MALAYSIA & SINGAPORE Continued
Sarawak, Kuching & Bako
National Park, Feb 7 - 10
When we landed in Kuching, Sarawak the first surprise was that
we had to have our passports stamped and had to go through immigration.
Sarawak is part of Malaysia, but in order to control who does
what in Sarawak (they are a much smaller sibling compared to
Peninsular Malaysia) they closely protect their abundant natural
resources which others might want to exploit. So if you're not
a local, you need to say why you're there and for how long. It
was all very interesting. We settled into our stinky, damp hotel
room (being so close to the equator its very hard to control
mold and mildew) and headed to the Sarawak Tourist Information
Office. Neither of us had done much reading about Sarawak before
we arrived, so we figured since it was low season we'd just decide
as we go. And how wonderful it was that we did. This tourist
office was like a tourist office in the USA! They had maps &
brochures (in English!), helpful & very knowledgeable staff,
and again, we could make any reservations we need or arrange
for National Park permits all right there!!! Alleluia! We sat
down, told the woman what we were intrestested in, and she helped
us plan each day of our trip, including locations, lodging, and
transportation! It was budget style (using local public transport)
and she did this all FOR FREE!!! I can't tell you how impressed
we were with Sarawak & how excited we were to begin.
The next morning, Feb 7th, we set off for Bako National Park, home to the rare & unusual probiscis monkeys. After a 40 minute bus ride and a 30 minute boat ride, we landed on the northern tip of a peninsula right on the South China Sea, the same sea we had seen when we were in Vietnam! During the boat ride, we surfed the large waves in our little boat, and we thought for sure we would capsize and lose everything (computer, new camera, clothes) to the sea. I just closed my eyes most of the way and put all my faith in our driver. The only way to reach the park is by boat as the jungle and cliffs are so thick they're uncrossable. This of course becomes more interesting when we try to return back to Kuching, but more about that later. We settled into our rustic camping home and set off for a short hike into the jungle.
In preparation for the hike, we were covered head to toe with clothing and mosquito repellent. Needless to say, there are lots of mosquitos & leeches in the jungle. As we started up the very well made and well marked trail (again, very very impressive & something we had learned to do without during our trip) we climbed away from the coast, and I started to feel the heat. I have never sweat that much in my life. Every 5 min I had to take off my glasses and wipe my face because the sweat was stinging my eyes. I switched to contacts after that hike! We also had to walk slowly as the heat and humidity were oppressive. It took a day or so to adjust to, but after that I was in heaven. Finally real jungle! I had been searching all over Asia for this, and I found it in Borneo. The plants were stunning, there were so many of them; both small and large plants, huge stickers & thorns, huge leaves, & huge bugs! I loved it!! We hiked up a ridge and down to a small beach cove, then hiked back.
A highlight of Bako park is that all of the ecosystems found in Borneo can be found in this one small park. One of the most important ecosystems is the Mangrove forest which is situated right at the seas edge in the tidal zone. The proboscis monkeys only eat the shoots of the Mangrove trees and they come out of the jungle into the Mangrove forest only when tide is in. As we came out of the jungle and walked on the plank trail above the tide, we started taking pictures. Suddenly we realized we weren't alone and that above us were some monkeys. My pictures of them didn't turn out so great, they were shy and kept themselves well hidden. We didn't think much of this as there are lots of monkeys around the camp & in the jungle. Not until later that evening did we learn that these were the rare probiscis monkeys. Turns out people travel thousands of miles to this park to see & photogaph them because this is one of the last places they are found in the wild. Some people leave without seeing one! Lucky us, we were there less than a day before we saw some!
Our days consisted of hiking around and admiring the plants, terrain, animals and bugs. Sometimes I felt like I was in a Walt Disney movie. The most georgous, large and colorful butterflies would just fly right by me admist all the colorful greenery and sea cliff vistas. Wow. At night we had trouble sleeping as there were so many jungle critters which would come out. Our cabin was up on stilts (the ground is very wet and moist) so we could hear them scurrying around below us. We even had our own resident mice who also came out at night, although we only saw their fresh droppings which we would clean up each morning. The cabin was very clean, but since we were in the midst of lots of widlife and jungle, there wasn't much you could do to keep the bugs and critters out of the cabin. There were signs noting to be really careful and lock the doors at all times, otherwise monkeys would come in and help themselves in the kitchen. At night the staff would show some of the many documentaries filmed in the park and around Sarawak. It was all heaven to me, my repressed biologist was loving every minute.
On February 8th, we slept in late and then took a long afternoon hike. It was along this hike that I saw the many types of pitcher plants. They are carnivorous. They fill up with water and drown whatever fly or insect might happen to fall in. They then digest the insect. One theory is that the insects provide nutrients necessary for the plant, as the soil is nutrient poor (heavy rainfall & and thin topsoil). I took tons of pictures of these amazing plants and its a good thing I did, as this was the last day of light rain. After this it rained almost nonstop and I was rarely able to take our camera out of our backpack.
