Breakfast was a wedding gift from Brian's friends Mike Sottile and his girlfriend Dijana Nedelcovych- thanks guys! We had vegetable omelets, bananas tempura, french toast (with the crusts cut off), freshly squeezed mango/orange juice and more snake skin fruit. We looked out onto the (now) familiar rainforest wall at the butterflies and tiny birds flitting about. There was a fine mist over the canopy but nothing but blue skies behind. It was bittersweet as we were saying our goodbyes to Mike, our beloved rainforest guide, and the Australian family we've spent the last few days getting to know. We all exchanged emails and promises to share photos and maybe a visit someday?
We headed back to our room for- you guessed it- showers and re-arranging of our suitcases for the next part of our journey. The guys were there to pick up our stuff at 10 on the dot and we went to the lodge to settle our bill, obtain our Danum Valley blood donation certificates (a token of appreciation from the tiger leeches), and to turn in our review of Mike who we thought the world of...I basically wrote an essay about how wonderful he was. He even - on his own time - hiked back to the spot where we saw the orangutans to look for one of the Australian's camera lens caps. Literally a needle in a haystack...and sure enough, he found it and returned it to him. We simply could not believe it. Not to mention that that place was easily 1.5 hours hike there and back? Talk about dedication...
Anyway, all packed up and ready to go, Mitch informed us that she had good news. Instead of spending 2 nights in our next destination by the river, we could spend one there and one in Sandakan which would allow us to see the Sepilok orangutan rehabilitation center. Our tour company was even able to make the switch without us having to pay anything extra...we decided to go for it. We were glad to have seen some orangutans in the wild, but would be really cool to see even more up close. Cameras ready, we got into the pick up truck (but not before hugs and photos with the reception girls and Mike) and we were off...for a 6 hour ride to Bilit, a small town next to the Kinabatagun River. The bumpy road out of Danum Valley was rather empty except for a giant pig who ran across the road in front of us. We were hoping to see some elephants but maybe it just wasn't our day...
The Borneo Rainforest Lodge kindly packed us a lunch to go...mine a plain cheese sandwich (white bread of course with crusts cut off and a single slice of kraft cheese) and Brian was adventurous with his egg salad sandwich. For a snack we had banana bread and a local orange, which was green in color with a thin peel and very sweet and full of seeds. We watched the landscape change from the bustling, developed and politically charged city of Lahad Datu to the more rural and seemingly impoverished region of Bilit. We passed a little neighborhood known as "Paris" Mitch told us, and shortly thereafter saw some graffiti on the side of a shack which read "I <3 Paris" but Mitch said "there is no Eiffel Tower here". Palm plantation after palm nursery after palm plantation and palm oil trucks in front of and behind us the entire way...we noted that some of the larger palm plantations had elaborate entrances not unlike the vineyards of California. We (wrongly) assumed that Malaysians would make up the majority of the workforce on the plantations but Mitch said that the "Malaysians are picky and the pay on the plantations is not enough for most Malaysians...rather, the workers are mostly immigrants from surrounding areas...Philippines, Indonesia, and China."
We saw lots of school children again in their uniforms, road side markets, houses on stilts (which Mitch explained was 'cultural', kept the houses cooler by allowing better air circulation and also protected from flooding) and "suicide dogs" as Mitch fondly referred to the dogs that would dart into oncoming traffic. The ride seemed to take forever (I only fell asleep for a short time) but finally we arrived to the smiling faces and chilled washcloths at the Myne resort. A kind man named "Tan" with shoulder length dark hair, a rather dingy work shirt and no front teeth (who was trying to hide the cigarette he was smoking) showed us to our room...up up and up at least 5 flights of stairs...we wondered why we were up so high when it didn't appear that they had many guests but we soon realized that it was because of the view of the river from this room...it was pretty nice even though we had to work for it!
We settled into our pleasantly air conditioned cabin (AC-how exciting!) and noted that the walls of our chalet #3 were all wood paneled except for a neutral painted accent wall and the entrance which boasted wood paneled wallpaper which we found rather amusing :) the staff had creatively formed our towels into swans on the bed (which I had to remind Brian of later when he complained of no towels)...we got ready for our first river cruise which Mitch had specially arranged to be private for us.
