Malaysia at large, discovering nature

ROMA-KL

17/02/2006 FRIDAY

The journey has begun... It still doesn't feel real, for the moment the fear of the flight, of the plane, prevails in me, but the desire to give my eyes new things to see makes me overcome any fear... The trip with Malaysia Airline is a pleasure, you're pampered from the start of the journey to the end.. (packet of peanuts, fruit juices, wine, beer, refresher wipe, lunch, ice cream, coca cola, tea, coffee, breakfast, etc...) The important thing for me is to land and the pilot does this as if we were on a feather. Thinking back, so far on our short or long flights we've been lucky, we've never hit storms, big air pockets etc.. to put it briefly we've never bounced around on a plane. Better that way!!!!! We left at 12 on Friday the 17th... And we arrive (counting the time difference of plus seven hours) at seven on Saturday morning.

KL-SANDAKAN (BORNEO)

18/02/2006 SATURDAY

Passport control and luggage pickup all ok. Now we just have to kill time until the next flight: at 14:20 with the Asian low cost company AIR ASIA (like Ryanair...60 euros each for the flight from KL to SANDAKAN (but booking well in advance you spend even less... While waiting we get to eating and reading.... The second flight is ok, the luggage also arrives complete.. The hotel guy waits for us outside the airport and takes us to the only hotel booked via internet: JUNGLE SEPILOK RESORT (16 € per couple) Advertised like this: Sepilok Jungle Resort, telephone 089.533031, to sleep a stone's throw from the orangutans, among the nighttime sounds of hornbills or gibbons. We arrive and immediately understand that it's not 100% as dreamed, the entrance where the taxi leaves us is full of mud due to the rain and we almost dirty our backpacks (30 kg for two).

Everyone is very kind, the Chinese lady at the reception accompanies us up some concrete paths.... It's evening, it has rained, it's dark.. The room seems clean just enough, nothing more, the bathroom very small and squalid, but for 16 euros for two what did we expect? Even though we're dead tired our spirit of adaptation immediately kicks in: everything ok, the sheets are clean, better not check too much, there's light, air conditioning and hot water. Everything's ok! A nice shower and off to eat in the hotel restaurant. I look at the menu but everything seems very Chinese to me, I don't understand anything, let's go with a vegetable soup and french fries...

vegetable soup (horrible!!!!) The important thing is to go to bed even though we're certain the jet lag will surely catch up with us; in these two days we've slept or tried to sleep in every place and now that we have a bed there's no way we'll manage to sleep. We try anyway and after reading a bit, we doze off. After about two hours of sleep I, DANY, am woken by someone or something scratching, digging, I don't know the exact term, but of one thing I'm certain: there are no longer just two of us in the room..but how many? and more importantly who are we with? As if the light were near the bed, no it's near the door, Diego is sleeping like a log, useless to count on his help at this moment he doesn't even know he's on the other side of the world...

I turn on the light and from the piece of furniture across from the bed where Diego's backpack was and we realized it later, there was also a bag of sweets and chocolates intended for poor children or for a sugar craving of mine... a RAT, MOUSE, call it what you want but I guarantee you it was big, darts off at the speed of light... in a flash it goes from the furniture up onto the wardrobe and hides behind a lining in the ceiling, made of wood. I don't scream but I wake Diego with a smack on the butt and he after a few minutes of where are we, what's my name and why are you stressing me out, realizes... he trusts my word: a giant rat... come on now I even joke about it but that other night: no!!! For sure it was bigger than my foot, it must've been at least a size forty..

From that moment my life changed, you sleep or rather you no longer sleep, but the light stays on, like little children who are afraid of the dark, well I'm afraid of a rat and what a rat!!! Diego offers to watch over me and he finishes the whole book, meanwhile I catch a nap; in the end he also crashes. I sleep with one ear and one eye open. P.S.: the bag of sweets was immediately moved out of the room and never found again outside the door. It rained all night.

VISITA AL SEPILOK

19/02/2006 SUNDAY

Since we're not sleeping anymore anyway, a desire to see the world seizes us.. We set off to explore the hotel and its gardens.. Cell phones don't get reception and I have the brilliant idea of calling home, my father liked it less since I woke him at one in the morning: call whenever you want were his final words... I'm determined to get the room changed..and we tell the little lady at the reception that we had a visit from a giant little mouse but she doesn't bat an eye, as if we'd told her: I have an ant in my room... I say to myself again: you wanted nature? you wanted the jungle? What did you think you'd find there? The hotel (rat excluded) has a nice layout, in the most absolute greenery and full of little lakes with a wooden walkway connecting the two buildings.. If you only want nature it's the one for you! We have breakfast and it starts raining again, pouring...

you're in the rainy season or in the rainforest, at the equator what did you think you'd find? WATER!!!!! We go to Sandakan (taxi 30 rm) in search of friends of friends, or rather once found they immediately prove to be brothers and sisters to us... We spend a bit of time together and a couple relocated from Germany takes us to their home to illustrate the various excursions and trips. (I believe they work as collaborators with various agencies in the area, here's their e-mail: mikonschwab@yahoo.de They recommend the Kinabatangan trip (one of the reasons we chose to come to Borneo) but it's been raining for three weeks (even though they explain it's unusual because usually February is a sunny month) and the riverbanks have overflowed, it's not a very safe excursion... Reluctantly we accept the advice and change destination...

