Another River Trip

Our last few days along the border were filled with some good times. We were given a proper farewell and a bit of closure is always nice. We had two amazing meals: a Burmese soup with chicken and and quail eggs and delicious rice snacks at Laura's organization and one of our favorite dishes in Thailand (their version of sukiyaki or a sizzling hotpot with meat and vegetables). We were showered with unexpected presents as a sign of gratitude for sharing our time with the people here. It certainly was a great way to end our time and we were even given handmade traditional clothing which the ethnic group that we were working with wears. This was a truly heartfelt present and the best that we could think of. Perhaps not so practical to be worn in the USA but a gift which will be treasured.

After our final goodbyes we left on a bus on a rainy day heading south. Our destination was the Salawin River. This is one of the most important rivers in Burma and for now is also the longest undammed river in Southeast Asia. It is one of the most biologically diverse rivers in the region and provides a livelihood for the many people that live along its shores. It will not stay undamned for long however as agreements have been made to dam the river in numerous places in order to supply power to Thailand and for the new capital of Burma. This has been a highly controversial issue and many Karen and other ethnic people inside Burma where the dams are to be placed have been forcibly relocated. The military has come through destroying many villages, raping and pillaging along the way and offering no reinbursement for the relocation. This has caused many villagers to flee to Thailand or live out a miserable nomadic existence in the jungle. All in all a pretty horrible situation.

The Salawin forms the border with Thailand for only about 100 miles but there is a large national park that has been set up here and we wanted to check out the life on the river as well as do a little birding. We had stopped at the park a few weeks ago but unfortunately did not actually visit the river and only had a chance to walk through some of the nearby forest. We had heard about an interesting village that laid on the banks of the river and also a river trip to a nearby town which sounded fun. A Thai doctor on one of our visits to the hospital had told us that the birding on the river was decent as well so we were excited about the prospects.

We arrived in the town of Mae Sariang a bit too late to catch a truck to the river village and the weather was not too great anyway so we decided to bed town in this cute river town (not the Salawin but a much smaller tributary) for the night. We awoke the next morning to relatively clear skies and jumped on the first truck to Mae Sam Lap, the aforementioned Salawin river town. The scenery along the ride started with pleasant rice fields in the valley but soon changed to thick forest in a hilly landscape and unfortunately the change in scenery was accompanied by a change in weather. The hills produced a rain that did not let up for the rest of the day. So much for that seemingly pleasant weather.

As we got closer to the Salawin, small houses along the roadside started to pop up. It was clear that many of the folks in this area were originally from Burma as Burmese seemed to be the ligua de franca of our fellow passangers and the longyis (the traditional Burmese sarong) was the favored clothing of those on the side of the road. We soon came to the bank of the river and noticed that the houses were packed in precariously along the steep slope. It looked as if any second they would tumble down the hillside but what do I know. Even in the rainy weather, this place was striking and memorable. I could only imagine why many of these people had fled their homes in Burma and decided to take up life on the river banks of the Thai side of the Salawin: for more trading options, to flee persecution, or otherwise.

We eventually arrived at our destination on the banks of the river where many boats plied the river to two nearby towns. We were not quite sure of what we wanted to do but we went to check with the local staff of the national park which had an office just outside of the village. At first we thought of staying in the nice bungalows that were offered here to both bird around the river and get a bit more exposure to the life around town. When we told them our interests in birding though, they told us that it would probably be best to head upriver to stay near the town of Ta Tha Fang. So with a bit of the help we looked for a boat heading upriver and waited a few hours as the rain continued to intermittingly drench the village.

While waiting for the boat, many interesting characters came up for a small chat. I am always amazed by the quality of English spoken especially along the border. One young Karen (a large group of indigenous people which lives both in Burma and Thailand) told us that he had learned English in one of the nearby refugee camps. This is interesting since he is not a refugee and was in fact born in Thailand but it seemed like he was putting the skill to good use. A Karen tour guide who was leading two French tourists around the area asked if we wanted to join his tour. When we said that we did not he was unexpectedly not pushy at all and actually helped us quite a bit in giving pertinent information about our own plans. It is so nice to be in places which are a bit less touristed. It always seems that the people are nicer and more helpful.

After about two hours, a boat was finally heading upriver and we jumped on board. Luckily the rain held out for our half hour boat trip on this majestic, muddy river. The banks were lined with sand banks and beautiful rock formations as well a number of birds. We arrived at the national park field office and quickly jumped off the boat and settled into our nice little room. No one else was staying here and it looked as if it had been awhile since anyone had. The facilities at Thai national parks have absolutely amazed me. They are nothing short of phenomenal, especially compared with say the Philippines (where they are virtually non-existent). Some Thai parks do charge a bit exhorbantly for foreigner admission fees but it certainly seems like these fees are being used appropriately.

After settling in, we decided to head into the small nearby village to see if there was anywhere to eat. We had brought our own supply of instant noodles but wondered if there was a bit more on offer in town. Our walk was accompanied by the rain and it was not a very fruitful effort as no food was found. But the little village was cute and the surroundings were eye-pleasing. After a little wandering we found our way down to the banks of the river and the birding here proved to be decent. It was interrupted a few times by the rain but we hung out here for about an hour or so with delight.

Then the afternoon rain set in and we decided to head home. We made the fateful decision to take a different route than we had come by and head along the river. It seemed logical since our accomodation was on the river that we would quickly make our way back. We figured that it could not be too far away. We were wrong though and found that while the path started off very clear and easy to follow, it soon headed into the forest where we got a bit lost just a few times. It turned out that the trek along the river which we thought would be a short jaunt turned into a bit of an afternoon adventure. We were just about to give up and head back the way we came when the national park lodging finally came into sight. We had started to see visions of hiking in the forest at night or even worse but our intuition that if we followed the river we had to come to our lodging was correct. It just took a bit longer of hiking through pouring rain in a muddy forest than expected. But all in all no harm done and just another afternoon adventure in the books.

Upon returning we changed out of our soaking muddy clothes and cooked up our instant noodles as well as a salad with some green mangoes that we had 'foraged' from a nearby plantation. When dusk started to settle in we were ravaged by misquitos and decided to head inside but this proved to be little better even in the closed and screened off room. After dinner we settled in for a restless night filled with some of the most hardcore misquito biting ever experienced.

Unfortunately the weather did not want to cooperate. We got about an hour of decent birding in before the sky opened up and just would not quit. After an hour or so of trying to wait out the storm we decided to call it a day and hit the road. We packed our things and caught the next boat out. It had been a nice park filled with a bit of adventure and some decent birding which could have been much better if the weather had been nicer. But our schedule was tight and the rain had gotten the better of us so we decided to move on. We headed back to Mae Sariang and then to Chiang Mai and eventually to Sukothai. We were on our way back into the heart of Thailand for some more temple adventure.

Run for the Border

Our Thai tourist visa was almost up. We had to make a run for the border to get a new 30 day non-visa tourist permit. Even though we are extremely close to Burma, there are no official crossings near our town, so we had to make the long trek up to the highest point in Thailand, where we crossed over into Burma.

