Malaysia, February 12. - 24. 2023

Going to Malaysia, more precisely also visiting the island of Borneo, had been on our mind for a while. We already had the tickets for this trip bought for February 2021, but, of course, those tickets were cancelled due to the Covid pandemic. Malaysia lifted all Covid-related travel requirements in August 2022 and we decided to spend our next winter holidays there. Johnny and I had actually already visited Malaysia in January 2006 - we spent 10 days there in total, most of it on the island of Langkawi and the surrounding small islands, and a couple of days also in Kuala Lumpur. This time we were going to divide our time in Malaysia between the islands of Borneo and Penang and the capital Kuala Lumpur. As the prices of flights, especially long-haul flights, had incresed quite a bit recently, it was complicated to find reasonably priced tickets from Nice. We finally got a pretty good deal flying out from Milan Malpensa, Milan airport being just a bit under four hours drive from where we live. 

Our Qatar Airways flight was leaving at 9.30 in the morning, so we decided to go to Milan a day before, get a good night's sleep at a hotel near the airport and be relaxed to travel the day after. We had reserved a family room at Cardano Hotel Malpensa, that was about 10 minutes from the airport. The nearby little town, Gallarate, had a good choice of restaurants and we had a nice meal of pizza and other Italian dishes, knowing that for the next two weeks we would be eating Asian food (that we all love). 

The next morning as we headed to the airport, it was -2 degrees C outside. We had decided to leave our winter coats in the car, so we left the kids with the luggage at the airport first, and then went to park. The long-term parking costed a reasonable 72 euros for 13 days (reserved directly from Malpensa Airport website) and it was only three minutes walk from the airport (but it was a pretty cold walk wearing only a light sweater). Qatar Airways proved again why they are the best airline in the world  - the service, food and in-flight entertainment were all excellent. It took six hours from Milan to Doha, then a bit over two hours at Doha airport, that passed pretty quickly, and finally seven hours from Doha to Kuala Lumpur. 

We arrived at Kuala Lumpur at 8.30 in the morning, feeling all quite tired as it was 1.30 am in France, (so the time was 7 hours ahead in Malaysia). The passport control was fast - we just had to give fingerprints and have the photo taken before getting the passport satmped. I also exchanged some local currency, Malaysian ringgit, with the exchange rate of 4.65 ringgit for one euro. The next step was buying a local SIM card - there were several providers in the airport and I chose a random one called Tune Talk, offering 35 giga of mobile data for 50 ringgit (around 11 euros). I had taken an old phone with me that I then used as a hotspot sharing internet connection to all our phones. We used WiFi in the hotels, but also used the shared data quite a lot and at the end of the trip we still had nearly 10 giga of data left on the card. 

I had downloaded a Grab app (the same as Uber or Bolt in Europe) already at home and used it to call us a taxi to go to our accommodation. Grab is an inexpensive way to get around in several South-East Asian countries, including Malaysia. The larger car (six seater to fit the four of us + our luggage) from the airport to city center (around 60 kms, one hour trip) costed us 100 ringgit or 22 euros. 

We had chosen to stay in an apartement in the city center in a building called Eaton residences, just 10 minutes walk from Bukit Bintang and the Pavilion Shopping Mall, for our first night in Malaysia. As we arrived early, the apartment was not ready for check-in yet, so we left our luggage at the reception and went to discover the city and find something to eat.

We were pretty clueless about where to go and feeling tired did not really help. We finally decided to take a Grab to Jalan Alor food street. I knew that most of the places on Jalan Alor open in the evening, although the official opening time was at 12 noon and as it was a bit after 12, I hoped to find something open there. Some places were, indeed, open and people were having lunch. We sat down in one place and the kids had haianese chicken rice and I ordered some noodles - the food was not bad, but I would not call it good either. We lost our appetite when we saw rats running around on the street not far from our table, so we decided to walk back to our apartment through Bukit Bintang as we had received a text from the apartment manager that we could get in. We all loved the Bukit Bintang area - clean, modern, amazing food courts in shopping malls -  and decided to come back there later, as it ws only about 10 minutes walk from our apartment.

I had reserved a two bedroom/two bathroom apartment for more than reasonable 75 euros per night and we were pleased to discover that we had been upgraded to a three bedroom/three bathroom one. The apartment was lovely - situated on the 33rd floor with amazing views of the Petronas Towers. The building had a rooftop infinity pool, gym, several outdoor terraces and relaxation areas, one of them with playground, and an outdoor gym area. 

