Our Trip
In April of 2008 we made our first trip to Malaysia. We picked Borneo because we wanted to see the endangered orangutans in their natural habitat. We flew to Kota Kinabalu (capital of Sabah) via Hong Kong about 9 hours total. If you ever have a choice to fly through Hong Kong the airport is really good. We had a great time shopping and we also found a Baskin and Robbins, one of our favorite ice-cream parlors.
This was our first trip with our good friends the Supanekar’s. They have 2 boys around the same ages as Sean and Sophie. We’ve traveled a lot with them since then, and have had a ball! I highly recommend traveling with other families.
We stayed at the Shangri-La Rasa Ria Resort in Sabah, Malaysia. Our hotel room was perfect as all four of us could share one room. It had a king size bed with two separate day beds for the kids. The breakfast was very good and the pool beautiful. We didn’t spend too much time on the beach this trip as the pool was beautiful and pool service excellent. The beach was perfect for sunsets.
We ate at the Indian restaurant “Naan” at the hotel a few times. The food there was excellent. The pool restaurant was very good as well. The kids loved the buffet with the chocolate fountain. The hotel also offered cooking classes and activities throughout the day for entertainment. For us, this trip was all about relaxing at the pool. As usual there were tons of kids to hang out with and the kids club was fantastic. Sean and Sophie both had a great time here. At the end of the trip the kids club put on a Malaysian show for the adults that was fun for all.
Fun Facts & Tips
Orang-utans are and have been endangered due to poaching and loss of their habitat from loggers. Poachers often sell them to rich people to keep as pets. When they get too big they are often abandoned. They are then unfit to survive in the wild. Another problem is their habitats are disappearing due to logging. Now there are only 30,000 to 40,000 orang-utans left in the world and they live in the Borneo and Sumatra islands. Most live in wildlife preserves.
We stayed at the Shangri-La Rasa Ria Resort in Sabah, Malaysia. Sabah is a Malaysian state located on the northern island of Borneo. Our hotel had a nature reserve on the premisis that houses orang-utans and trains them to be able to live in the wild among other orang-utans.
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Welcome to Borneo, Malaysia
I caught this orang-utan hanging out at the sign to the preserve.
Trish, Lena and me at the pool.
Our hotel had a nature reserve on the premises that houses orangutans and trains them to be able to live in the wild among other orangutans. We signed the boys up to be Rangers of the Day (Sophie age 6 was too young) and they learned all about the orangu-tans and even prepared the food for them to eat their next meal. The rangers don’t want people too close to the orangutans as they are training them to fear humans. While the boys were in training we hiked up the mountain watching the orangutans jump from tree to tree. At one point the rangers had to pull an orangutan away from us as it was getting too close.
We enjoyed our trip to Kota Kinabalu and hanging out with our friends.