On March 2nd, I embarked on my longest journey so far – a journey that took me through…
Times visited: 2 (3 days in 2012 & 1 week in 2016)
Cities visited: Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu
Villages visited: Mersing, Salang, Juara, Kundasang, Labuan
UNESCO sites visited: Kinabalu Park
My first encounter with Malaysia was in February 2012 when I went to East Asia for the first time with my dad. After a three-day stopover in the UAE, we based ourselves in Singapore, a tiny neighbouring country to Malaysia. From there, we took a three-day trip to Malaysia.
Our main reason for going into the country was to seek out the islands from the popular tv show “Robinson Ekspeditionen”, which we have always been huuuuge fans of. So we headed to Mersing and sailed to Tioman Island, passing many of the “famous” Robinson islands on the way.
Tioman was like paradise. We spent the days motorbiking through the jungle, laying on the beach, exploring by foot and interacting with the cutest monkeys!
Four years later, during my Asia journey in the spring of 2016, I returned to Malaysia, this time to the Borneo region. I spent a week there which was nowhere near enough time (especially since I spent two of those days in Brunei!). Borneo gave me some incredible life-changing experiences. I climbed Mt. Kinabalu, the highest mountain in Malaysia at 4.095 m., saw orangutans, ate great veggie food with hostel friends in Kota Kinabalu and spent a day lazing on a lizard island. Climbing Mt. Kinabalu was by far the best experience. It was my first mountain climb over 1000 m., and also my first ever multiple-day trek. Not my last though!
