PostcardsFromM

My big trip this year is going to be to Malaysia, Singapore and Malaysian Borneo. In just over a month, I will arrive in Kuala Lumpur. However, there is still some planning to do, and I would like to share my progress with you. Maybe it will help someone who is also planning a similar trip, or maybe someone has already been to one of these places and can offer some advice.

But why Malaysia, Singapore & Borneo?

Firstly, a friend of mine has already been there and said it was the best trip, she has ever been on. I’ve also always wanted to visit Asia, specifically Southeast Asia. Too be honest, I wasn’t too keen on going to places like Bali or Hanoi. Not because I’m soo different, but because these places don’t speak to me as much as Malaysia does. And to be honest Singapore was mainly added because it is right next to Malaysia and fairly easy to get to. As for Borneo, who wouldn’t want to go there and see orangutans, right? Obviously the wildlife played a big role in the decision, as well as something else, I always dreamed of doing – Scuba diving. When I heard that Borneo is a great spot for that, I was sold. Hopefully, by the end of this journey, I will have my scuba diver licence.

Where I’m headed

Based on the information I have gathered so far, and given that our flight is landing in Kuala Lumpur, here is my current route plan:

• Start in Kuala Lumpur: Batu Caves, Perdana Putra, Perdana Botanical Gardens, as well as religious sites such as temples and churches
• Taman Negara: Bukit Teresik hike
• Cameron Highlands: Tea plantation, a short hike
• Georgetown: Penang National Park, Penang Hill, see some of the wall art
• Flight to Sandakan and visiting Bornean Sunbear Conservation Centre & Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre
• 3D2N Kinabatangan River Cruise
• Semporna: Scuba diving certificate, island hopping
• Singapore: Gardens by the bay, Pulau Ubin, Chinatown, Little India
• Melaka: Night market, Mosque
• Tioman Island: enjoy the beach, hike to a waterfall
• Back to Kuala Lumpur and flight back with a 10 hour layover in Abu Dhabi

From that list of things, the must do and see things for me and my boyfriend are:

• See and walk through a tea plantation
• Visit the Bornean Sunbear Conservation Centre & Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre
• The 3D2N Kinabatangan River Cruise: First of all because we have already booked it, but also because everything I have read was quite amazing and who doesn’t want to be in the middle of a rainforest hoping to see some of the last orangutans in the wild? Let’s be real: the chances of seeing a pygmy elephant are basically zero. So I’ll concentrate my luck on the orangutans
• Scuba diving course: I love being in or near water and have the best time there. So it has always been a dream of mine to dive and explore the underwater world for longer than I can hold my breath. And it is also already booked.

Everything else is flexible and we are open to adding or removing things from the list.

How I plan a trip

Before I start with this section of the blog, I should mention that as soon as someone mentions a trip, I get very excited and start researching the destination, as well as things we could see and do there. The word “hyperfixation” really sums it up. I love planning and researching a place. But I also love to see what other people enjoyed about the place.

The first thing I do is to decide when to go. As my boyfriend and I are still students, although I don’t have much left to do for my degree, the options are the summer or the longer break in February. However, my boyfriend usually has to study during the February break, so that’s not really an option for a long trip. So we decided to go in August and stay until the beginning of September, for almost one month. I did some research on the rainy season, and I know that in western Malaysia it is rainy season at this time of year. However, most people also said that it mostly rains in the morning or evening, which wouldn’t bother us. If you have any experience of travelling in Malaysia during the rainy season, please let me know how much it impacted your travels in Malaysia!

Once I’ve decided on the dates, I start looking up the country on Pinterest and TikTok. I then compile all the information I have found in a document and look at it in more detail.

Some things that are important to me, or that I at least try to include, are:

• Local vendors
• Animal welfare & nature conservation
• No all-inclusive packages: I want to be as free as possible to decide where I want to go, when, and for how long
• Reduce the number of flights as much as possible
• Locally owned accommodation
• Information on the difficulty of hikes

For example, I knew that I wanted to do scuba diving at a PADI-associated school, since PADI is a well-known company for scuba diving licences and offers great professional diving training. At least, that’s what I have heard. So I checked their website to see where some diving schools are located in Malaysia and Singapore. After comparing them, I chose a diving school in Semporna, because I heard that this is a great place to dive.

The more difficult decision was deciding which Kinabatangan River Cruise to do. There are so many providers out there, and we even considered organising everything ourselves. However, we decided against it, because it was easier and I found a website called SeekSophie (*affiliate link). It seemed smaller and more conservation-conscious then the others. We looked up the available options on their website and opted for the 3D2N Kinabatangan River Safari/Scenic Waterfront Resort, as the stay would be long enough to increase our chances of seeing wildlife. The reviews of the company were also very good, and the booking process was very smooth. SeekSophie offers not only river safaris, but way more, for example the 1-Day Mabul Leisure Dives (*affiliate link) in Semporna or The Art of the Tingkat: A Singaporean Tradition in Singapore (*affiliate link) sounded really interesting for me. So definitley check them out, if you are going to South East Asia, since they also have activities in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. If you find something you like you can also use my code MARAKI89 and get 10% off your first booking.

With wildlife sanctuaries, you always have to be careful to ensure that they are ethical and help to protect the animals. To ensure this, I always do some extra research, looking them up on different platforms. It was a little easier for me with the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre because I had seen presentations about them and their great work at my university and heard about them from people who have already been there and share my views on such topics.

Once I have found all the information I need and decided on the places I would like to see, I start putting these things into a  separate document to see how long I would need for them and whether the time I have planned will be enough to cover them. I than have a list of places I definitely want to see, as well as a list of places to look up when I have more time during the trip. However, I mostly transfer the activities to my Google Maps account and create a separate list for every holiday, saving the individual activities there.

I have the same approach for accommodations. It has always worked out quite well for me. However, I know it is probably not the most effective way and can be time-consuming. However, as I mentioned before, I love hyperfixating on things like this, so I actually get a lot of joy from spending so much time planning a trip.

Let’s Plan this together!

So, that’s where I need you and your advice!

• Have you ever been to Malaysia, Singapore or Borneo?
• Do you know of any local eco-projects or hidden gems?
• What was your favourite spot?
• Do you have any tips for places to stay that support the local community?
• If you haven’t been yet, but you’ve heard about something that sounds like fun, please let me know as well!
• What would you recommend to do in Abu Dhabi, if you have a 10 hour layover?

If you’ve got any other recommendations, please share them with me – either in the comments below or via Instagram (@postcards.fromm). I’m also going to include some surveys in my instagram story, where you can provide some answers. And I’m going to share all the ideas I got in another post, so everyone can access them and maybe they’ll be helpful for someone else too. I’d also share the name of the person, who recommended it unless you would tell me that you don’t want that.

Thank you so much in advance! I’m so excited to share this adventure with you – from the planning to the flight back home!

Love, M.