Day 12 Baku National Park and Final Post

More treks with the guide pointing out critters we could never see on our own.  One of our favorite, (no pictures), is a huge scorpion that you can only see at night with a UV light!  He knows where a couple of them live on the night path, and lured them out with a stick; glowing in the dark.  Another treat was the fireflies!  Just like Pirate s of the Caribbean, oh wait, it is the other way around. 

A BIG centipede.  Around 3 inches long.

Little snake, but HUGE eyes.

Another adventure for Gloria and me.  As has been our tradition, after working so hard for a week in Cambodia, we take a couple more to holiday in Asia.  Three years ago we toured Northern Vietnam; having a great time.  This year, in looking at the map,  Borneo intrigued us.  Not knowing much more than Borneo had Orangutans and some good diving we decided to go for it. Once we decided which areas we wanted to visit we contacted several travel agents.  They all said it couldn’t be done, and those that responded with their suggestions included only two of the five areas with lots of “the afternoon is free”, or “explore the city on your own” language.

These are TWO snakes.  The big one has been on this branch for weeks, the little one showed up on our second day at Baku.  Same species.  The big one is the…….female, the little guy is the male!

A great picture Gloria took of this male Proboscis Monkey.  Their scientific name describes their big nose and big belly!  They are the only primate that ruminates, (like a cow).  Hence the big belly.

So, with that as a challenge, we put together our own itinerary.  It ended up busy but successful.  8 in-country flights later, we got in our scuba diving, Orangutans, trek to the Pinnacles,  river walks, cave exploration and night walks .  Highlights?  The Pinnacles, we discovered, are attempted by few, and even fewer succeed.  World Class diving.  The biggest and most extensive cave system in the world.  Seeing five different primates in the wild.  Bugs, snakes, critters galore.  And, Malaysians who are very proud of their country and natural heritage.

Would we recommend Borneo?  Absolutely!  It is a trekkers delight.  We met people from all over the world, including natives, that come to Borneo for the trekking.  Challenging, yes, with the heat, rain and humidity, but worth the sweat and blisters!

Day 11 Baku National Park

Two more flights.  Mulu to Miri, then Miri to Kuching.  Kuching is very large, around 500K people.  Probably lots to do there, but our primary interest is getting out to Baku National Park.  We stayed the night in a hotel, then a 45 drive through the city to the docks, and a 30  longboat ride to the National Park.  Two ways to enjoy and visit the Park.  One is for people to hire a longboat to take them over, they then wander about for the day, a couple of days or for as long as they want.  The other, more efficient way, at least for us, is to buy a package which included accommodations (half star), food, cafeteria style and a guide to take you on the myriad of trails.  Most packages are 2-3 days. Another perk, at least with this guide, is he surprised us with supper.  After we had filled our plates with cafeteria food, he brought this big plate of fish to our table.  We had seen that when we came out in the long boat he had a little plastic bag of two large fish, and they were for our dinner!  Garnished with ginger, onions, tomatoes, and garlic.  Excellent.

Insectivorous plants everywhere!

An interesting mix of sandstone and limestone, beautiful!

Most people were on their own, and wander they did.  Our guide had a specific schedule, certain hikes to take us on, and showed us a ton of things that others weren’t aware of or couldn’t see on their own.  Birds, insects, snakes, monkeys, and the wild pigs that are tearing up the National Park landscape. (go figure).  We went on three-day hikes, and a night hike.  Pictures today are some of the critters we saw.

 

Too many wild boars, they are everywhere.  Not dangerous, but they really tear the place up looking for edible roots and grubs.  They call them “night tractors”!

Day 10 Wind Cave and Clearwater Cave

These are the final two caves in Mulu National Park.  Wind Cave is so named because of the wind that runs through it.  Its features unique to all others. I can’t give you a scale on these pictures other than saying that these caves are HUGE.  The stalagmites and stalagmites sore 20-40 meters in height, they caves can fit 10 or more 747’s in them!   Again, pictures are more valuable than words.

