Summer 2007 - Malaysia IX

We woke up today at 5:30 because our truck was leaving at 6:00 to go bird watching. It was pretty early, and Andrew's head was still in a bit of a fog. As a result, he didn't see too much, but had a good time being out in nature. I saw quite a few different birds, like a blue throated bee eater (of which my picture is not so good, so click here to see what it is). Others I had better photographic karma, so we saw some pied hornbills, a type of eagle, and also a Storm's stork, which is apparently pretty rare. We were informed of this by the professional photographer from Japan who had been staying at the Reserve for 10 days each summer, so we believed him.

We also saw another pig-tailed macaque, and our guide called to it, and incited a confrontation, which I was not so keen to witness. Luckily we drove off before he could attack us.

We arrived back in time for a breakfast of hard-boiled eggs, toast, and mee goreng (fried noodles). After breakfast, Andrew talked to Eddie about his ear, because it seemed to be getting worse. He said there was a small clinic in the 'estate', where the plantation workers and their families live. Max, one of the drivers, drove him up to the clinic, which only appeared to be a couple of women who happened to have the medicine and would give it to you if you needed it. He told them what was the matter, and they gave him some drops and some painkillers, and sent him on his way. He figured 'when in Malaysia, take medicine like Malaysians do'.

When he got back to the resort, it was lunch time, so we ate and settled in for some serious relaxing and animal watching.

It was very hot, so we stayed in the shade until we heard some splashing in the river. We went to check it out and we saw a family of long-tailed macaques playing in the water. For Andrew, watching them play reinforced his belief in evolutionary theory. For me, it was just comedic. We saw a bigger one push a smaller one into the river, and a few playing and swinging on a vine. They looked like they were having a lot of fun.

That afternoon, we decided to make another trek to the mud volcano, hoping to have a better group this time around in terms of quietness. Well, it was definitely worse. The people we were with didn't get the concept of wildlife watching. They hiked in to the site after us, and climbed up the observation tower, talking the whole time, looked around for five minutes, and went back down again to cavort in the mud. Because mud is infinitely more interesting trying to see an elephant. Yeah. I think there was steam coming out of my ears, I was so frustrated. And, after they grew bored with the mud, they asked where all the animals were. Seriously, they did. We suggested to our guide having two different groups go out to the mud volcano; one that thinks mud is interesting, and the other who wants to see animals. After all that, we hiked back to the awaiting truck, and chatted with a Japanese man on vacation with his son. When we arrived back, we showered and ate dinner. We wanted to go on the night drive again, but the truck was full (with all those mud people), so we just packed it in early.