We had a great few days exploring the environs of the Kinabalu National park. Having hired a motorbike for four days to take us there and back we were able to ride between the park stations, and see the different aspects of the park. We'd found a room close to the park entrance which gave us amazing views of the surrounding area, and pitched ourselves there for the duration. Our first full day found us scaling paths crisscrossed with tree roots, climbing up the l...

Sandakan is famous for the Sepilok Orangutan sanctuary about half an hour outside the town. The first orangutan sanctuary in the world, the centre rehabilitates orphaned orang-utans and those rescued from captivity, before ultimately aiming to release them to the wild. Orangutans naturally spend a lot of developmental years with their mother learning how to survive in the wilder wider world. As the young orphans miss out on this mothering the centre staff have to...

Kota Kinabalu on the north coast of Sabah in Malaysia is often a gateway for travellers heading off to climb the famous Mt Kinabalu. We'd already decided that the three day trek to the summit was something we were happy to miss. The town initially appeared more run down than we'd expected. Lots of residents appearing to live in dirty conditions in tenement style dwellings between the various hotels. We'd noticed on the town map that there were a large number of m...

We weren't too sure what to expect when we headed off on the bus from KL Sentral to Malacca. With a similar colonial history to Penang and both UNESCO listed we weren't sure whether we would find two similar places. Whilst there were some similarities they also had their differences. Most of the attractions in Malacca appeared to be centred around the riverside and Jonker street, the latter famous for its weekend night markets, as well as its old buildings. It wa...

The Cameron Highlands is an area covered with jungle, tea plantations and strawberry farms. Adopted by the British as a retreat from the hot Malaysian summers the highlands became a favourite Hillstation. The area still shows evidence of this with many properties built with characteristic British features. The area is now occupied by large numbers of Malaysians and immigrants from the Indian subcontinent who have set up home here and eke out a living for tourism ...