Bako National Park

Today we just got back from Bako National Park which was absolutley amazing!!!!!!! I cannot tell you enough.

Bako is situated on this peniunsula on the north west coast of Sarawak province. Screeu vir my 'province'. The higlights there being the rare Probiscus monkeys, Bearded Pig, Flying Lemur, Silver leaf monkeys, Pit Vipers and the various types of pitcher plants on offer.

Well we saw them all. I'm an old spotter i tell you, even managed to fit in a couple shy kingfishers, stick insects, killer ants, ninature bees and stick insects to name a few.

We set off yesterday afternoon with this german couple we met, Thorsten and Stephanie from Frankfurt, in search of the elusive Probiscus monkey. The search did not go well as we reached the end destination (the beach) without a monkey in sight, we styarted the walk back after some rock climbing antics and i assured them i would find them a monkey. 28 years Kruger Park grooming anf i couldn't find thema glorified Baboon... Well we got back to the start of the trail and again nothing. I was about to start my apologies when out rhe corner of my eye about 400 hundred meters away high up on a cliff obscured by trees i caught a glimpse of one of them. They were playing in the trees and we were all happy, checked that one off the 'to do' list.

We also spotted the silver leaf monkey which as its name siuggests is silver, but has orange babies so they are easily spotted. Incredible!!

Our night jungle trek was very interesting. We spotted this beatiful kingfissher sleeping, Pit Vipers, Tree frogs and various other night owls (but no owls), we also saw the flying lemur crouching against the tree trunk. We thought this was strange - more to follow.

The morning arrived with the Macaque's running around on our roof (glorified Vervet's) and so a new day. We set off pretty early on this trail to see birds but never say any, only another troop of Probiscus. This made Celia happy, so i was happy. We snapped away until the camera was overheating and wounding more like a semi automatic rifle. With intermittent bursts of me saying, 'Surely thats not a good photo'. the jury is still out.

We made our way back towards the jetty where the evening before the guide had told us the Probiscus chill out there chowing leaves and other stuff at low tide when low and behold we spot an entire troop up close, and i never even had to use my eagle vision.

We took many photos, Celia and I interchangably. When her index finger got cramp she handed the camera to me and we worked in tandem like a team. We do have some amazing shots of them, they became so comforable with us that we were even able to move within a couple metres of them. I believe it was my foresight in not having showered in 4 days in order to blend in with my natural surroundings. Incredible!

The rest of the day involved taking more jungle walks, seeing amazing Pitcher plants, a quick dip in the warm South China Sea and a extremely bumpy ride back to Kuching. Which leaves me here at Singasana Lodge waiting for the morning when we leave for Jakarta, Indo. Wish us luck!!

Semengogh Orangutans

We wake up all excited as this morning we are about to see Orangutans for the first time in the wild. I have a little wobble because we almost miss the bus which would have meant missing it altogether but we arrive inh Semengogh Orangutan Rehabilitation Center after our first Malaysian bus ride.. not looking forward to indo if it was this bad here..

Now this park is a rehabilitation center but it is still wild as they do not see the orangutan for months on end even though there is a daily feeding time. There isd enough food in the jungle to sustain them all. On the day we went the mother we saw had not been seen for over 3 years.

We were greeted by this young male who put on a display for us before we went to the main feeding area of the reserve. When we arrived the abovementioned mother was there with newborn baby eating the fruit they had on the buffet. It was amazing to see them but after a couple moments i dropped to the floor as it sounded like we had come under AK-47 fire, I looked around to see the RUF fighters but only saw Celia and about 5 others snapping away furiously at their cameras, i brought myself to my feet again and began to enjoy the lazy yet powerful way they move around. We managed to see another mother and baby before we had to leave after the hour's visit. We had seen enough and left with biiig smiles on our faces talking about the photos the entire bumpy trip home.

Kuching

So we have based ourselves in Kuching for 3 days so see the sights, smells and sounds Sarawak has to offer. Its been pretty amazing here, we have experienced so much in these few days from amazing wildlife to very dodgy hostels, but all worth it and worth another story. I'll tell you more about the wildlife we say in Semengogh and Bako later so that is all from Kuching, the city of Cats.

