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Borneo April 2015: Primates, Pygmy Elephants and much more….


TonyQ

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We were very pleased we had our balcony where the sightings were more interesting.

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I don’t know what this is - but we enjoyed watching it!

 

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Our regular visitors could be relied on to brighten things up

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Orange-bellied Flowerpecker

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A skink explored the edge of the balcony

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I thought it was a lovely animal

Edited by TonyQ
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We went to lunch and could hear gibbons calling in the distance – a haunting sound..

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View from the restaurant

 

Another guest asked the young waitress what the noise was – she said gibbons, looked towards the distant trees and pointed. We could see a small movement. She called for a guide to bring a spotting scope, which was set up on the edge of the dining area (we returned to our room to get our binoculars).

 

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After a while they could be clearly seen, though remaining very distant. There were a small group of them.

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These are taken at 300mm and cropped! But we were very pleased to see them, as well as hear them.

 

We finished lunch and returned to our room for a rest.

 

We re-joined our guide for an afternoon walk.

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MrsQ models leech socks

 

Essential equipment (available from the lodge shop) they go over your socks and under your boots and stop the little blood-suckers from getting into your boots or up the bottom of your trousers!

 

After some time walking and not seeing much we were delighted to come across

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Red leaf monkey

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A poor picture but I have put it in as it shows that when the baby gets a bit bigger it turns the same red colour as the adults.

 

We also had a glimpse of a pig-tailed macaque but decided to stay looking at the leaf monkeys.

 

At this stage, the sky began to get very dark and we began to feel drops of rain. Poncho on, camera equipment in a dry bag, we begin to walk quickly back towards the lodge. It then begins to rain really heavily. It was actually interesting experiencing rain in a rain forest! We had managed to keep relatively dry. We removed a few leeches from the outside of our clothes (we had not attracted any on previous walks) and MrsQ found one that had bitten her (we removed it with salt).

 

In the evening we went on another night drive (it had stopped raining), seeing a flying squirrel fly and a couple of sleeping birds and possibly a civet.

 

It hadn’t been the most exciting of days, so we decided to have a pre-dinner cocktail to cheer things up!

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kittykat23uk

What stonking views you had of the crested firebacks! :D We only caught a fleeting glimps of one at Tabin :(

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Balcony birding can be very rewarding!

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@@TonyQ I am keenly following your TR and getting ideas for 2017.

 

Great views of the red-bearded bee-eater and the red leaf monkeys.

 

I will definitely be purchasing leech socks!

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michael-ibk

Sorry you weren´t too thrilled with this day, but I am certainly thrilled with those Firebacks. Spectacular birds! And great you saw - and heard - the Gibbons.

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@@kittykat23uk

They are very striking birds (and being big and colourful means that I can see them!)

 

@@xelas

It certainly was here - we also saw a Lesser Fish Eagle on the opposite side of the river drying its wings

 

@@Treepol

Thank you. Leech socks may be easier to get where you live - but they are pretty cheap at the lodge (and you even have a choice of colours!)

 

@@michael-ibk

There were certainly highlights in the day -including those you mention :)

Edited by TonyQ
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Our Final Morning at Danum Valley

 

We were up early, enjoying a cup of tea on the balcony, listening to the forest waking up

 

I recorded this video clip for the sound – but it does show our view from the balcony (shot at about 20mm)

 

We then went for a short walk on our own before breakfast

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Monitor resting in the river

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Giant woodlouse

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Diard’s Trogon

 

We returned for a very good breakfast, and then we met up with our guide and began walking and soon saw

 

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Skink amongst leaves

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I think it is a really beautiful animal

 

We then continued walking – seeing virtually no birds and no other wildlife. After about an hour I took a couple of pictures of interesting bits of the forest

 

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Edited by TonyQ
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We then headed back to the lodge. As we sat in the boot cleaning area we noticed

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Rhinoceros beetles

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Mating

 

No-one else appeared to pay this any attention – or maybe they just did not notice. We found it fascinating.

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Returning to our room (the building has two rooms – ours is on the left)

- our balcony is on the far side of the building so not visible

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Walkway connecting to other rooms

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Final view of our reliable favourites.

 

We packed, had lunch and then began our transfer to Lahad Datu

 

Thoughts on Borneo Rainforest Lodge

The lodge itself is excellent. Food was of very high quality, staff were very friendly and helpful. Our room was excellent and we loved sitting on the balcony enjoying the sounds and sights of the forest and wildlife visitors. We were very glad we followed the advice (from Safaritalk) and booked a river view room.

