So brave Ipshita, quaking in her wellingtons, safely placed between two of her friends in the long line of people (there were 10-11 of us) set off into he black. Now. You who are reading this must be able to understand how dark it was. It was full moon, but the canopy was so thick that without torches it was the blackest black. I expect it got a little blacker on no moon days, but not by much. Our guide, enthusiastic and keen, showed us how to spot the fauna. The trick is this: you hold the torch at eye level and shine it outwards and look for answering gleams. These, are the eyes of the beasties. Red for frog or snakes. Bright white for cat. Blue, yellow, white for spider. He said more, but I've forgotten. Immediately everyone was off flashing their torches wildly into the unknown. I stayed safely between two people. It worked though, the guide showed us and we found ourselves a huntsman spider. A beautiful lithe animal which made me quake some more. We tramped about and then he made us stop. We were standing in a pool of water. He shone his torch on it. Around our feet upon this water,water-spiders hunted. I nearly jumped. In fact I'm not sure if I didn't clutch someone and back away a little and then start again as my backing away brought me close to more. They were wonderful though. Skimming the surface tension, they worked coolly and scrabbled fast in the water when they caught something. Very lovely.
We saw some harlequin tree frogs after this. Three of them in fact. These are pretty rare. Our guide found us a gliding lizard which was resting on a large leaf and seemed a little put-out at being photographed. Sharon found a spider right next to where I was at this time. I quietly hurried on. We saw a baby tarantula (not so big pale and fuzzy) and then a full grown tarantula (BIG, dark and fuzzy). The big one was larger than an adult Man's open palm. He was high up on a tree trunk, so I could look at him/her openly. We came to a deeper pond. We were asked if we'd like to wade in. But the water level was too high for us city-slackers and we sheepishly declined. Our guide went in and went out of view (an easy thing to do in a body of water with trees growing in it in the pitch black of night). We caught a gleam from his torch every now and then and felt at ease, though come to think of it, we were standing in a rather close knot together. Suddenly we heard a lot of splashing from him and exclamations. He was after something (was something after him??). He came back, pretty wet looking disappointed. He had found a big scorpion but couldn't catch it and bring it back to us and that was the battle royale we heard. Our respect for him went up ten-fold. Catch a scorpion?!
We tramped along and we found a snake. Due to the fact it was dark, we were using yellow torchlight and the snake's head was not visible from where we were, it could either be a pit viper or a more harmless variety. Brave Guide (BG from now on) poked it with a stick. Sleepily it uncurled. Annoyedly it regarded us, stupidly we stared back. Still no clue. It was very awkwardly placed for observation. BG poked at it some more, more persistently. Suddenly the snake struck out at the stick with extreme ferocity. We were taken aback, transformation from the sleepy unknown woodland snake to certified Malayan pit viper was too fast for comfort. We retreated a step. Complacently the snake eyed us and then curled back to sleep. BG was thrilled (not at having been attacked by a snake) but this was the first pit viper he had seen at Uncle Tan's. We smugly took the credit and we walked on, leaving the poor harassed snake alone. We saw some sleeping birds, who looked like peaches with tails and some bats hanging right over our heads on protruding twigs. We noticed BG poking about in the cracks of tree with a narrow twig. Why, we asked, with all our city naivete. Because, he said, while poking around, they hold scorpions. Almost before he finished his sentence, a 5 inch scorpion ran out. More battle royale. If I had to write down my impressions of then, it would go something like a saga of old and great monsters battling it out with the defiant man. In reality they chased each other around in circles till BG managed to get it to run over his hand. And then it ran up his arm till he got his other hand beneath it. Very Steve-Irwin like. What about the poison, we asked. Keep your hand under it, he said, won't get bitten then; anyone wants to hold? Willie went first. The irate scorpion scuttled into his hand and posed for a photograph. The he was made to scuttle on to Jon's hand and posed again there. I wanted to go, but I was hesitant. However ignoring my silly fear I pied up and the scorpion angrily scuttled from his hand to mine. I smiled widely confidently and the camera clicked somewhere at my elbow. Looking back: This is the distorted photo of me and look at that hysterical smile on my face. I must have been more nervous than I thought. Anyway, it prickled as it scuttled. Poor thing, made to scoot from palm to palm while everyone kept carefully out of tail's reach. How he must have been dying to give us all a good sting.
Some more frogs later, we managed to get back to camp at 10:30. I took another bath at this time. Too much in the forest at night. I was really grubby. Tired as I was, after my bath I came back into the chicken coop and fell fast asleep, dreaming of a rocking boat.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Day 3: Jungle Evening
After lunch was free and easy time till the evening. We used our time arranging our chicken coops, catching up on what the other groups saw and bathing. It began to rain. Thousands of drops were caught by thousands of leaves, thousands more fell into the lake and all the rest came hurtling down in fat cold torrents. Exhilarating. I had my umbrella and went about a little, looking at the water surface and the contented pigs and their snuffly noses. By the time the rain cleared it was time to man the boats to watch the jungle sun set and along with it, see the birds as they hurry along to settle before the light faded. This was a quieter, more peaceful trip compared to the morning one. All across the river, birds flew. We saw our hornbills, the eagles, more oriental snake birds, egrets. The monkeys were as always, very easy to spot and plenty in their numbers. No crocs, sadly. The moon came out, silvery bright while the sun was still up and it climbed slowly over the tree tops during our ride, till by the time we were returning, it was the brightest thing in the sky, the sun giving only feeble rays from behind the skyline of trees. The mist was beginning to form. They would have a mistier night tonight than yesterday.
The new tourists arrived just before we left and they were sitting about striking acquaintances amongst each other when we returned. They would go out for their night ride around the same time we'd head into the jungle. In a misguided attempt to make us more enthusiastic, our guides told us what we were to expect. Frogs he said. That's fine, frogs are pretty cool. Snakes, he said. Even better, I adore snakes. Scorpions, he said. Perfect, Take me in now. And yesterday we saw 8-10 species of spiders.
In unrelated news I began to feel a little sick. I casually informed my fellow trippers that I was feeling a little queasy and wasn't sure if I was up for the trip. I was scared. I am terrified of spiders. of late, I've grown a little better, as in I don't startle when prepared and I don't startle as much when not prepared. But on the inside, I'm scared, scared, scared. God only know why, I've tried to sit down and explain it to myself. It doesn't work. I've only saved respect for myself by completely ignoring my fear. So I told myself sternly, spiders or no spiders, I had to go. I would be most angry with myself in the future if I didn't (and future Ipshita says yes, she would have been angry indeed).
The new tourists arrived just before we left and they were sitting about striking acquaintances amongst each other when we returned. They would go out for their night ride around the same time we'd head into the jungle. In a misguided attempt to make us more enthusiastic, our guides told us what we were to expect. Frogs he said. That's fine, frogs are pretty cool. Snakes, he said. Even better, I adore snakes. Scorpions, he said. Perfect, Take me in now. And yesterday we saw 8-10 species of spiders.
In unrelated news I began to feel a little sick. I casually informed my fellow trippers that I was feeling a little queasy and wasn't sure if I was up for the trip. I was scared. I am terrified of spiders. of late, I've grown a little better, as in I don't startle when prepared and I don't startle as much when not prepared. But on the inside, I'm scared, scared, scared. God only know why, I've tried to sit down and explain it to myself. It doesn't work. I've only saved respect for myself by completely ignoring my fear. So I told myself sternly, spiders or no spiders, I had to go. I would be most angry with myself in the future if I didn't (and future Ipshita says yes, she would have been angry indeed).
Monday, June 11, 2007
Day 3: Jungle Trek
After the river safari in the morning, we came back to a sumptuous breakfast of pancakes and french toast and watermelon and papaya. All day long there were kettles of tea and coffee, so there was that for breakfast too.
We were to assemble at 10:00 to go jungle trekking. We got distracted as the orangutans in the area made an appearance over the trees in camp. There was a female with her baby. Everyone stood hushed under the trees clicking away. She looked really troubled and tried to move away, giving time for her baby to follow suit. At one point, she took a leap into the next tree but it proved too much for the baby. He set up a wailing cry as his mother was too far. I was indignant as ourselves for crowding the poor things so I went away. So much for my indignance, I missed the denouement. The mother came up to the the farthest branch of her tree, stretched out like a trapeze artists and pulled her little baby to herself, in her tree. Siew Fun's photos speak for themselves.
Anyway we lingered around till about 9:30 when we decided to sort out a few boots for ourselves. The boots were kept on this high shelf outside the living area but all the sizes were mixed up. Also, some of them had sprung leaks. It weren't aisy, na laddie, it weren't aisy. I managed to get 2 size 38s, though I wear a 36/37 usually. Boot beggars can't be choosers. We saw out first leech during this boot rummage. It was flinging itself wildly around the rim of a boot. What a pretty, monstrous sort of leech. See for yourself. I killed it with lots of salt. If I had a conscience it might haunt me , but it's us against the leeches.
Speaking of leeches. We were all terrified of them. Everyone had a home remedy to suggest to keep them away. We figured one of them had to work and enthusiastically set about to implementing them all. We rubbed salt over our legs, Put tobacco in our socks, rubbed eucalyptus oil over this and insecticide over it all. It was not pleasant. We smelt strongly of chemicals, the tobacco prickled in our legs. The insect repellent was thickly slathered over ourselves. So much, that my clothes at the end of the day smelt sterile and chemical, a sickly sweet odour clung to all.
Well armed and leech-proofed, the city group assembled in the muddy area before the common rooms. It was jungle trek time. Not far into the trek we met the orangutans again. This time, we were a little deeper into the jungle, they were higher in the trees and we were only 11 people, more quiet. The female was more at her ease and let the baby come closer to us. It, for I don't know which sex it was, was a little darling. He came lower in the trees making faces at us and little calls. He was so curious that at the lowest point of his decent, he was only ten feet from our cameras. More pictures of the baby below, courtesy Veron and Siew Fun.
I love Orangs.
We were properly inculcated into the traditions of the rainforest that day. Our guide found this little round fruits which had the texture of an unripe Guava. It was sour, tasted wild and had a tangy aftertaste. We found some more fruit, these tasted sour, wild with a tangy aftertaste. Later he found us a plant whose leaves are edible. They were sour, wild and had a tangy aftertaste. If I had a candy company, I'd start up a new flavour and call it "The edible plants of Kinabatangan". They really all tasted the same to me.
He also showed us the freshwater vine. It's like a pipe I surmised, water comes running out of it. Problem is it looked very much like a lot of other vines in the forest.
Arrr, the forest is a dangerous place me mateys. And to prove this let me recount an anecdote of absorbing interest (As it involved my life, as I like to style it). Our guide pointed out a tree which had long large thorns growing all over its trunk. He said, don't get spiked by these. The sap is poisonous. Ipshita noted it down carefully. Twenty minutes later we were descending and the ground was wet and yielding, not the best way to get down. I put out a hand to steady myself when the person behind me yelled to me. Behold. That upon which I was going to put my hand was the same thorny tree I had been warned about. An hour into the rain forest and I was already near killing myself.
We saw lots of small things. There were little spiders and not so little spiders. There was the smallest squirrel in Borneo. The thing was the size of a small hamster. We found some tree frogs which looked like they had melted and gotten stuck to the tree, all gooey and squishy like. Marvellous work of camouflage though. The exact same shade as the trunk.
