By Lucas Schubert

Malaysia and Borneo

The country of Malaysia is a part of Southeast Asia. Malaysia
consists of two areas of land that are about 400 miles (650 kilometers)
apart. Kuala Lumpur is the capital and largest city. The population is 28
million people. 6 million live on Borneo.





















Borneo is part of Malaysia, but also Indonesia and Brunei.
Borneo is the third-largest island in the world after Greenland
and New Guinea.
We missed crossing the Equator by only 95 miles.
Borneo rainforests cover most of the island, with an area of
165,100 square miles.
Mount Kinabalu (13,455,feet) in the extreme north near the
coast, is the island's highest peak.
The Malaysian money is a Ringgit.
Three Ringgits = 1 U.S. Dollar.
Here is a Malaysian Ringgit and coin.














Day 1 - April 6/7


















When we arrived in Taipei we had to catch another flight to Kota
Kinabalu (KK). We flew on Malaysian Air. It was a 737 (two engines on wings).
My Dad and I looked out the window at take-off and landing. Otherwise we
played cards. Once we got to KK we made our flight to Kuching. Our flight
was on Air Asia. It was an Airbus 320 (two engines on wings). Kuching means
cat in English. Lots of cute cats in Kuching! When we arrived, we were all
exhausted. We went to our hostel and asked for a good place to eat. It was a
nice hostel. She told us to go to Live caf. We almost couldnt find it, but we
eventually found it. We ate and went to bed. It was the most tiring day. We
were so tired!! We all slept well!! And that was the end of day one!! YAY!!


We flew from Seattle to
Taipei on Eva Airlines. It was a
12- hour flight (747, four engines,
two on each wing, with a second
floor for passengers and the
pilot). There were small TV
screens in every seat! So I
watched three movies and also
slept. It was a very smooth
landing. It was a long, tiring
flight. But we all had a full row
to sleep.

Day 2 April 8















Today was Kuching tour day. At Kuching we walked to a big tree, with
huge roots!! We then had a one-hour motorboat ride down the river. It had a
cover on it. We saw the Kuching waterfront. It was very interesting. We saw
all sorts of Malaysian stores, restaurants, and many famous places. The river is
so long we could not go down the whole thing. On the boat ride we talked to a
person from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We got off on the other side of the river
and walked around the North River Village. There was so much litter ew. It
was disgusting! We walked up to Fort Margherita. It was like a twenty-minute
walk from the village. We passed a Malaysian school. Kids were playing soccer
with a plastic bottle!! Once we got up to the fort we found out it was closed
I wanted to see Fort Margherita. We walked back and got on a boat back to
Kuching. We went to a Mosque (Like a church). We saw a cemetery Most
tombstones were made wood! We ate at Jims waterfront. Then we went to
bed. We were still used to Seattle time so we were still super tired.


Day 3 April 9
On the third day we took a bus to a boat dock. The bus ride was thirty
minutes long. Once we got to the boat dock we took a twenty-five minute
boat ride to Bako National Park. The boat driver showed us a rock that looked
like an Eagles face (The driver said it looked like a Monkeys face, but in my
opinion it looked like an Eagles head). We checked in and when we wanted to
go to our room, we saw a bearded pig. It was a pig that had a beard on its
chin It was about ten feet away from us!! When we tried to get on the five-
minute trail to our room there was like twenty Long-tailed Macaque Monkeys
blocking our way (The reason why I am talking so much about Monkeys is
because they are my favorite animal)! There were moms, with their babies on
their stomachs, and dads. It was so awesome!! It was the best day ever! Also,
we saw the second most poisonous snake on Eartheek. We saw long-nosed
Proboscis monkeys from afar. We went to our room, unpacked, and decided to
go on a hike. We hiked on Monkey trail. The reason why it is called Monkey
trail is because you are supposed to see Monkeys. We hiked there but saw no
Monkeys because it is too hot for them at midday. The trail ended up at a nice
beach. We played in the water for an hour, and hiked back. Then we saw ten
Proboscis right on top of us at the beach!! That evening, we went on a night
walk. We saw an awesome Flying Lemur it glides and it is soo cool!! We also
saw lots of spiders and a scorpion. It was one of the best days of my life.













