Since I last posted we went to and returned from Uncle Tan's and then bussed up to Kota Kinabalu. In all honesty, Uncle Tan's was a bit disappointing. I was going in with very high expectations to be fair, but I was definitely hoping for more. I certainly do not blame the guides or the company itself. Everyone was fantastic and the guides were great at spotting anything that was there, the problem was that there just wasn't much wildlife. The camp is set up on private property between conservation bubbles that are connected by 30m-deep connections along the river. The result is that while you cruise down the river (which we did a lot!) you're seeing trees, but right behind them there is a bunch of daylight or even worse visible palm oil plantations. This isn't the case everywhere, but the majority for sure.
Even with that we did manage to see some things I had never seen before. In total we took a night cruise, two morning cruises, a (rainy) evening cruise, a night walk and a mid-morning walk. And during all that time we saw (just the highlights, to me) Bornean Gibbons, civet cats, a bunch of hornbills and kingfishers, some crocs, proboscis monkeys, and a bunch of other monkeys/macaques and birds.
Along with that we got fed lots of good food and met some interesting people. The guides were a blast. Exclusively young guys, they were always smiling and having a good time playing games and singing a lot. I think mom had a good time meeting all the other travelers too (it's been fun to see her become a SEA traveler), but I was/still am a little over that, and after the normal pleasantries I just kinda hung out; basically I'm tired of not really getting to know people, but instead just getting the basics and their travel info.
Then again it could have just been being tired that made me less social. I've been fighting some sort of cold lately and sleeping in open jungle huts with 6 other people didn't exactly rest me up. We each had our own mattress and mosquito net and then our hut was connected to the board walk to the dining hall as well as the smelly bathrooms. A lot of other people were commenting about the basic conditions, but I didn't think they were all that bad...I was still glad to get back to Sandakan afterward and get a hot shower though!
Sandakan was a bit nicer than I expected as most people we talked to made it sound pretty bad. We didn't really do much there, just spent the night and then caught a bus here to KK where we were going to do a white water rafting trip, but after 7hrs on a bus we decided that the trip (which was 8hrs of traveling split by 3hrs of rafting, didn't actually sound that good). So instead we just walked around yesterday, saw a few museums, and mostly just have been killing time. One highlight was the best Italian food I've had in over a year, and really the first meal I've had in a while too (I mean not just eating, but staying there for a few hours, over several courses and with good conversation, etc).
But now we're done with Borneo and Mom will stay a little less than 2 more weeks...time is flying by!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment