Gunung Gading, try saying that three times fast!

12-13 August 2010
"It's like walking in a sauna" -Nick

We found ourselves heading uphill on yet another rocky trail at yet another national park to the sound of of a cicada whose reverberations mimicked the sound of someone strumming a single note on a sitar.

We had hopped on a bus for an overnight trip to Gunung Gading National Park which is widely known as one of the premier spots for spotting blooming Rafflesia, the "largest flower in the world" that of course stinks of rotting flesh. Unfortunately, this would not be blooming for "maybe two weeks, maybe next week, we just don't know". We headed there anyway, a botanical fools-quest.

Sadly, the park officials at the park entrance again reiterated that the Rafflesia were not blooming. However, almost as a consolation prize (though equally as cool), we were lucky enough to spot a blooming Amorphophallus hewittii (common names: Borneo titan flower or (my personal favorite) giant voodoo lily). This plant also smells like rotting flesh (yay!) and we had been searching for it ever since spotting its leaves and fruits in Gunung Mulu National Park!!


Besides the Rafflesia, Gunung Gading boasts a few beautiful waterfalls, some nice overlooks, swimming holes, and a summit trail. We walked the waterfall trail, had lunch at the beautiful and creatively named "Waterfall #7" and headed directly for the Gunung Gading summit. Don't laugh, but we did not make it to the summit. We trudged upwards for a few hours, sweating as if we were sitting in a sauna, getting dizzy and, in our delirium, jumping every time we spooked a skink or lizard. We had less than a liter of water and 800 meters to go. Somehow, the 3km (about 1.4 miles) trail had taken us about 3 hours to complete...we must have forgotten how to walk (or someone forgot how to count). After resting on a giant tree root for about 15 minutes, we choose to abandon the summit. There was no view anyway. We headed downhill, walking at a pace of 1km per hour downhill, apparently. Note to self: Do not trust Malaysian national park maps.

About halfway down the trail we spooked some white/pink colored bats (I swear its true)!! They swirled around us for a few seconds - we mystified, they horrified - before they found another resting place. Just a few moments later I gasped. In the middle of the trial in front of us was a beautiful green lizard who bore a striking resemblance to our poor sweet water dragon. More exciting was that this female lizard was digging a hole for what we presumed were her eggs! After getting over the initial shock of our presence she continued to dig with her mouth and hands as we looked on (we will try to post this video, but we are having some resolution problems at the moment).

Leaving her to the important work of burying her eggs (something we know nothing about), we continued on the trail and Nick spotted the aforementioned giant voodoo lily!! We were hot, tired, out of water, drenched in sweat (and I mean literally), but felt like we had found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

After a cold shower and some well deserved Oreo cookies, we plotted our search for the Rafflesia the next day.


While the Rafflesia were not in bloom during our visit, our encounters along the way made this trip extremely rewarding. While Nick photographed an orange and black banded hammerhead flat worm this morning (we had no idea what this was at the time) I began to realize what made this trip to Borneo so special to me. In the past three weeks I have recaptured the 8 year old child with a butterfly net wondering in my parents big backyard. We have seen so many strange and beautiful animals, plants, insects, reptiles, and "what is that's" that I have literally, cooed, giggled, squealed and jumped up and down at least fifty times. For the nature lovers out there- those that don't mind being dirty, sweaty, and stung by fire ants - Borneo is heaven on Earth!

Continue Reading...

Beach Day at Bako

10-11 August 2010
As it is such an easy day trip from Kuching, we headed back to Bako National Park to visit one of its beautiful beaches! We woke up early and went down to the waterfront to catch the bus that is supposed to arrive somewhere between 7 and 7:30am. We arrived at the park and headed directly for the Lintang trail (hoping to avoid any further harassment by the macaques). We branched off from that trail after a few kilometers for the Telok Pandan Besar overlook and then onto the Telok Pandan Kecil beach.

As and aside, I would like to take a moment to comment on the trail maps, specifically the trail distances that are repeatedly incorrectly reported in many of the national parks we have visited. It would take a very small effort to fix these issues, ranging from the apparent use of "as the crow flies" distances to what appear to be guesses (if you are reading this Ingrid, we think your idea of starting an NGO to do international GIS work for national parks, etc. is a genius idea - lets get some grants!).

Anyway, we (Nick, Lauren from Canada, and I), hiked up to the kerangas, drooled over the pitcher plants, sweated our brains out, and then headed to the beach! We were so lucky to be the first to arrive that day!!! We arrived at this tropical paradise and had the beach to ourselves for about twenty minutes before boatloads of tourists arrived. We sunbathed, floated in the warm green-tinged water, admired the sandstone formations, watched armies of crabs scurry across the beach, hunted for cycads, and sunbathed some more. As noon approached, the sun became overwhelmingly hot (as it tends to do near the equator) and Nick was finally able to put his hiking pole/umbrella idea into action. He quickly rigged up our two hiking poles (brought specifically for the beach, not the hike) to our two umbrellas and we were the envy of the beach in a matter of seconds as we enjoyed the shade and the others retreated back to their boats in search of a less sweltering location.


After hiking through the stifling heat to catch our boat (now wishing we had paid the 7 ringgit for a boat), we were greeted by a troop of proboscis monkeys and finally got a good look at a male! Check out that nose!


