Americans discover Malaysia’s BEST Hidden Gems! 🇲🇾 [SE E40]

Americans discover Malaysia’s BEST Hidden Gems! 🇲🇾 [SE E40]

Previously on “Two Up and Overloaded” – As we continued our adventures  of riding a motorcycle along the   Pan-Borneo Highway in East Malaysia, we  came across some trouble along the road. Lots of rain in Southeast  Asia can mean two things:  

One, the roads might get washed out, but  two, the waterfalls are going to be epic. And so, as we made our way to  Sabah’s biggest city, Kota Kinabalu,   we planned on going straight from there to one of  Malaysia’s most majestic waterfalls, Mahua Falls.

But the next morning, we realized  that what was supposed to only be   one night in the city might have to be prolonged. Good morning, everyone. So, I am not feeling  very good today.  [Southeast Asia Journey – Day 121] I am not typically sick.

I just had a headache from yesterday  afternoon, feel a little bit nauseous,   and it has continued. I did not sleep at  all last night. When I woke up the next day,   I felt sick. She looked sick too, folks. She  was not in her prime condition. But what you  

Do is you stick a camera in her face and  you interview her. So, I don’t know if I’m   dehydrated. I don’t know what’s going on,  but I’m going to try to go out and get some…  electrolyte drink and some salty food that can  hopefully help if dehydration is the problem.

I mean, I was really hot yesterday. I sweat a  lot. It could be that, I’m not sure. I hadn’t had   any sleep. I was like, “Yeah, we’re not going  anywhere. I need to stay and rest today.” So,  

I really wanted to eat something that would revive  me. And what did I choose? I don’t remember.   McDonald’s. Oh yeah, I do remember. Blessed  McDonald’s, those golden, golden arches.   I wanted something salty, and something  kind of carb-y. Delicious, sinful almost. I got  

Some electrolyte stuff that Tim got for me and  some McDonald’s fries, Lay’s potato chips, all the   salty things you could ever want. And I know that  sounds like, “Well, that’s not going to make you   feel better.” But I feel a little bit better.  Just not even real food, just salt going from  

Your mouth out the other end. Hanging out here, we  got Colonel Sanders in the background over there. So yeah, we had a day of walking  around, and we walked to the pier,   and it was kind of a happening town with some  tourists and such. For sure. There were a lot  

Of people from all over the world in Kota  Kinabalu, which was mind-blowing to me. I   had never heard of it until we were pretty much  there. And to see all these people flocking from   all over the world to this wonderful city,  I was like, “Yeah, this is a great city.”

The water is so blue. That evening, I was  feeling much better. And we decided to go   back to the pier where there were all these  wonderful restaurants right on the oceanside   and have a lovely sunset dinner.  A date one might call it. Yes. Yeah.

We walked through this market that was a wet and  dry market, if you will. It had a bunch of fish,   which I thought was disgusting. It had a bunch  of like rambutan and fruits and durian.   But it doesn’t get any more fresh  than the fish right there. I mean,  

You could see the fishing boats right behind  the guys selling the fish. This is true. This is what I want, rambutan. Rambutan! And the sun was setting, the ocean was beautiful.  We found a little Japanese restaurant along the pier 

And watched the sunset with the fishing boats  crossing the waves. I’m feeling better, and it   just doesn’t get better than this, does it? It was lovely.  Yeah, we had a little candlelit dinner. Yeah. What a special evening. I’m so happy  to be here with Tim.

Who? You! What?! Yeah! First time she’s ever said that, folks. Wow, Kota Kinabalu! The sun is about to set. It is just going down so  quickly. Watch it go down right behind the clouds. The next day, we got packed up and ready to  head off to the great mountain of Borneo,   Mount Kinabalu. Good morning, everyone. Today  I am feeling much, much better, 100%. And so  

We are going to sadly leave Kota Kinabalu because  it’s been a wonderful city, we’ve really liked it.   But we have an exciting day planned as we are  going to head to a waterfall and then go way, way  

Deep into the mountains to the foot of Kinabalu.  It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of all   the biodiversity that exists on the mountain  itself. I am so excited. Looks like a beautiful   day. So we’re going to go grab some breakfast  and come back, pack up, and then we’re going to go.