The trek took a full day of travel and involved an inordinate amount of transfers. But, it went through some pretty country and it gave a chance to once again be one of the infinite number of tourists who visit the Land of Smiles.

Casey had this brilliant plan to combine business (the visa run) with pleasure (bird watching) and designed a magnificent fun-filled 4 day excursion. Since coming to Thailand Casey's bird nerdom has reached new levels due to the fact that there are so many amazing looking birds here and they are fairly easy to find. Birds are basically everywhere we go and this pleases Casey very much. Compared to the Philippines which also has a great number of bird species but a relative dearth in density, Thailand is a birding wonderland. In the Philippines it seems that most of their habitat has been destroyed or the birds are dinner (even those little tiny sparrows) which luckily is not the same in Thailand. Casey has even managed to drag Laura along in his bird excitement and she now too has her own binoculars which makes the birding a bit more enjoyable (sharing while perhaps a good idea does not work well in practice when it comes to birding as someone always inevitably misses a bird and is miffed as a result). Casey had been anticipating and planning this particular trip for the past two months and was incredibly excited to be on the way. Bird Nerds Away!!!

Our plan was to stop at Doi Chang Dao, a mountain between here and the border crossing, where the birding is known to be superb. This detour was to last 1.5 days. We had planned to hire a motorbike for the ascent up the mountain but the night before leaving Laura has some misgivings about 2 hefty Americans riding a dinky motorbike up a steep slope with their packs. Even though Laura kept saying she was going learn how to ride a manual motorbike, the skill never materialized, thus we were unable to rent two bikes. We weren't completely convinced that this would be an issue, until we tried to rent a motorbike and the owner suggested we find another means of transportation up the perilous mountainside. This sent Laura into a frenzy as visions of people flying over cliffs filled her head. She decided (again) that a motor was a terrible idea and made it quite clear that the plans should be altered. Unfortunately, Laura was not adamant about her views until we were AT our desired location. If she had made her views more clear before, we could have easily changed our plans. But it was already close to 7pm and we were in a small town and didn't know what to do.

Thank goodness the last northbound bus drove by and we were able to catch this to carry us 2 hours further north. We thus decided to head to the border and swing back around to the mountain before heading home. This would mean going about 2 hours out of the way later and would cost us considerably more money since we were to rent a car instead of a motorbike, but it seemed like the best option to make both of us happy.

The next morning we awoke before the crack of dawn to catch the mysterious 5:30 or 6 am bus to the border town. Trusty ole Lonely Planet once again turned its back on us. This wasn't too big of a deal, it just meant that instead of a nice long ride in one bus, we had many short trips on various different modes of transportation to take us to our destination.


The Border and Burma
Once at the border, we were thrilled with how easy everything went. We were a tad bit nervous because of the new Thai immigration laws that no one can seem to keep straight, but everything was a smooth as silk. We were a bit annoyed at the Burmese government for charging foreigners $10 for a day permit. Actually, they said it was ten dollars, but they asked for 500 Baht and it wasn't until we were inside the country did we realize they had jiped us for about $4.50 each. Needless to say, we were not happy about supplying the military junta with any more money that was absolutely necessary to get the job done.

The town on the other side, Tachilek, looked, not surprisingly, much like the Thai town across the river. The main difference being the type of lettering used on the signs - one was Burmese,the other Thai. But, we heard Thai and English spoken way more than Burmese and the border market seemed to be full of Thai paraphernalia. I imagined the vendors smuggling Thai-dubbed English VCD's over from Thailand in order to sell them back to Thai tourists. There were also an inordinate number of walking vendors selling a variety of products (mind you, not too wide though). The hot ticket items were 'Marlboro' cigarettes which were definitely not Marlboros, little electric hand held fans, gag playing cards with pictures of Saddam Hussein or half naked girls on them and viagra. Yes, viagra.


The market had one other notable mention. One of the first stalls we came across was a woman eagerly selling endangered animal parts. Monkey skulls, patches of tiger fur, bear's gall bladders, antelope and rhinoceros horns were all what she had on display. Now, I have a hard time believing that the more exotic items were authentic. Why would she be selling a pair of tiger teeth for only 200 Baht? This seemed a too good to be true. We gawked long and hard before running in the other direction.

After about 2 hours in Burma we decided we had had enough and jetted back across the border and towards the Mekong River. Near a small town along the river is Chiang Saen Lake. We had come to do some birding and to admire the scenery. We were excited because we have not had much opportunity in seeing waterbirds, so this was the time to get some "lifers" and to practice birding over water.


Lakeside Birding
While in Chiang Saen, we stayed at this nice little Western-style guesthouse. By western-style I do not be like people from Western countries. I mean in the style of the old wild west and Rawhide (for those Phoenicians). This seems to be a fairly common theme in Thailand, though we can't figure out why. The woman who runs the place is very informative and nice. We rented a motorbike from her and puttered along to the lake, stopping along the way for bird sightings.

The lake was gorgeous. There was a nice boardwalk above lilies and other wetland vegetation which harbored all sorts of wildlife. We birded until just before dark. All the while we kept hearing this loud unusual sound, which we expected to be a great water bird, but in fact belonged to the resident peacocks. Why there were exotic resident peacocks at a protected wetland, we'll never know. But they did make for a nice photo-op.



The next morning we got up bright and early to do some more birding around the lake. We did a little touring around the pleasant little town of Chiang Saen. Hundreds of years ago this was the center of an important kingdom and as a result the town and the surrounding area are littered with ruins. It reminded us much of Ayutthaya or the many other towns in Thailand where ruins (some just piles of rocks and others extremely impressive) are so commonplace. This town also had the further appeal of being situated on the Mekong River. I do not know why but I have always heard a lot about the Mekong (although I am not really sure in what context). Well part of the reason to come to Chiang Saen was to see this mighty river for ourselves. Upon arriving it looked like a big brown river and we said, "Well, there it is. It's the Mekong." I do not know what I was really expecting but next time I get a chance maybe I will take a ride on the river. But we did not have time on this trip. We could have stayed longer as this town certainly pleased us but we had already racked up about 40 species of birds already and we still had another destination on our minds.


Yet Another Transportation Misadventure

So we reluctantly packed our things and moved on. At noon we left for Chiang Rai and then planned to head to Chiang Mai where we would rent a car for the trek up Doi Chiang Dao. Unfortunately upon arrival at Chiang Rai we discovered that all of the buses to Chiang Mai for the next 3 hours were fully booked. We did not expect this. It is times like these when one begins to appreciate the overcrowded buses that never pass by a potential customer just because they ran out of seats. Everything has a good side. Laura tried asking if we could sit in the aisle, but her pleading was to no avail. So we whiled away the three hours doing absolutely nothing but worrying that we would not make it to Chiang Mai before all car rental agencies closed and then our plans really would be screwed.

