Category: South East Asia

Cave temples of Ipoh

Day 38, Friday, 03 Feb, Penang – Ipoh

Ipoh is a city of 700,000 in the state of Perak, inland and south of Penang. The city was started in the 1870’s to support a rapidly booming Chinese population that came to develop, own and work in the nearby tin mines. It doesn’t really have much of  claim to fame and I going to say the much smaller Penang was a lot more lively, though it is Friday in Ipoh so a lot of the Islamic businesses are closed.

Anyway, back to the start of the day ! The night wasn’t too bad considered the volume and sheer awfulness of the cacophony from next door, thankfully after some long and rambling, but still loud, speeches it all shut down around midnight and I slept like a dead man till the alarm went off at 6:30. I had allowed myself thirty minutes to brush teeth, get dressed and walk the couple of kms to the bus station. I am going to say even at that time of day power walking with a 15 kg pack on your back and a day pack on your front works up a sweat. On the subject of day pack on the front backpackers, I used to think they looked stupid, I still do, but I am now one of them – it works.

Highly unusually for Malaysia, the bus was late…  something that is very usual though and one of my big annoyances is, I asked how long it takes to get to Ipoh, I was told 2 ½ to 3 hours, which in fact is pretty much the driving time to Ipoh. What they don’t say is the trip actually takes about 4 hours because you stop and wait for 30 minutes in other bus depots, twice. So my expected arrival in Ipoh was around 10 -1 10.30, we arrived at 11.45, at the express bus terminal which is about 15 minutes from town by local bus, which I caught for the first time today !  Yes…

My other pet gripe is lack of information. We got to the first bus stop and were ushered off the bus, no reason why, nowhere to go, even the Malay girl was confused. We stood vacantly around for a while until someone came and swept the bus, we then all got on and sat there for 20 minutes, waiting…

I had planned on staying at the Station hotel in Ipoh, as it was supposed to be a lovely old English colonial hotel, though a bit run down, hence a reasonable price. In fact it was so run down it was closed….

The station cafe was open so I headed in there for my first coffee of the day and to check the guide book for more hotel options – of which they are not many apparently. I met this older American guy in there (and have forgotten his name) and he gave me his map of Ipoh and directions to the hotel he was staying in, in case my chosen one from Lonely Planet, the Embassy didn’t work out.  Which it almost didn’t, I couldn’t find the Embassy, so after over an hour of wandering around downtown Ipoh looking for accommodation that was not too expensive I realised there are two roads named Sultan and I had been looking on the wrong one, so put right I soon stumbled dripping sweat into the Embassy Hotel and took my 12 dollar room. Once I changed the sheets, chased out the geckos and realised that all water, including I suspect some from the loo ends up on the bathroom floor, the room was sorted and mine for the night. For a change I had somewhere to hang washing !

As I had pretty watched seen all the sites of Ipoh,  I had planned on being brave and taking a local bus to the temple caves just out of town.  As I had lost a few hours with the bus and finding my hotel I just decided to take a cab as it was only $4. My cabbie, Sam, was a great guy, sister lived in Auckland and he was a retired cop with Ok English, nice to chat with someone after quite a few days of being alone.

All around Ipoh are a number of small limestone hills, randomly dotted about, I would love to have been here to see them before they stuck a small industrial city in the middle of them. A number of the hills have Buddhist temples and shrines in them.  The Perak Tong temple complex was amazing, not particularly old being started by Perak Tong in 1926, but built inside and above a cave system in the limestone hills.

Inside there are a number of paintings on the cave walls, along with half a dozen large statues of Buddha figures.

Come here young man !

The alien scared the crap out of me though, I thought it was just a movie!

There is also numerous steep staircases to pagodas scattered around the top of the often jagged hill and this quite cool shrine.

Sadly the view from the top is dominated by an ugly industrial wasteland infront of those beautiful limestone hills, tragic !!!

I was quite impressed with the place, especially as it was one of my key reasons for coming to Ipoh. I will aim to get to one of the other temples tomorrow. After the temple it was 4.00 PM I was very hot and dehydrated and had not eaten all day so when I went outside to wait for a ride back to town I decided whatever came by first would be ride, bus or cab. I got a cab, it was the shittest cab I have been in in my life, I am fairly sure we just made it back – it is only 6km..  I snacked at a hawker stall on the local speciality Kway teow, which I happen to like, bonus ! and then went to McDonalds for a shake as I knew it had free wi-fi from when I had walked past it earlier in the day.

