CASUALIDADES Y CONTRATIEMPOS, LA PENÍNSULA MALAYA - COINCIDENCES AND SETBACKS, THE MALAY PENINSULA

Nos llevó unos cuantos días recuperarnos del dolor muscular que el Monte Kinabalu había dejado en nosotros. Cuando nos sentimos con suficientes energías, nos dirigimos a Sandakan, de la montaña a la costa. Nos hubiera gustado ver a nuestros primos naranjas, los orangutanes de Borneo, o ver el desove de las tortugas, pero de nuevo, cualquiera de estas experiencias se escapaba escandalosamente de nuestro presupuesto.

A pesar de estas decepciones, Sandakan tenía una sorpresa que ofrecernos…

It took us a few days to recover from the muscle pain from our Mount Kinabalu expedition. We managed to leave the mountains and headed for the coast towards Sandakan. We had heard that there were a few things to do here like looking for orangutans, visiting a sea turtle sanctuary and eating excellent food, like in the most parts of Malaysia. To our surprise, we had also discovered that the house of the author of a book that we had bought in Argentina, was also in the city. We studied all the possibilities to do the activities we were interested in, but again, we were surprised by the high prices these activities cost.

En Buenos Aires, durante los últimos días que pasamos en Sudamérica, compramos un libro que nos llamó la atención. El título "Retorno a Borneo" ("The white man returns") nos conquistó nada más verlo. La primera gran etapa de nuestro viaje acababa, y de alguna manera, la segunda nos daba la bienvenida. Comenzamos a leer sus páginas, sin saber nada acerca de la autora, y poco a poco fuimos adentrándonos en el Borneo de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. El libro contaba la experiencia real de la escritora, Agnes Newton Keith, la cual vivió en Sandakan durante muchos años. Cuando llegamos a esta ciudad, descubrimos que podíamos visitar su casa. Lo que para algunos era una visita de 10 minutos, para nosotros fueron horas. Incluso Miguel tuvo la oportunidad de leer parte de su libro sentado en su porche. ¿Casualidad o destino? Quién sabe. La librería de Buenos Aires se quiso deshacer de este libro (por 2€), y suponemos que, de alguna manera, nosotros lo rescatamos y lo llevamos al lugar donde nació.

The only thing that fit in our budget was to visit Agnes Keith's house. During our travels, we had been reading her book through Philippines and Malaysia. to be able to see her house was a very personal and amazing visit. What was for some, a quick 5 minute visit, for us was a good few hours of reviving the whole book of "white man returns." The book itself talked about the author's personal experiences in  the house and around the city. We could compare this feeling with an archeological find, as what we had read and imagined, at one point had come to life. Miguel even had time to read a few pages of the book, on the balcony where Agnes herself once would have been probably tapping away on the keys of her typewriter.

Tras visitar Sandakan, decidimos salir de Sabah e ir directamente a la península de Malasia, donde todo sería algo más asequible y fácil. Volamos a Kuala Lumpur una mañana temprano, y al igual que Hong Kong, KL nos recibió con sus innumerables contrastes. Altos e imponentes edificios, pequeños y laberínticos barrios, templos hindús, mezquitas, modernidad, tradición y mezcla cultural. Malayos, chinos e hindús viven, en lo que a simple vista parece, una perfecta armonía. Aunque… no todo es tan fácil entre ellos. 

After Sandakan, we decide to leave Sabah. The most reasonable thing we could do was to find a cheap flight to the peninsula, where things were cheaper, more accessible and easier. We flew into Kuala Lumpur early in the morning. This city is another place that seems to be growing at a great pace. Like Hong Kong, there's huge buildings, mixed with the old city and it's many different cultures. We had time to visit the all famous Petrona towers, see a few mosques and of course, eat our heart's delight! The people in KL are very honest, easygoing, helpful and very friendly. Kuala Lumpur is definitely a city where we could live for a couple of years. 

Nuestro siguiente destino, Melaka, una pequeña gran ciudad que se encuentra a tan solo 2 horas de Kuala Lumpur. Melaka acogió durante años a holandeses, ingleses y portugueses. Conserva tal mezcla, que al mirarla desde arriba, dependiendo hacia donde se mire, uno no sabe muy bien si está en Lisboa, Amsterdam o Londres. De la misma forma, una gran comunidad china se instauró en Melaka durante los siglos XV y XVI, los "Nyonya Baba", los cuales hicieron de Melaka, hasta hoy en día, su nuevo hogar.

Our next stop was Melaka, a smaller city just two hours away from KL. This place is a charm and has its own strong culture. Here the chinese settled in centuries ago and have made this place their home. But don't get us wrong, they are not chinese, but Baba Nyonya. Descendents from glorious merchants who prospered so well, they never felt the need to go back to the "homeland." This group of people not only built a "city", but shared it peacefully with its colonial occupants year after year. The Portuguese, the Dutch, the British… at one point if you are at a good altitude you can see different parts of the city that will remind you of Lisbon, Amsterdam or London. Not to mention the food here is slightly different, with more influences from around the world, we can even say it's that little bit more delicious. 

Como todavía teníamos unos cuantos días más antes de coger nuestro vuelo a Indonesia, decidimos tirar hacia el sur y visitar Pulau Tioman, un parque nacional formado por varias islas, buen buceo y alojamiento económico. 

With still a few weeks to kill, we decided to head for the southern islands of the Peninsula. Pulao Tioman had seduced us as soon as we had heard about it. A national park a few hours from mainland with good options for diving and cheap accommodation. 

Todavía no entendemos como aquello estaba tan vacío. La isla conserva una jungla densa y espesa que no pasa en absoluto desapercibida. Monos descarados y ladrones, gigantescos lagartos y murciélagos chillones se pasean a sus anchas de un lado a otro, entre la jungla y los humanos. Hay playas tan increíbles y aisladas que, en ocasiones, recuerdan a las del Tayrona. Pulau Tioman es un paraíso, libre de impuestos, afortunadamente no explotado del todo. Su único punto negativo es que para llegar hasta aquí tienes que pasar por Mersing. Mersing es una ciudad que no tiene absolutamente nada, y por consiguiente, hay que andarse con ojo y vigilar tus pertenencias. Simplemente decir, como aviso, que en el hostal Omar (recomendado por la Lonely Planet, 400€ desaparecieron por arte de magia mientras dormíamos (no a nosotros, sino a la persona con la que compartíamos el dormitorio común). No podemos poner la mano en el fuego, con estas cosas es difícil estar seguro, pero aquello parecía ser un trabajo interno. Como decimos, un simple aviso y nada más.

Getting here took us some time, having to stop for the night at Mersing. To be honest the only thing that is worth about this place is catching the boat to Tioman. Another thing we can add is to be careful here, as we had witnessed a robbery in our very own hostel. Omar's place, a hostel which appears in the all famous Lonely Planet seems to have an inside house thief. This is only a quick guess, but with all the evidence, the hostel seemed to have a plan to rip off some travelers who spent one night in the hostel before catching the boat. In this case the victim was a friend from Germany. The thief in question sneaked into our room while we were sleeping and ripped of 400€ worth of cash in malaysian Ringget. FUCK!

This was on the down side, but on the other hand, we did make it to the island and it lived up to our expectations. Good people, good food, great diving, loads of monitor lizards and monkeys, all mixed with a general relaxed feeling! This place was something else, and without all the mass tourism you would expect in a paradise like this! At one point we could be completely alone on a paradise beach! This sure as hell beats that "Puket" feeling. We killed the time here by diving a bit and walking through the jungle to get to amazing secluded beaches. One in particular was Monkey Beach, known for its has amounts of thief monkeys. To avoid getting jacked by these furry creatures we had to tie our bags to a tree with each zip locked with a piece of rope. We discovered that monkeys are smart, but luckily, not too smart.

Del maravilloso Pulau Tioman, al Taman Negara ("Parque Nacional" en malayo), una de las pocas selvas que continúan intactas en Malasia peninsular, ya que la mayoría de bosques han sido talados para el establecimiento de plantaciones de palma de aceite. En el Taman Negara habitan elefantes, tigres, macacos, multitud de aves y todo tipo de serpientes, entre otras cosas. Para adentrarse en ella, tu decides hasta donde quieres llegar. Hay paseos sencillos para hacer por cuenta propia, trekkings diurnos y nocturnos de la mano de un guía, aventuras por la jungla más arriesgadas y largas que pueden hacerse también en solitario… un lugar donde quedarse a dormir en una especie de casa en mitad de la jungla nunca resultó ser tan económico. Nosotros logramos ver unas cuantas cosas, aunque no es fácil (menos todavía tigres y elefantes que nos huelen a kilómetros de distancia), pero… todo depende del sigilo y el silencio de cada uno, claro…

Our last stop before flying to Sulawesi (Indonesia) was a bit of a trivia. We decide to visit the Taman Negara National Park. It's one of the few jungles that are still untouched in the Malaysian peninsula, as much of the jungle here has been replaced by palm tree farms. The Taman Negara is an easy way to get aquatinted with the jungle. It has all types of treks for every type of person. There are guided treks, freestyle treks and even a little board walk through the jungle for the whole family. If you are quite enough and lucky enough, you can see a wide variety of birds, snakes and even large mammals. In our case we saw the famous hornbill, deer and poisonous coral snakes. The best thing about this place is that if you want to have that solo, one to one feeling with the jungle and even spend a night, you easily have the possibility. The national park has a few hideouts which cost a euro to sleep in. You can walk to these places, some just an hour away from the park gate, others just  6 hours away. There are a beautiful swimming spots around the river giving you a great opportunity to cool down and feel alone in the jungle. The feeling of being in this rainforest, like many others, is amazing and the amount of wildlife you can see depends on your luck, silence, patience and good eye.

Mientras nos encontrábamos en la selva, el Ramadán comenzó. Sabíamos que los primeros días eran los más duros para ellos, así que intentamos unirnos al ayuno de manera light, ya que no nos parecía bien beber y comer delante de ellos. Volvimos a Kuala Lumpur a los pocos días para coger el avión que nos llevaría a nuestro siguiente destino, la isla de Sulawesi, en Indonesia. ¿Qué misterios nos aguardarían en este nuevo país?

We made the most out of out time in this little jungle gem, the nights were spent with improvised jam sessions with guides and friends from the hostel. It was a great opportunity to hear stories about the jungle: tiger encounters, elephant presence and the last time snakes and wild pig were present in the hostel grounds. With this, Ramadan started, meaning not only would it be harder to find food, but our time to fly to Indonesia was getting closer. The first day we fasted like the locals, a very interesting experience, and headed back to KL. Our last night was a short one as we had to take an early flight straight to Makassar Sulawesi in Indonesia. What would this country and particular island have to offer.