What to do in Kuching when your appetite is still AWOL? Yeah you guessed it, visit more tourist attractions. I don’t have enough time to go to Bako National Park and I’ve still not seen a real life pitcher plant, so one overcast morning I hop a local bus out to the Kuching Pitcher Plant and Orchid garden.

As I write this I’m sitting in Kuala Lumpur, watching So You Think You can Dance and avoiding packing for my flight tomorrow. Yeah, I’m leaving Malaysia tomorrow and I’m a bit sad about it, but excited about the adventure to come (and happy that I finally know how I’m going to get into Mums house when I arrive in Hanoi tomorrow afternoon - I won’t have to sit, lonesome on my bags and wait for her to finish work, hooray!).

Stop. Rewind to last week and my little outing. Well, I love travelling by local bus, cool wind, cheap price and this time I even got a seat and only a few strange looks from locals. It is a little like being the master of your own destiny, especially when you’re alone and you have no idea where it is that you’re supposed to get off.

… so, pitcher plants hey? Yep, uh huh. The little ones at this garden aren’t really that impressive after you’ve seen a hundred or so of them. And lemme tell you, after I visited this garden I saw pitcher plants everywhere I went, by the side of the road, in markets. The basic concept is that they trap prey in these liquid filled traps and they’re pretty too.

Oh and there were a few orchids (Ella, I’ve got some more orchid pictures heading your way). And mosquitos as well. There were also really delicious crisp pancakes filled with gula melaka and peanuts at the bus stop, as well as piles of young children running around. School let out just as I started to wait for the bus. Cars parked in the middle of the street, air-conditioning still pumping, drivers disappearing. Kids running around, eating snacks, dumping their bags in piles and yelling. Cars pull up, kids jump in and they weave their way out of the carpark road. Parents razz kids that aren’t theirs, groups get into orange school busses, tiny kids dart across the road and in 15 minutes the road is clear, no children to be seen.

Great, on SYTYCD now is the Vienniese Waltz aka the most boring dance ever. Looks like I have to try to pack. Wish me luck!

Kuching Pitcher Plant and Orchid Park
Get there from the bus station near the mosque, I took bus 6A to Padawan (10 mile) and it cost 3RM. Entry was 10RM. Bring insect repellant.

In an effort to get out of my Kuching funk, I do that tourist thing. There are a bunch of different tours available, river cruises, trips to Bako National Park and something that seemed a little more approachable - Orangutans. A 40 minute mini-van trip out of town, it feels good to be on the move again even if it is only down the road to sticky beak on Orangutan feeding time.

The alpha male, Ritchie, sits like a king on the feeding platform, reining over the banquet. He moves around slowly, when his crimped, shining back is turned the other hungry apes creep stealthily in and steal a coconut then quickly scamper away, up a tree to eat in safety.

Different groups of Orangutans swing in and out of the viewing area, eating and playing though always steering clear of King Ritchie.

There must be an Australian working here at Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre naming the Orangutans. I saw Murray, Rose, Roxanne, Barbara and of course Ritchie. Oh by the way Lela, you seem to have dropped back a few evolutionary steps since I last saw you.

Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, Kuching.

Brand new government building in Kuching

Arriving in Kuching after a big night and a day spent stealing internet in Miri airport was like a breath of fresh air. Cool breeze, tourist shops and the promise of delicious food, I excited to explore and taste this new place but unfortunately my body said no. This holiday was an opportunity for me to unwind from Sydney reality and up til now I haven’t done much relaxing. Although I really wanted to see what Kuching had to offer, I end up spending much of my time in bed, watching gossip girl and catching up on sleep.

I did have a few outings, but unfortunately not many were delicious-food related. My lack of appetite was enhanced by Malaysian heat and humidity that the rainforest had shielded me from for the past few days.