Strike action ! Just like home.I then wandered back to my room about 6.00, and did not much, but I did have a hip flask of Famous Grouse scotch to keep my spirits up as I watched The Mechanic on my laptop, what a great movie, well all things considered, a great movie…

Am currently in Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands. My hotel does not have any internet so I am in one of the Indian restaurants that has free wi-fi. I have just had the best paneer mattar ever !

Georgetown

Day 37, Thursday, 02 Feb 2012, Penang.

A good day in Penang !

Day started really early with one of the other hotel guests coughing up both lungs for about an hour from 5.30am. I got up about 7.00 and started my day. I had planned on going via bus to the Kek Lok Si Temple which is about 10km from town, I also wanted to suss the time of the of the bus to Ipoh tomorrow morning so I headed to the bus station a km or so down the road. The sun was low in the sky and the day looked like it was going to be a good one.

This area is a working commercial part of Penang, lots of small businesses run out of shop houses, I love the mix of businesses in these lovely old buildings, food shop, bike repairs next to rice wholesalers and Angry Bird t-shirt importers. In the main they are in wonderful condition though they are outside the heritage area. Occasionally I came across some that are about to renovated.

I booked a 7.15 am bus to Ipoh, I don’t think it is one of the fancy VIP busses I have been getting so will see in the morning, another early start though ! I also managed to get a bus OK to Air Itam where the temple is located. I got off the bus at a local market and picked up some curry puffs for breakfast. I passed this specialist physician on the way…

The Kek Lok Si temple, is the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia, and contains a 36.5m high statue of Kuan Yin, goddess of mercy. The Ban Po Thar Pagoda which is also in the grounds was closed unfortunately. To access the temple, you, naturally, have to walk up a number of stairs, though these were fully enclosed and surrounded by shops primarily selling cheap tat, Angry Birds t-shirts etc. From the main prayer room of the temple you take a small funicular up to the Kuan Yin statue, which is mighty impressive !  I spent a couple of hours in the temple area, it was all quite interesting and being slightly up a hill there was a nice breeze blowing too. I even bought my first souvenir, as small Buddha!WTF !! This was in the temple complex.

I loved these windows I shot on the way back down.

I discovered the way to catch a bus when you cannot find a bus stop is to step into the road and hail it, well it worked for me ! I had lunch a great kaoy teow for lunch at the New World Park food court as it was on the way back to the hotel and highly recommended. I then spent a couple of hours at the hotel and did a bit of email and blogging while the worst of the heat left the day.

After lunch I headed towards the heritage area of Georgetown to see more of the sites. The weather wasn’t so kind with a constant off on rain. With Georgetown having such a mix of people there were a large number of temples or religious buildings from all the big regional faiths, Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Buddhism. I took photos of a quite a few ! But the highlights, which I will share were the little things.

Trishaws

A record shop – no cds here… (pity it was all old school Indian music).

 I have seen a number of armed guards, usually with shotguns, at jewellery stores around Malaysia, but this guy was awesome, nice uniform, revolver and beret, I asked before taking a photo.

This guy was making some quite interesting sounds as I walked past so I asked if I could take his picture too !

 There a lot of small street shines all over, and I have a few photos of them, but loved this one in a tree best.

And of course I had to show some colonial architecture ! The town hall.

I wandered back to the hotel about 6, it was raining fairly constantly so I just decided to chill in the hotel for the evening and just eat some of my snacks for dinner – slacker I know, Alex will be so disappointed – all that good food !

I have enjoyed Penang, a good place to wander around, I hope Ipoh is good and I am not wasting a final day in Penang for nothing.

I had a call from Trefor tonight saying he is heading back to Brisbane for a few days so I wont be able to stay when I am in KL next week. Bugger –I was looking fwd to catching up, and now I will have to find a bed for a couple of nights.

Langkawi to Penang

Day 36, Wednesday 01 Feb 2012, Langkawi – Penang.

The day started much the same as the last two did, got up when I felt like it, just before nine and went to the restaurant and ate like a pig for forty minutes! More fruit today though. Spent a couple of hours in the lobby using the wifi and booked myself flights to Puerto Princesca on the Philippine island of Palawan for the tenth of February. I am flying from Singapore and going via Manila.  I screwed up slightly and forgot I needed to allow time to get from Melaka to Singapore, so I have cancelled a nights accommodation in Melaka and will leave there a day early now.

The ferry to Penang was not until two thirty so I dragged out my departure from the resort until five minutes before checkout then got  a cab to the ferry terminal in Kuah arriving there at one.

