Wednesday 3/23/11 Abai – Kuala Lumpur - Boston

Yet again an early morning. Up at 6 and the bags outside the door by 6:30. It was still raining buckets so we opted out of the before breakfast trip to a lake. It is supposedly very beautiful, but we didn’t fancy going in the open boats, once again getting totally soaked. Since we didn’t have our suitcases it would not be nice to travel in wet clothes. We have breakfast at 8 and the boats leave at 9:30 for Sandakan.

As it turned out, only 5 of 24 were eager enough to make the early morning tour in the rain. On the boat ride back to Sandakan it rained on and off but the boat was covered so it did not matter. In Sandakan we boarded our buses for a short ride to a Chinese temple, the Puu Gih Jih Chinese Temple - a majestic temple erected on top of a hill facing Sandakan Bay with a lovely view. The temple uses the symbol of the swastika quite a lot. The swastika is a historical sacred symbol in Indian religions. The word swastika came from the Sanskrit word svastika, meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote good luck. Some sources indicate that during the Chinese Tang Dynasty, Empress Wu Zetian (684-704) decreed that the swastika would be used as an alternative symbol of the Sun.

Sandakan was founded 1879 by some Scottish guy. In the olden days it had the most millionaires in the world due to the timber. Sandakan is also known for the 1000 prisoners death march. When the British came to take Sandakan from the Japanese after WWII, the Japanese had 1000 British and Australian prisoners that they brought on a march by foot from Sandakan to Kinabalu Mountain some 260 km away. Of the 1000 prisoners that started on the march only six survived!


Borneo’s number one income is from palm oil, number two is eco-tourism and number three is birds’ nests! To collect the birds’ nests that are built by swifts (a little swallow with very short legs, it cannot perch on a branch, only cling to mountain walls) and they live in deep caves. To collect the nests people have to descend 250ft down into the caves on bamboo scaffolding. Because they have recently discovered the these nests contain an anti-aging agent they have become immensely popular and also expensive – around 8000RM for 1 kg (close to $1400/lb). A little strange when in actually what people consume is the spit from the birds!

Lunch at Sabah Hotel in Sandaka. They had the worst food of the whole trip. We were promised sweets like chocolate for dessert but it was not tasty at all! There was one tasty treat, like a crème caramel, but they were all gone by the time I got to the dessert table!

Plane to Kota Kinabalu no problem, but the flight from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur was 3 hours late. We managed to re-book to another flight and arrived 1.5 hrs later than planned. We still had several hours to wait so after big cups of cappuccino the only thing to do was to shop. Oh boy, those Swedish ladies can really shop – they even bought the clothes off the display mannequins! I only bought a couple of small things for Wyatt.


The flight was uneventful and we shared a cab with 2 of the other women back to Kuala Lumpur from the airport. Checking in at Marriott was no problem. It was SO nice to be back to civilization! We could have showers and wash hair, the air-conditioning felt great and the beds were lovely too. The jungle was wonderful but 3 days was plenty. The rain did not help either but in spite of the weather we had a really great time!

Checked out at 1pm and met up with two Swedes from Hong Kong and we shared a taxi back to the airport. When I checked in, there was a mix-up in my ticket but it was sorted out. Regardless – this time travel is kind of confusing. I leave KL March 24 and arrive in HK March 24. I leave Hong Kong early March 25 but arrive in San Francisco on March 24 again! By the time I arrive in Chicago I am once again back at March 25! Oh well, by Friday morning on the 25th I should be back home in Boston.


I managed to catch all my connections on the way home and so did my bags! For the first time I tried out a new system coming back to the USA where I do not need to stand in line at the passport control, but just go to a kiosk and with my passport and finger prints and get in with no waiting. It is called Global Entry and I hope this system will spread to the rest of the world, or at least to the UK where the lines are the longest! It was still 34 hours door to door. Needless to say, I was quite tired when I got back. Stayed on the couch for the day and went to bed fairly early and already I feel like I never went away. I like being home!