No Need to Look Very Hard

When I first started reading about Borneo and all of the wildlife that one can see I got very excited. Well of course everyone knows about the orangutans but it is not only these giant forest men that call Borneo home but also 9 other primate species including proboscis monkeys (funny looking pot bellied fellows with a hot dog nose), tarsiers (the smallest primate in the world that looks like ET) and red leaf monkeys (I think Dr. Seuss got the idea for the Grinch from these guys, he just painted them green) just to name a few. There are also elephants, cloud leopards, rhinos and hundreds of species of fantastic birds. The list goes on and on as should be expected from an island once covered in tropical rainforest and known as one of the most biodiverse places in the world.

With such a long list of potential animal sightings, we were both incredibly excited about our trip to Borneo. But after being in the Philippines for two years (also known as a center for biodiversity) and coming up pretty much empty handed in our search for wildlife, we did not want to be over-confident in our hopes for seeing many animals and then have our hopes dashed. Fortunately our time in Borneo has proven to be much better than the Philippines, as far as wildlife viewing is concerned. From our experiences in Kutai and Kayan Mentarang, we had already seen six orangutan, some gibbons and tons of macaques and hornbills just to name a few. Perhaps it was not the ideal picture that I had of a tropical rainforest as a child with exotic animals running and hiding in every direction, but with a bit of time and effort we had found quite a bit of wildlife. We still had many more animals on our Borneo checklist however and we had been told that eastern Sabah in Malaysian Borneo was the place to go to find them.

We headed to the longest river in Sabah, the Kinabatangan, which is known as a haven for the full range of Bornean wildlife and the animals are relatively easy to spot as well. Unfortunately one of the reasons that the wildlife is so easy to see is the fact that there is not much intact forest left in the area, because much of it has been converted to palm oil plantations much like the rest of Sabah. Another reason that it is easy to spot is the fact that the people who live along the river are generally Muslim in faith and thus do not traditionally hunt the wildlife, which means that the animals do not flee at the first sight or sound of man (this is much different from the wildlife in the Heart of Borneo which is heavily hunted). For these reasons the Kinabatangan has a great reputation for wildlife and there are many tourists that ply the river in search of it. This tourism has brought a good deal of money to the local communities but palm plantations continue to encroach on the area, further threatening the forest and the wildlife that call this area home. There are people working to protect and rehabilitate the forest as well as connecting the fragmented areas but sadly it is hard to say whether or not they will be successful in preserving this amazing area.

We had heard a lot about the Kinabatangan from various sources and were interested to see what it would be like. We knew that it would be a bit different from our usual hiking through the forest relying on our own eyes to spot animals far above and we would instead be paying hefty sums to ride in a boat with a guide to point out wildlife but we were willing to try it out. There are many options for tourists along the Kinabatangan ranging from jungle camps to homestays to swanky river lodges. We chose the Sukau B&B which was suggested to us as one of the cheapest options and we had also heard that it is nestled among some of the highest density of wildlife along the river.

We arrived in the early afternoon after being once again overcharged for transport along a bumpy dirt road and were greeted at the B&B by the son of the owner. This young 17 year old was incredibly personable and his English was exceptional (especially considering he dropped out of school when he was 13). He was knowledgeable and helpful when we asked about the area and what we might see and we found out that he usually helps out the family business by guiding but he had recently broken his leg playing football so he would be unable to take us out. But he did set up a cruise for the afternoon and evening for us with his father (who unfortunately was not so personable).

At around 3PM we started on our trip to the Menonggo River, an area frequented by many tourists from the lodges in the area. We heard that at times there can be 20 boats filled with 10 or more tourists a piece which does not exactly make for ideal wildlife sighting experiences since the noise from so many people has a tendency to disturb the animals. We were lucky though and there were only two other boats besides ours on the river. We were still always trying to jockey ahead of them to make sure we could get the first look at the animals before they fled.


Before even entering the small Menonggo tributary, we found our first troop of proboscis monkeys and were able to watch these strange pot bellied pigs scarf down leafs on a mangrove tree only 20 feet away from where we sat. Once we entered the small tributary, we soon realized why there can sometimes be so many boats and why it is such an attraction. There was wildlife everywhere you turned and they did not at all seem perturbed or frightened by our presence. Our little cruise down the river was greeted by about six groups of proboscis monkeys flinging themselves from tree to tree. We later learned that there are about 15 groups of these endangered primates on the Menonngo, probably making it one of the most densely populated areas on the entire island. We also saw our first silver leaf langurs, which playfully leaped across the river and posed for silhouette photos in the early evening. Many groups of pig-tailed and long-tailed macaques, the most common and social of the primates in Borneo, were also out in full force. Quite a few large monitor lizards swam in front or behind our boat or lazed along the riverbank. A green tree viper was also spotted by another boat and we made our in for a photo op. Casey got a little excited and thought that it was a good idea to get a really good shot by getting very close. Later learning that this snake is highly venomous and it could have easily struck him while trying to get the pic, he realized that maybe the photo op was not the best idea. But hey, he got a decent picture.

Our late afternoon cruise had been amazing and we were highly impressed and surprised with everything that we had seen. We were in 'keen naturalist' heaven. We had arranged to stay out a bit longer into the night in order to do some spotlighting of wildlife. There are just as many animals out at night as during the day and seeing them is a bit more difficult but we had a long list of species and we wanted to try our luck. So we sat for a bit waiting for dark and then our boatman turned on the power spotlight and we continued on our wildlife hunt. We were not quite as lucky as in the afternoon but we saw about 10 Buffy Fish Owls, a sleeping blue collared kingfisher that allowed us to get really close for some nice pics, eyes of at least one crocodile and an unidentified small cat or civet (our guess is a marbled cat). All in all not too bad for a few hours on the river and we decided to head back to the lodge for some rest.

