Is it real?

I have been at the Sukau Rainforest Lodge (browse sukau.com or facebook.com/Sukaurainforestlodge, it's beautiful) for almost three weeks and I love it! The river cruises feature amazing wildlife. But the wildlife is a pleasant dilemma, what is my favourite jungle animal?

This has been a hard decision, but after much time and consideration, the Proboscis monkey is my favourite animal in Sukau. Not only does this simian look good, it's an amazing creature to watch. And an ongoing joke amongst the guides is that I will marry one of the males, keeping me in the Bornean jungles forever! Don't get me wrong, I love all the animals, but they don’t compare to the Proboscis. The elephants tend to just eat grass, nice but boring after awhile. The orangutans are shy, while the snakes and crocodiles are best at a distance.

Here are some reasons why I love this unique animal. The first thing about this handsome monkey that catches the eye is the nose! How did the nose get so big? Better sense of smell? Well only the males have the big nose and it's purely for show to attract the ladies. The females seek males with large noses, yeah, size matters. Some noses reach 10 cm or about four inches. The female’s noses are short, pointy and witch like. Evolution is strange!

Proboscis is a fancy word for a big nose. The locals nicknamed the monkey the "Dutch Monkey"; it resembled the early Dutch explorers with big bellies and long red noses. Also, the males have a reddish-brown torso, grey limbs and a long white tail, or if you look closely a leather jacket and underwear.

This brings me to the second thing you probably ask, why such big bellies? Believe it or not these monkeys, unlike me, have an excuse for having that belly. Proboscis monkeys have a colobine, or two chamber stomach, which makes them always look pregnant! Similar to cows with a four chambered stomach, the digestive system allows the monkeys to feed on unripe fruits, nuts and leaves. Food retention lasts from 14 to 52  hours, but eating the smallest bit of glucose upsets their tummies. The monkeys spend 77% of their day resting, 20 % feeding and the last 3% is spent being awesome; I could adopt and adapt to this lifestyle. 

This rare primate, only on the island of Borneo, has adapted to three habitats: mangrove, swamp and riverine forest. It's a good swimmer and often swims across rivers and or jumps down from trees. 

The only monkey with semi webbed back feet, it is fast and agile in the water. It can swim 20 meters submerged (the males sometimes use that big schnoz as a snorkel) and walking on mangrove floors without sinking.

A vocal monkey with two types of honks, seven types of shrieks and two types of growls.
From time to time the proboscis monkey will continue to walk upright when it leaves the water. Other than man, gibbons and giant pangolins, this is the only mammal to walk upright. Can you say evolution?

Watch this video to see one more reason why I love watching the beautiful monkeys!
http://video.nationalgeographic.com.au/video/animals/mammals-animals/monkeys-and-lemurs/weirdest-proboscis-monkey/
After reading all this you still probably think this monkey is still strange, ugly and wondering how I could like it so much? Don’t judge until you see these fascinating  monkeys up close, I think they are pretty special.

Another Day Another National Park

Part of my intern-ship is to tag along and evaluate BET (Borneo Eco Tours) tours. My first tour was Kinabalu National Park and Pouring Hot Springs. The guests, two couples from Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA were in Borneo for about a week. In their early 70's, they were on a month tour of Borneo, Singapore and Nepal (I can only hope I'm that cool when I'm in my 70's). They were an eager group, keen to see and try everything.

The park is about an hour outside of the city, a nice drive with occasional views of Mt.Kinabalu before clouds completely cover it. Malaysia’s first world heritage site, Mt. Kinabalu National Park (about the size of Singapore ) is home to the world’s oldest rainforests. The park fauna is rich in species with 326 bird, 112 mammals and two thirds of the islands reptile species.While the park contains the world’s highest youngest non- volcanic mountain and has diverse fauna, its unique flora made the World Heritage list in 2000.


The park’s flora contains elements of Himalayas, China, Australia, Malaysia, as well as pan-tropical flora that climb five vegetation groups, from a low rain forest to alpine scrubs. The park contains 5,000 to 6,000 vascular plants, including 1,000 orchids, nine types of pitcher plants (some can digest rats) and the largest flower in the 
world the rafflesia. The rafflesia has an amazing life cycle see the picture below. I felt very lucky to see it!



All the different flora flora were so cool, from the various orchids to learning how the natives have lived off these forests for millennia. The jungle provides nearly everything-kerosene berries to start fires, plants that have hooks that catch fish and wild ginger (see picture below).

After the jungle walk and lunch of Nasi goreng ( fried rice) and fish (I even ate some of the head!) we headed about 40 minutes to Poring Springs. The canopy walk was amazing, but scary! For those of you familiar with the tree top walk in Walpole, it's similar to that. For some reason this petrified me, maybe because the walk was all ropes (it takes a year to change the ropes!) as opposed to steel in Walpole. And it very narrow so you really swung when you walked.

Poring Hot Springs was a bit of a disappointment; Yellowstone’s beautiful natural hot springs have spoiled me. Our tour, on a Sunday, was packed with local kids running around all over the place. And unlike Yellowstone, there were was all sorts of man made pools. But I'm sure soaking in the tubs would be amazing after a mountain hike.

