If we had gone with my and Alex's forecast for today (taken from www.optimisticweather.org), we were headed to an island for snorkelling, swimming and parasailing. It was going to be a great send off for our last day together and our last day in Borneo. It was also Matt's last day of being almost 12, so we wanted to make it a good one.
And then there was the forecast from Beth at www.realisticweather.net that said we would have a ton of rain.
I can't believe "her" forecast was correct! Oh well, you can't always control the weather. So instead, we had a good sleep-in day (ranging from Beth at 6:00am to the rest of the gang somewhere between 8:00 and 10:00). We weren't ready to do anything until around noon, but despite the slow start, Beth was so chill I half wondered if she'd dipped into some Mari Mari rice wine.
So what do we do? It was pouring and it wasn't going to let up. To the mall! We took cabs to Imago Times Square, a super modern mall that had all usual suspect stores and restaurants. I came up with a rare brainstorm based on the concept of getting rid of the kids engaging the kids in a team-based, mentally and physically engaging activity. But first, lunch.... Beth and I finally got our bibimbap!
During lunch, Beth and I put a list together for a camera scavenger hunt.
The kids determined their teams - it would be the older siblings vs the younger siblings.... This could make an interesting sociological study. The start was hilarious - as soon as Matt and Robin got their camera, they took a picture of the four of them and Matt shouted maniacally "we can take a picture with them because they're teenagers but they can't take a picture of us because we're not!!!!" - and they were off like a shot.
The parents speculated - would it be the freer thinking, at times apt-to-get-distracted junior team or the more methodical, determined senior team that would complete the task first, and before the 3:15pm deadline?
Now, we were free to shop and stroll around the mall! Ha ha!!! The parents split up - Alex and Kim needed snacks for the plane, Beth frivolously wanted needed new running shoes, and I frivolously wanted needed Starbucks. We were on the ground level and looked down and saw Matt and Robin on the level below - they looked like little rats in a maze - zipping back and forth in frenetic movements, pausing to take pictures of the odd sign. I tried taking a video but they were too quick. Advantage: team junior.
At 3:05, guess who rolls in?
Their camera roll was hilarious - the two social extroverts got every single picture, and it looked like they had a good time meeting people in the mall. Their seven word sentence was "Free square gifts for her body collections" which I guess technically is a sentence...
Ten minutes later, the seniors rolled in with their camera roll, including their seven word sentence "The secret beyond your burgers and donuts". It was funny to see the difference in the "pictures with people" tasks. The juniors had pictures with the people - as in they met, talked to and asked the people they took pictures with. The seniors had "candid" pictures with one of the partners, blurred, standing in front of the person(s) the task called for. That's typical Abby, and I guess Jeffrey too!
We took cabs back to our condo, and the kids opted to "chill" (or as Jeffrey described it "socially connect while playing a team game of Minecraft". The adults went across the street to see Southpaw - a typically top quality Antoine Fuqua movie. Then we were back to pick the kids up for Matt's birthday dinner. We found a Sushi/Hot Pot buffet nearby (a Sushi place, with a Chinese name, owned and run by an Indian... Ok, that was a first for me!). It turned out to be pretty good.
The kids enjoyed themselves at their typically separate-from-parents table....
We came up with this photo pose in the lobby of the mall that I'm very sure nobody has ever thought of taking before.... Robin's got the face down pat.
How to cap off a great birthday evening? In Asia, it has to be Karaoke!! We got ourselves a private room and dialled in all the classics.... Well, some of the classics. Ah, not really. The music selection was pretty weird (by our standards), but we had enough to have fun for a couple of hours (the beers helped, trust me!).
I looked over at Matt at one point, and he had this "satisfied old man laying back with a beer" look on his face. He was holding Alex's beer, but I did get the feeling he was having a nice birthday.
It turned out to be a great day. The weather can't control your day - we found a way to turn a negative into a positive. It's always easier to do that when you're in great company. The Versly and the Tyndalls always seem to be on the same page.... Today was no exception. Happy end of being almost 13 Matt... Take it away ladies!!!
Our day trip on the North Borneo Railway was like being surprised with a Corn Popsicle for dessert - a long anticipated treat that when you opened it up, not knowing what it was really going to be, it turned out to taste like shit.
What did taste good was breakfast. Alex and I took Matt to an authentic Indian breakfast - masala dosa and chai tea. Delicious!
I'd found out about the North Borneo Railway experience through books and online reviews over a year ago. Everything painted the experience as a high end nostalgic journey aboard an historic steam train through the lush jungles of Borneo. It was not cheap for Southeast Asian half day trip standards - a journey from 10:00am to 1:30pm that included a small breakfast and tiffin lunch was about $400 per family - but it seemed like a unique experience that we would enjoy.