Damnit ! The two thirty ferry was full, so I had to get a ticket for the five fifteen, this meant a few extra hours at the Jetty with not a heck of a lot to do and too far in the sun and heat to walk a long way to town. I walked around the jetty area for a bit and then slobbed in Starbucks and used free wi-fi for a couple of hours. Langkawi means reddish brown eagle.

Yes I was bored, so here is a bridge.

The ferry was very full, every seat taken, so luckily the three hour ride to Georgetown on the island of Pelang was smooth ! We even got to go out on deck for a week bit. Inside the ferry it was absolutely freezing cold, I had my jacket on but my feet and legs were like ice by the time we arrived just after eight pm. I was originally planning on getting to Georgetown in daylight so I could more easily find my hotel without resorting to a taxi, but decided to give the walk a go anyway.

Penang’s location has made it one of the oldest trading ports in the area and has been heavily populated Chinese and Indian immigrants. Georgetown is the oldest of the English settlements in SE Asia. A part of Georgetown is now a world heritage park area and has apparently been well preserved, I walked through a section of it on the way to the Georgetown Hotel, my lodgings for two nights.  I am looking forward to exploring the town tomorrow.

The hotel is a wee bit further away than I would have liked and took me a good thirty minutes to find it, though surprisingly it was fairly easy, even in the dark. The room is ok, small, but clean and tidy, paper thin walls though!  I have never seen this before, everything in the room is for sale !

Frustratingly the wi-fi only works in the lobby, which they are decorating at the moment, so perched on the edge of a couch while they wallpaper around me.

I went for a stroll back towards town and had dinner at the Red Garden food court, along with a thousand other people !

In Malaysia, Vegetarian basically means no red meat, so chicken and fish are in vege meals.

Love this vege fish head mee toon

Two blurred days

Days 34/35, Monday 30/31 Jan 2012, Meritus Pelangi Beach Resort, Langkawi.

My two full days at the resort pretty much blurred one into the other and I managed to achieve my goal of doing nothing much at all, no touristy things, no site seeing, no big walks – nothing!

The day(s) started with a monster breakfast, fruit, yoghurt, eggs, sausages, hash browns, coffee – basically I ate until I could eat no more.

This was followed by lying down by the pool / lying down in my room,  a swim in the pool followed by a nap then another swim in the pool, walk to town for dinner and then internet in the lobby bar over a drink. And a wee bit of Premiership football on TV, though I missed most of the Arsenal FA cup win over Aston Villa.

On the first day I did get into the sea for a swim, certainly not as a clear as the dive spots near Semporna and the water tasted pretty bad, so I didn’t stay in long and did not go back in again on day two.

The days were both fairly overcast which was a shame but the sun made a brief appearance at sunset at the end of the both days so I did snap a couple of pictures from the beach on the way for food.  

On day two the sun also popped out mid-afternoon so I nipped out to the swimming pool near my room and had a cocktail in the pool bar. My first pool bar drink !

After the wee tipple I went for a wander round the block.

Then back to town for a Thai, another sunset, but photos still on camera.

Have found the strongest cocktail in the bar – 357 magnum…

Ah, Luxury!

Day 33, Sunday 29 Jan 2012, KL and Langkawi

I was up at 6.00 after another bad night, in future I think I will stay in smaller sized dorm rooms if I have a choice, especially in these towns where there is a tendency for other travellers to stay out drinking all night. As I had no idea how long it would take for me to get from the hostel in Chinatown to the airport I wanted to leave nice and early rather than miss the flight. Yesterday I had taken the step of checking with the airport bus company as to what time they start running on a Sunday morning and what frequency they ran, so for a change, I was informed !

Even at 6.30 on a Sunday morning there were a lot of people scurrying around Chinatown, on the way to whatever business they had, no drunks though. There was a nice sense of peace around and it felt perfectly safe to stroll the streets. Near the station I came across a couple asleep – side by side, on their backs on the footpath next to their motorbike, they were sleeping with their helmets on. Must have gotten tired and just decided to sleep, it was quite bizarre.

The trip to the airport was quick, cheap and painless and I was easily there on time. For a welcome change I had my first McDonalds breakfast since I have been away, muffin and hash browns, just like at home! The flight to Langkawi was an hour long  and the plane was full and I was crammed into a middle seat with no leg room, next time I will pay Air Asia the extra two bucks and select an aisle seat so I am not so damn squashed in.

