Day 9 - Kuching and Orangutans!

Here's a sneak peak at what will be posted here soon:

Day 8 - Kuching Part 2

Before I start on my day, I need to add in something we forgot to mention on our Saturday post. While walking around we found a tailor shop down this street.We walked in and inquired about having a couple of shirts made for Jim. The tailor was very friendly and showed us some beautiful material to choose from. Jim picked a beautiful blue silk material with silver thread woven into it and a red material with a Dayak pattern.He measured Jim and said his shirts would be ready on Monday. Very cool.

My Sunday was quite different from Jim’s. The only trekking I planned on doing was to a local craft center, some museums and a little shopping.

Cat Statue outside the Chinese museum

I decided to check out a little Chinese history museum near the hotel located in the old Chinese Courthouse. I was the only visitor much to the delight of the director who was very proud of the exhibits and equally curious about this American that wandered into the museum. He asked me about as many questions about the US and our ongoing presidential race as I asked him about the items in the museum and the Chinese influence in Kuching. After thirty minutes, I had seen all the museum had to offer so I headed back to the hotel to take a look through the travel guides and plan the rest of my day. I decided on checking out the Sarawak Craft Council.

Sunflowers in hotel lobby

After talking with the doorman at the hotel, my plans changed slightly when he referred me to a different place, the Sarakraf Pavilion (I think). He said would be more interesting so off in a cab I went. The place may be great to visit during the week but not on Sunday. There are many areas in the center that display traditional Sarawak crafts and cultural traditions with people doing weaving, wood carving, music and dance, and so on. However, there were only a handful of folks there on this day and none of the display areas were manned. It did make it nice and quiet and allowed me to take more time to admire and more closely examine the items on display. And the local cats seemed to stop and pose when I pulled out my camera. This little ham even got up and turned around to show off his best side.

The gift shop had lots of nice items. I picked out this clay pot with a Sarawak motif and pretty pearl earrings for me then got a few little things for my family. I then sat in an outdoor area and just relaxed for a while. Here's a video.

By then there wasn’t much left to do so I went out to the street to catch a cab back towards the river and my next stop, the Textile Museum. *crickets chirping* Where were all the cabs? I must have waited for 20 minutes without seeing a single one pass by. Hmm… I looked at the map and figured out how to walk back to the river, even if it was more than I planned to walk. After getting about halfway there, I was sweating like crazy and I finally spotted a cab. Yippee! Five minutes later, I was dropped off at the textile museum. And again I realized that Sundays are very quiet days for touristy attractions. Three floors of Sarawak textiles and I had the place to myself. I learned that anything from silk to gold and silver to tree bark was used to make clothing and the details related to life in Borneo with animals and plants being the main design feature on many patterns.

Silver belt

Vest made from bark and adorned with shells

More bark clothing

Silks

I took a ton of pictures to show Jim later that day and it was on my way out that I saw a sign that read, “No Photographs” Oops. Although I doubt it’s seriously enforced since both the museum staff in the lobby saw me taking pictures and never said a word.

By now I was a little tired but not ready to head back to the hotel so I walked up the main road along the river and went into every shop to see what trinkets and goodies were available and making mental notes about where to go back to buy stuff. I didn’t realize just how many shops there were along this stretch of road until it was over 2 hours later that I finally hit the last shop before crossing the street to the hotel. Back up in the room, I showered and headed up to the lounge to write in my journal, enjoy a cold drink and have a snack. The view from this side of the hotel was spectacular. I could sit there all day and look out over the river.

Day view

Night view

Jim trudged back to the hotel around 4:00, tired, sweaty and so very excited about his day in Bako National Park. When he told me how rugged the trail was, we both agreed that I would have hated it. I was happy with my decision to do my own thing and thrilled that he got to do the one thing he was looking forward to on this trip.

After Jim showered, he joined me in the lounge to have a drink and talk about dinner plans. One of our guidebooks recommended a place located close to the hotel. I had seen it earlier in my ventures and thought it looked pretty good so we decided to give it a try. Upon entering the place we noticed it was full of tourists and we should have taken that as a sign to go somewhere else but alas, we didn’t. The menu offered average fare for the area as well as many dishes geared to those less adventurous. Again, we should have cut our losses and gone somewhere else but we didn’t. I ordered a lamb fried rice that was lacking in flavor with lamb that was well into the mutton stage of life. Jim ordered an unmemorable noodle dish.After dinner, we strolled up the road a ways to see one of the many cat statues that grace the city. This was by far the biggest one of all. It was a family of cats with mom and dad proudly looking over their little ones.
On our way back to the hotel we stopped in at the Cat City in for a couple of beers. By then we were pretty well done for the day and decided to call it a night. Tomorrow would prove to be one of my favorite parts of the trip......we were going to see orangutans.

Kuching - Day 8 - Bako National Park

Sunday, March 9, 2008

(By Jim)

At 8:30, I left Barbara in the Executive Lounge planning her day. I was in a hurry to get underway to get to Bako National Park, since I would only have the one day there. Bako is known for its wide array of wildlife, plants, and jungle trails, some of the best in Sarawak, and is only 30 minutes away from Kuching.

The Hilton's doorman was fantastic, offering me two choices, join up with a tour group that would leave at 9:30, or hire a taxi and boat independently. Since I was trying to maximize my time there, I opted for the latter. He made the arrangements with a taxi driver, and away I went.

