Pot bellied monkeys, pigs with beards, and forest boulders

I have just returned from 3 days in Bako National Park, not from from Kuching. It was very humid. It was very hot. And when it wasn't, it rained.

Sunday morning, left out bright and early to catch the bus to the Bako Bazaar. Bright and early wasn't my choice but I was told that was the best way if I wanted to share a boat from the bazaar to the park. I arrived at the bus stop about a minute or two before 8:00am. The bus left at 8:00am sharp. So far, so good.

40 minutes later, I arrived at the bazaar. There are 8 people there, part of some tour. For some reason associated with the tides, they don't want to load the boats fully so the two boats leave with 4 in each and me left behind. There's no one else. Two hours later, a German couple show up so we are able to split the the RM30 for the boat three ways.

I was envisioning a peaceful ride along the river. Not quite. Bako is actually on the bank of a tidal estuary. Our boat is nothing more than a medium sized aluminum fishing boat with an outboard motor. For the next 20 minutes or so we "surf" over and between the waves before arriving safely at the jetty.

After putting away my stuff and eating lunch, I headed out to the board walk over the mangroves. I'm told that a troop of proboscis monkeys are hanging out in mangroves. These are the rare and supposedly very shy monkeys that are the primary reason why I bought the teleconverter and a tripod capable of supporting a telephoto lens.

No need. The monkeys are quite close. My 300mm zoom is more than adequate. If you've never heard of a proboscis monkey (likely), they are rather odd critters. They are quite large (up to 20Kg), have large pot bellies, and have long droopy noses. And, of course, they are only found on Borneo. They are considered the stars of Bako.

After the monkeys start to drift away from the board walk, I head out on a jungle hike to see if I can find more stuff. After about an hour, I reach the beach at the end of the trail and discover two things: Bako is likely the hottest and most humid place I have been and the most significant wildlife I have seen are hermit crabs. Next day I will hike in the morning when it is cooler.

Next morning comes and it is raining. Finally, about 8:00am, I douse mosquito repellent all over and head out. The mosquitos are really bad, especially near camp. The repellent only seems to slow them down. I don't dare stop where the mozzies are buzzing around. After a little more then 4 hours I complete the loop and learn two more things: The estimated times to walk the trail are optimistic and the most significant wildlife I have seen are insects. I did, however see a pitcher vine, and they are pretty cool. (Pitcher plants are a form of carnivorous plant common in these parts)

After lunch, I head out the mangroves again. A solitary silver leaf monkeys hops ahead of me. The probiscus monkeys are back. I head back to the room to fetch camera and tripod for some really close up shots. The monkeys are still there but as I start to assemble the tripod, they drift away. By the time I am ready, they are gone. I wait awhile, hoping they will come back, but no luck. After packing up the tripod, I turn around and notice in a tree near the boardwalk, my old friend the silver leaf monkey. I snap a few shots of him and then head back. He hops along several yards in front of me.

In the afternoon, I buy a small box of cookies at the general store as an experiment to find *something* useful for breakfast in the early morning. A long tailed macaque eyes my cookies but stays outside the canteen and then is shooed away by camp employees. But he has not gone. For the briefest moment, I let the cookies rest on the table. The monkey leaps from behind, brushing my shoulder as he passes, grabs the cookies and runs away.

Next morning, I and a bunkie head out at 5:45am to beat the heat. The plan is a trail that is not commonly used. Hopefully, there critters won't avoid this trail. As we start out, we don't see much because is still dark. It turns out, it takes a rather long time for daylight to penetrate the canopy. It's well past 7:00am before we can put away our flash lights behind.

Shortly thereafter, it begins to rain lightly. We made to the end of trail and back, opting out of possible extension on account that the rain appears to be be getting worse. In the end, we learned two things: Boulders can be pretty cool. These are huge boulders, placed randomly in the jungle, with moss growing on the sides and trees growing on top. The other thing we learned is that we haven't even seen insects. The insects were clearly there, however, as I have new mosquito bites.

I briefly toyed with the idea of another short hike. Then it starts raining again, in earnest. Lunch seems a better plan. Over lunch, I discuss with another traveler the fact the only thing I am really needing right now is pig pictures. I've seen all 3 kinds of monkeys in the park. I've seen the pitcher plant. Now all I need to see are the native bearded pigs. One has just been seen near the camp HQ. He's not hard to find and I now have my pig pictures. They're really ugly creatures.

I went on another hike that afternoon. I heard some rustling in the trees but no fur or feathers.

I considered doing another hike this morning. But dawn broke, the deluge began. Oh well, I didn't really have any more clean, dry clothes anyway.

Aside from I am wearing, virtually all my clothing is at the laundry service. I tried to do laundry myself, but, since it rained every day, my clothes never dried.

I don't know what I will do tomorrow. Probably not much. The rehab center has been a bust lately and the park with with the sea turtles is hard to reach due to heavy seas. I will probably join the Ibian (local tribes people) longhouse tour on Friday.