6/7 goodbye Kuching hello Mulu

My final early morning run in Kuching and the chance to enjoy a tropical downpour. 

Then breakfast, driving to the airport,  dropping off our hire car and hopping on our Air Borneo plane to Mulu National Park. As far as I can remember it's my first trip in a propeller aeroplane.

And the first time I've been served in-flight food (a chocolate muffin and this cookie) since I travelled with Qatar Airways in 2017. 

I loved flying over rainforests and ivers, and along the coast.

Unfortunately as we came into land I began to feel sick and this continued throughout the rest of the day - nausea in the afternoon and a migraine at night. 

Despite this I was very excited to arrive in Mulu National Park, renowned for its rainforests and caves systems, and my first time staying in a rainforest. 

Hamish had already headed off to put his rock climbing and bouldering skills to use on the intermediate caving tour in Racer cave (named after the racer snakes which lift their heads to catch bats as they fly past!). 

I checked into our spacious and well-cooled hostel and then joined my tour of Deer and Lang caves. Unfortunately I struggled to keep walking and didn't really get to enjoy the first cave. A trip to the bathroom and I was able to enjoy the massive Deer cave.

Indeed our guide Derry was kind enough to show me around on my own, as by then the rest of the group had already finished. 

My highlight was definitely the view through the back entrance of the cave into the lush rainforest. Known as the Garden of Eden, it was a glorious picture of looking back at the Garden of Genesis from the darkness this side of the Fall. 

I was delighted that Hamish had successfully completed his caving tour, and joined me for the massive bat exodus. Every evening thousands of bats exit the cave system at various points and fly around in formations. Unfortunately I didn't feel up to taking photos. Hopefully we will get to see it again another day. 

I managed to get down a little dinner and then went back for an early night. 

Excited to explore tomorrow when I am hopefully feeling a whole lot better. 

5/7 in search of the Probiscus monkey

98% humidity and hiking shoes make for a short and slow morning run, but it was good to stretch my legs and see a little more of Santubong. 

And the swim in the resort pool afterwards certainly felt good. 

A takeaway sandwich for breakfast from the resort, as we drove to the Bako National Park boat terminal. Bako means mangrove but to us it meant Probiscus monkeys. 

Rachel and her son (from Amsterdam) were looking for some people to share the cost of the boat, and we and Caleb from Singapore were only to happy to oblige. In fact we shared the cost of a guide for the day too. 

Rafiz (part-time guide, full-time park ranger,) was excellent and we saw so many more animals than we would have on our own, thanks to his eagle eyes and the intel the guides share with one another. 

We loved seeing a Malayan flying lemur with its baby

a Bornean Keeled pit viper

a silvered leaf monkey with its baby

and the decidedly unattractive bearded pig (the vacuum cleaner of the rainforest)

Plus Hamish spotted the shell of a horseshoe crab.

Locals catch and sell this as a delicacy, but Hamish explained that pharmaceutical companies also extract its blood to coagulate bacteria in human blood. Interesting!

But we hadn't yet spotted what we had all come to see - a Probiscus monkey. 

Rafiz searched high and low, and we began to learn to live with disappointment, until a loud cry went up in the distance. Another guide was alerting everyone that he had spotted one! So we all raced to see. 

There he was, high up in a tree near the canteen. I managed to get some shots with my phone and then my long zoom camera. 

We came, we saw, we photographed!

But wait, there's more!

The Probiscus monkey ventured down to the ground and we managed to get just a few feet from him! Excitement and satisfaction and wonderment at God's creativity - or is it his sense of humour? 

Speaking of a sense of humour, Rafiz shared a fun fact with us. 'Orangutan' means man (orang) of the forest (utan), but the people of Borneo and Indonesia call the Probiscus monkey orang (man) belanda (Dutch) because they thought the Dutch colonisers had big noses. Tracey was not impressed, but those among us of European descent assured her that her nose was perfectly normal. 

Having been thrilled by the animals we had seen, and having thoroughly enjoyed the international interaction, we waded out to the boat, 

returned to the jetty and drove the others back to Kuching. 

I was so thankful for such a great day, and that I didn't feel sick at all on the boat rides. 

After some down time, we enjoyed some Hainan chicken and rice, and the very pretty waterfront and water and light show. 

Another great day, but sadly our last in and around Kuching. Looking forward to the caves and rainforests of Mulu National Park for the next 3 days. 

3/7 History, wildlife, jungle, frogs and disappointment

Today certainly had it all. 

What a contrast for our second indigenous homestay! Isabella may have grown up in a longhouse washing and toileting in the river, but she now lives in a substantial home, both her children have completed tertiary study, and she has travelled to KL, Australia, Vietnam and Turkiye.

 She also loves Facebook! I've never had my photo taken so many times doing ordinary things. Standing at the front door, having our welcome drinks,  eating our dinner, eating our breakfast, trying on traditional Biduyn costumes, and of course, standing at the front door again.

 Agreeing to have our photos taken for promotional purposes must have been in the fine print somewhere, but I missed it. She was also very happy to share her views on Muslim immigration, the recent demise of the British government, and the wonderful rise of Donald Trump. 

But despite all of this, having her show us around the longhouse in which she had grown up and explain their history, rituals and important items was wonderful.

 In years past the Royal Navy visited, and she said that Queen Elizabeth II herself had come at one time (AI says that though she did visit Kuching, she actually visited a replica longhouse in the Sarawak museum).

More significantly, she and her seven siblings had grown up here, and as she stood outside her family home, we were very moved to hear of her mother dying after giving birth to her younger brother when she was two. There was no way to get to the nearest clinic, there was no midwife, and the bleeding would not stop. Her younger brother grew up with the family next door and she has never even seen a picture of her mother. 

Just before we left she also told us that in the 60s her brother invited 'Father Louis' from England to come to the Kampung and start the Anglican church. A church and a school were built just down the road from her house and most of the people in the area are now Christians. 

The longhouse itself has now been divided up and most of the families have moved into the city.

Two very different homestay experiences and so many insights into local culture and recent history. 

Lunch at Yummy Express, a Sarawakian fast food chain, was surprisingly good. 

Next, Matang Wildlife Centre. Not a zoo but a centre for the rehabilitation of animals sold as pets which have either been handed in or confiscated. The goal is to restore them to the wild but I began to understand how difficult this is, and many of the animals do not leave here. Overall, though the signs for some of the animals talked about rehabilitation, we were disappointed by their poor enclosures, and we didn't see any sign of keepers investing in them. This may reflect a lack of funds, especially from visitors. We paid $8 each to get in and we were the only people in the centre. We had been delighted to see the orangutans who had been successfully rehabilitated to Semmongoh yesterday, but it was sad to see the enclosure and the demeanour of the orangutans here. 

Nonetheless it was a treat to see the pig-tale macaques interacting with one another 

and the rhinoceros hornbills and sunbears. 

The wildlife Centre is part of Kubah National Park, and in the afternoon we enjoyed a challenging and very hot trek through the jungle on the Belian trail - named after the very tall and straight trees which are loved by builders and loggers alike (aka Borneo ironwood).

The trail was constructed by the Japanese during their occupation in WWII. 

Very sweaty and exhausted after less than an hour, we were glad to arrive at our cheap but new hotel and enjoy a shower. Then dinner at Food Republic next door - a modern food hawkers' market where drinks waiters take your orders with tablets.

Then it was time for the frogs! I'd heard about the 60 different species of frogs in Kubah National Park and discovered an accredited guide online. Lucian, a man of Chinese background  from Kuching, worked in Australia as a software engineer and in the telecommunications industry, and obviously felt this was a good grounding for becoming a froggy walk guide in his retirement. His enthusiasm and skill at spotting wildlife, and then identifying each one with its common and scientific name was extraordinary. He promised we'd see 10 species of frogs and he delivered 11. Early on he learnt of Hamish's interest and expertise when he understood what it meant that the particular Pitcher plant we were looking at was 'detitritivorous.' For those of us with no idea what that means,  they eat leaf litter rather than insects. 

Lucian also helped us to spot many spiders

Hamish spotted this strange creature which Lucian promised to investigate later and let us know

He also spotted a snake hanging in a tree. It was a fascinating evening! 

So what is 'disappointment' doing in the title of this post? 

We arrived back at our hotel, managed to get the TV working and grabbed a couple of hours of sleep before watching Australia play Egypt in the World Cup. 

Halfway through the second half I asked AI who the commentators were. Here's what it told me ...

 even with my naive trust in AI, I knew this couldn't be true because the game was still going. To its credit, AI admitted it's 'hallucination.'

Sadly that hallucination proved too close to the truth, as Australia collapsed in the penalty shoot out. Disappointing indeed! 

On the other hand, we were in Kuching, Bethany was in Uzbekistan, Elijah was at Darling Harbour, Isaac was at Springwood Sports Club, and Danielle and Annie, Ben, Eloise and Levi were at home, but we were all watching and messaging together. 

Football really does bring people together!