Wednesday, 20 February 2013, 5:30pm – Sandakan, Malaysia
I visited the capital city, Kota Kinabulu, of the state of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo during a cruise in 1994 on Song of Flower. The other state of Malaysia on Borneo is Sarawak which was on that cruise but not on this one. The cities of Sabah were bombed flat during WW II. Today's port call was in the 1960s'ish but kind of appealing port city of Sandakan. Our tour guide, Ben, said that this city hosts a mixture of cultures, notably Malay in addition to well off Chinese and Hindu minorities and of course the dominant Muslims. (The Malaysian flag has a crescent moon on it.) The downtown area of Sandakan was characteristically busy on this weekday, nowhere more so than the government building where thousands of Sandakanians (?) visit each day to collect their welfare benefits.
Our port visit was short as most stops seem to be on this Silver Whisper 2013 World Cruise. We arrived at 8 am and sailed out at 3 pm. This particular early departure seemed a good idea as we are now hot footing, that is fast sailing due east and then north to stay well to the east of the developing tropical storm that hit the Philippines yesterday. I didn't know that until the good Captain just came on the PA and announced that, 1) the pool barbeque was cancelled due to the anticipated heavy rain this evening, and 2) we would pass more than 100 miles away from the storm and that sailing would be fine. The winds would be no more than 30 knots, not a problem for our ship. That's what he said. I'll report if he was wrong.) The barometer is still over 1000 hPa (aka millibars). 1013 is the same as "normal" 29.92 inches, and it's now 1002 or 29.60 in real numbers. We'll see how low it is in the morning. At any rate he has steered a course to hug the Sulu Archipelago. I presume he will keep the ship well clear of the Chekhov Islands and the Scotty Sandbars.
Thursday, 21 February 2013, 8:30am – N 9 31, E 119 50 in the Sulu Sea
The barometer is 1005 hPa and rising, sailing is smooth, and the wind appears to be about 15 knots from the North. The storm must have moved quite a bit to the west. (Note: We later learned that we were never closer than 150 nm from the storm at the closest point and it didn't rain overnight.) It's very sunny and already 83 degrees at this early hour. It's going to be a scorcher. We're heading north towards a bunch of Philippine islands and will arrive at Manila tomorrow morning. Most of the crew will get to see their families for the first time in as long as 10 months. Service in the dining room tonight on the ship should prove interesting.
Now to continue my story of yesterday's "In Search of Wildlife" excursion. Soon after docking at Sandakan we joined the fourth tour of our entire cruise, a 35 mile fast boat ride up the Kinabatangan River. We were bused through town and to a very upscale Malay Water Village. Some of the local tribes say that water is for living and land is for burying, the guide said. He said he as a Sulu. He didn't look it and didn't even take the helm, but that's what he said. (Actually, the Sulu's are descendants of those who lived under the Sultan of Sulu. Some are these folks are now occupying areas of Borneo as well as the Philippines. The respective governments are getting kind of irked about this.)
The Kinabatangan is the major river of Sabah and is the definition of jungle: mangrove and fishing villages with houses on stilts where the outhouse for each is at the furthest point on each house's pier, that is to say, right over the river. (The guide said that they catch the fish that eat their poop. I guess it really is the "circle of life" in the wild, as Disney said.) Did I say the boat was fast? As in a 10 seat 170 horsepower 35 mph daredevil ride through crocodile infested mangroves, but who's complaining.
Our group of ten with guide, Ben, and a captain with nerves of steel bounced across the 5 mile Sandakan harbor and into the mouth of the Kinabatangan. Without slowing down, we continued up the river at 30 plus miles per hour, cleverly avoiding floating logs, occasional large funny looking sea birds, passing fisherman in very small boats, and into increasingly turgid jungle water. Fortunately, we finally came AT a bunch of our fellow boats all stopped and blocking the river. It was nice to see that our driver could actually stop our boat on the proverbial dime. (Perhaps on a turd would be more appropriate, one of the tour participants quipped. I said I was sorry). The reason for the bunch up of tourist boats was our first wildlife spotting, a darn big yellow and black "mangrove snake" coiled up in a tree, not very high in the tree. Actually just at our head level. A very big snake. Coiled up. Looking at us. I love up close wildlife spotting.
After giving this creature due respect, our little over powered boats now spread out and once again speeded up to almost 35 mph (really, I monitored the speed on my GPS) and proceeded in the increasingly narrow part of the river to the next gaggle of stopped boats. Everyone was pointing at a gigantic, dark brown, ball of hair or fur that seemed to be flailing around. The guides hollered, "orangutang". The tour participants hollered, "orangutang". Everyone took pictures of the large hair ball and then we were off again.
Other than a cute red long-tailed macaque monkey, we saw no more of the Big Five (mostly kinds of monkeys) until we stopped at the Abai Jungle Resort, a quite incongruous upscale tourist accommodations deep in the otherwise very inhospitable jungle. We had banana fritters, coffee or tea, and had a few minutes of hiking on the network of boardwalks leading to observation platforms. This is a very nifty place, but I don't want to contemplate how one would get there from Colorado in less than three or four days of flying that requires making connections in increasingly strange third world airports. At the stop, those of us less than 90 years old talked about our disappointment in not yet seeing the Proboscis Monkey, one of the most interesting looking creatures indigenous to Borneo. To ensure I had a picture of this rare creature, I took a photo of a local "for sale" version or perhaps it was a Fyvish Finkel doll. Hard to say.
We then proceeded back down the river the way we came (well, yeah) at a somewhat faster speed—a few of the guests were a bit tardy at the Abai Resort, either taking short hikes on the jungle trails or figuring out how to use the bathrooms—but we repeated the oh my god, the boats are all stopped ahead, what's that all about, oh, a crocodile!, routine. There was one stop where two monkeys were holding forth, a mother and a very small baby. We all ooh'ed and ah'ed and took their pictures using our zoom lenses. Upon checking out the shot on the computer screen, it appears that we did see the coveted proboscis monkey. Two of them actually. Hooray. This sighting appears to follow a pattern on "wildlife viewing tours". That is, the guide says that we probably won't see elephants, crocodiles, monkeys, whatever is rare, and then miraculously we see them on the way back. I wonder if that has something to do with these guides always seeming to be talking on their radios, cell phones, or in this case texting with the other guides.
Our good guide, Ben, must have been satisfied with his work as he mostly napped on the way back despite the driver of the boat increasing the speed without Ben's able assistance as lookout. I couldn't help as I couldn't see much hiding below the gunnels staring at my GPS.
The tour was fun, and indeed we saw wildlife that was not always programmed or contrived. The guide was good, and no one threw up. This was a super excursion with a bit of excitement, a nice banana fritter, and some regret that I didn't buy the stuffed version of the famous Yiddish stage actor.
No comments:
Post a Comment