Malaysia offered us a myriad of interesting, diverse and exciting adventures.
Penang, was a fascinating fusion of the East and West and you can certainly feel the Chinese influence as 70% of the inhabitants are of this culture. Penang embraces modernity while retaining its traditions and old world charm. It is steeped in history as we can attest to. We strolled down a living heritage community as we visited Chew Jetty. What started as a wooden passageway slowly became a cluster of houses perched above the sea shores by stilts, this site is locked away in a time zone by itself disregarding the urban development taking place around it. We saw an array of temples the best of which was Kek Lok Si the largest Buddhist Temple in Malaysia. It was a truly impressive complex housing temple grounds, temples, gardens, the pagoda and the four heavenly kings pavilion and an enormous statue of the Goddess of Mercy. After that we experienced riding the funicular train up to Penang Hill where I saw my first monkey cup plant. Georgetown was unique and I wish we had had more time to explore.
While Penang boasts of exquisite restaurants and fast food outlets serving everything from Japanese, Korean, Italian, English and French to Indian, Chinese, Malay, Indonesian and Thai cuisine, it is her hawker fare that both locals and foreigners cannot get enough of and we tried that out a few steps from our hotel.
Kota Kinabalu or KK as it is known by the natives has bustling markets, modern boardwalk, beaches and waterfront. Just a speed boat away were beautiful islands and the snorkling was outstanding even though Lorie stubbed her toe badly, it was black and looked yucky sure glad we didn’t have to amputate. A highlight of the trip to the Kilas wetlands was our trip through the mangrove swamp, accompanied by the secret rhythm of fireflies and their flickering lights. There were thousands.
Our highlight was the sojourn in the jungle. Who would have known that you could travel two hours by boat to the middle of the Jungle and find a top notch Resort, the Sukau Rainforest Lodge, in the middle of nowhere, This is one of the National Geographic Unique Lodges of the World. What a feeling to be completely secluded in the jungle listening to the music of the Rainforest! Imagine gliding down the river in the morning mists and the afternoon light, spotting wildlife up close from a quiet electric-motored boat. We could stroll right from our room into the jungle on an elevated boardwalk, stopping to see wildlife and tropical plants. We dined on a riverfront terrace, taking in the view over delicious meals as well as watching monkeys and rare birds flit among the trees as we cooled off in the refreshing pool. The nighttime river cruise allowed us to see sleeping birds up front and personal, it seemed surreal.
Everything was top notch and even if we did not see the pigmy elephants we saw an amazing array of monkeys and an orangutan and junior We identified many different birds as well as dozens of primates, reptiles, and a variety of land mammals.,
The memories and experiences will stay with us for the rest of our lives!
We enjoyed the golf, even though it was very hot and humid. The courses were all different as were our experiences. My personal favorite was Sutera Harbour in KK. We enjoyed beautiful vistas and we encountered many challenges, monkeys taking our balls, water hazards and rough, and our night golf was especially interesting if you did not hit in the beams bye bye ball.
Our final destintion Kuala Lumpur offered us excitement as there was a major thunder storm when we were downtown visiting The Petronas Twin Towers, what a rush that was. The architecture is indeed amazing and we appreciated it all.
It was hard to get back to reality and the snow, but we feel blessed to be able to get a few escapes here and there.