On the 9th of February we took a long
hike and ended up participating in our own version of Survivor
(the first episode was filmed on a Mayasian Island). We nearly
didn't make it back to camp. We walked the 4 hour trail to get
to a beach cove. It rained the first few hours, then poured the
last hour, I mean poured. About 45 minutes before we reached
the cove, we arrived at a series of waterfalls and walked across
the narrow stone bridge which the river flowed over. There we
took some pictures and casually met the three other people hiking
the trail that same day. We all met them again in a cave on the
cove once we arrived. It had started pouring by then and we all
were soaked to bone and hoping the rain would subside. Our soon-to-be
Survivor team consisted of:
Francios - French but living in Belgium working for the
European Union. On vacation for a few months in Borneo.
Fred - American but has been living in Korea for the
last 8 years teaching English at a University.
Peppy Lovegrove - English artist living in Ireland and just on
vacation.
It was an interesting mix of people in the cave and we all had lots to talk about and interesting foods to share, which we had all picked up along the way (I had brought our peanuts roasted in coconut milk) so we ended up chatting for at least an hour. It was so odd, I was soaked through, my pants and my hiking boots, but I wasn't the least bit cold. It was so hot, it was impossible to get cold. Then we noticed that the tiny river we had crossed to get to the cave had become a raging river, so we decided to head back inspite of the continuing heavy rain. The three other people were faster than Aaron and I, so when we met up with them along the trail at the falls crossing we were a bit surprised. Turns out the bridge was under 4 feet of fast moving water and the river was now deeper than the 10 ft branch we used to try to touch bottom. We were all stuck. We walked up and down the bank looking for a safe place to cross, shouting out different ideas, but the river was moving too fast and there were now three sets of dangerous falls that would potentially fatal if one were swept over them.
I have to say, I got really scared. I've never been in a situation like this before and we were really stuck. After yelling out different theories and arguing for awhile, we decided that we all needed each other and to work as a team to be able to get back safey. We found the narrowest part of the river and Francois climbed on the one small tree barely hanging over the river. Waist deep in the water, he climbed out to as far as it hung and then quickly swam/leapt to the reeds on the other side of the bank. He made it. The reeds held him. I was so relieved. If we couldn't find a way for the rest of us to cross, at least he could walk the 3 1/2 hours back to park headquarters and come back for help. What he did required a great deal of upper body strength, something the rest of us didn't have (Aaron's Note: Except for Aaron who is such a stud). We later teased Francoise that it was his training in the French Foreign Leigion which enabled him to do this Rambo move.
We then found a tall old tree nearly rotted through which we positioned to span the river. I spotted the tree and Aaron used his pocket knife to cut the vines free so we could move it. Those were our contributions. Fred looked for an alternate plan that might prove less dangerous and Peppy Lovegrove helped move the tree and volunteered to be the first one to cross. We threw our backpacks one by one to Francois on the other side of the river, and then started across with Peppy going first. We had to crouch down, hold onto the tree and jump into the water. The bank had a steep drop into the river. Once we were in the river, we had to kick to stay afloat (no one was able to touch bottom) and we used our arms to slide ourselves across the tree. A layer of thick, white jungle foam had collected where the rotting tree lay across the water, and we had to keep our faces turned up in order to breath. We couldn't really use the log since it was rotten, it was more of a guide as we swam the river to where Francois then could pull us out. The bank on the other side was steep as well, full of slippery reeds and foam. Pretty exciting and pretty strange. Again, I kept waiting to start shivering from getting so continiously wet, but that never happened. I sure did stink though!
I had heard of flash floods on trails but never seen one. It rains so much there and the ground is so hard that the water just rushes off, making the small streams swell bot become raging rivers in a very short time. Most of the trail was totaly washed out on the way back and we sloshed through, but nothing was impassable like the waterfalls. We were all fast friends now, and chatted about the experience the whole walk home, well into the next day. None of us could believe we did as great as we did. I'm just sorry I didn't stop to take a picture after we crossed, but I was in such shock that we had made it. It took 4 days for my boots to dry out!
That night was King Tide, a high, high, high, tide that I assume only happens once a year, or every so often. This meant that the next day we had to wait for hours to find the 'right' time when the small boats could first arrive to the park, and then wait again for them to be able to leave. We ended up spending all day playing cards, chatting, or learning Adobe Photoshop & Adobe Premier from a nice Australian woman we met. She was on vacation from her job working as a multi-media specialist and she knew these applications well. She taught us some of the basic features right there, on the table, in the main eating area, with the ocean crashing and the trees swaying in the wind. The locals were all quite surprised to see this little computer in the middle of their jungle. In the end, we made it back to Kuching safe and sound that day amist the pouring, pouring rain.
Me climbing up the well-made trail in the thick jungle. Its so green!
This is where we hiked to on the first day.
The amazing pitcher plants. I took tons of pictures.
The friendly bearded pig who would show up everyday looking for food.
Us at the falls, before the flooding!
