Thursday, July 05, 2007

Day 3: Chillin' out, Indiana Jones-style.

Took it easier today - after a leisurely breakfast, retired to a perfectly-placed sunlounger on the beach and snoozed, did some photo-editing (amazingly could get wireless on the beach!) and updated my blog. Had a refreshing dip in the sea - which was quickly terminated upon spotting an evil looking white jellyfish floating towards me!After lunch of vegetable samosas and freshly squeezed papaya juice, went for a trek in the nearby Santubong jungle. The hotel maintains 2 trails through the forest - one the shorter 2hr trek, the other a 6hr special up to the top of the mountain. I made very very certain i was following the blue (ie shorter!) trail!! Set off around 3pm, after the heat of midday had passed, but i was still dripping in sweat after about a minute!! Even though the trail was maintained by the hotel, it was still pretty hard going in places as you had to be extremely careful to pick your way through the maze of vines and creepers lining the ground. Almost fell a number of times and stubbed my toes more times than i can count, but fortunately no full-on tumbles and potential camera damage! There was one occasion where, after i had sucked my backpack dry of water and couldn't immediately see where the trail was heading, that i wondered if it was a good idea to be out in the jungle on my own, but the moment passed as soon as i spotted the next blue splodge of paint on the marker tree. All the same, i feel i had a pretty authentic jungle trek experience - two steps away from the path on either side would have taken you some fairly deep forest. Wildlife-wise, I was resigned to not seeing much - saw some heroic sized ants, a couple of butterflies and dragonflies and got bitten on the toe by a red ant (little bugger). But then i heard some crashing in the tree-tops above me - and I caught the quickest glimpse of a silvery-white monkey swinging through the upper branches! Waited a bit to see if it would come closer but was very tough to see it from such a distance - managed to get a couple of photos (Sam - I challenge you to have got any better ones than me!!) but it was just a great experience to have spotted one in the wild. Got back to the hotel just after 6pm and relaxed in room for a bit before going back out to the beach to take pictures of an absolutely incredible sunset. Really, really stunning - very happy with my photos!! Off to Singapore tomorrow for my Epilepsy congress - will be a complete contrast!!
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Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Day 2: Great apes and strange fruit

Borneo is a full 12hrs ahead of NYC – so no massive surprise to wake up at 2.45am with my brain wondering why I was still in bed and that it certainly wasn’t going to let me go back to sleep! So, just dozed til about 6am, when finally got up, edited a few photos and then went for an early breakfast and my regular game of “guess the fruit”. Today’s entrant was a brown shiny oval fruit with what looked like scales covering it. It hasn’t moved since I picked it out of the bowl and plopped it on my plate, so I’m pretty sure its not an insect of some kind (although given the size of the beetle I saw in Sarawak, maybe I shouldn’t be so sure). Decided to leave that one til lunch and til I was more alert, just in case I was wrong…

So today I was off to see the orang utans at the Serrenghoh Wildlife rehabilitation. Is where they take animals who’ve been confiscated off people keeping them as pets and retrain them to go back into the wild. There were no trips leaving from my hotel, so I had to catch the shuttle bus to the Holiday Inn in Kuching to join up with an afternoon trip leaving from there. Arrived into Kuching about 12pm and trip not leaving til 2pm, so had couple hours to explore. First when and got lunch in a nearby shopping centre – was great fun trying to first decipher what all the foods were and then decide what to have! Was the only white Caucasian in the place, so I guess I found where the locals eat!! After lunch (which was chicken with some rice), wandered along Kuching riverfront for a hour. Kuching means “cat” and there were statues and homages to cats everywhere – obviously much appreciated by a cat lover such as myself!! River very active with lots of paddled water taxis and working boats. Across the river, there was construction going on of this enormous dome structure – presumably going to be a mosque – which absolutely dominated the view for miles around.

At 2pm, joined the rest of the group – 2 50-something Brits. One, a worker for the palm oil industry and his wife a deacon for the Methodist church and volunteer community worker. I decided to stay off the topic of religion and my own experiences with the Methodist church and so we got along fine.

The wildlife centre was a 30min drive out of town – when we got there, we were instructed to leave all bags in the car, as well as bottles of water and any food. Then, short walk down the hill to a briefing by the guy in charge who laid out the rules (don’t get close, no flash photography, keep quiet) before being led to the feeding zone. Luckily, here during the best time to see them – there is no fruit in the forest right now, so they are far more likely to come at feeding time – when fruit is plentiful in the forest, there is far less of an incentive for them to come.

So waited for a few mins before hearing this great crashing noise and shaking of branches – George was on his way!! Was an absolutely amazing sight, seeing this utterly ENORMOUS orang utan swinging and crashing through the trees – quite breathtaking. Came quite close on his way to the feeding platform, which was about 20m in front of the viewing area. Then just plonked himself down and proceeded to munch his way through a vast quantity of fruit! As the biggest male, the guide told us that non of the others would approach until after he’d left - he was way too big and scary! After he’d eaten his fill and lumbered off, then Richie (the other big male) came in, followed by a couple of other smaller apes and finally a mother and her baby! The baby was about 6 months old and there have been several born within the reserve. We stayed for about 40mins watching these great creatures – it was a very moving experience – I just wish Sam had been there to share it with me (and to take much better pictures than the ones I did!).

So then, back to Kuching afterwards and the shuttle home. Been quite a tiring day ,out in the sunshine, so just got room service, edited some photos and hit the sack!
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Cute kitten alert!! Spotted this absolutely adorable bundle of furry energy at the Sarawak Cultural Village - as you can tell, he was leading me a merry dance as i tried to take his picture!!
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Damai Beach De-Stress, Day 1

Awoke early and, upon looking out of my window, discovered my room overlooked the beautiful South China sea and the beach. Could hear the waves gently washing up and down the shore.

Breakfast with a new feline friend before heading out to start the day with a visit to the Sarawak Cultural Village. Was a 5min walk from the hotel – already the day was very hot and humid, so not long before the sweat was running freely! No gentle glow of perspiration here!!

So, as my bright green Sarawak passport says, the aim of the Cultural Village is to portray “live” the state’s rich cultural diversity in one single place. It’s a 17.5 acre sprawling expanse on the foothill of the legendary Mount Santubong, fronting the South China Sea with 7 authentic ethnic houses built around a man-made lake. The houses include an Iban longhouse, a Bidayuh longhouse, Penan hut, Melanau tall house, a Sago house and a Malay hut. Inside each place were people engaged in various activities – some showed me how blowpipes were carved from bamboo, others how incredibly intricate and colourful rugs were woven, how rice is ground and winnowed and how sago flour is derived from the wild sago trees and processed to make sago flour or little round balls, or made into thin wafer which are then lightly toasted over an open wood fire. I bought a packet for 2RM and they were extremely tasty!!

After exploring various houses for a couple hours, was time for the Cultural Show. Was a series of traditional dances in brightly coloured Malay costumes. All very touristy but tastefully done!

Sarawak Village exhausted, back to hotel and – on spur of moment – book a luxury package (The Royal Secrets of Ledang) at the nearby spa. On the list of services I was to enjoy: a thousand flowers (all of them pretty smelly, as it turned out!) body oil massage, hair and healthy scalp treatment (which I think was liquid Vicks menthol), facial cleansing massage, milk herbal scrub, milk herbal bath (yes – with rose petals!), a body steaming treatment (basically zipped up in a blue plastic sweatbox!) topped off with a herbal drink. By the end of the 4 (!) hours, I was so relaxed I could barely function – it was all I could do to stagger back to my room, order room service and then fall asleep. Its a tough life, but someone has to do it.