The Meritus Pelangi Beach Resort is at the lower end of the price range and is one of the older resorts on Langkawi, it is huge and my room is 476 paces away from the main area, at least I will get some exercise to balance all the eating I plan on doing! The reviews I had read online said things are expensive in the resort and they charge for everything as well, seems to be a true, a meal package of lunch and dinner with one drink was 129rm. I walked the 15 minutes to the main strip and had lunch for 6.50. People also commented on the place being tired and worn and I will disagree with that one, my room is great, especially after the 10 bed dorm! It is big and airy and has hot water and I do not have to share my loo with anyone else, and real sheets with big fluffy pillows, ahhhh luxury.

I took picture this as soon as I walked in the door, 5 minutes later it looked like my daughter, Meliesha had been living there – clothes and crap everywhere, it was very unlike me, but oh so nice to spread out.

I took a walk along the beach and had lunch at an Indian place in town and then headed back for a look around and a lie down, I really must try and spend the time I have here relaxing, I am not planning on seeing any of the sites of Langkawi, just the beach, the pool, the bar (where free wifi is) and local the cafes. I need a good couple of days to refuel with some good food and rehydrate as I have not been drinking enough water, those plus some good sleep time and I should be ready for another few weeks of travel.

The beach at the resort is very nice, lots of coconut palms and white sand. Sadly the skies are grey and not crystal blue.

Next to the resort is a small river that is the home to a number of small fishing boats. If I get a cloudless day there will be some great photos here.

After a snooze I wandered back into town to the local laundry and handed over all the clothes I had with the exception of what I was wearing. I also picked up some washing powder so I can wash what I am wearing when I get my clothes back, I also bought some really cheap beer – Langkawi is a duty free island. I had a very nice Thai chicken and cashew dinner and went back to the resort to use the internet. I had a good couple of hours on the web and four glasses of chilled Chilean red wine. Sooooooooooo nice to have a wine again, though not ‘cheap’, same as NZ bar prices so I coped 🙂  What I did not count on was the 10% service charge when I got the bill at the end of the night.

I think I am the only single person in the resort !

Some post-rock awesomeness from the now sadly defunct Aussie group, Laura – and no, it is not all melancholy ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9mfxf0mOnU

Leech cures and Petronas at night

Day 32, Saturday 28 Jan 2012, Kuala Lumpur, part two

Just sitting in the lobby of my resort in Langkawi, accessing the free wifi and supping my first (second, third, fourth) red in over a month. Wine – how I have missed thee ! Ok it is a chilled Chilean, but it is still red and still wine.  More on Langkiwi tomorrow, this post is all about yesterday.

OK, I am going to say I loved Batu Caves, a great mix of history, culture and monkeys, definitely something you cannot see outside of Asia, so a great morning was had.  As I was leaving the weather packed in and it started to drizzle, I made a hurried walk to the station and missed the train by about 10 seconds. Luckily this is not Auckland so the next train arrived early and left on time, also unlike Auckland it had a chicks only carriage, or maybe there are just no ladies in Auckland, so there is no need for them 🙂

I got the train back to the old Kuala Lumpur train station and walked back towards Merdaka square, which was hosting a celebration of some sorts, not too sure what for, but there was a weird mix of dragon dancers, this awesomely loud car, playing appalling Chinese dance music.

And a Malay pipe band !

From Merdaka Square I wandered around little India for a while, which was pumping with lunch time crowds. I had one of these, a very thin waffle filled with crushed peanuts and sugar, very nice.

I loved these irons ! Awesome, I was sorely tempted to buy one.

After lunch of veges and rice i headed back to the hostel for a rest and got a phone call from an old friend from my London days in the eighties. Trefor had just taken a job in Kuala Lumpur and we arranged to catch up in the evening. I was planning on heading back to Petronas Towers to try for the night shot I missed last night, conveniently Trefor is now working for Petronas and has an office on the 19th floor and lives close by.

The late afternoon saw a massive downpour hit KL, possibly the heaviest rain I have seen and I was watching my night shoot disappearing down the drain.  Like all good downpours it was relatively short lived and I managed to sneak out just after 6.00. The sun obviously sets a lot later in KL than it does in Borneo as I had a longer wait at the towers than I anticipated, I took a listless half hearted walk around the mall and a very average chicken rendang for dinner – I should have asked for more chilli (what is becoming of me, more chilli !!!).  After dinner I headed out to the back of the mall area and set up the tripod and camera to await the dark. I took a lot of photos !