When we got back, we met a nice British traveller, Sion, and the brother-in-law of the owner of our accommodation, who had been doing wildlife surveys and guiding on the river for about 10 years. He turned out to be an amazing guide on later river trips and just one of the nicest people that we have met on our travels. We decided that the next day we would not go out on the river since the boat trips were a bit pricey and would instead take a hike with Sion to a nearby cave. Unfortunately the next morning we started a little late and the wildlife was nowhere to be seen which did seem a bit odd after so much on the previous afternoon. The small cave was nice though and the hike was enjoyable (even with the pouring rain on the way home). Along the way we did see many signs of elephants (poo and prints) and bear (claw marks on the trees) and we decided that the next day would be our elephant searching day. In the afternoon we went for another short hike and we spotted a small female orangutan with a very young baby. Casey went to get Sion (since he was not along and he had not seen an orangutan yet) and while he was gone, Laura got to see this beautiful creature swing through the treetops with amazing speed and grace. It is so awesome how such a large beast can move so fast. These were orange creatures number 7 and 8 (after our 6 in Kutai, Indonesia).

Underwater Paradise

We arrived in Malaysian Borneo via boat from the Indonesian island of Tarakan. We headed immediately for the small seaside town of Semporna. Ironically enough, Semporna is Bahasa Melayu for "perfect". This explains the ocean surrounding the town, but it is the antithesis of the town itself. Luckily, we weren't in Semporna for it's seashore. We had come to feast our eyes on its underwater treasures. The islands off Semporna's shores are reputed to hold some of the best diving spots in the world and the island of Sipadan tops the list. We were heading to this island to try to see the hammerhead sharks, dozens of turtles, large schools of barracuda and other large pelagics which are rumored to ply these waters. Other nearby islands are said to be teeming with strange bottom dwelling creatures of the types we found in Lembeh Strait. We were going to search for these creatures with the help of Scuba Junkies Dive Shop, which came recommended as cheap and good.

Our first day of diving was at the famed island of Sipadan. Sipadan stands out from the rest of the islands much like Sangglaki did in Kalimantan - Sipadan rises from the depths like a grand pillar and the currents whip about it from all directions. Because it is surrounded by an underwater wall and because of the swift currents, many large animals congregate near. Due to this phenomenon, MANY people visit Sipadan year round. Also because of it's spectacular underwater life the Malaysian government has made the waters around the island a reserve and restricts access to 120 people per day and believe me, it does fill up. The government also kicked the resorts off the island in the name of conservation/preservation - or so we thought until we saw the troops of military men housed in the old resorts while keeping an eye out for pirates, terrorists and others who might illegally enter Malaysian waters.

KC finally buckled in to paying for his scuba advanced course long after fulfilling all the requirements but without paying the ridiculous fee for the plastic card. Up until this point, I never realized just how utterly worthless the advanced certification is. I could be a NAUI snob and attribute this observation to the lack of proper instruction PADI offers. After all, I was certified with NAUI and as far as I remember the advanced course was more technical and helped give a better understanding of how to navigate underwater. But the course KC did was a joke! He needed to complete 5 different dives for the certification and so on our first dive in Sipadan, we suited up with four other divers and 1 instructor for the deep dive. The first doubt about our chosen dive outfit came when I jumped in to find that my buoyancy regulator wouldn't stay inflated. No biggie though, just hop out of the sea, change gear and off we go!

Dive 1: Hanging Gardens
We descended down to 32 meters. On the way down we passed all the colorful coral and fish so at depth we were faced with the brown wall on one side and very murky water on the other. Basically, the only thing down here are sharks, including the hammerheads IF you're lucky enough to see them. We weren't. The viz was so awful and it wasn't even the right season to go hammerhead sharking. So instead we watched a lot of nothing for about 15 minutes. At the end of our dive we did see some sharks as we found ourselves floating over a group of about 10 juvenile grey reef sharks. There were also a few turtles, but none in the numbers everyone assured us we would see. Turtles were so common in Derawan and around Sanngalaki that they were no longer as thrilling and not even worth mentioning on subsequent dives. Just assume we saw at least 5 turtles on each dive and leave it at that. (In all seriousness, I don't think I'd ever get tired of turtles, but when searching for other amazing creatures it's a bit tiresome when the guide keeps pointing out the obvious and ubiquitous reptiles).

Dive 2: Turtle Cave to Barracuda Point
The second inkling of doubt about Scuba Junkies came when before descent it was discovered that my emergency regulator (aka octopus) wasn't functioning properly. 2 for 2 on bad gear. During this dive we visited Turtle Cave, which is part of a large cave system under the island. It is so named because the carcasses of turtles who couldn't find there way out before their breathe ran out can be found deep inside. For the super adventurous (and idiotic?) it is said you can tour these caves if you carry along a few extra tanks and are willing to remove your equipment from time to time to squeeze through the small tunnels. We barely scratched the surface of the cave and only went as far as the light.

After leaving the cave we were kicking around with not much to see. Lora The Always Searching decided to turn 180 degrees to see if anything had started swimming behind the group. Sure enough, off in the distance was an enormous swirling school of barracuda. Since we were the last divers of the bunch and the others were speedily sailing through the water in the other direction, they missed the amazing barracuda mass. Ecstatic at the sight, we frantically tried to make noise underwater so the rest of the group could partake in the silvery fish, but it was to no avail. Soon the fish were barely visible in the distance in one direction and our group in the other so we were forced to abandon our efforts of fish gawking to join our blind guide once again. Later on the surface we told the others what they'd miss. Our guide's explanation for his lack of observation was because the great toothy beasts were usually found during a later section of the dive. Goes to show you that by becoming to familiar with a site one can become blind to the unexpected and thus miss out on some great sightings.

Sadly, we trudged on, but it didn't take long before we came across another large school of albeit, less intimidating fish: the trevallies. The flat shimmering fish were wonderful to watch as they circled around each other in almost complete unison. Among the mass was one or two giant trevally which were about 4 feet long and darker in color. We could have stayed among the fish but again, our swift mates had already grown tired of the school and had jetted off in search of other creatures instead of appreciating the ones they'd already found.

Dive 3: MidReef
This dive wasnt' anything to write home about except for the spotted eagle ray. We ended in the shallows over beautiful coral where some yellow finned jacks and some tuna were playing but our guide had had enough and called us to the surface before we could explore further.

