Aug 2007

Everyone at Tabin had been so kind and generous to us, and we were very sad to be leaving. It is such a beautiful place, and we will definitely be returning. But there were other things that we wanted to see. We received our mud certificates, and took a short nap after breakfast, thinking our departure was at 13:30.

Well, about an hour after breakfast, Eddie comes knocking at our door and says he's arranged for an earlier transport that would get us into town to catch the bus to Sandakan. We kicked into high gear, showering and packing before heading down to settle the bill. We shook hands with Eddie and Harry, and loaded up. As we were leaving, we saw some elephant poop on the road. Ah elephants; poop and prints were as close as we were going to get on this trip, I suppose. We rode into town and arrived just as the bus was about to leave. We pushed our bags underneath, next to a cardboard box of live chickens, and we were off.

It was comfortable, much more so than the mini bas we had taken to Lahad Datu int he first place. Maybe it was the comfortable seat or the fact that my dramamine was kicking in, but I think I may have gotten a little sleep during the bus trip. While I was sleeping Andrew was watching Terminator 2, our on-board movie. Heck, this bus was better than an Air China flight. They even gave us bottled water.

We had been on the road for about 1.5 hours when the bus was pulled over for a police blockade. We learned later that they were probably checking for illegal aliens, but we had no idea at the time. Everyone had their ID out, but Andrew insisted that we only show ours if asked. I proceeded to have a mild panic attack until the officers got off the bus. As they were checking ID, some ladies got on the bus selling snack food products (sugar cane, rambutans, longan). We were starving, not having had time to eat lunch in town, so we bought a bag of thin banana chips (best ever; the way banana chips should be) and some fresh peanuts. Each bag cost RM1 (about CDN$0.30). The peanuts hadn't been roasted or anything, and they were soft and sort of tasted like beans. They were interesting. Those snacks killed our hunger little bit at least.

A little while later, the bus pulled over and some guy told us that this is where we should get off. We unloaded our packs and asked where to go. He pointed us across the street and said there'd be a bus in 15 minutes. So we went over to wait. As we were waiting, some guy offered to take us the the hotel at RM20 a pop, but we turned him down. The bus came shortly thereafter, and after some rearranging of groceries and people, Andrew and I piled into the front and we were off on the very short trip to the Sepilok Jungle Resort. We checked in and ran to the cafe for some food. We looked at the menu. They had cheeseburgers. We ordered two of them with fries, and anxiously awaited their arrival.

We could not have been more disappointed with what arrived at our table. A quarter-inch greyish patty was hidden from view by a big sesame bun. At first we whined about it, but then we couldn't help but laugh. We laughed long and hard about it, because, I mean, what are you going to do? It came as some consolation that the fries tasted good. As we were eating, a cat came and sat under the table next to us. That in itself wouldn't have bothered us, but the cat had a gaping hole in his head where its right eye should have been. The poor thing. That pretty much killed our appetites for cardboard burgers, so we ate some ice cream, and returned to our room to organize a laundry game plan. We sorted out some things and returned to the cafe to drop them off.

While we were at the cafe, I ducked into the office. A quick email check indicated to me that Mom though Iwe were dead somewhere, perhaps eaten by something, so I sent off some assurances that we were, in fact, still alive. We then walked back through the manicured gardens to get back to our room; this was a far cry from what we had grown to love at Tabin.

We Scrabbled for a while before deciding that it was time to eat again. We went for dinner, and ordered way too much food: a fruit platter (watermelon, pineapple, and jackfruit - turns out neither of like jackfruit very much), sweet and sour chicken, curry chicken, squid rings and lots of rice. We couldn't even think of finishing it all. We gave it a go, then came back to our room early, sudoked and fell asleep.

So another day at Tabin, filled with a whole lot of relaxation and a little animal watching. it was mostly uneventful; we ate breakfast and sat around for a bit, Andrew reading while I sudoked. After a little while, he decided to take a catnap, and I stayed behind in the lounge area. I think Jodi and Harry, the guides, thought I looked bored, so they invited me to play a game with them. Scrabble, as it turned out. It was a good friendly game, and a lot of fun. Eventually Andrew came back and took over for Jodi, who was really frustrated with his tiles. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. After this, we both went back up to the cabin to sneak a little nap, and then I went out to do some animal watching. There were some long tailed macaques playing down by the pond, and I got to witness some naughty monkey business (click here if you want to see what I saw; it's very National Geographic-esque).

I also managed to get this shot of the Malaysian blue flycatcher that always hangs around the reception desk. Cute little thing, isn't it?

There was also a silvered langur just up in the trees, but he was shy and didn't stick around for very long.

Andrew came down to the and after a little while, and we sat and watched some more water monitors, and we decided to go for another little walk. This is pretty much what we did all day: eat, sleep, walk, relax, repeat. Tabin is a great place to be.

Later on, back at the cabin, we remembered we had some gift cards to give as thank-yous. We decided to give them to Jodi, because he seemed so interested in Canada. He was really overwhelmed by the gesture. It made us feel really good. He told us when we arrived that we were his first Canadian guests, so we figured we made a good impression.

Before dinner began, you could see flashes of lightening in the distance, and we both realized that it had not yet rained during our stay in the rainforest. So we sat down for dinner, not thinking any more of it. And then the skies opened up, and it rained harder than either of us had ever seen (Hurricane Juan included). It was awesome, but only until we realized that it wasn't going to let up soon, and we'd have to walk back to our cabin in it. We gave it a half hour, but the we just decided to brave it. So off we went, Andrew running with a handkerchief over his bad ear, and me walking behind. It wasn't too bad; we only got a little soaked. After drying off a bit, we were lulled to sleep by the sound of rain on the tin roof. I couldn't think of a better way to spend our last night in the jungle.