My last weeks in Borneo I spend travelling around.. see here some nice shots from the sky!!

Wildlife Cruise - Selingan (Turtle) Island, Sukau, Kinabatangan River Pictures & Movies

Check my wonderful wildlife PHOTO tour, just click on the picture:

Check here the movies!

This is one of the rivercruises we did on the Kinabatangan river... It is so calm and all you hear are the wonderdul nature sounds and the sounds of the birds, monkeys and elephants!



This small baby turtle is making it's way to the ocean. He/She just came out of it's egg and is looking for freedom.. hopefully he/she can make it!




See this elephant up close!! Just relax & eating. That is all they do the whole day.. eating eating eating. When you hear them making these trumpet noise, you really feel you are in the movie Jungle Book!



Yes, these Probiscus Monkey we saw above us in the tree. A momma with her baby, SO cute =)

My first volunteering experience in Northern Borneo

First of all I want to say that I am a free thinker, non-religious. Though, I am always interested to see churches and other religious characteristics in another country. So I did here in Kota Kinabalu. My colleague invited me to join her to her church, Protestant Church. This was wonderful! So different from Holland! In this church they sing out loud, dance how they want and say what they feel. Really amazing!

By my colleague and this community I got invited to join their volunteer work in the north of Borneo: Pitas. This area consists out of 10 remote villages. These villages are only reachable by decent 4 wheel drives. During the monsoon seasons they often deal with floods, so since 2006 the Skycommunity offers disaster help here and have made long term goals for the future. This time they were going there to give medical service and I joined, not knowing anything about anything medical.

We departed from Kota Kinabalu on 17 April 2010 at 5.30AM! There was a good team who took care of all the logistic parts, because wow… that is complicated! Where to put in all the stuff, do we have cars enough etc.

It was about 3-4 hours driving and the last half hour was totally off-road! Finally we arrived in Kampung Dandun ( small village) and everybody immediately went to work, make themselves useful. There were 3 departments: Logistic department, cooking department and the medical department. The logistic department looked for a place to sleep, because the normal school building was not available this weekend. The cooking department set up everything and started cooking lunch. The medical team, including myself, went to the community hall to set up everything: a table for registration, smaller tables for checking the people’s height, weight, temperature and blood pressure. Other helpers took benches from the church, which were used when people were waiting before they could see a doctor. Because yes, we had 8 or 9 real doctors with us! All volunteers, who are so busy with their own job , but still are willing to help! After the check up they were setting up other tables that were used as a pharmacy and free of charge ‘store’. They gave the community people new slippers, toothbrush and toothpaste, towels etc.

During the set up all the local people came already to the entrance and started queuing. After a while we could let them in and the check up started!

First, I was measuring their temperature with help of another colleague who could speak Malay, always very convenient :-). In the beginning it was all a bit like see and wait how it goes. But it all went well! There were a lot of children. Young mothers with at least 1 or 2 children or 1 on the way. There were some very old man and woman as well. They had lot of wrinkles, it fitted really good though, as this may sound very weird. Life at a Kampung (village) is not easy and takes a lot of physical effort. These older people looked like they had lived their kampung life as they should. Every wrinkle probably stands for every difficulty they have been thru, but see: they have survived! Beautiful people and they were all so kind!

At 6 we quit for the day. One of the volunteers started to sing and dance with the kids, which looked so cute! After that it became very obvious that they liked taking pictures. Because I could speak a little Malay they tried me out haha. I guess kids will always be a bit naughty ;-). They asked me if I wanted to take a shower with them, in Malay. One of the volunteers kindly explained to me that they were asking me to come with them to the river. This was one of the highlights of the total trip! They all ran into the river and all started playing together, splashing around and they had such happy faces, it made me feel so privileged to be there, that I could actually help them by also just being there.

Then one of the mothers came along in her beautiful sarong and did her dishes in the river before taking a shower in the same river…

The second day we did again medical checkups and at 3 o’clock we were said farewell by all the local children and parents.

Although I had the feeling I didn’t do something really important, just measure temperatures and measuring the blood pressure, this feeling started to change very soon. I realized they need also people for things like this, so that the doctors can focus on their job. We made the people very happy also just by being there and taking care of them. Unfortunately the doctors found out that some children probably had Tuberculoses and sent them to a hospital in the nearest city.