Dive 4: Night Dive at Tong's Marker
Great night dive! Except for the claustrophobic feeling one gets when 6 people with flashlights are trying to squeeze around a creature the size of a baby's toenail, it was fabulous! Our dive guide was one of the owners of the dive shop and is an exceptional guide who has logged thousands of dives and has a knack for finding the smallest and most amazing underwater creatures. His eyes are phenomenal and he is the reason that this shop was recommended to us. We had hoped to get him as a guide for more dives but unfortunately this was the only one and the other dive masters that we dove with did not have the anywhere close to as good an eye as he had. We had came to Semporna not only wanting to see the big creatures of Sipidan but also the many small strange ones on other nearby islands and to get your money's worth for macro diving you often need an experienced guide with a great eye who has logged many dives in the area. Scuba Junkies has a program where many new dive masters are trained, which is all fine and good unless you are the unlucky one who gets one of these fresh dive masters in training who has only logged 3 dives in the site and knows it hardly any better than you do. But enough of the complaining and back to the great night dive with the great guide.

As soon as we jumped in we found a small bamboo cat shark which was an interesting looking fellow. We slowly descended a bit deeper along the slope and our guide began pointing out this and that for all of us to see. There were decorator crabs and spider crabs and tons of nudibranchs. We even saw a nudibranch that our guide had never seen before and one which he thought was a species that had not been described ever before. He said that he had already found a number of new species in the area and it certainly seemed like he knew his stuff. When he saw the new interesting creature he took tons of pictures and did a happy dance underwater. After an hour underwater and having seen many new animals we surfaced and headed back into town to warm up and rest our sleepy heads.

Dive 5: Black Coral Garden
We came to the dive shop in the morning and we were informed that we were no longer going to the island where they had told us the night before. We were not entirely happy about this since we had been briefed on this island and had decided that it would suit our interests for macro diving. But we could not do too much about their last minute change and decided to suit up and go dive anyways. We also got one of the dive master trainees as a guide and he was very thorough and good about explaining the dive beforehand (something you do not always get in SE Asia diving) but his knack in finding small things was not so great. We dropped down to about 25 meters and we saw a garden of black coral which actually is not black except for the trunk of it and it actually looks like a large white bush. After this we swam around and saw a number of nudibranchs, a crocodile fish and a few other things. The visibility was really poor here (only about 10 feet or so) and there was not anything else really notable about the dive other than the black coral.


Dive 6: Sibuan Island - Froggies Highway
Once we got up from the black coral dive, we were informed that we had to switch islands because the current was too strong here for the open water diver class that was on the same boat. So we decided to go to the same island that we were originally planning on heading to. Our next dive was supposed to be a place to possibly see some frogfish and luckily we did see a nice big green one that Lora found. We also saw a huge crocodile fish and got some great pics. This dive was better than the last and probably better than our next one but nothing spectacular.

Dive 7: Sibuan Island - Mandarin Point
Our last diver of the day and the last dive for this area we decided to look for some resident mandarin fish. We were told that we would see them in the beginning but when we did not see them in the first twenty minutes I thought that we were not going to get to see them at all. Mandarin fish are really shy and small but extremely colorful (almost like a flouresent blue green pattern on an orange background). Casey had seen one before but Lora had not so we were hoping to have an encounter and we were told that this place was pretty much a certainty. We were getting a bit anzy when we had not seen it, nor anything else interesting in this shallow dive through some fields of broken coral. Luckily at the end of the dive we finally did find quite a few in a patch of sea urchins. They certainly are gorgeous little fish but unfortunately there was nothing else worth taking note of on this dive.

Overall this second day was not so great and our expectation for great macro diving was certainly not met. We found later that the islands that we had visited are not the best places to see the creatures we wanted to see. We decided that our choice of dive company did not really suit us. I guess we are a bit snobby about our diving but we did shell out quite a bit of money and we had hoped for better quality of dive guides. We had not come at the best time of year since the visibility was pretty piss poor and some of the bigger pelagics were not around. Sipidan had been really nice but our expectations had been a bit too big. But we would both like to try it again sometime when we have a bit larger budget to spend more time and do it with a different company.

Long Jelet

Our short hike ended in the tiny village of Long Jelet. This little kampung consists of approximately 70 people and a few dozen wooden houses. The locals are, by far, the most self-sustaining peoples I've ever met. They produce all their own rice through rotation swidden farming and their protein is caught with nets, shot with guns are speared. They cultivate vegetables in their yards or gather them from the surrounding forest. The materials from their houses come from the forest, even their backpacks are woven from locally gathered rattan. They do buy coffee, tea, sugar and gas for their boat engines and there's the occasional satellite TV. To pay for these items many of the villagers take the 5 day trek which brings them to Malaysia where they generally find work on palm oil plantations and send home the money.

A group of villagers greeted us with strong handshakes and smiles as we entered the village. This was a phenomenal improvement to our experience in Long Pujungan where the people were not overtly happy to see us invading their little haven and we began to wonder if the locals actually wanted tourists. WWF has done a great job with hospitality training in the kampung of Long Jelet. We were then whisked away to our host family's house which was home to a young couple and their adorable one year old son who stumbled about the house with beads wrapped around his calves, arms and neck.

The head of the local ecotourism committee was eager for us to get outside and about an hour after arriving we had already arranged our next excursion. There wasn't many options available to us, since we didn't want to pay around 300,000 Rupiah for a 15 minute boat ride and most of the trips involved riding on a boat, so we decided to head to a nearby waterfall. We were told that this waterfall would be a mere 2 hour, easy trek which tells you how often tourists visit the waterfall. What was suppose to take half a day ended up being a full day of hiking. It's not so much that the waterfall was far away. It took us that long because we hiked along a foot wide path which was hacked out of a very steep sloping mountain. It took all of our energy just not to fall down the mountain as we scampered about trying to keep up with the rest of the crew. Clearly the locals were not used to seeing those who lead a sedentary lifestyle try to balance over slippery moss covered rocks. They pranced over the stones like they were strolling on an even cement sidewalk. We were constantly eating their dust. Exhausted, we arrived at the waterfall where everyone got picture happy. They love posing! My favorite was our grandfather guide who is a skilled rattan weaver. Watching him changing poses next to the waterfall was the highlight of the day. After the picture-picture one of the men persuaded us to join him in a dip in the pool at the base of the waterfall. Then we had to rush back across the mountain in order to make it home before dark.

The Good Life
After the exhausting hike to Long Jelet followed by the harrowing trek to the waterfalls we decided our poor feet deserved a break from the terrible rubber shoes. So, we took a day of rest. We had a leisurely breakfast of extreme fried fish and rice. We lounged around reading a watching the little boy run around with a large grin on his face.


