Kuching, Malaysian Borneo: Bako Park -- Proboscis Monkey, Snakes, Ants, Oh My!

After my tearful goodbye to my family, we flew from Penang on the west coast of Peninsular West Malaysia to Kuching on the North coast of East Malaysia, separated by the South China Sea. We arrived late, grumpy, sad, tired, and with 3 exhausted kids to a horrible hotel room, filled with smells of smokers. By the time we moved rooms, and were further nickel and dimed by the hotel, we woke up the next morning even grumpier...with the kid version being wild, insane, out of control at the breakfast table.

After a cab then a boat ride, we finally got the kids to the jungle. I mean the real Borneo jungle, this time. No city pretend jungle. Just seeing the Bako National Park jungle coming our way, on our boat ride there, put a huge smile on our faces. After being forewarned that we may not see the rare Proboscis monkey that can only be found in Borneo, the moment we stepped onto the elevated Mangrove pathway we saw two proboscis monkeys fly down from a mangrove tree and run right underneath us, looking right back up at us. They run with an elegant loping, nearly kangaroo-like gait, surprising given their heavy paunch and prominent noses. It was remarkable. Griffin then said it was once in a lifetime moment. Alice said, let's write about it on Facebook.

Yes, Facebook. My god, what have I created???

Two minutes later Alice spotted a long, bright green snake who also calmly stared right back at us as it slowly slithered through tree roots. Alice was calm. I was deep breathing to stave off a panic attack.

We hiked up and down tons of ancient jungle tree roots, thanking god we'd seen a proboscis monkey at the start since we didn't see any the rest of the hike. We arrived at the end of the trail, to a secluded cove with caved unusual rock formations in the water. Ken was elated -- he loves coves, often reminded the one we camped in solo in Baja, Mexico almost 20 years ago. He told the kids stories of our time in the Baja cove. And, we floated, swam and climbed the rock formations...leaving only to eat our Seven Eleven lunch of pringles, oreos, and m&m's in the shade.

No teksis (taxis) were free to take us back to Kuching, so we slummed it with the masses in the public bus back.

Lift your burka, please!

As a palate cleanser between Penang and Kuching, Malaysia courses, I thought you'd get a kick out of this sign posted at a Penang mall escalator. It warns -- lift your burka, or else!

BTW, no women in Malaysia wear burkas. Just during the Middle Eastern vacation month of July, tons of Middle Easterners come down to Malaysia to vacate among other Muslims. It was actually a bit jarring, at first, to see so many head-to-toe, eyes-only peeking out, black burka'ed women floating about the pool area, like ghosts.

O'Neals in Penang: All-You-Can-Eat Buffet, baby!

We started our time in Penang at a mid-level resort for a few days, but we had to extend our stay another week in Penang, due to Dad's recovery. But, there were no rooms left in our hotel (whew! thank god no rooms were left -- it was way overcrowded with kids at the pools and parasail/atv hawkers loudly yelling at the beach, but my kids LOVED the chaos), so we upgraded ourselves to the posh Rasa Sayang next door.

An unexpected perk of the Rasa was its All-You-Can-Eat Dinner Buffet. They did All-You-Can-Eat gourmet-Asian-style. And, let me tell you, these Americans could beat any Asians at the All-You-Can-Eat challenge. In fact, we beat the Rasa hotel at the challenge. The Rasa made the mistake of letting our children eat free.

Ha! There was All-You-Can-Eat sushi bar! And, Griffin and Alice couldn't stop eating sushi. Alice asked for tuna/avocado roll, which, it turns out, no one eats in Asia --- it must be an American mutation of sushi. The sushi chef looked stunned, then smiled and went to the back kitchen to get avocado and carefully slice and delivered it to Alice who promptly picked off all the mayonnaise-coated, lovingly-sliced avocado on top. Then she went back for more, demanding the sushi chef put NO more mayonnaise on top of her tuna/avocado roll.

Patrick is pictured above with the Patrick fusion creation of Asian bread and butter pudding with, as Patrick put it, added chocolate chips on top since the pudding melts the chips. Mom took a Kung Pao cooking class with the executive chef of the hotel restaurant, and she and Dad took a photo with the chef who was sad to see Mom and Dad leave.

This was our last dinner together for a year. A whole year! I was so sad to have our time together end. The next morning they left for the U.S. There were tears shed, mostly mine.

O'Neals in Penang: Brendan Stylin'

Before Brendan came, I searched for hair cutting scissors so he could cut my and the kids' hair. I found none in KL. No hair stylists were selling them at our hotel. Then I dragged Brendan and Mom around Penang's mall for a scissors wild goose chase. No hair cutting scissors. I was about to drag them out of the mall to another big store where yet another saleslady claimed there'd be hair scissors. Then, the mall information desk pointed us in the direction of the 3rd of 5 floors in the mega mall (Malays love big, sprawling hyper air conditioned malls with Starbucks). There, we finally found a shiny spread of hair scissors. Brendan found a pair, barely worthy of his artistry.

Brendan cut all of our hair on the balcony of our Penang Hotel, the famous Rasa Sayang. He taught me a trick for cutting Alice's bangs -- beware, Alice! And, Brendan's sculptural techniques put a smile on my face, knowing the kids and I would start our respective schools, Brendan-styled.

O'Neals in Penang: Nonya Lunch

There is only so far a group of 9 Americans in Asia can go, with an age range from age 3 to 71, without stopping for food. In fact, most of the time we spent on our tour was eating the Nonya lunch.

You may remember, Nonyas are female descendants of Chinese who married Malays. The food is this spicy, Chinese-influenced set of dishes with spices from Malaysia, like torch ginger. There was a delicious lime-soaked shallot dish whose last bites Brendan and I nearly wrestled over. But, he's too much of a gentleman.

After Dad's health crisis, this was his first foray back into touristing. And, he did great! It was such a relief to me that the tour wasn't too much for him and he could squeeze in some final touristing before going back to NY. He gushed over the Nonya cuisine, inhaling the 10 dishes brought out to us.