We arrived at 9am and got settled. The checkin process was neat - a staff member dressed in colonial garb issued everyone a little passport and they stamped the first page.
We got to our assigned seats - little booths for each pair of passengers. The whole feel of the train was very authentic and we were impressed. The kids settled in to cards while the adults went outside and took some pictures of the train.
The train cars were of Japanese design and built in the 60's. The wood powered steam engine was also from the 60's and was one of the last of its kind ever made.
We were supposed to leave at 10:00am and have a light breakfast as we left. By 10:30 we still hadn't budged, with no sign of the steam engine that was supposed to be on the front of our train. Hmm.... No communication from the staff, so Alex asked someone. No response. Finally, at 10:45, someone came by and told us they were having some problems with the engine but that we would be leaving at 11:00am ("sorry for the inconvenience" - I added that part). At around 11:00, we saw the steam engine slowly making its way, backing up to the front of our train. We finally got underway at 11:15 - then they served us "breakfast".
I'd asked the head guy, an older Malay, what the problem with the engine was - he said that because of the rain, the wood for the engine had gotten wet, and that they were also using newer wood (filling in the blanks - new and/or wet wood meant lower burn temperature and not enough steam produced to get the desired PSI up to 150 for the engine to run with enough power to pull the train). I was a little incredulous when the guy gave me that explanation - they'd been running this train since 2000 and they actually let the wood for the engine get wet? I'm pretty sure yesterday was not the first time it had rained since then..... Argh.
Breakfast was ok, though after one bite of a curry puff, I lost my appetite. My stomach was not feeling good, and I was starting to feel a little hot (under the collar and in the head!). It was a bit odd that given the delay they still stuck with serving breakfast after departure.... But as Alex later said, they seemed to just follow procedures step by step in chronological order like robots. Blame the programmer I guess!
We crawled along the track through the outskirts of KK. Now that we were moving, I started to feel the breeze in my face from the open windows - a bit of respite though I felt a fever coming on for sure. The kids seemed happy enough - cards and chatter galore. The adults all kind of settled in to chill and enjoy the scenery.... Though up to this point, there wasn't much more than semi developed industrial land to look at.
Eventually, we stopped at some town for a chance to walk around and take in some local culture. I chatted up a family of five from Japan that were sharing our cabin - man I miss Japan. The people, the food, THE TRAINS!! Very nice family. We walked around a "Buddhist" temple, that was really a Chinese Tao looking temple, then walked back to get to the train before our 20 minute deadline was up. I was dying to sit down. Maybe Robin and Abby lit incense for me...
Another delay - this time about 45 more minutes (with no communication from the staff) - before we set off again. The communication was so bad, Alex took it upon himself to walk over and climb into the engine and talk to the engineers themselves about the current PSI level - I love it. Alex the passenger informed us of the progress, then I translated to the Japanese family.
When Beth was in labour with Abby, her mom and I were with her in the labour room, waiting around between contractions and going for walks with her. I guess at one point Barb and I were talking about almonds while Beth was in the throws of a contraction:
"What kind almonds did you bring?"
"I have these salted ones. Sometimes I like the roasted almonds with wasabi powder"
"Oh yeah, those are good. Did you want to try these ones? They're really good"
"Mmmm... Those are good"
"I do love almonds"
Suddenly, Beth screamed "would you shut the f%$# up about the goddamn almonds!!!!". We still laugh about it, though only because enough time has passed... I now think I know how Beth felt, and it almost brought me to tears of laughter.
A tiffin lunch is a traditional Raj (ie. English/Indian) meal served in a set of metal bowls that snap neatly together into a portable lunchbox. They served the lunch after departing the first stop (you know, because that was the order of operations), and everybody received a tiffin. I had zero interest in food. I was in a bit of a feverish daze and could not imagine eating a thing. Now Alex, like me when well, is a foodie - he will try, and probably enjoy, almost anything. While my head was down and everyone was digging in, all I could hear was Alex chatting away about each thing in the multilayered lunch:
"Oh, this is a nice curry. A bit spicy but really nice. Matt, did you try the chicken? It's awesome. Look at these veggies, they're fantastic. Jeffrey, look at the dragonfruit. It's really fresh. Oh wow, this is really good" - I thought to myself "would you shut the f%$# up about the goddamn almonds!!!!" and I swear I started chuckling to myself and tears of laughter were welling up in my eyes. Coincidence or the power of healing through laughter (or Alex) but I felt my fever break and actually managed to eat some fruit. I still can't help chuckling when I think of that moment. Ridiculous but funny.
The "view" from the train got a little better as we were getting a little more rural, but at no point could we describe this "journey" as a jungle train. We crawled along and eventually made it to our halfway stop - the engine was to do a turnaround, hitch up to the other side of the train and bring us back.
