration check before we get on our next flight. We rushed through our immigration check and then came back and then boarded the plane which coincidentally happened to be the same plane that we had just gotten off of. It turns out there wasn't any need to worry about our luggage making the transfer. It was a short flight to Mulu on an almost empty plane.
Once in Mulu we took a short shuttle ride to the Marriott. Our room wasn't quite ready so we relaxed by the pool for a little bit. We got settled quickly in our room and then headed to the park for our first tour. We checked into the park and then started our tour for the Deer Cave, Lang cave and then to watch the bat exodus.
We set off along the boardway. There was just a small group of us with the guide. Along the way we spotted an interesting red millipede, some large trees and some plants that he told us about being poisonous. We also saw a really interesting tree that when the guide whistled the ants inside of it moved so you could hear the swishing sound as the ants ran from one end of the trunk to another.
We stopped for a short break at the bat viewing area where we enjoyed a cold coca-cola and then continued on our way to the cave. On the way there we saw a small group of red langur monkeys. They were a little scared of us though so we didn't get to watch them for too long.
The first cave that we entered into was Lang cave. Apparently it was quite a small cave by Mulu standards but had lots of interesting formations and our guide pointed out some small worms hanging from the ceiling. They look like more like strands of hair than actual worms.
After touring this cave we then made our way to Deer Cave. It was much bigger than the previous cave but much darker and not as many formations. This is the cave that the majority of the bats lived in. The smell in the cave was quite strong given all the bat guano. We walked a loop around the cave. There are some nice views of the water pouring from the ceiling. Once out of the cave we quickly made our way back to the bat exodus area to get a good seat and waited for the bats to make their exit.
A guide must have heard something inside the cave happening because he introduced the bat exodus and told us it was about to happen and asked everyone to please be quiet while the bats made their exit. We sat and waited and sure enough within 30 seconds the bats began leaving the cave. They came streaming out of it in large flocks. They came out in large groups. One group would come streaming out of the cave and go flying across the sky all grouped together in a formation. Then there'd be a pause and the next group would come out. One particular group was quite large and seemed to go on forever and ever as they exited the cave. Some made some interesting formations. A couple of the bat groups flew in the shape of a ring.
After all the bats appeared to have exited we made our way back towards the park office. We'd walked about three kilometers to get to the bat viewing area. The three kilometer walk back in the dark and the heat felt quite long. On the way back we did see one interesting bird. A bird of paradise?
We decided to eat dinner at the park and we were worried about catching the shuttle back before what we thought was the last shuttle the night at 8 p.m. So we made up our minds and ordered very quickly to try to get our food in before the rest of the people coming back from the bat exodus. It turns out there was some confusion with the order and even though I had ordered two items, one for each of us, only one showed up. So our thought of being efficient didn't exactly work out. Chris had to go and reorder his and then accidentally ordered rice instead of noodles. Chris ate very quickly and then security called the shuttle for the Marriott for us.
While waiting we bought some pop at a vending machine that we realized after we had inserted our cash did not give any change. We came back to the Marriott where a black cat was waiting at reception meowing quite loudly. We visited with the cat whose name was Black. We then went for another swim in the pool. It was quite refreshing. While we were in the pool some thunder and lightning started in the distance. It soon started to rain and the thunder and lightning seemed to be moving closer so we got out of the pool quickly and headed back to our room.
May 19th
This morning, we headed out for a swim in the pool at the hotel. We once again had it all to ourselves. It was quite a nice morning swim, after which we headed for breakfast. It wasn't very busy when we arrived, so we had the whole buffet to ourselves. Chris made the mistake of going for all the white man foods, waffles, pancakes, and ice cream, all of which were somewhat mediocre. They still had pretty good omelets. The noodles were pretty good, though.
We relaxed for a bit and then headed back to the park for our cave tour of the Fastlane at Lagang Cave. We had a small group, and once again, we had the same tour guide. His name was Adyei. This time, we took a long boat to get to the cave. We loaded into the boat, which was a long, narrow boat where you sat single file, and took the 10-minute boat ride upstream. We disembarked from the boat and then made a short walk through the rainforest to arrive at the entrance to the cave. This cave was not lit, so we needed our own flashlights to be able to view anything inside the cave.
