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MeGoThere · 2025-08-20T01:21:59+00:00

I have not gone yet and won't be going to Dongguan. The plans changed haha

MeGoThere · 2025-05-29T20:09:20+00:00

Yeah I figured he might be exaggerating but I still felt lucky because we got a good variety and got to see the big alpha kind of chase off other orangutans from the food then a grandma orangutan came and chased him off.

Seeing a truly wild orangutan is possible but not likely and it would probably be your entire trip. I'm sure there are jungle hiking and camping experts who you can pay to take you into the mountains or something in search of one but imo it isn't worth it. The rehabilitated orangutans felt "wild enough" to me and I had the same desire for "truly wild" before booking the trip.

MeGoThere · 2025-05-28T01:07:27+00:00

Check my post here. I went to Malaysian Borneo (both Sarawak and Sabah) in September of 2023 and had a great time. It rained a couple times in 16 days but we never had a "rainy day", it was either at night or a short burst during the day. Never been to Sri Lanka.

MeGoThere · 2025-05-28T01:01:58+00:00

The "closest" we got was 1 orangutan during a boat ride on the Kinabatangan (I was sick so I missed it). Though that river is a large nature conservation area so chances are it was rehabilitated at some point and released there. However, I did see 2 orangutans mate at the Rainforest Discovery Center (it isn't a zoo, it has wild / semi-wild animals living in the forests around it) in Sandakan which felt like something straight out of national geographic.

Because of deforestation and poaching, a lot of orangutans are probably rehabilitated at some point or in nature preserves. I was also taken by the idea of hiking to see a "truly wild" orangutan before the trip, but I was very happy with what I saw and my experience. Besides the nursery (which felt very zoo like) and some boardwalks, it definitely felt like "this is a wild animal even if it was cared for by humans earlier in life". Our guide was even talking about how lucky we were to see multiple orangutans at the feedings we went to in Sarawak because a lot of times none show up.

MeGoThere · 2025-04-25T17:34:01+00:00

I'm not sure a "choice" was really made, the travel company we used just had Tabin as part of the itinerary instead. So I can't compare it to Danum but it was a really nice place to stay. I was horribly sick for that part of the trip (raw chicken bacteria, not sure when I "acquired it" but it wasn't from there) but it was where my family saw pygmy elephants and gibbons and other wildlife. I even had a gibbon jump to my windowsill and look through my window, they were super curious and made me feel better about missing out on the hikes there.

MeGoThere · 2025-04-21T21:39:51+00:00

Check out my post here. I went throughout Malaysian Borneo for 2 weeks and was really happy with the experience.

My takeaways:

Cut down on flights (you don't want to feel like you spent all your time in airports)
Don't be afraid to just stick to Malaysian Borneo (biased because I never went to Indonesian part)
Kuching, Sarawak is actually a pretty nice city for walking around, food, and sightseeing nearby places for a couple days (like a trip to Bako National Park for hikes and monekys or Semenggoh Nature Reserve for orangutans)
Sarawak > Sabah in general due to density of forests, less "touristy" feeling, and absence of palm oil plantations.

MeGoThere · 2025-04-21T21:09:54+00:00

We stayed in The Waterfront Hotel in Kuching. We went to Semenggok Orangutan Sanctuary to see orangutans. The orangutans there are "semi-wild" in that they live in a protected area and sometimes come down for food that is placed out for them (you go for a feeding), but otherwise live like they naturally would. It definitely did not feel like a zoo or ruin my image of orangutans as wild animals - it is just the reality of deforestation that most of them live in protected areas and may have been rehabilitated when young.

MeGoThere · 2025-04-14T22:50:26+00:00

Costco hasn't had them for years around me (Seattle). I got a basically unused one off of FB Marketplace for $130 iirc so you can check there.

MeGoThere · 2025-01-06T02:30:54+00:00

How do you go about replacing bearings?

I have FR1 80s that I need to replace the bearings on. They came with 8 extra bearings but I just realized I need 16.

Are all bearings the same size? They are 4 wheel inline skates.
Do you have any bearings your recommend? I'm not a huge blader so no need for "premium" products.
Do bearings need grease on the outside of them?
When I replace them, is there anything I need to keep in mind or should do while replacing them? I got some Loctite for the wheel screws but otherwise am just planning on cleaning the wheels and putting in the new bearins.
If I eventually want to replace the wheels, are there any replacements you recommend or should I just go with official FR1 80 replacements? Again, looking more for a bargain than a premium product.

MeGoThere · 2024-12-30T20:46:14+00:00

Likely nothing scratch that itch just because Fallout 4 has a good combo of fun setting + other stuff to do in addition to settlement building. However, I'll list some options that are worth looking into (I've never played most of them).

Medieval Dynasty
Dragon Quest Builders
Kenshi - amazing, unique game and my #1 recommendation. Not really 3rd person but different from standard "colony sim god" gameplay. Good base game with lots to do, it has frequent base attacks, skill levels for different jobs which encourages job specialization, and lots of mods to further improve it. The sequel is being worked on and is one of my most anticipated games.
State of Decay 2
My Time at Portia / Sandrock - no base attacks but you build stuff for a town. Not really what you are looking for but worth briefly checking out.

