WOw! what a magic trip.
I had two companions at various stages. One Maria a Dane who just complained a lot and was boring. And Karen a kiwi who was my main companion and I had a good time with.
We went to Sepilok to see the orang utan which was just the same as Rasa Raya (the place Jen and I went to) so it's wasn't anything special. Third time I've seen OTs and to be honest they are starting to bore me.
Then 2 hour boat ride to Sukau. Lovely staff - very friendly and food was great too.
Did a day cruise for 2 hours on the Kinabatangan and saw probiscous monkeys, long tail macaques, and ...... 30 elephants. Oh boy we hit the jackpot. 1/100 is the odds they reckon and we saw them up close on the river banks.
In fact we went onto land to see them and they started doing a Michael Jackson moonwalk which is their way of telling us to clear off. We retreated as they advanced and eventually were pushed back into our boats.
We watched them for at least an hour and laughed at the babies and marvelled at the males.
Then dinner at the lodge where we met Jane who is 22 and has been in Sabah 4 days from England. She is doing a similar thing to Raleigh but it's just her and one other at Sukau taking tree samples. Except the other person hasn't turned up and poor Jane is on her own.
Plus there's no phone there, plus they haven't really told her what to do so she's been terribly lost.
She talked to Karen & I for some time trying to decide what to do. It might be 3 mths on her own here if she takes it on. Scary btu she seems very tough.
Then after much deliberaton Karen & I went on a night cruise.
So it was about 5 hours on the water at the end of the day.
It was superb too. Saw the elephants again which would you believe were getting ho-hum!
ALso saw these incredibly colourful birds. One was a little kingfisher that's no bigger than your middle finger in height. How the guide found them in the dark with a spot light we'll never know.
It was gorgeous. Then we found a larger similar bird whose name I've forgotten.
We also saw a storm stalk at night which the guide had never done in all his years so said it was extremely rare. We saw another today. Aparently bird watchers come all the way to Sabah to see these birds but often return home without doing so as there is no guarantees with the wild of course.
Today we went to the Gomontong Bat Caves which were cool. Aparently the stuff collected from the nests is really good for avoiding wrinkles and costs a bundle.
We were told that the owners of the cave make RM 3 million (shitloads) per year. ANd they don't look rich at all and still live in their shacks. They use the money to visit Mecca beeing good muslims. It gives them 3 trips per year.
That was it basicallly but wow what a cool trip.
ANd to think I wasn't really interested.
Well one night to go now and I'm on my way. have to pack two bags worth into one (argh).