We went into the cave, and immediately, there were a whole bunch of swiftlets circling around, and you could hear them clicking, using their echolocation to see in the dark. We ventured further into the cave, where we saw a few bats hanging from the ceiling. We saw one racer snake and a couple huntsman spiders, as well as a couple cave crickets. The formations in the cave were quite interesting, and we once again had to walk through quite a bit of bat guano on the ground.
At one point in the tour, we all turned off our flashlights to see how dark it was. It was indeed pitch black, where you couldn't see your hand in front of the face. It's amazing to think of these animals negotiating in this pitch blackness, as well as things living and growing here.
After the cave, we weren't quite hungry for dinner yet, so we decided to take a short walk around the botany loop. It was about 2 kilometers long. Halfway through our walk, it started to rain, and then it was accompanied by a lot of thunder and lightning. In the rainforest, we were quite protected from the rain, with all the big trees around us so we didn't get too wet. We went back to the cafe at the park for dinner. This time it wasn't as busy, so we didn't have any mix-ups with our order.
After dinner, we made our way back to the Marriott. We thought about going for a swim, but there was still quite a bit of thunder and lightning, so we settled on playing a game of tri-bond in the lobby. We were once again joined by the cat, whose name was maybe Black or Blackie. She came and sat with us for a bit, and enjoyed some pats.
May 20th
This morning we headed once again to our breakfast at the Marriott. We had learned from yesterday what was good. We once again ordered the omelettes, but Chris had a bit of miscommunication so we got meat in both of them.
After breakfast we caught the shuttle to the park for our tour of Wind Cave and Clear Water Cave. Our group today was much bigger with over 20 people in our group. Our first stop was a local market. We weren't looking forward to this but it turned out they had some nice things. We bought a few wooden spatulas and spoons as well as a nice woven basket.
We then boarded our boat again and headed further upstream to our first stop at the wind cave. We very slowly made our way up to the entrance. Our group of 20 people were not fast moving. Once at the cave we did a circuit of the cave. We can't think of too much that stood out about this cave. The one annoying thing was that people in our group also seemed to want to talk the full time we were in the cave which took away some of the enjoyment.
After Wind Cave we took another short boat ride upstream to the Clear Water cave. We arrived at a little rest area where we sat for a bit on a picnic table and then we all walked the 200 steps to get into the entrance to the Clear Water cave. It again took the group quite a while to make their way up to the top. We entered the cave and it was very impressive with the large chamber. Our guide said the total length was about 260 kilometres. We only saw a fraction of it.
Once in the cave there was quite a bit of water running through the cave. If you did an adventure cave tour you could swim through it. We did a circuit of the cave which involved some more stairs going up and down through the large chambers and seeing the interesting formations. Once out of the cave we walked back down the stairs and took the boat back to the park headquarters.
We had a quick lunch again at the park cafe and again had a pretty good meal. We then took the shuttle back to our hotel. That afternoon we went for a nice swim in the pool. Chris said it was one of the top five pools he'd been to in his entire life. It had good music, good water temperature and nice surroundings.
After the pool we went and sat by the river bar and had some cocktails. I had margaritas and Chris had Mai Tais. We decided to cancel our evening night walk as it was raining. I didn't think it would be too enjoyable walking around for two hours in the rain.
We then went for dinner at Stella's just across the bridge from the Marriott where we shared some noodles, some roti and some stir-fried local ferns as well as some tea and local rice wine. It was quite good. Once back at the hotel we met up with the cats again. This time our friend Blacky had found two male cats. We were a little concerned for her as the male cats seemed to want to produce some baby kittens.
We headed back to our room and on the way back Chris spotted a very large insect crawling on the railing. It was probably the biggest bug we have ever seen in our lives. One bug was walking along the railing and another seemed to be hitchhiking on its back. We tried to identify it and it might be a huge stick insect, although it did not look very stick like. Googling around to figure it out, the scientific name may be Haaniella Echinata.
The male apparently catches a ride on the back of the female to offer the female protection from other predators.
May 21st
This morning we woke up and went for a swim. We once again had the pool at the Marriott all to ourselves. We had a nice morning swim and then went for breakfast. In some omelette confusion we ended up with three, as I think we got the ladies who butted in ahead of us in line but then left before it was ready.