The farmers markets on the way back were amazing and a good chance to stock up tropical fruit. The different varieties of tropical fruit are unavailable in some Western Countries (Mangosteen and rambutan sound weird but are both so good see the picture below) or the yummy bananas, mangoes or pineapples. Oh yeah, the fruit costs about a quarter of what it costs in Perth. I can't get enough of the fruit and have withdrawals if I don't eat a mango a day. Off to the shops to buy some mangos!

You know you're in KK (Kota Kinabalu) when?

So i have been here almost three months (wow time has flown by) and here are a few things I have come to notice...
I will be updating this list but here is the start!

There is excessive use of the word “lah” in everyday vocabulary, similar to how we use  "like".

There is a KFC on every corner (chicken and rice not chip/fries)

Rice and/or noodles are eaten at every meal

Sugar is in all hot beverages! Good luck finding a coffee or tea without it and be prepared to endure weird looks when you try and get a coffee without it! Even when you ask for milk, it's condensed milk

Having blonde hair and white skin is rare, especially where the office is but this lack of Westerners applies to most places. Everyone loves to say hello, honk, wave ect. I feel like a celebrity and probably the closest I will ever get to being famous. So in true celebrity style I put on my over sized sunglasses and headphones and try and smile at everyone. Everyone for the most part speaks really good English

The country is soccer/football crazy; the English Premier League is huge

Buns are very popular with all different sweet and savory filling varieties. My favorite remains a warm bun with coconut (I still have cravings for it!).

Not everyone indicates this makes crossing at roundabouts very hard!

There are more than 60 sub-ethnic groups in Sabah and Sarawak, all proud of their ethnicity

The food and variety of food always amaze me. Seafood is always a win

Karaoke is very popular! Maybe one day I might be brave to sing a few songs

Adidas Kampung?

My first trip with work was to evaluate a potential eco campsite in the jungle. The area is about an hour away from Kota Kinabalu the drive was beautiful as it wound through the countryside of Sabah with occasional views of Mt. Kinabalu.
The homestay had  beautiful views of the jungle and the gorgeous houses nestled in the mountains. There were local children, who were playing some wired game that only involved three sticks and lots of running around. The children were having the best time playing this simple game and it made me think how sad the ipad, x box ect generation that I see growing up back home, kids should be outside!  
Around two in the afternoon the rain started and didn't stop for about 10 hours (it's the wet season!) so there wasn't much to do besides hang around, nap and read. Dinner that night was again local food and I  tried local Sabah deer, so yummy!
 The next morning the group left for the hike and we were joined by two mountain guides/porters. A porter's job is to carry your stuff, a totally foreign concept to me and I felt lazy but you have to remember it's their job and your helping out the village. I would have been lost without their guiding help thank goodness they were there!
The hike started in the jungle and it was beautiful and crazy the trail was pretty much non-existent . The guides walked ahead of the group and cleared the way with machetes (Jamie, Matt and Trina your dream job?). On top of all this the group had to ford the every 10 minutes  the water was pretty rough, so you have to cross as a group and everyone ended up soaked each time.
Overall I thought the trip was a great experience for me and highlights included perfect views of Mt. Kinabalu, the jungle trek and the tasty Sabah deer. The trek was fairly easy but in some parts I found quite technical such as the continuous fording of rivers, muddy up and downhill, slippery rocks and moving boulders.  Everyone slipped and feel down at least once!
Luckily I had the locally made shoes Adidas Kampung shoes they are made out of rubber and have grips on the bottom especially designed for clinging to rocks. These shoes are perfect for hiking in the muddy jungle, fording rivers and blouder, the best bit? They cost less than three dollars!
I got my first leach ! It wasn't scary and I couldn't even feel anything I just looked down and my leg was bleeding. Next time I will defiantly wear leach socks but I still prefer them to ticks and I like to think that it's helping to clean my blood.
Sorry I can't about the lack of detail but a lot is still confidential!

Orang Putih

Sorry about the lack of updates I have been having horrendous issues with my laptop's internet connection and working long days, I have been busy! I joined the gym attempting to get in shape I don't want to die when I climb that mountain!
I'm beginning to settle in and feel like a local and learning a little bit of Malay. I can even order a coffee now and I can hear when people talk about the orang putih (white person) I know that's me! Slowly getting used to the eastern mentality things run a little slower, less organized and more relaxed  in general. For example, I know I mentioned catching the bus in my last blog well the buses don't have a schedule ie the bus leaves at 7, 7:15 ect they leave when the buses are full. So I get to the bus station early and get to the office any time between 730 to 8ish. Or joining the gym they wanted me to wait a week to process my paperwork and then I could pay and use the gym then. The ex-pats here call these examples Sabahisms and all you can do is laugh, slow life down and relax.
 