The schedule was a 30 minute break to take a little walk and check out the central market in the little town. I opted to stand on the train platform while the other seven ventured about. I wanted to see the train turning and had little interest in a walk to the market.
Twenty minutes later the gang came back - "that sucked" was the general response. An hour later...me were still waiting on the platform. No information. No idea what was happening. I approached a group of 3 train employees who were just standing around chatting outside and asked them what was happening. They didn't know. I explained that they needed to set people's expectations - "oh, ok" was the response. Shortly after, I pulled another guy aside and asked what was going on and he said they are sending a bus to pick us up. I was starting to get really pissed off. Thank goodness for having the four kids to keep each pair of siblings company - they weren't too bothered with the delay...
I spoke to the guy in charge, and asked who we spoke to to get our refund. He said "oh sorry sir, we only give refunds if you fail to get a meal. Your journey is complete so there will be no refund." I explained that it didn't feel like the journey had been complete (seemed pretty obvious!) since we'd only reached the halfway point and we were supposed to ride the train back. Anyway, it went on and on... In the end, they made us wait another 30 minutes until we finally had enough steam to get the train moving and on its way back. I think they got spooked by all the people talking about refunds. It was like talking to a brick wall.
When we started rolling it was time to unveil the next step in the robotic train process - a refreshing frozen dessert (served hours after lunch). Sorbet? Ice cream? What could it be? They gave each of us a popsicle in a wrapper. I opened mine up and gave it a sniff.... Hmmm, it smelled a little like corn.... But there's no way... A small lick. Jesus Christ, a corn Popsicle. Are you kidding me? There were actual kernels of corn in a Popsicle. There you have - step 11: delicious frozen dessert.
We ended up getting in four hours late. It's lucky we didn't have other plans, or a plane to catch, like other passengers had. Beyond the extreme delays and terrible communication - there were obvious signs that this was not a top notch operation (they didn't bother stamping the passports after stop number one (we had to get the kids to ask on the way home), they did not service the washrooms or empty any garbage cans, they left garbage on the tray tables way too long, the view was just not there, etc etc etc). Basically the whole experience belies the reliability of sites like trip advisor. Too many people get rose coloured glasses and are sometimes afraid to rate things as just "good" as opposed to five out of fives for everything. My conclusion on the service levels are that they are just not told/allowed to think outside the box or to troubleshoot, and they certainly are not equipped to properly set expectations when things go wrong. Too bad.
This will go down in our memories as a day wasted in good company. We did manage a movie at night, which wasn't overly Fantastic, but hey, you roll with the punches when you travel. On a day like this, when tensions can get high, it really shows who you can travel with.... Travelling with the Versly clan is certainly smooth sailing for us.
Robin did not have the best night last night.... Poor thing. There are varying degrees of upset stomachs going around our group... With it ranging from Aok for Alex, to Regurgitating for Robin. I would put myself at a Crappy for Craig, so not quite to the level of Rob. She's ok though. In light of that, we will have a [not so] special guest blogger today, Alex [the exagerator] Versluis! Let's all give a [luke] warm welcome for Alex!
Here we go [you may want to skip ahead to day 85 at this point, he's very verbose]....
Since Craig stayed home with Robin as she recovered from a rough night, I'm stepping in to offer some commentary as the six of us headed out to get some Malaysian culture at the Mari Mari Cultural Centre! While we've been very active exploring Borneo's outdoor adventures and interacting with its wildlife, we've had limited exposure to the traditions and customs of the native people.
Now that I have the pulpit, I'm going to try and set the record straight on an incident that occurred last week (here's hoping Craig won't edit this out because he really just skimmed over it in his blog and it was a pretty [minor] major event for us) - the day of the macaque monkey [quasi] attack at Sepilok was a [not even] close call. Here's a quick flashback to our day at the Orangutan visit: As our group of seven traversed [strolled] the boardwalks of the park, returning from the nursery, Beth and Abby stumbled upon [saw] a large [tiny, non threatening] male macaque sitting [sleeping] on the railing. Let's call him Richard [Francis]. Once Kim, Jeffrey, Robin, Matt and I caught up, I placed [accidentally found] myself behind Richard [Francis] and let the family slip behind me one by one.
First Beth, then Abby, and so on. At this point, Richard [Francis] started to turn and was in the midst of a staring [looking complacently] competition with Jeffrey. I could see the recoil [yawn] forming in Richard's [Francis' mouth] legs and I grabbed [pushed] Jeffrey behind [in front of] me and I yelled [thought to myself] "run!" I could feel the wind on the side of my head as Richard [Francis] launched [loped] across the walkway and it was only my cat[sloth]-like reflexes that saved me. At this point, you must be thinking that I am quite the protector, [no] but alas, I was screaming like a little child and I'm sure my voice cracked once or twice as I yelled [screamed] "run!" with greater intensity after noticing a second monkey was on the other railing and both monkeys were now chasing us [strolling] up the railing.
