Malaysia and Borneo

Probiscus monkey

Naughty macaques

Posing for the tourists

Mum and baby

Do not mess with Ritchie!

    After spending one night in Melaka, a town which has past influences from Portugal, Netherlands and England, several of us have carried on for the Borneo part of the trip.  An emotional farewell was said to our fellow travellers and myself, Roberta, Simon, Ben, Barry and Pauline, all led by Kirsten made our way to the airport to fly into Kuching on the island of Borneo.  Kuching is a pleasant city which has for some reason has a strange obsession with cats.  There are numerous cat statues and even a cat museum which luckily we didn’t have time to visit.  The city has a very modern and lively waterfront which is the main focal point for the locals.  The next day we travelled via speed boat on a very turbulent South China Sea to the nature reserve of Bako. We spotted wildlife in abundance during our two days here.  Macaque monkeys roamed freely mainly around the restaurant where they terrorised most of us.  They are only small but very fast and aggressive and will steal any food or drink available.  Whilst walking back to the cabin a group of them surrounded me,  looked menacing and made me panic dropping my fruit which they ran off with. Kirsten also had problems and had to fend off an ultra aggressive male with a chair, male monkey that is not Simon!  Ben made a monkey stick to protect us which worked to some extent.  The probiscus monkeys, a very rare breed that only exist in this part of the world were much nicer.  They are strange looking creatures with an overly long nose and pot bellies and it’s fascinating to watch them moving gracefully through the trees.  We all went on a night walk on which we encountered snakes, big spiders, kingfishers and lots of other wildlife.  One of the best experiences for me was going for a run in the jungle.  Out of all the places I have ran on the trip this has got to be the best.  Absolutely amazing.

  

We returned to Kuching in order to visit the orang utan sanctuary. At the entrance a mother and baby were happily posing for the public, swinging through the trees, eating bananas, the usual ape things! Feeding time was an amazing sight. The trainers called the orang utans and these magnificent creatures made their way to the table through the tree tops. The most fantastic sight was Ritchie, the king of the jungle. Apparently he doesn’t always appear but on this occasion graced us with his presence. 120+ kilo of orang utan crashing through the trees makes you sit up and pay attention. Absolutely amazing, something which I shall never forget.  Happy days.