A Journey to Well Known Places

Have you ever found yourself thinking ‘you know, I would really like to spend a lot of money tromp through the mud with wild animals in the middle of a jungle’? I did. And it was really neat. Erica and I signed up for the 3 day 2 night package at Uncle Tan’s. If you happen to find yourself on the east side of Malaysian Borneo then I recommend you stop in for a visit. After an uneventful night in Sandakan, Erica and I woke up early and got a taxi to Uncle Tan’s HQ. We had a coffee and accepted their offer to transport us to neighboring Sipalok to see the feeding at the orangutan rehabilitation center. That was a treat. We saw about 6 orangutans swing in from the surrounding protected jungle for some banana treats. The program rescues orphaned and injured apes from all over eastern Borneo and raises them while slowly weaning them off of human help. While the orangutans were eating the macaque monkeys gathered to pick off the remains. They are very cheeky those macaques and it was fun to watch them squabble for the fruit and swing around on the trees. Then it was off to the jungle. We took a two hour van ride and an hour long boat ride to the camp area. We had our own bungalow right by the lake. The room had three piles of mattresses in various states of mildew and a mosquito net over each pile. It was nicer than the place in Phenom Phen with the rat, but not much. There was an elevated walk way connecting all the buildings of the camp, which is good since we arrived in the wet season and that adjective described everything around us for the duration of our stay. We tromped through the mud in the jungle in the morning, afternoon, and night with a guide pointing out the various wildlife around the camp. We waded thigh deep in snake and crocodile populated marsh area. We saw lots of interesting plants and animals; from a little bat sleeping in the curled new leaf of a jungle yam plant to river otters that somehow managed to continually evade the many crocodiles in the area. Bright plumed kingfishers and large horn billed birds flew all along the river. Five foot long monitor lizards strolled casually through the camp ground and a family of wild bearded pigs turns up daily to forage in the area. Then there was the troop of macaques that came by every afternoon. They make a habit of darting through the dining area and grabbing whatever they can. People have lost cell phones and cameras like that. When we were there they only got away with a can of condensed milk and a piece of French toast though. There was no running water although we got electricity from 6 to midnight. We emerged from the jungle after the experience in desperate need of showers and naps. Alas, it was not to be. Instead we boarded another bus and took a three hour ride to Mount Kinabalu national park.

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 21st, 2007 at 9:31 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.