I then moved around to the front for a couple more. Did I say how awesomely well set out for photography this place is – OK I know I did but it really was worth mentioning again !

I was wrapping up my photo taking when I got a call from Trefor to say he had arrived at the towers.  At a very loud Irish bar in the tower mall complex, that appeared to be full of very loud expats, we caught up on a few years of each others lives over a lager or two. . I had an enjoyable couple of hours and it was good to catch up, Trefor works in the oil industry in project roles and has worked in some interesting places. When I am back in KL in a few days I am going to stay at his place, which is just awesome. As I had to be up early to find my way to the airport I left just before 11 and had a reasonably quick ride back to the hostel on the train.

I had just settled down in my bunk when there was a series of loud explosions outside, I lay there for a bit wondering what the hell was going on and finally decided to get up a for a look see, there was a massive midnight fireworks display, sadly there was a bloody great tower block between me and it so I only got to see the periphery. Damn it ! no idea what it was for and disappointed the hostel didn’t mention it to guests as it appears to have been a BIG deal, lots of big fireworks over a ten minute period.

I got back to bed and listened to some one snore for 6 hours – and no, earplugs did not work !

Play loud  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2D7uZ0LK9Y&feature=related

Batu Caves

Day 32, Saturday 28 Jan 2012, Kuala Lumpur, Batu Caves

This could be my first two post day, if anything happens this afternoon it will definitely be, crikey it is all happening! I went to Batu Caves this morning and it is worth its own post, also because I am spending the afternoon  in the hostel until I go back to Petronas Towers for another crack at a night shot, weather dependant of course.

Interesting night in the ten person mixed dorm, there are nine beds with packs on them and by 11pm only two of us were in bed, I suspected it was going to be a long night, having said that, I kinda slept OK. Last person came in at 5.30 am and first people up at 5.45… I was talking to young English guys this morning, they said they were leaving KL after seven days as it was costing too much to drink. They had been to Petronas Towers and Chinatown, thats it – seven days worth of site seeing– and the hostel is in Chinat That made me feel all adventurous, as I had been further than that!

Batu Caves is a 15km train ride from thje local station and is one of KL’s key attractions. The fare was 80c and the train went all the way there, yay for KL !

The caves are the most import Hindu shrine outside of India and are dedicated to Lord Murugan. The site also has a 42metre high golden coloured statue of the lord, the temple cave is accessed via a 272 step staircase which must be ascended by devotees heading to the temple, many with their offerings.

I arrived there fairly early and missed the worst of the tourist rush, which was great. The site is also famous for its macaque monkeys, and as a poor Indian women learnt – it is advisable to not carry any food or drink…

Blessing before the climb.

Macaque peeling an orange.Lord Murugan and the famous 272 steps.

The climb.

I was looking back up stairs when I heard a woman shreak, as I turned round this monkey was undoing the screw top on this bottle of milk it had stolen from her. Milk is one of the key offerings made and is in the containers the women are carrying on their heads. The macaque didnt drink it from the bottle, just poured it on the ground.The cave temple and a shrine.

The view to KL

The site is also where the Thaipasum festival parade ends, I was talking to one of the devotees at the top of the stairs and he said in the day of the festival there will be 1.5million people there.  I imagine the trains will be packed…

I really enjoyed Batu Caves !

Homer reincarnated?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batu_Caves

Apologies, some of these images are a soft, will have to give the camera a clean as I am not sure if the auto-focus is picking up some dirt on the lens.

1 month of travel completed !

Day 31, Friday 27 Jan 2012, Kuala Lumpur

Well if you read my last, brief, post you will know that my first completed month on the road was not a day I will remember fondly. I had a lousy sleep as the hostel is internally not very soundproof, so people noise all night long kept me awake. I will stay the next two nights in the dorm and see how it goes and then decide if I come back here when I come back for Thaipusam in Feb, this hostel is very close to the start of the procession to Batu Caves so is a good spot for it. I am going to check the caves out tomorrow if the rain stops as they will be a few hundred thousand people there during the festival.

Anyways, back to the story, good breakfast and coffees and then started getting ready to hit the streets when I discovered that most of my US cash and some Malaysian money had been stolen from my money belt that was locked in a hostel locker, probably about 500NZD worth. I wasn’t angry, the hostel were unhappy about it, realistically they cannot do anything about it. I was pretty gutted, I had had a good day yesterday and was getting into a groove with being in KL on my own but now I was just feeling alone and lonely, with no one to share my disappointment with. The sun was out as I trudged out the door and went for a walk around the area, old train station and another building that I had no idea what it was but I did like these steps !