We choose for the following afternoon to go see the proboscis monkeys on the mangroves.. We're undecided whether to go to DANUM VALLEY or TABIN both national parks and true jungle.. We have lunch together with Micha and Constanze... They take us to the center of Sandakan to a Chinese restaurant (a bit of a big word..). Luckily it stopped raining. We eat noodles and linguine with fresh fish... here too we choose at random from the menu, all passable. We treat them to lunch, we spent 27.7 rm for five people (not even 6 euros in total!) very little. We say goodbye after the usual exchange of addresses and e-mails. We return by taxi (20rm, a little more than 4 euros). It's 2:20 pm, at 3:00 pm they feed the orangutans in the forest, let's hurry!!! The Sepilok Rehabilitation Center.

The park was created to temporarily take in orphaned or injured orangutans and rehabilitate them to give them the chance to be self-sufficient again in the jungle. Twice a day at fixed points in the park food is deposited and there are excellent chances of seeing many orangutans and macaques come forward: beware that going to Sepilok outside of meal times means almost certainly making a trip for nothing.

Thank goodness from the hotel it's a five-minute walk... we pay 30 rm (6.64 €) each plus 10 (2.21€) for each video camera or photo camera, total 80 rm (17.72€). We follow a walkway that leads us into the jungle... we arrive on a balcony full of people and up high there they are, the orangutans, moving from one rope to another until they reach the platform with the food... They're fantastic, they weigh a ton but move with incredible agility.. Too bad that we all get seized by a photography frenzy and miss what a simple person sitting and observing would notice.... Lunch doesn't last long and then off with the video camera: I'll rewatch it at home, for now it's a fascinating spectacle. After the orangutans come the macaques who clean up everything that's left, there are many with their little ones in tow.

Some even come down among us and out of delusions of grandeur they even seem to show off. Meanwhile it's started raining again and everyone hides their cameras and video cameras... but we stay watching in the rain. In thirty minutes everything is over (the rain I think sped things up), when we leave it's four in the afternoon.. how to kill time? IN HINDSIGHT: -I wouldn't book at JUNGLE SEPILOK RESORT again (first because of the rat) Second because you're cut off from the world, better to sleep in Sandakan and then take a taxi or bus to Sepilok, at least you're free to visit the town and eat at whatever restaurant you want... if instead someone only wants nature and relaxation, by all means come to Sepilok...

I have no intention of keeping the rat company (besides I've already decided I'll spend the whole night with the light on..) we set off along the road observing flowers and butterflies, surely we'll find something to do... We get on a bus that for 4 rm (89 cents) for two drops us at the crocodile farm..we pay 5rm (1.11€) each to enter and at certain times they even put on the little show with the crocodiles. It's nothing special, but to pass the time and see things that in Italy fortunately you don't see, it's more than fine. The crocodiles are quite calm, but thinking of finding them in front of you isn't a nice feeling. Usually they're sick crocodiles or ones with problems. I was struck by the caption of one crocodile that said: my name is and I'm so many years old..(48?)and I'm here because I ate 4 people and since then I eat only one chicken a day... Poor thing, what hunger...

There are also many other animals, a small zoo but a bit depressing for certain animals... We leave and wait for a bus simply on the edge of the road, where there's a patch even made of mud that's a stop: To get to the hotel once off the bus we walk 2.5 km on foot to better enjoy nature..We're tired, we stop immediately at the resort's little restaurant, we tempt fate with two plates of noodles, one with fish and one with meat and vegetables. Plentiful and edible. We spend 19rm (about 4€) for two. Straight to the room and packing since we've decided to sleep the last night in Sandakan in another hotel booked by Micha. Diego has a headache from tiredness and crashes immediately, I with the nightmare of the big rat have no intention at all of sleeping, I want to exhaust myself at least maybe then I won't feel anything anymore...

I read for four hours but not a shadow of sleep, indeed all the noises of the jungle keep me wide awake. Finally I wake Diego and ask him to take over the watch. I wake with a start because of a twitch from Diego..on the wall above our heads a nice plump and fleshy cockroach is calmly crawling around, I don't want to exaggerate by saying it was as big as our index finger but it came close..Goodbye sleep!!!!

VISITA AL SANTUARIO DELLE SCIMMIE NASICHE SANDAKAN

20/02/2006 MONDAY

Around five the deluge begins, it rains, it rains as if it should never end, in a moment of truce around nine we try to go from the room to the restaurant for breakfast. We pay for everything and say goodbye forever to the jungle sepilok resort. Appointment with Micha who, working as a tourism consultant, has excellent connections... he organized the week for us and accompanies us to the new hotel. This is a real hotel and it's called: HOTEL SEAFRONT SANDAKAN A splendid room with tv, air conditioning and a real bathroom for only 79 rm (18€ for two) We immediately accept the room. Micha explains to us that the Danum valley park (true jungle) is closed because of the rains. To see the animals the only option left is Tabin... ok we accept also because there's no choice, but we had heard good things about it.

Tabin Wildlife Reserve is an enormous rainforest of one hundred twenty-five thousand hectares, in the eastern part of the state. There you find the Asian elephant, the Sumatran rhinoceros, the orangutan, the Malay civet, the wild boar, along with the lush flora of Borneo.

Shower at the hotel and out in search of food, we try again with a kind of Malay self-service, nothing appeals to me, everything is new and different... to avoid unpleasant surprises..we take a bit of everything to try and taste new things...out of six or seven options I got two right but since it was only a taste I didn't fill up at all. Diego was luckier because he eats even very spicy things.

I'm still hungry, we stop at the hotel restaurant which offers us a plate of meat or fish or lamb plus dessert for only 10 rm (2.21€) We accept, and take a single portion: they bring me a little vegetable broth ok, and a plate of rice and a portion of meat with little vegetables and lots of soy sauce..and at the end the dessert arrives, 2 portions, it's a little green pudding: mint cream we think and instead no! We never managed to figure out what flavor it was but even though it was tiny we couldn't finish it.. At two we have an appointment for the excursion to the PROBOSCIS MONKEY SANCTUARY...: Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary. it's a large wooden construction from whose veranda you can watch the feeding of the proboscis monkeys which takes place on special platforms erected around it.