 

As a couple we do try to focus on what we do see rather than what we don’t see, but we have to say that overall we were disappointed with the wildlife viewing. There were a number of very enjoyable highlights (e.g.the Red Leaf Monkeys, the Lizards, the Frogs and our Balcony Birds), but there were also long periods of walking and seeing nothing (not strictly true as we were seeing the forest – but we were not seeing birds, insects or any animal life). I think the experience was similar for other visitors there at this time. It appears there were no trees fruiting near the trails at the time we were there and these frequently attract a range of birds and primates. Despite this, we have no regrets about going as we recognise the element of luck in going to any wildlife destination. (And of course we are lucky to be able to go there at all!). If we were planning a similar trip we would still go to Danum Valley.

Edited by TonyQ
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The vehicle transfer to Lahad Datu was very straightforward. After a couple of hours or so, we were dropped at the very small airport to wait for our flight to Kota Kinabalu. This was a good, comfortable flight and we then had a couple of hours for our next flight onwards to Kuching.

 

When we went to board this, we were told we had not been through immigration so had to rush back to do this (only took 5 minutes!). We had not realised that as we were travelling to a different state in Malaysia (moving from Sabah to Sarawak) they had their own immigration systems. All of the officials were very friendly and helpful. No damage done – apart from a bit of anxiety!

 

We made out flight with plenty of time and it was a comfortable 90min journey and we landed in Kuching.

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Landrico (Junior) looks like he’d be a lot of fun.

 

My what big teeth you have, Mr. Crab-eating Macaque. All the better to eat crabs with.

 

I’m surprised orangs don’t swim.

 

You answered my question on the monitor sticking out its tongue. “I also have quite a few photos where I didn't time it right as the tongue flicks in and out!

 

“She knew there were elephants in Borneo but thought they were almost impossible to see.” I assumed higher odds than impossible, but I also thought it was not common to see the Pygmy Eles. How nice this ele-loving lady shared your outstanding sighting. You even had nice views of the baby. Hopefully her photos were as fine as yours. You deserve to get carried away with a sighting like that!

 

The baby Macaque is impossibly cute as well.

 

There is a theme going on with the Proboscis Monkey and the Rhinoceros Hornbill.

 

Double seater boat for sure. Three seats too crowded. Thanks for that photo.

 

I’m ending for now with the red leaf monkey. Excellent pics of these creatures.

 

Your photos are more like a trip to the zoo than a trip to the challenging and difficult conditions of the jungle! Every species looks great.

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@@TonyQ so sorry that your danum valley trip didn't turn up much widlife sighting, but your birdlife was astounding. those firebacks are amazing - we never saw them, and you were so lucky to get a decent shot of the trogon. I heard them all the time but never saw them. We were there end May and I guess we were lucky that the fig tree was fruiting and that helped attract wild orangutans.

 

Leech socks are a must @@Treepol and they look very fetching on Mrs TonyQ. :) i'm told that danum valley - for some reason - has more leeches than other places in sabah and tiger leeches are ferocious!

 

I loved balcony views too! glad you enjoyed them.

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SafariChick

@@TonyQ agree the Firebacks are super cool and I also love the skinks, very beautiful! I think the rhinoceros beetles are very cool too although I admit I am squeamish about bugs!

 

What you call leach socks are I think the same thing @@Sangeeta and I call gaiters which we got from Bugshirt.com? :)

 

http://www.bugshirt.com/products/gaiters/

 

When I've heard the term leech socks, I always thought they were more of an actual sock.

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kittykat23uk

Are the gaiters open at both ends? Leech socks have the whole of the foot covered with a couple of elasticated draw strings above and below the knee. I still got leeched several times on my stomach.

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SafariChick

the gaiters we got were open at both ends, with elastic around the ankle and the knee, and with an elastic band that went around the bottom of the foot - the idea was you would tuck the gaiters in to your boots and lace up the boots around the gaiter so theoretically nothing could crawl in around your ankle but I guess having the whole foot covered is even better!

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kittykat23uk

Yes the problems is being short and leeches can climb! The also seemed attracted to my camera!

