Kuching

Mulu NP was a massive highlight, but we weren't finished just yet. After 3 days of hiking and exploring (and drinking and eating) it was time to leave. This time we followed the much more common route (ie to the airport) and flew out to Kuching with only a short stop at Miri to pick up our big packs. We'd last seen those almost 5 days ago when they got sent on ahead, and had been living out of increasingly smelly day packs ever since. It was great to finally have fresh clothes again, and our first showers felt like we washed away kilograms of dirt and sweat.

Revitalised, the next morning we headed off once more, but this time to the nearby Bako National Park. Other than the compulsory boat ride in, Bako was a lot closer to civilisation and therefore generally better travelled than the more remote Mulu. But, it was also a very different kind of park, located on the coast, with light jungle and several seastacks offshore. Besides the amazing scenery we had been told that this place would give us a good opportunity to see some wildlife, and we weren't disappointed. Despite never venturing more than about a kilometre from the park headquarters we crossed paths with some wild boar, proboscus monkeys, langurs, a green viper and some very cheeky common monkeys. One particularly cheeky specimen even decided to jump on my shoulder and make like a pirate's pet (or look for food in my hair...). With the animal spotting over, we took a quick coastal tour before returning to the mainland. We'd loved to have spent all day at Bako, but we had arranged an opportunity to maybe see semi-wild Orangutans.

About an hour south of Kuching is Semenggoh Rehabilitation Centre for semi-wild Orangutans. Here, animals are brought if injured, captured or orphaned, and returned to health. Unlike Sepilok, near Sandakan, these animals are kept in a semi-wild state, with their own generous chunk of virgin jungle. To help raise money for the centre visitors are invited to watch "feedings" which occur twice daily. On each occasion fruit is left in a specially prepared clearing to try and coax some of the animals out of the jungle. There is no guarantee any of them will come for the food (especially if the local trees are fruiting), but this is the trade-off to see semi-wild animals. Happily for us 5 orangutans were feeling peckish while we were there, including a mother and father with their baby. And, to put the icing on the cake, I finally saw a pitcher plant that I'd been hunting all trip. This is your queue to zone out or skip to the next entry if you would like to avoid the biology lesson.

I'd first seen been introduced to pitcher plants by David Attenborough (in a documentary, of course). Unique to the island of Borneo, these remarkably plants have developed very unique ways of harvesting food. One of them (shown in my photo) has evolved what equates to a jar with a partially open lid. On the underside of the lid the plant generates a sweet nectar, and on the rim of the jar the plant lines itself with a lubricant. Any insect which is drawn by the nectar, slips on the rim and falls into the jar which is filled with a kind of digestion fluid. Makes the Venus Fly-trap seem a bit basic in comparison! Another type of pitcher has a symbiotic relationship with a shrew. Here the lid is left fully open, encouraging the shrew to come and straddle the jar to lick off the nectar. Now the jar acts like a kind of toilet bowl for the shrew, and this is exactly what the pitcher is relying on...yummy...

Sadly, this would also be Mel's last destination. Being a bastion of the planet's future (ie teacher) she was unfortunately limited to the school holidays, which were rapidly running out. As a treat to ourselves we upgraded and spent our last night in Kuching in an absolute stunning hotel that Mel found on Tripadvisor. The Ranee Suites had only been open for about a year, but the owner had done an amazing job converting a pair of shops into a 20ish room boutique hotel. We felt a bit guilty with the extravagance, but this was a holiday after all, so we soaked it up. For Mel this was unfortunately the end, but for me it was only the end of Sarawak. Now it was on to Sabah, and goodbye to anything like this kind of luxury.Читать далее