It's located at the center of a 17 km strip of land that the current owners saved from the complete deforestation of the surrounding areas: this has led to a concentration of local fauna within the borders of this bay covered with mangrove and in particular of some groups of proboscis monkeys, so called because of their big proboscis nose. It seems the monkeys became fond of this place after stealing some pancakes in the kitchen of the house that pre-existed the resort, thus finding a habitat suited to them and creating a lucrative activity for the owners.

Micha is our official guide (we'll pay him) it takes us about an hour and a half before arriving..Along the way Micha stops to let us taste the famous Durian, (I had read about this fruit in other previous stories) But we weren't prepared for its taste and the horrible smell of onion and rotten eggs...but it's a ritual, all tourists must taste this fruit, excellent for Malaysians but horrible for us......they say you have to eat it at least three or four times before you manage to appreciate it...but after the first how do you bring yourself to try a second? At the end there are about nine km of off-road, you pass on a muddy track among oil palm plantations (the majority of the jungle has been destroyed to make way for these plantations in view of greater economic gain) A palm plant takes seven years before it starts to bear fruit but then every two months for fifty years it will give the

owners its fruit and quick money. Let's hope they realize that the remaining 20% of jungle can bring money through tourism and that they spare it. We arrive at the monkey sanctuary..we take off our shoes to go up onto the observation platform..and we wait...the proboscis monkeys are really close, the photography frenzy begins....shots and zooms....as soon as they see the keeper bringing the food the five or six specimens we had managed to spot multiply, they come out of every hole (plants)..they were there before too but we were the ones who couldn't see them... They divide into three family groups and eat on three different platforms and places.. It's a wonderful and surprising spectacle, and it breaks my heart to think how man's selfishness can lead to the extinction of such tender animals...

With their big nose and their strange face they almost strike me and move me more than the orangutans.. On the way back there's a change of driver, Diego tries his hand at driving on the right (British driving) on the muddy path for the nine km of off-road...We then reunite with Constance, Isabel and Judith (other German friends) and go to eat at the 4th mile in Sandakan: it's the almost completely Chinese area. The place resembles a big open-air market, under a sheet-metal roof, lots of benches and some furniture where they cook and wash the cutlery scattered around....It reminds you of the square in Marrakesh in Morocco only that to wash the stuff here they have detergent.. They bring us five types of food in little trays for three or four people (vegetables, meat, fish) we taste a bit of everything, very good and we pay 7rm each (1.55€).

Really very little, but Diego and I conclude that we wouldn't be able to live long on Chinese cuisine that doesn't remind us at all of what we're used to... They need to come to Italy to know and understand real Chinese cuisine...or not?? We return to the hotel happy to be able to sleep peacefully.

ESCURSIONE NELLA JUNGLA TABIN

21/02/2006 TUESDAY

Wake up just after dawn. We have to take a taxi to catch the bus and get to LAHUDATU where we'll then go to Tabin (leaving half our bank account there: from our point of view the excursion is very expensive...) taxi 6rm (1.33€) and it takes us to the bus-station where at 7.30 we take the bus to Lahudatu for 18 rm (4€) each.. A real locals' bus, there are really few tourists... a calm 2.30-hour journey. we arrive at ten thirty but the appointment is for after noon. Even though we left a backpack with Micha since the plane departs from Sandakan again, we don't feel like walking around in the sun with weight. We wait in the station which is nothing but a big clearing with a canopy and some concrete benches to sit on and shelter from the sun, surrounded by many vendors, some are children.

We become the object of observation, they must not see many tourists around these parts and the children surround us observing our every move and when I offer some chocolate peanuts a child at the movement of my arm backs away frightened..Usually I'm the one photographing them, but in this case I feel like a rare animal. The Tabin staff arrive an hour late and we set off, again 20-something km of off-road in potholes and mud....logically the jungle can't be found in the city. Susy the person in charge of the place welcomes us..It's all really beautiful, we sleep in a stilt house, on the bank of a river in the jungle, equipped with air conditioning and a ceiling fan, full of glass windows and a balcony....that's why it costs so much, you're in the jungle and you have excellent service...They give us lunch and warn us that at 15:00 we'll have the first excursion...

We set off on an open jeep but the weather is naughty and after twenty minutes it starts raining and we're forced to hide the cameras....We spot many birds among them the hornbill and a group of macaques and under a little deluge we're forced to turn back soaked to the bone...Rest until 18:30 when the 2nd excursion takes place on foot to see the insects of the jungle. We see frogs, biting ants that almost forced us to change path, other ants called giants (the most giant in the world) and other flying insects. I see leeches for the first time, which I mistake for pretty little insects....then as soon as I know they're them I change attitude. Diego picks up three and kindly donates a bit of his blood to them. They're tiny but the little hole they made with their teeth makes the foot bleed enough.

Dinner at 19:30 and at 20:30 we're ready for the 3rd excursion with the jeep to see the animals that come out at night. We're not very lucky...we see a wild boar, two wild cats (really beautiful but similar to our cats only they look like little tiger cubs in their fur), a monitor lizard....We go to bed exhausted, two hours on that jeep, on a wooden bench takes away any desire, considering we've been up since six thirty in the morning.

