I have just been travelling with two lovely Dutch girls –
Judith and Marjolein (I had to call her May) they were great fun to be around
and not just for their keen sense of humour but also it was a chance to observe
how two gorgeous 20 something girls get around – and to think I was concerned
about dressing appropriately! It all started on the bus from Semporna to
Sepilok. I boarded nice and early and was settled into my book when the seat
next to me was taken by a nice looking young man, I had to force a Hi out of
him, that’s when I noticed (and I’m sure he did to) two gorgeous looking girls
board the bus and take seat’s across the aisle from me, they saw me and were
quick to give me friendly smiles. As the bus left Semporna it was apparent the
seat infront of the girls was vacant so the young man (Australian) quickly
scooted across. After a couple of hours he then tried to get a conversation
going, all he got out of them was yes and no answers and a polite interest in
his diving photo’s. At the Sepilock junction
about 8 western’s including me got off the bus and looked around for some hint
on which direction to head, I had arranged a pick up but was an hour earlier so
I stuck with the group. We headed to the nearest backpackers about 400m down
the road, most of them were staying there but the two girls didn’t want to, so
I offered them a lift with my driver and we quickly became firm friends. They
turned out to be medical students starting a six week internship in Kuala Lumpur
next week. As soon as we were settled into Sepilock we headed to the 3pm
feeding of the Orang-utans, after waiting in silence we were rewarded with one
big Orang-utan swinging through the forest, he quickly established himself as a
show off then drank all the water and started to pick through the food. I
thought that was pretty good but it soon became more entertaining with several
females and babies arriving to sort through the food and lick the empty tin
tray for water, I guess they will have to make the trip to river for a drink. I
was impressed with their obvious strength and I couldn’t believe the size of
their feet and hands. Even though there wasn’t a barrier between us they didn’t
take much notice of us.
The girls had rejected all the ‘tours’ of the Kinabatangan
river as they felt they were too expensive (280 = $80 per person for 2 days),
so they invited me to travel with them to find our own way, stating they wanted
an adventure, I am a bit over doing anything adventurous at the moment but
couldn’t resist having the company of these two girls. After a bus and two
minivans later we ended up at the Gomantong Caves, the girls excitement turned
to disgust as they discovered the cavern was splattered with bat droppings with
a very healthy supply of cockroaches covering everything, we slipped our way
along the boardwalk until we came across some ‘cavemen’ hanging out at the back
of the cavern, one of them was keen to show us the ‘famous’ Swiftlet nests, the
girls were groused out even more when they learned they were made from spit and
Swiftlet nest soup is considered a delicacy. Being away from the tour pack was
now a problem as we needed to make the 25km journey into Sakau, a local was
hired and we drove along the murky river to our B&B at the very edge of the
forest. We boarded a tinnie for a 4-6pm afternoon cruise of the river and the
first thing we saw was an Orang-utan with a baby – very special, we floated
there for a while enjoying watching the
baby taking some test runs out on to the branches. We enjoyed this cruise so
much we ended up taking another cruise the next morning, loads of monkeys long
tailed, short tailed and the Dutch monkey. Not as many birds as what I imagined
but did see loads of Hornbills, Egret and a magnificent blue and gold kingfisher
and a lovely synchronised pair of ?? with light blue beaks. Obviously the
jungle was alive with mosquito’s, all three of us were reminding each other to
take our malaria tablets and apply repellent. May would report on her growing
number of bites, I think Judith was losing interest in the topic but I kept up
the sympathy and never pointed out the correlation of clothing vs bites. I was
dressed in loose trousers and long sleeve top no matter how hot it was and
didn’t have any bites where as she was dressed in a tank top and shorts and was
scoring an alarming number of bites! Go figure.
