We're just about done here!

Hello faithful readers... if any of you are still reading after my lazy spell of posting NOTHING.

Hopefully these few posts will quench your thirst for worldly travels. It seems like ages ago since Jennie and I embarked on this long journey across southeast Asia. We've had some amazing times, seen incredible things, and met great people along the way. Some of the best times came from the completely unexpected and unplanned for; let that be a lesson about trying to plan too hard! Can you believe I'm saying that Madame?

Anyways, we're back in exactly one week! Hope you enjoy these posts about Malaysia: the Perhentian Islands, KL, Mulu National Park in Borneo, and the Orangutan sanctuary near Kuching, again in Borneo.

Miss you all and can't wait to share our stories and pictures with you in person. Hope you've enjoyed reading the little posts I put down here. Maybe I'll have one or two more posts in HK before we go home. Stay tuned...

Cheers from Borneo,
ZA

PS: BTW, that's a blurry, but cool pic of me on the canopy walk, in Mulu. 30 meters high, chilling in the jungle!

Orangutan Sanctuary - Kuching, Malaysia

These primates rock! And the babies are the cutest little things. And this is coming from someone who generally loves all primates, right Jennie?

Sorry, Gibbons and Macaques: Orangutans are cooler than you! Chimps: you are still freaking awesome though!

A mama and her baby, chilling before the feeding time. They are amazing!

Chilling with some bananas and sugar canes. A simple, sweet life!

The big alpha male, Archie. He can rip your arms out of your socket, without even trying. Don't mess with Archie!

We also learned that Archie is a glutton, and isn't into sharing his food. He was pretty much alone while on the feeding platform, except for his woman and little baby, and even they kept their distance.

Archie, a.k.a. Sasquatch, making his get away into the jungle. The tree went on to bend about half way under his weight, allowing his to grab the next tree effortlessly. Smart guy!

Mama number 2 and her baby. They chilled right above us for a good 20 minutes looking at us, kissing each other, and generally having a good time. We later learned from a guide, that this particular mama has taken a liking to grabbing people's belongings, looking for food. One woman got her pack, and her shirt, ripped right off her. Yikes!

Seriously, how cute?

Mulu National Park: The Lost World!

This has been by far one of THE highlights of this entire trip. While in Mulu, Jennie and I explored the world's largest cave passage in the Deer Cave (big enough for a 747 to fly through it and home to over 3 million bats, including the ones in the opening pic!), one of the world's longest cave systems in the Clearwater Cave (over 100 km explored thus far... and counting!) and climbed one of the world's 7 natural wonders: The Pinnacles, a grouping of 50 meter high, razor sharp limestone pinnacles formed by the devastating effects of water of a few million years. The climb usually takes people between 8-10 hours to get up and down the 2.4 KM long trail, which reaches a height of 1,200 meters, with an average slope between 45 and 90 degrees. Trust us it's steep! Jennie and I proudly accomplished the round trip in 7h40mins, including a 40 minute stint at the summit. The wake up call from Base Camp 5 was 4 AM, departure 5:40 AM in the dark with our head-lamps, return to camp 1:20 PM. One of the coolest things I've ever done!

Hope you enjoy the pics!

Jennie in front of our twin engine plan, on the Mulu Park airstrip.

On the back of our jeep, on route to the Park headquarters, with the mountains in the background.

The Deer Cave mouth just above the trees, in the giant limestone cliff.

Jennie and me after having tried, unsuccessfully, to sneak into the shee-shee poo-poo Royal Mulu Resort (the alternative to staying in the national park lodging) to use their pool on a crazy hot day. We made it into the pool with our travel buds Pat and Jessica, for about all of 15 seconds before asking us to either pay the $30 pool usage fee, or leave. We left, already refreshed anyway. HA!

That's one big tree trunk. Nuff said!

Jennie, 4 hours after departing from base camp 5, in front of The Pinnacles.

Me, looking very adventurer-like, in front of The Pinnacles. So manly, yes?

See that green rectangle, off in the horizon? That's the airstrip. Yeah, we're hardcore!

That's one sweaty and tired Zach after the 7h40mins mark.

KL: Capital City of Malaysia

Here are a few shots from Kuala Lumpur, one of our favourite cities by far on this trip. Malaysia has turned out to be such an amazing place, considering we weren't even supposed to be here. Who needs China anyways?!?!?!?

Two sexy towers, and two sexy travellers in KL.

Amazing diversity in the architecture; just ONE more reason to visit KL!

Malaysia's national mosque. Trust us, this was big.

Perhentians: Paradise!!!!!!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I offer you a few thousand words on the Perhentian Islands, Malaysia, along with 151 words for the captions. Beat that Howard Hughes!

This was the view, as we arrived by high speed boat to the Perhentians, on our first morning around 7 AM. Wow!

My friend, Sea Master, eating a rat he just caught on the beach. Sounds really gross, but it's a REALLY funny story for those who want to ask me about it. I love this EAGLE!

