Malaysia Borneo Continued...(see part 1 below...)

Part 2: The jungle

Next we went trekking in the jungle along Kinabatangan River. The strips of land flanking the river have some of the highest densities of wildlife on earth.

We left the road behind and took an hour-long boatride up the river to a camp. We boated through a lot of flooded jungle in some parts of the trip.

Our bungalow.

We stayed for 3 days in little 3-sided huts sleeping on mats on the floor covered with mildewy mosquito net – reminded me of camping on Isle Royale National Park, except in the jungle with monkeys. There are usually many people staying at the camp, but for most of the time it was just Spencer and I and a bunch of guides.
tree frog on a night trek.

The guides took us out in the boats early morning and late at night looking for wildlife, or identifying plants and insect species in the afternoons or in the dark with flashlights.
up a giant banyon tree!

We saw the eye of a large crocodile, many long tailed macaques hanging around in trees (one peed on me in the boat!), and probiscus monkeys. These little guys are quite rare, found only along the edge of Borneo near water. They have really big noses and bloated bellies and hoot at each other all day long.

One night around the fire I swapped some songs on the guitar with Loy, one of the guides. He taught me how to play the new Green Day song…and here I was expecting some traditional Malaysian song. Such globalism! Maybe he was expecting Go Tell It On The Mountain.

On the last day we, as we were packing up to leave camp, we spotted an orangutan and her baby up in a tree by one of the bungalows! Barefoot and compassless, Spencer and I followed the two for almost an hour as they swung in tandem from tree to tree, vine to vine, deeper into the jungle. We came very close to them (4 or 5 meters), standing right below them, and they acknowledged us, but did not seem to mind. At one point, they crossed a small stream and the mother held two lianas vines close together so the baby could reach. Then, the mother finished swinging across the stream and the baby stayed, hanging on by one arm, looking down the stream. He very slowly looked over at Spencer and reached his arm out toward him. Had I not been standing there, I would never have believed it. Then, the baby orangutan continued swinging arm over arm across the river.

On a walk with Orangutans.

Part 3: Diving on Sipidan Island

We took a minibus down to Semporna, in the Southern part of Sabah. Three little girls also rode the bus for a bit, on their way home from school. Malaysia is predominantly muslim, and the girls were covered from head to toe, wearing little white scarves on their heads with the emblem of their grade school. One of the girls kept turning around and asking me questions “what is your name?” “What is your favorite song?” (her’s was Under the Yellow Lemon Tree) “Do you like mangoes?” – and then giggling the most innocent giggle I have ever heard at everything I said.

stilt homes on the water in Semporna.

Malaysians are experts in designing homeade watercraft.

We spent the last part of our trip diving our brains out! The island of Sipidan is one of the best dive spots in the world. 5 meters off the shore a wall drops underwater for 600 meters!!!! Along this wall are tons of turtles, white tipped reef sharks, frog fish, and such an amazing assortment of fish, corals, nudibranches, and cephalopods that the person with the worst ADD in the world would be entertained for hours.

Sipidan Island with world-class diving.

We stayed off the coast of Sabah on an oil rig converted into a dive platform. We dove 3 times a day on Sipidan or Mabul (another nearby island), and even more below the rig, and when we were not diving we were eating copious amounts of food or…sleeping.

home-sweet-home on the oil rig.

You can see the lift on the right side below the deck.

The rig had a hydraulic lift to shuttle people and things from the boats 30 feet up to the deck. We had a good time jumping off the rig and then waiting for the lift to come down and get us!
the lift is down picking up passengers in the boat.

swimming off the rig.

A resort we visited during one of our dives. Built on a tiny reef which is covered during all but low tide - a stilted island miles of the coast!

Going to Sipidan!

There used to be a resort on Sipidan, but it has been closed down to protect the reef and only military people live on the island. About 5 years ago when the resort was still open, a band of Philippino pirates raided the island and took 40 hostages – most were divers. For the next 5 months, the pirates dragged their captors through the jungles of obscure islands in the Philippines, followed in hot persuit by the authorities – shooting at the pirates, sometimes directly above the hostages. The ransom was eventually paid and the hostages were returned. I was hoping for at least a good pirate sighting, but was not so lucky.
Sipidan Island