We were up early this morning to do a half-day boat tour.  From the north of town, we took a boat to the estuary of the Salak River on the Santubong peninsula.  Our two captains are literally older retired guys who used to log the area. They bought themselves a boat and now take tourists…

We left Kota Kinabalu and the state of Sabah this morning and an hour and a half later, we have now arrived in Kuching, the capital and most populous city in the state of Sarawak.  Even though we are traveling from one state to another within Malaysia, we had to clear customs again. Apparently, peninsular…

Over the last three days, we have had good weather in the morning followed by an incredible rain squall in the early afternoon which clears by the time we head out on the boat for our afternoon cruise! Our second full day on the Kinabatangan River proved to be great for wildlife spotting. Proboscis monkeys,…

During some down time in the heat of the afternoon, we were treated to a tropical herb foot soak at the spa.  Hot water and rocks from the river were added to ginger, salt, lemongrass and banana leaves. Kris also used the local volcanic mud facial. Over our two nights, we were offered one longer…

We set out early this morning with our guide, Omar and boatman, Basri (who we think lives in the little village of Abai). Omar is pretty sure that the elephant herd is still close by so we cruised past the area where we saw the bull yesterday. And suddenly, there they were, crossing the river…

The traditional gift for a 30th wedding anniversary is pearl.  As we tend to be a bit unconventional, we have given each other leech socks!  Leeches secrete an anticoagulant into their targets so their blood doesn’t clot while the leeches are drinking it.  There are two kinds of leeches in Borneo; Brown leeches tend to…

Our first stop today was at the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Center, a rescue and rehabilitation facility. The Sun Bear is the world’s smallest bear, found only in Southeast Asia.  In the wild, sun bears control the forest’s destructive population of termites.  They also eat fruit and are particularly fond of honey. They have a…

Alfred drove us the 2.5 hours back down the bumpy, dusty road from Deramakot this morning where we said goodbye to him and Mike. A taxi was waiting for us at the main highway to complete the 1.5 hour drive to Sepilok. We had a moment of unease when, at a routine police stop, our…

We started this afternoon’s drive with another orangutan sighting! Mike was very happy to find a female with a baby. The pair hung out and swung lazily from the branches for a little while before moving deeper into the trees to build a nest for the night. Orangutans typically build a new nest out of…

Our driver for the morning, Vinod, picked us up from Mount Kinabalu and we took off for the Deramakot Forest Reserve to start our many days of wildlife safari.  Three hours of curvy and bumpy pavement highway brought us to Telupid for lunch. Dave keeps asking for spicy food, and their chilis are spicy but…