Category Archives: Sarawak

Malaysia Sarawak

Malaysia Airlines

Malaysia Airlines has had enough trouble without inviting more, first MH370 disappeared in April,  MH17 was shot down during an injudicious fly over a region in conflict. They recently had the GPS go out during a flight, necessitating a return to the departure point.  There are reports of flights with just one or two passengers.

Well, I am in Miri, Malaysia and need to fly to  Gunung Mulu National Park.  I visited several online booking sites but ended up being directed to MASwings.com.my or MalaysiaAirlines.com.

MalaysiaAirlines.com requires an area code and a phone number.  They don’t ask for the country code.  It wants a three digit area code.  I have no idea how I am supposed to enter my Malay phone number, so I just typed in 600 for the area code as 60 is the country code and 0 is the first digit of the phone number.  At least MASwings asks for a country code with a pull down and a phone number.

However, neither site would process my credit card, although my bank was never contacted, they were having technical difficulties.

MalaysianAirlinesBadServiceRep
Can’t book online due to two broken sites that can’t process payments, meet with surly representative at airport. Malaysia Airlines, you are your own worst enemy.

I set off to the airport and entered the ticketing room and took a queue number, number 65.  When I noticed that the next man to walk up was holding ticket #70, I objected that the numbers were not being served in order. I was told that my number had been passed.  There is no overhead display and the woman was calling out numbers in Malay.  I got a new number, she took walkins without numbers while I sat there and waited.  I protested, she told me to wait until they called my number and then took another walkin.

Finally I booked a flight and took a taxi back to my hotel.  If Malaysia Airlines fails, it will of their own doing.

 

Malaysia Sarawak

Orangatans! Semenggoh Wildlife and Kuching Sunset Boat Tour

Semenggoh Wildlife Park

Just twenty kilometers out of Kuching, Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia is Semenggoh Wildlife Park.  There are tours, but really?  It’s easy.  From my hotel I walked one kilometer, hopped on an air conditioned bus, paid three ringgit, (3.17 to the dollar) and rode on the bus for 45 minutes.  The tours will spare you the 1.3 kilometer walk from the entrance to the rehabilitation center.  I like walking.

Admission is ten ringgit for foreigners and five ringgit for Malays.  I had caught the one o’clock bus.  Feeding time is 3:00.  There noorangwasn’t much hope of seeing anything, the orangutans had not been to the feeding station for weeks as the fruit are ripe.  The tour vans passed me and everybody on my bus charged toward the feeding station.  I ambled and looked around.  It sure doesn’t take an hour to walk less than a mile.   I saw some branches rustling on a windless day.  I stopped and gazed, put on my telephoto lens and spotted some red fur in the distance.  In a short while a full female orangatan with baby came into view.  I started taking pictures.  The next tour van that came in saw me and the guide came out to look.  He called everybody out of the van and called the office to let them know that rehabilated orangtans had been spotted.  All the vans at the feeding station drove back and everybody that was on my bus started running towards me.  More orangutans appeared. Finally there were somewhere between five and seven.

IMG_0098I felt no need to proceed to the feeding station. The apes approached closer and closer and three of them crossed the road.  I would call this day a success.  Tomorrow I go to look for probiscus monkeys.

Full picture album

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunset Tour

A quick walk back to the river front market and I met the soup girl I had met last night.  I convinced her to go on a sunset tour with me.  It was but an hour.  Fifteen minutes downstream, return and fifteen minutes upstream, then she had to work. Picture Kuching at night and sunset.  I was going to create some links, but it is going to take forever for those pictures to upload.

As always, all of my travel pictures can be found on picasaweb.