Lucky for us, we did make it in time to rent a car. Not from the place we had expected to mind you. They were too expensive, so we went running down the street in search of a company that had yet to padlock their doors. We did find a shop that had closed almost 1.5 hours previously, but had left their door open a crack, which gave me the opportunity to barge in a request a vehicle. The clerk was kind enough to call the owner, who came to the store to supply us with the proper vehicle.

What should we do now? We wondered. It was getting late, but we wanted to be at the mountain in time for the prime birding hours of the early morning. We tried phoning a guesthouse at the base of the mountain, but the owner didn't seem to thrilled with staying up until midnight just for us, so we scrapped that plan. We tried to find a cheap guesthouse in Chiang Mai, but the neighborhood we were looking in shuts down early and so we were left wandering deserted side streets.

Finally we decided to head for the mountain and sleep in the car. We thought for sure that we would be able to find a nice hide-away to spend the remainder of the night. We did find a nice place, until Laura decided she REALLY had to go to the bathroom and proceeded to wander about looking for a place to relieve herself. This did NOT make the resident dogs happy and they began howling like banshees. This did NOT make Casey happy who thought that some angry Thai would come running after us because his dog woke him up. After some debate, we decided to hit the road once more in search of another quiet place to park. At the end of the road, on the grounds of the monastery where we were planning to bird in the morning we found just the right spot. It was quiet and there were no barking dogs to ruin the night calm. We tried to sleep until daybreak, when we got up to begin a day of bird searching.


Mountain View Birding
The day was great. We wandered around the temple and monastery for the morning looking at birds and watching the monks go to and from collecting alms. The monastery is set on the slopes of Doi Chiang Dao, nestled in between some gorgeous scenery. It was quite a hike to get up to the temple, but it was well worth the view. We ate lunch at a spot recommended to us by other birders. The woman spoke beautiful English and we chatted with her for a bit.

After lunch we putzed around looking at her bird books and watching her staff come back from the road with loads of small leafy branches. Apparently, it's cocoon season and this means delicious treat! We watched as her staff carefully picked green cocoons from the leaves, which they will sell in the market for a high price. We were even privileged enough to try a few of the critters that were fried to a crisp. They must be an awfully good source of protein, but frankly I don't understand what all the fuss is about.

In the afternoon we began the ascent up the mountain. It took us awhile to find the turn off, then we realized that the car engine was awfully hot when it shouldn't have been so we turned around in search of anti-freeze. But silly us, we forgot where we were and when we asked the shop they went to the back and brought out a bucket of dirty water and filled up the radiator. Worked well enough for us! So we proceeded up hill.

We had read up a lot about Doi Chiang Dao, so you can imagine our surprise when in the middle of a road we thought was straight there was a fork. No maps we ever read even hinted at a split in the road and we were highly confused. Not understanding Thai, we crossed our fingers and picked the road that had a large sign of a mountain.

About 20km into the journey, Casey begins to get a little worried. As we looked behind us to our right the peak of the mountain came into view. Why would we be heading AWAY from the mountain we were supposedly climbing? We wondered nervously. Just before we were about to cash it all in and return from whence we came the glorious checkpoint appeared before us like a shiny beacon. Aaaahhhh!!!! Apparently, one needs to climb up and away from the mountain before one can actually climb the mountain.

We wandered a bit further then stopped for a little birding action before spending the night at a substation at the foot of the summit trail. The people in charge of the camping area were nice and even offered us a room (which we declined). We spent the night in the car (surprisingly comfortable!).

We got up early to search for the elusive magnificent Mrs. Hume's Pheasant that habituates the area. We weren't lucky, or skilled enough (or both?) to find it, but we did discover a number of other wonderful bird eye candy. We moseyed along to the summit trail, which was a real treat. Up this high, the mountain is covered in pine trees and the air remains cool all day. Even in the heat of the noon day sun there was a gentle, cool breeze. This was probably one of the nicest places that we have been in the whole of Thailand. The cool, clean air and the unparalleled views and scenery plus the birds just made for a magical experience. The hike to the summit reportedly takes 5-7 hours and it looked like it got a bit hairy near the top, so we decided against trekking all the way up. The part of the trail we did hike was on a ridge and therefore we were not forced to huff and puff on a steep incline like I supposed.

In the afternoon we slowly made our way down the hill and back to Chiang Mai where we caught the night bus to Mae Hong Son.

Though we racked up the miles on this trip and it was a condensed version of what we would have liked to do, it was well worth it and a nice break from teaching. We also surpassed both of our expectations and successfully 100 birds during our four day trip. Laura's unparalleled spotting skills and Casey's astute identification abilities combined make for a great birding team. You know what this means. We are moving up to the upper levels of bird nerdom. This trip also gave us a chance to have a little quality time together outside of our houses and to get outdoors, something we always prefer.

It's really freaking COLD!!!

February 7 - 9

After a few days in Chiang Mai, we were ready to move on to greener pastures. I think we all enjoyed the ‘Rose of the North’ but it was time to go and Laura’s mother’s trip was almost up. Our original plan was to end the trip with Sukothai, which much like Ayutthaya, that we had visited before has many ruins of an ancient kingdom. This is actually known as the first kingdom of Thailand even though it started roughly about the same time as Ayutthaya. It does get less visitors as it is further from Bangkok and less accessible but we had heard that it was nicer, with more intact structures since it was not destroyed in an attack, and also that it was in a much more forested landscape. This was our plan but when we started to weigh things: we would have to take a long bus ride there and then another long bus ride the day before Kathy flew out and the fact that we were a bit watted out, we decided against it.

Then Casey started to read more about Doi Inthanon National Park and it not only being beautiful but also a birder’s dream come true. He has become a bit obsessed with birding lately, you see. From reading a bit up on the park, it seemed like the best way to visit it was by renting a vehicle and low and behold we were in Chiang Mai where they rent lots of vehicles for reasonable prices. So we decided to go for it even though it had been awhile since we had driven and on the left side of the road and using a stick with your left hand no less. This is always a fun idea especially when starting off in the busy city of Chiang Mai with crazy Thai drivers (although I may have been the craziest one out there). We actually had the car the day before we left for Doi Inthanon and used it to visit Doi Suthep and the national park near there which made for a gorgeous but bumpy day transversing dirt roads. Luckily we had our cute little beat up Suziki 4WD to navigate.

You Did What? Sorry, I Left the Door Unlocked.

So Casey was very excited about our plan to visit Doi Inthanon and could hardly sleep thinking about all the birds that we might see. The night before leaving we had to do laundry and came back late and Casey, after living in the Philippines for two years and forgetting that people are not always so innocent and nice, forgot to lock the door. Well it turns out that was not such a good idea and when he awoke in the morning to look for Laura’s purse to get some money to buy food to take on the trip, he could not find it. Laura was sure it had to be there but it was not and we soon realized after tearing the room apart that it was not there. Someone had come in the evening while we were asleep and evidently snatched the purse along with our passports and Laura’s credit cards which were inside. Luckily they did not grab the camera which was also very close to the door. Kind of scary that someone came in while we were sleeping and glad nothing worse happened. So lesson learned by Casey: lock the door, especially in a large city.