Rooftop

 Bedroom and bathroom with a view

After a little rest in the apartment and the first dip in the pool, we headed back to the city. This time we had dinner in the food court of the Pavilion mall. The food court was huge with amazing options to eat and we were really spoilt for choice. We all went for a different stall and everything we had was delicious - I had a Thai mango salad and veggie pad thai combo for a price of a little under three euros. 

We still had the whole next day to discover this wonderful city, our flight to Sandakan in Borneo was leaving in the evening. We just walked around, enjoyed the tropical climate and ate all the delicious food available everywhere - even the 7eleven onigiris were so good! We went to check out the local Chinatown and Petaling Street - it is amazing how in Malaysia all the different cultures coexist perfectly and peacefully - Malay (muslim), Chinese, Indian, with all therir traditions and places of worship... We also went to see Merdeka 118, the second highest building in the world, that was still getting its finishing touches and was not open yet (although we could also see it from our bedroom window).

For lunch we went back to the Pavilion food court and decided to try a Japanese Teppanyaki place - the portions were huge and no one of us (even the teenagers who are always starving) could finish all the food.

Borneo Island, Sabah - Sandakan, Kinabatagan River and Kota Kinabalu

The flight from Kuala Lumpur to the small town of Sandakan on the northeastern corner of Borneo island took nearly three hours. We arrived in the evening - although domestic flight, we still had to go through a passport check and had our passports stamped, checked in to our simple hotel in the town center and went for a little walk and dinner at the local Chinese restaurant. Borneo is the third largest island in the world and it has unique flora and fauna - that is what we had came to experience. Sandakan is a small town, mostly a gateway place to the people who are going to experience the wildlife of Malaysian Borneo.  

I had reserved a three day, two night tour with Borneo Eco Tours for our limited-time Borneo discovery and they were picking us up from our hotel at 8am the next morning. I had checked a lot of different possibilities and options for optimising our time in Borneo, wishing to experience the most of the wildlife possible. Sukau Rainforest Lodge is an award-winning lodge in the middle of rainforest, only accessible by boat and was used as a base by BBC crew while filming the Borneo part of Our Planet documentary series - this was a place I wanted to stay. It was only possible to reserve it as a part of a tour - there is nothing else around it, so all meals and excursions are provided during the stay. 

Our first day started with our guide Jonathan meeting us at the hotel and then going to pick up two other families from their accommodations. We did all our programmed tours and river safaris together with those two families (one British Indian and the other Danish), Jonathan always being our guide. 

Before arriving at the lodge we went to visit the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center and Sepilok Sun Bear Sanctuary. It is illegal and heavily fined to keep an orangutan or a sun bear in Malaysia as both of these spieces are among the most endangered in the world.

 

 

Owned and run by the Sabah Wildlife Department, the centre is located in the Sepilok-Kabili Forest Reserve, which covers an area of 43 sq km. The centre's primary mission is to rehabilitate and provide a safe haven for orphaned and injured orangutans, one of the world's most endangered primates. Today around 60 to 80 orangutans live independently in the rainforest reserve and approximately 25 orphaned orangutans are housed and cared for in the nurseries. 

Visiting Sepilok, we had the opportunity to enter the rainforest reserve and (hopefully) observe some of the orangutans in their wild habitat. These orangutans enjoy the freedom to roam as they please. They are provided with supplementary food which is given to them daily. This additional food is purposefully designed to be monotonous so as to encourage the apes to forage for themselves. We arrived at the center about an hour before feeding time, watched a documentary about orangutans and took the wooden walkways to the jungle where the feeding platforms were. We were lucky as two young orangutans appeared in a short while - sometimes they do not come at all.

Probably one of the most difficult animals to see in the Bornean jungle is the Malayan sun bear, with few left in the wild. Their extremely shy nature also means that it is incredibly tricky to spot them. Our guide, Jonathan, who has spent many years being a guide said that he had only seen the sun bear once. 

The Borneo Sun Bear Conservation Centre was established as a sun bear rescue and rehabilitation facility. Sun bears that have been rescued from captivity are housed at the facility so that they can be reintroduced into the wild. In some cases the bears have only had interactions with humans prior to rescue and they have become so habituated that their chance of being release into the wild is greatly diminished. The site includes a number of forest enclosures that have been build around remnant jungle so that the bears can live in an environment that simulates their natural habitat. The bears are free to roam around their enclosures and climb trees.

 

Animals that are suitable to be released back in the wild from both the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre and the Borneo Sun Bear Conservation Centre are released into the Tabin Wildlife reserve. 

After a quick and simple buffet lunch at a nearby restaurant, we started our two and a half hour journey towards the Kinabatangan river. Most part of the journey passed between palm oil plantations - it was heartbraking to see how little of the real Borneo and the natural wildlife habitat there was left. 

