Happy Birthday to Me!

I celebrated my birthday last month in KL. Thanks to everyone that sent their good wishes on Facebook and otherwise.

On my big day I went to dinner in the rotating restaurant on top of the KL Tower.


It took about one and a half hours to make one complete rotation. Here you can see the Petronas Towers.


The happy b-day boy.


The red light in the top right corner is my apartment building. I can see my house from here!


How is this for an artsy fartsy shot?

Bako National Park

Bako National Park is located near to Kuching so it is easy to visit in a day trip. We caught a taxi to Kampung Bako where we hopped on a boat to take us to the park.


I guess this guy is fishing for something.




Do you think that this rock sort of looks like the profile of a gorilla?






Tourists arriving at the park.


I was very excited the first time that we saw a bearded pig....


little did I know that we would see them everywhere. This one was taking a sroll on the beach.


These guys are unloading supplies for the small cafeteria at the park. They had to carry them a long way when the tide was low.


Nothing is more fun than a bathroom full of monkeys!!


This guy wanted to take my backpack!


We took a couple of hikes while we were there. This photo is for all of my ex-biology students (and other closet bio nerds). Many tropical trees place most of their roots near the surface so that they are able to pick up nutrients as soon as they are released from decomposing leaves.




The first hike ended at this beach.


A green snake.


The second hike took us through some interesting vegetation that was much different than the typical tropical rainforest.






We eventually reached another nice beach.




A mom and her baby.


It was definitely low tide when we arrived back in Kampung Bako.

Heading Back to Kuching

The next morning it was time to leave Nanga Sumpa and head back to Kuching.


Because the river had fallen quite a bit since the day that we travelled upstream, some of the rapids were a bit tricky.


They tried backing down through this spot ...


but that didn't work too well so we had to hop out while they fiture it out. These guys spend their life on the river so I knew that we were in good hands.


Some passing locals.






This place looks like a "fixer upper".


As if the water and forest were not scenic enough, the clouds decided to put on a display.




Back to the dam.


I didn't know Air Asia sold burgers!

Nanga Sumpa- Picnic at Waterfall

When we arrived at the waterfall I had to admit that it was spectacular as advertised.


The boatmen went to the gravel bar to start making lunch.




Tarzan would have loved all of the vines.


They fried up the freshly caught fish whole.


They cooked some of the chicken by placing it inside of bamboo and throwing it on the fire.


After a great day it was time to head back downstream to the lodge.