Hillary, Amy and I were having a particularly dreary day upon arriving in Kota Kinabalu Malaysia. We were hoping for blue skies, ice blue water….possibly no tourists? or possibly not as much plastic and waste everywhere, or maybe not possible these days? we headed for one of the nearby supposedly secluded islands for some snorkeling and fun before our trek into the jungle…what we found was more tourists, trash and cloudy water because of pollution, yes, it was really sad. Tourists were hanging over the bridge feeding the fish pieces of white bread, yuk! there was trash floating in the water…
and that’s where I met Underwear Man, Hillary and Amy decided to take a dip and see if they could actually see any fish in the water, i took off to take pictures and maybe find a beer to cure the depression setting in, all this beautiful nature, it was once a deserted island with animals flourishing, monkeys swinging from the trees, birds circling, now it was full of tourists, bars, and yes underwear man. I was walking along the dirt path that traversed the island past bars and people barbecuing…. and then he appeared, with a large drink in his hand, I swore those were underwear he was wearing, and pulled up so high? it really was a sight to see, such pale legs, tevas, it was excellent……it made our trip through the rain out to the touristy island totally worth it, he made me laugh, I was all giggly, all by myself, I let the sadness about world destruction by plastic and over consumption leave my mind for a bit and I felt better….
After spending 3 days getting over jet lag (well we are not quite over it yet) in Singapore, we finally landed in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia today at 4pm, we will spend tomorrow on some island, eat and sleep here tomorrow night and then fly to Sandikan, where we will meet the Malaysian government officials of New Forest Inc. and then the next day drive 5 hours into the Borneo Rainforest to report on the Malua Bio Bank………right now we are still tired, only sleeping about 4 hours a night, watching incredible sunsets, hearing many words that make no sense, eating noodles, drinking coffees, being caught in monsoon style rainstorms, smiled at by hundreds of beautiful Asian people, talking to each other about what it might actually be like to hold hands with a beautiful orangutan………and thinking of that again and again……………….