After my great mountaineering-experience I've deserved a little luxury, so.... I'm off to the jungle :)
After arrival at Sandakan airport I travel for 2,5h in a mini-van over land to the Kinabatangan River in the middle-of-nowhere.
What follows are 3 days full of river cruises, jungle-walks, night-trips and even a cano-trip on the river! (I'm happy to have skipped the night-cano-trip though...)
The river and the jungle around it are beautiful with all animals, sounds and an intense peace... - don't count in the fighting monkeys though!
The famous proboscis monkey lives alongside the river....
and is called 'Dutch Monkey'!!
When the Dutch arrived in Malaysia on invitation of the British, the Malay got totally confused by the resemblance of the big bellied, fat-red-nosed Dutch sailors and the big red nosed proboscis monkey!
No surprise that Big Bear, manager of the place, hesitated a little before telling the story :))
Apart from the soft-water-crocs (i.e. the 'cute' crocs) I have seen most of the spectacular creatures of the jungle... even a Urang-Utang and lots of Pygme Elephants!!
Still, there's always a bigger fish, or snake in this case, so my dog-toothed-cat-snake of max. 2,5m couldn't match the 8m python that my travel-buddy Stu claimed to have faced at night in the jungle, dangling above his head.... But you know what? At least I have proof ;))
I can tell you that monkeys mating in the water (1 guy, 2 chicks!!), just a few meters next to the boat is very impressive to see...
With many thanks to these guys who made this trip a great adventure!
(proof for the elephant... ;))
