Our picture !

Hi everyone,

Our picture from the Petronas towers is here -> 13102014095708

Bye bye Malaysia

After a sleep in and some last minute shopping it is time to bid farewell to Malaysia.
We have seen some amazing sights and have done some amazing things but now it is time to leave.
We have a stopover in Melbourne on the way home to change planes (flight home is ek5135) and we have a bus booked to take us from the airport to school.
We should be back at tgs around 1400 at st Leonard’s rd.
See you there !

Pete’s City tour

The kings palace

The war heroes monument

The grand mosque
Independance square

The national gallery

Then we were off for lunch.
After lunch it was Time for the petronas towers.

Then qe farewelled our driver, peter, and headed for the malls again.
First to the klcc at the base of the towers


Then to the pavillion, a short wall away.

The students were all given 50 ringitt as extra money today and yesterday as a result of a favorable exchange rate during the planning of the trip.

A different kind of intrepid

Things just got a bit less intrepid and more dangerous (for the bank account) for some.
We have found the shops !
Squeels of excitement may have been heard !

Hello KL

After a delayed flight we have made it to KL.
Of course we went out for lunch first and now we are off exploring.
Perhaps by monorail !

The last day in Kuching

So today began with a great breakfast at Anna rais long house. Our host, jenny, organised a huge breakfast of noodles, fried rice and boiled eggs with a huge pot of coffee and some iced tea.
Most of us woke when the rooster started up about 5:30 so by 8am we were ready for our breakfast.
We said our goodbyes, took some photos and we were off.

The longhouse experience was excellent and we all learnt lots about traditional borneans and their ways of life.

Today in Kuching miss Sladen led us on a tour of the monuments of the city that were in honour of the cat.
We found three large monuments including the work famous cat fountain !

After some time out at the mall we headed home and were met by our chaperone . ‘Action Edward’ who took us our to an excellent seafood restaurant.

We returned home and set about packing our bags for our 7am pickup to be taken to the airport for our flight to KL tomorrow.

Our long house experience

Today we spent the day at ana rais longhouse where we went on a jungle trek to  a lovely waterfall for a swim. Which was well needed after a very sweaty climb up the hill to get there.

After our swim we had lunch which was cooked while we splashed about at the waterfall.
Then once we got back to the longhouse we went on a tour and learnt all about the history of the tribe who have been here for 300 years. We visited the skull room where the heads of past war conquests are kept.

Then after another huge, locally sourced, meal we were treated to a cultural display of music and dance. All in the home we were  staying in.

We have seen the traditional side of borneo today and have learned lots along the way.

Kuching

..
We arrived in Kuching after a large amount of flying.
We arrived at our accomodation and carried our bags up many flights of
Stairs and settled in for the night.
Today we awoke and departed for the orangutan rehab center but our luck had run out and there were no orangtans around today. Lucky we saw some at sandakan!

We then headed to a pottery factory where we got to try our hands on the pottery wheel with amazing results !

After the pottery factory we set off on a walking tour of the local area that took us to chinatown for lunch and what a lunch it was !

We saw more of the local area then headed home to freshen up before we wandered to the local mall so some could buy fresh clothes.

For dinner we headed out to a malay seafood restaurant !

Tomorrow we head out to the jungle for an overnight village stay in a traditional long house.
We will be doing a jungle trek, cooking a traditional meal and will be treated to a cultural show.
This will be very interesting.

The photos are all on the flickr collection, my phone is not playing nicely tonight so I cant add more pictures to the post sorry.

Sepilock orangutan rehabilitation center

Today we visited sepilock orangutan rehabilitation center.
The center was set up in the 1960s to rescue orphaned baby orangutans and those kept by people as pets.
The center takes in the young and moves them through a series of areas where they are taught to survive in the wild again.
The center is completely open to the forest and the rehabilitated orangs leave whenever they are ready and come back if they want to.
Many come back for feeding time each day depending on how much food they have found the day before.

We went through the info center and learnt a lot about them ( they share 96% of the same DNA as us !) then we headed to the feeding platform to see them.
Only three were there today but there were many other monkeys too – pig tailed makaks and silver makaks.

Our last breakfast at kinabatangan

This morning we had our last breakfast at the lodge.
We have become accustomed to large breakfasts with fried noodles, eggs, sausage, hash browns …. The list goes on
How will we ever go back to cereal and toast ?
After we said our goodbyes we climbed aboard our bus and headed to sepilock orang-utan rehabilitation center to see what primates we could see.

Noodles for breakfast !