We then headed to the airport to catch our flight to Kuching. Once in Kuching we picked up our rental car and then made a stop at a very busy large grocery store to pick up a few drinks and snacks. And then we made our way to our bed and breakfast at Nanga de Mae.
It took about an hour to drive there so it was further than I was expecting. We got checked into our room and then met a couple of the cats that live there. It turns out there are three of them, Chloe, Annie and Garun.
I went for a swim and then we went to dinner about a five minute drive away at a place called Barung TriSari. We were the only people there. I requested a vegetarian meal and ended up with some tasty fried noodles with an egg on top as well as an unexpected bowl of vegetable soup. Chris had the buttermilk chicken noodles.
While we waited for our meal we were visited by a couple of the local cats. We headed back to our bed and breakfast and sat on the porch at home with the cats for the evening.
May 22nd
We were greeted by the cat, Annie, when we woke up. We then headed up for breakfast, where the other cats were hanging out. After breakfast, I went for a swim, and then we headed into the town of Kuching to look for some cat things. Kuching is known for their love of cats, and the town has various cat statues around it. We tried to find a couple murals to start with, but a couple of them turned out not to have cats on them.
We then walked along the waterfront, which was quite nice, but extremely hot. We found some bronze statues of some cats, followed by a cat fountain in the middle of a roundabout. We then grabbed a grab car back to Indah Cafe, where we had a very quick lunch of milkshakes and sandwiches, before we got back in the car and headed south to the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre. We arrived at 2pm, right when they were opening for their afternoon feeding. We bought our tickets, and then made the trek up the road to where the feeding areas were located.
On the way, we passed a tiny little green snake on a log. Apparently, the person before us had said that it is very venomous, and that if it bites you, you would die 11 hours later (we were skeptical).
Once the orangutans were close to arriving, someone gave some instructions about what to do when they arrived, mostly about not standing directly underneath them and to try to be quiet. The second instruction proved very hard for people to follow. We soon saw a male come through the forest and onto the feeding platform. He swung his way down and picked up some bananas and sweet potatoes in his hands and his feet, and took them up in the tree to eat. He came down once more to get a coconut for dessert, and then made his way back into the forest.
After this, we were informed by one of the rangers that there was a female with a 3-day old baby feeding in another area. The whole group rushed off to see this. I have never seen a crowd of people walk up such a steep hill so fast in my life. Once there, we were able to get very close to a 13-year-old female named Ruby, who had a tiny little baby clinging to her belly. Ruby enjoyed her late lunch of mostly bananas that the rangers passed up to her to eat while she relaxed in the tree. She didn't seem bothered at all by all the people around her watching and taking pictures.
We then were informed that there was another orangutan a little further up the road, this time a small 8-year-old male. He hung out in the tree while the rangers tossed bananas up to him. Some of their coordination wasn't very good as they missed several times, and he had to come down a little lower to make it easier for him to catch. We hung out watching both the 8-year-old and the mom with the baby for a while, until we made our way back to the car and headed back to our bed and breakfast, where we once again hung out on the terrace with all the cats for the evening. We made some ichiban for dinner.
While we were on the terrace, we heard some really strange groaning, grunting noises coming from the forest. We're not sure what these are, so maybe tomorrow we'll have to see if we can figure it out.
"Whoa, you guys, that wasn't very nice. That wasn't very nice at all." (cats fighting)
One thing I forgot to mention is that we also spotted a couple silverleaf monkeys from the property this morning hanging out in a nearby tree. While we were sitting on the terrace, a little frog hopped up onto the terrace, and Chris tried to prevent Garun, the cat, from catching it, but this was very difficult, as the cat was able to evade Chris catching him, and the frog hopped across the terrace and down the stairs, where Garun followed it into the long grass and ferns. We don't think she caught it, but who knows?
May 23rd
We did a little bit of morning yoga and then had our breakfast and got ready to go on our boat trip. We got picked up and driven the five-minute drive to the jetty where we met the rest of our group and boarded a boat in hope of seeing the Irrawaddy dolphin, known for their round noses and who look like they're smiling.
