Day 28: Cultural Village and Farewell Dinner

~Sunday July 21, 2013~

Thank goodness it wasn't an early morning wake. I was still recovering from the hike. Throughout this whole trip there is no time to be tired. We're always going and on the move and  it keeps us busy and entertained especially since there's no wifi to entertain us. It's nice to leave the technology and enjoy the view and experience Malaysia without distractions of Facebook updates.

Nonetheless, it's all a learning experience and I try to take notes on every presentation even when I feel sleepy. 

Anyway, we visited a cultural village about the history of Kuching. It was fun roaming around at the replica houses and viewing the tools and instruments that they used back in the older days. The show at the end of this program was nice too. The women dancers were so pretty and the traditional costumes were really beautiful. The cultural village had a beautiful backdrop of the mountains and driving to the cultural village provided some scenic views.  

Day 26 & 27: Anah Rais Longhouse

~Friday July 19 and Saturday July 20, 2013~

~First Day~

I didn't know what to expect at this Longhouse. I knew it was going to be a cultural activity of this trip. I was a little hesitant about this overstay. Of course living in America it's different and  living in a Longhouse village was so different from what I was use to. I was able to adapt to living in the dorms of Penang and Kuching. Luckily, I held my head high and was able to live comfortably and situate myself in the Longhouse. I was pleasantly surprised at the natural surroundings! I think I was uncomfortable of staying at the Longhouse because we would be in a small area with 14 kids. 

On our first day here we hiked to the hot springs, ate good food, had a little fun with their cultural dances. 

* * *

~Second Day~

On the second day half of us decided to go on an actual hike through the jungle. Today we were to visit the waterfall. Hiking to the waterfall is approximately 2 hours. I was one of the few who hiked. The hike wasn't bad either. It was so much fun! The lazy bums who didn't hike took the van to the waterfall, and the even the weirder (maybe lazier) people took the van up there, but didn't step a foot out of the van. I thought that it's weird. Why not do everything you can while you're in Malaysia? I don't know why they didn't want to see a waterfall. 

The waterfall was so refreshing, but so cold! It was an amazing experience and always hike up to the waterfall if you can! Dr. Azizan pulled me into the waterfall. Hehehe! Rambo was our amazing tour guide!

Day 25: Health Centers

~Thursday July 18, 2013~

We visited the Malaria Research Center Facility of Medical and Health Sciences. It was very interesting because we just visited the vector center at USM in Penang. I didn't know the importance of research and publishing research/lab articles into prominent journals. Although working in research and laboratories looks fun, but there's a lot of dedication and writing a paper doesn't appeal to me. Hehe! 

  

We again also roamed around the city around back to the waterfront to enjoy some lunch and feast at our welcome dinner. The welcome dinner by the way has amazing foods. I love Ramadan buffets! Teh Tarik tea is the best!! 

Unfortunately, Dr. Kwa was unable to join us for the rest of our trip and I wish him well. Dr. Azizan will be heading this part of the program. 

Day 24: Orangutan Rehabilitation Center

~Wednesday July 17 2013~

I was pretty tired from getting no sleep and catching a plane to Kuching at 7am and getting a 2 hour nap on the plane. Kuching is very different from Penang. Penang is very crowded and messy with crazy roads and drivers. In Kuching it's much more organized and more space for drivers and I feel like it's a lot more cleaner than Penang. It also feels less hot and humid. 

We're here for 5 days. It's so surreal that it's almost over soon. Time has zoomed by! These 5 days are again in no air conditioned rooms, cold showers, and no wifi. I'm used to it now. We're always busy doing things in the city that there's no time to sit and surf the web. 

We visited the Orangutan Center and it was quite cool. Watching the orangutan swing in the trees was so scary because it looked so big. It was neat watching all the orangutans eat the bananas and crack their coconuts. Unfortunately it started to rain really hard so we left and we went to explore the water front.