When we arrived to the boat dock we were greeted by a group of Muslim women all wearing head scarves and carrying tote bags. Mitch spoke to them in Malay and they were excited to learn that I was a nurse in the USA...turns out, they were all nurses who were traveling along the river to deliver medications. They were so excited they asked for a photo with us :)
We climbed aboard a fiberglass boat with Captain Tan and Mitch and set off in pursuit of elephants. Brian and I were so thrilled to be able to just sit back, relax and enjoy the scenery without having to hike or trek or walk :) The river was brown, muddy with logs floating across. Captain Tan expertly weaved in and out to avoid them. I was impressed with how smooth our boat ride was despite all the obstacles. Rainforest landscape seemed to line both sides except for the occasional patches of (as Brian described them) "desolate" palm plantations. The rainforest areas were just teeming with life...butterflies and birds flying all around, the hum and buzz of insects, and the rustling of trees such that you knew there were lots of other animals around even if you couldn't see them...the palm plantations on the other hand were eerily silent and still.
We saw a few other resorts and some single shack like homes by the river. Some had docks with what appeared to be a bath house (do people here just use this river as a showering drain and toilet?) side by side with areas designated to wash dishes. I couldn't bring myself to ask Mitch about it for fear of coming off as sounding righteous and/or judgmental. We saw children playing after school still in their uniforms and Mitch explained that the left side of the river has to cross every morning to get to school on the right side. That complicates things, I thought.
The breeze and wind generated by the boat ride felt so good after so many days in sweltering rainforest. Suddenly we slowed down and took a sharp left turn..."Orangutan!" Mitch yelled and there he was all by himself 30 feet or so up in the treetop...just sitting. I have no idea how she saw him!
We continued along and saw a boat sitting on the left side with it's 2 passengers focused on taking photos- looking just beyond them nestled in the brush were 2 elephants! A mother and baby! They were snacking away on bamboo. Captain Tan eased the boat over to them so we could get a closer look...amazing! Both had curved ivory tusks and their ears would flap as they chewed down their mid afternoon snack.
The baby had thrown leaves and dirt on her back which Mitch said helps keep elephants cool and dry. These Borneo Pgymy elephants are the smallest elephants in the world. The WWF (World Wildlife Fund not to be confused with World Wrestling Federation) has tagged some of the elephants in this region to track their migration and patterns so they can study how to best protect them. Here is a timely and sad story that will melt your heart...
Joe the orphaned pgymy elephant
We watched the elephants for a good hour or so...until they decided to go back into the rainforest. Brian and I thought the nature show was over but really it was just beginning. As we cruised back up river, Mitch spotted a tree of proboscis monkeys. She called this tree "Haram" because there was a dominant male perched on one of the top branches and the rest were females with young babies or juvenile male and female monkeys. These were the strangest looking creatures I had ever seen! They looked like Pinocchio- especially the females. This is the best female shot I got:
The male proboscis monkeys have really long noses and the females have prominent noses but not nearly as long as the males which can grow up to 10 cm. The longer the nose, the more attractive the monkey (apparently). And they also have characteristic large, round bellies. In Indonesia they are nicknamed "Dutchmen" because the Indonesian people thought they looked like the Dutch colonizers who had large noses and bellies to match (disclaimer- No offense to any Dutch people- this is just a fun fact I learned on Wikipedia and not an expression of my personal opinion). The babies clung to their mothers and the smallest were very black and smooth in appearance compared to the lighter color and downy red-orange hair on the older infants. Apparently these monkeys are very protective over their infants and do not allow any other monkeys to hold them- even within the same group. The dominant males remain in "charge" of the families (or "bands" as they are called) for up to 6-7 years and are then usually replaced; when a new male takes over, the babies are often at risk for infanticide :(
Up to 60 individuals can make up a "band" of these monkeys and spread out over these 2 trees it seemed like this group was approaching that number. Our boat was just between the 2 trees and our necks craned up to watch as mother/baby pairs climbed up and others slept or walked from branch to branch picking at leaves. Mitch said these monkeys have very sensitive stomachs and usually prefer a diet of mostly leaves...fruit can cause severe bloating and even death sometimes. They all seemed very laid back and relaxed and didn't seem to mind us being there at all...