 

Clearwater Cave is most everybody’s favorite.  It is huge, with so many unique features.  Our guide, Omar, was in on some of the exploratory treks in the  1980’s so he could point out unique features, and some of the left-over climbing gear in different parts of the cave.  Descriptions are inadequate, just enjoy the pictures.

Day 9 Mulu National Park, Deer Cave and Lang Cave

A 9km trek back to the river, then a hotel room!  Cleaned up nicely, washed some clothes, ready to see Dear and Lang Cave in the afternoon.  There are four “main caves” in Mulu National Park.  They are developing a 5th for tourism to open next year, other areas and caves are being researched.  Indeed, the cave system in Mulu is the largest in the world, as is the biggest cave, longest, and a host of other adjectives.  Due to the geology and a lot of time, this system of shale, limestone and sandstone is unique in the world.  Researchers from all over the world are here constantly discovering and researching new caves.

Deer Cave was named because in years past, deer  came in to drink the salty water.  Salty because of the 3 million bats that live here!  Bat Guano is salty, and smelly, and this is what attracted the deer. Photos below.

 

This is what these little buggers look like. Bald and not too handsome, this one was probably sick.  We didn’t touch him.

Water streaming in was fantastic, hard to capture on film

Yep, this is Abe Lincoln!  Incredible natural profile.

Lang Cave was named after a tribesman that was helpful in discovery and maintenance of the caves in the early days. Photos of Lang Cave:

 

Finally, to finish the day, we waited till 5:15pm to watch the above mentioned 3 million bats emerge from Deer Cave.  Incredible.  Again, nothing we have ever experienced before.  Wave after wave of bats came out for about 5 minutes.  They go back into the cave around 4-5am to sleep all day.  How many mosquitoes are eaten each night?  I don’t know the number, but the weight of all the mosquitoes consumed is 15 tons!  That is a lot of mosquitoes.

Day 8 The climb to the Pinnacles

Our day started at 6am with breakfast and we were on the trail at 6:30.  The trek:  2.4km, (less than two miles!).  But the terrain is basically vertical.  They monitor your progress very carefully.  There is a stop at 900 meters and you have to be there in 60 minutes time.  If not, they make you turn around.  Gloria and I made it in 57 minutes.  They estimate the 2.4km will take 8 hours.  3.5 hours up, 1 hour at the top and 3.5 hours down.  You start at 6:30 and should return in the late afternoon.

Gloria on one of the many ropes, pulling herself up

The climb was relentless and SLOW.  Going up it was like hiking stairs that were made of slippery, moss covered rocks and roots.  Standing, you could touch the trail in front of you!  Then for the last 400 meters, you had ladders and ropes you had to climb to continue.  We found this probably the most challenging trek we have ever been on.  We carried 6 liters of water between the two of us, we drank it all.  I sweated so much I soaked my shirt and shorts. (TMI).  The sweat wasn’t dripping off my face, it literally poured.  I have never sweated this profusely in my life!

The “trail”, vertical, and slippery

Many rest stops later we got to the pinnacles.  A very unique, one of a kind formation of limestone shards created by the weather.  Interesting, yes, spectacular, well it was a hard climb to see what we had already seen on the internet!  Now, we had the climb down.  One usually thinks hiking down is easier that hiking up a trail.  Just the opposite in this situation.   Again, very vertical and slippery, much of it had to be hiked the same way we went up, backward, climbing down.  The ropes were especially challenging for me, again, vertical with no protection.  One slip could be very serious, even fatal!  But, we did finish in a bit longer than our ascent and were proud to claim another successful climb.

Gloria on one of the many ladders

The Pinnacles, only place in the world.  was it worth it?  We made it back safely, so I guess so.

