Looking for Wildlife and Homelife on a Borneo River

Reading National Geographic Kids inspires my children to explore. In the same way that the original magazine got adults dreaming of adventures in faraway lands, the kid version has given my children a curiosity about the animals, landscapes, and cultures of our vast, diverse world.

Fisherman on the Santubong River, Borneo

When we boarded the boat on Borneo's Santubong River, my daughter was immediately enthralled by the wildlife photos lining the ceiling. Pictures of proboscis monkeys with their comical, Jimmy Durante noses stared down at us. Irrawaddy dolphins with their characteristic rounded heads and snub noses were shown frolicking in the water. Images of crocodiles glared at us, daring us to get a little closer. As the boat began to chug its way out into the river, she went on and on, telling me everything she knew about proboscis monkeys and their endangered status.

After a while, she paused for a breath and said, "Mama, we should go and see these animals sometime," waving her arm at the pictures

"Honey," I told her, "That's why we're on this boat. Those are the animals we're going to see!"

She was so surprised and delighted. The look on her face was akin to a preschool girl who has just been told she's going to DisneyWorld to have breakfast with all the Princesses. It was as if she had stepped into the pages of National Geographic. A world which had so far only existed on paper was suddenly about to become real.

We were going to see these animals in the wild. Of course, this can be a little trickier than seeing them at the zoo or aquarium. They aren't captive and waiting for you to come by to look at them. No, these animals are living free, and we needed a combination of luck and familiarity with their habits to find them. Luckily, we had a guide who knew a few tricks.

Waiting and staring, hoping to see proboscis monkeys.

Our first successful sighting was of some Irrawaddy dolphins. They are known to hang around fishing boats, so our boat would cut its motor and silently float whenever we came upon a fisherman.

"There!" someone would cry, pointing excitedly. The dolphins quickly came up out of the water and dove back down again. We would watch for a while before continuing down the river looking for more fishing boats to stalk.

Before you start scrolling down to see fantastic wildlife photos, I need to let you in on something. Photographing wildlife can be really hard -- perhaps even more difficult than taking pictures of uncooperative toddlers. Basically, none of my pictures turned out. All the ones of dolphins show nothing but water. I only got one photo of an animal the entire evening, and it was taken right as we were climbing on board.

Mudskippers are amphibious fish that use their pectoral fins to walk on land.

Yup, that's the sum total of all my successful wildlife photos. At least I have my memories...not that you can see them.

As we reached the mangrove forest, the boat took us closer to shore to look for proboscis monkeys. The key is to look for violently shaking branches. Night was approaching which is the time when these monkeys move from the inland spots where they spent the day back out to the river to forage for food. We spotted a few moving through the trees but never got the closeup look that we'd been hoping for. From what my friends tell me, we would have had a better chance of seeing them if we had spent the night at one of the Bako National Park cabins where the proboscis monkeys come crashing through the area every morning.

Fishing village on the Sanbutong River

For me, one of the best parts of our river excursion was stopping at a Malay fishing village. The brightly painted houses were raised up on stilts to keep them out of the way of rising water. Boats were tied up all along the shore.

The fishermen have returned home for the day.

This place is so remote that they are not hooked up to a power utility. Instead, the loud drone of gasoline powered electric generators filled the air as we pulled up. There's a small school to serve the younger children, but teens interested in getting an education had to go elsewhere for classes, only coming home on weekends.

Toddler boy hanging out the window over the water.

The lack of power and secondary schools made me realize how different my life was compared to this fishing society. After all, I had reached their village on a 3-hour pleasure cruise and was going to lay my head down to sleep in a lovely hotel in Kuching that night. The fishing families, on the other hand, did not have the economic means to travel this distance often. Their poverty keeps them isolated.

However, they do have the money for satellite television.

The evening call to prayer was just about go out as we landed, so most of the footpaths were empty as wandered through the village. In fact, we never saw a man the whole time we were there as they were off praying. I did see a Winnie-the-Pooh baby blanket hanging up to dry, though.

Wooden walkways between homes lead down to the river.

One little boy dressed up in his Friday finery. 

The fanciest house I saw in the village.

We only spent a few minutes walking around. I actually felt a bit odd taking photos, wondering what I would think if some stranger stood a few feet from my home taking pictures of it.

Sunset from the fishing village

As the sun began to set, we got back on board for our return trip. The guide shone his powerful flashlight at the mangrove forest's shoreline, sweeping its beam back and forth. He was looking for crocodiles whose eyes reflect the light, making them glow in the dark. My girl was the only person to see a crocodile (or so she claims).

We ended the evening cruise floating by a couple trees filled with fireflies blinking on and off. Fireflies are pretty much impossible to photograph in the dark from a bobbing boat. While I remember seeing fireflies on summer nights when I was a kid, this is the first time that my own children have seen them. I wonder if the fireflies are dying off in Houston, Texas as my parents still live in my childhood home, and the fireflies no longer flit through their yard.

All of us were quiet on the 40-minute van ride back to Kuching. It's excursions like this that make me fully appreciate all that travel can show my family. Wildlife transforms from being something we read about in books or visit in captivity to something that we see in its natural habitat. We're introduced to people whose society is physically located close to our own modern world yet remains so different from ours. We weren't just flipping through a copy of National Geographic. We were experiencing it in real life.


IF YOU GO:
We booked our tour through CPH Travel Agency. They picked us up from our hotel in Kuching in an air conditioned van and provided fruit snacks and non-alcoholic beverages on the cruise as part of the tour. The boat had life-jackets if you elected to wear one, even ones small enough for preschoolers. The cost was a little more than US$50 for adults and US$25 for children.