On our way home, we stopped at the Kuching Food Festival and grazed on chicken satay, sausages, fried yam on a stick, deep fried ice cream, mini fish burgers, honey mustard nachos, sweet peanuts in a gluten bar(?), sticky rice roll with meats, sweet rice with banana, and many more. Yum!!

This evening we embarked on a river boat cruise down the Santubong River and were lucky enough to see Irrawaddy dolphins, proboscis monkeys, and fire flies. The tour (run by CPH Travel) was over priced and crowded, but as the sun went down the stars, fire flies, phosphorescence in the water, lightning in the distance, and fireworks to mark the 1st day of Ramadan brought us back to the magic that is Borneo.

Tomorrow we head out for an overnight trip to Gunung Gading National Park to see the buds of Rafflesia (sniff sniff, it's not blooming) and hike on its numerous trails.

Continue Reading...

(Bacony)-Bako National Park

7-August-2010

After an early morning walk, van ride, and boat trip we waded ashore at Bako National Park and paid our entrance fees. Still feeling marginally awake we watched with awe as a herd of Borneoan bearded pigs advanced on the park headquarters and proceeded to munch on coconuts and other plant material within feet of us tourists. After numerous encounters with wild pigs in the field back home, both Rachel and I were not too interested in getting to know the temperament of these Borneo-endemic swine. These guys and gals were big (some of them must have weighed well over 300 pounds), and they pretty much look like "normal" wild pigs with goatees. This was our introduction to Bako, Sarawak's first national park, perched on a peninsula that juts out into the South China Sea.

As we were observing the pigs, movement in the trees signaled monkey's overhead. Gazing upward we expected to see the common, long-tailed macaques. Surprise! Advancing overhead was a troop of proboscis monkeys. Proboscis monkeys are truly spectacular animals. Endangered and restricted to a limited number of locations on Borneo, they are easily recognized by their enlarged noses. The proboscis males of this species can get quite large, such that they look like they are wearing large sausages attached to their faces. We watched and took photographs as these gentle herbivores munched on leaves and swung around in the trees above. All of this and we were still just steps away from the park headquarters.

We began our long day hike with our friends and traveling-companions, Lauren and Elliot, along the Lintang and Telor Paku trails eager to explore more of Bako's natural wonders. Hiking first on Telor Paku we emerged from sandstone cliffs onto one of the most idyllic beaches we have ever visited. We were tempted to spend the entire day in this spectacular setting of clean sand ringed by dense cycad-rich hillsides and bordered by picturesque sandstone formations. The one main deterrent to a lazy day on the beach was the presence of saltwater crocodiles in Sarawak's coastal waters-yikes!

Continuing our hike on the Lintang Trail we climbed a moderate-sized hill and emerged into a Mars-esque landscape of exposed pock-marked sandstone filled with water from the previous night's rain and stunted vegetation. We soon realized that we were in Bako's heralded keranga habitat. The keranga habitat we observed in Gunung Mulu National Park was much less harsh and was lush in comparison to this landscape. It wasn't long before we began to notice pitcher plants of the genus, Nepenthes. We had heard from a fellow traveler that there were pitcher plants on the trail, but were were not expecting the botanical wonders of the next several hours. For the next 3-4 hours we hiked in and out of Nepenthes habitat observing millions of pitcher plants. Not trying very hard we tallied at least seven different species (with two species observed in Mulu, that makes a total of nine species for the trip) of pitcher plants. The hike even threw in some sundews (Drosera) and Pinguiculas to satisfy our appetite for carnivorous plants.

The variation in Nepenthes that we observed was outstanding. They occupied numerous habitats-from dense forest to exposed swampy areas cloaked with moss. We found them growing on bare soil and hanging vine-like from tall trees. Filled with water and partially-digested insects they ranged in size from the size of my pinky-finger to nearly the size of my head. And, they ranged in color from plain, pale green to a pattern which resembled a red and green tie-dyed t-shirt.

Hiking back to park headquarters though a forest rich with so uncountable species of palms we observed another troop of proboscis monkeys (one female carrying a baby-so cute) parading through the canopy. What a fitting end to a memorable hike!

Hungry from all of the hiking and botanizing the four of us stopped in for a snack at the park's cafe. If you ever wanted to see monkeys gone bad this would be a good place to start. The macaque problem at the cafe is so bad that they have even hired a guy to sit out front and protect tourists from monkey attacks by pelting the constantly-advancing macaques with rocks.

Q: What do you do for a living?
A: Oh, I work at a restaurant.
Q: Cool, are you a waiter?
A: Not exactly, I shoot monkeys with a slingshot.

Okay, calm down PETA, no monkey's were harmed in the making of this blog post. Seriously, macaques are no laughing matter. We observed numerous near-attacks on tourists while we sat at the cafe. These little guys are scary. Lauren even had one of the little buggers jump onto her backpack early in the day because she was carrying an apple. Watch your back.

Sitting on the beach, waiting for our boat, staring at the ocean's beauty we chatted about the great hike and maintained a state of "constant vigilance" to ensure that no macaques were sneaking up on us. Not far behind us, a troop of proboscis monkeys grazed in the trees as we boarded our boat back towards Kuching.

Continue Reading...