Sept 17-24
Hi All,
Wow…..what a delightful time we had at the Sukau Rainforest Lodge on the Kinabatangan River……4D3N…..left on Tuesday and back late Friday. We saw all of the Borneo “Big Five” – Orangutans in the wild, Rhinocerus hornbills, Pygmy Elephants, Crocodiles, and Proboscis monkeys! What a treat! The Lodge was great, nice air-con private Villa, buffet food that was pretty good, but we were busy nearly the entire time…..yikes!!!
https://www.sukau.com/tour-packages/orang-utan-search
We did have 3 days here at the Sutera Marina in Kota Kinabalu before we left. We got several things done…..first we got checked into Sabah……our agent Alvin had it all arranged and had us all checked in via a new online service….all I had to do was go to Immigration for the stamps sans Kathy!! We did get the boat washed and Kathy cleaned the inside as well!! We also sampled several of the very nice restaurants around the marina…..we had Peking Duck at the Silk Garden and it was outstanding…..one of our favorite dishes and this was a good one…..they served the duck in the traditional way in a wrap and sliced with greens and as well as in a duck soup which was new for us!!!!
I also found an alternator and starter repair shop and after Uber got hopelessly lost we eventually found the place. The technician has 30+ years in the business and was trained in New Zealand!!!
Sukau Rainforest Lodge on the Kinabatangan River: We were up at 4ish for our 6:30am flight to Sandakan…..in eastern Borneo…..yep, that is very, very early!!!! There turned out to be 10 of us in our group but people stayed various lengths of times and by the end we were down to 5……we had a great guide named Nexter……not his real name but close to his Malay name and easier for us to say….but we did want to keep calling him Dexter:)))))
We first went to the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Center. First we viewed a feeding…..but as in Kuching someone forget to tell the Orangutans the feeding time….no shows…ugh…..but the Center does have an outdoor nursery for the kids……1-8 years old and we were able to view 10 of them playing and eating……that was a highlight. Next we visited the Borneo Sun Bear Conservation Center and were able to observe 6 bears around feeding time…..this was a first for us…..the Sun Bear is the smallest bear in the world….about the size of a medium-size dog…..and just like the Orangutans, they are an Endangered Specie due to shrinking habitat!! Next we took a 2.5 hour boat ride from Sandakan to the Kinabatangan River to the Lodge…..we first went along the coast in the Sulu Sea…..another Sea for us….we saw a few critters but the boat was going so fast we didn’t see too much…ugh!!!
The Lodge does a series of afternoon and morning cruises. The animals are the most active during late afternoon and early morning….so a tour from 4:-6:30pmish and then 6-8:30amish….yes, this trip had way too many early, early mornings!! There are 8 different Hornbills in Borneo and we saw 6 of them……Rhinoceros, Wrinkled, Asian Black, Oriental Pied, Bushy Crested and Wreathed!!!!!
Even though this is a rainforest and we seem to be the “rain makers”, Mr Weather was very kind and only rained on us one afternoon….of course, it rained every night!!!
Each morning we were also lucky to find wild Orangutans….one was an alpha male eating figs….we watched for close to an hour…..then the next morning we saw a mother and young juvenile…….they were somewhat hidden as they are quite shy animals. We happened to see these guys as we were observing a Gibbon monkey…..one of our favorites!! We saw many Macaque monkeys as well as the Proboscis monkey….the one where the male has the long Jimmy Durante style nose!!!
One afternoon we went in search of the Pygmy Elephant….another endangered animal. These elephants are on the small size…maybe 3-6′ tall. Our guide that day was Adam and Jamel, head of the elephant trackers. Jamel was excellent and stopped the boat many times to get off and see if he could find elephant tracks. He was able to find 2 different sets of tracks and we followed upriver finding where the elephants came to the river either to drink, eat or to cross, but we were always 1-4 hours too late….ugh. They were determined to find these elephants and what was supposed to be a 4 hour tour turned into a 6.5 hour tour…..whoa!! Jamel finally found several on our way back…..maybe 3-6 but they were hidden by 8-12′ elephant grass which they were busy munching on. We tied up the boat and watched for over an hour hoping for the wee ones to break through to the river…..we could hear them breaking the stalks and could see pulling the grass down…..finally as were almost out of light one partially broke through….maybe 3-4 feet tall….we could see partially his face, truck and body……not the best viewing but hey, it counts!!! So now it is dark…..say Jamel how long to get back to the Lodge…..hmmm……maybe 2 hours…..in the dark…..buckle up…..the challenge was to avoid all the logs from all the rain the last few months……I keep telling Donald that climate change is for real…..just come to Borneo during the supposedly dry season where it has rained 80% of the days…..yikes….many of the logs were the size of trees, the logs sometimes blocked the whole river…..Jamel did have a large spotlight which was very helpful……oh wow, e-ticket ride for sure….once we even side swiped the river bank….it was on Kathy’s side….no one got hurt as we all ducked quickly…yikes!!! But, we did get to see many of the night animals….several owls flying and near the river bank hunting, civets, bats and several crocodiles…..creepy red eyes that disappeared under the water….and one 15′ guy near the shore!!!
