getting a nature fix in borneo

I decided on Day 1 of this spring break adventure that I definitely couldn’t live in Singapore.  By Day 4, I wasn’t sure if I would even last two weeks in the city.  So, I trolled the interwebs, found promising info on adventures to be had, booked a cheap-ish flight, got malaria meds, and by Day 6 I was in Borneo.

Malaysian Borneo, to be specific, in the province of Sarawak:

Borneo is home to some of the world’s oldest rainforest, and it is going up in smoke due to deforestation on a massive scale.   Here’s a beautiful article from Nat Geo that underscores the importance of this particular island, and describes the political and cultural backgrounds of the three countries that share Borneo (Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei).  I wanted to see it before it was gone. 

It was marvelous!  One day, I went kayaking down a river surrounded by fantastic forest.  The river itself was about as flat as a puddle and just as deep, but it was still worth it to just be outside.    The kayaking company promised “GET FREE photo CD of your kayak adventure!” which was great because I don’t have a waterproof camera, but the guides then turned into paparazzi and took thousands of awkward photos of all of us:

Here are people sniffing oregano.

Here's a kid in a cave.

Here's a really nice Danish guy eating his lunch.

See what I mean?  And every picture seemed to have some person in a bright orange life vest in it, so eventually I asked if I could borrow one of the cameras so I could at least take a few scenery shots:

The river that we paddled down.

The waterfall that we frolicked in.

The guides did take some beautiful scenery photos as well:

And here are a few of the less-awkward paparazzi shots:

In the afternoon, it started raining as if someone had turned on a warm shower faucet, so we paddled about 6K in the fabulously drenching, refreshing rain.

Here's me, in the river as deep as a ditch!

***

The next day, I went to Bako National Park, about an hour bus ride + ½ hour boat ride outside of the city where I’d been staying.  Bako was where I truly got my nature fix.  It had everything I wanted to see:

Flora!

Fauna!

See the bearded pigs by the side of the trail?

Merryweather!

I always thought that "Fauna" got the short shrift in fairy names...

It was amazing to breathe clean air, listen to the incredible cacophony of bugs (there’s one that sounds exactly like a chain saw), and be by myself in the woods.  By myself, that is, until a troop of Boy Scouts came galloping past.  Boy Scouts.  Seriously—what kind of Boy Scouts go to Borneo?  I asked one of the kids where his troop was from, and his elucidating answer was, “America.” 

“Well, yeah,” I said, “But whereabouts?”

“All over.  Just America.  We’re the Boy Scouts of America,” this brilliant 10-year-old told me.

I gave up and talked to one of the troop leaders.  It turned out they were from the American School in Singapore, which made the choice of destinations a bit more sensible.

But anyways, you guys, back to Bako. It was amazing.  Day 1 involved hikes up, down, and all around, and frolicking with animals like the bearded pig

This is what a good picture of a pig looks like.

and the proboscis monkey

Gonzo!  These monkeys moseyed around the park HQ, eating leaves and minding their own business, but never pausing long enough for me to get a decent photo.

and the long-tailed macaques

These little buggers knew what time meals were served at the park's cafeteria, and they would come scampering out of the woods.  They perched on the railings before hopping up on the tables and grabbing food off your plate even as you were bringing a forkful to your mouth.  I watched several people get into tug-of-wars with the monkeys over dinner plates, and the monkeys usually won.

Day 2 was wonderful, and included getting up at 5:30 with the first light in the sky, hiking alone through the jungle (apart from the pigs, monkeys, and innumerable bugs and birds), picnic breakfasting on a deserted beach, and booking it back to the park HQ before catching a boat to town, and then a bus to the airport to head back to Singapore.

I feel happily satiated in greenery, at least for now.