You’ve got to let my underwear dry out first though.   That’s the priority. I  hope that this caught it. This was actually the mountain that the city  we were in was named after. And it’s on their flag,   the providence flag, the state flag. It is very,  very important to this region of Malaysia,  

And we were going to be headed there  that day. But we also wanted to stop by   a waterfall along the way, which is known  to be one of Malaysia’s best waterfalls. This is true. And by known to be, I  don’t know anything because Marisa does research  

And then surprises me with daily awesome  adventures. So we have a lot of sponsors   and patrons out there, and we thank them all  very much. But I want to thank you personally   for making my life so enjoyable and being  my little tour as we go around the world.

This is the love story of our motorcycle  journey into the deep forest and the   mountains of East Malaysia and all of the  wonders that we discovered along the way. Hey everyone! Nice to have you here. We are  Tim, and Marisa Notier. I ride in the front.  

And I’m in the rear. We travel the world and  we pack too much gear. Oh, all the places we’ll   go! Through rain and through sleet and through  mud and through snow. Oh, all the things we’ll  

See! We’ve been to a country or two. Or three!  Oh, all the fun we’ve had! To have you along,   would make us real glad. So give us a like, and  hit subscribe to join us along our epic ride. [This episode is brought to you by Emmaus Moto Tours.] [Motorcycle off-road adventure tours. www.EmmausMotoTours.com]

This road that we were taking  into the heart of East Malaysia   was getting twistier and twistier. The  weather was getting cooler and cooler,   and the mists were forming around the views  of these gorgeous peaks all around us. It’s fun. It’s refreshing,  which is nice in Malaysia. Also, I was really impressed  by the quality of the roads. And because East Malaysia and the island of Borneo  in general has way fewer people than Java where we   had come from before, there’s a lot less traffic. So  you get these long stretches of just you and the  

Road and the mountains and the jungle, and that  is what motorcycle riding is all about. For sure. I mean, everybody loves twisties, right?  And we’ve never done the Tail of the Dragon,   and it’s amazing, so do not get me wrong. But  a lot of people say that when you’re doing  

It, yeah, you love twisties, but there’s so much  traffic. Make sure you don’t do it on the weekend…   And that’s the feeling we had of Java  versus Borneo. It was like you actually get   to enjoy and not worry about being hit head-on  or sneaking by somebody going slower. So  

It was a really, really good day.  Just enjoyable riding. This is true. The mist slowly started to accumulate into  water droplets, and then start   pitter-pattering on our helmets, which is good for  waterfalls. Yes. It says we’re arriving at destination.

All right, here’s an entrance possibly. And  we finally got to the Mahua Waterfall Lodge,   which is before the hike that you have to  take to the waterfalls themselves. Yeah,   and as soon as we pulled in underneath the little  tin roof car park thing where I parked the bike,  

It started raining. And it was like,  “Yay.” All right, so here we are. You   can probably hear the water rushing behind  me. We’re not exactly at the waterfall yet,   but it just started to rain a little bit, so we’re  going to check out this little Lodge. I mean,  

We’re going to get wet. The whole intention of  the day was to get wet. Right. But still,   it’s nicer to hike without the rain. This is  true. But there was a little restaurant there. And so we went in, and I was hungered.  I’m always hungered.   They had burgers on the menu.

I got a nice warm soup because  actually, it was quite cool up there in   the mountains. My burger was… Half our  YouTube episodes are about my burger intake.   But this one was good, but sloppy. It was really…  Yeah, they like their sauce a lot. They do, yeah.

They were selling durian up by the cash  register, and we’re very durian curious. Okay,   if you don’t know what durian is, it’s a fruit.  Yeah, that looks like a cannonball from   medieval times that if it fell on you, you’re  dead. Yeah, it’s like the end of that mace thing,  

What are those called? A mace. With the giant  spikes. It’s like that, it’s super heavy. Smell it. They   can’t smell it, but it’s like rotten chicken feet.  Yeah, it’s not a good. Smell, here. And it is very,  

Very stinky. It’s like everything about it is  like, “Don’t come near me. Don’t touch me.” And   then you crack it open after you’ve ignored those  warnings, and it’s like, “Don’t eat me!” And people are just like, “I don’t know,  man. I think this is going to be good.”

Can you imagine eating that? Wow, that’s very, very  strong. Want to spend 10 Ringgit? Um… That’s a no. They already had it out of its little weaponized format, and it was  already chopped up and in a little plastic   Tupperware dish-looking thing. And for 10  Ringgit, which is nothing point nothing,  

You could buy some. But as soon as I cracked the  corner of that lid and sniffed it, I was like,   “Yeah…” I don’t think it’s worth it. I  don’t know if I’m quite ready. Yeah,   and I also declined to try it, which usually  I’m all about trying everything. But after  

Smelling that, I was like, “Maybe another time.”  My brain still has a trigger of fight or flight,   of like, “That smells rancid. Do not put that  in your mouth.” And that’s what durian is. Thank you very much. Thank you. But  thankfully, the rain let up. Look at that,  

Everybody. The sun is out! And we were  done with lunch, and we were ready to go   on our hike to the waterfalls. And there were  zero other people on that hike. Oh my gosh,   that trail through the jungle to the  falls was in and of itself magical. Yeah.