Day 4 April 10

We woke up and took a hike on the Jin Tong trail. We saw the Proboscis
Monkeys up closeIt was awesome!!! They were about one hundred feet from
us!! We also saw very hidden geckos. They were so hidden that you could just
make out their shape!! I couldnt even find it at first, not until my dad showed
me very, very closely. But I still had to look closely. It was blending in with
the log. I dont know how the people who showed us found it!! Then we walked
some more, but saw nothing else sadly. We walked the rest of the trail tired
and hot. It was so hot we would already sweat as soon as we went out! There
was a dry grassy area with no trees so it was soo hot!! When we got back we
cracked a coconut!! But it was moldy!! So we had a drink and went on the boat
back to the bus stop to Kuching. That night we ate at My Little Kitchen. We
ate the best pasta ever. It was soo good (I shouldve asked for the recipe).
We ate and since we were the only ones there we got to talk to the owner of
the restaurant!! And we found out that he is the brother of the owner of
Threehouse (our hotel).







Day 5 April 11
















We woke up and got on a bus to go to Semenggoh, the name of the
Orangutan sanctuary. We were there at feeding time so we got to see a
mother and its baby eating. We were like fifteen feet away from them!! We
watched for fifteen or twenty minutes until feeding time was over. We
followed a ranger up a trail. He was walking to the main feeding area he gave
them oranges to eat! When we got to the feeding area there was another
Orangutan all ready to eatthe others were trying to swing a palm tree to
get to another tree. Then they finally got it. It was cool to see the baby
swinging the palm tree over and over. After that we saw a very big Orangutan
named Ritchie. And he had like twenty pounds of food in front of him!! When
he came down from the platform we all stayed away from him because he
liked to chase people. At lunch we went home and at dinner we had the best
Indian food ever! Then an artist sketched a picture of us. It was also the best
day of my life!!


Facts About Orangutans

-Orangutan means Man of the Forest.
-Orangutans live in Malaysia and Indonesia.
-In 1900, more than 300000 of these Apes roamed the Forests. Today,
less than 60000 remain.
-Orangutans can live as long as 60 Years. Males weigh up to 220 pounds
and stand over 4 feet tall.
-Orangutans stay with their mothers until they are 7 years old.
-Orangutans arms are twice as long as their legs.
-Orangutans build a new nest every night.
-Orangutans are the most intelligent animals other than humans.
-About 1000 Orangutans are poached from the wild every year often for
sale as pets.












Day 6 April 12











We woke up early to catch a flight to Mulu National Park. This is a
national park that can only be reached by plane. We had a mini hike to our
home stay and checked in. We were talking to the owner and he said we
should go on a tour with his friend, Larry. He said we should take his tours
today and tomorrow. We walked with a person from Holland. So we hiked to
the second biggest cave on earth!! It was called Deer cave. There are three
million bats in it!! We went into it and just walked down and back, but we saw
so many cool designs in the cave. Then we had a short walk to another cave.
It was called Langs cave. There were a lot of cool formations in the cave. We
walked to that and at the end we saw a clump of twenty little cute bats!! We
even got a picture of it. When we walked to a place to see the bats to come
out it started raining when we got there. It soon rained a foot of water. In a
river it came up to be as tall as me!!! We saw no bats come out of the cave
and we had the wettest walk home. We ate at the National Park, walked back
to our place (DCave) and fell into bed.


Facts About Bats

There are over 1,000 bat species.
Bats can live for over 20 years.
Most bats feed on insects, fruit, fish, and even blood.
Bats are found anywhere on earth except polar regions and extreme
deserts.
Some species of bats migrate.
Bats are nocturnal.
Echolocation is the use of echoes and sounds to find objects.
Bats are flying animals.
Most bats have large ears witch gives them great hearing.