We arrived at a small boat quay in the middle of nowhere, at the end of a little dirt road. In a pouring rain, we boarded the boat, and in around a 15-minute journey we arrived at the Sukau Rainforest Lodge. The lodge looked amazing from the moment we got there. Before allocating us to the bedrooms, we were taken to a separate little lounge at the reception for a welcome drink and the introduction of our programme and the lodge itself.

The Lodge - the main restaurant building and boat quay

 

Twin toom at the lodge

We had just a little time to get ready before going on our first river cruise. Altogether there were three river cruises included - two in the afternoon and one early morning cruise at 6am. We also bought an extra nighttime cruise to observe nighttime wildlife. Unfortunately our forest hike was cancelled because of the heavy rain. At the lodge all meals were included in the price of the stay - breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. We were also given traditional sarongs to wear in the restaurant for dinner time. The food was always delicious (served buffet-style) and vegan options were also available for lunch and dinner.

 

 

The restaurant at the lodge

We saw a lot of animals during our river cruises, the most special ones being the proboscis monkeys (endangered spieces only native to Borneo) and huge crocodiles (up to five meters long). Unfortunately we did not manage to spot any pygmy elephants, although we saw fresh elephant tracks by the side of the river. We also saw lots of monkeys - several macaque spieces, and the cute langurs; several hornbill spieces and lots of other birds, monitor lizards, snakes, malay foxes (the biggest bats in the world) etc. Overall it was a wonderful experience in the middle of the nature and I would happily return. The Kinabatangan river was a site itself, with lush rainforest on both sides. We did get some rain every day, but it is pretty normal for that region in February.

 

Proboscis monkeys

Monitor lizard

On the third day we left the lodge after breakfast and took the boat all the way back to Sandakan. The river gets really wide at the end, before merging into the sea. The trip took about two and a half hours and was really enjoyable and we still managed to spot some animals both sides of the river. 

 

The day in Sandakan was also included in the tour - we went for a nice lunch before visiting the Rainforest Discovery Center. The Rainforest Discovery Center is a canopy walkway system (as high as 25 meters) on the treetop level in the rainforest, about 20 minutes drive from Sandakan at the Kabili-Sepilok Forest Reserve.

After walking and learning about the beautiful Borneo rainforest we headed straight to the airport to leave the wilderness behind. We took a very short flight (being in the air for about 30 minutes) from Sandakan to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the Sabah state. Although we only had about 24 hours in Kota Kinabalu, we liked the town very much - it is by the sea, has an old village where the houses are built on the sea, nice market, good restaurants. We stayed at the Mercure Kota Kinabalu, that was walking distance from several sights. The city seemed to be the gateway to either Mount Kinabalu hiking trips or snorkelling trips to the nearby islands. We did not have time to do any, but it just gives us a reason to return.

KK market

 Houses on the water

 View from the rooftop bar of Mercure Kota Kinabalu Hotel

Penang Island and Kuala Lumpur

The next stop of our trip was Penang island, meaning we were going back to the region of mainland Malaysia. It took nearly three hours to fly from KK to Penang. We arrived pretty late in the evening and the drive from the airport to the hotel took about an hour. We had chosen the Hilton resort in the beachside area of Batu Ferringhi for our next stay - we wanted to relax a bit after our days in Borneo and before going back to Kuala Lumpur. The resort itself was very good with spacious rooms, nice pool and excellent breakfast choices, but it was not really a walking distance from anywhere, meaning we had to relay on Grab taxis to get around. Next time I would probably stay in George Town. 

 Pool at the Hilton Batu Ferringhi

 

Beach near the hotel

 

The center of George Town was about 20 minutes drive from our hotel. George Town is the second largest and one of the most vibrant cities in Malaysia. It’s known for being Malaysia’s gastronomic capital (especially it’s street food), its eclectic mix of architectural styles, and its multicultural community. Although the weather in Penang was a lot hotter than in Borneo, and walking around in town was going to be a lot more tiring because of the heat, we really wanted to discover this multi-cultural UNESCO heritage site. Our first stop was checking out the clan jetties - the historic Chinese villages built out over the water on long jetties. The Clan Jetties still retain traditional Chinese culture and customs today. Each Jetty has its own small temple at the entrance and at the very end of the Jetty, facing outwards towards the sea to grant the residents good fortune. 

 

 

The wonderful thing about George Town were the different neighbourhoods - Chinese, Indian, Malay with their beautiful temples and other places of worship; the street food scene and small shops, all the cool street art and the hawker centers, we also loved the Colonial architecture and the colourful houses. During our stay in Penang we visited George Town several times and really enjoyed the vibe of this colourful vibrant city. 

