It was an easy ferry ride over and we reached the campground nestled in its own cove south of the main resort beach area. No dock, just jump off the front of the boat. Private beach: check. A pirate and Malaysian flag, hand painted signs all over the place, several bamboo structures, and tons of friendly people greeted us as we made our way to the reception counter.

We met the other volunteers (including a Danielle from California…this was about to get confusing) and the owners who all seemed like incredibly laid back people. We were given the rundown: the cafe and bar has to be manned, tents and bathrooms need to be cleaned, and labor needed to be completed. Easy. In exchange for our time, we were fed and housed for free for a month. Kickass!
 We learned that the couple who we would be replacing slept in the treehouse, which is also where we would be staying. It came equipped with three of the most massive geckos I had ever seen (later to be named Ali, Mercury, and Falsto).

In addition to geckos, there was much more wildlife walking, flying, or swimming around our campground. Giant monitor lizards, sea eagles, stingrays, and black tipped reef sharks were things that we saw daily. Vipers, territorial monkeys, and sea turtle tracks on our beach were special sightings. I had to continue to remind myself that we were staying in a rainforest, because some of these sightings became so commonplace. Turtles and amazing snorkeling: check and check.

We learned more about the island as we explored around. Long beach is a fairly dirty, party beach where nightlife (including crappy house music) can be heard well into the early morning. It makes for great sunrises though, as it is east-facing. Coral bay, on the west side of the island is a bit classier with nicer eating and resort options. We would walk over to coral beach for milkshakes and wifi as needed. Our beach was a 25 minute walk south of coral bay, on a beautiful path leading through the rain forest. This island is unique in the fact there is not a single car, truck, or vehicle of any kind on it. Boat taxis are plentiful however, and many times we could hear tourists screaming as the drivers tend to go as fast as possible between point A and point B. The fishing “village” on the south tip of the island, is is more like a local town.

Our days would be spent snorkeling, hammocking, hiking, exploring, kayaking, or relaxing as wanted.

A couple of times we made it to the fishing “village” for breakfast (always before 8 AM to snag local prices).

We also spent a day scuba diving, which is always awesome. One spot had horrible visibility so we spent the duration of our time diving through underwater caves. It was a lot of fun. The day we spent kayaking was great because we could spot good snorkeling areas as we were cruising over them.

Another highlight was putting up a volleyball net on our beach so we could play in the evening (the daytime was way too hot). While there, an Italian couple that were patrons-turned-volunteers, spent all day preparing for homemade pizza night (cheese included). We all ate way to much that night. They also taught us how to make homemade pasta and gnocchi!

And we ended up seeing the bioluminescent plankton! Check. Apparently, it is always in the water but there is so much light pollution on other beaches on the island it is impossible to spot elsewhere. For 4 or 5 nights in a row, around the new moon, we grabbed snorkel gear and headed to the beach. It was incredible to see the little bits of light spiraling around our moving body parts. The light from the stars in the sky and ocean were almost interchangeable. It was also hilarious to see grown adults flailing around as much as possible to disturb the plankton into glowing bright. Shouts of “You’re a wizard, Harry” were screamed. We were surprised to see fireflys floating through where the rainforest hits the beach. We were surrounded by points of light in the sky, ocean, and air around us. It was one of the most magical things I have seen.

Even though my days weren’t spent doing all that much, I still found myself wishing there was more hours in every day. The volunteers, patrons, and owners of the place were all really great people to talk to and I often spent an entire day sitting in the cafe chatting with whoever was down there. Rainforest Campground is beautiful, and attracts beautiful people in return. It wasn’t uncommon to hear about folks deciding to stay with us after wondering down to our beach randomly, or extending their stay by a week or so once they see what the place has to offer. We had so many laughs there as well as deep conversations about internal struggles, politics, and dreams. One of the volunteers led beach yoga sessions in the mornings. One patron painted a beautiful mural in our cafe. People were often seen meditating on the beach. Our place was magical. I’m going to miss Rainforest quite a bit. 

But, it was time to move on after a month. I feel grateful to have the memories I will take home from this place.  Hopefully we will meet again, Rainforest.

Danielle and Grant

The post Perhentian Island – Volunteering, Snorkeling, and Geckos appeared first on Quarter Life Excursion.

Kota Bharu is a little dull compared to some of the other places we had visited. Day one we attempted to walk through a few museums that we had researched in advance, only to find them completely closed. So instead, we wandered around the city to see the sights and people watch. We did find a delicious lunch restaurant and enjoyed being the only westerners at the tiny place we were eating at. Eventually, we made it back to our hostel to relax before more food!

We made a few hostel friends and ended up tagging along to the night market.  The food was alright, but the appeal of the night was chatting with fellow travelers who were out as long as we had been. The guys we met had similar interests and a love for traveling that we felt as well. We would soon notice more and more how different the westerners were in Malaysia. As a Muslim country, Malaysia attracts a different sort of person than any other southeast Asian country we had visited so far. I think the way alcohol is frowned upon (or completely banned depending where you go) is one of the main factors.  We hardly found the ‘partying type’ in Malaysia, which was fairly refreshing after a handful of obnoxious people we met on the trip at various points (the worst were the ones in the same dorm as you with no regard for the time of day, night, or level of noise they were making). Most traveling folks we met in Malaysia had more love for experiencing people or the culture than than a night out on the town. It was one of the appeals of the country.

The owner of the hostel were staying at was a really nice local guy and ended up inviting us to a beach barbecue with his friends the following day.

