MUST DO:
- Penang, its street art and food
- Diving in Sipadan
- Orangutans in Sepilok
Destination guide – Malaysia
Tag: animals
Close encounters with orangutans
Seeing orangutans was one of our main goals in our Malaysia trip. We weren’t able to do it in the wild, at Kinabatangan, but the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center offered a semi-wild setting with guaranteed sightings. The reserve is a large area of protected forest, where 60-80 orangutans live free, and also contains a nursery for 20-30 orphan orangutans. It’s a great initiative to protect these extraordinary animals, which are under huge pressure due to deforestation and trafficking.
Kinabatangan on our own
A Kinabatangan river cruise is one of the most typical activities in a Borneo trip, one of the few remaining real opportunities to experience the jungle and its wildlife. The most common way to do it, and at first glance the only one, is to join an organized tour from Kota Kinabalu or Sandakan. But we were coming from Semporna (from our diving and island hoping adventure), and we prefer to travel independently… and as cheap as possible. The basic 2 day / 1 night tour to Kinabatangan goes for over MYR 1,000 (over $300) per person! There had to be a better way.
Epic diving liveaboard in Sipadan
Wow, just wow. I had heard of Sipadan as a world-class diving destination, but our 4 days there surpassed all my expectations. The amount of underwater life we were able to see was unbelievable, and the absolute highlight of our time in Malaysia.
Destination guide – Australia
MUST DO:
- Sydney and its beaches
- Diving in the Great Barrier Reef
- Whitsunday Islands
- Uluru and the Red Center
Liveaboard in the Great Barrier Reef, the most amazing diving ever
For diving lovers like us, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef had always been at the top of our bucket list. We are usually economic travelers, staying in backpacker hostels, taking public buses, and eating street food as much as possible. But when it came to the GBR, we knew it was time to splurge. We booked ourselves on a 4 nights / 14 dives liveaboard with Mike Ball Expeditions, one of the most prominent scuba operators in the world. And the trip was nothing short of perfect.
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Where to cuddle koalas and feed kangaroos in Queensland
One of the things we really wanted to do in our time in Australia was interact with the autochthonous fauna. We wanted to spend time observing koalas and kangaroos, beyond our brief encounters in Hamilton Island and the Red Center, respectively. And we wanted to get close and touch the animals, if possible. A bit of online research showed us that Queensland was the best state to do so (koala cuddling is not allowed in Sydney / New South Wales, for example), and that the Cairns Tropical Zoo was the perfect place.
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Denali in the winter: snowshoeing and other adventures
The Denali National Park is a massive preserve in interior Alaska, containing the highest peak in North America, 20,310 feet tall Denali (previously known as Mount McKinley). It might be better known in popular culture as the place where Chris McCandless ventured and eventually died, as chronicled by the book and later film ‘Into the Wild’. Most people believe Denali is a summer park, but in reality it’s open all year around, and is definitely worth a visit in the winter, if you find yourself in Alaska. For us, it was an obvious choice when deciding where to spend the last day of our Alaska weekend, after a day enjoying the amazing World Ice Art Championship in Fairbanks and a night marveling at northern lights. Denali is 120 miles from Fairbanks, mostly on highway, so it can be reached in 2 and a half hours, which makes it a long but totally viable day trip. It would be a pretty eventful one.
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Destination guide – Tonga
RD1966-D. Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), calf swimming near the surface, underwater photographer (model released) captures the moment. Tonga, Pacific Ocean. Photo Copyright © Brandon Cole. All rights reserved worldwide. http://www.brandoncole.com
MUST DO:
- Mapu’a ‘a Vaca blowholes
- Relaxing in a paradise beach in Vava’u
- Swimming with whales
NICE TO HAVE:
The best place to swim with whales in Tonga… if you’re lucky
Tonga is one of the few countries in the world where you can enjoy the crazy experience of swimming with humpback whales. The Vava’u archipelago is the prime spot for this activity, due to its position on the migration route, and the warmth and calm of its water, which make it perfect for calving. A handful of licensed operators organize daily tours for $120-200, which include 4-6 hours of boat riding, spotting whales, getting in the water with them, and even hearing them sing. The price is steep, but probably worth it for a once in a lifetime opportunity, plus it includes a mandatory local guide and a feeling of it not being massified. The whales usually hang out in pods of 2 or 3, either an adult pair, or a mother, her calve and an escort. These pods are not only the cutest, but also the most fun to encounter, because the curiosity of the baby whales drives them to approach the swimmers rather than escape.
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