Since we last blogged (blog meaning web log for those that are
interested!) we briefly stopped over in Cherating (small beach village on the eastern sie of Malaysia) and also spent a few days in Kuanatan, just a bit further down the coast. Not much to report, apart from trespassing
in a luxury 5 star beach resort just outside Cherating (I think we
fitted in very well!).
We then spend a couple of expensive nights in Singapore (our normal
'discount card' of Mr Malcolm wasn't there so we had to fend for
ourselves!), and even managed to spend loads despite cooking spaghetti at home for three nights in a row, accompanied by cheap wine out of a teapot!!
From Singapore it was onward to the land of dreams for Danielle,
Borneo. The hunt for the slow loris (the real reason for the Borneo trip) begins!
Dan was so excited about the trip that she checked bus times for the
trip to Johor Bahru airport (some 40kms away from central S'pore) and
all looked to be going well until we realised at the last minute that the flight was 0730 not 1030 as we thought. After a bit of last minute
change of plans, we managed to book a taxi from Singapore to JB airport for 0500 hrs only for it to be late by an hour (when we chased the driver up at 0505 I think he was still in bed!) luckly we cleared Singapore/Malaysia immigrations in record time to still make the flight.
Borneo was going to be a quick stop of nine days to take in the main
attractions of Sabah. We started with the main priority, the hunt for the slow loris and booked a jungle camping experience with Uncle Tan, which
was amazing. We jumped off the bus ride straight to the ops base for Uncle Tans in the torrential rain (after a beautiful lightening storm
throughout the ride) only to be asked by some fellow backpackers, also
getting off the bus if this was the jungle (it still makes us laugh if you read this Mark and Sigi - as we were on the main road still).
The next morning we visited the Orangutan Rehabilitation centre in Sepilok, which was good, but the best was still to come.
Uncle Tans started with a boat ride down the Kingabantam river to the
jungle base around an hour away. The accomodation at the camp consisted
of huts with no real doors, no showers (just a bucket of river water to
tip over yourself). With wild boar, long tailed macaques and orangutans
as our very close neighbours (in the case of the Macaques - a neighbour
not afraid to help itself to anything it wanted from your room, as we
found after they decided to steal Dan's towel).
During the trip we were treated to 5 river cruises by speedboat, on which we saw crocs a plently (one around 3 metres, viewed from 5 metres),
Probiscos monkeys, Kingfishers as well as loads of other birds/creatures
etc. We also had 2 treks into the jungle with our brilliant local guide
Remy, who showed us how to put a Scorpion into your mouth, during a
very interesting and funny night-time trek.
Our (really my) one concern when booking the trip was that we'd be in
the jungle during the Champions League final and therefore have no
chance to see the game. After playing a bit of Sholin soccer with the
guides, they offered to take us down the river at 2am to the nearest
village, which was an hours boat ride away, to watch the game. The boat ride was amazing, with a clear sky above, so clear you could see the milky-way, jungle either side of us and no lights whatsoever, beautiful. Its just a shame the game didn't work out in our favour!
We've made it out of the jungle alive without being eaten by any crocs
or Danielle (she didn't like the food in the camp, at one point i'm
sure she was thinking of eating my leg!).
Unfortuntely we didn't spot any Slow Loris (the reason for the trip to
Borneo!), Dan is distraught, but just about managing to get by one day
at a time!!