Seriously, this place was so relaxing, so beautiful, and so much fun. This was our view every evening, as the sun set, and the tide went out... minus me kneeling down. That was only for the picture.

One vantage point from our favourite spot on the beach. Did I mention those two blondes bathed topless? Oh those crazy Germans and French!

More Perhentian paradise!

Me and my baby sea turtle friend, Oscar.

The daily arrival of Asian tourists, learning to swim and snorkel in 3 foot deep water... with life jackets. Bless their hearts.

The Gibbon Experience

Hello,

It's been a while since my last post. Lots has happened since my last message. After northern Thailand, we headed over into Laos, to get our dose of adventure for the trip. The source: The Gibbon Experience (http://www.gibbonx.org/)

The general idea: three days/two nights of intense jungle trekking in northern Laos, 5 hours from the nearest glimpse of town or village. To get around, a crazy jeep ride through a mountainous logging path, followed by a solid 5 hours of trekking a day. Then, we zip lined through the jungle canopy. For those of you not familiar with zip-lining, you basically get into a climbing harness, clip a safety carabiner onto the zip line, which consists of a steel cable tied from one tree to another. Then clip on the glider (two rollers secured on to the cable by another carabiner, and a piece of tire acting as the safety brake), drop off your feet, and your body weight does the rest for you! Next thing you know you're soaring over the junlge, at some points 150 plus meters over the jungle!

The longest crossing we did was a 400 meter long line connecting to a small platform built in a tree about 100 meters above ground. Then we changed our safety line to the second line, switched up our glider, and dropped onto the next 380 meter long line, which again took us high above the jungle canopy. We literally flew from one moutain top to another across the valleys! It was incredible. I have some video I'll be sure to share when I get back.

As for sleeping, no tents for us! We slept in jungle tree houses built high above the jungle floor. This was the hardest part for me with my fear of heights. Zip lining is one thing; it's so fast and so beautiful and the adrenaline is pumping as you let yourself drop off the edge of a slope and start zipping. But to sleep over and be confined to a tree house for several hours, at over 100 meters elevation was too much for me at times! Needless to say, no sleep for thos 2 nights for me! And Jennie was too worried about snakes to sleep well, so we were so tired by the time day 3 was done. Oh, and I couldn't use the toilet/shower either. The photos are self-explanatory!

Here are a few pics I hope will give you a small sense of what it was like. Oh, one last thing: there were about 50 spiders the size of my hand on the roof of our first tree house. One was eating a moth the size of a peach. Nice. Add to that the bats, rats, millipedes, jungle noises and total darkness in the tree house, and the faint of heart need not apply for the Gibbon Experience!!!

Welcome to the Jungle

Hey boys and girls. This little post is all about our two day/one night trek in the mountains near Chiang Mai, Thailand. We met up with our dear friend Aruna in Bangkok, took an overnight train to Chiang Mai (where we drank one too many Beer Chang). From there, we went on a really cool trek to waterfalls, hot springs and amazing mountain scenes. We even met a little 2 month old monkey and rode elephants. Nice!

Jennie and Aruna chilling around the hot springs. This is at the source when temperatures reach between 170-190 C below the surface, and 95-100 at the surface. We chilled out in a pool further down the mountain, and it was still really hot. Too hot in the hot tub!

This is the first pic of the little baby monkey we met while on our trek. It was rescued by a local family that lives in the mountains. Sadly, their dog got into a fight with the monkey's mother and killed her. So the family has adopted the little guy to try and help him grow up. He was so scared when we first showed up, but was also really curiouse to see so many faces. He would cry and hide, but as soon as we walked away to leave him alone, came back out and called out to us. I love this monkey!

Aruna and the baby Monkey!

These guys look alike. Maybe they are related.

Jennie and I also found our inner Kung Fu masters on the mountain top

This is my drunken Monkey style attack!

The view from the top of one of the mountain tops.

We slept over in the jungle at an elephant camp. The locals told us the elephants were chilling in the jungle we we got there in the evening, but that the elephants would return in the morning. We weren't sure about that one, but sure enough, the next morning we awoke to 4 huge elephants in our backyard, by the river. Very cool.

Here I am, getting off our elephant Ernest. I had started on the back of the elephant, with Aruna and Jennie riding in the saddle part. We didn't have enough room for all 3, so our guide asked me to ride bare-back. Since he had been calling me Rambo the whole time I figured, "why not?"

Well after about 40 minutes, my legs were shaking, my legs were red from rubbing up against the coarse hair of the elephant (they are not soft!), Ernest has unsuccessfully tied on several occasion to knock my fat ass of his head, and even sprayed me with a mixture of snot and water from his trunk. He made his point: I was not welcome on his head! Aruna valiantly took over, and rode him like no one has ever rode and elephant before! I was able to relax on the seat, and enjoy the rest of the ride.