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.
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