Kategorie: Malaysia

Kota Kinabalu is the name of the capital city from Borneo. I arrived at the beginning of May and as usual, at this time the weather was warm, sunny and dry. Kota Kinabalu is a city with round about 200.000 inhabitants, and very well developed. For the first time in my life, I decided to take a cabin hostel for my accommodation, as my plan was not to stay in the city for a longer time. The hostel was located directly at the harbor, it was very clean, super nice stuff, friendly and easy people, great WIFI and the cabins looked like in hypersleep cabins in a spaceship.

4 cabins in the room, each round about 1,20m x 2,10m x 1,20m. To get into your cabin you had to open a sliding door on the side and climb up a little ladder. The inside of the cabin was stuffed with a big mirror, ambilights, usb and cable charger, a small table, A/C, mattress and bedsheets. I felt like a little child which has built a cave when I was in the inside of the cabin. The first night I didn’t sleep that well, cause some young people speak and act outside, and the walls was not very thick. But the second day I bought some earplugs and a sleep mask, and the next days I slept super well.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The entrance area was stuffed with a big table and many charging possibilities for my mac book. From the table, you had a view over the harbor bay and the promenade that were in the direct frontline of the harbor.  From here it was very nice to work as you could enjoy the sunset in the evening and during the daytime, you were not affected by the heat outside.

But overall KK is a city, and I don’t like to stay in cities for too long. So I started to look out for a more secluded area. My tactic to look for good places is most of the time Google Maps, as it opens the possibility to see how much buildings are around, how big the streets are, and if you have access to cool beach places. Spoiled from my stay in Thailand and Indonesia, I was astonished that all the places that I found on the map were either not really lonely or very expensive. Last but not least I found a nice place, that gave me the impression that it might be a fit. 

Life is miraculous sometimes. For me, in person, I found myself often in a situation where a specific topic runs around in my head, and then I run into people or situations that match with this topic. Same here. On Nusa Penida, I saw on the day of my leaving a Poster from the Trash Hero Organisation.  For those who don’t know the Trash Hero Organisation a short explanation. The Trash Hero Organisation is a voluntary group of people who organize Beach Cleanups and educate the people while they meet at the cleanups. The Organisation is founded by Roman Peter from Switzerland. As he stayed for a long period of time in Thailand and couldn’t get along with all the plastic trash at the beach where he lives, he decided to start to clean up the beach. Quickly others were affected from his action and today there are 52 different chapters of the Trash Hero Group, located mostly in south-east Asia but also in Europe.  

The miracle for me was, that while I was looking for a new accommodation, I accidentally get in touch with Monica Chin. Monica is the leader of the Trash Hero Chapter of Borneo. Her father owns a little beach bungalow place round about 1,5 h drive from KK. Sadly the place was closed she told me, but quickly she agreed to a meeting with me. Monica is a mother of two children and one of the most enlightening persons I ever have met in my life. She must have a fusion drive instead of a heard or something like this, as she always runs on 150%. She is one of the people who simply spread out positivity when she is around and fully dedicated to her engagement at the Trash Hero Group. 

Not enough that she cut off some of her rare time to meet me, no! She invited me into her house and offered me to stay with her and her family. Sadly there was not a stable internet connection available, which is necessary for me to work, so I had to deny her friendly offer. But during our talk and time we spend together I learned a lot about Trash Hero, and I more and more become aware that at least for me it is necessary to take action on this topic. 

As I could not find an interesting location nearby, I decided to make a trip to the tip of Borneo, which is the most north-west tip of the island. Totally different as in Thailand, the possibilities of how to travel are not that developed. So I had to take a shared Minibus from KK to the Tip of Borneo and it was a 3,5-hour drive. The accommodation that I choose was a kind of a jungle camp. The owner told me on the phone that they have WIFI in the restaurant at the beach, so I gave it a go. 

Honestly I have to confess that I was dissapointed from the place. Overall it was not bad but from my point of view it was a bit overpriced. The jungle camp offered 3 different types of accommodations. A long house, witch is mainly a big house build out of bamboo, and wood and seperations what you can imagine as „room“. Inside of the „room“ was a wooden bench, with a dirty mattress. bedsheet and a mosquito net, a power plug and a lamp. Thats it. Price 15€ a night without breakfast. The second type of accommodation was the same from the way of standard but instead of a long house you hat your „room“ in a kind of hut, made of bamboo and wood. Cost 25€ a night. Third possibility was Bungalows with own bathroom, and more solid walls, nice furniture and clean. Cost 45€ a night. The owner of the place won’t give any discount for long stay. The restaurant was 15 min car drive away, and there were a shuttle service 3 times a day.  

When you don’t like spiders you really had to get over your borders to spend a quite night here. The mattress and sheet were so dusty that I decided to keep some clothes on the night. Toilettes was made as compost toilettes and one shower house for all people of the long house. After sunset, there was just very little lights in the garden and on the way to the toilettes. As the longhouse was built on stalks in the mangroves, you hear frogs and many other animals after sunset creeping around. I like that, even if I was a bit frightened.  For a price of 5€ the night I would not complain at all but 15€ for a dirty mattress, and absolutely no comfort. I don’t know!

• 

• 

• 

• 

The next morning I woke up pretty early. The sun was just rising, and I enjoyed to sit in the hall in front of the longhouse, to watch the butterflies and birds doing their morning work. There was a little fog laying over the ground, and water pearls shimmered in the morning light, as I met a man in the room. We greet friendly and after a short who are you, he told me, very proud, that he works in the reforestation program of Borneo. Impressive I thought by myself, and I ask about more details. He explained to me that the government of Borneo now decided to plant eucalyptus instead of Palm Oil Trees. „But that’s monoculture again,“ I said and „Eucalyptus ruins the soil even more“.  My impression was that he was shocked that I had something to say about it and that I obviously know about the exploitation of nature, that happens very intense especially in Borneo. Overall you can shrink our talking down to one argument from his side – money. Eucalyptus brings more money than Palm Oil. No matter what will be there tomorrow.

Aproximately one hour later, I met this man again. This time he had some friends around. A family, man, women and their, I guess 8-9 year old boy.  I greet them and then start to walk along the beach. It was one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. Wonderfull white sand, except from the little restaurant and some little houses no civilisation around and even if this beach clearly was not cleaned on regular bases, it was not so much trash on the beach. The water looked perfect and as I walked closer I get shocked. Nearly every 50cm in the water I saw big pieces of plastic and other trash swimming in the water. It was so much that I was unsure if it is a good idea to go into the water, as I might get injured from the floating suff. From one minute to the other my mind becomes very sad. Such a beautiful deserted place, at nearly the most east place on the whole island, no civilisation but trash and plastic everywhere. The amount of pieces was so huge, that I wonder where it might comes from. As this area is connected to the south chinese sea my concern was that all this plastic might be made its way from up there down to this coast and now be washed up on the shore. What I also was wonder about was, that all pieces that I saw in the water was very big and it dosen’t looked like it was there for a very long time. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I grew up with books from Jacques-Yves Cousteau. I loved to see the colorful pictures from a world that was so far away for me that each page of these books was like treasures for me. All this astonishing creatures, this mindblowing colors for was was pure beauty. All my life I dreamed about one day to have the opportunity to go diving and see this world with my own eyes. As longer you travel in the asean area as more you become aware how big the impact of pollution through plastic is. In Europe it is simply nearly not visible but here. .

Fighting against such power and impact might look senseless I decided not to accept that the oceans will be destroyed. Honestly I believe, if the oceans die, we will die too.

But back to my stay at the tip of Borneo: it simply was not possible for me to find an affordable place to stay, that matched my needs.

As I didn’t had a motorcycle, I only could reach the most nearby area. There was some bungalows and one also had a super wifi connection but I couldn’t hit a proper deal. The owner don’t wanted to make a realistic discount and I was not willing to pay more than 15 – 20 euro per night as the bungalows standard was not worth more money. I was kind of astonished cause all bungalows doesn’t looked booked. So I expected that an offer for a fully one or two month payment might be a really good deal. Obviously I was wrong about it and to stay longer in the Longhouse was not an option for me I left the next day and headed back to KK.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

In KK I decided to stay 5 days longer as I wanted to work relaxed and pick up wat I left during travel time. During the 5 days I wanted to make decisions where to go next and so my decision ended up with Sri Lanka…

Last three weeks, I spent in Kuala Lumpur. My Airbnb stay was in an area called Petaling Jaya, Bandar Utama. The house where I stayed was very nice, calm and clean. I have to confess that I have nearly nothing seen from the city. The reason behind was the unbelievable announcement that I have made it into phase two from the Google Developer Challenge, and now I got a scholarship for the frontend developer degree at Udacity. The message reaches me on 14.02 and I could not imagine a better Valentinstag day present. I think it takes me four days until I really believe it. So I spent most of the time working and learning.

