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. 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, 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 hard chips. I wanted something salty, yes, and something kind of carb-y. Delicious, sinful almost. I got some electrolyte stuff that Tim got from me and some McDonald's fries, lace 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 like 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 ocean's side 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, 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.
And the sun was setting, the ocean was beautiful. We found a little Japanese restaurant there and watched the sunset with the fishing boats kind of crossing the waves. I'm feeling better, and it just doesn't get better than this. It was lovely. Yeah, we had a little candlelit dinner. Yeah.
Yeah, what a special evening. I'm so happy to be here with Tim. Wow, Kota Kinabalu.
The sun is about to set. It is just going down so quickly. Watch it go down right behind the cloud.
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.
You've got to let my underwear dry out first. That's some priorities. I hope that this caught it.
This was actually the mountain that the city we were in was named after, and on their flag, the proper 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.
Yep, this is true. And by known to be, like, 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 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 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 you know, 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 like 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 yes, it was a really, really good day, just enjoyable riding. This is true.
The mist slowly started to accumulate into water droplets, yeah, and then, uh, start pitter-pattering on our helmets, which is good for waterfalls. Yes, it says 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, so 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. That burger's on the menu. I got a nice warm soup because actually, it was quite cool up there in the mountains. My burger was like 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.
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 tiny cannonball from medieval times that if it fell on you, you're dead. Yeah, it's like the end of that mace thing, whatever it was called, a mace with the giant spikes. It's like that super heavy smell. 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," you know, and people are just like, "I don't know, man. I think this is going to be good."
Imagine eating that. Wow, that's very, very strong. Um, I did. 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, like, "That smells rancid. Do not put that in your mouth." And that's what durian is.
Yeah, 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's 0.0 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 that I mean, we were back in the jungle. This was no longer, you know, like 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. Yeah, 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 ears. 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, like, where the water runs off of, and it had just rained so much, like, 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, like, 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, a shan, from when it hit that water.
Wow, this is amazing.
We got in the water, and we wanted to get under the waterfall. It's a little chilly.
Woo, yeah, that would have been crazy. No, and the water was like freezing cold. Yes, it was not room temperature. To my shot like 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.
Yeah, 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've 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, please give us a big thumbs up and hit the Subscribe button below. Ding! And please check us out on Patreon. You can get postcards sent to you, you can get some exclusive stuff on our Patreon page. You can also check us out here on YouTube membership. Bam! You get early access to videos, all ad-free and brand new. We have a podcast version of all our episodes as well on iHeart Radio and Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts and anywhere that you get your podcasts from. You can check out the link to our podcasts in the description below and Patreon, all the other things that we mentioned. Yes, we just want to thank all of our supporters.
Thank you so much. We are having the time of our lives, and we 100% owe it to you. That's right. We couldn't do any of this without you guys, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And please, I want to hear your opinion of our podcast. So if you do listen to it, let us know in the comments. Uh, what you think of it because what we think of our podcast is kind of biased. So just, uh, a reality check would be nice. So thank you guys so much for watching this episode, and we'll be seeing you next time. Stay safe, everybody. Bye. Peace. Marissa said, "I think I want McDonald's," and I didn't judge her. But when I say I want McDonald's, nothing but judgment.