We walked our way up down and around during this tramp and came out suddenly into the open. We were standing on the bank. Tall grass grew on the edge to height of my head but through them we could see the water beyond. It was noon, the sky was blue and the clouds were enormously fluffy and white. The sun was hot and beat down on our heads and every colour was brighter than I had ever seen. It was an uplifting feeling to come out of the green jewelled undergrowth into this brilliance.
From here we skirted the bank till we were going downhill again and into the shade. The trees were younger here, but the leafy canopy was still full and the dark green roof glowed. We made our way till we reached water again but a different bank here. The ground slowly sloped and the water lapped the edge. In the water grew trees till beyond my vision. They were the youngest trees and the leaves light green made the water gold. It was a living gem of the palest green glass.
Everyone whipped out their cameras to capture some part of it. Here's my effort. It's not bad, but it does fall short somewhat. You will just have to imagine how lovely those trees looked on the fringes of the water.
We put our cameras away. Time was up, noon was past and boring children that we were, we made our way back to camp. Lunch was served.
We were to assemble at 10:00 to go jungle trekking. We got distracted as the orangutans in the area made an appearance over the trees in camp. There was a female with her baby. Everyone stood hushed under the trees clicking away. She looked really troubled and tried to move away, giving time for her baby to follow suit. At one point, she took a leap into the next tree but it proved too much for the baby. He set up a wailing cry as his mother was too far. I was indignant as ourselves for crowding the poor things so I went away. So much for my indignance, I missed the denouement. The mother came up to the the farthest branch of her tree, stretched out like a trapeze artists and pulled her little baby to herself, in her tree. Siew Fun's photos speak for themselves.
Anyway we lingered around till about 9:30 when we decided to sort out a few boots for ourselves. The boots were kept on this high shelf outside the living area but all the sizes were mixed up. Also, some of them had sprung leaks. It weren't aisy, na laddie, it weren't aisy. I managed to get 2 size 38s, though I wear a 36/37 usually. Boot beggars can't be choosers. We saw out first leech during this boot rummage. It was flinging itself wildly around the rim of a boot. What a pretty, monstrous sort of leech. See for yourself. I killed it with lots of salt. If I had a conscience it might haunt me , but it's us against the leeches.
Speaking of leeches. We were all terrified of them. Everyone had a home remedy to suggest to keep them away. We figured one of them had to work and enthusiastically set about to implementing them all. We rubbed salt over our legs, Put tobacco in our socks, rubbed eucalyptus oil over this and insecticide over it all. It was not pleasant. We smelt strongly of chemicals, the tobacco prickled in our legs. The insect repellent was thickly slathered over ourselves. So much, that my clothes at the end of the day smelt sterile and chemical, a sickly sweet odour clung to all.
Well armed and leech-proofed, the city group assembled in the muddy area before the common rooms. It was jungle trek time. Not far into the trek we met the orangutans again. This time, we were a little deeper into the jungle, they were higher in the trees and we were only 11 people, more quiet. The female was more at her ease and let the baby come closer to us. It, for I don't know which sex it was, was a little darling. He came lower in the trees making faces at us and little calls. He was so curious that at the lowest point of his decent, he was only ten feet from our cameras. More pictures of the baby below, courtesy Veron and Siew Fun.
I love Orangs.
We were properly inculcated into the traditions of the rainforest that day. Our guide found this little round fruits which had the texture of an unripe Guava. It was sour, tasted wild and had a tangy aftertaste. We found some more fruit, these tasted sour, wild with a tangy aftertaste. Later he found us a plant whose leaves are edible. They were sour, wild and had a tangy aftertaste. If I had a candy company, I'd start up a new flavour and call it "The edible plants of Kinabatangan". They really all tasted the same to me.
He also showed us the freshwater vine. It's like a pipe I surmised, water comes running out of it. Problem is it looked very much like a lot of other vines in the forest.
Arrr, the forest is a dangerous place me mateys. And to prove this let me recount an anecdote of absorbing interest (As it involved my life, as I like to style it). Our guide pointed out a tree which had long large thorns growing all over its trunk. He said, don't get spiked by these. The sap is poisonous. Ipshita noted it down carefully. Twenty minutes later we were descending and the ground was wet and yielding, not the best way to get down. I put out a hand to steady myself when the person behind me yelled to me. Behold. That upon which I was going to put my hand was the same thorny tree I had been warned about. An hour into the rain forest and I was already near killing myself.
We saw lots of small things. There were little spiders and not so little spiders. There was the smallest squirrel in Borneo. The thing was the size of a small hamster. We found some tree frogs which looked like they had melted and gotten stuck to the tree, all gooey and squishy like. Marvellous work of camouflage though. The exact same shade as the trunk.
We walked our way up down and around during this tramp and came out suddenly into the open. We were standing on the bank. Tall grass grew on the edge to height of my head but through them we could see the water beyond. It was noon, the sky was blue and the clouds were enormously fluffy and white. The sun was hot and beat down on our heads and every colour was brighter than I had ever seen. It was an uplifting feeling to come out of the green jewelled undergrowth into this brilliance.
From here we skirted the bank till we were going downhill again and into the shade. The trees were younger here, but the leafy canopy was still full and the dark green roof glowed. We made our way till we reached water again but a different bank here. The ground slowly sloped and the water lapped the edge. In the water grew trees till beyond my vision. They were the youngest trees and the leaves light green made the water gold. It was a living gem of the palest green glass.
Everyone whipped out their cameras to capture some part of it. Here's my effort. It's not bad, but it does fall short somewhat. You will just have to imagine how lovely those trees looked on the fringes of the water.
We put our cameras away. Time was up, noon was past and boring children that we were, we made our way back to camp. Lunch was served.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Day 3: Morning Safari
Up and at-em. 6 o clock was the wakeup call, but I was up at 5:30. Did I sleep well? AT 12:30 I was startled to hear loud snoring coming from right next to me. Possible concerns at this time could have been
a)A snoring ghost sleeping next to me?
b)A snoring happy-camper in the next cabin but inexplicably throwing his voice?
c)Oh no, people are going to think I am snoring!
I was on choice C. So I coughed and cleared my throat noisily and asked "Is anyone still awake?" As it happened choice C seems to have been the righ one. Veron and Siew Fun on the mattress next to mine were awake and they did think it was me. The mystery of where it was coming from was not really solved as I was too sleepy and the mysterious snoring from beside me went on.
So where was I? Oh yes, Up at 6. Quick brushing of teeth, washing of face etc etc. Begone sleep for the sun was already quite bright and the air was nippy. Breathed in lungfuls of it. A real tonic.
By this time we poor city slickers from Singapore had been branded the Citigroup by the camp staff. Undoubtedly they expected us to whine and behave like spoilt city brats. The other tourists were real backpacking, roughroading, hardhauling, bigboned types. We might have seemed a little wimpy by their sides but I defy anyone to match our very real enthusiasm. We were ready with our gear soonest, our cameras were out most and I think our group asked the most intelligent questions. Now, self-promotion aside..
We piled into our boat at 6:40-ish. Lan was to be our guide. He was immensely knowledgeable as we discovered. No surprise, he's been doing this for 11 years. WWF Malaysia uses his services too.
More enthusiastic descriptions of the morning: It was brilliant. Let me be able to do this everyday and I could live forever or die happy. The sky spread bigger and wider than I've ever seen it. All the bird were awake, noisy and visible. We saw so many. White bellied fish eagles, oriental snake eaters, hooded pitta, buzzards, serpent crested eagles, crested goshawks, white egrets, black herons, blue eared kingfishers, stork billed kingfishers, black backed kingfishers, dhola birds, blue somethinged parakeets, Asian black hornbills, Oriental pied hornbills, Wrinkled hornbills. The primates were not going to be outdone, though. There were troops and troops of awake (as opposed to the grumpy sleepy ones we saw at night) proboscis monkeys. The dominant males were all fat bellied large tree hopping large dangly nosed proboscis monkeys.
They became our stereotypes for the species. We saw so many of their troops. Then when passing over the channel, we saw an orangutan leisurely haul himself/herself tree to tree. You don't realise the power until you've really seen them. The monkeys spring about crashing and screaming from branch to branch, but the orangutan draws himself with grace and a certain nonchalance which endeared me greatly to it. We saw those impish lion-tailed macaques. I'm sorry to brand them, but more mischevious animals I have not seen and do not want to see. There were seven leaf monkeys with their distinctive faux-hawk hair-do. Lots of monkeys in all.
I do owe those monkeys a debt of gratitude, for through them we sighted something of infinite interest. The best way to see monkeys is to take the boat right up to their tree and look up. One observes all the little nuances of behaviour. One big noisy, pee-from-the-trees family really. All of them. This one was no different. About 15-20 monkeys, mothers babies, squabbling adolescents leaping and flying about the branches making their happy screechy noises. Suddenly they all took up a call. "Alarm call," Lan says. Ooh. Look about, leopards are nocturnal so its not them, but it might be a python. Pythons! But then Lan points gasping, "Look!" He points to the water. For there, just there, a crocodile has risen from the murky water and stares up at all those delicious monkeys. The macaques in the lower branches huddle their young and stare down, frozen in fright. The ones higher have also fallen silent. And as quietly as it rose from the water it sinks back in. We breathe.
That, (gentle readers and all that) was one of the best moments in my life.
As we were busy gaping, I don't think any of us got his hungry look upwards with all his teeth showing. This is the best pic we got courtesy Siew Fun. That's our croc down there. He's a milisecond away from disappearing. He's a biggie he is.
That was the floodgate opening. We saw three more crocs that day. One was a little one who spotted us and his snouty majesty made a dash for the water. Poor thing, he looked so alarmed. He was quite cute by croc standards. And quite a baby too. Just a bit more than a metre. All snout and tail. Awww. The other 2 of them were of considerable size and we got pictures to prove it
Croc 2. He's a big one. We just saw him slip in as we passed by. He did peer out at us, that's what we caught on camera. It looks like a branch but if you click on this picture you'll see his yellow eye looking back at you.
Croc 3. We were lucky to see this guy fully out. He suffered us for about 20 seconds and decided to slip back in. This photo is courtesy Siew Fun as I was too busy gaping.
a)A snoring ghost sleeping next to me?
b)A snoring happy-camper in the next cabin but inexplicably throwing his voice?
c)Oh no, people are going to think I am snoring!
I was on choice C. So I coughed and cleared my throat noisily and asked "Is anyone still awake?" As it happened choice C seems to have been the righ one. Veron and Siew Fun on the mattress next to mine were awake and they did think it was me. The mystery of where it was coming from was not really solved as I was too sleepy and the mysterious snoring from beside me went on.
So where was I? Oh yes, Up at 6. Quick brushing of teeth, washing of face etc etc. Begone sleep for the sun was already quite bright and the air was nippy. Breathed in lungfuls of it. A real tonic.
By this time we poor city slickers from Singapore had been branded the Citigroup by the camp staff. Undoubtedly they expected us to whine and behave like spoilt city brats. The other tourists were real backpacking, roughroading, hardhauling, bigboned types. We might have seemed a little wimpy by their sides but I defy anyone to match our very real enthusiasm. We were ready with our gear soonest, our cameras were out most and I think our group asked the most intelligent questions. Now, self-promotion aside..
