We spent our holidays on the island of Borneo this year.
We flew to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia on Christmas Eve. Of course Santa found us again. ;-) Whether we've been at our cabin in Alaska, Washington State visiting family, or the Asian cities of Bangkok Thailand, Bali Indonesia, or Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, Santa always tracks us down. His reindeer sure are persistent.
One day we took the short boat ride from K.K. to the island of Manutic and spent the day snorkeling and playing on the beach. Tia and Quyen saw a BIG "Nemo" fish and Paula watched an entire group of rainbow colored parrot fish feeding on coral. Sadly Sara couldn't snorkel due to ear problems on the plane but she still had fun catching baby jelly fish and getting buried in the sand by Daddy.
We all enjoyed wandering the waterfront streets of K.K. and all the fresh produce and seafood available. Delicious mangoes from the fruit market every morning. Quyen even spotted a large tuna in the seafood market and bought a big chunk. MMMmmm... that ocean fresh sashimi in our hotel room was probably one of the tasties meal of the trip!
From K.K. we flew over to Sandakan on the NE coast of Borneo for the next part of our adventure. After a long jeep ride and a short boat trip up the Kinabangan River, we arrived at a Jungle Camp!
For 3 days we toured along the river through the jungle spotting a wide variety of critters. Sara never spotted her rare Kingfisher she was looking for but was rewarded with several more common varieties and half a dozen other interesting bird like the hornbill. More than one crocodile watched us from the water edge and slid away before cameras could catch him. Monkeys ranged from the large male orangutan Tia spotted, proboscis monkeys who are famous for their over sized noses, and families of curious long tail macaque busy eating fruit. Back at camp we saw a strange cat like creature called a Malay Civet, watched a giant monitor lizard chase the wild pigs away from the kitchen leftovers, and even sighted an endangered Storm's Stork.
What a thrill to see all these animals in the wild. We spent New Year's Eve at a place who's location truly lived up to it's name, Forest Edge Resort. So peaceful! and conveniently within walking distance of the Sepilok OrangUtan Rehabilitation Center. The center provides supplemental food for animals readjusting to life in the wild. Most monkeys at the center have been relocated from recently logged forests and rescued from homes where they were illegally kept as pets.
One sobering realization of our jungle visit was that the true jungle habitat is disappearing fast and many of the indigenous animal species are becoming endangered or even extinct. Our jeep drive to the river was through plantation after plantation of palm trees for harvesting palm oil. The orang utan population who only exist in Boreo and Sumatra are down to only 50,000 from the original 300,000plus.
I am truly glad we took this opportunity to see the jungle as it is NOW.I've attached a couple pictures. Hope you enjoy them.Love ya, Paula