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@@Atravelynn

Thank you. Landrico was good fun as well as being very expert (a good combination!). Wildlife viewings were great on the river (and it is nice and cool when you are moving). We were surprised about Orang Utans not swimming (this link shows that some can but that most don't -

http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/orang-utan-water )

@@Kitsafari

Thank you for recommending the balcony - we loved it. (and we enjoy playing the video just to hear the sounds!)

 

@SafariChick - As @@kittykat23uk says the leech socks cover you feet and they are made of fairly thin cotton. I imagine they do the same job as the gaiters.But the leches can still get in to other places! We only really had trouble with them on the afternoon after it rained.

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Continued (the final section)....

We buy a taxi voucher from the airport and pick up the first taxi in the queue – a very friendly female taxi driver wearing a hijab who spoke very good English. She was pleased we were visiting Kuching and hope we had a very enjoyable trip.

 

Kuching is the state capital of Sarawak – it is an easy-going seeming small city on a river. It is a great place to spend a few days. You can visit some national parks near the city, but we came here to relax and try the variety of food.

 

We are staying at the Hilton for 3 nights (good deals available on booking sites). It is quite late but we still go for a short walk and a cold beer.

 

Next day we have a very good breakfast in the hotel (Chinese, Malay, Indian – we had all of them!)

 

The hotel it is in an excellent location and we had chosen a room with a river view. The next pictures are through our floor to ceiling window.

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The Malay side of the river

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The State Assembly Building

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Our side of the river

 

Just outside the hotel you join a promenade along the side of the river – a great place to walk at any time of the day but particularly in the cool of the evening when lots of local people come for a stroll.

 

We didn’t come to see wildlife but couldn’t resist

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Javan Myna

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Eurasian Tree Sparrow

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Youngster (still being fed by an adult)

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A Bulbul of some sort (?)

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View across river

 

Kuching is known as the city of cats (there is even a cat museum though we didn’t visit). Around the city are various cat statues – some very large

 

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And some are a popular attraction with visitors

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Food

On two of our days we went to the Chinese area of town for excellent lunches. On our way on our first day, a woman saw us examining a map – came over and asked us if she could help. When we said where we were going she said “I am going near there just come with me”. People were amazingly friendly and helpful.

 

For our first evening meal we visited “Top Spot” – a food court on top of a multi-storey car park. Not a promising sounding location – but it is very popular and the food was excellent.

 

There are a number of stalls (we chose based on internet research).

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Choose your fish/seafood and have it weighed (prices are clearly displayed).

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Talk to the staff about how you want it cooked (there is a “menu” sheet to help). Our waitress said the way we wanted ours cooked didn’t suit that sort of fish and suggested ways of cooking which would suit it. We also had fresh fruit juice from another stall.

 

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We liked it so much we came back again the next day!

Edited by TonyQ
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The river is a centre of action for small ferries (which take you to the other side for about £0.10). A fun way to travel.

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There are also many small fishing boats.

 

On our final morning we went on an hour and a half boat cruise – very interesting and enjoyable.

 

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So what else did we do? Wander about, look at a few temples, a bit of shopping, the boat trip (as mentioned), ferry trips to the other side of the river.

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Kuching – a really enjoyable couple of days to finish of our time in Borneo.

 

(flight Kuching- Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur - Amsterdam, Amsterdam- Birmingham)

 

Final Reflections

A really enjoyable trip with some excellent wildlife viewing with some real highlights – in particular for me seeing the Borneo Pygmy Elephants so well, the amazing Proboscis Monkeys, the Macaques of both sorts and the Otters. (and Orang Utan in the rehabilitation centres) I am glad that we also visited a couple of towns and tried a variety of food, but others of you would I know focus more on the wildlife.

 

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So Borneo – worth a visit!

(Thank you for reading, liking and commenting!)

Edited by TonyQ
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kittykat23uk

Thanks for a wonderful trip report @@TonyQ it's been a very enjoyable read. :)

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Excellent trip report, @@TonyQ ! Bringing back many memories. One thing I am missing though; the famous Rafflesia plant. Was it outside of its blooming period, or you have just skipped it due to time constraints?

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michael-ibk

Thanks, TonyQ, another trademark fabulous Q-report, obviously @Thursday´s Child and you had a fantastic trip. I very much enjoyed the Monkeys and birds especially, that Proboscis is just too cool for words. Your Ele sightings were just perfect. And, wow, the wonderfully green and lush setting - it´s such a beautiful place. Very high on "the list" now, thank you for that! :)

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