There was no instinctual response [oh please] to save us this time with the kill shot [huh?]! Abby was running backwards with her eyes as large as saucers - Beth, Kim, Robin and the boys were running - it was straight out of a horror [comedy] movie! We somehow managed to elude [walk away from] the dangerous duo [curious, seemingly domesticated animals] to rejoin Craig with a new lease on life... but I digress [big time Alex, big time].....
Back in KK, our six-pack headed out to Mari Mari by a pre-arranged van and arrived at the visitors centre for the property. Our guide for the day, AJ, gathered our group of 15 people and introduced us to the property.
Abby was designated the leader of our now 15-person tribe, required to make our introductions and demonstrate the dance at the end. The setup of Mari Mari is similar to the Black Creek Pioneer Village in Toronto that shows the buildings, clothing, food, cooking techniques and customs. Plagiarizing their website, the village features 5 different ethnic tribes in one village. They are the rice farmer Kadazan-Dusun, the longhouse resident Rungus, the hunters and fisherman Lundayeh, the cowboy and sea gypsey Bajau, and the famously feared headhunting tribe Murut.
We first visited the Dusun tribe, with their name derived from "village people" [tee hee, that's rich Alex]..I can hear your YMCA jokes all the way in Borneo! This tribe makes up close to 60% of the Sabah ethnic population and about 30% of the overall Sabah population. They've been expanded to include the more educated Kadazan people that are in the cities. This group would make rice in large quantities and store it in large vats, protected by a skeleton, taken from the head of the last rice thief. He informed us this particular one was MIC - made in China. It sure looked real! The layout of the individual family buildings had similar features. Each had a great room for gathering, eating and general family interactions. The parents and grandparents had separate rooms and the single men slept in the main room.
The single women slept in a loft up to 15 meters high. In this male-dominant society, the single women would be escorted up a ladder to the loft by their father each night and then the ladder was removed [Alex has two boys so is unaware that's what we do in Canada with our girls....]. Any men found up there would lose their heads, literally, as it was a zero tolerance rule [ditto for Canada.... Where have you been Alex??].
The kitchen was in the back room of the house where they would cook many dishes including river eel - Abby, Jeffrey and Matt confirmed they are quite slimy.
We tried the rice, chicken and ginger concoction that was cooked in bamboo. It was quite good and reminiscent of our fishing village dinner prepared by Joseph near Kuching.
They also made a rice wine that was similar to sherry, it smelled like vinegar, but was actually rather tasty. Matt did not agree.
We moved on to the Rungus tribe that had a knack for creating bee hives in bamboo and collecting their honey. There are 5 types of indigenous bees that are only found in Sabah. Their clothes were different in each tribe. Here's an example of a unmarried women with Matt. We entered the longhouse that housed the entire tribe. Longhouses consisted of individual family rooms with a long common room along a wide corridor. Rooms were added for each new married couple on both sides of the building to always keep the chief in the centre. In this building we had a demonstration on fire-making, using only bamboo. Two young men prepared the two pieces of bamboo and by rubbing them together, a spark was created and fire was born. They asked for volunteers and I offered to try. Low and behold, I made fire! Maybe I should sign up for Survivor...is that show still on?
We visited the Lundayeh next who were one of the head-hunting tribes. Their house was reinforced with walls that were solid and included a bamboo roof that could be opened to let in air on warm days. Their security system to warn of intruders was rather ingenious. They had a rooster on one side of the house, wild pigs below, dogs on the other side of the house, and patrolling men on the back. Depending on the noise - a bark of a dog, the oink of the pig, etc. they would know where to defend themselves. They had a removable ladder for the women's loft that was made from bamboo.
On the outside, they had a sculpture of a crocodile that they used to store the hunted heads. The crocodile is a revered animal in their tribe. Abby and Matt tried on the traditional clothes after a short instruction on how they made the vests.
Onto the Bajau tribe where we tasted some amazing cooking - first some tea from a local plant with a hint of ginger root then a little pastry snack that was fried. Both were delicious. We climbed inside of their home and found a very colorful space with fabrics throughout. This tribe is Muslim and an early trader, mainly with the Chinese, so they had a larger palette of fabrics to decorate. In addition to the typical features in the house, they also had a room to pray. The main room was decorated for a marriage ceremony, so Kim and I renewed our vows!
