{"id":30467,"date":"2016-11-08T10:48:13","date_gmt":"2016-11-08T08:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.untamedtravelling.com\/jungle-sultans-and-hipsters\/"},"modified":"2021-10-21T12:17:03","modified_gmt":"2021-10-21T10:17:03","slug":"jungle-sultans-and-hipsters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.untamedtravelling.com\/en\/blog\/travel-experiences-2\/asia-travel-experiences-2\/jungle-sultans-and-hipsters","title":{"rendered":"Jungle, sultans and hipsters"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a reconnaissance trip to a new destination for Untamed: \u00a0 <\/span>Malaysia.<\/a><\/p>\n

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It was a wonderful trip, intense, gastronomic, surprising, \u00a0 but above all the variety of nature that stays with me, the night safaris and walks. The jungle full of life; \u00a0a treasure chest of secrets, the black Malaysian scorpions, beautiful specimens in a mythical world. I can recommend it to anyone.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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First, a trade show visit in Singapore. The announcement pops through the speakers of flight KL0835: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we will be landing in Singapore in half an hour after a 12-hour flight with a direct flight from Amsterdam’. What strikes me is the bright light and the hundreds of ships that are moored in front of Singapore’s high-rise buildings and waiting their turn to unload the cargo.<\/div>\n
Singapore a phenomenal city in the center of Indochina. 50 years ago this was a small fishing village with about 10 buildings. The beginning and end of many an adventure. I stay at Marina Bay Resort. With 2,500 rooms, three towers. 57 floors. I don’t want to be here, \u00a0 but \u00e0 la I have a scholarship in the convention center…<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I have to rethink my opinion, one disappears into the crowd, “where the world can’t find you” a city in itself. And top service, David Beckham who’s hired and runs a great PR campaign. Gordon Ramsey, Bread Kitchen \u00a0 in the annex shopping mall, several star restaurants and fitness on the 55th floor and to top it all off, a swimming paradise \u00a0 (swimming garden) on the roof with gardens, lounge and restaurants. The Formula 1 circuit within walking distance. The architecture is breathtaking!<\/div>\n
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Borneo<\/h4>\n
My journey continues to Borneo,<\/strong> the third largest island in the world. Through Kota Kinabalu<\/strong> I reach the Base Sandakan.<\/strong> It is the epicenter in Sabah<\/strong> for nature travel. My first day consists of visiting Sepilok,<\/strong> the shelter for primordial and probiscus monkeys.<\/div>\n
That same evening I take a night walk\/ safari. The jungle comes alive, everything crawls, thousands of frogs, reptiles, scorpions bring phantoms in my head to life. I love this, a new world, we are invaders, not suspecting what’s going on around us. I see a flying lemur, wow. It looks like a moorish shadow floating through the air. These are \u00a0 new mammals I didn’t know existed. What a wealth.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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My adventure in Borneo is just beginning, before I know it I’m on a speedboat and i quickly cross the Kinabatangan River<\/strong> lined with meter-high raffia and rattan. An impenetrable cordon of green encloses the lifebloods. Rivers are the access roads in the impenetrable jungle.<\/strong> The canop\u00e9 towers tens of meters above the marshy ground.
\nSafaris by boat looking for Borneo crocodile, pygmy elephant, yellow ringed catsnake, Sabah pit-viper, dollarbird, gould’s frogmouth (finally a frogmouth). Wow.
\nThe night is an orchestra of sounds, millions of frogs bring the jungle to life. I see for the first time a ‘mouse deer’, the smallest deer in the world. And in contrast, the largest scorpion ‘Malaysian forest scorpion’. Beautiful!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Before flying back to KL(Kuala Lumpur)<\/strong>I still visit the Libaron fishing island. Time has stood still here, I am received with a fresh coconut from the garden. I give turtles their freedom. You are overcome by the kindness in a world we don’t know. Kuala Lumpur with the iconic Petronas Towers that overlook the Batu Caves on an arc of downtown is my next stop.<\/div>\n
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Cameron Highlands<\/h4>\n
A short visit because the next morning I swing through the central part of Malaysia, to the Cameron Highlands. Along the way I meet some Senoi, who are related to the peoples of Papoa Niew Guinea.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Cameron Highlands<\/strong>, best known for its beautiful mountains adorned in a dark green color of the jungle, but where space has been made for the cultivation of strawberries and tea plantations that are eternally green.<\/div>\n
The Sultan of Pahang gives a party at the hotel where I stay there dancing and partying until the early hours. Sultans enjoy awe and adoration. Every province has such a leader.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Georgetown – Penang<\/h4>\n
My terminus, Georgetown\/Penang, I reach via Ipoh and visit the Sam poh Tong temple with beautiful murals. Bustling city full of hipsters and vloggers and the world famous paintings of a.o. Alex KATZ.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n
\n On a reconnaissance trip to a new destination for Untamed:   Malaysia.<\/a><\/div>\n
\n It was a wonderful trip, intense, gastronomic, surprising,   but above all the variety of nature that stays with me, the night safaris and walks. The jungle full of life;  a treasure chest of secrets, the black Malaysian scorpions, beautiful specimens in a mythical world. I can recommend it to anyone.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":19157,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[590,274],"tags":[],"blog_category":[273],"country":[],"continent_category":[],"class_list":["post-30467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-travel-experiences-2","category-travel-experiences-2","blog_category-travel-experiences"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.untamedtravelling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.untamedtravelling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.untamedtravelling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.untamedtravelling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.untamedtravelling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30467"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/staging.untamedtravelling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237089,"href":"https:\/\/staging.untamedtravelling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30467\/revisions\/237089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.untamedtravelling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.untamedtravelling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.untamedtravelling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.untamedtravelling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30467"},{"taxonomy":"blog_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.untamedtravelling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_category?post=30467"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.untamedtravelling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=30467"},{"taxonomy":"continent_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.untamedtravelling.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/continent_category?post=30467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}