It was a short flight from Kuala Lumpur to Borneo (about two hours I think) I was specifically going to Sarawak to meet up with one of my good friends Cole who was finishing up his Fulbright year in a small town called Bau. He's one of the first friends I ever made in college and an adventure buddy of mine since 2010. It's crazy to think how six years later we were both in another country together for a few days. It was surreal for both of us. He picked me up from one of the smallest airports i've ever been in besides the one in Yogya. ^.^ We headed to the waterfront, where we walked on the boardwalk and ate some delicious food and explored the corners of this town that really made it special. There was one point where it looked like Chinatown. I'm beginning to realize that there is a version of Chinatown in every country in the world and I get excited every time I see one. After a few hours of exploration, we saw a cat statue (btw Kuching means cat in Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia) and stopped by one of Cole's favorite places to eat. REAL street food. There was a cool set up, you would pick a table then order at one of the "vendors", I'm calling it that because I don't remember what to call it. Then they bring it to your table. Mind you, they spoke no English whatsoever AND some didn't even speak Bahasa. It was a fun experience. I was nervous when I was ordering because it was pretty hard to communicate.
The food was delicious. We had some dumplings and this really tasty eggplant dish. The tea there is a bit different. It's sweet, but you can definitely taste the caffeine in it. The next morning we ate some more and had breakfast at another food court Cole goes to a lot. We had a dish called Laksa Sarawak and some telur (eggs). The laksa was full of so much flavor with tamarind served with shrimp and a rich creamy coconut curry sauce and it had a bit of a kick to it. It's a mix of Chinese and Malaysian cuisine and I would definitely eat that a lot if I lived there. After that we headed to this Buddhist village. It was so peaceful because we were the only people there besides a few people doing maintenance. We walked around and it seemed like there were a few spots that were still being worked on. Seeing the process of how the village is being built was a beautiful sight to see. Once we finished up at the village, we went to the fairy cave in Bau. When you arrive, you just pay a small fee for entrance and go up a four story staircase. It gets pretty dark inside and the steps were slippery, but it was definitely a sight to see once you get to the cave.
I didn't expect it to be so massive inside and to see all of the vegetation that I saw along the limestone. The fairy cave is one of two popular caves to see in Bau including the wind cave. It was a pretty eventful day so we had some more food for lunch then dinner. I had the most delicious mie/mee (noodles) for dinner. I totally forgot the name of the dish, but it was like emperor noodles or something like that and I wish I could have some right now. The NEXT day I tagged along Cole's class field trip to the Matang Wildlife center. It was fun to watch the kids do activities learning about conservation and the importance of wildlife. We had a tour around the center where the animals are taken care of and played some games outside. The class even adopted an orangutan! I had a blast. My flight was around 7 and we were leaving the center at 4 so I was pretty worried about missing my flight. We booked it from Cole's house to the airport and I made it 30 minutes before. Good times. It was definitely an adventure in Borneo and i'm grateful to have awesome friends like Cole to explore the world with. Thanks again! NEXT STOP: JAPAN!
Here are some pictures from my trip to Borneo:
