Traveling Fool

  Petronas Towers at night I have tried on the last few trips I've taken to give myself a break and take a few days in my city of departure. It really helps me to take a minute, rest up before the long flight home and spend time exploring on my own. My departure city this time was Kuala Lumpur, still in Malaysia but very different from Borneo. I really had no idea what to expect, I thought it would be crazy busy and maybe overwhelming, but I didn't find that to be the case. Yes, it was busy, it's a city of over a million plus heaven knows how many tourists, but I didn't really feel it. Maybe it was the time of day I would be out and about or the area I was in, but in any event, I enjoyed my time. I only had about three days, and I tried to pack as much in as possible without stressing myself out too much.  If you have followed my adventures, you know I like to go up to high/tall buildings when I am able, and I was able to go to two of the many skyscrapers or towers in K...

One of the activities that I enjoyed when I was in Costa Rica was the river cruise and when I was planning this adventure, I wanted to make sure I did a couple of them and the Kinabatangan River did not let me down, except they are never long enough. The early morning is usually the best time of day when animals are feeding and it hasn't gotten too hot. We saw proboscis monkeys on almost all of the cruises, egrets, kingfishers, a few red leaf and silver leaf monkeys, lizards and saltwater crocodiles. There were probably a lot more birds that I could barely see, even with my binoculars. I really hoped to see elephants and while I didn't get to actually SEE the elephant, we saw proof it was in the vicinity and I do have an audio, and honestly, that was still pretty cool. You really aren't guaranteed to see anything, so I feel lucky that we saw as many proboscis monkeys as we did, and that big crocodile, and the egrets are so graceful.  Lizard on the beach Dusk on the river Eg...

The entire motivation for going to Borneo was to see the orang utan (Malay for person of the forest). People have asked why (why do I do anything really?) and I guess it's because I find them just amazing animals, they are endangered and I wanted to have an experience. Seeing wild animals is really different in reality compared to what one plans, which may seem obvious, but I like to hear myself talk. The odds were pretty low that I would be hiking in the rainforest and come across an orang utan, so seeing them in a rehab center and the sanctuary was still amazing and captivating. At the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre  you can see animals that may have bene orphaned or injured in the wild and if possible, they will be nursed back to health and released into the wild, others will remain at the Centre. On the other side of the centre is a sanctuary where orang utans can come and go as they wish, maybe coming in for feeding, but if they are getting food on their own, they ma...