Vacation recap

I had an incredible vacation with Emily and her friends to Malaysia, Borneo and Hong Kong.  Our first stop was Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  It's a fascinating city.  On our first night, we wandered through a street market behind our hotel at which every vendor was selling the infamous durian fruit... a local delicacy, I found the mushy consistency and rotting-onion aroma fairly vile.  We all tried it though, and Emily was the only one among us who found it somewhat palatable.  The next day (my birthday), we visited the National Mosque of Malaysia, a serene place open to tourists when prayers are not being observed.  Emily and Kim had to wear floor-length hooded robes to be allowed into the mosque.  We also visited a small Taoist temple and a Hindu temple in KL's Chinatown.  We met up with the rest of the gang and took the elevator to the top of the Kuala Lumpur tower, from which we had a good view of the city and its best-known landmark, the Petronas twin towers.  The Petronas towers are a remarkable sight, inspired by Islamic architecture and housing the Petronas Oil Company as well as the Asian hub of the Al-Jazeera news network.  At the end of the day, Emily took me out to an amazing vegetarian Indian restaurant called Sangeetha at which we had a true feast.  

The next day we flew in a rather small plane to Mulu Park in Borneo, home of lush rainforests and vast caves.  On the first day, we had a tour of the Deer and Lang Caves, the home of millions of bats that fly out of the caves each evening.  We witnessed the bat exodus and it was fairly magical.  The bats come out gradually, and they stay together in a snake-like line so they can avoid being snatched up by hawks.  The second day in Mulu we visited the Wind and Clearwater Caves and went swimming in the pool at the mouth of the Clearwater Cave.  We then went on a canopy walk high above the rainforest floor and saw a small green pit viper perched on a branch.  

Our next stop was Kota Kinabalu, a city on the northern coast of Borneo.  It was our one stay at a five-star hotel.  We enjoyed the hotel pool and incredible sunset and had some more Indian food.  After a comfy night at the hotel, we took a boat to two nearby islands for a day of snorkeling and swimming and beach laziness.  There were some pretty fearsome-looking (but actually docile) monitor lizards that shared the beach with us.   

On Friday, we arrived at our final travel destination: Hong Kong.  On the night that we arrived, we took a tram up to the top of Victoria Peak which allows a breathtaking bird's eye view of the city.  On Saturday, we met my friend Liz (who I know from my NYC chorus) and she took the lot of us out for a traditional Chinese banquet-style lunch... thousand-year-old eggs, goose, abalone soup, and lots of tea.  Quite delicious, and we were all glad to have a local's perspective on the city.  After lunch, we took Liz's advice and sought out "Goldfish Street," a row of aquarium and fish stores that offer every imaginable aquatic creature you could ever want in your home (and maybe some you don't).  We then boarded a sunset cruise in Victoria Harbour and had another panoramic view of the city and its skyscrapers.  

All in all, a really memorable trip.  I definitely want to get back to Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong sometime.  

You can check out Emily's pics of our trip here: http://picasaweb.google.com/EmilyDLong/SummerVacation 2008