In the afternoon some of the locals took us on a small river tour. They brought along their cast nets and woven rattan backpacks and fished the river. We were also lucky enough to partake in the action. I've seen cast net thrown numerous times, and the men who wield them always do so with such calm and easy composure. But I'll tell you one thing...this is no simple task. The base of the net is strung through metal chain, which is heavy! It took us some time to figure out how exactly to hold the net and it was difficult to keep my chain-laden arms up for so long. A few times during the throw, I thought either one of us would land face first in the water. It was a tough job and though our attempts were entertaining to watch they were by no means fruitful. Thankfully, we had with us a pair of skilled fishermen who filled the woven backpacks with delicious freshwater fish of all shapes and sizes.

We awoke the following day to rain. That's right folks, the rainy season had finally begun, much to our dismay. It was also pouring every night. Ugh.

Because of the rain, we decided to rest again. In the afternoon the village leader took us on a search for some animals. We were hoping to see some monkeys and deer but we're not very good trackers, though our guide was. He saw a deer or two but each time he tried to point them out we failed to see them hidden in the brush. On the way back he stopped to gather some vines for dinner. It was amazing watching him work the machete around the very spiny vines. He worked so smoothly and deftly, quickly removing the out thorns to uncover the white insides. Then he took us on an interesting journey through the ferns back to the village.

Mealtime
Our hostess was amazing. Before every meal she would separate the warm rice into portions and pack them in large leaves. She would also heat up the main dishes, which usually consisted of leftovers, so we always had piping hot food to fill our tummies. She then laid the amazing meaty spread on the floor of the large common room and we would eat our meal with our hands while seated on the wooden floor. Beside the main dishes, she would place a small bowl full of hand crushed fresh chili peppers mixed with salt which we would sprinkle on our food to give added flavor and warmth.

One day, some pork showed up at a meal. It had been boiled so tender that it literally melted in one's mouth. The taste was richer and stronger than any pork we'd ever tasted and the meat was lean. Someone (our host?) had killed the wild pig and brought it to our home (perhaps split it between a number of households?). Subsequently, we ate pig at every meal for the next 3 days. What we didn't finish the first day was put back into the kettle and left near the constantly roaring fire. Just before mealtime our hostess would place the pot over the fire to heat the meat before serving. This was repeated numerous times and the meal became more delicious with each day.

Besides wild boar, we also were served numerous wild plants which had been gathered in the jungle. Once we were served the insides a large, spiky rattan-like vine, which tasted bitter. We also had chopped up leaves and ferns. From the farrow rice paddies we picked unripened pineapple and made a fiery chili pineapple salad.

Undoubtedly one of the staples is deep fried fish. This is because the fish are easier to catch than the forest animals. One day our host took his boat out for about an hour and came home with enough fish to feed us for 2 days. All fish caught were eaten and these included large suckers as well as smaller fish.

The Journey Home
Each day we awoke we were unsure about how long we'd get to stay in the beautiful backwater. We knew we needed to make it out of Long Punjungan by a certain date in order to make it out of the country before our visa expired, but no one could tell us exactly when the downriver boats would be setting sail. Since we'd have to leave Long Jelet a day before the boats left, our length of stay in Long Jelet was dependent on the very loose trip schedule. We were told that there would surely be boats on the weekend, but no boats left. Everyday was a new story and it began to worry us.

We had planned to take a boat from Long Jelet to Long Punjungan to save us the energy of another 1.5 day hike. But, because of the unexpected change in the weather (ie rain) we were told one morning that the river was raging over the rapids with such voracity that the small motor boats were unable to ply its waters. In effect, the people of Long Jelet (us included) were trapped. This was not a new phenomenon and it seemed not to phase the locals in the slightest. The head of the ecotourism committee new of our situation and gave us two options: We could wait out the rain and see if the river dropped enough before the expiry date on our visa or we could return the way we came, on foot and through the hills. Though he gave us the options, it was clear he would rather us hike out of Long Jelet, the much safer of the two options. This meant however, that we would be leaving in just a few hours for another feet-killing journey. This did not make Lora happy, who was content in the warm wooden hut. Soon the rain stopped and two guides were rounded up to take us on our trek.

The first day was up a steep hill and then back down. Again, the guides shot a female barking deer. They cut the meat up nicely and grilled a leg over the fire. The rest of the meat (no inners! Yea!) they through in a pot and boiled.

The next day we got up early and broke down camp. As usual we heard the occasional crash of an animal running away in the distance. When we reach a shoulder in the uphill climb the sounds of gibbons we had been following grew steadily louder. One of the guides, who was skilled at animal mimicry began calling back to the gibbons. We put our bags down and rushed up farther to see if we could catch a glimpse at these graceful creatures. Sure enough, they had been swinging along the path and we had a wonderfully clear view of them as they glided through the trees. We were even lucky enough to watch one of the pair make a u-turn and swing back toward us. Unfortunately, we were both so stunned by the awesomeness of the moment that neither one of us snapped any pictures. Never mind, the pictures could never have turned out as perfect as my memories of the primates.

We had to walk hard and fast the rest of the trip in order to make it all the way back to Long Pujungan before dark. It was imperative that we make it to the town because the next day we needed to be on the boat down river. Exhausted, we made it to town just as it became to dark to see without light. We spent the night in an extremely overpriced guesthouse and got on the same boat that took us upstream. We were sad to leave this place, but happy that the journey had left us with so many good memories.

The Forest Affliction

When trekking through the tropical rainforest one will generally lose some blood. This is almost completely unavoidable as the swarms of leeches attack from below. The troops gather strength after the rains (which happens often in RAINforest). Then creep across the ground cover silently and can play "twig" was unsuspecting ease. Swiftly but undetectably they attach themselves to whatever appendage come closest to their hiding place: shoe, calf, thigh and even arms are subject to such attacks. Stealthily they worm their way to the most tender skin. They relish the ankles, between the toes and when they can travel so far, between the thighs and buttocks. Their bites are often unnoticed, except for the time they hit the exceptionally tender locations such as the groin or armpit. One may not even notice they're there until satiated, they drop from the body leaving small wounds that gush crimson blood and stain clothing. Later, after the wounds have scabbed over, they will itch incessantly.