So we told the front desk and asked if they could call the police. They responded by saying, “oh maybe you should look in your room for the purse.” I love service in SE Asia. So understanding, fast and efficient. We tried to make them realize that we were pretty sure it was not there and eventually we did get in touch with the tourist police (these are found in every major tourist town in Thailand). They came and were nice enough and we told them what had happened and how Casey had stupidly not locked the door. The worst thing was not so much the money or even the credit cards but the fact that our passports were in there. We had been good for the first few months about separating them but we had needed them recently and Laura had just left them in her purse as we all get lazy and had not had any problems. We were worried about getting new passports from the embassy and then also having to deal with Thai immigration. This was not a good start to the morning and Casey was pissed because it meant no birding.

So we told the sorry to the cops and then for some reason Casey decided to check outside the room again. We had looked in some of the trash cans but then Casey remembered there was a little alleyway to the right of our room and sure enough the purse had been thrown under a bush there. They had taken the money (about $140 worth) but the credit cards and the important passports were still there which we were extremely thrilled about. The cops were a little confused by this but they soon understood what had happened and then we went with them to make a statement at the station. We learned that they had caught someone in the area who had done similar things in other nearby hotels and they thought that she had done the same to us. So we then went to the real cops to make another statement so the tourist cops could actually do a real investigation. I do not understand how this system works and what qualifies you for a tourist cop or a real cop but whatever. There had been a video camera in our hotel so the tourist police needed our statement to look at this video and see if they had the thief on tape. We never heard the end of it but hopefully they caught the perpertrator. So we left for Doi Inthanon in the early afternoon a few thousand Baht poorer and a bit more wary.

Finally Back to the Birding Adventure
We got in our little Suziki and headed the hour and a half to Doi Inthanon. Doi in northern Thai means mountain and this is no little mountain. It is the highest in Thailand and at around over 9,000 feet (2,655m), it is nearly 1000 feet higher than any other mountain in the country. The elevation range within the park is fairly spectacular and as a result of this you get many different ecosystem types and also a wide variety of associated plants and wildlife (especially birds). There are a number of endemic species in the park (mostly at the highest elevations) and other species which are found other places in the world but only in this park in Thailand. Also because this mountain is so high it gets pretty damn cold and we had come at pretty much the coldest time of the year. We were certainly in for a chilling experience.

At the gates of the park there is a gorgeous waterfall, Mae Klang, which is formed by a beautiful rushing river which runs right past the visitor’s center. We soon found out that there are many waterfalls in Doi Inthanon and all of the ones that we visited were pretty spectacular. I do not think that I have ever been to a place that has packed so many wonderful waterfalls per area. Many of the falls run all year and almost all of them are multiple tiered. This is certainly one thing we have noticed about Thailand: the multi-tiered waterfall. Brochures will often proclaim that a park has stats like this: three waterfalls, one having seven tiers while another has thirteen and another three. What exactly makes up a tier and how spread out can they be to be considered a tier. In one park you had to hike a kilometer between tiers. Is this really a tier or a totally separate waterfall? I am just waiting for the 127-tiered waterfall. Now then I will really be impressed.

After viewing these falls, we stopped quickly at the visitor’s center for a map and then began heading up the mountain. At the base of the mountain everything was brown, dry and hot but as we slowly headed up and up the vegetation got greener and the air got cooler. It took us about 30 minutes or more before we finally reached headquarters and where we found a small cottage right nearby to stay in. The temperature was incredibly pleasant and there were birds twitching in the parking lot. Casey decided to head over to Mr. Daeng’s, a little restaurant that he had heard about where birders go to get info on birding, while Laura and Kathy just rested and enjoyed the pleasant surroundings.


In the early evening Casey and Laura went to go see if the could find a special bird, an endangered crake, near a marshy area of the campground. We sat and waited for awhile but nothing showed up and we learned later that they have not been seen there in years. However while waiting for the bird we were met by a small group of Hmong (one of the hill tribes in this region of SE Asia) children with bunches of flowers. These kids were intent on making their sale and came up to us muttering 5 Baht, 5 Baht. We continually said no but they had no desire to leave us alone. Then one of them had a bright idea. Maybe 5 Baht is too low. We will try 10 Baht, 10 Baht, 10 Baht. We found this quite amusing but still would not budge on our position. The kids would also not budge on their wanting to offload these flowers. I assume their parents had sent them out to sell those flowers, hell or high water. So they came up with the best idea, “free, free, free" and tried to hand them to us. We still did not really want them and were expecting if we did take them they would then demand money. So we again said no. But they started to lay the flowers at our feet and then began to runoff without any payment. We thought it quite odd, a bit annoying for the first 10 minutes but by the end, an interesting and cute ending to our day.


The next morning we had decided to get up in time for the sunrise. When we awoke and got out from underneath our heavy blankets we realized just how cold it was. It was nearly freezing and for two people who have not been in the cold for three years, this is quite stifling. Casey did a bit better with the cold in the next two days but Laura’s thin blood had a little trouble handling it. We loaded in the car with our 5 layers of clothes, gloves and hats and even brought the blankets with us. Then we slowly made our way up the mountain in our low powered car and by the time we had reached the top the sun had already risen but we got the nice view of the early light.

We were in fact the second folks at the top and we slowly got out of the car, bared the cold and made our way to the nature trail. On the top of the mountain there is a unique mossy forest and also a bog environment found nowhere else in Thailand. This is the place that many people come, especially birders to see this special environment and the rare birds that live here. We were one of the first ones here but soon birders began to come in groups and make the boardwalk in the bog a bit crowded. I was surprised to find that most of the birders were not foreigners and in fact we were the only Westerners that I saw up here. While watching the bog we got a view of many of the species that people come here to see (the beautiful Green and Mrs. Guold’s Sunbird, Chesnut Headed Minla and Chesnut Capped Laughing thrush to name a few) and we were extremely delighted. It was a bit cold and our feet froze in the morning (there was even frost on the boardwalk), but no harm done. The mossy forest here really was quite beautiful and it was worth getting here early in the morning to catch the first sights of the special birds here.

We actually decided to stay here longer than expected and did not realize that we had spent the whole morning until we got back to the car. Our next stop was a spot where two cheddis or stupas have been built, of course to honor the King and Queen. We decided to make a quick detour here as we had heard the gardens were nice and there might be some birds here as well. What we did not expect was them charging us more money to enter this area. We reluctantly handed over our Baht but complained a little bit to the guard although it is not his fault. Our only issue was that we had already paid a large entrance fee to get into the park. It really is quite high for foreigners (about $12 which is not that much but is more than many national parks in the States). Now when you consider the fact that you are in Thailand and things should be cheaper than in the States and also consider that Thais only pay 1/10 of that price, it is a bit high. I am certainly willing to pay more than Thais but I do hold a bit of an issue with paying that much more, especially knowing that it is highly unlikely that much of it is going to conservation but instead is being used to line someone’s pockets. But hopefully I am wrong and am just too cynical. Well anyway the gardens were nice and it was a good way to spend the not really good birding hours of midday.