We piled into our boat at 6:40-ish. Lan was to be our guide. He was immensely knowledgeable as we discovered. No surprise, he's been doing this for 11 years. WWF Malaysia uses his services too.
More enthusiastic descriptions of the morning: It was brilliant. Let me be able to do this everyday and I could live forever or die happy. The sky spread bigger and wider than I've ever seen it. All the bird were awake, noisy and visible. We saw so many. White bellied fish eagles, oriental snake eaters, hooded pitta, buzzards, serpent crested eagles, crested goshawks, white egrets, black herons, blue eared kingfishers, stork billed kingfishers, black backed kingfishers, dhola birds, blue somethinged parakeets, Asian black hornbills, Oriental pied hornbills, Wrinkled hornbills. The primates were not going to be outdone, though. There were troops and troops of awake (as opposed to the grumpy sleepy ones we saw at night) proboscis monkeys. The dominant males were all fat bellied large tree hopping large dangly nosed proboscis monkeys.
They became our stereotypes for the species. We saw so many of their troops. Then when passing over the channel, we saw an orangutan leisurely haul himself/herself tree to tree. You don't realise the power until you've really seen them. The monkeys spring about crashing and screaming from branch to branch, but the orangutan draws himself with grace and a certain nonchalance which endeared me greatly to it. We saw those impish lion-tailed macaques. I'm sorry to brand them, but more mischevious animals I have not seen and do not want to see. There were seven leaf monkeys with their distinctive faux-hawk hair-do. Lots of monkeys in all.
I do owe those monkeys a debt of gratitude, for through them we sighted something of infinite interest. The best way to see monkeys is to take the boat right up to their tree and look up. One observes all the little nuances of behaviour. One big noisy, pee-from-the-trees family really. All of them. This one was no different. About 15-20 monkeys, mothers babies, squabbling adolescents leaping and flying about the branches making their happy screechy noises. Suddenly they all took up a call. "Alarm call," Lan says. Ooh. Look about, leopards are nocturnal so its not them, but it might be a python. Pythons! But then Lan points gasping, "Look!" He points to the water. For there, just there, a crocodile has risen from the murky water and stares up at all those delicious monkeys. The macaques in the lower branches huddle their young and stare down, frozen in fright. The ones higher have also fallen silent. And as quietly as it rose from the water it sinks back in. We breathe.
That, (gentle readers and all that) was one of the best moments in my life.
As we were busy gaping, I don't think any of us got his hungry look upwards with all his teeth showing. This is the best pic we got courtesy Siew Fun. That's our croc down there. He's a milisecond away from disappearing. He's a biggie he is.
That was the floodgate opening. We saw three more crocs that day. One was a little one who spotted us and his snouty majesty made a dash for the water. Poor thing, he looked so alarmed. He was quite cute by croc standards. And quite a baby too. Just a bit more than a metre. All snout and tail. Awww. The other 2 of them were of considerable size and we got pictures to prove it
Croc 2. He's a big one. We just saw him slip in as we passed by. He did peer out at us, that's what we caught on camera. It looks like a branch but if you click on this picture you'll see his yellow eye looking back at you.
Croc 3. We were lucky to see this guy fully out. He suffered us for about 20 seconds and decided to slip back in. This photo is courtesy Siew Fun as I was too busy gaping.Sunday, June 3, 2007
Day 2: From Sandakan to Uncle Tan's
Up at 6. Not because I wanted to, but because the damned rooster started crowing outside our window. It's one thing to listen to a rooster a distance away crowing at the crack of dawn. Its quite another to hear them come from the window. Relentless bird. I promised myself, I'd take chicken for lunch that day. Finally dragged myself out of bed at around 8. I can't believe I listened to that bird crow for 2 hours at ten minute intervals. Damned bird.
We made friends with two stray dogs. Bob and Bobby, as named by Jon. Jon was having a field day(s) with all the animals. He single handedly named the following animals during the trip.
The Rare Malaysian Sparrow a.k.a. The greater Malaysian sparrow.
Jon's Malaysian Fowl
Jon's Blue and Black Butterfly
The Greater Malaysian Skink.
We protested. What about the lessers?
Bob and Bobby were both quiet and of medium size. Bob let us pet him and scratch behind his ears. Bobby had better things to do and politely left when we approached him with blandishments and baby talk.
Breakfast was good. All the toast you can eat along with slabs of butter, jam and tea/coffee. The jam was very unusual, being banana jam. It tasted great! The lady who ran the lodge was amused at our interest in the jam and gave us the recipe but all I can remember of it was that it involved pulped bananas, pineapple juice and masses of sugar boiled for 5 hours. She also showed us the jungle fern. It looked quite normal, nor did it smell out of the ordinary. We decided to keep an eye out for the fern on our journey, but at the same time we decided it probably was the mode of cooking which gave it its mouthwatering flavour.
At 9:00 we left for the Orang Utan rehabilitation center. They do loads of good stuff I gathered. Bring up baby Orang Utans, heal the sick ones as well as take care of many other animals including two Sumatran rhinos and some rather evil looking crocs. It was oran utan feeding time at 10:00 so we wound our way to the feeding area. The rehab place for the mobile oran utans is a patch of jungle. I don't know if it was fenced or not. There is a wooden board walking running from one end to a long way inside, in the middle of which is a large platform which looks on to feeding platforms a way off. The viewing platform was clear of trees but this made it unbearably sunny. There was several tourists already there by 9:20 and you could feel the heat from their overheated bodies. Ugh.
Orangutans approaching the feeding platform (Photo courtesy of Veron, who stayed in the hot sun taking their pictures whilst we fled to the shade)
From the railing though, you had a fine view of the tress around. Every now and the crowd would gasp collectively and you'd know an orang utan stealthily coming closer had been sighted. Bored and hot, some of us walked on and into the shade. We saw loads of curious little things (including an unusual butterfly which Jon promptly named). We also saw a really wacked out caterpillar. About 5 cm long, fuzzy with long hairs at intervals with a bead on the tip, rather like an array of spears. We also saw a variety of kingfisher.
From the orangutan center we rushed back to pack our stuff coz the van was coming to pick us up and take us to the no-plumbing place at 12:30. We hopped on along with two others who must have been staying there just like us. Lunch was served at the no plumbing place otherwise known as Uncle Tan's ops base in Gum Gum. We had to hang about till 2:30 for the bus. The following pictures are from this interval.
The very affectionate kittycat at Ops base
Attitudes of Despondency (photograph by Rohana, the wretch who caught us candid)
We made friends with two stray dogs. Bob and Bobby, as named by Jon. Jon was having a field day(s) with all the animals. He single handedly named the following animals during the trip.
The Rare Malaysian Sparrow a.k.a. The greater Malaysian sparrow.
Jon's Malaysian Fowl
Jon's Blue and Black Butterfly
The Greater Malaysian Skink.
We protested. What about the lessers?
Bob and Bobby were both quiet and of medium size. Bob let us pet him and scratch behind his ears. Bobby had better things to do and politely left when we approached him with blandishments and baby talk.
Breakfast was good. All the toast you can eat along with slabs of butter, jam and tea/coffee. The jam was very unusual, being banana jam. It tasted great! The lady who ran the lodge was amused at our interest in the jam and gave us the recipe but all I can remember of it was that it involved pulped bananas, pineapple juice and masses of sugar boiled for 5 hours. She also showed us the jungle fern. It looked quite normal, nor did it smell out of the ordinary. We decided to keep an eye out for the fern on our journey, but at the same time we decided it probably was the mode of cooking which gave it its mouthwatering flavour.
At 9:00 we left for the Orang Utan rehabilitation center. They do loads of good stuff I gathered. Bring up baby Orang Utans, heal the sick ones as well as take care of many other animals including two Sumatran rhinos and some rather evil looking crocs. It was oran utan feeding time at 10:00 so we wound our way to the feeding area. The rehab place for the mobile oran utans is a patch of jungle. I don't know if it was fenced or not. There is a wooden board walking running from one end to a long way inside, in the middle of which is a large platform which looks on to feeding platforms a way off. The viewing platform was clear of trees but this made it unbearably sunny. There was several tourists already there by 9:20 and you could feel the heat from their overheated bodies. Ugh.
Orangutans approaching the feeding platform (Photo courtesy of Veron, who stayed in the hot sun taking their pictures whilst we fled to the shade)From the orangutan center we rushed back to pack our stuff coz the van was coming to pick us up and take us to the no-plumbing place at 12:30. We hopped on along with two others who must have been staying there just like us. Lunch was served at the no plumbing place otherwise known as Uncle Tan's ops base in Gum Gum. We had to hang about till 2:30 for the bus. The following pictures are from this interval.
The very affectionate kittycat at Ops base
Attitudes of Despondency (photograph by Rohana, the wretch who caught us candid)The minivans got there at around 2:45. our luggage was loaded along with mattresses and supplies on to the first few. After that we loaded ourselves. We were told that the journey was an hour and a bit by road and then depending on if it was raining, either half an hour by boat, or an hour and a half by boat. Even as he said this, the storm clouds gathered up and poured.
The van had no air conditioning and because of the rain it was not possible to open a window without someone getting very wet, it was raining that hard. The inside was stuffy hot and humid. We couldn't take it any longer and the windows were opened slightly and the cold wet drops hurled themselves at us. Who cared, we could breathe! The rain eventually became sporadic as we passed through wet and dry patches. On both sides palm oil plantations stretched away to the horizon and the sky rolled in heavy grey. The road was rough and bouncy, someone tall would have definitely gotten a few bumps on their head. We were all rather short. Half an hour or so into the ride, the rain stopped completely and the windows were pushed open completely. My hair was whipped about my face furiously but the air was so cold and fresh, I felt high spirited, full blooded, restless and alive! The heat subsided and as we were all a little full from lunch, everyone slowly fell asleep inspite of the jolting and the wind.
We arrived at the ferry terminal to find a small village by the river and a few boats moored to a wooden jetty. Directly across us were some heavily forested hills and the road crossed to our right in a heavy iron bridge.
The bags were loaded with the supplies on one boat which hung heavily in the water. We slipped on life jackets and were herded into other boats. We were off, we were off, we were off!!! Adventure, wild waters, the untamed Kinabatangan! It was all before us. We were off into an area where my cell phone (and several others) had no reception. Goodbye civilisation. It would be waiting for us when we returned.
The water was silty, the sun was low and the trees grew higher and higher on every side. Several birds were out. We saw a fishing eagle, a oriental hornbill pair, a crested serpent eagle and several troops of monkeys (proboscis and lion tailed macaques). We had heard there were crocodiles so we eagerly scanned the water at first. But there was so much debris floating down that ten crocs could have have been around and not been seen or mistaken for debris. That first time though, I really think it must have been all debris. We were going so fast most times, we couldn't have seen the sly silhouette of a crocodile we came to know later.
The camp and river are separated by two ox-bow lakes. During dryer seasons, the camp is not accessibly by water. The visitors need to get off at the river and trek past the lakes to camp. It had been raining a good bit when we were there so the ox-bow lakes were connected to each other and the river by narrow channels of water. We zigged and zagged through these channels. Trees leaned so heavily over our heads, we had to duck at times. It was a glimpse into the heart of the forest. The first oxbow lake we emerged into had groves of half immersed trees in the water, their crowns sticking out. We later learned they were diptocarps which thrive in surfeit water, blooming green at such times. We negotiated this lake and another channel to the second ox-bow lake. On the shores of Oxbow lake No. 2 lay Uncle Tan's Camp.
Glimpse of Uncle Tan as the boat draws nearer.
We got to camp at 5:30. Inspite of all that I knew about the camp, I think my heart still managed to sink a little when I saw the wooden houses raised high on stilts over mud and the forest practically growing into it. What an idiot I was.
Head guide Lan told us to be "free and easy" till 7:30 when we needed to assemble at the common area and be briefed about our time here. So we looked around. Look below for our camp facilities. Photos were taken over the stay period, but you might as well see them now.
Sleeping quarters, though I dont blame you for thinking it a chicken coop
The three stalls on the left are toilets, the three on the right are shower cubicles
Filter units we take water from. Plumbing is not laid on.
Bathwater.
Living area
At 8:00 we were skimmed off from the "senior tourists" and sat down. Lan went through our itenary and introduced the crew to us. That night we were to go out to spot night life on the kinabatangan. On with the lifejackets, on with the headlamps, and camera flashes ready.
The moon was full tonight. A clammy chill was descending. But how haunting the lake was. Deathly quiet and even our motors seemed to be chugging softly instead of their usual raucous roar. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life. A mist was forming at the further end of the lake, we could see it hanging hesitantly, silver spun. Surprisingly, there were very few stars and the sky was inky. We had passed this way in the morning but there is something about the quality of moonlight which transforms everything it touches.
Each boat was manned by two guides. One to handle the boat, the other stood at the prow with the boat lamp shining it into the trees. These guys were amazing. They told us to look out for shining eyes. We saw nothing but time after time they'd signal to each other and the boat would turn towards what they'd found. We found sleeping troops of proboscis monkeys and lion tailed macaques, a civet cat was spotted but it scooted before the rest of us could find it with our city-bred eyes. And of bird, what shall I say of birds. Kingfishers clung to their branches in defiance of cameras flashing a mere few feet away. Night herons perched on branches in the water glared at us evilly through red eyes as boats surrounded them. Bats flew about us. And this mist fell lower. It clung coldly to us as we sped on homewards. At times, I had no eyes for the animals. The landscape was utterly and undescribably lovely.
Our crap cameras have done no justice to it and so I refuse to upload our paltry efforts in this area. Only Rohanna got a good shot of the night, but this is from camp and there is nothing of the elvish beauty of the waterscape.
The van had no air conditioning and because of the rain it was not possible to open a window without someone getting very wet, it was raining that hard. The inside was stuffy hot and humid. We couldn't take it any longer and the windows were opened slightly and the cold wet drops hurled themselves at us. Who cared, we could breathe! The rain eventually became sporadic as we passed through wet and dry patches. On both sides palm oil plantations stretched away to the horizon and the sky rolled in heavy grey. The road was rough and bouncy, someone tall would have definitely gotten a few bumps on their head. We were all rather short. Half an hour or so into the ride, the rain stopped completely and the windows were pushed open completely. My hair was whipped about my face furiously but the air was so cold and fresh, I felt high spirited, full blooded, restless and alive! The heat subsided and as we were all a little full from lunch, everyone slowly fell asleep inspite of the jolting and the wind.
We arrived at the ferry terminal to find a small village by the river and a few boats moored to a wooden jetty. Directly across us were some heavily forested hills and the road crossed to our right in a heavy iron bridge.
The bags were loaded with the supplies on one boat which hung heavily in the water. We slipped on life jackets and were herded into other boats. We were off, we were off, we were off!!! Adventure, wild waters, the untamed Kinabatangan! It was all before us. We were off into an area where my cell phone (and several others) had no reception. Goodbye civilisation. It would be waiting for us when we returned.
The water was silty, the sun was low and the trees grew higher and higher on every side. Several birds were out. We saw a fishing eagle, a oriental hornbill pair, a crested serpent eagle and several troops of monkeys (proboscis and lion tailed macaques). We had heard there were crocodiles so we eagerly scanned the water at first. But there was so much debris floating down that ten crocs could have have been around and not been seen or mistaken for debris. That first time though, I really think it must have been all debris. We were going so fast most times, we couldn't have seen the sly silhouette of a crocodile we came to know later.
The camp and river are separated by two ox-bow lakes. During dryer seasons, the camp is not accessibly by water. The visitors need to get off at the river and trek past the lakes to camp. It had been raining a good bit when we were there so the ox-bow lakes were connected to each other and the river by narrow channels of water. We zigged and zagged through these channels. Trees leaned so heavily over our heads, we had to duck at times. It was a glimpse into the heart of the forest. The first oxbow lake we emerged into had groves of half immersed trees in the water, their crowns sticking out. We later learned they were diptocarps which thrive in surfeit water, blooming green at such times. We negotiated this lake and another channel to the second ox-bow lake. On the shores of Oxbow lake No. 2 lay Uncle Tan's Camp.
Glimpse of Uncle Tan as the boat draws nearer.Head guide Lan told us to be "free and easy" till 7:30 when we needed to assemble at the common area and be briefed about our time here. So we looked around. Look below for our camp facilities. Photos were taken over the stay period, but you might as well see them now.
Sleeping quarters, though I dont blame you for thinking it a chicken coop
The three stalls on the left are toilets, the three on the right are shower cubicles
Filter units we take water from. Plumbing is not laid on.
Bathwater.
