Washing Dumbo

Today I went on a guided tour, meaning a jolly man drove myself and an older Aussie couple around in his Toyota mini van. I was picked up first, then the Aussie couple, named Carol and Dave. They were wonderful people, great to spend the day with. Although, sharing all of this with Drew would have been the better. Anyways, as we drove out of the city, I got this nice shot of the Petronas twin towers, the highlight of the KL skyline. The largest conjoined structure in the world. The architecture really is amazing.

While we drove out of the city, I saw another Malaysian speciality, the use of the motorbike. The drivers weave in and out of traffic like maniacs here, so much so that I would be terrified to drive here, heaven forbid I actually hit one, or crash trying not to. When all of the cars are stuck at a red light, all of the motorbikes from half a mile back will keep driving between the cars and will stop at the front of the line. So, by the time the light is over, there will be this ridiculous number of motorbikes collected in front of all of the cars. It's quite silly looking actually.

The first thing we did on our trip was actually go back to Batu Caves, where Drew and I went on Sunday. As the couple was being very hospitable in letting me come along (as it was their tour first that I crashed as a single), I didn't complain. After Batu Caves, we drove about an hour north of the city into the mountains (really tall hills) surrounding the city. Out there was lots of jungle (at least it looked like jungle to me), palm tree plantations to make palm oil, and small downtrodden looking towns. We stopped at a place called DeerLand, which was really someone's backyard turned into a small scale, low budget zoo. The nice part about it was that we had the entire place to ourselves, and they let us hold certain animals. We got to feed an assortment of deer (hence DeerLand) with long strips of raw potato. The deer loved it! We saw the infamous mouse deer! Which is really about a foot tall.

We got to hold a hedgehog! They were actually quite small, and their quilly things really weren't that spiky. More bristly. Reminded me of Sebastian, the hedgehog cured by Radagast the Brown in The Hobbit. 

Also got to touch a giant Burmese Python. eeww. Oh he's getting away..... :)

These two guinea pigs reminded me of Drew and myself, as they look very loving and cuddly. 

There were some gorgeously feathered ducks and birds there. Felt like a page from the Swiss Family Robinson, which I am consequently rereading right now.

After DeerLand, we had lunch in a small village just outside of our next destination. Lots of stray cats and dogs (one looked just like Trig again) and we, again, had this whole little outdoor eatery to ourselves. While we waited, our driver showed us how to make a cut in a rubber tree (originally from Brazil) to get the sap running out, which the locals can them sell at a factory which will turn it into rubber. Crazy! The sap started flowing immediately. 

Lunch time! A gourmet tasting meal from basically chicken and rice in a tiny outdoor kitchen.

Next stop was the highlight of the day: the Elephant Sanctuary. 

This place is for orphaned wild elephants. If you've ever watched Planet Earth, you will know that when a baby elephant is orphaned, the other mothers in the herd will not adopt the baby elephant; it is essentially doomed. Hence the sanctuary! First, we fed baby elephants cut up sugar cane. The old guy there is my Aussie friend, Dave.

We then watched the adult elephants get washed by their trainers. 

The adult elephants put on a small show for us, doing tricks and performing small tasks.

Then, highlight of the day #1, we got to feed the adult elephants guava fruit. The adult elephants actually grab the fruit out of your hand using their trunks. It was amazing. The trunks were so soft and kinda slimy underneath. Not sure what I was expecting, put this was an incredible feeling. We got to feed them maybe 15 times per person.

Highlight of the day #2, we got to bathe the baby elephants. No Dad, I did not drink the water, I took a shower afterwards, and I feel fine. Relax. This was absolutely awesome. Dumbo (her real name was Berbona or something) was five years old and behaved like a champ. She sat perfectly still the whole time while we took gravel from the river bottom and scrubbed her back. Then we rinsed it off with more water, getting to touch her back and head the whole time. Her skin was really quite rough, even for a baby, and it was covered in these 2 inch long black hairs, each a few centimeters apart that were incredibly stiff; felt almost like wire bristles. The only soft part was her ears, which were delicate and thin. Overall, it was an amazing experience. You couldn't do this in the US, that's for sure. Yay Malaysia.