Messing around on the river

Day 6 Monday

I can't remember the last time I got up at 6.30 am.  It's dark but the birds have started chattering and calling.  I slather myself with anti mozzie stuff only to find that I have already been bitten 6 times presumably in the night. We get into the boats and set off in the opposite direction.  This is more of a bird spotting ride and we do see a wide variety of local birds but sadly the monkeys are conspicuous by their absence.

Oriental datar?

Egret

Blue eared kingfisher

Again we had sunshine and brief heavy showers but it was so lovely to be in the floating along in such peaceful surroundings.

While we have a post lunch rest, I thought I might give a short geography lesson.  Before I came here. I thought Borneo was a country but not so.  In fact Borneo is the name of the island which is the third largest in the world.  It is divided into 3 countries - Malaysia in the west and north, Indonesia in the east and south and Brunei, a small area on the north east coast, surrounded by Malaysia.  We are touring in the northern most province of  Malaysia called Sabah.  To the west of Malaysia is the island of Sumatra, to the north west is Thailand and Singapore, further north is Vietnam.  To the east is Papua and New Guinea and south east you eventually come to Australia. The Equator passes through the southern part of the island.  The currency is the rinngit, 5 of which equals a £.  It was heavily influenced by the British in the past and they still drive on the left and have 3 pin electricity sockets. The people are smiling and glide about.  You cannot rush in this heat.

This is a map of our original tour but the turtle island trip has been cancelled on government advice after a Taiwanese couple were killed in 2013 by pirates.  We are doing the destinations in a different order and a further destination has been added.

Another river expedition this afternoon.  If this morning's ride was rather monkey lite, then the afternoon was the opposite.  We saw long tailed macaques in troupes, in the trees and on the river bank, playing together, chasing birds off the branches and just sitting and scratching.  More birds of course, the most memorable was a pair of rhinoceros hornbills with magnificent coloured beaks.  How our guide, Fendi, managed it we don't know but he spotted 2 snakes in trees.  A black and yellow mangrove snake and a python.  There was another boat nearby and in it an American woman asked us what colour it was.  One of our party said, well it was just python colour.  "Oh", she said, "I've got a dress that colour". To round off the trip, we saw several proboscis monkeys but the nose eluded us this time.

This was our last evening at the Proboscis Lodge so the staff put on a display of traditional local dancing.  The eagle dance where you have to flap your arms in an eagley sort of way, a sort of backwards and forwards dance and the Pocho Pocho which was a bit like line dancing.  We all had to get up and join in which was great fun but extremely hot.

It has been a great 2 days here.  Everyone has been so friendly and helpful.  The boat trips have been relaxing but also so interesting.  I will always remember seeing the proboscis monkey in its natural habitat

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