I then caught the monorail to the Bukit Bintang shopping area.

They had a good display of friendship buddy bears, there was no NZ one, this was as close as I got to my heritage 🙂

And Moldova was my favourite.

I spent a couple of listless hours wandering the shops, very uninspired, and then headed back to the hostel. Had a great chat with my oldest son, Dom on the phone and a Skype chat with a friend and was back into it ! I have decided (and booked) to take a couple of days out and fly to Langkawi in the north east of Malaysia and hang out in a resort by the beach and recharge. I was going to do it in the next couple of weeks but needed it now, it wasn’t cheap, but certainly nowhere near the price of the expensive resorts.  I will then come back to KL via Penang.

I then headed out for a planned visit to the Petronas Towers, I intended to spend some time looking around the outside, go into the big mall inside and have dinner then get a couple of night shots in.  I was absolutely blown away by the towers, they are stunning to look at, fourth tallest buildings in the world and they look so metallic, hard to describe, but I really liked them. What has also been done well is the front of the towers is clear of trees and buildings which allows easy access to take photos, so unusual and very well done !

I managed to snap a couple of shots before the heavens opened so I went inside for a couple of hours and came out just before dark. Still raining !!!!

So I left and went back to the hostel.

Sepilok – Orangutan town.

Day 29, Wednesday 25 Jan 2012, Sepilok

I took half a pill last night as I had had a couple of bad nights in Semporna, trying to sleep on the bed of rocks and was subsequently very tired. I had a good eight hours sleep and after a warm (but pathetic) shower I was feeling much perkier. I have a small sweat rash which developed a few days ago and was fine while diving but it has gotten worse again on the bus trip to Sepilok, I will have to take some care over the next few days. (is this too much info ?)

I had an omelette and loads of coffee for my included breakfast then headed over to the Seplilok Orangutan Research Centre, (SORC). The reason I stayed at the resort is due to its location next door to SORC and I can go to both feeding sessions on the one day entry – which, I will say, was four times the price of Semmengoh, near Kuching – Sepilok is a rip off !   As an aside in no way does the resort resemble what I would call a resort, I would post a picture of my room, but will save the photo upload time for more important things ! so if you think I am staying in the lap of luxury, think again.

I got to SORC just as 5 buses dumped their load of mainly bewildered, mainly elderly and mainly European tourists off. Bugger ! The walk to the feeding area was long and slow and I will say for captain impatient here, very painful, as the oldies staggered their way along the slippery boardwalk. However I did get an OK spot to take photos and now know where to go for better photo opportunities at thr afternoon session.

We saw two female orang-utans with their babies which was pretty cool, they came to the station one at a time and fed themselves. One of them also fed her baby. I took a lot of photos, most of which were rubbish, but a few keepers ! It is hard to shoot with a long lens at slow speeds in a crowd !

 

 

Once the orang-utans had left the feed station was invaded by a troop of monkeys who amused the reducing crowd with their antics, great fun.

After an hour I wandered back to the entrance, grabbed a shot of a nice sized spider and a tree viper (not its head) sitting in a tree.

 

As I left this little guy popped up for a wee snack.

I went back to my room for a lie down and to wait for the three pm feeding, which I will go to early to secure a better spot!

Just as I was about to head off at two for the feeding the heavens opened ! with umbrella in hand I walked over anyway and secured a reasonable spot, much nearer to the platform. There were significantly less people this afternoon which was great as the orang-utans didn’t really play ball to start with and hid away from my perfect possie. The rain stopped for a brief minute as the first two came out and then started again for the remainder of my time there. It is quite hard to take photos while
holding an umbrella, the light was pretty bad so lots of noise in the afternoon shots. The two orang-utans from this morning were back again this afternoon along with a young male. They were a lot less active this afternoon and I am putting it down to the rain. Just before I left I knocked my glasses from my pocket over the edge and had to get one of the guides to go down and get them , Doh !

As in humans, the young male was impatient for his food…

I had to skip lunch today as I am running out of cash. Last night I was told the fare to the airport is 18rm, but….. I was told this morning there is a two person minimum and as I am the only one it will be 36rm – I call rort, AGAIN !

After my dissatisfaction I still ended up drinking three beers, eating a plate of chips and then a calamari curry and having to use the credit card. But at least I got to use heaps of free wi-fi, it doesn’t work in my hovel room.