Orang-Utans

We had hoped to see orang-utans in the wild but our backup plan was to visit the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre. This large forest reserve is home to dozens of orang-utans who were either orphaned or injured in the wild. The centre has a detailed program for rehabilitating the animals and a fairly high rate of success of ensuring that the orang-utans become at least partially wild and independent again. As part of that program, they have twice daily feedings that you can watch. We were lucky and saw about 12 orang-utans at the feeding, including several babies. Even more exciting than the feeding was spotting a orang-utan at the edge of the forest who was not at a feeding. This was our wild orang-utan. They are amazing creatures and the experience was much better than seeing orang-utans at the zoo. Below is just a small sampling of the 200 or so photos we took.

Our wild orang-utan

Proboscis Monkey

The endangered proboscis monkey can be found only in Borneo and is quite distinctive with its long nose and fat, bloated belly. The residents of Borneo used to call them Dutch monkeys because Dutch colonialists often had large noses and big bellies too. Proboscis monkeys are good swimmers and climbers. We were able to see them both in Malaysia and Brunei at twilight, climbing high into the trees at the waters edge which provides them extra protection from predators.

Brunei

Looks nice, right? That's what we thought too. Growing up we always heard that the richest man in the world was not Michael Jackson or Bill Gates but some Sultan of Brunei. During our recent trip to Malaysia, we were so close to Brunei we figured we had to go. We knew Brunei wasn't Dubai but with all that oil wealth, it had to be close...right?

The mosques were certainly opulent and impressive but almost everything else in the country failed to meet our expectations.

The malls were not that exciting though the air conditioning was nice. The food was kind of blah. The bathrooms weren't very clean. We think our hotel had bed bugs (at least catching bed bugs in New York means you are still in New York!). Everything was expensive. Incredibly, we learned that there are only about 45 taxis in all Brunei. 15-20 are at the airport and another 15 our in other parts of the country. So, in central Brunei (Bandar Seri Bagawan) there are only about 10-15 taxis available. When we finally managed to see one, we wildly chased it down and blocked its escaped route only to pay $10 to go a few kilometers.
The highlight of our trip was riding a water taxi through the floating village. Actually to be more specific, the highlight of our trip was getting gas while riding the water taxi. See the grin on the driver's face below? That followed 10 minutes of fishing (no pun intended) bills out of the water. Let us explain. Need gas for your boat? Go to the floating Shell station and they will drop the nozzle down to your boat. After you have filled up, they drop a bucket down and you put the money in. Easy right? Well, our driver paid and as the bucket was hoisted up the bills went flying. The gas station attendant and driver yelled at each other for a second, trying to decide who was to blame. Then our driver proceeded to maneuver the boat around and used an oar to fish out the bills. Thankfully, soaked bills are less prone to flying out of the money bucket.

Just like Jackie O at Hyannis Port

The view of downtown Bandar Seri Bagawan

The Sultan's Palace

Brunei, we are glad we visited but we don't know if we will be making a return trip any time soon. Our visit started so well: flying Royal Brunei Air, the billboards in the airport with pictures of amazing destinations, a tour of the city at night. But then, something happened. The love affair ended...abruptly. And your final parting shot was the departure tax at the airport when we had already used all of our Brunei dollars. Good times, indeed.

Scenes from Kuala Lumpur

It seems the enduring image of Kuala Lumpur (KL) is the Petronas Towers, which do seem to appear in the background or on the horizon often. This first picture was taken from the top of the KL Tower (the tallest structure in KL) just before a massive thunderstorm started.

Look! There it is again!

Here too!

Merdeka Square, once a cricket field, was the the site of Malaysia's independence in 1957. Today it is an architectural potpourri of buildings combining Islamic, Asia, and British influences.

Masjid Jamek has to be one of the most interesting mosques we have ever seen. It's in the middle of KL and surrounded by tall buildings and noisy traffic but the palm trees give it a sense of calm and serenity. Built in 1907, the mosque shows its age but in a grey hair, distinguished kind of way. The pink and cream bricks also made us think the mosque could have just as appropriately been built in Miami.

Colorful buildings

Cooking with fire...and clay pots

Cultural Differences

The Vientiane International Film Festival was held recently. Apparently this film was particularly popular in the expatriate community.

Vimanmek

This is not the largest teak mansion in the world, though with the storm clouds building and rain beginning to fall, we managed to convince ourselves that it was. The nice diorama inside this house showed that we were wrong, but luckily the rain didn't last for very long and we were able to make our way to the REAL teak mansion...

The real teak mansion, Vinanmek, was one of the most impressive royal residences we have ever visited. Built without nails and moved from its original location in 1901, the mansion was the private residence of Rama V. Unfortunately, no pictures on the inside.

The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew

The Grand Palace, is the former residence of the Thai king, and is today used for ceremonial occasions only. It is also one of the must see places in Bangkok so we joined the throngs of tourists who visit every day. The Palace grounds are also home to the monarchy's private temples with the most famous housing the Emerald Buddha. The Buddha was recovered/stolen (depending on who you ask) by the Thais centuries ago and became Thailand's most holy image.

The Palace is a mixture of Italian Renaissance and Thai architecture and was completed in 1882.

It's also well guarded by man and elephant.

The temple grounds

More intimidating guards

A slightly less intimidating guard