Malaysia: Kota Kinabalu

The morning after Cody finished training we flew to Kota Kinabulu for the rest of the week. The low cost carrier terminal is very minimalistic and the planes are boarded from outside. (Notice the man telling us, "board the plane!" aka no stopping for pictures! Oops.)
The service is also minimalistic and you have to order your food if you want any. Thinking I should play it safe, I ordered fried rice. I mean, how can you get any safer than that in Asia? When it came out, I took a bite and thought it tasted dreadful. Just to be sure I tried one more bite. Then I noticed little tiny fish bodies and heads staring up at me. Sure enough, upon inspection of the box, the ingredients read: "rice, chili paste, and anchovies." Wow. What a winning combination. I really thought I was going to be sick. Good thing I bought some nuts back at the airport.


In the afternoon we took a tour of the Mari Mari Cultural Village.
The tour was so interactive; we were able to take part in each presentation. It was so cool! We were shown the different village tribes' houses, including sleeping arrangements and kitchens; rice wine production;honey harvesting;
traditional instruments;
aborigine cooking using bamboo (which we ate with our dinner later); fire-starting using bamboo only;
rice flour cookie making;
traditional dress;
blow dart shooting;
henna tattoos;
a traditional "trampoline" game (some of the guys really took a liking to Jade; they had her sit by them and helped her try the different activities, it was really sweet);


dancing; and more.

The next morning we went to the Lok Kawi Animal Park.
It was essentially a small zoo, but the animals' enclosures were built in a way we could get up close and see the animals really well. My favorite was Mr. Orangutan. Isn't he adorable? I probably stood there and watched him eat his leaves for a good 5-10 minutes!

In the afternoon we went on a riverboat safari in the Klias Wetlands.The guide drove us down the river until he spotted an animal. Then he would zoom over to the trees and turn down the engine and let us watch them and take pictures.
Don't ask me how he spotted this Monitor Lizard from the middle of the river. He's good; he's very good.
But what we were really looking for were the Proboscis Monkeys. They have big noses and were fun to watch as they jumped around in the trees.
After a not-very-tasty dinner, we went back out in the boat to get a second dose of the "blinking Christmas trees" or fireflies. Loved that!

Our last big adventure in Kota Kinabalu was a snorkeling trip on Gaya Island.As one of us had to stay with Jade while the other went snorkeling, Cody took the morning shift (because he's awesome like that) and took Jade on a jungle hike to another nearby beach.
Apparently the hike was an hour in and an hour out, but incredibly gorgeous. Jadyn even walked most of the way (but not saying it was without complaint).
She absolutely loved the beach though.
The snorkeling itself was amazing; I have never seen coral so beautiful! We even saw large, blue starfish, but the best part was feeling so weightless. Climbing back up the ladder onto the boat was an unwelcome reminder of how heavy my body is.

After lunch it was Cody's turn to snorkel. What a hotty in his wetsuit, eh?! Actually, he's just deathly afraid of the sun, but who wouldn't be after seeing that girl's lobster-red back?
During my turn on kid-duty, I opted to stay at the beach next to the dive center.
After the HUGE rainstorm the night before that shut off our hotel's power for a good 30 minutes, the day couldn't have turned out more perfect.

For our final evening in Malaysia, we ate alfresco by the water, one of our favorite things to do.
Then we strolled over to the nearby market to check out the wares.
The best finds were the barbecued fish piles and frog purses, made from real frogs of course.

Finding the church on Sunday was a little too easy compared to the previous week's struggle. What a relief to see this sign welcoming us at the gate:
We met some super friendly senior missionaries, church was translated from Malay into English over a microphone, probably half the congregation was made up of young women with impressive testimonies (it was fast Sunday), the counselor conducting was Chinese and had been a member for less than a year, and several of the members approached us with warm smiles and handshakes after the meeting. So you can probably understand why as we left, Cody made the comment, "now that is the reason I love small branches."