Kuching - River Kayaking

Another hot day in Borneo so we headed up to the high lands to paddle down a creek in the rain forest region surrounding Kuching.

There are no saltwater crocodiles this far inland so it was a casual day paddle with mild rapids and some clear water to swim and paddle in.

The scenery was great, but as this was during the hottest part of the day, we only got to see some fish near one of the local villages as the rivers are stocked.

For a pristine rain forest setting, there was a surprising amount of rubbish in the river.  Throwing your rubbish into the river seems to be an institutional thing.

Kuching - Nightlife

The council equivalent seems to run two light shows each evening around the market area and are set to some music.

All a bit weird but the locals seem to love it and the market area is full of kids and there parents until late each evening.

These people seem to have a multicultural list of festivals which occur at random.  Think this was a Chinese festival to thank the gods for the wealth they achieved and they burn fake money with a bit of a ritual for a successful 12 months ahead.

Kuching - Matang Wildlife Centre - Kubah National Park

The Matang Wildlife Centre is around 35kms from the centre of Kuching.  It is run by the Sarawak Government and is essentially a zoo with a vision to rehabilitate wildlife where possible. The picture above is of a 2 year old orphaned orangutan that is being rehabilitated.

Young orangutans are dependent upon their mothers for four to five years and stay with their mothers for seven to eight years.  This infant will be in rehabilitation for a number of years before running free in the wild.

You can get up close and personal with the young orangutans at this centre which made it unique and a worthwhile visit....and I have the memory of a poo-throwing gibbon which wanted to play with Blair!

This is a mature dominate male - the boss!  Not all males grow the large cheek pads and throat sacks.  It is thought that the throat sacks are for alerting receptive females that they are in the area and to keep un-flanged males out of the area.  Males are solitary and only come in contact with other orangutans to breed.  Seems that females prefer the flanged males as breeding partners.

This dread lord likes his milk.  Saw him scoff down a two litre bottle of milk that was held by one of his handlers.  This one is partially blind so will see out his retirement years in captivity.  Orangutans are around 4 times as strong as a human - I have seen them open coconuts in their hands as well as leaping about in tree tops 100 feet up in the canopy.

Sharing Durian - must be love!

Teenage boys!  Looking for a reaction!

Blair's friend!

There were a number of other animals around the park but the enclosures were only so so.

Found these guys hanging around the viewing platform

Kuching - Bako National Park

Bako National Park is accessible via boat only after a short drive from Kuching.  There are buses which take you out to this point, but we found using a "Grab" an efficient and cheap way of travel.  We also met a local driver who spoke English and looked after us for the week we were in Kuching, dropping us off and picking us up from a number of the tourist sites as well as providing us information about the local sites and food markets.

This was our first introduction to river village life in the rural areas of Borneo.

Apparently there are lots of crocs in Borneo.  I didn't see any tracks in the mud along the river, but apparently they avoid the more busy waterways with all the boat traffic - or go to hide during the day!

There is a lot of wildlife around the Bako National Park HQ.  We did this as a day trip - but you could book into the accommodation here to stay overnight which would guarantee you of some amazing wildlife encounters as dusk and dawn are great times to be wildlife spotting in Borneo.

If you did choose to stay - try to get some accommodation with aircon as not much wind gets into the jungle and it is a tad steamy.

We were lucky enough to meet an older local gentleman who saw us spotting wildlife and gestured to us to follow him.  He took us all around the national park center and surrounding area pointing out wildlife on the way - nearly had to jog to keep up with him!

This is a silver leaf monkey or silver langur.  These beautiful monkeys were not as boisterous as the macaques and were definitely my favourite of the smaller primates.

This is a long-tailed macaque or crab eating monkey.  They are opportunistic terrorists.  The males seem to be aggressive and territorial and they can spot a potential food source a mile away and move really fast when they need to.  Whilst we were at Bako, we saw a tourist accosted by them - she had a food wrapper in a pocket of her backpack and they jumped her and stole the wrapper before she knew what was happening.

And they have bearded pigs!  Well the piglets were a bit cute with their fine stripes and fledgling beards.

This strange creature is a flying lemur - more a glider but very sloth like during the day!

So these guys made me a little nervous about bush bashing in Borneo.  If you looked away and looked back, it took you a while to pick them out from the surrounding bush.  It would be too easy to come face to face with a pit viper without realising they were there.  These vipers don't move much during the day and are active at night.

My first shot of a proboscis monkey in the wild.  This was the reason we came to Bako National Park - but trying to spot them during the day wasn't the easiest!

These are all female proboscis monkeys.  They have the smaller nose.

This is the dominant male - the bigger the nose the higher the social status apparently.  These primates are larger than other species and leap across large distances between trees in the upper stories of the rain forests.  The forests in Borneo are two to three times higher than the rain forests down under.

 

Ellen and Blair at Bako.  There are lots of hiking options but it is very muggy in the forests - The ocean looked very inviting but keep an eye out for salties!