The last tribe to visit was the Murut. This is a violent tribe that embedded head-hunting into their day-to-day living. We had to form into two lines of men and women, and then Abby as our leader had to convince the Murut chief to allow us to enter their village, or we would all lose our heads! As we entered the village, we were "accosted" by the men who were jumping around and calling out. After Abby's convincing speech, we were welcomed and then taught to use a blow gun. Our group did pretty well! We entered the longhouse and were given a demonstration of their trampoline. For those Amazing Race followers, this was in their Borneo episode.
The trampoline was used for different celebrations, games and even to select a wife! Young me could marry once they had proven themselves by bringing back a head and showing it to the chief. Once ready to get a bride, they would have one jump to grab a piece of clothing from their prospective girl - if they jumped high enough, the girl was theirs. If not, they would have to move onto a different girl. We donated some money to be attached above the trampoline and then we watched a few jumps as they launched in themselves up into the air to grab the bills. Going up is easy, it's the landing that hurts!
After everyone got a henna tattoo, we headed over the the performance hall for a 30-minute show of drumming and traditional dancing. The highlight was the quick-footed moves of the women and men as they danced through moving bamboo poles on the floor to the drumming rhythms. The kids learned that dance and performed a short number for us! We had a buffet lunch that wasn't anything special and we headed home. Overall, the place was really well done and all of us enjoyed it. I particularly liked seeing the different types of buildings from the indigenous tribes.
We returned to the apartment to find a renewed Robin and a hungry Craig. While Kim and Beth headed off to the spa for their birthday gift (their birthdays are a day apart in December, and we had bought them a half-day spa treatment) Craig and I escorted the kids to Ant-Man. We also requested a home-cooked meal from the kids and, with Abby in the lead, we did some grocery shopping and sat back as Abby, Matt and Jeffrey made an amazing Italian meal. After the relaxed and younger looking wives [Alex's words... I would have said relaxed and rejuvenated to avoid the "did I look old this morning?" question...] returned, we had fresh bruschetta and cut veggies as appetizers, spaghetti and tomato sauce. There was even pineapple for dessert. We finished off the evening with 8-man President and a few sporadic episodes of dancing interspersed. Overall, a successful day in KK.
Well thank you Alex, while there were a lot of early embellishments, the facts from Mari Mari were well captured and documented. As for the so called "big macaque attack" drivel..... Don't quit your day job!
Today was our day to battle the Korean hoard as we sailed down the infamous Papar river, featuring category 5 and 6 rapids that have been known to crush the heartiest of crafts and souls.... Or something like that.
The weather has been working out very well in our favour - evening rain and daily sun has been keeping the temperature down and the fun level up! With forecasts next week of over 40 degrees, we couldn't have picked a better week to hang with the Versly clan in Borneo. We are loving the location of our apartment - central to everything with a nice view out the window to boot.
We didn't know what today had in store for us, with few concrete details, we were just kind of going with it (rule #1: don't set expectations (or use Beth's rule #1: set extremely low, often horrific expectations.... Kidding, but you get the idea :-) )) (BTW, I have to make sure I close the right number of opened brackets, which makes it challenging when you're using a "close bracket" to end off a smiling emoji... The kids are being grilled on BEDMAS, so they'll be all over me if I drop a bracket....))). Shit.
We met our guide Cheryl at the front gate and hopped in our van. Cheryl was a pleasant surprise - a local with tribal heritage that Alex and I proceeded to pump for information, as we are wont to do. At the end of the day, we didn't really need Cheryl as a guide, as she really just accompanied us on the ride there and slept like a tourist on the way back, but she was pleasant enough.
We soon figured out why we hadn't really heard of this particular rafting adventure - it turned out to be a Korean operation that catered to Chinese and Korean tourists, with only about 10% of their past clients being westerners. When I heard the lunch would be Korean BBQ, I had a brief Bibimbap-at-Mr-Yummy-with-Probir hunger pang.
We arrived at the ranch style place after about 45 minutes. The host couple, a middle aged Korean couple, were very friendly and hospitable. It seemed a little out of place, making their business in the middle of the jungle in Borneo, so far from home. They had an eclectic mix of "pets" - cats, dogs, (insert inappropriate Korean meal comment here.... Even the river guides were doing it.... But not Alex.... Never!) a monkey (who was chained up, but we were told only when large groups of visitors arrived) and an infant slow loris.
I hadn't heard about the Slow Loris, though Alex had mentioned we had a chance to see them at Mulu and Bako. Dear Pixar and/or Disney: jump on the slow loris bandwagon right now if you haven't already. This is the cutest little animal I have seen, and it is so alien in its movements and behaviour. I'm not sure how it came to be that these transplanted Koreans had one as a pet, but Beth found out that it had come from a vet and was 100% rabies free. What's that you ask? Why did Beth ask if the cute little, non-foaming at the mouth slow Lori had rabies? It took a liking to Robin, and gave her finger a little nip (no skin broken Nana, but don't worry, we have a pencil on hand for all medical emergencies....).