After this we headed down to a group of waterfalls near Mae La that we had heard were nice and hoped to find a few birds. This area actually turned out to be a highlight for our birding in the park and we saw a number of things we did not expect. Upon arriving at one of the falls we quickly found a Slaty-Backed Forktail, a Blue Whistling Thrush, A Plumbous Tailed Redstart and a gorgeous River Chat. The first falls were nice and high and then we hiked up the road to see another group that was very nearby. These falls were even more impressive with nearly 2,486 tiers (not quite but they were highly tiered). One our way hiking back to the car from here, we saw the bird of the day and probably the trip, a nice Long-Tailed Broadbill, what we think is a Small Niltava (pictured here) and also what we think was a flock of Mrs. Gould’s Sunbirds.

Once we got back to the car we saw another sign for a waterfall and decided to see where it was. We ended up going for quite a while on a dirt road and never saw the waterfall. We think we did however go outside of the park and into the outskirts of the nearby town. It was entirely different landscape with hardly any trees and very dry and brown again. Amazing what a difference the forest makes. But it was quite beautiful in its own right with very large rice terraces, that were beautiful now but I am sure are absolutely spectacular during the green, wet season. They reminded us of other terraces of Northern Philippines and Southern Sulawesi. This was an unexpected side trip but another very nice way to end the day. While we were here we even saw an amazing Black Shouldered Kite as it hovered in the air looking for its prey.

The next morning we rose again early to get some more birding in. We tried to head to one of the suggested birding spots and although we heard a lot of birds, many of them were high in the canopy and the forest was pretty dense here. We are still novice birders and this was a bit difficult for us so we decided to head to another spot that was supposed to be easier to locate birds. We walked around at this spot for a few hours and saw a few things: a nice woodpecker and some shrike babblers and parrotbills. Overall the morning was not as fruitful as the day before but nice nonetheless.

We headed back in the later morning to our lodging to pack up and then headed over to the Royal Project Area near headquarters. The King and Queen have assisted with a number of projects in the park it seems in order to help the local hill tribe population that calls this park home. There are about 3,000 Hmong and Karen that live within the park boundaries and in the past one of their major forms of livelihood was growing opium. In order to curb this, the King has introduced a number of projects in the area including cut flowers which are sold throughout Thailand (much like the ones which were pawned off on us by those cute but pesky kids the first evening). So we decided to check out the gardens and while nothing spectacular it made for an interesting enough walk and we were able to get a view of some of the green houses used for the flowers and vegetable production. We also headed over to the Royal Gardens which was a beautifully landscaped area at the foot of another huge waterfall. It is weird to have landscaping and whole communities inside a national park but it is what it is.


After our stroll in the gardens, we had a nice lunch and started to head down the mountain. But first we went to the nice market near headquarters where many of the Hmong residents of the park were selling a variety of products, ranging from the cut flowers to handicrafts to preserved fruit. Along the way down the mountain, we hit up two more gorgeous waterfalls and eventually got back to the dry, hot lowlands. We planned to then go to another waterfall outside of the park (supposedly one of the highest in Thailand) but got detoured by a Buddhist procession and caught in the traffic caused by it for awhile. So we nixed the waterfall and just headed back to Chiang Mai having been content with our lovely, cold time at Doi.

Big Mountain, Large Animals

January 22 - 25
We got into Pak Chong train station and were immediately surrounded by tour guides all wanting to whisk us away to their accommodation and tour package of Khao Yai National Park. We were planning on going "solo"(as usual) but mom was caught up in the action and I thought it would be a good way for her to see the park since she's not the hiking-all-day-in-the-sun type. So, we sattled up with Wildlife Safari Tours for a 1.5 day tour for 1500 Baht per person.

Day 1. The 1/2 day:
We went to the local mineral spring (not I did not say hot). The water was too cool for comfortable winter bathing.

Next was the Buddhist temple where our guide Tuk (a darling woman) taught us very enthusiastically about Buddhism. Then we went to the Buddhist cave where we saw some horseshoe bats and little meditation alters. The cave was very odd and was strung with fluorescent bulbs which lit it up in an eerie glow. There were also many shrines to Buddha in different chambers of the cave. Tuk informed us that sometimes the monks go down there to practice meditation.


Just before dusk we headed to the Bat Cave with Tuk. As we, along with a couple dozen other tourists, craned our necks to see the cave a small stream of wrinkle lipped bats started drifting out. Slowly and steadily the ribbon of bats became thicker and darker as the concentration of bats soared. It was incredible watching MILLIONS of bats flow out of the cave like a slow motion cyclone. We watched for a good half hour before our necks hurt and the sky began to darken.


Day 2: Wildlife Safari
We had requested the night before that we leave early on our tour in order to take advantage of prime bird-watching hours. Our guide was eager to please, though he seemed a little nervous since he's no bird expert. We assured him that we are also novice birders and we would be excited about seeing any birds. This seemed to please him and he began calling some of his birder guide friends who gave him a few pointers on where to find some of the birds Casey was eager to see. We made our first stop on the road outside of the park, where we found some brightly colored birds that for some reason, aren't in the park itself.

Once inside the park, we took are time driving along the road. Apparently this used to be a TERRIFIC way to see wildlife, but because the park has become so popular in recent years, the wildlife around the road has fled further inside. Even still, we managed to see an array of animals in between the cars that were flashing past us. Some of the animals included: pig-tailed macaques, which we ogled at first, but which were so abundant that they eventually were considered pests (especially after they stole some of our delicious oranges straight off of our lunch table), a muntjac (a small deerish creature with a cool name) and jungle fowl (picture a rooster in the wild).



After the slow driving, we began our slow hiking. From the road, we could hear the calls of the gibbons, which sounded as if they were just beyond the first stand of trees. Quickly and as quietly as possible we wormed our way off of the trail until we were standing directly under the gibbon-laden tree. It was breathtaking! Unlike the gibbons of Borneo, the White-Handed Gibbons live with their families in the tree tops. Parents and children swinging from branch to branch and calling to distant relatives together each morning. During this hike, we were be privileged to watch four separate groups of White-Handed Gibbons as well as partake in some excellent bird watching (which bored mom).

After going to the famed waterfall of the movie "The Beach" (there was a waterfall in "The Beach"?) we went to a small pond to watch birds and relax during the hottest part of the day. Aside from some cool looking birds, we also had an up close and personal look at a large male Sambar Deer. As we were milling about, he sauntered directly past mom and Casey. He got so close I began to have visions of a deer encounter gone awry and found myself wondering how far the nearest hospital was. The only thing on his mind, however, were the fruits from the low hanging branches of a nearby tree. We watched him heave himself off his two front legs as his head disappeared into the foliage above.

Then we went on a long drive in search of an elusive, monsterous beast: the Asian Elephant. These elephants are very closley related to the one we saw in Borneo, but they reach larger heights than their island cousins. We have seen them in Ayutthaya, but they were always dressed up for the tourists and not running free in their natural environs. We were all excited to see these large creatures and I was especially eager to share the experience with mum. Unfortunately, it was not our day. But we did run into (almost literally) quite a few pig tailed macaques who were playing in the road.