The locals, who are forced to live among these merciless creatures have come up with numerous ways to deter them. Almost everyone who travels past their yard equips themselves with leech socks, knee high tightly woven socks that the leeches are unable to penetrate. Those going deep into the recesses of the forest, such as hunters, will rub tobacco on their shoes and legs. Tobacco, suprisingly is a powerful insecticide which will kill leeches who crawl onto its juices. Then, to be extra safe, they spray the insides of their shoes and their socks with Baygon mosquito repellant. This combination works beautifully at killing 90% of all leeches that try to attack. It is wonderful searching one's boots for the number of fatalities still attached. These numbers are always high: 14, 20, 30 fatalities in a few hours. Yet some always manage to slip past the barriers...

Jungle Survival

Shortly after arriving in Long Pujungan it was decided we would hike the 2-3 hours to the nearby village of Ketaman. Ketaman would only be a pit stop where we would change guides for the 1.5 day journey to Long Jelet - home of the WWF's major ecotourism efforts in the area. We could have cut the travel time to Long Jelet considerably (down to mere hours) but it also would have cost double the price. Besides, we had already seen the forest from the river and we were ready to dive in for a closer look.

We arrived in Ketaman on a Saturday and paid $5/person/night to be fed and sleep on the living room floor of a nice but shy family. We left with our 2 guides (you need 2 for the hike because it's "very difficult" or as we think, Indonesians don't like to be left for long periods of time alone with tourists) on Monday. They are all devoutly Protestant in these parts, thanks to friendly missionaries from the US and Oz and they wouldn't work on God's Day, so we too rested.

As usual, the leading guide plunged far ahead while we struggled to keep up. It was kind of nice that one guide always trailed behind. That way we didn't get too lost when the lead guided got too far ahead. The first few hours of the hike took us through ladang or un-irrigated agricultural ands which is often the product of slash and burn farming. We found this oddly comical: travel for days to the deep, dark depths of Borneo to stroll through rice fields. Soon enough we were surrounded by secondary forests, that is by old ladang sites which have been seized back by the forest. At least we were out of the weeds and surrounded by the trees.

Day one, though uneventful, was a pleasant walk in the woods. Or so we thought as we crossed what we assumed was the last river of the day. But we were very mistaken. During the afternoon we huffed and puffed our way up a large mountain. The forest up high improved and we saw more signs of wildlife such as wild pig baths and civet claw markings. We also heard barking deer and some monkeys as they ran away.

As we began our descent the lead guide rushed even further ahead than usual. Occasionally we would hear him blowing on two blades of grass (remember doing that when you were young?) He was on the hunt for barking deer for dinner. As we approached him we heard the loud bang of his homemade shotgun and then the crying barks of a deer. We rushed to take a look and discovered that he had shot a female deer in the eye. It took her a while to die and only after he banged her on her head, slit her throat and strangled her with rattan rope (they don't have PETA in the heart of darkness). Then we dragged her down the mountain.

At the base of the mountain, on the banks of a river is a permanent campsite. It's a nice set up with a raised sleeping platform and cooking area. Our guides had packed with them 3 tarps, rice sacks and a hammer. They tied the tarps over the platform and the kitchen to keep out the rain. Then two rice sacks were stretched around to sturdy pieces of wood. The wood was then nailed to the frame of the platform to create makeshift hammocks for sleeping. Then two more rice sacks which were sewn together were used as a sleeping bag to keep the mosquitoes at bay. Not a bad set up. Much more comfortable than our 1 person tent which we laid on top of logs of various sizes on the platform.

Once this was done, they set about preparing dinner. They cooked rice and boiled water in metal pots they had packed. I found it hilarious that they packed about 1/2 kilo of sugar for their one night of coffee drinking. They also filled a plastic bag with cartons of cigarettes for the trip - these things I would have thought extraneous but to them it's just the essentials!

At the river they gutted the carcass. The stomach, liver and thigh were cut into chunks and all thrown into a single pot with river water, salt and MSG and set over the wood stove to boil. When cooked the whole pot smelled gamy but the meat was delicious, even if the stomach was not. This was also our breakfast and lunch the following day. We assumed that the guides would take some of the meat with them but this proved impractical since hunting is easy to do around the villages. So we left most of the deer for the birds.

The next day we had another mountain to climb. By this time our feet were blistered and sore from our new rain boots and we were itching from the bug bites. Struggling we made it up the steep slope of the mountain. As in the Philippines, the ideas of back switches is lost here where people prefer to find the most slippery incline straight up the mountain and a no less slippery steep decline to its base. In between the sharp slopes, we had to carefully traverse on a equally slippery and narrow path that cut across the length of the mountain. The descent was more harrowing than the tiring climb and took more time as we tried not to slide on our bums the entire way down the mountain.

We reached our destination tired and barely able to walk. We were welcomed warmly by the village as many people approached us to shake our hands and welcome us to Long Jelet. Our host family was gracious and offered hot, very sweet tea straight away. It was the exact opposite greeting we received in Long Pujungan where we thought perhaps people upriver didn't in fact want ecotourists. The greetings were wonderful and made us feel much more at home in this far away village.

Into the Heart of Darkness

I hope the literary reference above is correct and the book is about Borneo. Since I haven't actually read it, I have no clue. If I am incorrect please strike "Darkness" and replace it with "Borneo".

Our Plan: Visit the largest National Park in Indonesian Borneo, Kayan Metarang via the village of Long Bawan. We had hear that there was a large area of montane rainforest and some great opportunities for trekking including a loop circuit into Malaysian Borneo where we could visit traditional houses and experience some indigenous culture. It seemed like a great plan and we were both psyched as we headed to the city of Tarakan from where our reserved flight would depart.

Reality: When we arrived in Tarakan we found that our reservations were not held, but that didn't matter because the said flight was cancelled. It seems like a reservation does nt hold much clout and the three weekly flights are often cancelled for varying reasons including high fuel prices, or in our case, the desire for public officials to commandeer the plane for their own personal use. Our visa was going to run out shortly and we could not sit around for another flight which might also be cancelled in the same fashion. We were forced to regroup and think of another plan.

