Jungle trek with me

What a weekend!
Okay, this isn't the jungle. This a Taoist temple that we were able to visit. These places are so amazing, and they let us wander in. It still feels like sneaking into someone's house.

This is a page from a menu at a restaurant that we can see from the hotel room. It's up on the fourth floor of a building, and outdoors. It's the biggest restaurant area I've ever seen in my life. So many tables, so much seafood on display. Ron got a fish dish with the eyes staring up at him, all of it's sharp looking teeth still in the gaping mouth. He loved it. I had prawns with broccoli. 

 The next day we went to see orangutans. Orang-utan. Man of the forest. Or woman. This one is called Grandma, she was put in the reserve to rehab her, and she had 3 babies. It's called Semenggoh Nature Reserve. This is an older female, she's 47 years old and she was named Seduku. They are 4-5 tall, and my favorite part is that their arm span is 8 feet. That sounds like fun to me. Depending on the website it will tell you that they share from 94% to 97% of human DNA. Crazy cool. And they are solitary animals. Yet the moms stick with their offspring for many years.

It was cool that she was so close, but it was anticlimatic to my expectations. It was astounding though, to kind of walk with an orangutan for a few minutes. The jungle area around here felt so incredibly peaceful.

We adopted one of Grandma's grandsons. He was born a month ago, and doesn't even have a name yet. We gave them a donation, and they will give us updates on the little guy. Just in time for Mother's Day. It's like the tenth child we always wanted. 

I loved the silhouette of the boat in the water. There is a waterfront mosque being built on the left. This sunset was "okay". The one two days later was completely remarkable, but no pictures were taken. 

One day orangutans, and the next day is a national park called Bako, here in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. Both of these places were within an hour of the city we've been staying in, called Kuching. Both times we had our own guide and it was a private tour.

We drove to the riverfront, then took a twenty minute boat ride into the park. I was so happy for a breeze! So thrilled to ride out to the South China Sea. As we sailed up to the beach we saw a big monitor lizard swimming to another part of the shore. Then we hopped out of the boat and there were dozens of mudskippers at the waters edge, they were 3-4 inches long.

There was this nice short trail with boards to make it easy to look around, because I didn't have to stare at the path in front of me. There is a brown stream that wanders across from time to time. We stopped in some shade and the guide told us we could put our feet in the rusty looking water. So we did. There were hundreds of little fish, the ones that nibble on the dead skin of your feet. It was so fun, they tickled. And the water was wonderfully cooling on a hot jungle day.

 This part of the park was crazy to walk on. I had to watch my feet and then stop so I could look up and see what was around me. The roots of the trees were tricky to navigate, but it was fun. Each step was a challenge, which kept my mind off the heat. It actually wasn't too bad, mostly shady.

Those macaque monkeys were definitely naughty. I watched them steal or try to steal three different times while we were on the balcony eating lunch in the main area. They just come on up and grab things off plates. The staff comes out  to shoo them away. Then bring out a sling shot to let the monkeys know they really mean it. The one staff said to us: just slap them when they get too close. And I was thinking, Mr. I did not come all the way to the island of Borneo to slap a monkey. It was cool though because they came so close, and they freaked out some of the diners - it was hilarious. Until one came right up to our table. I got up, stood between him and the table, and stared him down. He gave up.

 This is one of the macaques with some stolen food. They are small, not coming up to my knee. 1.8 feet on average, according to the website I glanced at.

This is the proboscis monkey, and he's pretty big. They are so funny! They swing through the trees like the little monkeys, but they crash around because they are so big. Two feet, four inches. But what I saw seemed bigger than that. All these monkeys just swing around the park, watching us watch them. We stood admiring a group that swung through the trees and then dropped to the ground maybe twenty feet away.

These guys are sliver leaf langurs. They are adorable. I saw a momma monkey with her baby monkey and it was a sight to behold. The babies are bright orange. They are about the same size as the macaque.

This is a picture from the internet, mine didn't turn out well. Look how intensely adorable that is!! Doesn't look real, does it?

This is a momma macaque with her baby. Super cool to watch them interact.

As soon as we set off on the trek we saw this guy sitting elbow high in plain sight where the trail started. It's a very poisonous pit viper taking a nap. We stood a few feet from it, snapping pictures.

Bearded pigs popped out every now and then. They are kind of freaky. First of all, they are about three feet tall. They have intriguing eyes, and tusks, and a weird nose. I came around a corner in a trail narrowed by big rocks and had to walk close by one, close enough that I could reach out and touch it.

I loved it, the sea is so green. The water sparkled and shimmered in the sunlight. This picture doesn't do justice to the jade color of the rolling sea.

After we hiked one trail we had an option to get in another boat to go look for sea snakes. We didn't see any, just sea stacks. I'm not complaining. Plus we went to a small deserted beach and hopped out for a few minutes. I got to put my feet in the South China sea, which is a real memory maker. 

It looked like a terrible rain was coming, as we headed back. We lucked out with good weather so far. This looks intimidating, but it only poured for about 15 minutes on the drive home. What a 7 hour field trip!