After our failed expedition, we climbed to the top of the highest peak in the park, with the help of our truck of course. We went there to hopefully catch a glimpse of the elusive Malayan Sun Bear we have been tracking since Borneo. The military who live on the mountain feed the bear, so we weren't sure it would count as a "wildlife" spotting, we were excited none-the-less. Apparently the bear's taste for rice wasn't piqued that evening, but as we waited we did get a wonderful view of a gorgeous male Silver pheasant with his harem of 7 females as they crossed the road. On the way home we spotted the threatened Malayan porcupine.

We had decided to spend some time in the park without the assistance of a guide. We rented out an entire cabin, complete with 3 rooms of 3 beds each and 3 bathrooms. This seemed a might ridiculous, since we could have easily divided the price up into thirds and only occupied 1 of the rooms, but things are never that simple. We picked the location so we were close to the park headquarters and a restaurant. We planned to walk or hitchhike to reach hiking destinations further afield. The room was cozy and it had a nice little porch that mom utilized in full as she waited for us to finish our forays.

That evening we hoped on one of the SIX nightdrive trucks in the hopes to see some amazing night life. We weren't expecting to be in a spotlighting caravan and I'm not sure it made for optimal wildlife viewing, but we took it all in stride. We did get an interesting running commentary from one of the other guests as we strained to look into the dark beyond. Though we were not blessed with gifts of grand elephant herds, we did see some small cat-like creatures (a civet?) and over course, Sambar Deer. Where were the tigers? There was obviously plenty of meat for them to catch. Alas, we learned that there are only 3 known tigers left in this national park.

Day 3: Big Whammy

We hitched a ride to the campsite to refine our birding skills. We also had a grand time chasing pig-tailed macaques away from the food that campers had stupidly left out the night before. Eventually, we made our way down a hiking trail, which bordered a small river. We went excrutiatingly slow for the couple behind us, who were looking for a little alone time. I swear we heard to purr of a tiger amoung all the chatter of the birds. We ran into a million hornbills, but none of them were of the "Great" variety we had hoped to see. As I was frantically searching for otters in the river, Casey came across a Siamese Crocodile about to heave itself up onto a log. No wonder there were no otters around! We snapped a thousand pics and watch the highly endangered animal sun itself.

As we began walking along the road, on the way back from our morning hike, we were greeted by a passing car with "Beware, elephant ahead." Beware? I thought as I quickened my pace to meet the giant face to face. I, obviously hadn't thought this completely through and though I was stoked, I was beginning to have my doubts about the brillance of meeting a 2 ton wild animal.

Just when we were beginning to discuss the pros and cons of trying to pet a wild elephant, a car pulled up with 3 Germans who were willing to give us a ride. Gladly we accepted the chance to cruise past the elephant in the relative safety of a car. Little did we know what kind of elephant we were about to face. This was no gentle mother. On the contrary, it was a large male, who was fond of fighting (as was evident by the missing tusk). He was creating a rukus in the middle of the road and had caused a traffic jam. But the German's weren't afraid and they reved ahead in their small compact car, with the elephant towering over us. To assist us in getting the perfect closeup, made the mistake of slowing the car down just as we past the creature. In retaliation, he made a mini charge at the back of the car. I will be honest here...this really freaked me out. I imagined the headlines "Death by Elephant" in a car no less. But, the driver craftly sped away before the elephant could do any damage.

The German's kindly allowed us to tag along as they drove south to the highest waterfalls in the park. I say waterfalls here, but the park service likes to think of them as one unit "one 3-tiered waterfall." This, of course, makes it seem like the waterfall is much taller than it actually is, since it really consists of 3 separate waterfalls, but we won't get into technicalities. Anyway, regardless of whether it was 3 waterfalls or one tiered waterfall was immaterial as it was one of the most impressive sites involving falling water that I have ever seen. In three large turns (each about 100-150 meters high), a great expanse of water rushed down the edge of a plateau.

As we played among the edge of the top tier, the driver told us an interesting story of a herd of elephants, which got washed away in the rush of the river during a flood. The elephants were thrown over the cliff onto the top of the 2nd tier. A rescus operation tried to save 2 of the elephants, but the waters were too strong and they soon were swept away to the lowest tier. It is unfathomable to me to imagine rushes of water strong enough to wipe out an entire elephant herd! (keep in mind, i'm a native Arizonan).

Day 4: More heart-ache
We woke up bright and early, not really bright since the sun hadn't risen yet. Our plan was to hike to a watchtower, where we would see dholes (wild dogs) running alongside the elephants and deer. From the last sentence you should know that our plan was flawed. For one thing, when have we ever seen so much wildlife all at once? Also, we were forgetting our luck. We misjudged the distance to the watchtower and arrived long after all of the animals had run back to the coolness of the forest (that is, if they were ever frolicking on the pastures).

Disheartened from a relatively animal-free morning, we hitched back to our cabin, where we packed up and hitched back into town. Then we caught the train to Ayutthaya where we waited for the train to Chiang Mai.

Rain, Rain Go Away

Jan 2 - Jan 5

So we decided to travel during the rainy season. We did not really do that on purpose. It just worked out that way. We were a bit worried about this before setting off but for the most part there had been few issues to date. In Sulawesi it had been dry and even in Borneo there had been relatively little rain and what rain there was only minimally interfered with our travel. It had actually worked out for the best in Borneo since just a few months earlier (October) during the dry season there had been some of the worst fires in years (as a result of slash and burn farming) covering the region in nasty smoke and haze. Well when we hit Sarawak (the western province of Malaysian Borneo), our luck with the rain wore out. They saw that when it rains it pours, and our trip to Bako National Park about an hour outside the capital city of Kuching was filled with wetness to say the least.

Bako National Park is one of the oldest national parks in Sarawak and also one the most well known. It is on a rocky headland and seven different ecosystems are found with the relatively small park. Bako is also known as a great place to spot birds and other wildlife including the endemic and endangered proboscis monkey. It was the only park that we visited in Malaysia but we were highly impressed by the great trails, the breath-taking scenery and the abundant and highly visible wildlife. Even with the rainy weather, it was certainly a highlight for me.

The only way to enter the park is by boat from the nearby town. On the day we arrived the waves were a bit big and we rode in a very small speedboat. The first part of the ride along the river was fine but as we neared the sea, the waves got larger and our driver angled the boat to be parallel to them (something that seemed a bit counter intuitive to me and the best way to roll the boat). He accelerated and decelerated as necessary and expertly handled the boat in the rough seas. It was quite exhilarating as we pitched and rolled over the little monsters of the sea and although a few times it looked as if we might flip, we came out unscathed and surprisingly dry.