Irrawaddy dolphins are a river dolphin that lives at the outlet of the river where it meets the ocean. They apparently also hang around the fishing boats to catch the fish that the fishermen throw back. As soon as we got into the boat, we spotted a very large crocodile swimming in the water. The guide told us the locals call him Abu. He's about four meters long and we watched him for a while as he swam around and he didn't seem scared of us.
After seeing the crocodile, we headed out towards the ocean in hope of spotting the dolphin. We boated around for a few minutes before the first one was sighted. We got a few good glimpses of them and then carried on towards an area where there were some proboscis monkeys in the trees. We watched the monkeys for a while, jumping from tree to tree and we continued on further up the river past a local village and down through some more mangroves and eventually made our way back to the dolphin spot where we once again stopped and tried to spot dolphins.
This time we got a pretty good view of some close up. We saw a couple that were mating and a family of three that had a baby with them. We even got a glimpse of the nose on a few of them. After we watched the dolphins for a while, we headed back to the jetty and were dropped off back at our bed and breakfast. We went for a swim to get refreshed and then had some snacks for lunch on the terrace.
While we were sitting there, a group of proboscis monkeys came by. The large male was sitting right outside our room and we got a pretty good view of him and his large nose. We watched as the group moved through the trees, leaping from tree to tree. They then moved up into a large tree at the end where we couldn't quite see them, but then a second group came through and we watched them go past. Altogether we probably saw the monkeys for about two or three hours as they moved through the trees by us.
We went for another little swim to cool off and then made our way to dinner. We only got about 300 meters down the road where it was barricaded off and we were told we had to take a shuttle the rest of the way due to some cultural celebration that was going on. We boarded the shuttle and got dropped off at the cultural village and then made our way on foot to the Permai Rainforest Lodge where we had dinner at the Feeding Tree restaurant. As usual we ordered the noodles and they were quite good. We timed it perfectly so we got a nice view of the sunset while we ate.
After dinner we went for a short walk around the resort. We came across a snake that scuttled across the pathway. We then made our way back to the cultural village. We weren't sure what exactly the cultural event was that was going on so we grabbed the shuttle back to our car. We relaxed for a bit on the terrace with the cats and did our journal.
May 24th
Woke up early again and had a quick breakfast and said goodbye to the cats and headed to the airport for our early flight to Singapore. It was a short flight and we arrived in Singapore and exited the airport very efficiently, getting through passport control and our luggage was there waiting for us on the other side.
We decided to check out the indoor waterfall at the airport. We took a shuttle over to the other terminal and arrived at the mall area where the waterfall was located. It was quite busy. We took the escalators up to look at the waterfall from the top. We then caught the shuttle back to where we started and took a grab car to our Hotel Indigo. We checked into our room which was quite nice, decorated all with an Asian theme.
We decided to head to the Singapore Botanic Gardens and caught the metro there. We arrived at the gardens and walked through several nice features including a swan pond, seeing a few monitor lizards on the way, some trees, and some nice flowers in gazeboed areas. It started to rain so luckily we were at an area that had some benches undercover where we took shelter and enjoyed watching the rain patter down on the ponds and greens around us. It was quite peaceful till a group arrived beside us and started making phone calls and watching videos on their phones.
We then continued on through the gardens to lunch at Wild Seed. Once again it wasn't quite the tranquil experience we were expecting as after we sat down the staff decided it was time to rearrange the tables, dragging the tables and chairs loudly across the floor and clanking the silverware into metal containers.
Our food came out very quickly so we had a not-so-enjoyable lunch and then departed the restaurant for the orchid garden. We paid our entrance fee and made our way into the garden. There were several different areas with different types of orchids and it took quite a while to walk all the way through and see them all. There was a VIP area, a celebrity area, as well as some different types of climates including one cold one that Chris enjoyed to help him cool off. At one point we heard a meowing sound. We couldn't determine if it was a cat or if it was a bird that sounded like a cat.
We made our way back through the gardens and caught the metro back to our hotel. We decided to go for dinner at a Thai restaurant near the lobby of our hotel called Khao Hom. We ordered some noodles and green curry. Once again the food came out very quickly and was very tasty. The green curry had a nice coconut milk flavor and the noodles were extra wide. To drink we also had a fresh coconut.