Colourful houses and temples of George Town

The famous hawker centers

George Town street art

In order to experience the best views of George Town and the Penang coastline we took the funicular up to Penang hill one afternoon. We did not realise that it was also the beginning of local school holidays, so the place was very crowded and the wait for the funicular was pretty long - but as we were already there, we decided to wait and go for it. Apart from the amazing views, we also visited the beautiful Hindu temple at the top and saw some very cute langurs and colourful birds up on the trees. 

We also used our time in Penang to just chill out at the hotel, reading a book by the pool, going for a massage, a walk at the beach and just relaxing before heading back to the bustling city of Kuala Lumpur.

 

Instead of flying back to Kuala Lumpur, we decided to take a train. The train leaves from the main land, Butterworth station - it is easy to get there, as Penang island is connected to the main land with two bridges and the station is conveniently close to the northern bridge. Our train left at 7am, so we had an early start - the taxi ride from the hotel to the station takes about an hour. The train was modern and comfortable and it took a bit over four hours to arrive at KL Central station. 

For our last two days of the trip, we stayed at the Sheraton Imperial hotel in Kuala Lumpur. The hotel was nice with spacious, although maybe a little dated rooms - we had the club rooms with lounge access, that were anyway larger. The swimming pool was great, the spa on the other hand also needed a bit of touching up. We quite liked the breakfast variety, although the one at the Hilton Penang was better. The lounge got pretty busy at drinks time, sometimes there were not enough tables available for everyone. The hotel was located in the center, but it was easier to take the monorail rather than walk (the weather was really hot), the monorail station Medan Tuanku being just outside the hotel. Monorail is an easy way to get around cental Kuala Lumpur, better than taxi in fact, as the traffic is really busy in the center. 

Our room at Sheraton Imperial

We went to visit the places we had visited on 2006, Petronas Towers and the Petaling street for some shopping. The food court at the Petronas Towers mall is really good, so we had lunch there, exactly like we had done 17 years ago.

In the evening we took the monorail to Bukit Bintang, to enjoy the hustle and bustle of this amazing city and have dinner at a Japanese restaruant with a robot waiter.

For our last full day in Kuala Lumpur, we went to see the famous Batu Caves. Batu Caves are one of the most famous attractions around Kuala Lumpur - it is easy to get there as they are situated only 13 km from the city center. We took a Grab taxi, but it is also possible to reach the caves by train. It is a climb of 272 steps to reach the main cave. We also visited the beautiful Hindu temple at the foot of the stairs. As it is a sacred place for Hindus, the women must cover up - I had to buy a sarong at the nearby market to tie around my waist as I was wearing shorts. There is another temple at the main cave. Often the monkeys are on the stairs - it is recommended not to carry food as the monkeys will probably (try to) steal it.

We had checked out online that ther is a small national park with waterfalls not far from the caves that we wanted to see before going back to the city. The park was probably not that well known, there were only some local families having a picnic, and lots of monkeys (trying to steal their food). There were several short hiking trails to take, to view the waterfall from different heights - overall a nice experience.

Our Malaysia trip was reaching to its end. We still had the last night to have another great meal and stroll around at Bukit Bintang area and the next morning the taxi was taking us to the airport to start the journey home. We enjoyed our time in Malaysia very much and I was sure we would be returning soon. At the moment when I am writing this, we have another South East Asia trip booked already - mostly in Thailand, but also two days in Kuala Lumpur - so we are returning to our favourite city. Malaysia is a wonderful country with friendly people, amazing food and beautiful unique nature - I highly recommend it to anyone for a holiday. 

Doha

On our way back, we had 12 hours between the flights in Doha. We did not want to spend it all at the airport, so we decided to go to visit the city. In order to enter Qatar, all visitors must have travel insurance - although we have three (two with credit cards and an extra travel insurance I buy before long haul trips), the only insurance that counted was a local one that could be conveniently bought from the airport for 25 USD per person. We took it as a visa cost and just went with it. 

It was easy to acess the old town and souks area from the airport by metro. We took a nice walk around, had a small bite to eat and went for some shopping at the souks - I always tend to buy pashminas or scarves from our travels. We have been twice in Doha now - once at the modern part of the city and once at the old part. We love flying with Qatar airways, but I would prefer the flights with a short layover if possible - I feel we have seen Doha already and prefer not to do it another time.

It was getting late and we were also pretty tired, so we went back to the airport although we still had about five hours before our flight. We spent the time at Al Maha lounge, where we could take a nice shower, relax on some comfy seats and have something to eat before the flight to Milan. 

Doha Hamad Airport