We decided to move along and came upon another couple of trees absolutely full of monkeys! This time, the long-tail macaque (pronounced ma-caw), the same monkey we had watched from our balcony in the rainforest. These monkeys seemed more active than the others and the tree was just bustling with activity. Monkeys lined up on a tree branch grooming each other (and yes, eating whatever it is they were finding)...some were playing with each other, some eating, mothers and babies just hanging out together...babies clinging for dear life.
The babies are born black and then at 2-3 months of age develop a coat of fur similar to the adults...(we saw a couple of very new ones). The adults ywere mostly grey in color with a distinctive almost widow's peak appearance on their heads. Captain Tan moved our boat closer and closer until we were practically 2 feet away from the monkey's on the lowest branches.
Brian didn't like being so close and asked if there was any risk of aggression with them and Mitch said as long as we didn't show them our teeth (a sign of attack to them) we should be ok...lips pursed, we watched as they became increasingly more active with us just under them jumping and swinging from tree to tree...we became rather uncomfortable and quietly whispered to Mitch that we wanted to get the hell out of the target zone...visions of thousands of monkeys jumping on our boat suddenly flashed before my eyes and we were getting a little nervous...Captain Tan high tailed us out of there...
Another tree, a little farther downstream had more proboscis monkeys...these guys were much more active than the group we saw earlier and Brian asked why...Mitch said it is a bachelor group...upon closer inspection with the binoculars I could tell that they all had the extremely large noses. They were swinging on vines and moving from one tree to the next. We also felt a bit too close to these guys as well...bring the largest monkey in Southeast Asia, just a couple of them could probably take over our boat! Captain Tan slowly backed up and let us watch from a safer distance. Nearby, Mitch pointed out a rope the was strung from one side of the river to the other...she said that these ropes are strategically placed by the WWF to allow for the orangutans (who cannot swim) to get from one side to the other. A couple of the proboscis guys were eyeing it up...
We could not believe how many animals were here along this river. We really didn't know what to expect of Bilit, but we were completely (and pleasantly) surprised to have seen so much wildlife...we enjoyed the wind as the the boat glided back to our resort and Brian shot some nice landscape photos of the river at dusk.
By the time we got back we were starving but dinner wasn't for another hour. We decided to go have some snacks in our room (up the million stairs to get there) and enjoy the view from our balcony...good thing for our snack bag! When it came time to head for dinner, I stepped out of our doorway first and immediately ran back inside..."what's wrong?" Brian wanted to know..."Bats!" I screamed...they were every swooping under the awning that covered the staircase all the way down down down the however many stairs there were. Ugh, I was so hungry, what were we going to do??? I decided to put on my hat and Brian coaxed me out of the room. After a bit of hysteria (on my part), we nicknamed the walk the "bat walk" and came up with a plan...I kept my head down while Brian said whether we were approaching more steps "step, step" and when I just had to "walk, walk" would gently remind me when it was best to keep my head down, "head down babe" OMG. It was awful and felt like an eternity to get to the bottom!
But we finally arrived at dinner...there were only 2 other guests on the open air terrace and they already had a table set for us with a framed menu on the table. We were hungry but were we this hungry?? Looked like a 5 course meal was about to be served...special thanks to Brian's cousin Bob Schiff who treated us to this as a wedding present. A salad with vinaigrette dressing was served first followed by cream of mushroom soup and then for the entrees...ginger shrimp, curried lamb, bok choy, green beans and mixed vegetables with tofu and jasmine rice...we could barely make a dent! As we were eating, a mother pig and her 8 piglets wandered through the parking lot generating a stir...for dessert we had "cobbler" (very similar to gobler) and fresh fruit.
Full at last, we were ready for bed, but wished we didn't have to do the bat walk again...no choice..."keep your head down babe, walk, walk, step up step up, head down..." We showered off the DEET, turned on the AC, and collapsed into dreamland. Our room tonight was a wedding present from my friend Pam DeMeo...thanks Pam, that was our first hot shower in days!!! :)
- Posted from abroad using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Bilit, Malaysia
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