Sibu

So Just spent a night in Sibu as we wanted to head down to Kuching. It was good fun for what it was and we enjoyed walking throught he market and trying different types of Malay / Chinese food available. We met this guy at on stall who happened to be a travel agent. He said it was the second time in 20 years that he had met a South African. Neizz.

The evening ended off with us spending lying on the bed in our hotel room watching scary movie 4. Was worth a giggle. Turned the lights off pretty early as we had to be up around 6ish to catch the ferry to Kuching. Ferry trip was very interesting as we went through the river we saw all the logging companies along the baks and realised how much of the forest they cut down every day. Unbelievable...

The trip took us 4.5 hours but it was good fun, i sat out on the deck reading my book my wife bought for me from Starbucks on this child soldier. Gripping read, did 98 pages. The ferry ended up taking us out to sea which i did not know about until i saw the map when we came back, scary sheeaaat. the funniest thing is that when we were the furthest away from anywhere i saw these rickity wooden fishing boats.... thats pretty hardore.

Oh yes, i forgot to tell you at Sibu airport i ate cattle lungs. Nice!!! Tastes good, just don't look at it

Tioman Island

Off to Borneo in a couple mins to see the Orangutans and i'm sure it'll be as amazing as the last stop. We spent 4 nights at Salang Sayang resoirt on Tioman island and wow what a pleasure. It was the most beautiful idyllic place i have ever been to and yould not hesitate to recommend it to anyone. Sadly my camera has packed up so i cannot show you any photos right now but take my word for it.

The island it covered by these massive lizards (not Komodos) and they swim up and down the river looking for food. Wow!!

We went fishing every day for dinner in our kayak with hand line. Celia, Tim and I all caught good sized fish which we'd bring back tocthe resort and they would prepare for us. tim being the chef he is made a fich curry for the restaurant to sell last night and it was amezing.

The resort found this orphaned monkey about a month ago and now they look after 'King' like he is one of their own. The cutest thing you have ever seen. It even took a lking to Celia, pooin and weeing on her several times. Lucky girl.

Anyway i have to go check in now.

Miss you all

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NOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTT

Mad shopping

So we have just wrapped up the fist part of our tour. 3 days in the lovely Singapore. Fortunately Carin hooked us up with a good friend of hers - Mr Tim Ross-Watson. He has showed us around and we have loved every minute.

Singapore has so much more to offer than the shopping but every day we managed to end up back on Orchard St buying something at one of the huuuuggeee shopping centres. Eastgate what...

Night Safari was superb, sadly there is no flash photography allowed so not many pics but i managed to sneak a great one of an owl (above right) which pleaseed me immensly.

Bought a new digital slr cause it was so cheap and i would have regretted not buying it. Still in th box after 2 days cause i still love my current camera so much.

Eaten the best food her and dirt cheap too. The singapore chilli crab is as good as they make out in the movies and the different types of fruit are astounding as well as delicious.

We eventually booked the next part of our trip and are off to Tioman island on the east coast of malaysia, that leaves in 40 minites at 5:30 in the morining. Have had no sleep tonight, just been sitting round the pool with Timand Celia thinking about my new found appreciation for Sapporro beer.

We went to snow city today thinking to was somewhere to go ice skating and cool down from the 40+ deg heat but it turned out to be an indoor snow slope. Today was sadly tubing day so we slid down the slope on tubes. So much fun!!!!

All the best till the next installment

What a jol

I heard it being described as the wedding of the century, some went as far as the wedding of the millenium but however you want to describe it, it was a day to be remebered by all for the beautiful bride, good looking groom, great weather, michelin star food, and cold cold beers.

Thank you to all that came along and made the day so special, you have no idea what it means to us. Sitting here in an internet cafe in Singapore we are about to embark on another huge adventure, as the Carpenters once sang 'We've only just begun'.

As they say in Singapore 'Good Bye'