Kuching

Kuching means "cat" in the local language of Malay.  We spent five relaxing days at a fabulous hotel that was more like a resort.  When we arrived we were very tired from our early morning flight so we spent the day sleeping and catching up on the sleep we missed the night before. 

On the second day we went to an orangutan sanctuary, where we were lucky enough to see five orangutans.  We first witnessed the oldest female, who is in her 40s, in the sanctuary with her four year old son (we were told that babies leave their mothers when they are nine or ten).  Then we had a park ranger explain to us that if we come across these semi-wild animals, to run for our lives because they are very territorial and will try to hurt you if you come in contact with them.  He also explained that if they try to grab your camera, purse or any other article of yours to let it go, they will give it back sooner or, more likely, later.  He was explaining this to us because we were going into the forest where the orangutans roam wherever they want.  We walked about ten minutes into the forest and came to what I would describe as an amphitheater where the park had set up feeding platforms instead of where a stage would be.  There were about 75 people waiting to see orangutans and we were allowed to wait for an hour while the rangers made calls to try and get the orangutans to come get some fruit (since it isn’t fruit season in Malaysia, the rangers prepare coconuts, bananas and other fruits for the orangutans to come and get).  After about 20 minutes we began to hear trees moving in the distance. Then a few moments later we could see the tree tops begin to sway and then finally we started to see the beautiful creatures swing and cartwheel on ropes, they even jump from branch to branch, in order to slowly approach the ranger who handed the orangutan a piece of fruit.  The orangutans then put the fruit in its “foot” and climbed up to a nice perching place in a tree to eat the fruit.  We saw three more orangutans in the hour allotted.  It was amazing to see these animals behave in their natural habitat. 
Here are some pictures of orangutans playing in the trees.

These are carnivorous pitcher plants.

They have a sticky liquid inside these pitcher like things and flies get caught and die, then the fly dissolves and the plant grows

Dead flies

The next day we decided to take a day to relax poolside and enjoy the comforts of our hotel. 

Our hotel

Another shot of the hotel

The real adventure started on our fourth day in Kuching we rented a car from the hotel (our first rental car by ourselves) and went to a national park called Kubah.  This national park is a rain forest and we went on an hour and half hike to an attractive waterfall.  On our way we went slow and tried to watch for wildlife. As we walked through the forest we both said to each other that we couldn't believe that we were walking in a real rain forest and as we were about to step on to one of the man-made platforms a 3 foot snake slithered in front of us and down a slope into the forest.  We both took a moment to understand what just happened, unfortunately I wasn't fast enough to get a photo of the magnificent creature, but it was an amazing sight and experience.   

Our rental car, you can kind of see me on the left side

The sign at all the parks was the same (except the name of course) 

Pictures of the forest

Vines

The trail we took 

This is a stingless bee hive.  It was a tube that went under the tree roots.

Watch your step

Those are some big leaves

Don't want to grab this tree for balance 

The fantastic waterfall 

 The waterfall was really pretty and we had a small snack at the base then we headed back to our hotel for the evening.  We enjoyed dinner at our hotel almost every night, since the restaurant was one of the most popular restaurants in town and they had a great selection of food items.  We didn’t want to waste time looking around the small town when we had this one in the comfort of our hotel.

Another big leaf

A frog just to the left of center

 For our last adventure we rented the car again and went to a second national park called Bako.  Bako is on an isolated peninsula, so we had to take a water taxi to get to there.  It took about twenty minutes to get from the boat terminal to the main beach where the park headquarters was located.  While there we went on an hour hike to an empty beach with breath taking views of the open ocean and the forest behind us. That wasn't the best part of the adventure for the day, even though we enjoyed it immensely.

During the previous night it rained from 11 pm until about 8 am and so the wildlife were hungry (not to eat us but for fruits and bugs that were also coming out after the rain).  We were told that if we walked quietly and slowly we might be able to see one type of monkey, we got lucky and saw two.  The proboscis, which means nose, monkey is a medium size monkey that is orange-ish like the orangutan but one big difference is the proboscis monkeys have a large nose, hence their name.  We saw maybe 10 – 15 of the proboscis monkeys.  They were very peaceful and just ignored us as we watched them swing from the trees and eat their snacks. 

On the way back to the park headquarters we saw the second species of monkey that live in this national park, a long tailed macaque.  There were two long tailed macaques; it looked to be a mother and her older baby, sitting on the path grooming each other.  Carrie and I waited and watched the animals interact  for about ten minutes.  They didn't seem to care that we were only ten feet away taking pictures and watching them.  We saw about ten of the long tailed macaques just in the last 100 feet of our trek.  It was an awesome day. 

"Who you gonna call?"

Our boat taxi driver

The local neighborhood

How they fished

Another nation park another sign!

Proboscis Monkey just left of center

A baby proboscis monkey

Our trail 

The trail got steep at this part

The beach

The forest with the beach 

The rock formation at the beach

The view from the beach!

Another shot

King of the rock!

The hike back

Carrie spotted this guy in the water

A monitor lizard!

The mom grooming her baby

Long Tailed macaque 

Got the perfect shot of this guy

There were also some boars on the island that hung out near the park head quarters. 

We are now headed to the Perhentian Islands to stay in a resort and go snorkeling for 5 days.  We had a great time in Kuching, looking forward to our next adventure.