The team

The river crew that took us to the long house, plus fellow travellers (except Jim- who knows where he went).

Hong Kong light show

Every evening at 8 the buildings on the Hong Kong shore light up like Las Vegas.

View of Hong Kong

From Peak Tram.

Jim under fountain

In Hong Kong Park.

View of Hong Kong Harbour

As we enjoy our welcome drink and nuts at the Intercontinental Hong Kong.

Jesselton

So Sarawak had a white raja, but how did Sabah end up connected with the British?  Seems it was run by a British company, the British North Borneo Company, founded to capitalize on the bounty of Borneo similar to the British East India Company in China.

After the WWII, when much of North Borneo was destroyed, the North Borneo company decided it was not profitable to rebuild, so it turned over governance to the British government.

As a nod to the British, we had lunch at this English tea house- fish and chips- excellent- very fresh.

Next to the tea house was the home of Agnes Keith, an American woman who married a Canadian who was Commissioner of Forestry for the North Borneo Co.  She moved to Sandukan in 1934 and wrote a book about her experiences.  When the Japanese invaded, she, her husband and her 2 year old son were put in a prison camp, first in Sandakan and later at Kuching.  They survived.

We are now in the Kota Kinabulu airport, waiting for a flight to Hong Kong.  Kota Kinabalu was founded by the British and was originally called Jesselton.

Sandakan prison camp

The Japanese, in 1942, decided to build an airfield at Sandakan. They brought 2500 British and Australian POWs from Singapore. The field was never completed at least in part because of sabotage by the prisoners.  This is a piece of equipment, originally British, that remains at the sight of the prison camp, part of which has been turned into a memorial.  As the war turned against the Japanese, they decided to move the prisoners to an area near Mt. Kinabalu, Renau, some 260 km away.  Only 6 men survived the death march.  They survived only because  they escaped.

Sabah cave

In this cave, the locals harvest bird's nests for the Chinese.  They sell for $1000 per kilo.

Crocodile

4 meters long.

Pygmy elephants

We saw 7 Orangutans in the wild, including one building a nest. Crocodile.

Jim viewing Monitor lizard

On morning game run
Sara and Travis: rhinoceros hornbill, oriental pied hornbill, black hornbill, wrinkled hornbill, Borneo magpie ("e"), storms stork (endangered), purple heron, crested serpent eagle, crested goshawk, Wallace's hawk eagle, green imperial, greater coucal, dollar bill, common kingfisher, black, headed bulbul, black throated babbler

Sukau Rainforest Lodge

We are 3 nights at a river lodge and it is fantastic. We will have game runs (on boats) at dawn and dusk, a midday nature walk around the lodge and, if we have the energy, a night game run.
We are 2 3/4 hours by boat from Sandakan. On the way here we saw lots of birds(previously listed).
On our first game run we had lots if good views of proboscis monkeys and macaque long tail monkeys. We saw a monitor lizard and wild hog.
Sara and Travis: stork billed kingfisher, blue eared kingfisher, Buffy
Fish owl.
Sent from my iPhone

Orangutan

Proboscis monkeys
Sara and Travis:
Brahminy kite
Oriental darter
Little egret
Great egret
Spotted dove
Mossy nest swiftlets
White bellied sea eagle
Good news: wifi and a guide who knows birds.

Mt. Kinabalu

Highest mountain in Southeast Asia.

View from hotel

Mt. Kinabalu

State Mosque, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Off to Sandakan

We are back at Kota Kinabalu after 2 days near Mt . Kinabalu.  Tomorrow we leave at 5:30 am for a flight to Sandakan, in the northeast of Sabah.  We will be spending 3 nights at Sukau River lodge where we hope to see lots of birds, Pygmy elephants and proboscis monkeys.  All of our game runs will be by boat, as there are no roads.  Of course there is no wifi.  So no posts for a while.

Medilla

Jimbo

And tour bus mural.

Forest trail

Mt. Kinabalu NP.

Pitcher plant

Eats insects.

Strangler fig

Rhododendron

Flower

Heliconia.

CMC

And Sabah waterfall .

Rafflesia

The largest flower in the world.

Kota Kinabalu

We have moved to Sabah. Even though Sarawak and Sabah are both part of Malaysia, we had to go through customs. We received passport stamps and were fingerprinted entering each country.
Kota Kinabalu is the capital of Sabah and it is as vibrant as Kuching, with lots of building and no obvious poverty.
Today we went by boat to a national park comprised of two islands. We hiked on one and snorkeled off of the other.
Tomorrow we head to Mt. Kinabalu, the tallest mountain in Asia.
Sent from my iPhone

Jim with waterfall in Borneo jungle

Mulu

Most of my pictures were taken on my camera, so I won't be able to post them until I get home. But this picture, from the airport, gives a feel for the landscape.

Jim celebrating his 77th birthday

JOL's 77th

Here is the cake. We celebrated at our posh (Marriott) resort after spending the day walking through amazing limestone caves (26,000 steps) and ending up with a bat show at dusk. We have been in Mulu National Park, without internet service, but with fabulous food and a lovely setting with pool.

Seafood food court

On the top floor of a parking garage. Jammed with people.
We are about to head to Mulu NP. No internet access, but maybe birds.

Lantern day,

The end of Chinese New Year, was yesterday.

Burial pole

The coffin is in the bottom section and offerings above.

Bride and groom, Kuching

Offerings, Chinese Temple, Kuching

Breadfruit

Rice,

Bamboo shoots, oranges, and watermelon. Quite tasty.

Lunch: Chicken and beans in bamboo

We ate our lunch off of bamboo plates fashioned for us by the boatmen.

The stuffed bamboo

> Is then put into the fire. Chicken, egg, beans, and bamboo shoots were prepared the same way.

The wrapped rice

Is stuffed into bamboo and water is added.

Forest prepared rice

We stopped at a riverbank where the crew prepared lunch over a fire. This young woman is wrapping rice in leaves.

To lunch

After our trek, we hopped (gingerly got) into boats for another river trip.

Iban cemetery

On our trek, we visited this Iban grave.
The Ibans and many of the tribes in Sarawak are Christian. One third of the population in Sarawak is Chinese, they are Buddhist, Taoists or Confusionists. The Malay population is Muslim.

Fwd: Iban crafts

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Cathleen M. Combs" <ccombs@edcombs.com>
Date: March 6, 2015 at 5:41:46 PM GMT+8
To: <boneo>
Subject: Iban crafts

Despite the heat, we enjoyed the 36 hours.  We had a welcoming dance the night of our arrival.  The food was outstanding.  We did a tour of the farm, where our guide showed us the various plants on the farm and in the jungle used by the  villagers. 
Here you can see the interior of the longhouse.  Families live in narrow lodgings off of this corridor.  The hallway is communal.  There is an outdoor veranda parallel to the corridor. 
We slept on mattresses under mosquito netting in the corridor.
We had crafts demonstrations. The woman is preparing to make mats and the man is making darts for a blow gun. 

Sent from my iPad

Longhouse

It was extremely hot. One of the guys said to Jim when we had arrived- "only 36 hours to go."

Pepper farm

We also stopped at a pepper farm.

River

We journeyed down a river by longboat for about an hour.

Pepper

Two nights at an Iban longhouse bed and breakfast

We took a day long trip by bus and longboat to stay at an Iban longhouse. On the way we stopped to watch an orangutan feeding.

Bronze crocodile

On the riverfront in Kuching. There are lots of crocodiles in the rivers of Borneo.

The white rajah

James Brooke was named the Rajah of Sarawak by the Sultan of Brunei for putting down an uprising in 1841. This was his home in Kuching.

Wet market

Fish.