On tap today, was a visit to Bako National Park. The park is know for Probiscus monkeys and other small animal wildlife, as well as its scenery and plant life. We had an early morning - I think we are all a little short on sleep... It will probably hit us lat......zzzzzzz.......later.
We had about a 40 minute cab ride to the main jetty, where Alex and I arranged the park entry tickets and boat tickets. Alex asked around for a local guide, and we eventfully got a young guy named Harry, but not spelled "Harry".
For some reason, they wanted us to split up into 2 smaller boats, so we (ok, I) sent the four kids in a boat ahead of us. The moms were a little stressed, but the kids seemed to like the idea, as you can see.
The boat ride in was great - it was nice to be on the water again after our day on and in the water yesterday. We got to the park in about 20 minutes and landed at the concrete dock and low and behold.... The kids had survived and were all smiles (I think Abby was smiling... She may have been scowling!).
As you can see, Bako National Park has a lot of trails of various lengths and terrain. We were told to stick to the coastal routes to see animals, and Harry agreed, so we set off on the Jalan Lintang.
It wasn't long before we were on a boardwalk splitting the jungle in two. Our guide seemed to easily spot things that we would not have been able to find, so we were glad to have him. The Macaques were near the entrance - based on Harry's reaction at seeing them I assumed they were more of a pest monkey than a "great find".
Harry jumped off the boardwalk and quickly located this Borneo Viper - a smal poisonous green snake that tends to hang in trees and eat small insects and kids....
Harry pointed out a stingless bee nest (vid below). They produce a non edible form of honey that the Iban people use as a special kind of incense. It smelled really good when he lit it up.... The honey, that is....
Near the end of the trail, we spotted the Probiscus Monkeys way up in the trees. I couldn't get a good shot of the monkeys (they were way up there), but I got a video of a big one jumping.
The Probiscus is the largest of the monkeys and the only monkey that can swim. They are pretty shy. New ran into a couple of different groups along the path - the sounds of skirmishes way overhead were pretty cool.
I'd seen huge monitor lizards on mainland Malaysia before, but Harry managed to sport this tiny one....
There were quite a few wild boars, snorting through the sandy areas with their hard, pointy noses looking for ants or other bugs.
The macaques were kind of cute, kind of annoying I guess. At lunch, they managed to steal two pieces of chicken from Alex. They were lightning fast and super agile. The guides were not happy with the macaques and tried to fend them off the lunch building, but the macaques were too quick and too smart - they got fed.
While en route to our second walk, we noticed another set of monkeys - I got a couple of videos here. Check out the small baby hanging off his mother in the boat in the first one.
We made our way over to a secluded beach framed with huge limestone karsts at each side. My were going to walk back the way we came, but the ingenuity of the four kids (Jeff.... Idea inspiration, Abby... Official observer, Matt.... Special effects, Robin.... Negotiation) got us a deal with a small boat driver that took us back to the beach near the main entrance. Good job kids!
Instead of packing in a third hike, we opted to take the boat back to the main jetty, cautiously keeping our hands out of the water at all times!
The kids were anxious to get back to the pool, Alex and I were keen to do some chores (post office, SIM card stuff) and the ladies were looking to work on their fans by the pool. We had a fun day. The kids ended up working on a home movie for three hours (poor Jeffrey, his character ended up dying in a bed, and he fell asleep for real for 2 hours.... Waking him up for dinner was a challenge!).
We say goodbye to Kuching, the cat statues, our awesome apartment and apparently wifi as we head to Mulu National Park for three nights before going to the west side of Malaysian Borneo, to the state of Sabah.
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