Thank you Skyline for giving me this opportunity and the great food =)!

Check out the link if you want to know more about their projects!

Exploring The East-Coast of Sabah/Borneo - Finale!!

On day 3 we had to say goodbye to the friendly staff and the nice location of Sukau Rainforest Lodge. We continued our trip to this nice ‘bounty island’ called Selingan Island. We departed from the jetty point in Sandakan and the first 15 minutes we passed a huge water village and saw the mosque. A really weird looking combination if you see it in 1 photograph.

After one hour we arrived at this beautiful island and we were al day free to snorkel, explore the island or to just swim and tan. At night, before dinner time, we had to watch an educational movie about the Green Turtle. The Green Turtle is mostly threatened by the fishing nets where they get stuck in and the selling of the turtle eggs on local markets. What they do at Selingan Island is to close down the beach from sunset to sunrise for people so that the Turtles can come ashore and lay their eggs. The rangers will capture the eggs and put them in man-made incubation chamber. When the small turtles are born, they set them free again in the ocean. Unfortunately only 4% survives. When we visited Selingan Island we were all part of this. We saw the turtle laying eggs, which was amazing to see! They look like ping pong balls and just fall into the hole they dug. While the turtle is doing that, she is totally in trance. That night, our turtle lay 83 eggs. So we could watch this for like 20 minuts! Everybody gets a good view of it. Because she doesn’t realizes that the rangers took the eggs, she will close the hole with sand using her flippers. When she will start to do that, you will know she is done :-). She will rest for a while and then go back to the ocean.

We had to give her that rest by herself. The rangers showed us how they put the eggs in the hand-made hole and after that we saw how they set free the little cute turtles! We helped the turtles if they were going in the wrong direction, so not to the ocean but to the beachside. They feel very small and they sputter lively. After this wonderful experience we went to our little cottageroom and fell asleep easily :-).

The next and last day of our tour, we went back to Sandakan for a small city tour and to catch our plane back to Kota Kinabalu. We visited the Australian War Memorial & The Agnes Keith House. She wrote 3 books about Borneo and about her life in Borneo. These books I will start reading soon! So I will let you know what I think. A good lunchplace by the way is the English Tea House in Sandakan! It looks really nice and the food is great!

My final word:

I have to say that this was a unique experience to see so much wildlife in a short amount of time! I would definitely recommend it!

Exploring The East-Coast of Sabah/Borneo - Part 3

At day 2 we had to be ready at 6 AM! Yes, 6 AM! So we could see the early animals. While waking up in the boat, we were sailing thru this mystical fog, searching for all kind of animals.

Just imagine you are sitting in this small fishing boat (with only one other couple & the guide), it is foggy, you are surrounded by nature, water and wind and the ONLY thing you hear are sounds of all kind of different animals. It is such a peaceful feeling. While the sun was coming up we saw a lot of Macaques, doing their morning ritual: ‘playing together’ haha. And then YES, we saw HUGE crocodiles! 2 of them! That was really cool to see! Wild crocodiles! Then suddenly birds flew over the river, Hornbills to be exact and the Rhinoceros Hornbill to be more specific! It’s one of the largest of their species. They were a bit far away, but we could recognize their colored beak and the loud and harsh noise they make. Heading back to the lodge to have some breakfast we saw the Proboscis Monkeys in several trees.

The breakfast, lunch and dinner are on the veranda (if it is not raining), which has a natural atmosphere! At 1 o’clock we got a boardwalk thru the jungle, just around the lodge. Our biologist guide told us about all kinds of flora and fauna.

After lunch and some free time in the afternoon we went for our final river cruise at the Kinabatangan River. We went to the lake that is called the Ox-Bow Lake. We would stop there to trek thru the jungle for an hour. We saw a centipede (with a really scary face), a poisonous millipede, small leeches and a butterfly specie called a nymph. The difference with a normal butterfly is that the nymph can glide.

While being in the jungle you are not only looking for and at animals, but you also see this weird, funny looking trees for example. With beads of sweat on our faces we stepped into the boat again, and oops there was still a leech holding on to my top! On our way back we saw an eagle & proboscis monkeys. When we almost arrived at the lodge, still enjoying the sunset we heard a real weird sound, like a really loud ‘WHOOP’. It turned out to be a Gibbon with a small baby sitting in the tree next to the lodge making this noise!

Exploring The East-Coast of Sabah/Borneo - Part 2

At 5 o’clock PM our next river tour started. This time it was in a small boat, like a fishing boat. These boats have a special engine that is more environmental friendly and makes less sound, to make sure the animals won’t get scared. This is a good thing for the animals, but also for us, so you actually have more chance to see the animals. Unfortunately you see a lot of other boats passing by that are not environment & animal friendly!

We used the small tributaries to look for the Proboscis Monkey. Our guide found a lot! This incredible ‘Dutch Monkey’ is, just like the other animals we saw, under threat to loose its habitat. Now I probably have to explain why they are called the ‘Dutch Monkey’. The Indonesian people gave this nickname to them during Dutch colonialism, because they noticed that Dutch colonizers often had a big belly and a large nose. Thank you for the compliment haha :-)! We could see that each Proboscis Monkey family lives in one tree, with one male and several females. Around 6.30 PM we went back to our Sukau Rainforest Lodge, where we would stay the next 2 nights. We enjoyed a wonderful sunset by capturing it on photo. Before we could sit at the dinner table we had put on a Sarong, the traditional Malay clothing, which was provided in your room.

 

At 8.30 PM we could go for another river cruise, in the dark of course. We wouldn’t want to miss anything, so yes please! At first we saw the Kingfisher, a small and colorful bird. We could come actually very close and it just stayed nice and calm on its branch. We moved on and it was also incredible to see what the guide could capture in a very short time, by only using his torchlight! Next we saw 2 small baby crocodiles and one a bit bigger. One of the staff of the Sukau Lodge, an Australian crazy guy named Brett, tried to catch it, but this failed unfortunatly ;-). After this exhausting but impressive day it was time to go to bed. As soon as our head reached our lovely pillows we were captured in this nice, deep sleep!

to be continued...

Exploring The East-Coast of Sabah/Borneo

After working in the Kota Kinabalu office for 2,5 months I was ready to explore a bit more of Sabah! My friend from the Netherlands visited me and we did the Sandakan Wildlife Safari tour (4D/3N) organized by Borneo Eco Tours. It was awesome! So let me share that with you.

On day 1 we departed from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan using the early morning flight from AirAsia. The guide was already waiting for us at the airport and brought us to Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre. We first got to see a short movie about the Orang Utans; how they live, their threat because of the deforestation, why there is a rehabilitation centre etc. The movie is really touching. After the movie you walk on the boardwalk to the platform. That is before 10, the feeding time. If you are lucky you will see them already before the feeding time. Unfortunately we were not that lucky, but there were a lot of Macaques, who were erasing the fleas from each other. Looked really funny! When it was feeding time the Orang Utans came and it was just very impressive to see the Orang Utan in real life and to see them really act and move almost like human beings, except for hanging and eating upside down on a row, haha! Did you know that their genes are 96.4% identical to the human beings genes?

After lunch we proceeded our journey to Sukau. Which is situated 2,5 hours south of Sandakan. We went their by boat, a real relaxing boat where you can enjoy the nice wind and the beautiful nature surrounding the Kinabatangan River. Suddenly our guide and captain started to get really excited. That meant that now, we were really lucky, because we saw a Pygmy (Borneo) Elephant!

And then we saw another one, and another… Suddenly there were like 15 elephants all just enjoying their meal: grass! They were close to the bench of the river and even 1 elephant went for a bath in the river. We have watched this phenomenon for more than 30 minutes, because it was just so hard to say goodbye! After 10 minutes sailing something exciting happened again! They saw an Orang Utan high up in the tree! To be honest, the vision was not really good, but you could see a little brown fuzzy thing up there. So YES, we saw a wild Orang Utan! So, this first boat ride, from many more to come, we saw already two rare

endangered animal species, in the WILD! How can you not count yourself lucky :-)!

To be continued