Other than the rough seas, the weather when we arrived at the park was gorgeous. We got there around noon and figured that there were would not be much wildlife out in the heat of the day so we decided to take a nap. Sadly when we awoke it was gray and rainy outside (this nasty weather would be the same for the remainder of our stay). But we decided to try our luck anyway and started on a little stroll and eventually the weather did clear up a bit. We caught our first glimpse of some proboscis monkeys only about 50 meters from our hostel and we watched for awhile as they played in the treetops. We continued on the boardwalk trail and we were awed by the wet lowland forest which was unlike any that we had seen before. Palms and pandans dominated the vegetation with other taller trees forming the canopy. It was strikingly beautiful with many sandstone outcrops dotting the trail. We continued walking until dark and met up with some more proboscis and also two troops of silver leaf monkeys who took little notice of our presence. We hiked up a small hill and the vegetation changed to more typical lowland rainforest type. We were greeted at the top of the hill with a spectacular view of the rainforest, mangroves and ocean spread out below us in the late afternoon.

Our next day proved to be wet. We planned a long hike but around 10 in the morning our walk was interrupted by a downpour that lasted pretty much for the rest of the day. Before the rain we did make it to an interesting arid grassland area dominated by small trees, shrubs and grasses as well as many rocky outcrops. In this region, there were also many pitcher plants and orchids which we spent an hour or so searching for. There are 6 species of pitcher plants in the park and I think we found them all ranging from small ones on the ground which look like jugs to much larger vases (as big as your hand) found attached to viny structures. After awhile it really started to pour though and even though we tried to wait it out for a bit, the rain showed no signs of stopping and so we headed back to the hostel for a bit of rest.

The next two days the rain continued but it let up at times and we decided to make the best of our time so we strapped on our boots and slogged through the flooded forests. We made our way through the grasslands in search of more pitcher plants and were privileged to walk through gorgeous palm forests. We trekked to spectacular rocky headlands overlooking the ocean and through streams to an overflowing waterfall tinted brown by tannins from the palms. We saw many more silver leafs scamper along the beach and watched families of proboscis monkeys scarf down mangrove leaves only feet from us. Overall this park is a gem and a place that we found to be incredibly unique.

Still On the Hunt

Dec 20-25, 2006

Our next stop after Kinabatangan was a place called Danum Valley which is found in the interior of eastern Sabah (Malaysian Borneo). We had first heard of the place in Lonely Planet and had also heard rave reviews of it from other travellers and people in the area as a great place for wildlife and intact lowland rainforest. We still had a long list of animals we wanted to see including those elephants and our plan was to camp out in Danum for about 5 days.

Danum Valley is actually a conservation area within a much larger logging concession awarded to the Sabah Foundation. The purpose of the concession is to use the money from 'sustainable' logging in the area to improve the health and education services for the citizens of Sabah. It is an interesting concept and I am not sure the logging is always sustainable or how well the overall scheme works but it is better than the indiscriminate and illegal logging we have seen in many other areas. The concession is broken up into many plots and many international corporations have stake in the area including IKEA. At least the Sabah Foundation has had the foresight to set aside a number of conservation areas where biodiversity has been found to be especially high such as in Danum Valley. Within Danum, the Foundation has also forged a relationship with the Royal Society in Britian to set up a research station which has become internationally recognized as an important location for lowland rainforest research.

This research station is the place where we wanted to stay since they have a large complex for for use by international and Malaysian researchers as well as 'keen naturalists.' The only other option for staying in Danum is a prohibitively priced rainforest lodge so we opted for the research station.We had heard of some travellers staying at the station but had also heard of others having a bit of trouble getting in the place. So before heading to the Kinabatangan we had gone to the office of the research station to check it out and get things sorted out with reservations and transport. When we arrived we were met with a bit of resistance as the receptionist informed us that Danum Valley was not for tourists and only limited to researchers despite the fact that their website and brochures billed the center as a venue for small scale nature tourism. We talked with her a bit longer and told her that we had heard of other travellers visiting the area and also about our background as biologists and conservation work. Slowly she softened up and told us that it would probably be OK but we still needed the clearance from the main office in another city. So we spent the rest of the day trying to e-mail and phone the office and when we finally got in touch, they told us that it was no problem and seemed surprised that we were asking permission. It seems like there is a bit of a lack of coordination and as we found later it seems that these folks cannot decide if they really want tourists in the area or not. It is understandable since the main purpose of the station is for research but it is a bit confusing since they have spent time and money to advertise the area as a tourist destination. So in the end we had wasted a day for bureaucracy and were still unsure if we were really wanted but we were excited about going nonetheless.

So upon returning from the Kinabatangan, we took the afternoon shuttle to the research station along with an older Swedish couple and an American family who was checking out the area as a potential research site. They also had similar problems with coordinations with the station but we were all excited to be headed there. We arrived in the evening and when we said we wanted to camp we were met with a bit more resistance. We insisted and found out that the resistance was probably because they had not cleaned the camping area and it seemed like it was seldom in use. But it turned out to work very well. It was a covered area set up wtih hammock, electricity, water, a kitchen are and even Western toilets (a bit dirty, but functional).

The next morning we woke up to rain and decided to sleep in a bit longer. It ended up being an overall wet day with light rain interspersed with downpours and a bit of sunshine. This is not great for wildlife spotting but we went hiking a bit on some of the trails including a trail to some 400 year old coffins and imported Chinese pottery left by indigenous people. We were lucky to spot the endangered Bornean Horn Frog in midday as well as a cool frill headed lizard in the late afternoon. From the nice research station veranda where we rested during the hottest hours of the day, we spotted a pig tailed macaque, a giant squirrel (these are as big as cats) and a number of gorgeous rhino hornbills. This spot ended up being one of our favorite resting places and amazingly a great spot for wildlife viewing. Later in the week we would see pigs feeding below us, a gibbon swinging silently by and a white-fronted falconet catching butterflies.

During the evening, the rain let up a bit and we had arranged to go on a night drive to spotlight some wildlife. We had heard that sometimes these drives can be great with many animals spotted along the roadway or in the trees (clouded leopards and slow lorises among this list). Unfortunately we were not so lucky and the only animals we saw were the bearded pigs, sambar deer and Buffy Fish Owls that had made a residence near the research station. On our drive we saw nothing else outside the station proper but upon returning and after we had dropped off the other visitors at the hostel and headed towards the campground, we did see a small leopard car in the garden and a civet crossing the road. So no clouded leopard or slow loris that we had been after but at least we did not come up totally empty handed.

The next morning we got a bit of a late start again since we were tired from the late night spotlighting. But it proved to work well since we were lucky to spot our first troop of red leaf monkeys very close to the station. We watched these strange looking guys (they look like old men with furry beards) for more than an hour as they climbed and swung from tree to tree. We also found a family of pig tailed macaques and these provided us with further entertainment as well as a bit of a scare. Macaques are very social and are fun to watch as they groom or wrestle with each other. We were highly content just following this particular family from a distance. We noticed that there was the large patriarch watching us as well and making sure that we did not get too close. Long tailed macaques are pretty small and while they can be pesky at times and have a tendency to steal food, I do not they could do too much damage if they went after you. Pig tails, like these, on the other hand and males in particular get quite large, look pretty mean and have large fangs. We were a bit wary and when this male made aggressive territorial motions of pacing and raising his eyebrows, we tried to keep our distance. We still enjoyed watching the family though and they eventually crossed the road and headed out of sight and into the forest.


