Malaysia Day September 16

The red hibiscus is the national flower
of Malaysia

September 16 is Malaysia Day. On this day, the people of Malaysia remember and celebrate the time, 47 years ago, that the people of Sarawak, Sabah, Malaya and Singapore joined together to form the new country of Malaysia. (Singapore withdrew 2 years later)

Today is public holiday and there will be music, dance, singing and poetry performances to celebrate.

I'm off to Brunei today. An hour's flight from Kuching will take me into the country ruled by the Sultan. 

Tribal long house in Sarawak

In the mountain jungles of Sarawak, many people of the indigenous (native) tribes or groups still live in traditional kampongs (villages).

One family's living space in a longhouse

We visited a longhouse of the group known as the  Bidayuh. (say bid-eye-oo) The longhouses are built on stilts and are made mainly of bamboo. Each longhouse is divided into many separate family living spaces. Each family has it's own living, cooking and sleeping space. Often grandparents live in the home with the family.

Long ago the Bidayuh were headhunters.
We saw these old skulls kept in the longhouse!

Each day the children go to school and the parents go to work in the jungle as farmers, or go to jobs in towns nearby. For some indigenous children school is boarding school. These kids stay at the school for week days and travel back to the kampong for the weekend.The school day for kids in Sarawak starts at 7.30am and finishes at about 1pm. The main school holidays are In November and December.

There is also a holiday for kids at the end of the Muslim holy time of Ramadan. All the people of Sarawak, including those who are not Muslim, the Christians and the Buddhists also enjoy this 2 or 3 day celebration known as Eid ul-Fitr.
You can read more about the festival of Eid ul-Fitr on kidcyber 

South from Kuala Lumpur to Malacca

Friday September 24

Built by the Dutch when they ruled  Malacca
from 1641 to 1798

Travelled to Kuala Lumpur yesterday after a day in Sandakan. Kuala Lumpur is the capital city of Malaysia. About a 150 kilometers south, and half way to neighbouring Singapore, is the Malaysian State of Malacca. Malacca is a World Heritage Site, which means it has great importance for the country and the rest of the world.
Apart from the native tribes, the Chinese were the first people from the rest of the world to visit and settle in Malacca. They came to mine tin, a valuable metal long ago. Then came the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch (from the Netherlands). Later the British took control of Malacca. Each of these settler groups built around the port area. To see these buildings was the reason for our visit.
There were churches, temples, mosques, forts, a lighthouse, and streets of houses built hundreds of years ago. Most of the buildings are now used by the Chinese as shops, restaurants, warehouses and as places to live.

On the drive south, we saw hectare after hectare of palm tree plantations. These palm trees produce fruit which is collected and crushed to make palm oil. Palm oil is an important product that Malaysia exports (sells) to other countries. Palm oil plantations are to be found all over Malaysia, including in Sarawak and Sabah. The forests are have been cleared so that palm oil can be produced. This is bad news for the wildlife, their habitat I'd being destroyed and many are becoming endangered. The orang-utan is one species threatened by deforestation.

High rise city buildings: Kuala Lumpar

On the way back, the weather changed and we were caught in a wild, tropical rain storm. One minute the sky was clear, but then suddenly sheets of rain lashed the car and it was like driving in fog. After a few minutes the rain stopped as suddenly as it had begun. The sky cleared and we were driving on dry road.

Kuala Lumpar is a very large, modern, busy city. About 3 million people live and work here. Most people live in high rise apartments, but there are single family houses too. On our trip we saw many new housing estates.

To see the orang-utan

Wednesday 22 September
We took an early morning flight from Kota Kinabalu across the island of Borneo to Sandakan on the east coast. Sandakan is a port city on the Sulu Sea. Nearby is the famous Sepilok Orang-utan rehabilitation centre and sanctuary. The sanctuary was set up to help orphaned orang-utans whose mothers had abandoned them or been killed. (Much of the rainforest where the orang-utan lived has been cleared and tbe timber sold. In other places rainforest is cleared away so that palm oil trees can be planted. So, the orang-utan have lost a place to live and their food supply). You can read a kidcyber page about orang-utans here

