Woke up this morning to find I had a picked up a parasite in the form of intestinal worms. The good thing about this (good, say wha-at? you may ask,) is that it made the spectre of the heat seeking Danum Valley leeches pale quite a bit.
There's no telling where I picked this up, could even have been in Canada but I suspect it may have been one of our roadside Sulawesi places - must check with the others. I asked the manager to have the driver find me a pharmacy before I was dropped me off for my final lodge transfer so I could get some meds.
Now English is widely spoken in Malaysia but I had no sense of how big the transfer town, Lahad Datu was so I spent a good portion of the bumpy ride going through my phrase book hoping it wouldn't turn out to be a "Monty Python Hungarian Tobacconist" scenario. You know the skit, the foreign visitor wants a pound of tobacco but the book translates his request as "I want to fondle your bottom, etc." There was a cheery looking Chinese lady behind the drug counter with a scrum of Muslim women in front. When she smiled at me I asked my now fluid phrase of "anda bisa besara bahasa engrris?" To which she answered "oh yes, I speak English, I can help you in a moment" with a perfect British accent. Un-phased by my request, she offered a one time, chewable, two pill solution that lasts three months. I hope it will cover me till I get to my home doctor. No side effects, she promised. Later, much later, I discovered that the drug, as packaged, not approved for consumption in Canada and does cause headache and fatigue. Oh, well, I can think of worst places to be sporting those symptoms!
At the cool, quiet Borneo Rainforest Lodge office I was ready for a nap when the office filled with boisterous female voices. My first thought was "Aussies!" but it turned out to be Brits and only four. Sarah came over and introduced herself, offered a sweetie and immediately became my new best friend. Her sister Claire and friends Julie and Candy completed the "troop" Joy, my guide from Sandakan/Sakau a few days ago had escorted their transfer so I got to say hi/goodbye again.
The women were a very fun and very easy fit - all about my age, I think, and very well traveled with great tales. Claire now works in Hong Kong and the other three, based out of the UK, I gather, met up there and headed to Sabah together on hols. Because I was lumped in with a foursome it threw off the balance and we were assigned two fairly new 4WD vehicles for our ride into the wilderness - as opposed to the rattly van type vehicle I had with Tabin. Most of the 2-1/2 hour ride was on gravel road - hardly noticeable, for the most part, with the upscale suspension.
Our first wildlife sighting at about the two thirds point was a pair of fire butt pheasants, I'm paraphrasing here, and then, a radio crackle from the lead vehicle alerted us to an elephant sighting. There was a great big male, big even for this Pygmy species, grazing on the left side of the road. He came out with a little coaxing from the lead car's horn.
Very cool!
At a wood bridge, and I *do* mean wood, we had to stop and walk across as a precaution. The lady back at the office had warned us about this. She insisted it was a concern about the vehicle and not our collective girth after I enquired as to whether we were to go one at a time. There were three concrete pylons that were spanned by a series five or six logs (BIG logs) then crossed with smaller members. The surface was completed with a pair of three-board tracks parallel to to traffic flow for the vehicle wheels. A similar design to our Sulawesi bridges except better constructed! Given the girth of the main logs I think we were fine to ride but it did add to the sense of adventure.
Sukau was tertiary forest, Tabin is secondary and Danum is primary, virgin rainforest. The trees and greenery are magnificent. The scale is astounding - I feel like a small child by comparison. Both physically and in the sense of having an BIG adventure.
The lodge has a main building with open air dining, bar, aircon briefing room, boot cleaning area, gift shop etc. connecting to the rooms by raised boardwalks.
I had unwittingly booked a delux room last October. Not sure why I did this but the Brits got a laugh out of the fact that I had a two person bathtub on my balcony. Just could not see myself soaking in a steamy tub of hot water in full view of the neighbouring cabin, surrounded by countless bugs and suffering from intestinal worms. No, luxury would have to wait.
At the appointed hour we loaded up into the back of a truck again for a night drive. Our guide Ronald is a Philippine-Chinese-Malay who enjoys talking about wildlife, camera lens and also, himself. He did a half decent job of spotting creatures for us though. Some giant red flying squirrels, a Sunda flying lemur (not related to the Madagascan ones,) lots of bugs etc.
The red flying squirrel like the flying Lemur looks like it has a broken neck but I guess if you're a tree clinger, you adapt. This one is looking over its left shoulder with its nose at the far left - the two light spots on the head are ears.
I was mostly enjoying the stars - all the constellations are askew here near the equator. The Sumatran haze had lifted making it clear enough to see the Milky Way - such a treat for an urban dweller. At one point an Italian lady asked if we could have the truck turned off so we could just listen in the dark which was lovely...for a few seconds. Ronald decided to fill us in on something or other which I managed to block out as the stars were magnificent.
Back at the buffet there were so many choices it was practically hedonistic. A desert bar, a salad bar, hot dish bar with two styles of rice and various curried/grilled/sautéed veg/fish/lamb/chicken, a grill bar, a soup station and something with crushed ice and coconut/fruit. Fortunately, with my long lasting deworming pills, I figured it was safe to eat anything including a little taste of local ceviche style fish and all the lettuce I wanted! Bar items were extra but that was expected - they still managed to have a decent selection here in the middle of no where.
Dining as I mentioned was open aired on the second floor with a view over the river. At night some site lighting kept the bugs distracted from the diners. It was lovely sipping wine, enjoying the cicadas and mocking the trip advisor whiners who complained about all the bugs here, right here, here in the rainforest.
Can't wait to see what the morning brings!
No comments:
Post a Comment