Personalized trips to Malaysia
for independent travelers

The overall trip was wonderful, beautiful and amazing. The guides were good and connections and transfers went smoothly. Accommodations were great and food was super. Overall everything was well organized.
Here are a few thoughts, my personal opinion:
A better list of what to bring for the Rainforest Resort would have been helpful. We needed long socks, long sleeved shirts and long pants. It would be a good idea for the resort to provide boots. It was very muddy and slippery. Utan Rainforest Lodge did provide boots.
The snorkel gear was not included in our stay as the information provided said.
Melaka was very interesting and I enjoyed the historical background, but it took a lot of time in transit.
I would leave out the day of the Heritage Walk and Trainride Adventure in Kota Kinabalu and substitute a day to walk around the waterfront, shops and markets.
The cooking class was great and the Kinabalu Park was great.

Great trip and I would highly recommend it to others.
The logistics seemed spot on, the guides were excellent, and the lodging was top notch.
As for activities, the day trip from KK to Papar was the least enjoyable activity. This felt like a missed opportunity to learn about the people/culture. Also, I wish I had known in advance that the Danum Valley Lodge did not provide boots and gators for hiking through the jungle. The cooking demonstration in KK and the excursions at the jungle lodges and Lankayan Island Resort were truly awesome.

Activity Review

Heritage Walk & Trainride Adventure

Kota Kinabalu

The train adventure involved getting on a regular train for a short trip to a town just outside of KK. The heritage walk amounted to walking to a church, mosque, and temple. The entire activity felt like a missed opportunity to learn about the culture and people. The time for this activity could be better used doing something else.

The entire Kym Kim team did a great job. The things that really stood out for me personally are as follows:

1. Helen, who was one of the guides at the canopy tour did an excellent job of hanging back at the end of the line where I was struggling along because of my Parkinson’s disease. She was very encouraging and supportive, but did not attempt to push me ass doing something I didn’t want to do or wasn’t comfortable. As it turns out I did in fact cross all of the bridges on the canopy tour and it was amazing. On our way back we had a really good personal discussion about Parkinson’s disease, it turns out that Helen‘s mother has Parkinson’s disease as well. So we ended up talking about all of the work that the caregivers have to do to support a Parkinson’s patient in the family. It was a very real and touching discussion. I appreciated her honesty and her wellness to share.

2, on a lighter note, Layne provided a great experience of buying all the ingredients for lunch at the market and then taking him home for her and her mother with the help of several other people made us this fabulous lunch. But it was the richness of the discussion, especially with lanes, mother, who clearly is the matriarch of the family that made much so special.

3. By far, Sylvester was the biggest highlight of them all. When it was clear that I had a serious medical condition in my left eye that required immediate attention. He was on top of the situation from the beginning to the end and stayed with me and my wife, every step of the way. I especially appreciate his support from my wife. I’m not sure if she would’ve held it together if it hadn’t been for Sylvester. He made it quite clear that he was there to remove any barriers and help us get to Singapore to get medical help as soon as possible. He helped us understand, not only the policies and procedures but at times also the politics around how to get things done in the Malaysian system. He was excellent at offering a third alternatives that might help us achieve our goals quicker and better but he also let us make the final decisions. It was clear that he had management support this endeavor as no obstacle was too big for him to tackle. We will be indebted to him for the rest of our lives. As it turned out, I had a very successful surgery and the doctors expect I will recover to 90% of my vision in my left eye. Without his help, it could’ve easily been an entirely different outcome. And lastly, I want to thank Nick for developing such a caring culture in his organization and other senior leaders as well or their critical role in the behind the scenes Support of all the help that Sylvester provided to us. Of course the help was not limited to Sylvester, we got support from the office staff. The on-site staff, etc., if you ever need someone to talk about what a caring culture looks like in the action and how Kym Kym exemplified carrying culture, I would be happy to share my story and experiences with others. do some, it may not seem like that big of a deal. But letme insure you that when you lose virtually 100% of the vision in one eye and you’re not sure if it’s gonna be permanent or not. You are so preoccupied with worry and fear about the loss of your vision, that it is hard to focus on solving the immediate problems at hand to enable you to get the medical care you need. So the role that Sylvester played is not only essential because we were in a foreign land far away from home. But it was also essential because we were not in the best mental frame of mind to sort things out and make the best decisions on our own. I will be forever grateful to you and your team for the support we received which was certainly way beyond the minimum that could be expected. Please share as you see it. Thanks for everything, Byron.