This orang-utan swung out of its nest
and down to the feeding platform

The people at the centre care for these young orang-utans, by feeding them, keeping them safe and by teaching them the skills they will need to learn before they can be set free into the wild.
The orang-utans that live in the sanctuary are free to build their nests in the trees and gather their own food, but twice each day they are fed bananas and other fruits by the sanctuary workers. Visitors are able to watch as the orang-utans come out of the forest for this food.
There is now an attempt to save some areas of forest for the orang-utan so that the species can survive. And there is an awareness that tourists will come to see the forest and the wildlife, which means jobs for people and money for the businesses that provide services for the tourists. No one would come to Malaysia to see palm oil plantations!

To Mount Kinabalu

Tuesday September 21
Early this morning we set out towards the highest mountain in Malaysia. Mt Kinabalu rises 4095 metres. To reach the foothills we crossed the ridges of the Crocker Range. On the sloping hillsides farmers cut terraces into the hills and plant all kinds of vegetables such as cabbages, pumpkins, beans and cauliflower. These vegetables are sold in roadside market stalls and to shops and markets in the towns and cities of Sabah. The area around the mountain is a State park and has a world famous botanic gardens containing hundreds of different species of orchid.

Carnivorous pitcher plants grow here. Pitcher plants have leaves that hold a liquid that attracts insects and small animals that become trapped when they fall into the funnel-like opening in the leaf. They are then eaten by the plant!

You can see the vine on which the Raffelesia keithii grows
and the bud of a new flower about to open.
photo copyright www.kidcyber.com.au

Another plant that flowers here is the world's largest: the Raffelesia. The flowers can grow to be almost a metre across. We were lucky to find one in bloom! Its a Raffelesia keithii, the species of Raffelesia that grows in Sabah in Borneo.
The flower lasts for just a few days and then rots into slime.
You can read about another species of Raffelesia that grows in Indonesia, here on kidcyber

We saw some lizards on the trunks of the tall trees in the rainforest as well as many butterflies.

It was a long way from the city to the mountain, more than 40 kilometres along winding mountain roads. On the way back we were caught in rush hour traffic as the people of Kota Kinabalu left the city after work. A long, slow trip!

Kota Kinabalu

Monday September 20.

A mosque in Kota Kinabalu

Today we arrived in Kota Kinabalu the capital city of Sabah, the second of the two Malaysian States on Borneo that are part of this trip. About 400 000 people live in the city which is on the coast of the South China Sea. The are 5 islands not far away. Inland there are mountains. The highest is Mount Kinabalu which we will visit tomorrow.

About 32 different ethnic tribes make up most of the population (3.2 million) of Sabah. Most people are Christians, but there are Muslims, Buddhists and other religious groups. So we have seen churches, temples and mosques.

This man prepares fish for the barbeque

To shop, people can go to large, modern shopping malls, small stores, or open air food markets. At the markets fresh food is cooked and can be eaten there or taken home. Barbequed fish and chicken are popular meals. Sweets can also be bought. We tried deep fried banana slices, as well as sticky rice sweetened with sugar syrup and served with fresh mango.

There is a large university in this city. Thousands of students come from all over Malaysia and other parts of the world to study here.

Kotu Kinabalu city was destroyed during World War 2. Only two buildings from before 1940 remain. Australian soldiers were here during the war with Japan, and many were killed. There is a memorial park here to remember them.

Proboscis monkeys and other wildlife

Sunday in Brunei
Found only in Borneo, these strange looking monkeys have long, orange noses. The male's nose hangs longer than the female's, which is pointy.
At four o'clock we were taken up the Brunei River to where the proboscis monkeys live in the mangroves. At this time, a couple of hours before sunset, the groups of monkeys that live together, can be seen, along the river's edge, feeding on the young shoots of the mangrove plant. We watched as they swung and climbed from tree to tree.

A viper  in the rain forest.
Deadly I was told!

On the trip we also saw a crocodile lying on the muddy river bank, as well as large monitor lizards that live in the mangrove forests and can climb trees. Long- tailed macaques were feeding and playing too. The local people don't like these naughty monkeys because they eat their crops. But they are fun to watch!