Northern Malaysian Borneo

On the 14th I flew into Kuching in Southern Malaysian Borneo.  Not a lot to say about this place.  They have some weird cat sculptures around town and a nice board walk where you can sit at a coffee shop and read.  I visited a museum that talked about Kuching and showed how indigenous people in the area live.  I left early the next day for a flight to Northern Borneo - it has a long name but most people call the main town KK.  From there I traveled to Sandakin, where I stayed for a night.

In the morning I heard a beautiful sound like a man singing outside my window.  The voice was deep, but rising in pitch - it was the 5am call to prayer.  After a few more hours of sleep I went in search for the bus that would take me to the Sepilok Orang-utan conservation center.  The next bus didn't leave for another hour, so I just hung out and watched the rain pour down.  On the bus I met a German couple who was going to the same place.  We arrived just before the 10am feeding.  Drenched, we joined a crowd of other onlookers staring out at the trees, which had ropes linking several platforms full of bananas.  I was thinking these apes might be much smarter than us, staying someplace dry instead of going out in the rain, but they did eventually make an appearance.  Since it was so crowded I joined the German couple standing on the wet railing near a large tree we could hold for support.  We had a perfect view of a large orang-utan and two smaller ones eating on the platform, and since its SEA no pesky officials came over to tell us to get down.  It was interesting seeing the apes in that type of surrounding - the jungle.  It was more like we were visiting them in their home instead of us bringing them to zoos, but it was still a bit of a circus with about 50 people watching and madly taking pictures.

In the afternoon I decided to take a walk on one of the nature trails.  It was raining, but I had on my rain jacket.  Before I left the guide at the front desk wished me "good luck", but the way he said it sounded a bit dubious, hm.  The beginning of the walk was fine.  I was walking on a wood platform with railings, but then it disintegrated into a muddy trail.  About an hour into the 2 hour hike to the water hole I discovered a leach on my hip.  Then I discovered several on my legs, and at least 10 on my feet - %#$^%$*!!.  I scrambled with a lighter getting the bastards off.  I bet that is what the guide was talking about - (grumble).  I was almost to the watering hole so for some reason I decided to continue, but despite my best efforts I couldn't stop neurotically checking for leaches every 10 seconds or so.  I seemed to be finding more leaches each time I checked.  I reached the watering hole, I think - it had a rickety bridge across it (in memory of a British girl who died trekking in Indonesia).  Okay great, time to go.  I fled from this leach infested mud pit called a jungle as quick as possible as the rain started to fall harder.

The evening was better, I talked to my roommate - a Swede who I joined for dinner.  I guess he went to the Orang-utan feeding early and discovered 2 baby apes on the platform where visitors usually stand.  He showed me the bites on his knees where they bit him, plus mentioned how they tried to mug him - trying to take his wallet and camera.

So yah, don't mess with nature ... anyway, next morning I was leaving the jungle to go climb Mt. Kinabalu.