Eighteen of our closest friends joined us to explore Malaysia and Indonesia, in search of Orangutans, Proboscis monkeys, and Rhinoceros Hornbills. Traveling by river into the oldest, most primitive rainforest in the world with our friends was a wonderful adventure. It was a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with old friends and share another adventure, full of laughter, thrills, and wildlife experiences!
We started our journey in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, to spend a couple of days exploring the area and getting over the Jetlag associated with a 12 hour time difference. When our bodies thought it was 8:30 in the morning, it was actually 830 at night there, so it took a couple of days to get used to the different time zones. We visited the Petronas Towers, waterfalls, and cultural sites around Kuala Lumpur for three days,and then flew to. Sandakan, East Malaysia on the island of Borneo.
Borneo is huge! It's the third largest island in the world, and until the last two decades, was largely uninhabited. It's rainforests are literally millions of years old, unlike the rainforests of South America, which are only thousands of years old. Deep within those Rainforests, you find the reportedly smartest ape in the world, the orangutan. Orangutan literally means forest people, since their intelligence, family, life, and relationships are very much like humans. Since there are no roads in east Malaysia and Borneo, we traveled by boat up the rivers, and by four wheel vehicle, driving five or six hours, along primitive roads into Rainforests untouched by man.
We visited Orangutan orphanages and sanctuaries, and were treated to wild Orangutans on the grounds and even on the roofs of our lodge. We visited a Sun Bear sanctuary and learned about the endangered and reclusive Sun Bears of Borneo. We visited one of the largest cave systems in the world, rafted on a wild river in the middle of a primative jungle, and walked among trees that towered literally hundreds of feet over our heads, while avoiding leeches under foot. Borneo was a journey back in time to an area that is much like it existed thousands of years ago, and we will describe more in the photographs below since many of the experiences we had were quite difficult to describe.
After making our way across Borneo to the seaside town of Tawau, East Malaysia, we flew back to Kuala Lumpur and then south over Java to the island of Bali. Jim had sailed across Indonesia in the 1970s and had lived with a Balinese family for almost a year. His knowledge of Bali, and ability to still speak some Indonesian certainly added to the depth of our understanding of the Balinese people and Balinese history. We really had a magical time in Bali and, although we were only there less than a week, managed to explore much of the island and experience some of the true spirit and nature of Bali. The people were incredibly friendly, generous, and spiritual. The connection of the Balinese people to nature, and each other is well known and we were fortunate enough to experience much of it firsthand.
After 15 days in Malaysia and Indonesia, most of our friends left for Home and Jim and I and three of our more adventurous friends, walter morton, Nancy Hale, and scott Anderson continued our adventure by flying south from Bali to the island of Labuan to join an Indonesian style diving boat called the Moana. It was a beautiful sailboat, completely made out of rare woods and manned a wonderful, professional crew of Indonesians, led by the German dive master. It was a unique and challenging adventure, featuring incredible coral gardens, giant, manta, rays, and sharks, and some of the most dangerous currents in the world. Although it was challenging for me, Jim had worked with me in a pool before we left and I had taken a recertification course since my last diving had been about five years ago. With Jim as my personal Divemaster and some great Divemasters on the boat, I felt safe and able to concentrate on the magical creatures we encountered underwater.
We spent six days diving the reefs, drop offs, and passes of the Komodo islands, riding the currents underwater, swimming with manta rays, and exploring vast stretches of coral gardens loaded with hundreds of species of fish and invertebrates. We took a small boat into the island of Komodo where 1500 or more dragons roam the forest, eating small deer, buffalo, and anything else they can catch. We even visited a small village on the island that maintains a large, secure fence around it to protect them from the dragons. Even still, two or three folks a year or eaten by dragons, so we were definitely on alert as we hiked through the forest and trails of Komodo.
Well, that's a summary of our adventure, but you'll learn a lot more by looking at the photographs and captions below. I'll be heading captions and lots more information over the next couple of weeks before Christmas so don't hesitate to come back and check it out for more fun and interesting insight in to our latest adventure to Indonesia and Malaysia.