At Kampung Bako, I paid my park admission and hired a boat. There was an older Austrailian woman there who wanted to share a boat with a group, but she wanted to share it with a large group to get the cheapest fare possible. I wasn’t as worried about cheap, so I took the boat by myself. We ran down the river past the village with its little houses and net frames the locals use for fishing.

Park offices and jetty at Kampung Bako

Running downriver past the village

Welcome to Bako National Park
Good advice in any language

The tide was out, so the boatman beached his boat and I made a feet wet landing at Telok Assam, the park headquarters. We agreed he'd be back at 3 PM to pick me up. I checked in with the office there, and the person at the office recommended for me a short trail, the one to Telok Paku, a small beach. I thought it was rather silly to say that a 1km trail would take an hour. I was wrong.

Let me introduce you to the idea of jungle trails. These aren't nice, gently sloping up and down walking trails you might find in a park around here. These are uphill, downhill, climb over rocks, roots, narrow stairs, planks, and things that are not what I would call trails. I was watching the little markers that said 100 meters, 200 meters, and wondering if I would make it to the beach before I expired.

These are all part of the trail

At the 500 meter marker, my phone rang. My cellphone. I was in the middle of the jungle in Borneo, and my cellphone was ringing. It's Barbara. Just wanted to see how I'm doing. Next time I'll turn off the phone and pretend that modernity hasn't entered the jungle yet. Shortly afterwards, I got to the end of the trail and the beach.

[Barbara and I have talked about this, and we agreed that she would have hated this. If we ever go back, I'll hire a boat to take her around. Or take us both. I'm not as interested in jungle treks as I thought.]

When I got there, I had a little tropical beach all to myself. No other people, no macaques stealing things. I'm like Robinson Crusoe with dry cigarettes. Ok, one dry cigarette. So, it's smoke break time. I put my camera down, set the self-timer, and took a picture of me there. Then I went for a swim. The water was cloudy because of the river outlet there, but it was still pretty, and warm, and a nice way to recover from sweating myself silly on the trail. It's a very slow slope there, so I had to walk a long way to get to waist-deep water.

Jim at Telok Paku scaring away the wildlife

A little shelter right there at the beach

I still hadn't seen any critters, but after about an hour some people started showing up, having come from the tour group. So, I packed up and headed back to the lodge to figure out what my next hike would be. The hike back was just as tough, but since I knew what I was getting into, it wasn't as hard as the trip out.

After I got back near Telok Assam and on the boardwalk, I saw my first wildlife, proboscis monkeys in the mangrove across from the jetty. Big nose, pot belly, red fur and a long thick white tail.

As I was taking pictures of them, a macaque came walking down the handrail of the boardwalk across the mangrove. I took a dozen pictures of him coming and going, and he ignored me completely.

Once off the boardwalk and onto the concrete path, I saw a water monitor. All of the wildlife was hanging out at the lodge while I was hiking through the jungle to see them.

I changed clothes at the lodge, putting my sweaty stuff into a plastic bag. I decided to go ahead and have lunch, a simple cafeteria set-up, with mee goreng, rice, and curry chicken.
While I was eating, a bearded pig came by. Holy cow! They hang out there at the lodge looking for scraps and handouts.

I spent some time walking the beach near the lodge, checking out tiny little crabs. Then I stopped to talk to another traveler, and he told me about a place up one of the other trails where he saw several green snakes. I headed that way, but got delayed because there were lots of proboscis monkeys hanging out in the mangrove now, and I took a lot of pictures.

By the time I got through there, it was time to get my boat back to the Kampung and meet my taxi. Boat number 22 was there as agreed.

This boatman did a great job for me, slowing down so I could take pictures of the people and houses along the river and running upriver past the kampong jetty to see if we could see any crocodiles, which inhabit that stretch of river. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see any that day.

People over on this old boat - not sure if it was a picnic or home for fishermen

Working the nets in the riverElection flags - this was the day after the parliamentary elections

The taxi ride back was uneventful. Barbara was hanging out at the hotel, after having done her own tour of some of the local craft demonstrations, and so I headed across the street to a little food court place where I could get a bottle of beer and a pack of cigarettes. After a beer and a smoke, I felt almost human and headed in for cocktail hour in the executive lounge.

We went out to dinner at a place highly recommended by the guide book. There were no locals there, only tourists, and the food was mediocre at best. This is the only place I’ll say that about in our travels. On the bright side, we were near the big cat statue in the middle of the road near the Holiday Inn and I got some great night pictures.


The next day, we went to see orangutans, the old men of the jungle. I was so sore from my hike that Barbara was outrunning me, and that never happens. Also, I found out that while my sunscreen did a good job on my body, it didn’t do so good on my scalp where I part my hair and where my hair is thinning in back. That hurt. Jim’s new rule: Wear a hat if you’re in the jungle in the tropics.


Logistics
Prices are approximate. If you're in Kuching, your accommodations can probably contact one of the tour operators to get you on a tour to Bako for RM165 (US$51) or so. CPH Travel is one operator that is often mentioned. Or, you can do it the way I did. Taxi was RM85 (US$27) to Kampung Bako, admission to the park was RM10 (US$3), and the boat ride was RM90 (US$28), which you can share among a group if you're willing to wait. You pay the taxi driver and boatman at the end of the trip. Lunch was cheap, though plan to buy large bottles of water at RM2.50 or so after your trek.