Day 7 Trekking to Camp 5

Overnight In Kota Kinabalu, in a room barely bigger than the bed!, Indeed, the “wall” between the bathroom and bedroom was glass, so it felt bigger!  Then a flight to Miru, than another to Mulu, or destination.  Mulu National Park is the darling of Borneo.  Recently designated a World Heritage Site.  They have poured money into the park to get it up to demanded standing to maintain that designation.  They have done a great job in interpretation.  However, our destination is quite off the beaten path and still quite primitive.

Upon landing in Mulu, we were expecting to check into the Mulu Resort for one night, then start our trekking the following day.  Indeed, our host informs us at the airport that we were starting our trek today, and the night in the Resort at the end our our stay.  That’s fine, except since we can only take a small backpack with us on the trek, we had to go through our rolling duffels in the airport to separate out what we could put on our backs.  Once that was over, we are hauled first by van, then by long boat up a river to the drop off point for the trek.  Then a 9km, 6 mile hike through the jungle to our destination.

Our guide stayed with us since the trail was blocked in several areas by fallen trees.  When the afternoon torrential rains started, the ponchos came out and we kept trudging through the ankle deep water on the trail.  Even though it was early afternoon, with the depth of the jungle, and rain, it felt like dusk.  Half the way to our destination, we heard this tremendous crack, and having lived in the mountains of California, we instantly realized a tree was coming down.  In watching our guide, he wasn’t running, so we stayed close to him.  After the tree came crashing to the ground, he thought it had dropped about 20 meters away, (60 feet).  That’s close.  Below is our home for two days, in the dorm with a mosquito net.

We got to Camp 5 around 5pm, the 9km took 3 hours to slosh thru.  There, we met a new group of trekkers.  A couple from Switzerland, and a father/daughter due from Kuala Lumpur, native Malaysians.  He is retired and loves to talk, she is a Geology major at the University in Miri and very quite.   Both are Muslin.  Couldn’t really tell he was, but Florita worn the traditional head covering.  Both very nice.  We were briefed a bit about our trek to the Pinnacles that night, little did we expect what we would encounter the next day.

 

Day 6 Gomantong Cave

This was an interesting day!  One last early morning cruise on the river to look for animals. Didn’t see much.  Mostly birds, but we did see one more lonely orang utan sitting in a tree.  They are solitary primates, one wonders how they perpetuate their species.  Next stop was a bus ride to Gomantong Cave.  This cave complex is huge, we visit one of them.  It too is huge and full of 5 things.  Birds, (more on them in a minute), bats, bat guano, huge centipedes, and cockroaches – gazillion of these!

First the birds:  they are the birds that make the ingredients for “bird nest soup” so favored in Asia.  These are little nests made entirely out of bird spit that are harvested three times a year, cleaned, packaged and sent to China.  The picture is of one where that particular species incorporates feathers in the nest as well, (I doesn’t demand as much as the “pure spit” ones and has to be hand cleaned before shipping).  Our guide, when asked if he has tried bird nest soup, admitted he never has since he knows how they are made and where they come from!  Quite a delicacy we are told.  You can see from the photo above that harvesting is very difficult and dangerous to say the least.

On to the bats:  tons of them too.  And guano that is meters thick everywhere!  They don’t remove and sell it since it is so thick and soft, the baby birds, when learning to fly, frequently crash into the walls, allowing for a “pillowy” landing.  BTW, that same guano is not thick and soft on the walkway, it is greasy and slippery, and creepy.

Centipedes:  right out of a science fiction movie, big fast and everywhere.

Cockroaches:  everywhere, every size, again, sensory overload.  As interesting as it was to see the caves, we couldn’t wait to get out of there.  Ugh!

         

This is where the guard lives, in the cave.  This has to be the  WORLD’S WORST JOB!!  100% humidity, bat guano dust permeates the air, cockroach carpet everywhere and hot as hell, wait, this is hell!

Day 5 Nature Lodge Kinabatangan

A nice outpost in the jungle.  We are on the Kinabatangan River.  Time is spent going between jungle walks, both during the day and at night, and river cruises, both early in the morning and at dusk.  The night walks are to observe the sleeping birds and whatever else  may be creeping around at night.  Didn’t see a lot, but still interesting.