Or so we thought. They had actually turned when they hit the treeline and when we started to walk down the road where they had been, the male determined that we had come too close to his family. He rushed out at us and to say the least we got a bit worried. We did not know the best protocol but began to slowly back up. He continued to chase us very aggressively and got within a few feet. We hoped that he would not attack as we did not have any way to fight him off other than with our hands. Luckily he did not attack but he did chase us about 50 meters until we reached the safety of a nearby building. With our hearts thumping, we decided to stay indoors for a bit and make certain the monkeys had passed from our path. Lesson learned: do not get too close to potentially dangerous animals even if they are nice and cute. After our excitement for the day, we took it easy and did spot orang number 12, a small juvenile male that was very low in the trees and near the station.

The next few days were spent hiking in the nearby forest in search of more wildlife and marvelling at the huge trees. The forest around the station was quite good with the biggest trees that we had seen yet. It was green and wet with many vines and butresses and every bit as beautiful as we had hoped. As for wildlife, we found the best place to be in very close proximity to the station complex. Furthermore many of the trails were not very clear so we ended up staying near the station. In our time at Danum we saw some more red leafs and macaques, a monitor near the river, many hornbills and on our last day our last orangutan for this trip (number 13). This large female was our best view from just a few feet away. She was not disturbed by our presence at all and we watched here eating just feet from the ground but without touching it for about an hour and then watched as she climbed the tree to build her nest for the evening. In the nighttime we saw many spiders, another leopard cat, a cool tree frog and a number of unidentified civets. Our elephant searching was in vain although we did see signs of their presence along the road and we were told that they had just passed through the area. It always seems that we just miss them. Oh well. Some of our other most sought after species (slow loris, sun bear, pangolin) also were absent from our spotted list but after 5 days our food was gone and it was time to move on.

So on Christmas morning, we hopped in the van to head back to civilization. Along the way we were hoping to spot an elephant and our wishes were granted. This was a nice Christmas present for us both and it was a big bull with tusks to boot. We only caught a short glimpse before it headed into the forest but it was nice way to end our trip to Danum.

On the Hunt

On our next day we arranged for an all day excursion on the river with the main purpose of trying to find elephants. Along the Kinabatangan there are a few hundred elephants and they usually stay in fairly large groups which makes them easy to find especially when they come to the river for a drink and bath. Unfortunately a few weeks before we arrived the larger herd split into many smaller groups of just a few individuals each, making any sightings of these big guys a lot more difficult. Our guide told us that he ahd not had any luck the past two trips when he had taken tourists in search of the elephants but we still wanted to try.

So we had planned to start our trip around sunrise to get the most out of the best wildlife viewing hours early in the morning. Unfortunately the rain (which has so far been mostly absent on our trip) foiled our plans and we did not start until about 8. At least it did not rain the whole day (as can be the norm for this time of year) and we were able to go out, even if a bit later than hoped. We began to slowly make our way downriver with Sion, our excellent driver/guide/spotter and his daughter who served as first mate. Just a little ways from our lodge we saw our first sign of elephants which was tall grasses matted down on the side of the river. Our guide told us that it was very fresh (maybe only a few hours old) and we thought we were on the right track. We continued along the river and when our guide saw that we were also interested in birds, his own speciality, he began to point out and identify many birds (many that we could not have seen on our own). We saw many birds of prey (Changeable HAwk Eagles and Brahminy Kites) and waterbirds (the endangered Storm's Stork and darters) and many hornbills just to name a few. Macaques, proboscis monkeys and silver leaf langgurs also made their presence known and we spotted orangutans number 9 and 10. We continued to make our way down the river towards the sea since our destination was the coastal city of Semporna where Sion wanted to be dropped off. After a few hours, the vegetation began to change from lowland rainforest to nipa and mangrove and we realized that our chances for elephant spotting were slim but we would try again on the way back upriver.

After dropping Sion off and taking a bit longer than expected for lunch and refueling, we headed back upstream for a bit more wildlife searching in the late afternoon and our elephants if we were lucky. It turned out that our extended stopover in town on top off our late start in the morning did not leave us much time for animal viewing in the afternoon and our elephant search had been a bust. In the early evening we reached the settlement of Albai and our guide told us that he had an obligation to speak at a workshop there so he turned us over to his brother-in-law. The plan was to take the boat out to look at the abundant fireflies in the area and also do a bit of spotlighting when it got dark. However I guess there had been a bit of miscommunication and there was no light which made it a bit hard to spotlight anything including seeing exactly where our boat was heading (oh well). We were in for a treat with the fireflies though since they gather in thousands on certain trees along the river. As we passed them it certainly looked like the trees were lit up with Christmas lights which coincided with the time of year very nicely. After cruising around for an hour or so and being priviliged to the natural light show, we decided to head back for dinner. They had prepared three dishes for us with the biggest freshwater prawns that I have ever seen (more like miny lobsters in fact). It was absolutely scrumptious and afterwards we relaxed to wait for our guide to finish at the workshop. It ended up being later than expected and after a long day of some unexpected circumstances, we decided to just stay the night and head back to the lodge the next morning. Maybe we would still get a chance to see the elephants on the way back.

The next morning was a foggy one and many of the monkeys slept in. It was funny to see the resting in the trees when they are usually so active and playful. We saw many more birds and a large male orangutan (number 11) right by the river but no elephants. We did hear a gibbon calling in the forest as well and decided to track down this magnificent creature. Gibbons are almost entirely arboreal and are the fastest flightless animal in the forest which makes them amazing to watch but they are also very shy and this on top of their speed makes them very hard to see. Each morning they do make an amazing call like that of a siren which can be heard from far away which enables you to at least figure out where they are and if you are quiet and careful you can track them down. We were lucky and did get a quick glimpse of this guy and along the way Lora got another unexpected gift from the forest. A leech actually attached itself to her eye. Luckily she was wearing her contact and when she pulled it off, the contact came off as well. No harm done but a good story.

We finished this cruise in the later morning and we decided that it was our last. Even though both of us wanted to stay a bit longer, the boat trips were expensive and we had already made reservations at our next destination. So we packed our bags and hitched a ride with the son of an oil palm plantation owner who had just dropped some other travellers off at our B&B. This guy turned out to be another really nice one who went 60 kilometers out of his way to drop us off in the town where we were headed. He also showed us around his father's oil palm plantation. We learned that the palm oil is used not only for cooking but also in many shampoo products in Western countries. He told us also that Shell was cutting down forest and opening a few plantations here to be used for biodiesel fuels (maybe biodiesel is not always the best idea). Palm oil is quite a lucrative business and it is no wonder why so many plantations are springing up especially since the Malaysian government seems to be encouraging the widescale plantation establishment and forest destrcution. I did feel a bit weird riding in this guy's truck after spending days watching wildlife that is threatened because of plantations like his, but such is life.

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).