Day 7 April 13












We woke up early again and
walked to our tour with our guide,
Larry. We rode a boat to a Bornean
village at the National Park. We walked
through the village and bought a blowpipe and a beaded Crocodile. We
continued out to a cave called Clearwater cave. There was a fast flowing river
in it. We did not see any bats. Then we walked to another cave called wind
cave. It was called wind cave because there is a lot of wind. We did not
experience the wind, but we saw a lot of figures in the cave. It was 200
stairs down from the cave, where we ate lunch. We swam in the not so fast
anymore Clearwater River. But there was still a small current. The water was
not clear because it rained so much the day before. I jumped in and swam
against the current. It was hard! I swam for twenty minutes or so. We went
back and got on the longest canopy walk in the world!! It was thirty feet in
the air going from tree to tree. All we saw was butterflies. I saw one that
looked like an eagle and flew like an eagle. So I named it the Flying
Buttereagles!! It was so cool. We did nothing else in the afternoon. At the end
of the day we explored on a nightwalk. We saw a tree frog and a toad in the
middle of the boardwalk. I also found at least a hundred millapeeds!! Then we
fell into deep sleep




Day 8 April 14




We woke up at eight and petted the baby cats at DCave. Then we hiked
to a waterfall. It was not a big one. When we got there we swam in it. It
ended in a slow moving river. I got in the water first and stood under the
waterfall. It was the best experience I had ever had! I swam for at least an
hour and started catching fish. I built a trench from a small pool to the river
to try to catch the fish that were in the small pool. We thought it would
work because we thought the fish would swim through the trench but none of
them came. Finally my dad came and told us that it wouldnt happen because
we scared the fish away too many times. So we swam some more and hiked
back to eat Laksa. (A bornean food) It is so good. It has noodles with chicken.
Then we had a mini hike to a Tree Tower. We saw lots of butterflies. After
that we went back to deer cave to see the bats fly out. It was not raining
but they did not come out. I wanted to see them badly. Our guide said that he
had never seen the last bat come out there were so many!!! There are three
million bats in the cave!! They eat thirty tons of insects every night!!! That
surprised me a lot! We ate after that


Day 9 April 15

We again got up early and said good-bye to the mother cats and to the
baby cats. I wish we could have kept them. They were so cute!! I got a
motorcycle ride to the airport while my nice dad carried ALL the backpacks.
We got on the plane to go to KK. We missed our first flight to Sepilok, but
got on the second one. We played cards the whole time. I won every game
against my dad. It was fun winning!! My dad was mad and told me he would get
me back. We drove to our hotel, Paganakan Dii. We had a cold drink. I had a
milkshake. Then we went to our room and took our first warm shower since
Seattle. It felt so good!! We had dinner at our hotel.









Day 10 April 16














My family and I woke up and since there were hammocks there we
played in them all morning. We twisted a chair made out of bamboo. Then we
got in it and it started to spin. We got so dizzy we couldnt even walk in a
straight line! We went to another sanctuary at feeding time for the
Orangutans. The Long-tailed Macaques were stealing the orangutans food!! It
was funny. In the sanctuary we hiked on a two-kilometer trail. (1.6 kilometers
= 1 mile) We saw nothing but the forest. We went home. We played Uno. I
saw a nice bird so I interrupted our game. It was a pigeon with the colors of
yellow, green, red, and pink. I also saw another bird called a Spidereater. They
were both nice birds. We read a bornean book. It was interesting. Then when
my brother stepped to go up the stairs there was a snake as long as me!!!! It
scared my brother and my mom because they do not like snakes. It was an
interesting snake. We had nothing else to do so we ate dinner and slept.