Thankfully, we came across another option to visit Kayan Metarang at an entry point south of our original plan. WWF has been working in Kayan Metarang for the past 10 years or so and one of their more recent endeavours has been to develop ecotourism in the area. Aside from Long Bawan, they are trying to set up ecotourism ventures near Long Pujungan, which may be reached by river boat instead of inadequate air services. It would require us to do a little backtracking but we decided that the river trip would be interesting and it would still give us a chance to get in the "Heart of Borneo" as WWF likes to call its project.

While waiting for our laundry to dry and our boat to leave we did have an opportunity to learn a bit more about the park from some of the amazing books published by way-way-ef and their ten years of experience there.

The park is huge and represents an area which is highly important for biodiversity conservation. Check out this linked article about the 52 new species that were just recently found in the "Heart of Borneo." It is also the traditional land of 12 different indigenous tribes consisting of the Dayak (generic term for swidden farmers) and the Penan (aka hunter-gatherers who are barely 5 feet tall). It was first set up as a completely no take zone. This did not go over so well with the villagers who use the forest for their sustenance and so with the help of WWF they were able to convince the government to change the status to a national park. This change makes it legal for the indigenous tribes to hunt animals within the park limits. Now some of you may think "what's the point in a park if people can hunt there?" But you have to remember that these tribes have been living sustainably in the forest for hundreds of years. It is a result of their keen forest management skills that the forest has remained intact because up until now there are no forest rangers. Much of the forest is secondary growth because the tribes survive off of rice which they grow in the swidden (aka slash and burn) method. We were told that they could only grow one crop on the poor soil before they have to let it go farrow. Slash and burn isn't generally as bad as people make it out to be and it helps to increase the biodiversity of the forest by creating different stages of regrowth in different areas.

We were going to the park mainly to see the forest. We figured it would be difficult to see animals because the hunting pressure would make them very skittish. We were correct. However, the amount of wildlife in the area is mind boggling. There are 6 kinds of monkey, the Bornean Gibbon, 4 types of deer including one that barks like a dog and 2 that are the size of a cat, Malayan sun bears (we saw a pelt on some one's porch), wild pigs, wild cows, many civets and wild cats including an unidentifiable one discovered by WWF scientists recently and hundreds of birds including the rhinoceros hornbill (the mother of all hornbills) and many, many more. There used to be orang-utans but they were all poached by "outsiders" from Sulawesi and Java. There also used to be rhinos and elephants, but they are extremely rare anywhere in Borneo nowadays.

The morning of the river "cruise" we were still unsure exactly what to expect from this trip and we felt a little unprepared but we were ready to get going. We packed in a 40 foot open air longboat with four outboard engines along with 30 other people and various cargo in order to ply upriver for the next day and a half. I cannot say that it was the most comfortable trip as we tried to hide from the rain and sun or find a decent spot to lay in between cargo and people,but I've been on worse (see previous entries). As we rode upriver we saw some vast stretches of decent forest as well as clear cut areas for agriculture and logging concessions. We passed little river towns and logging camps and got sprayed by he waves of the rapids. During the night we set up camp on a rocky beach but when the rain started we went to find shelter in a little hut (and I mean little: a room which was 8 feet by 10 feet) along with ten men who were travelling to the forest in search of "gahru" a type of wood which is sold for very high prices (Rp 10 million/kilo) due to its aromatic quality when burned. Most of them stayed up playing cards all night while we tried to catch a few hours of shut-eye on a makeshift bed. By the time we arrive in Long Pujungan we were glad to get off the boat but it had certainly been an interesting experience reaching our destination...but we weren't' yet to our final destination - that would take another 3 days...

Mantas, Turtles and Sharks, Oh My!

After being out of the tropical waters and in the forest for a month or so we were ready to dive back in. And what better place than a group of small islands where we heard that people often encounter dozens and even hundreds of manta rays, there is a saltwater lake filled with stingless jellyfish and beaches where turtles lay their eggs nightly. This group of islands is off the coast of Berau in East Kalimantan: Derawan, Sanggalaki and Kakaban, and while we had not heard as much about it as other famous dive spots in the area, we were still very excited about the prospects.

The main attraction for us was, of course the manta rays, which neither of us had seen yet. Mantas are big, harmless stingrays which filter feed on plankton. There are similar ones off the coast of Florida where they are the namesake for the baseball team The Devil Rays. The ones here do not get quite as large as those, but they still reach wingspans of more than 10 feet.

We approached Derawan Island by speedboat and quickly noticed that the island, like so many in the Philippines, was heavily populated. Many houses were situated over the water on stilts, including our accomodation, which made for a very eye-pleasing view out over the ocean. Once we got settled, we decided to survey the small island as well as look for a boat for a snorkeling trip to Sanggalaki Island the next day. On our brief walk we saw a large turtle swimming near shore as well as a fenced off area which served as a sanctuary where turtle eggs were protected until they hatched. We would end up seeing tons more turtles in the water over the next few days, but unfortunately none laying or hatching on the beach (though we searched the beaches at night). Over dinner we talked with a nice Canadian who had been diving in the area the past week. He was one of those divers that has been many places and since he was highly impressed by the underwater world in the area, we felt confident that this would be a great place. He informed us that when he visited Sanggalaki, the famed manta island, he had seen dozens from the boat even before jumping into the water and tons more underneath. We could hardly sleep with anticipation of our trip the next day.

We woke up early, jumped in the boat and prepared oursleves for the 1.5 hour ride to Pulau Sanggalaki. We passed through a rain storm but when we arrived the sun was shining on the white sandy beach. We got off the boat and were able to see turtle tracks and nests in the sand. It is pretty much a deserted island other than one small resort and it was thick with forest. This lack of people on an island was rare to us after living in the Philippines where it sees that every semi-inhabitatble island is jam packed. The lack of people also meant a lack of fishing pressure and therefore, as we were about to see, there remained a wealth of big fish underwater.

Our boatman took us to the other side of the island where the mantas hang out and we were worried that something would be wrong and they would not be here today. We thought our fears were turning into reality since we did not see any as we approached their hangout. Still nervous we jumped in and were immediately whisked away by a rapid current. At first there was not much coral nor many fish and no mantas (our worst nightmares come true!). But this did not last for long. After a few minutes of drifting we were surrounded by schools of large fish. And then our first manta came into view. It was huge and appeared out of the murky water to glide gracefully past. It was a surreal experience.