After a quick change in to swim gear, the kids were ready to tackle the beast that was the Papar River!
We bussed it up river about 7km, then got our safety stuff on. Our opponents for the day were three other boats of Koreans who were geared up very much like the middle aged women we'd met at the waterfalls in Luang Prabang. It's on people!
I may have misled the severity of the rapids at the start of this post.... I'm sorry about that. The river was nice and calm, and the only reason anyone got wet was from paddle splashing and taking a dip in the river at a halfway stop. We mostly tackled Cat 0.5 to 0.8 rapids, but it was still fun, and the kids, having not yet experienced rafting the Kali Gandaki or Snake River, had some good thrills ...There WERE two life saving experiences however. I didn't see it, but Beth claims she saved Kim's life on one treacherous wavelet (I think Kim slipped a few inches and Beth steadied her.... Who knows what could have happened if Kim had fully lost her balance???).
I, on the other hand, saved a Korean woman from drowning in three foot deep water. We were swimming at the break point in a wide corner section of the river that caused the water to eddy back upstream where we were swimming. Robin said "umm, Daddy, that woman looks like she's struggling". I turned around and noticed a woman furiously breast stroking her way to the bank, but she was trying to fight the eddy current instead of going with or across it. I asked her if she needed help and she nodded so I grabbed her hand and pulled her over. Now, mind you, I was standing right near her on the soft sand in the river, so I'm not sure why she was trying to swim, but I do feel that she owes me a life debt. Damn, I should have asked her to whip up some Bibimbap.... Doh!
We survived, in the end. We managed to make it down the FULL seven kilometer segment of the river in tact. I felt our boat "won", but without any concrete criteria to measure the victory, it will have go down as a moral victory at best.
A big Korean BBQ lunch buffet was laid out for us - delicious! BBQ pork and rice lettuce wraps, fried fish, kimchi cucumbers, yellow watermelon, Korean pancake-let's. Delist.
It was also great to experience Korean beer and take another odd beer selfie....
Well, what a thrilling half day. I know, it sounds like I'm being sarcastic... That it wasn't so thrilling, not much of a physical exertion. But if that was true, how is it that not ten minutes after getting into the van for the drive home, this happened...
By the way, that pic didn't capture Alex or Cheyl dozing! Luckily I was keeping the driver awake by shifting my knees that were probably jammed into the back of his seat, giving him a free massage chair experience.
When we got home, there was a master plan to get robin some sleep. She'd been up with a cough the night before, and she looked wiped. So Alex, Kim, Beth, Abby, Robin, Matt and Jeffrey all went upstairs for a quick afternoon nap. Robin was down twenty minutes later. Beth and Matt 10 minutes after that. Alex 10 more minutes. We and to wake Abby and Kim up after TWO AND A HALF HOURS! They didn't believe we'd been out shopping for an hour and played cards for another hour. That "Robin" plan did not work.
We went out for dinner at the mall, but When Robin got downstairs, she wasn't feeling that well, so Beth and her went back to the apartment. Kim had been having some lower body reactions to something she ate at some point, so she and Jeffrey went for Pizza Hut (I didn't even know they had these in Asia, I swear), while Abby, Alex, Matt and I went back to the Indian place we'd had take out from a couple of days ago. These guys make the best roti Canai we've had so far, and a great Teh Tarik!
We gesticulated a little on what to do after dinner, just missing out on a repeat performance of Antman. I had to head back with Beth's dinner, so we all ended up going back. Robin was already asleep - she'd brought up her lunch, and I don't mean in a conversational way. She seemed a little worried, but Beth explained to her that sometimes if something doesn't agree with our stomachs, it has to come out one of two ways... Robin said in a little soft voice "I wish we could choose which way". Poor thing. She usually bounces back quickly so I'm hoping she'll be good as new tomorrow.
We capped the night off with seven-person President. Despite a rough start with the killer "last card" rule for Kim, she righted the ship and managed to end the evening in an executive role.
Our first day in Kota Kinabalu, and we had a bunch of things on the agenda - first of which was getting the week's activities all settled. First up was the soon-to-be-famous morning seven minute workout!
We set out on foot after breakfast in search of some markets. Being Sunday, it was a good day to do this. We walked down to the waterfront and within minutes we could see an impromptu seafood market set up along the water's edge walkway. I saw a bunch of large conch shells with the animal still moving around inside, which I hadn't seen before. I also saw a lot of stingray for sale, which apparently is a local delicacy (which most likely means they'll be on the endangered list soon!).
Right next to the seafood people was a proper, organized fruit and vegetable market. Beth mocked me for taking more pictures of mounds of chillies...and here's the proof - I can't resist!