TABIN-SEMPORNA-

22/02/2006 WEDNESDAY

Wake up at 5:30, the fourth excursion awaits us, a walk on foot in the jungle to a boiling mud volcano. This time it's just the two of us plus the guide...We put on our anti-leech gaiters....in the jungle we encounter quite a few but with a watchful eye we manage to dodge their attacks...There's a high humidity rate, it's hot....we don't see many animals apart from three wild boars and some centipedes that curl up into balls and a grass or plant called mimosa pudica..if you touch it, it closes in on itself as if it were ashamed..Once we reach the volcano area we climb up onto a platform and photograph the nature around us...the majestic trees at sunrise are beautiful...the guide tells us to wait that many animals will come....for us it's fine: it's a good excuse to catch our breath..We wait, we hear from afar an elephant trumpeting, maybe it's heading toward the volcano..

IF ONLY....it would be a nice reward for how much this whole excursion cost us..Too expensive for us. Instead nothing, just some hornbill in the distance; but the noises of the jungle are so many, far from the silence of the jungle...We return cooked, soaked and hungry and I'm disappointed...how many things you'd change in hindsight...They left us the table with breakfast: food and a comforting shower.

Diego treats himself to a nice long sleep and I tidy up the backpack, I throw away my sneakers, they're soaked with mud..Diego tries to save his, washes them..but they'll never dry in time....Around noon we take a little stroll and realize that if you want you can also do excursions on your own...but there's a sign warning: remember your steps!!! We try to spot some little monkey but it's all useless..We go to lunch and at two we have to be ready, we have the taxi and we'll say goodbye forever to Tabin.We're finishing lunch when Diego notices some trees or rather the fronds of the trees moving, near our little house...he sets off to explore, shortly after I follow him...There's a group of macaques (about twenty) that from the balconies jump from one place to another looking for food or objects to steal left forgotten outside the rooms... the photo frenzy kicks in again..

At two we're ready, the sun has come out..today that we're leaving and will spend our time in taxi and bus there's a beautiful sun...while yesterday when we wanted the sun it rained and was cloudy (even though with the sun we would surely have died from the heat walking around decked out in anti-leech and anti-mosquito gear) We delay by 15 providential minutes...As soon as we leave the resort we look around..in the end even though it's all over we're still in the jungle..the miracle happens... A group of at least five, six elephants crossed the road and passed from the jungle to the palm grove.. We

SIPADAN-MABUL

23/02/2006 THURSDAY

I wake up at 6, outside it's pouring, raining buckets, I know that maybe by 8 it will stop but will the weather stay bad or will the sun come out? We'll see! We go out and it's not raining; at the meeting point they hand out black sacks to protect the backpacks from the rain and from the water that every diver discharges into the boat after making the dive. It's a very spartan vessel already wet because of the rain but they offer a sufficient service; costumes and stories are to be left at the hotel. After a good hour of crossing and an alternation of clouds and hopes of sun, we arrive at Mabul and get off for breakfast: sufficient cleanliness, nothing special but with our spirit of adaptation it's more than fine.

Chang co-manages a Longhouse on Mabul island, with meals as well as accommodation; it's in the fishermen's village, and Mabul is close to Sipadan, the longhouse is a series of small rooms distributed along the corridor, the environment is spartan, as it should be; we're on a stilt house directly over the sea, with the village behind us, simplicity and contact with the people. Some will stay to sleep at Mabul so they'll have only a 20-minute crossing to reach Sipadan. They're small rooms over the sea, simple, at 50 rg (11€) per person with food. If we'd had more time we would have stayed a night. After breakfast we set off again. We do the first snorkelling in open sea, near the drop-off, never go over the blue. I'm a bit scared, I know that in this sea there's everything. We spot lots of fish, a shame there's no sun, everything underneath would shine more.

We look for the main reason we came to Sipadan, but nothing.... We arrive at the beach, the classic postcard beach: beautiful, inhabited only by the soldiers who guard it (poor them, they have to do their military service here!!) and by gigantic water monitors: they're harmless but with their 2 m length they certainly don't go unnoticed. We have a picnic with cakes and bananas. Diego accidentally tastes the durian cake...a disgusting thing with the taste of rotten onion!!! Malaysians love it. We can do the second dive right from the beach, we plunge from the pier and find ourselves in a school of fish of which we see neither the beginning nor the end; we don't have the courage to go through the middle of them, we go around them.

Below it's truly a paradise, full of every kind of fish and corals of every type and in the end there she is appearing before us, calm, letting herself be carried by the current: THE TURTLE!! Too beautiful and sweet, if only there were sun...we see others and also 2 small sharks about a metre and a half; there are also fish bigger and longer than me, Diego says they're tuna, I anyway give them a wide berth. Beautiful, I think Sipadan continues to be a paradise because it's protected from tourists, from waste and from everything that damages it. We recharge by eating at Mabul, we don't understand why the third dive isn't done but we don't insist: mission accomplished SHARKS AND TURTLES. While waiting to return to Semporna we detach from the group and for half an hour we wander around the island.

We walk among their stilt houses, they're all very kind and smiling, the children greet you happily and don't ask you for alms, only to take a photo of them. I would have given them something, but so as not to spoil them and because they shouldn't learn to see the tourist as someone who gives, I don't give them anything, except the chance to see themselves again in the photos and to laugh their heads off seeing themselves again. I wish I had a Polaroid to give them one, who knows when they'll ever have a photo of their own all to themselves, but maybe they're not even that poor, just different from us by habit or by choice, who knows...I didn't have time to go deeper and besides I don't speak English. The sea is anyway a beautiful turquoise green, clear and transparent...we take a few photos and rejoin the group...the sun is coming out. Thank you, thank you.

Back in Semporna, we're a bit cooked, a nice shower, a meal and then to bed, tomorrow the bus leaves at 7:30. For dinner we go out looking for a little place that inspires us; the street is very dark and with little traffic, we don't feel safe walking to the centre and we don't feel like taking a taxi. We retrace our steps and stop at a little open-air place run by Muslims; again I eat noodles with seafood and Diego grilled prawns, we spend 20 rg (4.5€). At the hotel we close our backpacks and go to sleep.

BACK TO SANDAKAN

24/02/2006 FRIDAY

We are still tired when the alarm clock brings us back to reality. Diego has a strange ache in all his bones plus a bit of a cold, he's worn out, we blame the fact that always getting up early in the morning means he's behind on sleep. How frustrating, outside there's a sun that splits stones and we'll spend 6-7 hours on a bus. We're really sorry we didn't see the best of Sipadan, thanks to the weather. We leave telling ourselves that maybe we'll come back. Bus to Sandakan, very run-down, and at every pothole it feels like being on a ride...you bounce around. It's slow as a snail, we'll never get there. Diego tries to sleep, he feels bad, I survive. They stop us at a check-point and check our passports.

We left at 8 and arrive in Sandakan around 14 at the bus-station, from there to the Sea-front hotel, the room is no longer on the 4th floor but on the 3rd, luckily considering how heavy the backpacks are, and there's no elevator anyway. The luggage guy takes care of going up, but going down is all on us! The room is smaller but it's ok! We eat a little something and then to bed: Diego is in a coma, he's caught a nice cold. We wake up around 6 in the evening, go to dinner and to burn the photos onto CDs to empty the memory cards. We go to see our local friends Micha and Costance and other Chinese and Malaysians all together. Very nice and touching. We speak in English: Diego talks and I mime. We pick up the backpack left at Micha's house: it's quite heavy and carrying it down from the 4th floor. Promise for the next trip: maximum 10 kg per person.

To bed after sending some emails with photos to our dear friends in Italy (to make them die of envy). Tomorrow we have the flight from Sandakan to KL at 10.

TRANSFERS SANDAKAN-KL-PENANG

25/02/2006 SATURDAY

Descent with the backpacks, hearty breakfast at the hotel 23 rg (€5) for two and taxi to the airport 15 rg (€3.32). What a shame to leave Borneo right now that the sun is coming out...Yes, because today, when we'll be busy with transfers from one place to another, there's sun. We land in KL and immediately take the little train that from the airport takes you downtown where all the buses and trains for the various destinations depart, we're headed to Penang. I can't believe it, it's 14:00 and the only train leaves at 20:45. At least we do the journey at night in a couchette spending really little 70 rg for two (€15.50) and we arrive at our destination tomorrow at 5:30.

Ok, there isn't much choice!!!! But how do we cheat the six hours of waiting? If Diego were well maybe we could leave the backpacks at the luggage storage and go around the city, but he's sick and after eating at McDonald's, we commandeer a bench and while Diego tries to sleep I read everything about our new destination, what to visit, etc...I catch up a bit and I think about our mistakes like the transfers... IN HINDSIGHT: 1st We shouldn't have taken the round-trip flight from Sandakan, but arrival in Sandakan and departure from Tawau (near Sipadan) would have saved us a day of travel wasted on a bus to go back to Sipadan, sleep in a hotel and wait for the following morning's flight to KL... 2nd Once we landed in KL we should have taken a flight to Penang, avoiding dead time and more time thrown away waiting..

Organizing in time and booking in advance with Air Asia flights spending really little. In practice to go from Borneo to Penang we threw away two days. Never again such a mistake, but you learn by erring and we're getting toughened up for the next trips. Surely having traveled by bus around Mexico the year before had an influence on us that in this country turned out to be wrong...Mexico has an excellent bus network, they cover all destinations both day and night and you can always go anywhere at any time of day or night. In Malaysia we had planned to do all transfers at night as we did in Mexico, saving time and money on the night at the hotel, but obviously the whole world isn't the same and we had to adapt and get smart where it was still possible to recover. So we book the flight from Langkawi to KL, so instead of managing the journey overland we manage it by air, surely saving time.

Luckily the train leaves on time, we're in a car with about forty bunk beds, everything is open, just a curtain to give you a bit of privacy, it's fine, our beds are one in front of the other, and they're the upper ones. Getting the backpacks up onto the beds since there's no luggage compartment is very entertaining We sleep more or less well but overall the journey is quite comfortable. At five there's the train guy, called the conductor, who comes to wake us and tells us that the next stop is ours, the evening before he had noted down everyone's stops and now he warns them when it's theirs...So much for the Italian State Railways service...notice the subtle dig???

PENANG-GEORGE TOWN

26/02/2006 SUNDAY

Right on time we get off...we're in Butterworth. At 6:00 the first ferry that takes you to the island of Penang departs; ticket cost 1.20 rg each (€0.30) The journey lasts thirty minutes. We take a taxi and head to George Town to a hotel chosen at random, more or less, from the Lonely Planet. The hotels don't open before eight, and we, who have already dismissed the taxi, find ourselves on foot with the backpacks in this dark area with drunk people. Calm on the outside and a bit agitated on the inside, we walk around heading toward all the signs that say hotel..This one is closed, this one is squalid outside, imagine inside, this one instead is open..ok it's 25 rg a night for two (€5.54)...can I see the room?...ah there's no bathroom in the room..no no I'm sorry..(as an excuse it's a good one to leave).

