On September 30th, a massive earthquake occurred near Padang, Indonesia with its shockwaves hitting Sumatara and registering a moment magnitude of 7.6. The following day, Sumatara was hit again with an earthquake measuring 6.6.
Shockwave affected areas
The destruction caused is unimaginable. The death toll has reached 1100, with many more trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings. The Indonesian Red Cross aka Palang Merah Indonesia (PMI) has confirmed that 80% of housing and public buildings have been severely damaged, including hospitals, schools and mosques.
Emergency response teams have been dispatched via PMI, and while efforts are being made to save lives and shelter survivors of this disaster, more support is needed.
Destroyed homes and buildings
To help out our neighbours, Malaysia.com has donated over 3,400RM ($1,000 USD) to PMI’s Sumatara Earthquake Fund. We urge everybody to do the same and lend a hand to those in need.
Your money goes towards immediate needs such as food and supplies to aide displaced residents of the Sumatara area. Tents, blankets, and beds for example, are desperately needed to house those whose homes have been destroyed by the earthquakes.
It also goes to supplies and equipment necessary for rescue operations to move forward. Many people are still missing and/or trapped under debris and your contribution makes it possible for rescue workers to continue on finding more survivors.
Finally, these funds will allow PMI to operate in the Sumatara area until stability returns.
Mabul Island is no doubt the richest single destination for exotic small marine life in Malaysia. You might have read in various dive magazines that say Mabul offers the best muck diving in the world and for nearly ten years of diving at Mabul, I find no reason not to agree on that as well.
After our long day’s hike through Taman Negara Kinabalu, we got back to Kota Kinabalu in time to grab dinner at a mamak stall. We gorged ourselves on maggi goreng and roti canai (knowing that this would be the last time I ate curry of this quality, I made something of a pig of myself), while locals ate, smoked, and watched the Malaysian classic Commando and other action movies on the big-screen TV the restaurant had set up outside to attract customers.
With Sarah in tow, we snuck in some last minute karaoke. After our karaoke bender in Malacca, we were keen to have a captive audience for our off-key warblings, and Sarah was game to tag along and join in on “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “How Deep Is Your Love”. She shortly regretted it.
After that, it was time to get to bed and grab a couple hours of sleep before our crazy-early flight back to Kuala Lumpur. From there it was a series of flights connecting through Hong Kong and back home to Vancouver. Before we left KK, though, we made a point of recording one last (sleepy) video blog to cap off the end of our trip.
We had a blast on our trip, and were stoked to be able to report on it for everyone on the site. Hope you had fun reading it, and who knows – maybe we’ll run into you on our next trip!
This is Bruce and Ian for Malaysia.com, signing off!
After a good long hike through Taman Negara Kinabalu, we were all pretty bushed and ready to get back to our hotel. We had an early flight to catch the next morning, and Ian and I began to look back upon just how much we’d done in the course of our frenzied trip across Malaysia. We’d seen some amazing sights, eaten some amazing food, met some amazing people.
We’d managed to check off pretty much everything on the big checklist of goals we’d written up before heading out, except for seeing an orangutan or eating soursop, which a friend had recommended after finding out that I’d be tackling the durian.
“Hang on,” said Ian as we drove past a small village market at the foot of Mount Kinabalu. “I think that’s soursop right there.”
Screech. Reverse. Park.
The taste of the soursop was amazingly refreshing, but rich and creamy at the same time, almost like a pina colada in fruit form. Lucky for me, it turns out that it’s common to a fair number of tropical regions and isn’t terribly difficult to find in North America. Methinks experimentation with a blender, ice, soursop and Bacardi is in order…
After a lengthy drive down winding, misty roads we arrived at Taman Negara Kinabalu, or Kinabalu National Park. Mount Kinabalu loomed above us. We’d wanted to try to climb the mountain during our stay (Sarah, a longtime KLer who’d never been to Sabah, was especially excited about the possibility), but we couldn’t make the two-day climb fit in our schedule.
We were happy enough to explore the natural beauty of Sabah in the serene tranquility of the park. We chose to walk the Pandanus Trail, one of the several which wind through the woods.
For our second day in Sabah, we were avoiding the north roads we’d managed to get turned around on the previous day, and were instead heading east towards Taman Negara (National Park) Kinabalu, and the park’s centerpiece, Malaysia’s largest peak: Mount Kinabalu.