On another tour we went to the Gomantong Cave……hmmm……maybe not our best choice. This is another limestone cave with a huge cavern….maybe 600′ high…….not a beautiful cave as caves go, but is full of bats and Swiftlet bird nests…..maybe a few million each…….but oh, the guano and the smell…yuck, yuck, yuck. BUT the worst part was the cockroaches…..every where…don’t put your hand on the rail…..full of guano or cockroaches…..maybe 10 million cockroaches plus. And, the amazing thing is people harvests the bird nests in these conditions……climbing on ropes or bamboo poles 200-300′ high……they harvest every 4 months to keep the population steady….the eggs hatch in 8-10 weeks. They have guards in the cave at night to prevent poaching or during the harvest time to keep people only working in their specific area…..these guys sleep in the cave at night with cockroaches, rats , guano et al……can’t be healthy at all. This was just about the most disgusting thing we have done in a while…….I guess at the end we are glad we did it for the experience but never again. One of the highlights of coming to this Cave is observing the bats coming out at night…..but, once again is was cloudy and misty….some of the bats came out but it was not the mass exodus we expected….whaaaaa!! But, 2 Rhino hornbills came over and sat, posed and preened for us for a great show…the bats were quickly forgotten……what unique and beautiful birds!!
The last day we took the same 2.5 hour boat cruise back to Sandakan….this time we were better at spotting the animals and saw several monkey, hornbills, egrets and eagles!! We had lunch at the English Tea House….quite famous in Sandakan, which is right next to the Agnes House…….”Agnes Newton Keith (July 4, 1901 – March 30, 1982) was an American author best known for her three autobiographical accounts of life in North Borneo (now Sabah) before, during, and after the Second World War. The second of these, Three Came Home, tells of her time in Japanese POW and civilian internee camps in North Borneo and Sarawak, and was made into a film of the same name in 1950.” We still haven’t read these books but have them on our to read list…we hear they are quite good!!
We also went to the Rainforest Discovery Center……they have a small but excellent exhibition hall and a very good Canopy walk…..it was in the middle of the day so didn’t see too much….too hot!! We concluded the day with a visit to the Sandakan Memorial Park, which is a memorial built for the POW’s during WWII…….of the ~2800 prisoners in 1943, mainly Australians and Britains, only 6 survived by the end of the War in 1945……and all six had escaped. Many died in the 3 death marches starting in Jan 1945 when the Japanese where preparing for the Allied invasion….they marched close to 1200 men about 160 miles through the jungle to Ranau…from the east coast to almost the west coast….we flew this in about 45 min…..all in rainforest conditions……just horrible inhuman treatment…… most of the Japanese officers and guards were eventually captured, tried and executed for war crimes!!!
So….that was our trip….we got back late Friday and collapsed!!! We’ll do a few boat projects and then it’ll be time to leave for our other trip – scuba diving in Wakatobi, which is near the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. We’ll fly from here to Kuala Lumpur and then onto Bali….just hope Mount Agung’s imminent eruption does not cancel the trip…..where we’ll catch a charter flight to Wakatobi. Supposed to be superb diving! We have a week at the resort and then 3 days aboard their live aboard dive boat. Will fly back through Bali and spend several nights there in Ubud, where we went last year, but didn’t have enough time to do all we wanted. After our return, it’ll be time to shut down Mystic and we’ll be ready to fly home!
Hope all is well!!
John
Mystic Moon
Kota Kinabalu Sabah on Borneo
PS: Pictures on the gallery: https://www.mysticmoonvoyages.com/photo-gallery/nggallery/main-album/Kinabatangan-River.
The money shot. Large alpha male Orangutan with an eagle flying overhead……amazing picture!!