RELATED POST:
Don't Anger the Orangutans


This post is part of Travel Photo Thursday on Budget Travelers Sandbox, "Oh the Places I've Been" on The Tablescaper, Sunday Traveler on Ice Cream and Permafrost, and Travel Photo Mondays on Travel Photo Discovery. Check them out form more around-the-world travel inspiration.

FamiliesGo! Borneo Family Vacation

My boy with a blowgun. That Pepsi can never even saw it coming.

Head on over to FamiliesGo! and check out my guest post on Borneo Family Vacation: Wild Animals, Mild Adventure. The exotic island of Borneo, the setting of the first season of Survivor, has so much to offer from visiting orangutans to visiting headhunters, trekking the jungle to cruising the river.  With kids in tow, we wanted something exciting, but nothing worthy of a reality TV show, be it Survivor or Super Nanny. My guest post covers what to do, where to stay, and what to eat.

While you're at FamiliesGo!, explore the rest of the website. With destination guides, hotel reviews, deals, giveaways and travel tips, it's a wonderful, one-stop resource for taking the hassle out of planning family vacations.

Don't Anger the Orangutans

When we visited Borneo, seeing semi-wild orangutans at the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre was at the top of my list. My kids and hubby found this mighty peculiar since I have developed a love/hate relationship with the marauding monkeys at our local park in Penang. Imagine squirrels at any American park. Now, imagine that they have opposable thumbs and a yearning to steal your stuff. "So, you want to pay to see monkeys?" my kids asked. "Because, you know, you can see them for FREE at home." True, but these orangutans are definitely in a different league. For the record, they're also not monkeys since they don't have tails.

The Centre is a halfway house for orangutans. After a hard life of partying with humans or injuring themselves living it up in the jungle, the rescued apes end up in rehab at the Sarawak Forestry Corporation. After they've been nursed back to health and taught to fend for themselves, they're released into the surrounding rainforest preserve.  Twice a day, wardens leave out heaps of fruit on platforms to supplement whatever nourishment the orangutan have been able to forage for themselves in the jungle. As they become more self-sufficient, their visits to the Wildlife Centre start decreasing.

This guy stuffed the entire bunch of bananas in his mouth at one time.

When we arrived for feeding time, the staff told us a little bit about their rehabilitation program and orangutans in general. But much of their talk focused on warning us to keep our distance, a minimum of 6 yards, from the orangutans. This isn't one of those up-close interaction, hug and hold, petting zoo type of places. They are firmly committed to making these animals fully independent. Humans are the "intruders" in the jungle, and it's up to the humans to keep out of the way of the orangutans freely wandering around the centre.  Not destroying their habitat would also be a step in the right direction.

The sign with prohibited items gave some clues to how previous human interaction had gone. No tripods are allowed because the orangutans may mistake them for blowguns. Bringing food and drinks is prohibited so that the orangutans won't be tempted to come and grab them from you, whether you invite it or not. I know how I feel when a little macaque monkey comes after my snack, and I certainly didn't want to bait an ape that outweighed me. The lack of primate toilet training is the reason why you don't want to stand underneath a tree with an orangutan. Luckily, we escaped being used as target practice.

As the crowd stood around listening to the wardens, the outlying trees began to shake. You could hear the rustling in the branches get louder and louder as the orangutan approached the feeding platforms. Suddenly, there they were swinging through the trees. From high up in the canopy, they gradually made their way down to the bounteous feast. The orangutans delved into the fruit laid out on the platform. I think that my kids may have been a little jealous that the apes could stuff huge amounts of food into their mouths and use their hands without being reprimanded by the Table Manners Squad (a.k.a. Mom). Some of them just sat on the platform to eat while others took their food up into the trees. That's when the biggest orangutan of them all appeared, and the others cleared out so he could have the platform to himself.

Ritchie the Alpha Male

Ritchie is clearly the Alpha Male in this group. Weighing close to 300 pounds with large cheek pads, he easily smashed coconuts against the tree trunk to get at the meat. The wardens warned us the he may look slow but could easily reach us in two leaps. So don't anger him! Don't make sudden movements or talk too loudly.

Hot Mama and her little one

Also watch out for Hot Mama. Her much deserved nickname comes from her quick temper. Apparently, she has no qualms about defending her kids from humans or other orangutans. Come to think of it, I totally get where she's coming from. I think I might be this way, too. No one messes with my kids.  At one point, she started walking along the path straight towards me. One part of me wanted to get a really great closeup shot of Hot Mama, but the other part of me had scenes from Rise of the Planet of the Apes running through my mind. Did I want my last picture to be of a great big orangutan mouth opening wide to chomp on me? No, so I backed away.

The crowds keep their distance from Hot Mama while she gives a piggy back ride.

In reality, it was all a very calm experience. People murmured to each other as the orangutans made their way around in the trees. If they were down on the ground, we made sure to give them plenty of clearance. Some of the orangutans ambled along the trail to the next feeding station while the others took to the trees to get there. The wardens made sure that everyone kept a safe distance away.

After about an hour, it was time for us to leave. We stopped at the small gift shop and snack bar to make a donation to the Wildlife Centre and buy a few drinks. Seeing animals held captive in a zoo is one thing. Seeing them in their natural habitat and being reminded that we humans are both the outsiders and the ones who can either practice conservation or selfishness was something else.

This post is part of Friday Daydreamin' at R We There Yet Mom? and part of Photo Friday at Delicious Baby.