Right next to the wet market was the Phillipino Handicraft Market, which was more of a tourist specific set of dozens of small shops. They were all crammed in a building and had about 30" of walking space up the aisles between shops and really low headroom as you entered and exited each stall. We all kind of dispersed, and a half hour later reconvened, some with bags of trinkets, some without. As Abby said to me, she is a little "marketed out.... Not food markets, but shopping markets" and I'm pretty much in agreement.... Though I did see some cool small metal replica cyclos and bikes.....
Next up? Why not... Another market! We walked over to Gaya street - the street was shut down for the Sunday market. This market was a pop up market that is open Sundays from the morning to early afternoon, and stretches about a kilometer down the street. It was a pretty good one to browse through, as they had a very eclectic mix of vendors - a guy selling meat grinders, a pet fish shop, fruit vendors, handmade soap, homemade health supplements, snacks, flowers.... Pretty much everything. I bought some durian, the stinky "king of the fruits" and convinced Matt and Jeffrey that they should really try it. I actually didn't mind it when we had it in Vietnam (kind of like mango, but not as sweet), but this one didn't seem fresh and left everyone with a bad taste in their mouths....
We are struggling a bit with understanding the tourism business here. In previous countries, organizing a tour was very easy - the details and itinerary were very "set" in the marketplace, as was the price (that may sound like collusion, but from my perspective, it's more comparable to having an "auto mall" like setup.... Vendors have to compete on service and quality). Buying a ticket or tour in Vietnam was very easy - you found out what was on offer, you got the price, you checked for recommendations online and from other visitors, and you signed up.
We are finding in Malaysia, the experience is much different. First, they are way behind on the digital front - way behind. While you can find out a lot from tourist reports and the odd trip advisor rating, the quantity and quality of information is lacking. Second - information on "what" is available, how long it will take, the itinerary and requirements is not good at all at the street level - it can be like pulling teeth. One of the worst things here with trip planning is the pricing - we have found the exact same "tour" with very far ranging changes in prices, and often times this is when comparing the same trip from the same operator through different booking agents. In Vietnam, commissions are taken out of the list price - everybody and their brother are trying to sell you a bus ticket at the exact same price, for example. From the tourists perspective, it becomes a safe environment that leads you to interact more with the people and look for someone that peaks your interest or that you have a rapport with, because you don't have to worry that the price you're paying for your bus ticket is higher than you should be paying. The seller gets the commission because they hustle - it works in communist countries Malaysia, how about you! In Malaysia, it seems like the commissions are built on top of tour prices - a "get as much as you can" approach that is a real turnoff. Oddly enough, they also seem to be on salary, as they (sweeping generalization) are not active salespeople.
Another observation - and Alex and I are completely aligned on this.... I prefer to pay a small premium for a tour as opposed to a DIY tour if it's going to save me time, or generally make things a lot easier. If I can save $30 for the family on a full day tour, but I have to spend time waiting for taxis or negotiating return trips or finding a place for food, it's not worth the savings. On the flip side, Alex and I have found that it's really easy to do things yourself here and that tour operators are charging 2.5 to 3 times what it would cost a group of 8. We don't really get it.
With that in mind, I was getting vibes from the kids that it was time for a change of pace, and Kim and Beth seemed to want to get organizing and stop market wandering. I found a restaurant and got the kids and I settled in with some food and cards, and Beth, Kim and Alex went looking to book our week. We wanted information on island snorkelling, Mulu national park, white water rafting and a cultural village visit.
They got back an hour or so later and they seemed pretty frustrated. As Kim pointed out, they just didn't give you much information - it was like pulling teeth. They ended up booking us into a white water rafting trip for tomorrow out of desperation. Apparently, we were booked into a a trip that may or may not have safety kayaks, had zero, one or two guides on each boat, required riders to be over 6, over 12, or just tall, in boats of 8 or 10 people going over Cat 1, 2 or 3 rapids. What's more, when they googled the company and the river, most of the information that came up was Chinese. I could tell based on this information that Beth had been desperate to just get something booked - it sounded very frustrating. I wasn't too worried - most things just seem to work out.
We went down to the waterfront and immediately met a guy that had personality, presentable information, up to date pricing and a willingness to negotiate - with all of those boxes ticked, we booked a Thursday island visit with him. See, that's all it takes people!
The kids and moms headed directly home, while Alex and I went through yet another huge wet market that we stumbled upon. We got a bunch of fruit, snacks, beer and street food for later. Just before we got home, we stumbled upon a North Indian restaurant that peaked our interest. Low and behold it was actually on the Internet, the owner was friendly and informative and the place looked great. Check...We found our dinner place.