Diego, upon seeing the room, passed by a room where some ladies of the night (to not call them something less nice) had just finished working and were getting dressed..). The hotel also operates as a brothel. Better to change area and air..Note that this street is called Love Line: there's no more suitable name!! We take a taxi and tell him to take us to other hotels listed in the Lonely Planet and that he'll stay with us until we find a suitable one. He immediately takes us to an international hotel, the classic mega building without personality...we don't even get out; we want something more local and certainly less expensive. We find the CATHAY HOTEL. It's much better and in its day it was certainly a beautiful colonial-style villa now turned into a hotel, it shows a bit of the signs of time, but as a structure it has stayed back then. It's very characteristic.

It has huge internal staircases that take you upstairs, an internal garden...We accept the room for 69 rg a night (€15) The room is huge with two double beds, everything is old but clean. Diego after a nice shower sleeps a couple of hours..It starts to rain..We wait... We go out to discover the city and immediately we're caught by a little man with his trishaw who with his bicycle with a carriage takes you around the city for an hour. 15 rg each (€3.32).

Every now and then it drizzles..We visit the Khoo Kongsi temple 10 rg for two to enter (€2.21).Beautiful and particular, we then visit a fishing village, then we pass through Little India and Chinatown..apart from the mixture of temples and churches of every type (Chinese, Buddhist, Hindu, Catholic, Evangelist, Baptist, etc..) we don't see much in the way of people, we reflect:maybe the fault is the fact that today is Sunday and everything is closed, or it was a lively and active city before the tsunami and we want to leave as soon as possible but we've already paid for the two nights..and we don't have much choice. We go to the hotel to rest our legs, Diego continues to feel bad, he's gotten worse..

In the afternoon we inquire about renting a scooter for the next day and we take the local bus to go outside the city to see one of the most beautiful temples, Kek Lok Si, the entrance is free except for the pagoda (the final last part at the top) it costs 2 rg (€0.44) each. The bus leaves us at the foot of the temple, but to reach it and see it well you have to do a good climb which luckily is not under the sun (which luckily has come out )but in a gallery, at least you're in the shade..staircase among small Chinese shops that stop you to sell you everything (did we study this as a thing?) You pass by a mini concrete pond full of turtles, some are really big..it's full and throwing food at them you see a single mass of turtles fighting for the food.Once at the top the temple is truly majestic and impressive.It 100% deserves to be seen.

Diego unfortunately continues to get worse and we decide to make one last quick jump to the Komtar (mega shopping center read about in the Lonely)...here's where all the people had gone...we consequently understand...too much chaos and then it doesn't seem at all a bargain to me. Diego feels bad, it's six in the evening and we want to go back..Next to the shopping center there's PIZZA HUT and so I eat a margherita pizza (good) and Diego a bit of mixed fruit and some strawberry ice cream.He has an incredible cold and maybe even a fever. By 19:30 we're at the hotel, he's burning up and I get a little scared, I ask the reception if they have a thermometer, but nothing and maybe it's better that way...

Not knowing sometimes protects you, we continue with self-medication given the traveling pharmacy that I brought along and with a wet handkerchief on his forehead..and we hope that ten hours of sleep have a positive effect. I tidy up the backpacks a bit, read and go to sleep early too.

AROUND THE ISLAND OF PENANG

27/02/2006 MONDAY

Diego wakes up more rested, to say he's well is impossible, but at least it seems he no longer has a fever..Breakfast and then another pill down. We take care of the paperwork for renting the scooter 30 rg +10 for petrol (€8.86) and after buying a detailed map of the island we set off.. It's a nice way to travel, mainly it's fast and cheap.We like it a lot.You feel free, you stop where and when you want... 1st stop: the BOTANICAL GARDEN in search of special flowers and monkeys since the guide indicated their presence..We see three at the entrance rummaging in the garbage and then nothing more..The entrance to this immense park is free.. The garden is truly beautiful and big but it's up and down made of big valleys and under the sun..it's not at all relaxing, but tiring..we don't go all the way around it and give up halfway.We see some beautiful flowers and completely new to us.

2nd stop BATU FERRINGHI defined by everyone as the most beautiful beach on the island, but we're very disappointed..the sea is nothing special and as a panorama there are only big buildings, resorts and hotels..only concrete... 3rd stop at the SPICE GARDEN entrance 26 rg for two (€5.70). Again a dive into nature, trees and flowers of every species in three paths to follow, but this time you're completely immersed in nature and in the shade.Lastly they take you by tractor, like a little train, to the top of the hill where there's a small shop and a bar-restaurant. The whole thing is very well designed, you have a panoramic view only of the sea, we eat a little something to recharge a bit and off toward the We make a stop at a Batik factory where we buy a small picture for our little house....

4th stop THE BUTTERFLY FARM, Entrance for the butterflies 30+5 rg for the camera (€7.75) you enter and you're in a magnificent equatorial greenhouse surrounded by butterflies that fly around you and that with a bit of luck even land on you..We've found that almost every island or state has one, we recommend visiting at least one, maybe they're not all the same, but try it also because the expense isn't excessive. 5th stop THE SNAKE TEMPLE where we read that there's a belief that the venomous vipers that coil around the sacred pillars are rendered harmless by the incense smoke..

Diego is fascinated by the idea of visiting it, I'm not at all, if one wakes up and bites me? Wanting to visit it at all costs turned out to be one of those things that in hindsight, you wouldn't do for many reasons:one because all the other things we visited were in the upper part of the island and only this temple is in the lower part and so we had to cross the whole island and the mountain, all up and down and curves right and left....in the end we have a pain in our behind and back that we can't take anymore. Arriving at the temple we're very disappointed:a very squalid and simple thing with only two little vipers coiled up sleeping and it was already all over...

