The BJ40!

Howard has a new toy! A Toyota BJ40. Drives and sounds like a tractor so can't see the attraction myself - but what do I know?

Indeed what does Kay know, a classic 4WD, gutsy, noisy, bumpy and the best fun I've had in a vehicle in years.

Kuching

Katy and ourselves have just spent the weekend in Kuching, capital of Sarawak. We stayed in the Hilton (large white building in the middle of the photo below) with a room with fabulous views over the river and the new Parliament building (still under construction)
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Spices at the market



Food was good too - Howard eating a steamboat and BBQ, and Katy at a sushi bar......




We did an evening river estuary cruise to see probiscus monkeys, the very shy irriwaddy dolphins (library picture included - we only saw their backs and tails as they dived), a couple of macaque monkeys, fireflies in the trees and a crocodile in the dark eating a fish. Great sunset to boot. Coming home at high speed in the dark was a bit ouchy though. I assume that the boatman knew what he was doing!


We also went to the Sarawak Cultural Village - really interesting buildings and crafts on display. Plus a great show of native dancing and culture.This is the guy with the blowpipe - very accurate!

Monkey and human sculls decorate the houses...


Then a trip to the Rehabilitation centre for oranutangs. There are 22 wild in the forest around and we managed to see about 12 of them. Some came into the feeding station to pinch some food. Others just sat around and watched us......


And finally - the sunsets.....

Our visit to Niah Caves with Katy

Katy arrived last Wednesday night and we set off to explore Niah Caves on Saturday. A drive of aboiut 1.5 hours saw us at the National Park where we paid out 10 ringit each to get in and walked to the jetty to pay our 1 ringit fare to the ferryman to get across the river. There followed a walk of about an hour along a well cronstructed board walk with hand rail through the jungle, with interesting sights and sounds all around


Once we arrived at the caves themselves we were able to wander along the walkways very easily, each of us equipped with a torch. The huge caves are very smelly - full of bird and bat droppings! The nest collecters were there in force, climbing up their precarious poles to the very top of the cave to collect the swiftlets nests. The birds nest trade is very lucrative, but each year there are always fatalities - not surprisingly. The hunters were right at the roof of the highest sections of the caves - at least 60 metres up. The photos do neither the caves (or us) justice, but they were really impressive.

Niah is seen as the site of one of the most exciting archeological finds in the 20th century - a 37,000 year old skull - the earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in the region, buried under 2.5 metres of guano!

Claire's visit

Claire was here for 2 weeks, from 14th to 28th March, which just sped by. Here is a selection of the things we saw and did together:

At the Marriot for Brunch on her first full day:

Then the manicure and pedicure:

Out on the river barge - crocodile hunting (see Fierce Creatures!) as it turned out


Kota Kinabalu - Sunset bar at the Shangri-La

Gecko on the window at the hotel:

Snorkelling from the offshore islands at KK:



The monitor lizards we saw near the beach



At the Orangutang Rehabilitation Centre at the Rasa Ria


Back in Miri walking along the beach to the Boat Club:



Now Katy is here so we are doing it all again......!

Fierce creatures!

We have had 4 interesting face-to-face meetings with Borneo wild life in the last 10 days.
The first was a boat trip with Claire up the river where we happened upon a very large crocodile sunning itself in the mud. It slipped into the water as we came up but all 3 of us saw its full length - at least 2 metres. No camera at the ready of course but here is the mark that he left in the mud.

It made our planned coffee stop drifting in the river nearby a bit uneasy, I must say. All hands and feet inside the boat on my insistence!

The second was monitor lizards on the islands off Kota Kinabalu. These islands are part of the national park and the animals are protected. The monitor lizards were simply lying around in the warm mud close to the beach. No fear of people whatsoever, and quite large! The largest was well over 1.5 metres.

We also went to an orangutang rehabilitation centre where they have 7 young ones they are gradually releasing into the wild. We were allowed to look but not go near these lovely animals as they came in to eat at the feeding station. They are given some but not enough food to sustain themselves fully. Thus they learn to fend for themselves in a safe environment. They ranged from between 3 and 7 years old, and just like little kids they loved to show off.



The 4rd was a little more scary. Howard was tidying the unpacked boxes stacked outside the house on Sunday morning and a snake fell out of the box he was shifting, landing on his (bare) feet. Luckily it didn't bite him and it took off down the garden probably more scared than us. We chased it (it was only about 15 inches long). It quickly disappeared into the grass but we were able to get a good look and identify it as a kukri snake - NOT venomous!