Alex showed how much patience he had, to much laughter from the peanut gallery. We found a nearby spa on the way home, so when we got back to the apartment, Kim, Alex and Beth decided they wanted to get massages after dinner. Alex phoned the owner and it was too funny listening to him try and book the appointment, confirm the services each person wanted, correct them on mistaken interpretations of what he wanted, then figure out the price, renegotiate that price, reconfirm everything, then start over..... He's a patient, determined young man.
Dinner worked out great. It was a bit of a splurge for us (Toronto prices) but it was some gooooooddd Indian food! The massages seemed to work out too, and I took that opportunity to school the four kids in multiple rounds of President. With some more phone calls in the afternoon and all the work the other three did today, I think we'll have a fun and relaxing last week with the Versly gang.
Today we returned to Kota Kinabalu, though our last visit was the brief one hour stop on our way to Sandakan. The Versly were en route by boat then taxi to the airport, whereas we had just a short cab ride. We got to the airport and who did we park right behind? The Versly! Ok, not as much as a coincidence as running into Kylie and Andrew throughout Southeast Asia in 1997, but pretty funny.
We celebrated our reunion with a round of Teh Tarik (basically a sweet milk tea with a touch of spice aftertaste), which is fast becoming the adults go-to after, before and in-between meal drink! I know, it's non alcoholic... Isn't that weird?
The predictable shot of our plane - our 14th flight of the trip I think....
We got to our apartment in KK, eventually figured out how to get up to the actual unit (it's a managed apartment unit, similar to the one we had in Kuching, but with no concierge or breakfast), and began to explore. The apartment is two floors, with five bedrooms, 9 beds, 3 full bathrooms, a huge kitchen, living and dining area... Perfect!
It was a rainy day, and we didn't really have anything planned (we didn't get settled until about 1pm). We headed across the road to a huge mall (this city is the second biggest city in Malaysia) in search of lunch. I won't say what some Preferred for the mId-day, Zany lunch in the Zoo like mAll, but let's just say tHe bUnch of parenTs were not proud.... You can read between the lines, or letters, I guess...
We proceeded to totally Mall-Out.... Kids in massage chairs....
Dads enjoying Starbucks....
Ladies shopping (ok, I missed taking a picture of their initial foray into regular sized, athletic looking stores, and tricked them into posing for this shot at this store....)...
We even gave the kids the opportunity to see and even race elephants....Eat your heart out Yankee-lion-killing-redneck-dentist...
Next up, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation of course (note: Probir, we peer pressured Beth to come, and she slept for about 45 minutes in the middle... Weird because it's present day, no flashbacks, no hobbits, no superheroes, no CGI... Weird).
After the movie, we went to the basement for our last two stops of the evening... Supplies and dinner. The grocery stores in Malaysia so far have been a bit odd.... Just the mix of products and where they are located doesn't seem to fit any of the 4P's of retail marketing at all.... We ended up getting half the stuff we wanted and headed to dinner. Here are the four musketeers following the biggest kid in our group:
We went to the place we saw across from the lunch spot mentioned in code above that we should have gone for lunch. It was a typical Indian-Malay place set out like a buffet. The owners were the typical Indians you seem to find at these places - really friendly and super helpful. We got a whack of biryani with roasted chicken, roti canai, baked curried fish, beef curry, baked tandoori chicken, cucumber vinegar salad and stir fried greens. So good. We took everything back to the apartment and the girls went out to round out our supplies (beer, beer and bread!).
The kids went down to the pool - it's huge! The whole apartment setup is so great.
We managed to get a beer or two in while closely supervising the kids, though when Abby slipped and fell on the pool deck, we felt we were too far away to prevent the accident (almost 4 feet away, with perhaps our backs turned to use the lamp light to more effectively take a beer selfie for the Norseman Project). Seriously though, after Matt and Robin slipped and fell on wet tiles at the airport and Abby slipped on the super slick tiles at the pool, I think I'm going to sell Alex as a safety consultant to these places - he was saying at the YMCA they would always use 1x1 tiles with grit on heavy traffic and potentially wet surface areas.... Come on Malaysia!
Dinner was predictably fantastic - we will be going back there. It completely followed the rules of eat at busy local places... Great food and super cheap.
So we don't have a firm schedule for our remaining five full days and the ladies have a "high level of energy and quasi-positive energy regarding the firmed up schedule or lack thereof".... If you know what I mean.... We've only booked a half day train ride on Wednesday, and a spa for the ladies last birthday present onTuesday afternoon (Kim, can Alex please please go to Antman with the other 5 kids while you're in the spa?), but we have a ton of other options and plenty of time to organize them. Alex and I are very confident that everything will work out.... Perhaps he and I should take a six month trip together some time! :-)