You all know how much I love my food and so far the food here has been amazing and so cheap! Kota Kinabalu is a melting pot of food, cultures and religions. Malaysians are a mixture of Chinese, Indian and many local indigenous cultures such as Dusun and Kadazan are the main ethnic groups. There are 60 different ethnic groups throughout the Malaysian side of Borneo.  Unlike the rest of the Muslim dominated Malaysia, only about 50% of the island is Muslim and the rest is a mixture of religion but mainly Christianity. The Muslim presence is still felt most of the restaurants are halal free and pork products are hard to find but most of the Chinese restaurants serve pork. This doesn't bother me I'm not a big pork eater to begin with but it would be hard for all you bacon lovers!
 

Because Perth is fairly multi cultural  and trips to Bali some of the dishes are  familiar such as Laksa, Nasi/Mee goreng and satay. But unlike Bali there is more variety and the dishes have more of an Indian or Chinese twist. The food is cheap the "western" restaurants are really good and have quite a high standard too I have tried some amazing pizza, pasta, burgers and the seafood! Usually I go out for lunch at various at local restaurants around the office and either eat what the girls have or what looks good on the menu. I went out for Indian and ate off a banana leaf and with my hands, above is the picture!
Well I'm off to get a facial but I will try and update more soon!

Public Transport and Wedding Crashers

My first week in KK has been pretty full on but I’m adjusting and will be a local in no time? So far I have already managed to crash a Malaysian wedding and figured the public transport system.

My room is pretty basic but it's fine because I don't plan on spending much time there.

The BET office is about a 20 minute drive depending on traffic and is located in Kolombong, the industrial part of KK. The first thing that took me by surprise is that you take you shoes off outside the office and everyone around the office is either barefoot, in socks or flip flops. That's my kind of office goodbye heels and hello havaianas all the time! The office is quite large and comprises of three large rooms and a really nice kitchen area. I had been warned but didn’t believe that in Malaysia most companies have their staff working five and a half days.. work on a Saturday morning? I’m slowly adjusting to this.  Everyone in the office is really nice and I have already made some new friends Nancy, a web designer, has taken me under her wing.

Nancy and I usually go out for a lunch a couple times a week  and my first Saturday Nancy asked me if I was doing wanted tag along with her after work, her day involved lunch, shopping and checking out a band to possibly  play at her wedding.
I didn't realise that I had just  agreed to crash a Malaysian wedding to hear this band.  Being white didn't exactly help me  blend in not to mention the blonde hair but thankfully no one said anything although I did get strange looks. I got to see traditional tribal dancing and the wedding took place at a cultural centre so I checked out the different local longhouses. The rest of my weekend was pretty low key more exploring the city, the shopping centres, Sunday markets and signal hill a short hike a view of the city and I even got my haircut for 40 ringgits! The city is busy with traffic and people at all times of the day everyone is friendly and I feel very safe it was a nice weekend but back to work.

Telling a local that your catching public transport generates about the same look would get if you told someone in Perth you’re attempting to catch public transport.  From the BB to the offices requires catching two buses and takes about 30 to 40 minutes depending on the time of the day and round trip fare costs less than a dollar.  No I do not share my bus with chickens or goats but some of the buses/mini vans are pretty old school, ie knock the roof when you want to get off. Yes I have looked into catching a taxi but it’s about 25 Ringgits (divide by 3 for US/AUS dollars) one way.  Eight dollars may not seem like a lot of money but here I could get a manicure or pedicure or go out for a really nice meal so as of now I’m sticking to the bus. I do get very weird looks on the bus but I’m sure the locals will get used to seeing a white person on the bus soon enough.

The rest of my week was pretty uneventful just work, which is really interesting so far. Right now I'm working on a few projects are helping to revamp the website and preparing for a trip to a future eco camp. This is only week one!

Borneo?

Your going to work in Borneo for six months for free? Your moving to
Burma? You just got back? Where is Borneo? These are just a few of the questions I was
asked when I told people I was moving to island of Borneo for six
months to volunteer for the company Borneo Eco-Tours (BET). Exploring
an island full of wildlife, mountains,  white water rapids (classes
1-5), jungles, beautiful beaches, a vibrant city full of rich culture
all while working for a socially responsible Eco tourism company it
wasn't a hard decision  to make.

Just a quick background on Borneo its the world's third largest island
after Greenland and Papua New Guinea and located in South East Asia.
Borneo is occupied by 3 countries, with the largest portion part of
Indonesia (Kalimantan), followed by Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak) and
finally Brunei. Borneo is renowned for its untouched rain forests that
are home to a myriad of endemic and endangered wildlife species (pygmy
elephants, rhinos, proboscis monkey the clouded leopard etc).

A few months of negations, planning and saving money, I was off for
another adventure. A quick four hour stop over in Malaysia's capital
Kuala Lumpur and I arrived in Kota Kinabalu (KK) my new home. Picked up by a tour
guide, Randall who gave me the low down on the company, the city and
the dropped me off a Borneo Backpackers (BB), my new home. Borneo
Backpackers is part of the BET group and they have kindly given me free
board.The backpackers also known as Australia Place because the
Australian Army stayed here after World War Two. It's your basic
backpackers located in the heart KK and the ladies who work here are
lovely and it already feels like home!