So much road for nothing and in George Town we left behind the statue of the reclining Buddha 33m long, some say it's the second longest in the world...Both of us are exhausted but our thirst to see never stops...and so off in search of the Buddha and his temple.We ask for information and in the end we arrive, it's already closed. The guardians let us photograph from outside ( the outside promises well) and a bit disappointed we head again to the Komtar to Pizza Hut because Diego's stomach can't stand the thought of eating Chinese, Malaysian or Indian... We return the scooter and then I close the backpacks and straight to bed.

LANGAWI ISLAND

28/02/2006 TUESDAY

At 7:45 the minibus passes in front of the hotel that takes us to the ferry for LANGAWI. It arrives already full of tourists like us, we're the second-to-last stop. Diego gets on crammed in the back, one backpack between his legs and one in his arms, I share the front seat with the guy from the last stop..thank goodness the journey lasts only ten minutes. After thirty minutes of waiting we board the ferry thanks to a very steep downward staircase, out of regulation, we sit down and there's the air conditioning on full blast, it's freezing and we just wait for the crossing to end as soon as possible (2 hours).

We meet Cecilia, a girl originally from Ferrara who works in a hotel in Sardinia from April to October and the rest of the time she spends it traveling the world with a backpack alone.What courage!!! Two is ok, but alone, I never!!!! She left in November and on March 18 she'll end her trip.She has visited Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia; peninsular Malaysia and now after a stop in Langawi, she'll go on to Thailand to see again all the places she had seen a week before the tsunami. Once disembarked we take the same taxi to the most touristy beach on the island PANTAI CENANG..I, reading touristy, was expecting something like Rimini or anyway full of hotels and buildings...instead there isn't even one....and the beach is a very long stretch of sand and palms.It's beautiful and relaxing and almost empty.

There are small chalets or bungalows at the edge of the beach in the shade of the palms, each then with its own little restaurant.We, reading the Lonely, chose the SANDY BEACH RESORT Nothing special but the room is huge, there's a double bed plus a single one, the air conditioning all for 77 rg with breakfast (€17).Good!!! By now the morning is gone, worn out we collapse from sleep and we force ourselves up around four.. goal to see the beach well, negotiate for renting the scooter and see if there's something nice to buy as a souvenir for us, or for some little gift.. On the main and only street there are many small souvenir shops, clothes and little restaurants.The sea isn't the most beautiful, normal, but the whole together gives us a charge of energy.

We stroll romantically at sunset...I'd like time to stop for a while...We're granting ourselves a bit of recharging...we take lots of photos... On the beach we meet many little crabs, starfish and hermit crabs, we conclude that if the beach is so alive, surely the sea is even more so, later we ask a taxi driver and he tells us that the water of the nearby rice fields, its mud, dirty the sea...We go to bed without dinner, because why eat if you're not hungry? Diego is improving even if slowly, the medicines are creating further stomach problems for him.

AROUND THE ISLAND OF LANGAWI

01/03/2006 WEDNESDAY

Wake up around eight thirty for the more than abundant breakfast made at the edge of the beach.At nine we can already pick up the scooter 39 rg (€8.70) we have to return it tomorrow morning at nine, with a full tank of petrol. We set off loaded and eager to see beautiful landscapes, on the map we've marked all the things to see.The island is surely more beautiful and green than Penang and as an overview it's more pleasant and relaxing to look at:lots of palms and nature. Every town has a school so we deduce that there aren't literacy problems. They're not extremely poor, they just have a different culture and life from ours, but I wouldn't call them poor, it's us who have gotten used to too many things and superfluous things have become indispensable.

The beaches are beautiful but the sea is nothing special, nothing that takes my breath away, we choose one and stop for a bit...From the area we've chosen the mangrove tour and other excursions are available but we, after the jungle in Borneo, no longer want to spend money on things already seen. Along the way every now and then we see signs that tell us:beware wild animals may cross the road...and so to our joy it happens to us. About fifty monkeys are at the edge of the road playing and eating, some walk in the middle of the road, so much so that we're afraid some car might run over one, as if it were a cat...

We're headed toward a waterfall, from the photos it looks beautiful...but it's already one and the sun is scorching, we're tired, before the walk uphill we eat at a small kiosk on the sides of the road:two plates of Chinese spaghetti and the drinks we pay only 6.70 rg (€1.40) for two...this time we spent really little, and it was also good. We recharge a bit and start the climb but the trickle of water beneath us doesn't suggest a very abundant waterfall..my prediction comes true.The waterfall is a little waterfall. But anyway we're in the shade and we stop for an hour. Diego starts showing his stomach problems and the spaghetti won't go down...they've stopped in his stomach and they'll stay there for quite a while. With the road scorching we head toward Kuah the capital of the island...

We hope to see some shops which we've really been missing so far.It's 15:30.We go around some ethnic shops, some are even on sale, with discounts from 20 to 40%;but nothing attracts us...or strikes us.. It's not the shops' fault, it's us who aren't up for it, we're out of sorts..Diego for his flu, me for premenstrual syndrome and my monthly headache.. We refuse to become martyrs just to see the whole city, we escape to the hotel dreaming of the bed. We sleep a couple of hours and around 20:30 we go out to take a beautiful bath and some shopping: I believe that the beautiful things you truly like always cost, even here, nothing is free or almost... We fall in love with a sort of curtain embroidered with elephants...we think twice given the price..but since it's for our home..ok let's go for this little madness.

We return the scooter in the evening because tomorrow morning we want to sleep or at least be free...We have dinner at the edge of the beach in the resort restaurant, or rather I have dinner and Diego eats only fruit...he no longer has the sensation of hunger, everything disgusts him....you'll see that this time he really loses weight? By the end of the vacation he's lost 5-6 kg. To bed and we hope to recover our strength...even if we can't explain why...

LANGAWI-KUALA LUMPUR

02/03/2006 THURSDAY

We stay in bed as long as we can...at ten breakfast on the beach...we pack our bags because tonight the flight from Langawi to KL awaits us (flight booked the Saturday before precisely to avoid more wasted time) booked a few days before we pay 285 rg for two (€61) think of the savings if one booked it two months before for example...

We leave the backpacks at the hotel reception and go to visit what the Lonely gives as the largest aquarium in Asia.38 rg each to enter (€8) Of course in Asia they're in a very bad way with aquariums if this is truly one of the largest, let's hope for the Asians that the Lonely this time has picked up a dud...if they see the one in Genoa what do they think, that they're directly in the sea? It's cute but very small and in an hour we visit it all.The most vomit-inducing thing is what they call a 3D cinema:you absolutely don't have the sensation that things or the fish in this case come at you like in real three-dimensional cinemas and then they tell you the story of a killer whale and a shark that eat some birds, a swan and a duck that were floating on the water.It's true that life is like that but why traumatize children? The visit to the aquarium ends too soon, we had thought to spend th

ree hours...Now what do we do?It's too hot and we decide to wait at the airport (by now we're used to it).Taxi 16 rg (€3.50) he tells us this is a fixed rate for the airport.ATTENTION: we thought we could eat calmly once inside instead it's not like that...there's only a very squalid restaurant full of people and also very expensive:we for two tiny margherita pizzas and 1 bottle of water spent 48 rg (€10.50)..THIEVES...and they weren't even good...We read and wait;they board at 17:00. I'm taking too many flights, the more I take the more the chances of accidents increase...better not to think about it... This time too the flight is all ok!It lasts about an hour, the time to go up and we already have to get off...baggage claim..ok.... Little train that from the airport takes us to KL city, 70 rg for two (€15.50).

As soon as we get off we're assailed by taxi drivers...one wants to take us for 35 rg (€7.75)...careful they're thieves, they take advantage because you arrive disoriented, don't know where buses, metro etc. are.. and besides it's evening and they take advantage of it. Diego shoots 20 rg (€4.43) and we make to head off on foot..one of them follows us ok let's go for 20 rg..He takes us to the area chosen in advance CHINATOWN! We had a shortlist of four or five hotels..we stop right in front of the LOK ANNA Diego goes up to see....I watch the backpacks...he considers it the most squalid seen so far...

The other hotels are on a famous street that in the late afternoon and evening until late is closed to traffic..because there's a sort of Chinese market all of fake Chinese stuff..An indescribable thing, stalls full of Adidas, Nike, Puma shoes etc...full of Gucci watches etc...full of wallets and bags etc...full of t-shirts..all Chinese stuff..even if we have to make a premise all Adidas stuff is made in southeast Asia and so maybe it's not even that fake....I connect it all to Marrakech Everyone calls you and tells you buy, buy, look at my stall etc...for the moment we're just looking for the hotel.We look at the SWISS INN...nice but too expensive for us...here further on the one that my heart reading the guides had chosen from the start: the CHINA TOWN INN.

Let's hope for the best, as long as it has a clean bed..there's the room without a window with air conditioning and tv and bathroom for 79.90 rg (€17.50)for two ok? Ok after seeing it..Confirmed for two nights, Saturday evening we have the flight that takes us home. A nice regenerating shower and an hour of rest...We try a walk on the street, to see the market up close..Too much chaos, we're not yet prepared to negotiate as we should and to do shopping, we postpone everything to tomorrow...

VISITING KL CITY

03/03/2006 FRIDAY

We head by metro toward the Petronas and various shopping centers. The Petronas are truly imposing...We take the usual ritual photos and struggle a bit to fit them all into the camera's lens. We eat here and there..The shopping centers are truly majestic, very organized, clean and on the American model and full of Western luxuries. We also visit the Indian quarter called little india, passing through the Muslim one where since it's Friday there's a big celebration around the mosque.All very fascinating.We walk through the streets but it's incredibly hot. We do shopping at the Globe, a big multi-story shop that sells every type of goods at very Eastern prices.

Returning in the afternoon to the Chinatown quarter we're ready to dedicate ourselves to shopping...We negotiate and then buy six pairs of Adidas and Puma and Nike sneakers for about nine, ten euros a pair...In Italy comparing them with the originals you can't see the difference:me I know what it is:I spent at least €100 less.... We have dinner in a Chinese restaurant at the end of the street;maybe Diego's stomach is reopening a bit...He eats an excellent crab rice..Night...

04/03/2006 SATURDAY

Today is the day of return...we pack the backpacks and leave them at the reception until six in the evening, we wander a bit more around the city...We go to the Birdpark after struggling a bit to find it also because we wanted to go on foot... The Bird park entrance 56 rg for two (€12.50) is a big city park covered in some areas by an enormous net forming an aviary, where inside various types of birds fly free and we manage to see up close the hornbill so sought after in the jungle. We return to the hotel and we have the same taxi driver called who had taken us here two days ago, you can go to the airport also by the little train and then bus but the expense is the same, at least with the taxi you exhaust yourself less.. At 23.00 the flight departs, all ok this time too and being at night I catch a good sleep.....

05/03/2006

We're in Italy, everything is so different and in many ways useless and futile...but the deepest reflections are personal...

I CONCLUDE BY SAYING THAT WHILE ONE DREAM ENDS AND THE VACATION BEGINS TO PASS INTO THE DRAWER OF THE WONDERFUL MEMORIES OF OUR MIND, WE ARE ALREADY READY TO OPEN A NEW ONE..BECAUSE WE JUST CAN'T STAY HOME..TRAVELING IS JUST SO BEAUTIFUL...