Living areaThe moon was full tonight. A clammy chill was descending. But how haunting the lake was. Deathly quiet and even our motors seemed to be chugging softly instead of their usual raucous roar. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life. A mist was forming at the further end of the lake, we could see it hanging hesitantly, silver spun. Surprisingly, there were very few stars and the sky was inky. We had passed this way in the morning but there is something about the quality of moonlight which transforms everything it touches.
Each boat was manned by two guides. One to handle the boat, the other stood at the prow with the boat lamp shining it into the trees. These guys were amazing. They told us to look out for shining eyes. We saw nothing but time after time they'd signal to each other and the boat would turn towards what they'd found. We found sleeping troops of proboscis monkeys and lion tailed macaques, a civet cat was spotted but it scooted before the rest of us could find it with our city-bred eyes. And of bird, what shall I say of birds. Kingfishers clung to their branches in defiance of cameras flashing a mere few feet away. Night herons perched on branches in the water glared at us evilly through red eyes as boats surrounded them. Bats flew about us. And this mist fell lower. It clung coldly to us as we sped on homewards. At times, I had no eyes for the animals. The landscape was utterly and undescribably lovely.
Our crap cameras have done no justice to it and so I refuse to upload our paltry efforts in this area. Only Rohanna got a good shot of the night, but this is from camp and there is nothing of the elvish beauty of the waterscape.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Day 1: To Sandakan and some more
Day 1 saw us arrive at Kranji in the morning. We were supposed to get there by 9. It says something for our eagerness that we all arrived well before time. By 9 we were on the bus to the causeway. Causeway->singapore departure->malaysian immigration->Kota raya->(45 minute bus ride)->Senai airport by 10:30->(lunch/shopping)->check in at 12:30.
I had a swollen ankle from a silly wrench I gave it on Saturday night. Sunday I spent prostrate and praying for it to heal. Monday saw me limp into my office. My intern, who was a medic when he was doing his national service, told me to stomp on it. With my weight and general striding habit, I ended up doing pretty much that. It felt pretty tenable by evening. The trip was still on. Problem was, because of the ankle, my normal shoes didn't fit. I left for this trekking trip with one pair of leather loafers (comfortable as anything you'd find, but not something for rough wear). Back to where I left off this narrative. I spent a lot of time in Senai trying to find shoes. No hope.
The AirAsia plane which took us to Sandakan. Bright and cheery on the outside, cramped and leathery on the inside
The flight was spent in doing sudoku and yawning. We arrived at 4ish in Sandakan and left for the OPS base in Gum Gum. When we arrived we were told the plumbing had gone bust and we had to find alternate accommodation at night. Luckily we found a quiet little lodge near the orang-utan rehabilitation facility at Sepilok.
When dinner was done we dragged ourselves up the slippery wooden stairs which led from the restaurant to the rooms. We took turns to take a bath and gathered in the common room. the girls had a long narrow room with four beds, which we put together to sleep as five.
The entrance to the girls' room
It had an attached bath room. The guys were in a dorm which opened out to the common room. We played Uno, bluff and a game called 98. The objective of 98 is to put your card on a central pile and adding up the card value to the pile value. The person to put the card when the total is equal to or exceeds 98, loses and then the games starts afresh with the rest of the people. We played and played till we broke up the party and went off to sleep by around 11.
It started raining around 11:30. The roof of our lodge was zinc sheeted. The rain beat down noisily all night and you could hear the wind whistle. It was wonderful to be snug and cosy under the sheets listening to that.
A kingfisher
A cottage with many chickens and roosters, one of whom we got a better acquaintance with the next day
Moonrise over Sepilok
I had a swollen ankle from a silly wrench I gave it on Saturday night. Sunday I spent prostrate and praying for it to heal. Monday saw me limp into my office. My intern, who was a medic when he was doing his national service, told me to stomp on it. With my weight and general striding habit, I ended up doing pretty much that. It felt pretty tenable by evening. The trip was still on. Problem was, because of the ankle, my normal shoes didn't fit. I left for this trekking trip with one pair of leather loafers (comfortable as anything you'd find, but not something for rough wear). Back to where I left off this narrative. I spent a lot of time in Senai trying to find shoes. No hope.
The AirAsia plane which took us to Sandakan. Bright and cheery on the outside, cramped and leathery on the insideThe flight was spent in doing sudoku and yawning. We arrived at 4ish in Sandakan and left for the OPS base in Gum Gum. When we arrived we were told the plumbing had gone bust and we had to find alternate accommodation at night. Luckily we found a quiet little lodge near the orang-utan rehabilitation facility at Sepilok.
aforementioned quiet "Jungle Lodge"
Willy and Jon just outside our room
Veron is on the job as we spot our first "rare Malaysian creature", a snail.
The restaurant and dining area
The pond by the restaurant
We unpacked, played uno, cards, walked till dark. Then we had some great food. We discovered an unusual delicacy. Jungle Fern. Its a stalk and leaf kind of green and it was cooked in some stock. We couldn't get enough of it. I was too busy getting seconds, but some people in our group got pictures of it. I'll post em when I get em.
Willy and Jon just outside our room
Veron is on the job as we spot our first "rare Malaysian creature", a snail.
The restaurant and dining area
The pond by the restaurantWhen dinner was done we dragged ourselves up the slippery wooden stairs which led from the restaurant to the rooms. We took turns to take a bath and gathered in the common room. the girls had a long narrow room with four beds, which we put together to sleep as five.
The entrance to the girls' roomIt started raining around 11:30. The roof of our lodge was zinc sheeted. The rain beat down noisily all night and you could hear the wind whistle. It was wonderful to be snug and cosy under the sheets listening to that.
Moments from the day
A kingfisher
A cottage with many chickens and roosters, one of whom we got a better acquaintance with the next day
Moonrise over Sepilok
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