Exit thru the Gift Shop

From the Museum of Sex in New York City, to the Museum of Maritime Pets in Annapolis, the United States offers visitors a diverse, eclectic and slightly overwhelming array of museum visit opportunities.  There are more museums in the United States than Starbucks locations and McDonald’s restaurants combined, and with over 35,000 different museums to choose from, it can be challenging to find the hidden gems.  Here are five worth finding.

National Civil Rights Museum – Memphis, Tennessee
Established in 1991 at the former site of the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jnr was assassinated in 1968, the National Civil Rights Museum steps through the story of colonisation, slavery, oppression and aggression in a contemporary and comprehensive environment. 
As you move through the exhibits, cleverly intertwined into the physical structure of the Lorraine Motel, you get a real sense of the struggle incurred by generations of African Americans.  Whilst the curatorial focus is on their struggle for equality, the exhibits also explore other minority groups in a way that is both confronting and respectful.  
At the end of the self-guided journey in the main building, you find yourself standing in room 306, at the spot where MLK was shot.  It’s an eerie, quiet and revered place of reflection and acknowledgment of the intensity of the civil rights struggle.
A more recent addition to the facility is in the building where the assassin fired the fatal shot.  After you’ve stood at the window and looked across to room 306, you can then explore the case against James Earl Ray, convicted of MLK’s murder in 1969.  The conspiracy theories are explained alongside the physical evidence of the case, right down to the bullets and rifle.
Tip: Pause and listen to the entire ‘I have a dream’ speech.  As profound now as it was in 1963.

National World War Two Museum – New Orleans, Louisiana
Ranked the 3rd best Museum in the USA on TripAdvisor, the National WWII Museum is not so much a hidden gem, as one slightly incongruous in the New Orleans landscape.
The National WWII Museum tells the story of the American experience in the war – quite a different narrative to the New Zealand (or British) stories we’ve grown up with.  
Cleverly and coyly presented, the exhibits step us through all the phases of WWII.  The Road to Tokyo exhibit presents the Pacific war, whilst the Road to Berlin details the European conflict.  Clever use of temperature and lighting lets you feel the chilling winds at the Battle of the Bulge, the searing air of Tunisia and gritty sand from the D-Day beaches of Normandy.  
Fans of aviation will love the array of aircraft on display, and younger visitors will enjoy the USS Tang Submarine Experience – where visitors play a role in manning the most successful submarine in World War II for its fifth and final war patrol.
With plenty of War Veterans on hand as volunteers around the various exhibits who are very happy to chat and share their experiences, this is so much more than just a traditional war museum experience.  
Tip: Pay the extra few dollars and watch the ‘Beyond all Boundaries’ film – a 4D interactive spine-tingling experience.  

America’s Car Museum – Tacoma, Washington State
Harold and Nancy LeMay amassed the largest privately-owned collection of automobiles, other vehicles and related memorabilia in the world.  At its peak, the LeMay Collection numbered more than 3,000 vehicles and thousands of artifacts.  The collection celebrates America’s love affair with the automobile and includes both domestic and foreign marques. 
A selection of the vast collection is displayed throughout the 15,000 m2 building, with over 350 vehicles and artifacts on display at any time.  Unique to ACM is their open storage galleries for vehicles not on active display, giving visitors the opportunity to see most of the LeMay collection.
Motoring enthusiasts will love exploring the broadly American fleet that spans the 20th Century, from a 1913 Daimler Tourer to the 1994 Flintmobile (as used in the Flintstones movie) and everything in between.
Younger visitors will enjoy the slot car racing track and the variety of interactive and educational exhibits on offer, and fans of Nascar will love the Legends of Motorsport display.  The Route 66 exhibit is an immersive, interactive collection of cars and memorabilia to celebrate America’s iconic roadway and tells the story of the ‘Motel 5’ chain, where you could secure a motel room for $5 a night!
Tip: Every car has a story! Chat to the volunteers stationed around the museum – they are enthusiastic, knowledgeable and keen to share the ‘backstory’ of the vehicles on display.  

International Spy Museum – Washington, DC
Whilst a slightly whimsical concept, this Museum deserves to be taken seriously. 
The only public facility in the United States solely dedicated to espionage, this museum features the largest collection of international espionage artifacts ever placed on public display alongside strategies and techniques used in some of the most secretive espionage missions in world history.
The experience begins with an orientation to the techniques, tools, and other tradecraft associated with espionage at the "School for Spies". The galleries trace the history of espionage from biblical times to the present day with stories of real spies, their missions, their fates, and how their espionage affected some of the most pivotal moments in world history.  Along the way, you learn about concealment devices, sabotage weapons, and cipher machines to dead drops, secret writings, and microdots.
The immersive experience concludes with the ‘Exquisitely evil: 50 years of Bond villains’ exhibition.  Meet Bond’s villains, uncover their evil schemes, and explore their exotic lairs and weapons in this special exhibit commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Bond films. The Museum has partnered the Bond film producers to showcase over 100 objects from the films - from airships and underground lairs to nuclear weapons and hungry sharks.
Tip: Trust no one.  There are more spies per capita in Washington than anywhere else in the world.

Future of Flight – Mukilteo, Washington State
Located 40km north of Seattle, the Future of Flight Museum is the entry point for the Boeing Factory Tour.
Whilst the Future of Flight exhibits are interesting (the upside-down treadmill in the Apollo space capsule was a highlight), the main drawcard lies a few kilometres away behind a massive blast fence.
Boeing has been manufacturing aircraft onsite since 1967 and on the ninety-minute tour, you get to watch 747s, 777s and 787 Dreamliners being assembled.
The scale of the Boeing factory is beyond massive at 13 million cubic metres.  It’s the largest building in the world (by volume) and the sheer scale of the facility becomes understandable once you enter the production line.
The Everett Site, as it’s known, employs 30,000 people and has its own civic infrastructure to accommodate the needs of the 24-hour workforce.  The aircraft are fabricated, built, painted, tested and presented to their new owners all on the one site. 
The tour takes you through a selection of aircraft production lines, where you will stand on walkways suspended many stories above the working floor and learn the manufacturing process step by step.  
Fun fact – Boeing sold their first two planes every produced to New Zealand buyers; and it was the 7th plane they built that was ‘just right’ and became the prototype for production, hence the 7 prefix on all their aircraft.
Tip: Book ahead and be sure to allow plenty of travel time as it can take up to one hour to drive from Seattle.

Person of the Forest

Like many kiwis, I have long wished to journey to Borneo and see the Orangutans.  I'm not sure why.  I've sent plenty of ginger-haired men aping through the New Zealand bush in my time, so maybe the fascination stems from there.  Or more likely, watching National Geographic programmes on Sunday nights as a child, and wishing myself away from Tauranga and into the jungle.

So it was with much excitement, and a marginal dose of trepidation, that I donned the brown shoes and ventured into the Rasa-Ria Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, conveniently located next to our Resort.

The Rehabilitation Centre was established in 1996, and serves as the nursery for the larger centre at Sepilok.  Caring for a handful of baby orphaned Orangutans, the Rasa-Ria conservation team help teach the young how to swing, find food, nest and live in the wild.  The baby Orangutans have been either rescued from the illegal pet trade or found by farmers and surrendered to the Centre.  

There's the rub.  Orangutans are arboreal, living in trees and eating mainly fruit.  Since the commercial demand for Palm Oil has increased over recent years, their natural environment has dramatically reduced as thousands of hectares of wild jungle has been wiped out and replaced by Palm Oil plantations.  Interspersed through the plantations are pockets of traditional farmers growing fruits and vegetables, both for local and export markets.  Hungry-Mummy Orangutans are forced to traverse the farms to find food.  And when they find some lovely bananas or dragonfruit - they scoff it.  Farmer shoots Hungry-Mummy as he needs to sell his fruit to feed his family.  Baby Orangutan is hiding in the bush - now with no food and no Mummy.  Sometimes - not always - the farmer finds the baby and contacts the Conservation Rangers who come and collect the orphan and bring it to the Centre.  

As we watched an informative video that clearly presented the above message, I wondered how many babies are not discovered.  Or how many are sold into the illegal pet trade...

Video and safety briefing completed, we walked for about 10 minutes before arriving at a Feeding Platform. This is a marvel of eco-tourism.  The Centre feeds their residents twice a day, with a mixture of fruit and a few nuts and leaves.  So a (worryingly-Cave-Creek-like) structure is set into the hillside beside the platform on which the Orangutans have breakfast and dinner daily.  They eat, we watch.  They play, we watch.  They swing, we watch. They poo into their hands, we watch.   

But this is not a zoo.  We are within metres of the feeding platform, and arms outstretched, we could touch the vines.  At one stage, a lanky teenage Orangutan saunters across the viewing platform through the crowd of 40 or so people.  Squeals of excitement radiate alongside the rapid-fire sound of cameras clicking en-masse.  Whilst I knew before we left NZ that there would be no fences or barriers (and therefore nothing like a zoo), it suddenly was very real and very worth travelling half way around the world for.  

 

My name is Eddie

Twenty four hours of travelling and the brown shoes smell.  They're still brown, and have only gone down in my estimation.  I find myself sitting in Harrod's (albeit the pop-up version at Kuala Lumpur International Airport), sipping a cup of tea and  hoping that nobody gets too close.  KLIA is an impressive airport, complete with its own rainforest.  Seriously.  A circular satellite terminal with a rainforest in the middle that has a canopy walk and wildlife.  Mr Shoe gets lost in the Cigar Store for sometime, enjoying both the ambient temperature of the walk-in humidor and the expansive collection of Cubans.  I restrain myself and refuse to purchase anything (don't want to peak to soon).  Five hours at KLIA and we're back on our way for a quick three hour flight to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah state of East Malaysia, over the South China Sea on the island of Borneo.

This is my first time travelling with Malaysian Airlines, and I can't say I'm a huge fan.  My kiwi sized need for personal space was not supported in the 'economy' zone, and the very limited range of movies did not include the new James Bond flick as I had hoped.  However, the staff were lovely and delivered chicken sandwiches at 4am.  

Our arrival into Kota Kinabalu is encouraging - from the air, looking down at the city and surrounds it would appear that my brown shoes will match the landscape.  We are greeted by Eddie, a smiling and cheerful chap who embraces me in the Arrivals Hall like a long lost cousin, and quickly escorts us outside into the 30 deg Celsius afternoon - asking us to wait kerbside while he collects the vehicle.   Oh the anticipation!  It is our Honeymoon after all, and we had made our Travel Agent promise she would advise all our tour and accommodation providers that were in love and deserving of free upgrades.  I'm not sure if the beat-up 4WD van that Eddie drove was the luxury vehicle in the fleet or not.  However, what it lacked in seatbelts and suspension, it made up for in air-conditioning and leg room.  

Our resort was on the far side of the city area, and Eddie spent the 45 minute drive telling us the basics about KK.  A city of around 500,000, KK is the main visitor gateway into Sabah.  The roads are bumpy, and indicators appear optional.  As does changing gear - it might be a 5 speed manual gearbox, but Eddie chooses to be selective and we go from 'fast gear' to 'slow gear' in rapid succession.  A bit of off-road driving occurs to bypass the traffic jams and we soon realise that holding on and not looking at the oncoming traffic are essential passenger survival tactics.  

Driving through the CBD, we notice a lot of construction projects and query Eddie on the obvious growth and development activity.  He's quick to share his views, and in particular his dismay that illegal immigrant labour is being used to build government housing projects.  [The primarily Indonesian or Filipino labour works for 700RM a month (NZ$275), whereas the average wage for the Malaysian workforce is 1500-2000RM a month (NZ$600-800).] The National Transformation Policy is aiming to reduce poverty and improve the living conditions for residents.  We drive past slums with houses on stilts slowly slipping into the murky brown mud, and alongside see the newer multi-storey apartment blocks housing hundreds of families.  Still surrounded by mud, the new tenements have electricity and running water unlike their wonky neighbours.  Eddie explains that sadly, as soon as the slums were emptied and the families had moved into the new housing, other families scrambled to move into the slums.  It seems a never-ending cycle of poverty.  

 (Above the old, and below the new - excuse the raindrops)

We eventually arrive at Rasa Ria Resort, part of the Shangri-La chain, and immediately relax in 5-star comfort.  Iced tea and refreshing lemongrass infused towels at check-in, rose petals on the bed, wine in the fridge and views to die for.  Oh this place is going to be awful...