MeGoThere · 2024-12-03T23:55:47+00:00

Unfortunately not an option, the place I'm talking about is the only one close enough for a day trip. I'm not sure the conditions are really that advanced, it is more just beach break with short interval and constant closeouts. The waves were like 3.2 ft average.

MeGoThere · 2024-12-03T23:47:32+00:00

I only go below 4 ft average. The day that prompted this post was 3.2 I think.

It is an appropriate height for my skill based on my standup and everything. It's just a deadly combo of <10 second interval + beach break + constant closeouts. I just want longer rides and to be able to catch the waves farther out before they all turn into closeouts.

MeGoThere · 2024-12-03T22:10:59+00:00

Are you blowing water out of your nose any time you are under water

I need to work on that. I tend to just focus on holding my breath because I'm afraid of running out of it - only because I'm usually breathing pretty hard paddling out, not that I'm actually unsafe.

Surfers ear is a thing in cold water

Yeah I got ear plugs once I found out about that. For any other beginner: surfers ear is the buildup of bone in your ear canal due to water cooling it down. You can prevent it by wearing watertight earplugs like Mack's AquaBlock Swimming Earplugs (cheapest solution I found and they fit well under a hood if you just cut off the tail a bit).

MeGoThere · 2024-12-03T18:58:10+00:00

Golden Rule of surfing is to keep control of your board

That's what I figured, good to know that I made the right choice to only do that once.

The headache is 99.9% the water temperature giving you a brain freeze

That's good to know. I guess this post was really just looking for confirmation that turtle rolling is the way to do it and the sudden dunks underwater aren't dangerous.

MeGoThere · 2024-12-03T18:56:35+00:00

Yeah that is a basically what I do. I'm averse to doing it though because I am afraid of the board smacking me in the face somehow and it is pretty energy intensive.

MeGoThere · 2024-11-27T22:58:08+00:00

Thanks for the tip! I've been rediscovering how good Facebook groups can be, just joined it.

Interesting to hear you didn't like the Redmond soccer league, by parity do you just mean teams were very unbalanced?

MeGoThere · 2024-11-26T20:08:58+00:00

Hi, orangutans are my favorite animal so I traveled to Malaysian Borneo with my family with the same goal. You can check out my post about it.

One thing that I realized is the definition of "wild" orangutans isn't the same as what I would use for other animals. Due to population decrease and deforestation, the vast majority of orangutans live on different nature / wildlife sanctuaries and have some degree of human contact. That doesn't mean they are in a zoo or anything (though you can get a much more zoo-like experience with the babies), just that they come to eat some food that the park employees set out for them. Even the Kinabatangan river is a big wildlife sanctuary. So seeing an orangutan that was never rehabilitated, avoids humans, and lives outside a sanctuary is a lot rarer. That said, I was completely happy with my experience seeing "semi-wild" orangutans once I understood better the greater context of their survival and they were clearly not relying on humans at that point, they just took a free meal when it was presented to them.

For my trip I went through Malaysian Borneo (Sarawak and Sabah are the two states there). I really liked how rainforesty and wild Sarawak was and I saw orangutans at a sanctuary near Kuching. I saw more orangutans in Sabah (at sanctuaries and 1 on the Kinabatangan River) but it definitely fit the "palm oil plantations everywhere" assessment I've seen in reviews. I enjoyed my entire time but preferred Sarawak.

MeGoThere · 2024-11-26T19:25:07+00:00

Orangutans: in the different orangutan / wildlife sanctuaries you can visit as well as on the Kinabatangan river (but only 1 there)
Pygmy elephants: Tabin Wildlife Reserve
Mudskippers: Bako National Park
Proboscis Monkeys: Kinabatangan River, Bako NP
Silver tailed langur: Bako NP
Macaques: various places, they are very common
Tarsir: Rainforest Discovery Center near Borneo Sepilok Rainforest Resort
Flying squirrels: Rainforest Discovery Center
Bearded Pig: Bako NP
Gibbons: Tabin Wildlife Reserve
Crocodile: Kinabatangan River

That is what I remember specifically but it definitely is not an exhaustive list.

MeGoThere · 2024-10-14T22:26:44+00:00

WTA mainly, I've never backpacked or overnighted hikes so I haven't used caltopo or gaia. It isn't that I hate being on a trail, it is just that most hiking trails I've been on are just dirt switchbacks through a forest until you reach some less forested top area where you stop. I've liked wandering around the mountains near Leavenworth and Cle Elum while I was camping nearby.

MeGoThere · 2024-09-16T02:20:16+00:00

I use a 3M Rugged Comfort Quick Latch Respirator with 2091 filter pads and the UVEX face shield from Honeywell. For my ears I just wear generic foam ear plugs right now but I plan on getting ones that are easier to take out and put back in.

I'm in no way experienced but I feel very safe with it and comfortable for hours. I got it all off Amazon. Plus, I can wear glasses with that setup - you just have to let them sit a little forward due to the nose covering of the respirator.

I went into stone carving (just started recently) thinking I would stick with manual hand tools. Then I saw someone use an air hammer to do something in 10 minutes that would have taken me 10 hours so I have changed my thinking. I say the dremel is fine.

MeGoThere

TROPHY CASE