After 3 months in more rural areas, it was pretty refreshing to touch down here in KL. KL is surprisingly modern. So, I had the luck after 3 months the first time to order a pizza. While exploring the 1 Utama Shopping Mal the next day, I was able to buy all things that was on my list. Completely European standard like, it was no problem to buy milk, cheese, and even avocado. Yeah!

Quickly I felt like home and I think this was a missing feeling for a while. My visit to the center of KL was super short. I take the Mt to an Area where I want to visit a flee market. Riding the MRT was a step into a science fiction. So modern and clean. The view is amazing from the train and makes you, even more, believe that you are somewhere in a nearby future. Impressive skyscrapers everywhere and the used space for buildings looks like I imagine the US.

I’m not the shopping person anymore and as I step out the MRT train, I simply was overwhelmed by all the mals and shops. Without a clear vision what to see I just walk around a bit. Then I had to find out KL is not made for walking and it’s a good thing when you have a pretty strong immune system. Outside you walk in roundabout 35° C, and in all shops are cooled down by A/C. So, you have constantly changed between very hot and pretty cold. The bashing impressions from all the labels, shops was so annoying to me, that I decided not to stay in the city. Even if I have not made it upon the Petrona Towers. I thought to myself, I can go another day, but it ends up that I was not motivated enough to go to the city again.

Malaysia is a very interesting country also for a business purpose. For foreigners, it is very easy to open up a company and with its territorial Tax system, you did not pay any tax on income that you make outside of Malaysia. Also, you did not pay tax on your own salary. I will investigate here some time to find out more details. As a European citizen, you can stay in Malaysia 3 month without vias. And if you are interested in business they just launched a very interesting programme for startups, that gives you the opportunity to get a 4-year visa with a breeze.

As I was ashamed to report that the only thing I have seen from KL is my desk on one Sunday I go and visit the Batu Caves. The Batu Caves are a collection of Hindu Temple that is located in the north of Kuala Lumpur. The preferred option to get around for the Malaysian people is to take a „Grab“. Grab is something similar to UBER and I really was impressed how good it works. So, I „grab“ a car in the morning and go to the Caves. When you arrive at the main gate, you directly be caught by the spiritual wave that lingers above the area. A multicultural mix of all nationalities crushes into each other at the base of the 250 steps you have to go, to reach the caves itself. To walk upstairs in the head reminds me like to go on a spiritual walkway.  Like the steps were made to torture you until you reach eternity, you walk upstairs slowly, and just step by step. Wild monkeys cross your way, and bag for food. A waterfall on one side of the steps gives you the impression as it was heaven sent, cause the sprinkling water give you a little refreshing.

When you reach the last step, the impressive first Cave comes into your view. A mix of mindblowing nature, composed of holy shrines and colorful figures. Sadly some of the buildings inside the cave were under construction so that their colors were not so good to see, but a look up into the top of the cave compensate all this in a minute. The top of the Caves I guess round about 100m high had holes that makes you able to see the sky above. Rough stone walls that were covered by light green moss, and white areas where corrosion from water and time was visible. Breathtaking.

Sadly I didn’t know anything about the Hindu religion, but in another Cave, a little bit further was an active ceremony on the run. I watched it for a while, trying to get how it works, but I don’t want to behave unpolite and disturb the people, so I stay with watching. Some people had peanuts with them. The peanuts quickly were seen by a group of monkeys that started to run down from the top of the caves. Impressively lightweight they climb down and after one of them has ensured that there is no danger, the chief of the group steps out. Even if the monkey was just 50cm tall, he had impressive muscles and look very strong. Also, I was able to catch a monkey mother with her child in a moment of breastfeeding. Yes, it was worth a visit.

One thing what I don’t like was, that no matter what you want to do in KL, you won’t go by feet. Even if you just need to go to the next Shop, you need at least a bike, but most of the time the people in KL use Grab. On my last day, I was so ashamed cause I needed to order a Grab, to get around the block to reach the next 7-eleven and go back. That worried me a lot. I can’t understand why countries are not aiming for learning from one to each other. All these cars can’t be the right way. From my point of view, the time is up for showing well being by owning a big car.

Next stop Bali – lets see what you have 🙂