Mike and Kim prepared for their assault on the city with a tour on the Hop-on-Hop-off bus. At each turning Mike would say that he wanted to return here or there. Together they managed to visit the usual exotic locales...Batu Caves, Bukit Bintang shopping area, the national museum and the national mosque, and together we all visited KLCC (the twin towers), the Central Market and Petaling Street night market. As with all of our guests we spent a sunset in the Traders Hotel Skybar where we watched the Petronas Towers light up like a couple of crystal jewels as darkness fell.
Friday, May 16 was the start of a long weekend (no...not the May 24 weekend) and we had a trip to Kuching, Sarawak, on the island of Borneo planned. We flew out Friday night and back on Monday night. The intervening three days were an exotic but quiet time. Kim and I reminisced about our school days when Borneo was the most remote place on the planet...it still seems to be althought the capital city, Kuching, is a modern developing place. On Saturday we booked a private tour of a traditional longhouse with a guide who is written up in the Roughs Guide. Desmond showed us the real side of traditional life in the old long house style as well as some mor modern accommodations in rural villages. We sat on the floor of a row house drinking home brewed rice wine. Each family makes it after the rice harvest for use in the June 1 harvest festival. Later, at the longhouse, we met the families who graciously allowed us to enter some of their homes. We had lunch with the chief while sitting on the floor of his "door" "Door" is what each of the living compartments in the longhouse are called. Each belongs to a different family and there are 73 "doors" in the one long house. All generations live in the long house. An elderly man climbed a tree to get a fresh coconut for Michael to drink.On Sunday we wandered around Kuching and checked out the local markets and shopping areas. All towns and cities seem to have outdoor markets and ethnic quaters where anything can be haggled over until the right price is reached...we probably agreed too soon and spent too much. Mike managed to get a gift or two out of it.
On Monday we spent time at the oragutan sanctuary where these animals are brought from captivity and household pets to be reintroduced to the wild. It is a very successful program. Afterwards we went to the Cultural Village. This is their version of Pioneer Village in Toronto. We saw examples of all of the main tribal homes. There are 26 orang asli (indiginous people) in Sarawak; each tribe has a slightly different living style although we didn't see 26 samples.
Throughout the second week we continued the exploration of KL. Mike and Kim took an evening to travel to Melaka, one of our favourite places in Malaysia. On Friday night we took a first class bus to Singapore. After the guest house we occupied in Kuching we decided to stay in an upscale hotel in Singapore. It was expensive but worth it. On Saturday, we took the usual Hop-on-Hop-off tour. We followed up with shopping in Chinatown where we were able to get a pile more gifts. In the evening we had a Singapore Sling at the Raffles Hotel. This is wherethe drink was invented. Then we trundled around Clark Quay and had dinner. Sunday we went to Sentosa Island and saw many attractions. In the late afternoon we simply had to sit by the pool to read, relax and recover.
Monday we were back in KL and Mike and Kim returned to Petaling Street for more shopping. That evening Bill met them with Mike's luggage and we went for dinner before the final trip to the airport. We were so sad to see Mike leaving but we were also bouyed by the knowledge that in two and a half weeks we will be home to see you all first hand.Mike, thanks for coming over. We saw our experience in a whole new way and we loved sharing it with you.
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