Borneo is a wild, wild place, though it is becoming less wild day by day as forests are slashed for more palm plantations, which produce lucrative palm oil, one of Malaysia's bigger exports. Riding in cramped minibuses through the
Sabah countryside, we saw acres and acres of palm plantations. Actually, the
same goes for our ride from Singapore to
Kuala Lumpur three weeks ago. Anyway, in spite of the heavy deforestation rates in Borneo, which is shared by
Malaysia, and what two other countries geo-wizards (first one to comment correctly gets a postcard! no cheating and looking on our map), it is still a pretty special place. For one, it has many endemic species like proboscis monkeys that are only found in Borneo, and two, animals like orangutans that have been virtually extirpated on mainland southeast Asia still have significant populations in Borneo. We stayed at a basic jungle camp along the
Kantabangan River for three days with a tour company called Uncle Tan's. This was a real
RAINforest experience. We rode down the river in little outboard skiffs to get to the camp, spotting crocodiles, proboscis ("big nose") monkeys, long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques, and two orangutans high up in the canopy. Lots of birds of prey as well, including serpent eagles, fish eagles, and kites. After a
little while the boatman turned into the marshy shoreline and we squeezed through a narrow channel that would
otherwise be totally
unrecognizable, then suddenly we were speeding through the flooded jungle understorey, weaving through passages between towering trees. Then it opened up into a big lake that apparently stays deep even when the water is too low to travel through the forest by boat. When we arrived at the camp we were told how lucky we were that we could just pull right up in the skiffs rather than walk from the "jetty" about a kilometer away, along the river. This is the result of wildly variable water levels, probably over three meters. We were sort of at the tail end of the wet season, so the water was about mid-level, but apparently about
two months earlier it would have been almost up to the roofs of the raised common room and sleeping quarters. This is when they get a vacation. Understandably, since this is a really damp place, the mattresses smelled terrible. But we were usually too tired to care. The three or four boat safaris we went on were great and the boatman could always spot and identify everything. It was just amazing watching the huge proboscis monkeys jump from tree to tree. Often they would get spooked and start leaping away, but sometimes they would just chill, and sit on a tree branch with one leg up and an elbow resting on their knee, big pot belly sticking out...a posture I have no doubt assumed before, though maybe not on a tree branch. Julie said she certainly felt some degree of kinship. I told her she wasn't as hairy and has a much more attractive nose. My favorite memory is when we came upon some pig-tailed macaques, aka the red-ass monkey, and Julie said "I wonder why their butts are so red?". The answer to this question became clear minutes later as two monkeys engaged in an unmistakable behavior. We all almost fell out of the boat laughing. We also did two walks in the forest, one at night and one during the day, both muddy. Saw some huge bugs including tarantulas, scorpions, millipedes and centipedes. Macaques were ever present at camp, running on top of the tin roofs and hoping to snatch something. But this was difficult for them as Uncle Tan staff were usually lounging around, singing songs, drinking beer and keeping watch between safari trips and meals. Also hanging around camp were bearded pigs (Julie actually found something ugly!), monitor lizards, and even a big male orangutan right by the outhouse! This was especially cool...we watched the big guy suck out honey from a honeycomb that he held onto as he slowly moved from branch to branch. Many of us braved the terrible stench of the outhouse to watch for over an hour. Aside from all the neat wildlife we saw, it was also fun to think of what we didn't see but must be somewhere in the jungle...deadly snakes, big cats, sun bears, pygmy elephants, gibbons,
tarsiers. On our way out when we passed the next group coming in, a Spaniard amongst us said to them "welcome to the jungle". Now how often, other than while singing the Guns n' Roses tune, can you really say this?
We couldn't go to
Sabah and miss diving at
Sipadan, an island about 35 km off the coast of a town called
Semporna. So this was our next stop. We stayed for three days at a sort of
homestay on a rickety raised shanty over the water on
Mabul Island. Had a great time with some other travellers here, including the rare American species, and enjoyed two nice dives at
Sipadan in spite of some really lousy equipment. I know I moaned and complained a lot about the lack of big fish in Indonesia, so I'll be quick to say that
Sipadan was swarming with them. On our first dive at Barracuda Point we saw...a huge school of chevron barracuda!
Also many other schools of fish that we were too awestruck to identify. Lots of turtles too. The second dive didn't reveal as many fish, but it was a beautiful wall dive with nice corals and sea fans. All the dives at
Sipadan are wall dives, with the bottom at about 600 meters. Our third dive was at
Mabul, which is known for its "muck diving": not a crystal clear coral reef experience, but a low-visibility, sand/silt/patch reef habitat that usually has interesting small critters lurking about. Nothing too notable here, but we did see some nice
nudibranchs and a
leatherjacket fish. But we were constantly trying to get away from a large group of divers who exemplified poor diving practice and etiquette, kicking and grabbing the reef and wielding cameras like baton twirlers. This had us second guessing whether diving/
ecotourism is really less destructive than dynamite fishing. An exaggeration, but sad and eye-opening too see how people can be so careless.
Our final stop on the way back towards
Sandakan was at a place called
Sepilok where there is an orangutan rehab center. This place rescues mostly young orangutans that have been displaced by habitat loss (almost all are found on or around palm plantations, some kept as pets by locals). They bring the little guys back, nurse them back to health, then teach them things their mother would have taught them like climbing and swinging.
Then after a few months or so they let them go into the surrounding forest preserve where they are slowly coaxed away from human dependency. The most recently released ones tend to stay right near the center and they are fed from a platform that you can watch twice daily. Ropes are strung from tree to tree to help the orangutans build their skills and get to the feeding platform swiftly. As soon as the food guy comes up the platform the orangutans emerge from the forest from every direction, swinging along the ropes. They have amazing dexterity and flexibility, and their feet are just as
dexterous and strong as their arms and hands. They all look and behave so differently too, just like people. Once again, we were struck by how similar we are to these animals..."man of the forest" is the translation of the name orangutan.
Link to jungle/general photos:
Link to diving pics from Sipadan:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jdimond/SipadanSabahMalaysianBorneoMay08Heading to a place called the Cameron Highlands tomorrow, known for tea plantations and cool high altitude weather. Julie says that she has organized and cleaned up the existing recent picture folders we have in case anyone found them too cluttered and cumbersome.
We just spent the past two days discovering why Southern Thailand is such a hotspot on the tourist map. WOW. The beaches are pure bliss - smooth, white sand and turquoise waters. Dreamy! We took two different boat trips- one that stayed closer to the mainland and provided the opportunity to snorkel around a lot of the islands (which are all tall limestone cliffs, a paradise for rock climbers...and near where "The Man With The Golden Gun" was filmed) and the other tour took us out to Ko Phi Phi (pronounced Ko Pee Pee). We had originally planned on avoiding Ko Phi Phi because we knew it was supposed to be very busy, but it is the low season here and after the tour around the coastal islands we got a bit hooked and decided to give it a shot anyway. Well, we are super glad we went because the snorkeling was even better than the previous day and the views really were superb. Only two spots were too crowded, but no worse than a New England beach at the height of summer. Anyway, I'll let our pictures speak for themselves (they are all in Jay's album). We head north to the island of Ko Tao (in the Gulf of Thailand) today!
