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Published: August 9th 2008
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Borneo, Baby, Borneo
Can't believe we're actually here! Where in the world are we now?! Borneo, Baby, Borneo!!!
It always seemed like one of the coolest, most exotic places on earth to go ... kind of one of those places that everyone knows about but no one ever actually goes to. It wasn't really on our list of destinations ... but after The Great China Belly Flop, blueprints have been redrawn and ... here we are! We had expectations of befriending orang utans and living in the deep jungle, but that's not quite what it's like. Orang utans aren't the friendly cuddly primates we'd imagined them to be (we were mislead at the Singapore Zoo) and we've discovered that we're really not the jungle kind of people! We've come to terms with the fact that we're city folk. Full bred, 100%, Canadian stamped city kids. That means "No bugs bigger than my hand, please" and "Mr. Rat, I WILL kill you!".
First things first, we headed for the orang utans! We were smitten with them in Singapore and hoped for some up close encounters. We spent a day at the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre, which turned out to be a pretty touristy spot (not always a
Leeches! Yeck!
Trevor got "bit" (or sucked or attacked, whatever you want to call it!) by one of them and it bled for hours afterwards! The key to stopping the bleeding is tabacco (who would have thought??) bad thing, but in this case it was a bit much for us). People couldn't quite comprehend that these were wild animals and that children screaming and cell phones ringing was just plain inappropriate. There were two feeding times a day (the meals are supplementary to what the animals can find in the jungle) and that's when the madness was at it's finest. After feeding time though, crowds die down and we were able to just hang out and "observe". The most exhilarating part of the day came when a crazy Spanish man pissed off a pregnant orang utan. We were walking on the boardwalk, trying to spot them in the trees, when one jumped about 10m from where we were standing. Common sense would tell just about anyone to give way, but this man was determined to get "the perfect picture". She (the orang utan) started to grunt and bared her teeth, but he ignored her and kept taking photos (with flash). It resulted in a group of about 6 of us running for our lives! It was terrifying!!! Not quite the up close encounter we were looking for!!! We all had some choice words for the Spanish fellow
"Whoa!"
Monkey at the Proboscus Sanctuary (we can't remember what kind though!). after that one!
After that, we headed into the jungle for a few days of Indiana Jones type fun. We signed up for 3 days, 2 nights on the Kinabatangan River, which turned out to be 2 days and 1 night longer than we needed! We did four "safari" boat cruises up and down the river in hopes of spotting crocodiles, elephants, orang utans, macaques, proboscis monkeys and whatever else we could find! We also did a few jungle treks, one during the day and two at night. The night ones proved to be a bit trying for Kristena, but Trevor was pretty into it! It's amazing how LOUD the jungle is at night, and there were leeches galore. Things randomlly fly into you (BIG things!), creepy crawlers are everywhere, and you just KNOW that "the forest" is watching you. It was as creepy as creepy could be! Back at base camp, we had the an unwelcomed guest in our dorm room ... a bit fat sneaky rat! Everytime we'd turn on the light, he'd disappear, so we'd turn off the light and within mintues he'd be back. We saw him a few times with the flashlight, but he
moved fast! His presence prompted another girl in our room to share a story of how one of her bunk mates a few days ago got one stuck in her hair and how they can climb walls... and that was it, Kristena was up on Trevors bunk within seconds!!!
Upon returning to civilization we ended up heading to a proboscis monkey sanctuary. We weren't planning to, but because they're endemic to Borneo, we really wanted to get a good look at them! This sanctuary worked out much better for us, there were far fewer people and we had great opportunities to observe them! There were also many little black monkeys who were friendly (as long as we had green beans for them), and it was pretty cool to get so close without the threat that the orang utans and macaques pose (macaques are the Asian equivilent to baboons in our opinion; mischevious and mean!). Nobody wants an angry monkey in their face!
The last big thing we did was a side trip to Pulau Tiga, which is the island the first Survivor was filmed on (haha, yes we're THAT cool!). The idea intrigued us and a little beach
time never hurt anybody! We were the only people at our hotel, so it was like having a little private island to ourselves. Management even bumped us up from the dorm room to a private double on the waterfront! In the afternoon we hiked through the jungle (#%@$ !!!) to a volcanic mud bath. Getting in was a little creepy, it was filled with gooey mud and leaves and twigs and we obviouslly couldn't see the bottom ("What if something is down there???"). It was also kinda bubbling (think giant farts) and in some places there was a greenish sludge on the top, the effect all together was ... unforgettable? Still not so sure what we think of it! The island was especially bad for mosquitos, the beaches had sand flies, we saw snakes and macaques and monitor lizards (they're almost as big as komodo dragons but less crazy) and at night rats were everywhere (including in our room), ... we had a good time but it was the "straw that broke the camels back" so to speak, as far as appreciating jungle life! The rat in our room was the clencher (he even ate a box of Smarties that
Pulau Tiga
Ooo La La, Paradise! we'd been saving!).
That's it for Borneo! Jungle Jane and Jungle Jorge are hanging up our hats!!!
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Anna
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Kristena! You look so thin! What...you don't like eating jungle food? Tee hee.