The current was strong all day and it was fairly bad visibility for tropical waters at about 20 feet. This often doesn't make for ideal leisurely snorkeling conditions, but it did make for a great opportunity to see tons of big fish, mantas and other marine life since many of these creatures prefer the strong currents and the food that is brought in on them. Often times the large mantas would appear out of nowhere from the murky depths and provoke a scream from Lora which would then in turn scare KC. It was all good fun and the mantas provided quite a show for us especially in the PM during low tide when the current got even stronger and even more of them congregated in the feeding area. We had the boat drop us and then we would be whisked by the current past dozens of these gentle giants filter feeding in the shallows.

Each time we were dropped off by our boat, it proved to be a new experience. On one pass we would see tons of mantas, on the next loads of turtles and one the next it was 5 sharks and hige school of sweetlips. By the end of the day we were both pooped but felt that it had been our best day underwater ever. We not only saw dozens of mantas but also more turtles than either one of us had ever seen in all of our diving and snorkeling (more than fifty for the day). We saw about 10 reef sharks and 3 leopard sharks (also a great sighting which neither of us had seen before). To say that big fish were plentiful would be an understatement as schools of huge snappers, sweetlips and jacks were commonplace. For two biologists who love the water it was really nothing short of spectacular and also an uplifting experience after seeing so many fish-depleted waters in the Philippines. By 4 PM our boatman wanted to head home and so we reluctantly hung our snorkels and fins up for the day.

The next day, we planned to visit the island of Kankaban which has a saltwater lake that has four species of stingless jellyfish which inhabit it. The lake has long been cut off from the ocean for so long that the jellyfish trapped inside, in the presence of no predators, have proliferated and evolved to become stingless. I had once seen a program on a similar lake in Palau (small island in Micronesia) and it has always stuck in my memory. I was longing to see this weird phenomenon and once I heard about this place I was certainly excited since it was the next best thing and a whole lot cheaper to visit.

Unfortunately our boatman from the previous day (who had been great) was busy so we had to look for another one. This proved to be more difficult than the first day but we thought that we had one lined up the night before. In the morning they did not show up and we decided to wait for a while since time in Indonesia moves like time in the Philippines (which is not American time). After an hour or so though we were getting worried since it was eating up our snorkeling time and the island was a 2 1/2 hour trip away. We went to look for the boat and found that they had just returned from fishing and did not really seem too ready to take us out. After awhile and agreeing to pay a bit more money than we had agreed upon the night before we eventually headed off. On top of that, this boat was slower than the one the day before and every time you moved on the boat, it felt like it was going to roll over. After such a great and easy experience the day before we were a bit discouraged (Oh well... that's life) but hoped that it would still be a good day.

After finally arriving at Kakaban, we jumped in the lake and found that it was even murkier than the surrounding sea with visibility of only about 10 feet. The jellyfish were certainly there but not exactly in the proportions that I had imagined. I had dreamed of floating through throngs of the pulsing little jellies and having to fight my way through (much like I saw in that program on Palau). It was not exactly like that but it was still pretty neat to be in the presence of so many beautiful but usually irritating little creatures without feeling the bad effects.

What actually turned out to be the best part of the lake was the mangrove fringed shore. Along the shallow edge, the bottom and the mangrove roots in the water had been colonized by a community of strange and very colorful organisms. There were sponges and tunicates of many bright shades of red and orange. There were morays, flatworms, sea cucumbers and fish which were specialized for this very unique environment. It was like nothing we had ever seen before and it made the visit to the lake really worth it even with the problems with our boat (it also broke down on our way home: it was getting dark and we almost thought that we were going to be stuck out at sea all night or worse).

But we got back safe and even decided to try another trip. We decided to go back to Sanggalaki since we loved it so much. Our boat the next day was a different one and much better and our snorkelling while not quite as good as the first day, was still peppered with mantas, turtles and big fish. These islands were probably the most impressive that we have seen for cool marine life so far and we would both head back in a minute and maybe next time we will strap a few tanks on our backs.

Transportation Exploits

Once again, I feel compelled to mention our transportation exploits in this country. We left Kutai National Park by small motorboat in the afternoon. Surely, we thought, we would have enough time to catch the 5 buses to Berau which we were told about. We were waiting in Sangatta, which did not have its own transportation to Berau and so we were forced to sit on the side of the road (for Sangatta also lacked a bus terminal) until the buses from Samarinda jetted by. All we had to do was watch the road closely and hail down the bus as it flew through town. Simple enough. We should only have to wait a couple of hours. WRONG! We sat by the road from 3pm until 11pm and watched as every single (extremely packed) bus waved us away. We were getting worried. We didn't want to spend the night in this podunk town only to sit through the same scenario tomorrow and we didn't want to spend the extra money and time travelling down to Samarinda only to travel back through Sangatta 3 hours later.

We were just about to give up hope (how could we not when all of the locals were telling us to find a hotel and try tomorrow) when the very last bus drove by. Luckily for us, this bus wasn't stuffed to the gills and though every last seat was filled, they found room on the floor for us and our belongings. KC was kind enough to take the backless child's seat in the aisle while Lora lounged on the steps of the door with the second driver who was trying to get a little shut-eye before his shift.

To make a long story short: We paid the full price of the bus from Samarinda to Berau (though we got on in Sangatta) to spend the night on makeshift seats. This trip might have taken the cake.

A Note on Borneo

The island of Borneo has long contained connotations of grandeur and mystery. It is one of the most biodiverse areas in the world, which draws both scientists and tourists from around the globe. It is also rich in natural resources, which brings the corporations which, together with the governments, seem hell-bent on sucking the island dry.

In the province of East Kalimantan in Indonesia almost every large city is a product of natural resource exploitation: Balikpapan has the off-shore oil rigs and the international corporations to match, Samarinda collects all of the giant hardwood logs from upriver, Berau is home to coal. Even lazy Sangatta, on the edge of Kutai National Park, thrives because of the large coal mine. It was strange to find ourselves hiking through the forest, searching for organ-utan with the sounds of coal mining machinery in the distance.

Today we just arrived in the Malaysian state of Sabah, where the forest is being logged as rapidly as possible and palm oil plantations are springing up in its wake. We had heard that it was nothing but palms, but we were still shocked to discovery the actual extent of the massive plantations. We took a 2 hour drive today and there weren't any towns or houses along the road, but there were rows upon rows of palms. It almost makes me yearn for the slash and burn destruction we saw in Indonesia. At least then it was local farmers needing the land to feed their families and the forest was never far off in the distance.

