A day!!

Here we are! We arrived in Borneo last week. It's the second part of our gap year experience.

Borneo is incredible! Being in Borneo has been my dream since I was a little girl and now I'm here!!! It's amazing! I can't believe it!

Baby tiger and orangutan

We are living within a wildlife sanctuary among the local tribe: the“Orang Sungai”. The experience is awesome because we are helping to restore the habitat of orangutans, elephant and Bengal tigers. The project is incredible because they allow to be at the same time  in the zoo and out. We collect information about the number of animals in the area which will help with the future of the conservation program. While the majority of the project is helping with the habitat restoration, we have to fix the idea with the community. We are interacting with  children of local schools and did interesting activities. Almost a 99% were very enthusiastic with the activities and love orangutans. In fact, in some years time they will be the guardians of the rainforest.

School's children

We are helping this tribe too, because we are giving them ideas to develop their economies and keep more in touch with orangutans.

Yesterday, during the day, we saw the tribe very exited and doing a lot of things. At night, they arrived to our rooms wearing costumes a little bit strangers. They were doing weird sounds and dancing like mad around the fire. It was a ceremony of thanking for having us. During the ceremony, we had to be dress and wear the same make up as they did. Then they said and did strange things. It was a ceremony where they included us to their community. It was so moving!! every one there was dancing and they were so happy because we were helping them and their habitat. We were dancing until 2 am and have fun. I can't believe that they made us part of their community, I can't believe that our work was so especial for them.

I'll always have them in my heart, the same as this amazing place, Borneo with the incredible wildlife. My dream has finally come true.

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1st impression of Kuala Lupur.

My first impression of Kuala Lupur.

It's our 3rd days here, in Kuala lupur. The fly was good, but with a lot of stops. We stopped at Madrid for 18 hours, so I decided to visit Madrid. It's a lovely city, (Madrid was even more beautiful now than when I was younger:).  When we arrived to Kuala Lupur's airport,  our luggage  was lost. How awful! after 42 hours of traveling we needed to have a shower and change our clothes, and the whiter was so hot and wet. 

Instead, we took a taxi  to the zoo which it should be the place where we were supposed to work.

How modern the city is! the traffic is so crazy and people are really nice. What we didn't  know that we are going to stay at the zoo, it was a real surprise for us.

 We have a big room that we shared  with  other gap year young people and 2 more girls who came from Borneo. They were also at the zoo  practicing their works with orangutans. 

Orangutans of the zoo!! I love them!

The first day, we all took in to talk about the gap year. They explained all about the program  and especially the zoo. We started working immediately.

  I love animals, so for me it was very nice to be there. I had the opportunity to be  in contact with them,by the way, I don't like  animals jailed on the zoo. They have to be free and each one, on her own environment and faraway of the city. Anyway, the zoo was big, with 110 acres, and it's about 5 km from the city. Believe it or not, the zoo has a very dynamic internal manner. All the time we had things to do. Visitors, are very disrespectful with animals and habitat.

During our second night, we decided to go to Kuala Lupur with the other two girls from Borneo: Nurul and Alinah.  It was Sunday night and Nurul's uncle invited us to have dinner at her home. So, we had a typical Malasyan dinner Ikan bakar ( grilled/barbecued fish with either chilli, kunyit (turmeric) or other spice based sauce) and  Nasi Minyak (a multi-colored rice). It was so good, and we ate like malayos because we ate on the floor, and also we could hear malaysia language (bahasa melayu) (because at the zoo, every one spoke  English). 

Nurul's uncles explained us a lot about Malaysia, life have and recommended us some interesting places to visit in Kuala Lupur.  It was a lovely evening. 

We were so exciting with everything Nurul's uncles told us that the next day (it was our free day), we went to Kuala Lupur and we enjoyed that big and crazy city.

KL Tower view

  We mainly visited:  the Merdeka Square (not such pretty), the Petaling Street (Chinatown (chinese is import in Malaysia, a big part of the population speak chinese), the Kuala Lumpur Tower (it's awesome! You have a 360 degree view of the city) , the Central Market, the National Monument ( is a sculpture that commemorates those who died in Malaysia's struggle for freedom), and religious sites such as the Jamek Mosque ( the oldest mosque in Kuala Lupur) and Batu Caves ( an Hindu shrines…  awesome!).

 We loved it so much that we will have to return once again 

There remains so many things to do and also landmarkes  to visit. 

However, we loved the silence  zoo at night... 

KL Tower view