After dinner we went for a walk down the main street that looked interesting in the area where we were staying. Along the street there were several pet related businesses including lots of pet stores, pet boarding facilities, and pet grooming. We made it to some Peranakan houses which were brightly colored row houses and then turned around and headed back to our room.
May 25th
We got up early to try and beat the heat and went for a walk in the East Coast Park. Our plan to beat the heat unfortunately didn't work as it was really hot already and we got pretty sweaty walking. We walked a short ways along the path. There were lots of other people out biking, jogging and walking and even a couple people swimming. Although the water didn't look too appealing as there were hundreds of tankers docked nearby. There were some sandy beaches though.
We made our way back to Chin Mee Chin Confectionary, a traditional breakfast restaurant known for the Singapore breakfast kaya toast. Kaya toast is a toasted bun spread with kaya and butter on top. The breakfast set also comes with two soft boiled eggs that you crack into a bowl and season with soy sauce and pepper. As well as the local kopi coffee. The breakfast was quite tasty and we ended up buying a jar of kaya to take home with us. We'll see if we can recreate it in Calgary.
After breakfast we headed back to the hotel and I went for a swim to refresh. In the pool there was also an exercise going on with an instructor yelling at three people on stationary bikes inside the pool who were doing a spin class. After the swim we decided to venture back out into the heat again and we took the bus to Merlion Fountain. At this point in the day it was very hot and we tried to stay in the shade as much as possible but it was challenging. There were lots of other tourists around. It seemed to be one of the most touristy things we had done yet.
We took a few photos of the fountain and then decided to make our way to a bridge that was supposed to feature some bronze cats. Once at the bridge we walked over it and found some interesting mirrored balls that we took some photos of. We sat in the shade for a little bit trying unsuccessfully to cool off a bit. We then found the little cat statues that were a tribute to the Singapore cat breed. After this we got back on the metro and made our way to Whole Earth for lunch. It's a vegetarian restaurant which was in the Michelin Bib Gourmand Guide. We ordered a few different dishes. We thought they were okay. They likely appealed more to Asian tastes as we found them a little bit gelatinous for ours.
After lunch we made our way to the Gardens by the Bay at Marina Bay Sands. Once there we walked through the outdoor gardens and then made our way to the Flower Dome. We bought our tickets and headed inside to look at all the different plants from different areas of the world. Inside it was air-conditioned and nice and cool. It was quite busy as well with lots of other tourists around and we made our way through the various displays. After the Flower Dome we decided to head to Lavo Restaurant which is on the top floor of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. We took quite a roundabout route to get there as we couldn't figure out how to get from the gardens into the hotel. Eventually after a lot of walking we ended up on the 57th floor where we got seated at a table in the restaurant and ordered our drinks.
Once we had our drinks you could walk around on the terrace outside and take some photos. We sipped our drinks and enjoyed the views overlooking Singapore. Unfortunately it was a very hazy day. Our waitress said it was because of the slash and burn going on in Indonesia at the moment. There would be no sunset tonight as we couldn't see the sun. We ordered a few more drinks off the happy hour menu and enjoyed the atmosphere and views.
Once we were done our drinks we headed back to the gardens where we went into the Cloud Forest Dome. The current theme for the display was Jurassic Park. They had the Jurassic Park music playing the whole time and dinosaurs trying to break out. We saw the T-Rex as well as several other creatures from Jurassic Park. The most prominent feature of the Cloud Forest was an indoor waterfall that went from the ceiling down to the floor. You take the elevator up and then wind your way down all the floors past the waterfall to get back to the bottom again.
By this time it was almost 7.45 so we rushed to the Supertrees to catch the light and sound show. It was very busy so we watched from the outskirts. We then decided to go up to get a better view. There was a 30 minute wait for the canopy walk so we decided to go to the observation deck at the top of the tallest supertree.
Once at the top we were a little disappointed as you didn't have views of any other supertrees around you, only in the distance. We took some photos and then made our way one level down where we could then see some better views of the supertree from the walkway that went around our tree. We enjoyed the views and then hung around long enough for the start of the 8.45 show. We watched part of the show from the top of the tree and then made our way back down to catch the end of the show from the ground.
Once the show was over our feet were very tired from a long day of walking and standing. We made our way back to our hotel where we fell asleep fairly quickly after watching the first half of Crazy Rich Asians.
