in search of pygmy elephants...

from mabul, i headed off on a tour into the jungle on the kinabatagan river in hopes of spotting a pygmy elephant!  (there are other animals in the kinabatagan but I was super keen to see an elephant!)  traveling on your own can sometimes have its benefits – i got my own private room for the 3 day jungle tour :)

 

we settled in, unpacked and went on our first jungle safari. safari sounds like an intense quantity of hiking through dense jungle when in fact, we motored along the river in a boat – very civilised!  the first animal we spotted was a crocodile in the reeds.  from there, we spotted copious amounts of probiscus monkeys, long-tailed macaques, silvered langur and a couple of orang-utans from a considerable distance, all within the 2 hour boat cruise!  i was so stoked to be within about 2m of a probiscus monkey for a good 5 mins while he was chowing down on his dinner :)  the monkeys tend to come down to the river to eat and sleep at dusk and leave at dawn which makes viewing them fairly easy.  i also did a night hike where we saw one sleeping bird while i was hunted by an abundance of mosquitos!  gosh, they’re vicious!     

   

on day 2, we awoke to pouring rain like you can only get in the jungle or in tropical areas like malaysia.  i considered staying snug under the covers as it was going to be a long trip in an exposed boat but i wasn’t going to be deterred – not when there was an opportunity to see an elephant!  we headed out on our expedition and i was drenched within 2 minutes of leaving the dock.  it was cold and windy and despite seeing a number of huge crocs, monkeys and a variety of birds, i had no desire to get the camera out of the bag and take any photos :)  we arrived back at base camp and i was freezing so i got changed and took a hot shower in hopes of getting warm again!  at least i hadn’t missed an opportunity to see an elephant!  we were supposed to go on a hike but it was still raining and i wasn’t interested in getting wet again so i stayed back and relaxed. it was a fabulous place to chill and enjoy the natural surroundings. 

i booked four river cruises but the first one was definitely the best – we saw so many monkeys, at such a close range, that it was phenomenal.  unfortunately, we didn’t end up finding the elusive elephants – such is the case with seeing animals in the wild – they’re not always where you want them to be but i had a great time all the same! :)

       

I'm off to explore Malaysia :)

For the first time in ages, I went traveling on my own as hubby wasn’t able to get any time off and I had 3 weeks of annual leave I hadn’t used.  I decided to go to Malaysia as there were cheap flights available and it wasn’t high on Shannon’s list of places to visit.  I had no idea how awesome it’d be until I started reading the Lonely Planet 2 days prior to my departure!

I spent a couple of days in KL exploring though I can’t say I did much as it was hot, humid and raining heavily before I headed over to Kota Kinabalu, fondly called KK by the locals and tourists.  It’s on Malaysian Borneo Island as is everything else I plan to to visit while I’m here.  KK had a lovely vibe to it and I spent a day visiting a mangrove forest and touring around the coastline.  I also spent a lot of time eating as it’s renown for having great food. 

My plan was to head east across the country by bus and then fly back to KL and home however my plan was thwarted as hiking Mt. Kinabalu wasn’t available until mid to late October so I had to revisit my entire itinerary - the joys of traveling on the fly! :) 

I headed east to Mabul Island for some scuba diving and island relaxation.  The scenery was gorgeous, the other divers were lovely, the food was delicious and the scuba diving (once I remembered what I was doing) was phenomenal!  I dove 3 times a day, quickly doubling my previous dive count of 4.  More importantly, I couldn’t believe the fish and turtles I saw underwater – there were 10+ green and hawkesbill turtles (some over 3m in diameter), a couple of sea snakes including one that was 1.2m in lengths, schools of fish, a number of moray eels, some bubble coral shrimp and a crocodile flathead.  I was envious of people who’d brought along go-pros and similar so they could take pictures underwater as there was so much to photograph!  I definitely don’t want to leave it for another 12 years before I go diving again :)

I'm off on a jungle safari - fingers crossed I get to see some pygmy elephants!