He supplied cheese-filled hotdogs (“what westerners eat”, right?) along with some Malaysian dishes made by his mom that were more to my taste.  While there, we chatted with the locals and learned a lot about the Malaysian culture.  Something that surprised us was the amount of racism that Chinese Malaysians felt from some of the Malay citizens as well as the government. On a lighter note, we also learned that it is illegal in the state we were in to buy or sell any sort of alcohol.  Apparently, the beer they were passing around comes from Thailand because it is cheaper/easier to cross the boarder than to find it elsewhere in Malaysia. Crazy.

All in all, it was the people that made Kota Bharu special for us.  The city did not have much to offer in terms of activities or sights, but the people we met were all so nice and friendly that I enjoyed my time there immensely. If you do go there, however, look up the cultural shows. They are quite cool apparently, but are only on certain days of the week (days we weren’t there unfortunately).

Onto our next volunteering opportunity: a month hanging out on a resort island. It’s gonna be rough… heh. Until then!

Regards,

Danielle and Grant

The post Kota Bharu – Markets, BBQs, and Photoshoots appeared first on Quarter Life Excursion.

We woke up in the morning and caught a bus to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehab Center. This organization rescues injured and orphaned orangutans and helps ween them into independent, jungle life. The center is located on the edge of a healthy rainforest that is perfect for introduction to solitary life. The rehab center quarantines new orangs to ensure they are healthy. Then, they are intruduced to play structures that help teach necessary climbing skills. The creatures often help one another with other life skills such as which leaves to eat and how to build nests (one for an afternoon nap and one for sleeping at night). There are a series of feeding structures that the trainers load up with food twice a day. Each structure leads deeper into the forest, which helps the creatures become more comfortable in the habitat they were born to live in. Bolder orangs often push the more timid to venture farther out of their comfort zones. Once they are ready, the orangs are able to venture out of the scope of the rehab center and live on their own.

We made it just in time for the 10 AM feeding session that occurs every morning. We watched them eat while a couple of the orangs enjoyed a bit of forplay on the vines above us. It was hilarious to watch the crowd filming and taking pictures of this behavior. What a bunch of voyeurs.

After, we went on a low-key jungle walk to look for birds and other wildlife. We had a very friendly butterfly following us around for a good amount of time in the beginning. We also spotted a flying lizard. When Grant reached up to take a picture, it jumped off of the tree it was on and spiraled to the next tree over.

We went back to the orangutan area for the afternoon feeding session. During our walk back a naughty female orang decided to jump on the boardwalk and follow the crowd around. She kept approaching people with toys: hats, sunglasses, cameras pointed her way. We were waiting for a tourist to get robbed of an item but one of the employees grabbed her hand and walked her away from the crowd before that could happen.

After we had to leave we took a bus home and relaxed the rest of the night. The next day we were headed to Kinabatangan River for a series of jungle cruises. Like my mom said, it would be like the Disneyland ride, but in real life!

Thanks for reading.

Danielle and Grant

The post Sandakan – Bosou, Orangutans, and Rehabilitation appeared first on Quarter Life Excursion.

After volunteering on the farm, we spent a day in KK to recover. During that night I was able to find a local group of university students that played ultimate frisbee twice a week, and a group of Chinese international students playing basketball! This was the R&R I truly needed after not playing any sports for so long. The next day we took a bus to the national park for cheap, and we were there in no time.

The ride to the national park is an excellent warm up. As we traveled away from the city, we started to enjoy the green jungle as it surrounded us. As we climbed higher, we began to see the rolling hills of jungle and palm plantations. The green vegetation all around us was highlighted by the bright blue sky and white clouds. Finally, as we rounded a corner, Mt Kinabalu broke through and we were left in awe at how striking the peak is. The mountain is so huge that you're tired just looking at it, and we hadn't even started to climb yet.

Like I said earlier, the park is very nice, clean, and well maintained. It's also expensive. To visit you have to know what your plan is in advance. The interior hostels for example, cost 4 or 5 times the hostels just outside the entrance, and climbing the mountain by making a normal reservation costs $200-350 per person.

We stayed outside the park at a hostel called D'villa that took walk-ins, had a wonderful view of the mountains from the deck, and enjoyed a spectacular show of local bugs as night came. Everyday we enjoyed hiking in the area around the mountain for cheap. Although not at 13.5k feet, the trails around the mountain are lush and beautiful none the less.

Every morning, we waited at the base of the mountain hoping for a cancellation so we could cheaply scoop up someone's mistake and climb the behemoth. We expected to be disappointed, but on our last day, we got lucky!

Day one of the climb to the top was 6km and 2000m of straight uphill. One foot after the other we slowly trudged to our accommodation. Our base camp accommodation was shockingly nice, maybe the best bed we've slept in yet. The food was excellent, and I made sure to carbo-load for the next day of hard trekking, while enjoying the sunset above the clouds.

The second day started at 1:30am with breakfast. Soon after, we hit the summit trail that quickly turned into empty and exposed granite. We climbed the last 3000ft of elevation that morning to make it to the top before sunrise. As the first signs of light began to slip into the horizon, we were treated to a show. The milky way began to melt away and the sun began to light up a sea of clouds beneath us. We felt like we were in a plane, and although still freezing cold, all the hard work became instantly worth it.

The trek down was the worst. Down down down down down down down, 11,000 ft in 6 hour. Ha. The day after the big downhill, we were so sore we could hardly make it to our bus stop to move on to the next city, Sendakan.

Thanks for reading. Remember that high res photos are on Dropbox.

Grant and Danielle

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