Big Hairy Apes

Kutai National Park is a small patch of forest near the coast of Eastern Borneo. It has an interesting history: it was first set up by the Indonesian government in the 1960s, but soon their greed consumed them and they took away part of the park so it could become a logging concession. Then, as greed begets greed, they decided to give back the already denude area (how environmental of them!)in exchange for virgin forest lands, which were then raped of its trees. All of this means that the national park is in a pretty sorry state vegetation-wise, as far is national parks go. The good news is that there are still plenty of animals around the park and because there aren't many large trees these animals are relatively easy to see in the "natural" habitat. And this is what brought us to Kutai.

The main attraction of the park are some of the biggest and hairiest apes of all: the organ-utan (see bad out of focus pictures here). Some background info on organ-utan: there name translates to "people of the forest" (orang = person, hutan = forest, example: we are Orang American, the apes are Orang Hutan or orang-utan). They are only found on two large islands, both in Indonesia: Sumatera and Borneo. They are an arboreal species and spend most of their time eating the fruits and twigs of trees. They even sleep in the high boughs in a nest they make every night from fresh leaves. Through habitat loss and poaching their numbers have been greatly reduced.

We spent about a week in the park, in various locations. In the first, Sangkima the park service has set up a circular "adventure" trail right off of the busy highway. We call this trail adventure because, well, it is. There are places where its a boardwalk, which is lovely. Then the laborers got tired because the boardwalk turns into 6 in wide wood planks you must balance on about a meter or more in the air. The most adventurous of the adventure are the bridges. Borneo is a very wet place and there are many small creeks and streams. To cross these bodies of water, they park service developed many various bridge devices like the slightly slanting hanging wooden bridge and my person favorite: the tight rope with two wire handrails which all swings in the breeze. We opted to go in the river for that one. While the trail was adventurous, the wildlife viewing was not. We did see a group of macaques, who were not happy we crossed paths. They scared Lora so bad she ran away because she thought they'd attack with their nasty fangs, but they were only foolin'.

One of the best parts of being here was when a group of about 50 local high school students camp to camp in the deep dark jungle. They were very friendly and even offered us some of their dinner. They were also much more quite than 50 American students would EVER be...i was thoroughly impressed.

Then we moved to a place in the park called Prevab (I kept thinking there would be pre-fab housing there...I was wrong). To get there we had to travel to a coal company town and sit on the side of the river for a private boat to pass then convince them they should take us 20 minutes upriver. Of course no one would say no because the amount of money they get is absolutely ridiculous ("the price of gas is very expensive" blah).

Here we stayed on the floor of a once beautiful information center. The WWF helped put up this center and at one time it had electricity, furniture and even a sink, which has all been stolen so now its just a shell of a building. We brought our own food, tent and headlamps. It was like camping in the depths of the jungle only there was a large Japanese orangutan research station with a big generator right next door and every day we could hear sounds from the coal mine.

During our 3 days here we saw 6 orang-utan. The first was a large male who got very upset that we disturbed his lunch. He began grunting,shaking the boughs and throwing down branches at us. We watched him in is anger for a few minutes then decided we better jet before he comes down the tree and really does some harm. He was located a fruiting tree and I took it as a sign that this is where the orang-utan would hang out. We repeatedly went back to the same tree and were hardly ever disappointed. At one time there were three orang-utans eating its fruits. Now usually the apes like to travel in pairs, but we think that the mother was toting around her new baby and its older sibling. It was pretty amazing!

One night we decided to go on a night hike. We didn't get very far because we were exhausted from the 8 hours of trekking during the day, but in the hour hike we did run across 2 mouse deer. Mouse deer are so named because they are very, VERY tiny. Though they are larger than a mouse, they may not be larger than a giant rat. In actuality they are about the size of a house cat.

We saw a few other things such as monkeys and hornbills, but we never got a good view of any of them before they ran or flew off. We thought we'd see gibbons, but we missed them, though we did here their strange calls in the morning which we mistook for noisy morning birds...oops!

Local Transportation

Our next destination out of Mamasa was also out of the island. As usual, travelling from "object wisata" to "object wisata" (tourist attraction to tourist attraction) in Indonesia is no simple task. Although we would have loved to, we did not have the time to hike out of the valley and there is only one major road that winds itself through the ragged mountains to the coast. This just might have be the mother of all hellish rides. We were told that in the 1920s the Dutch used to keep the road in top condition (they also had a telephone line to the valley, something that didn't exist again until a few years ago), but since they left the local governments are not too keen on the upkeep. It didn't help that Lora's tummy decided to go wacko on her so evertime the bus stopped she had to make a run for the nearest toilet. In total the ride took 12 hours, but this was only the beginning of the journey to our next destination: the Island of Borneo

We lucky to find that a boat was leaving that night for Balikpapan City, Borneo. We were told it would leave at 4pm (we arrived at the port at 3pm) and it would be a 12 hour boat ride. "Great!" We thought, "we'll arrive in time to figure out what we're doing next." But soon it became apparent that we would not be leaving so soon. In the end, the boat didn't leave until almost midnight because it had to load up a dozen semi-trucks. The next day, around 10 am we began to look for signs of land because we thought we must surely be docking soon...but strangely no land was to be found. We began speculating that perhaps Borneo (the island nearest to Sulawesi) was not our first destination and thought we may end up first on Java. Soon we couldn't stand it anymore and began asking around. As it turns out it wasn't a 12 hour boat ride but a 18 hour boat ride and we didn't dock until 7pm (after being on the boat for 24 hours).

I forgot to mention the accomodations on the boat. Our tickets were "non-seat" tickets and it didn't take us long to realize what this meant. There were no sleeping berths, as we were used to on Filipino overnight boats (we miss you Superferry!). What there was plenty of was open floor space. We decided to occupy a small spot on the top deck and even splurged the $2 to rent vinyl lined mattresses (exceptionally better than the hard floor).

Now I wouldn't say that this was unusual transport, by any means. And since we are cheap and like to do as the locals do, we have spent a considerable amount of time in situations similiar to the one accounted above. Out of the 2 months we've spent in the country we've about 1.5 weeks in transport...but the destinations are well worth the effort!