There were vines hanging down, huge trees.  I mean, we were back in the jungle. This was   no longer… this was rainforest.  Absolutely. And this was old-growth forest. These   trees were massive. I mean, there was no way both  Tim and I could put our arms all the way around  

Some of these trunks. They were huge. That’s  a big tree! And everything was covered in moss,   and there were butterflies galore. And the smells  of the wet rainforest were so fresh. It had that   really nice rainforest smell. It had just rained,  and so just everything was very earthy, right?  

It was very… We were connected to our little  jungle hike. It was really nice. Yeah. The greens   were so emerald, and as we continued down the  path, we started to hear the sounds of the river. And soon we saw the river, and we knew we were  getting closer and closer to the waterfall.  

And the sound of water got louder and louder. And then the path kind of merged into where  the water runs off of. And it had just rained so   much, two days prior it had rained a whole  bunch. It had just rained a little right now,  

And so there was a lot of excess water, if you  will. Surplus, and it had made its way onto the   path and was trickling down the stairs. And it  looked like it did it quite often because there’s  

A bunch of moss growth and stuff, which is not  good for slippery little walking. I’m getting old   here. Stairs are wet and slippery. They need  a bunch of yellow cones around there. We finally get to the grand spectacle  that is Mahua. Mahua Waterfalls! Yes!

Wow! It is huge and super powerful. It was  indeed. Like there was a force of nature   ricocheting from when it hit that water. [Mahua Falls – Malaysia] Wow, this is amazing! We got in the water, and we wanted to get  under the waterfall. It’s a little chilly.

Yeah, that would have been crazy. No.  And the water was freezing cold. Yes.   It was not room temperature, to my shock.   Even in the hot tropics, it was like, “Woo!” Yes.   There was no way that this was, was how high was  it? Well, let me tell you. Mahua Waterfall is an  

Impressive 17 meters high, that’s 56 feet!  And it is 1.2 meters deep at its deepest,   meaning that we still could walk around  and be above water throughout the pool.   It’s pretty much the perfect waterfall to  visit in Malaysia. Not too many people there,  

Gorgeous setting, the sun shines  from right over the crest of it,   sparkling across the water, and we could easily  take a dip in the nice cool refreshing pool. Oh my God! That’s cool. I don’t  think I can get any closer! It was very, very nice. It was. It was a really nice dip into  a beautiful part of Malaysia.   And I was starting to feel like, wow, maybe  Malaysia is the perfect place to ride around,   rent a motorcycle, and explore because  there was nothing I could fault about it.  

It was glorious. I was truly amazed  on all that Malaysia had to offer,   and I was excited for what was further down the  road, and we had barely scratched the surface. Because next time, we were going to be riding  the motorcycle to the highest point on Borneo  

That you can go to by road. It is a town at  the foot of the tallest mountain of Borneo   and one of the tallest mountains of Southeast  Asia, Mount Kinabalu. Pretty cool name too.   Yes. Mount Kinabalu! Wow! Next  time on Two Up and Overloaded,  

I stepped on an ant. It’s a big ant, and  it bit me. We try to complete our day’s goal   of going from sea level up to the highest point  we can get to by road on the island of Borneo.  

And it would be an intense rise of elevation  of 1,900 meters or 6,200 feet, all in one day. And what happens when we get up that high in  the tropics is remarkable. But that will all   be in the next episode. So stay tuned, and  I hope you liked this video. If you did,  

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Want McDonald’s,” and I didn’t judge her. But when  I say I want McDonald’s, nothing but judgment.

For 2 Americans coming from the Midwest, exploring East Malaysia on a motorcycle has been a dream come true. And we are finally getting into the heart of some of the most stunning sights of Borneo, including the island’s tallest peat, Mount Kinabalu. But along the way we stop at something that is truly special.

Not knowing what to expect, we pull up just as the dark clouds start pouring down rain. But once we head into the jungle, what we find there is jaw dropping…

🎙️Podcast version of this video –
https://2upandoverloaded.buzzsprout.com/2165278/14387261-americans-discover-malaysia-s-best-hidden-gems

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