          

The daytime hike was to Oxbow Lake.  A long, sweaty hike slogging through mud to see very little.  We did find a centipede that balls up to a perfect sphere a bit smaller than a golf ball.  Kids take them home and play marbles with them. Otherwise a few birds.  It is so hot and humid, most animals are deep in the forest and resting.

    

The boat rides on the river have been very productive.  Primarily the Proboscis Monkey, Silver Leaf Monkey and Macaw Monkey. The most fun to watch are the Proboscis Money.  Usually they are in harems, with one big male and numerous females, high up in the trees eating figs.  The females have smaller noses, but a full grown male’s nose can be 6 inches long.  Frequently they hang on to it with one hand, and move it out of the way so they can eat. The monkeys normally live in the jungle, but come to river’s edge at dawn and dusk to eat.

    

The males are distinguished by their long noses, “white underpants” and “bomber jacket” fur!

We also observed monitor lizards,  a 10 foot long crocodile, a yellow ringed snake, curled up in a tree about 30 feet off the ground; numerous birds including the Kingfisher, Hornbill, and several raptors; eagles and owls. 

    

A nice lodge, we are in our own bungalow, they have dorms as well for the backpackers among us.  Our privacy is nice.  Food is very good.  Malaysian, but toast and jam for breakfast and more fruit then we have seen in two weeks.  Also, we have enjoyed tea at 3:30.  A hold over from colonialism.  Very nice to take a break in the day for tea/coffee and biscuits. !

Saying good bye to our new friends. They hail from England, Sweden, Germany and Holland.  From University students, HR, English teacher, IT consultant and PhD in toxic waste.  A great group to hang out with for three days.

Day 4 Orang Utan Encounter

Ahh, nice hotel last night.  Best Western, a real Best Western!  Nice to shower in hot water, shave, and actually flush the paper down the toilet!  (Those of you who travel internationally, know what I mean).

The Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Center is one-of-a-kind.  There are only 30,000 Oran Utans remaining.  Only in Borneo and Sumatra.  This center collects orphaned Orang babies, and spends years rehabilitating them to be reintroduced into the wild.  We share 96% of our DNA with Orangs, and they, like us, our slow learners!  Since they have no natural mother, they have to be taught everything Orang Utans need to know to survive in the wild.  We were allowed to observe the outdoor feeding that happens twice a day. These Orangs live in the surrounding area and still come in for guaranteed breakfast and dinner.  As you can see from the photos, the Gibbon monkeys know where the easy meal is too.

 

About 9:45 the Gibbon monkeys show up, then slowly the Orangs.  These are 3-6 years old, live in the jungle, but not ready to be re-introduced into other parts of Borneo.  They have learned to live  and move about in the jungle, but haven’t developed the independence needed to survive.  Others, their age are already independent, but they, like humans each have a different level of confidence as they experience new things.  The feeder comes out and slowly leaves food for them.  No interaction at this point in their rehab.  Initially, when they are infants, they actually treat them just like human newborns; bottle feeding, bathing and clothing them(to keep them warm). Indeed the staff takes the babies home at night to care form them.

    

The big surprise of the day was the emergence of a big Alpha male.  He is a wild Orang, was not in rehab and rarely shows up at the feeding.  A huge treat for all of us.  When he showed up, the feeder immediately left the feeding platform.  He behaved himself, grabbing breakfast quite calmly then sauntering off.

The second surprise of the morning was to find two orangs on our walkway out of the viewing area.  They wandered on the walkway as we were walking by.  We were instructed not to touch them and no flash photography.  Timing was perfect with one of them sitting right in front of us.  Couldn’t resist having Gloria pose next to him!

After our Orang Utan Encounter it is off to the Nature Lodge where we will spend 3 days, 2 nights getting to know the tropical rain forest, early in the morning, during the day, and late at night.