Welcome to the Jungle!

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Ive just arrived back from my 3 day, 2 night stay in the jungles of sabah, and most of it which we entered was via the rivers of kalimantan. It was a long 3 hr drive to the point where we had to enter the river so we could get further into the forests. Then we took a boat which was the start of our jungle safari, where we saw many many monkeys, probiscus monkeys and long tailed macaques being the most common, did see some orangutans but miles into the distance within the trees so very out of site. It would have been really good to have had a decent camera, as with any wildlife phototaking i rarely got close enough to take a decent one. And with everyone else in the boat happy snapping away i was actually quite content in the end to just take in most of the scenery. We arrived at the camp in the middle of the jungle as the sun was setting and was greeted by the many malaysians living on site who help out with cleaning food e.t.c. they joked "5 star otel" as we all trundle in....which was very basic, a lovely wooden hut with a nice mouldy old stale mattress which im sure did my throat wonders! There was a nice atmosphere in camp though and we met some nice english ppl as we get everywhere and i also had a good kickabout with the youngsters which was hard work in the 30 odd degrees heat! Food is pretty basic with rice noodle rice noodles more rice more noodles!!! Cant say im enjoying it that much!! could murder some pasta with toad in the hole! or a nice roast!
As the camp was right in the middle of the jungle, any kind of animals came wading through all the time.....the macaques were very vicious within the camp with this one alpha male chasing pretty every human who came near to his group!! had some vicious fangs and claws, i stayed away as lack of a rabies vaccine in my blood!!
We had a few more outings on the water, and the night boat safari was amazing, especially how good the guides were at picking out all the animals from a long way away with their spotlights. By far this was the best night as we managed to see the pygmy elephant. And apparently we were very very lucky as not many people get to see, and we saw a herd of about 15. They are like the big ones but tiny versions, very cute! Again took some photos, but being at night and my camera being generally crappy, i didnt manage to get any good ones....the next day was a general lie around day where everyone chilled around the camp and we went on a few walks and trails where the guide would point out to us special plants and found some scorpions e.t.c.
Since i last wrote, ive been to the doctor and have been diagnosed with pharyngitis! That was an experience queueing in a malaysian clinic with everybody staring at the big white man waiting to see the doctor! I went in anyway, started well and then came the million pills of different things he gave me to try and get me over it.....and i also got a lovely injection in the bum of antiobiotics! It is is basically a very bad sore throat, due to the climb i did and its still bugging but i need it to be better by next week as i have booked myself onto scuba diving down in a place called sipidan which is supposed to be one of the best diving sites around the world. So hopefully this will be shifted soonish!
Ive got more photos but am unable to upload on here, so when i get a chance ill upload on next comp i get to.
Have got a few relaxing days coming up while sarah leaves, and i just need to figure out where i want to go to and see, as borneo is generally very expensive when compared to mainland asia....so im thinking i may be back sooner into thailand and work my way up there as i ve heard it is dirt cheap!

x

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Photos

Pygmy Elephants
Amazing seeing these!

Angry macaques
Scary!

Crocodile
Saw one of these but much much bigger, apparently salt croc!

Comments

[Bill Gibbons]

Pygmy Elephants
Where they really pygmy elephants? Can yoyu tell me how big there are and where you encountered them? Thanks! Bill