Kuching Kolo Mee

Happily I was staying in a lovely hostel Lodge 121 that happened to be just next door to a jail, wonderful views. A manager there, Jair, helped, advised and even drove me to the airport with his wife and two gorgeous kids. There don’t seem to be any seatbelt rules in Malaysia, we are speeding down the highway with a two year old sitting on the centre console and a six year old standing in the back. You better believe I was uncomfortable.

I’m sad that I missed out on the wonders of Kuching, so I guess I’ll just have to come back.

Deer Cave, Mulu National Park

Caves. It is very easy to get caved out on the South East Asia tourist trail. They’re dank, wet, slippery, full of guano and the resulting guano-eating insects and of course guano-producing bats and not conducive to taking good photos. But there are positive points too, they’re cool, some stalacmites look like deformed little people stacked on top of each other, and some feel very calm.

Deer Cave, Mulu National Park

Some people come to Mulu to go caving. Swim underwater and resurface in an entirely new cave type caving. Caving where you need a whole huge set of specialised rubberised gear and waterproof bags. Not me, uh uh. I’m happy enough to dodge the guano, try not to fall on my arse and attempt to get a few at least interesting photos.

Wind Cave, Mulu National Park - I can’t help but pick faces out of these towers.

So I visited the four different show caves at Mulu. Clearwater and wind caves by boat with 4 Singaporean sisters and one of their sons. Those ladies were hilarious, talented, lovely and considerate, great tour buddies.

Clearwater Cave, Mulu National Park

The next day was Deer and Lang’s Cave, and boy where they different. Deer cave is the largest natural cave in the world (though they did discover a new one in Vietnam that is bigger, but it isn’t official just yet). Full of bats, this cave is like a sports stadium, but bigger. The shapes and textures inside are quite amazing, but it is so lovely to step back out into the sunlight again.

Deer Cave, Mulu National Park

Yeah, they’re pretty and interesting and all, but I just can’t get excited about writing this post. I am truly caved out.

Lang Cave, Mulu National Park

Staying in the hostel at Mulu National Park felt a little like being on a school camp. In the best possible way of course, there were no sheets to fill in, no assessment plus there was beer. Well actually, there was a questionnaire and the presence of beer was somewhat tenuous.

Basically there is a big group of people staying in the same place, eating in the same place and going on little tours into the rainforest. I did a few of these little guided walks, caves mostly and then came the terrifying Canopy Skywalk. I tend to block things out, not thinking about my impending dental surgery until I’m counting backwards from 100. So I signed up for this aptly named skywalk, got up and met my group at 7am and wandered into the rainforest. I’d heard great things about this walk and was really excited, but I failed to consider the fact that this was a canopy sky walk. A series of rickety suspension bridges, and the longest one in the world, metres off the ground. Flights of stairs to get up there, flights. Did not consider any of this before I was confronted with it, head on, and my heart (and stomach) dropped and I remembered why I’d never done anything like this before: I’m afraid of heights (and quite possibly mentally disabled).

Do you see how high up this is?

These bridges are up high, we were told how high but I closed my ears, and only 2 people are allowed on a bridge at any one time. That first step out was alright,  heart pounding and mouth dry, at the halfway point of the first stretch my knees weakened and I felt terror in my belly. There was no one else on this segment, that rocking was my own shuddering. I couldn’t go on, but turning back would require me to physically turn around on this tightrope. Why the hell did I do this? The next viewing platform is so close I can almost taste it, so I keep going forward, step, crunch, step, crack (did I mention that this bridge is noisy?). Elated at having made it this far I breathed in the quiet of the forest and just watched.

With each completed segment the next got easier to handle, I was almost enjoying myself though I was never able to relax, and you better believe that most of my photos turned out blurry.

I am exhilarated to have been able to conquer my fear for a few hours and I’m sure that it has something to do with travelling alone. Ordinarily I would have been able to fall into a crumpled tearful heap and I’d have been saved, but this time I was all alone, no one to lean on but myself. No one to save me, so I took a deep breath and stepped into the abyss.