Selamat datang to Borneo!!! My Malay is still limited to mee goreng & nasi goreng, hati hati (careful) not to fall off the edge of the mountain, ikan (fish) when diving or dining, orang utan when looking at the mirror first thing...
Summiting Mount Kinabalu & making it down again knees and all was a feat - trekking in the dark, hanging on ropes unable to see the drop, gasping for thin air - one of those crazy things that you do when you can't say no to yet another challenge!!! Meanwhile our guide, being an ironman & eco-challenge medallist, skipped along effortlessly... sunrise was amazing above the clouds - a definite high!!
Then into the jungle - cruising along Kinabatangan river spotting gangs of long-tailed & pig-tailed macaques, then a furry nestlike ball of ginger hair must be an orang utan, long arms of a gibbon swinging, birds flitting here & there - blue-eared kingfishers & graceful egrets, & then we heard the munching of the Asian elephants - pygmy Bornean ones although they looked rather large to me - they munched through unaware of our amazed gaze... at night we spotted shining eyes of owls, phythons & crocodiles, walking it was a feast for the leeches...
a close up of the man of the jungle at Sepilok Rehab Centre where Orang Utans are eventually released back into the wild...
then Sarawak - a night in an Iban longhouse dancing around with a feathered cap & drinking the local brew of rice wine, the headhunters trail into Mulu National Park - the home of a zillion spiders and fascinating caves - waiting till dusk for the bats to swirl out like a spiral of flittery smoke for their evening escapade. Kuching - cat city where every second monument is a feline creature, the former home of the Raja Brooke (I, II, & III), fantastic seafood and aritistic blowpipes. A boat ride to Bako National Park where the long-nosed Proboscis monkeys swing amongst the mangroves and vipers await their prey...
Rest and relaxation, diving with turtles at Sipadan and nearby isles...
paradise