May 26th
Today we went to Singapore Zoo. We left our hotel at 7 am to get there in time for the 8.30 opening. Once there, we watched the Fragile Forest exhibit as we heard it was a good one to visit before it got early, as there were some lemurs and other creatures roaming loose around you.
We took a quick look through this exhibit and then made our way back towards the entrance to the restaurant for our breakfast with the animals, which we had managed to get free tickets to. We helped ourselves to the buffet and got seated just in time for the first animals to make our appearance. It was a couple of penguins. After this, they introduced a few more different animals, including a lizard, an owl, a parrot, and orangutans that could come and go freely as they wish, as they could swing over on the ropes from their enclosure to get fed some treats while you stood in front of them and got your photo taken.
We had three different orangutans come to visit, although one seemed to stay the longest of the three. The breakfast wasn't too busy, so we were able to get our photo and meet all the animals. It was mostly made up of school children who were in attendance. I caught one kid sticking his tongue into the bowl of ketchup, and he got in trouble from the teacher.
Next up, we went to the area that had the monkeys, and then we saw a show which featured a California sea lion. It was quite loud, and again, it was mostly all school children in attendance, and they were very excited and loud to see the sea lion performance tricks. Pumba, the sea lion, was very good and did tricks to splash the audience, pose in different ways, pretend it was a shark, and pretend it was a seal.
We then watched the monkey feeding, and then walked around the zoo and saw a lot more of the other animals. We saw lions, leopards, painted dogs, elephants, zebras, giraffes, reptiles, and watched the orangutans some more. We spent about six hours at the zoo, and then made our way back to our hotel, where we relaxed and went for a swim.
For dinner, we decided we were too tired to walk anywhere too far away, so we walked across the street to an Indian restaurant called Butter and Spice for dinner. It was quite a long wait for our food, since we'd been accustomed in both Borneo and Singapore to receiving our food within five minutes of ordering it. We had to wait over half an hour, but when it arrived, it was tasty.
May 27th
We once again headed out early to try and beat the heat. We took the bus to the Fountain of Wealth. It wasn't too busy so we walked around admiring the fountain and then we decided to go to Little India for breakfast.
We walked there from the fountain and when we got to the area, it was very busy as it was a holiday and most people were out and about with their families all walking around. The breakfast place was really crowded and busy and we couldn't figure out how to get in so we gave up.
We were in the Haji Lane area so from there we decided to take a Grab and go check out a temple in the Little India area. We jumped in the car and when we arrived at Little India it was also really busy with lots of people around, most of them all male. We walked to the temple and looked at it from the outside but to go in you had to take off your shoes and wash your feet first.
We then caught the bus back to our area where we tried to go back for kaya toast for breakfast at Chin Mee Ching Confectionary, however when we got there there was also a giant line so we gave up on that and went to So Good Bakery in the mall and picked up some pastries which turned out to be quite tasty. We relaxed by the pool for a while and I went for a swim to cool off.
After that we headed to the Pat-A-Cat Cat Cafe. The cafe was more like a shelter environment and the lady said she was currently looking after 48 cats all in a small apartment. They had some different rooms with cats. We went upstairs and the cats were very excited to see us. They were very playful.
There were a few kittens, and some grown up cats of all different types and personalities. We spent two hours playing with the cats. The cats were the most interactive out of any cat cafe we had been to. Chris managed to get a couple of the cats into the wheel as they ran around it. The most energetic ones were the two kittens and the one that looked like a ragdoll. There was also a black and white one that kept trying to escape from the room that he was in and going in the room with the cats where they hissed at each other.
After the cafe we went and grabbed some pad thai and drinks back at the Thai restaurant by us. The pad thai wasn't quite as good as the noodles we'd had a couple nights ago. We went back to our hotel and packed and played a game. Neither of us were that hungry for dinner so we ended up going to a hawker area near us.
We walked over and looked at the stalls but in the end we didn't end up eating. We decided to try and find the Munchie Pancakes place that was in the mall nearby. We spent quite a while looking for it as Google Maps had the location slightly off. We eventually found it and tried a few different types of pancakes. Thai milk tea, peanut butter and coconut were the three flavors we tried.
After that we headed back to our hotel and tried to get some sleep before our early flight back home the next morning.
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