Day 11 April 17

I woke up and raced to the hammocks. We got in a cab to see sun bears.
They are almost extinct. One was pacing back and fourth. They were cool. We
played on roots until we were called. Then we drove by taxi to Sukau. The
driver was Choy and he talked to us a lot about the town. We drove all the
way to our Bed and Breakfast hostel. We took a half an hour boat cruise on
the river right next to our hostel. I spotted some Proboscis monkeys and a
super rare wild orangutan. It attracted like fifteen different boats. I was the
one who found the orangutan!! We went farther down the river and saw some
more Long-tailed Macaque. We drove the boat through a small creek and
there were proboscis monkeys right on a branch on top of us. Our guide was
good because she did not talk so much when we were watching the animals.
There were also more long-tailed macaque on a sign and on a branch so close
that if we got up you could touch them! It felt good riding along the river
because you got to cool down from the wind. We went back and played cards.
We were invited to a barbeque at our hosts house. We talked to friendly
locals. In the middle of the night I woke up and I found out that a bee had
stung me! It hurts!! My dad got up and got some oil from the owner. They
found out that I had rolled over on the bee! I could not sleep the rest of the
night.











Day 12 April 18














We woke up early at 6 Oclock AM
and got on a boat to go on the morning
cruse. We saw a green beaked bird. We
also saw a kingfisher. It is an interesting
bird, because it is so small and it has lots
of weird, cool colors. Then we saw blue
bird. She drove the boat a little farther
and saw a couple proboscis monkeys
eating. They were eating near where
long-tailed macaques were also eating.
We also saw a water monitor on a branch.
It is like a huge lizard. We went back
and I took an eye-resting hour. Then we
played cards and did a little homework.
When I was done we ate dinner and got
on an evening boat. She found so many
animals including sleeping macaques, one
bat and the coolest looking owls with eyes
like glow-in-the-dark. They were
awesome!! We saw a king fisher sleeping
so we could get five inches under him. It
was so cool. I was so tired.

Day 13 April 19



We took Choys taxi to a junction. Then we got a cold drink and stepped
on a double decker bus. The bus brought us to KK. It was a six-hour ride. I
slept for half an hour and looked at the wilderness the rest of the way to the
city. At the city we drove to our hotel, Akinabalu and walked to the market to
eat. The fish was great! We went back. We were so tired



Day 14 April 20















We woke up and got on a bus to a boat dock. It was an hour and a half
ride. We got on a forty-minute boat to an island called Mantanani. It was a
relaxing boat ride because you had the wind blowing in your face. When we
got to the island we listened to a talk about what you should do and what you
should be careful about. We looked around and walked to our hut and got
unpacked, then got dressed to go swimming. We swam from 11 Oclock till
lunch. We had to be careful for stonefish because they could poison you to
death! We ate lunch and got on a boat to go snorkeling. We saw all sorts of
small fish but did not see a lot of big fish and colorful reef because they used
to do bomb fishing. We still saw a lot of small fish. We swam for an hour and
went back and rested in the shady hammocks. Then we snorkeled off the shore
for another hour. We ate dinner. It was a fun day


Day 15 April 21


We played in the hammocks all morning until the cafeteria opened. When
we went to the sunrise, we walked by a local village. We saw cows eating
garbage. Garbage EVERYWHERE. After breakfast and went snorkeling. We saw
more orange fish. We also saw a ton of purple fish. The water was five feet
deep so I dove down with my snorkel on and swam above the half dead reef. I
also chased some fish for an hour. Then we ate and snorkeled again. We saw
more big fish on this snorkel. We snorkeled for another hour and ate again.
We are always hungry after snorkeling. We took another nap. I slept. Mom
was cold as usual. We ate hearing another thunderstorm. We played cards. I
won the most rounds!





Day 16 April 22

We woke up and played in the hammocks until breakfast was served.
Then we sat in the hammocks by the water and watched fish jump. We also
packed up. When our boat came, we had a relaxing boat ride back to the
mainland. On the bus ride to KK I slept. It felt good to sleep. We walked to
our same hostel and took a warm shower. We ate at a bar and met a
magician. He was great. He could do crazy card tricks. He was outstanding!




















Day 17 April 23







We woke up early and drove to the airport. We flew on Malaysian
Airlines. It was a 737. We went on the plane to Tokyo. We got on a bus to
the second terminal. From there we got on Delta air. We watched movies and
talked the whole time. When we arrived in Seattle we got our luggage. We
arrived in Seattle Thursday. That was the end of our exiting trip.