Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Sukau

I was in Sukau way before Sukau became a global tourist hit.
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Circa 2002

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April 2010


My accomodation was in Greeview Resort along the mighty Kinabatangan River.This resort was by far the cheapest among the other resorts. Their room was RM45 a day and the river cruise was Rm35.00. The rest of the resorts wanted to emulate Mt Kinabalu type charges which was the equivalent of Kryptonite to Superman. The river cruise started right after I checked in and within 8 minutes of the cruise, somebody spotted a crocodile. Everybody went "Where, where" , "Wo, wo[German]" "Ou, ou[French]", "Dove dove[Italian]""Mano gak nate tu [Kelantanese]"

There it was, with it's head on the same level of the water but when we came close, it submerged. We gasped in total amazement. We continued our river cruise and stopped by to see macaques or in Malay language, beruk.
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Macaque

Back in metropolitan Subang Jaya where I live, I can see macaques from my window and also in Putra Heights 5 minutes away. Macaques to us Malaysians are somewhat a pest. They steal your Raybans, snatch your bag, bite a toddler's leg and ransack your room. So, to be sitting in a boat for half an hour watching macaques was utterly unbearable to me. I understand that the US and European continent do not have the monkey/simian species but to stop at 4 different macaque locations was like being forced to watch Basic Instint 2 or Dean Cain hosting Ripley's Believe It Or Not.

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Bro, I was bored looking at you too

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Macaques eating grass

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Macaques at third stop...let's go!!!


However, it's different with the endemic Proboscis monkeys Unlike macaques, Proboscis monkeys are way much cooler than their theiving cousins in terms of looks and the way they hang out.
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Awesome view of Proboscis monkeys

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Chillaxing

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Ex gymnast proboscis monkey



I had a Sir David Attenborough moment when one of my videos caught this proboscis monkey leaping from one branch to another


Hornbills of different species were flying constantly too. Watching them glide through the air was just breathtaking.
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Hornbill perched on treetop


On the way back, we stopped by the river bank because we saw another boat with the engine turned off. They have just spotted wild orang utans in the canopy. Everyone was excited when they saw movement behind the canopy but I was totally composed because I had already spotted 2 wild orang utans in Danum Valley the day before. Yes, wildlife snobbery and superciliousness do exist.

I saw eagles, snakes and many more
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Reticulated python which I tried to dislodge from the tree but was stopped by the guide

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Yellow banded krait snake.No dislodging attempts

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Orang utan

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White belly eagle

After the boat ride, I checked out and headed to the Gomantong Caves 10km away for my purported biblical shaft picture.
As I was driving in, I saw :
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What are you blokes looking at?


and they were looking at
Baby and mother orang utan


That meant that I HAD SPOTTED WILD ORANG UTANS IN 3 DIFFERENT LOCATIONS!! It was absolutely phenomenal but phenomenal as it may be, I had no one to share that moment with. Ladies, my number is 0132044720.

The most memorable one from Sukau would be :
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Sukau sunset

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Sukau sunset taken from a speeding boat.Nerves of steel

1 comment:

Pak Zawi said...

Teoh,
Send this to any of the travel magazines or papers and maybe they will publish it (with some payment of course).
Your way of presentation is much more interesting than what I have read in the local papers.