Once in Manila, we tried again and failed. Joe and Sandra ended up walking about 5 minutes to a money exchanger and changed some US cash for pesos. Manila is crazy though! People everywhere and drivers are nuts. No one works together, they're always fighting to get ahead of everyone else and they use their horn constantly. It's apparently used to tell someone you're passing them here. This ended up being even more annoying on the 10 hour bus ride down to Legaspi which was an overnight bus. Speaking of that, they keep the AC full blast, so you end up freezing. For the next bus ride we'll have to remember to grab our jacket and anything that can be used as a blanket. A nice girl from Missouri that's here with the Peace Corps was sitting in front of us and did lend us a blanket type thing to help us stay warm.
We arrived in Legaspi at around 6:30am where Joe bumped into a British couple that were basically in the same stage of planning as we were. They wanted to see the whale sharks but didn't have a place to stay for sure yet. The 5 of us hopped into a taxi for the hour or so ride to Donsol.
There are apparently a lot fireflies here at night, so we're doing a boat ride for that tonight. Hopefully that will be fun. We're going with the other couple tomorrow morning to hopefully see Whale Sharks. Two sharks were seen yesterday (don't know about today yet) so hopefully we're lucky even though it's the end of the season.
-Miranda
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We've been hanging out in Kota Kinabalu (also known as KK) for a number of days now. Most of it was just relaxing and walking around town. Two of the days we took a boat to Sapi, a small island not far off shore. The snorkeling there was great. Especially once you got away from the main swimming area. A lot of people here simply don't understand that they are not supposed to touch or stand on the coral, so a lot of the coral is busted and dead. Once you got out of the main swimming area though, it was very cool. Lots of fish.
All the photos were taken by Sandra. She has a case for her camera so she can take photos and videos.
-Miranda
Monitor Lizard (click for video)
There were huge Monitor Lizards hanging out on the island since some tour groups fed their 'people'. They seemed to be hoping to get scraps.
Snorkeling (click for video)
Snorkeling video. The last few videos were taken by Sandra.
Clown fish.
Crazy bright orange coral.
More clown fish.
Moorish Idol.
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We're currently in Kota Kinabalu but haven't been doing too much. We'll post a separate entry about that later.
Here's a video of clips of the elephants.
Elephants (click to view)
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We caught our ride to Nature Lodge Kinabatangan where we stayed for 2 nights and met up with Sandra again along the way. Not long after arriving, we headed out for an afternoon cruise on the river. They mentioned that the Borneon Pygmy Elephants were in the area, so we might be able to see them.
During our trip, we saw a Monitor Lizard and some Long Tailed Macaques, then the boat's motor died... In the end, half of our group went in one boat, Joe, Sandra, Lana (another German girl we met) and I went in a smaller boat. Our guide heard there was a sighting of the elephants, so we headed back down river to see them.
It was so fun! We got to get out of the boat and went up on a porch of a nearby building to watch the elephants. There were at least 20 or 30. They were everywhere!
The next morning, we woke up before 6am and went on a morning cruise. We ended up seeing 4 orangutans and a wild boar! We were scheduled to go on a walk in the afternoon, but because of the elephants, the guides decided it was too dangerous. They have babies, so they can be aggressive. Joe and I ended up kayaking up the river a little ways and went into a smaller creek to see if we could find anything fun. We found where the elephants crossed the stream. There were foot prints all over and poop floating. We even heard one trumpet, but it was a little ways away.
Before dinner, we did our second later afternoon river cruise. Unfortunately, we didn't get too far before it started pouring.... We did end up seeing a troop of Proboscis Monkeys, which was pretty neat. We kept going, hoping the rain would let up (most tropical rains are heavy, but short), but it didn't... We finally turned around and headed back, since we couldn't see anything anyway. We were totally and completely drenched. It was crazy. Unfortunately the rain also brought out the mosquitoes.
Tomorrow morning we have one more river cruise, then we'll be heading to Kota Kinabalu tomorrow.
-Miranda
Joe and I in front of the elephants.
Elephants!!
Baby elephants!!
Orangutan!!
Joe and I totally and completely drenched.
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Monkeesyyyyss!!!! My one and only goal for this trip has been achieved! Monkeys in the wild. And wow. wow.
We went to the Orangutan rehabilitation sanctuary, where they help orphaned orangutans make it back out into the wild. The center is not fenced or anything, a pathway just wanders into the jungle to feeding platforms that they use to continue feeding newly released orangutans. We arrived prior to the morning feeding time, were waiting patiently... Suddenly a far-off treetop in the dense jungle ruffles and shakes. Then a closer one, and closer... Saw some orange fur!... Using some huge ropes hung up suddenly a mother orangutan with a baby on her stomach comes swinging over us towards the platform. She is joined by 3 others. (One who fell off the ropes and disappeared into underbrush for a bit... got a little worried it was injured as it was silent). Slowly it climbed a tree back up 30' into the air and dropped back onto the rope.) The rangers fed the orangutans papaya, bananas and sugarcane. After a few minutes, dozens of Pig-tail and Long-tail(?) Macaque Monkeys started moving towards the platform. Much smaller but trying to get some of the food. Sneaky little guys. The rangers shooed them away until the orangutans had had enough to eat and swung back out deeper into the forest. After the smaller monkeys cleaned the left overs up, several came over to the viewing platform to show off. One was a pair with 4 youngsters. .. All sitting and hanging out on the railing we had just been leaning on... All pretty intense.
After lunch we walked to a nearby rainforest center where they had a massive canopy walk and towers that let you look out from 80 feet in the air. We didn't see much for wildlife as we didn't give it much time, but it was a great proper jungle experience.
Later that day we went back and watched another feeding where a big male orangutan came up to the viewing platform and walked on by everyone after striking a pose. The ranger was a little worried and told everyone to back up and give him room.
Cool. Borneo is one of the best remaining places on earth to see monkeys.. So we are lucky we ventured over. Tomorrow we head to a 3 day river-wildlife tour thing-a-ma-jig.. Which is supposed to be most excellent.
-Joe
Here's a compilation of monkey videos. :D
Monkeys
;)
The one coming in has a baby clinging to her. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
;)
Pig-tail Macaques grooming. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
;)
(Long-tail Macaques grooming. Click on photo to enlarge.)
;)
Second feeding time. The female away from the platform has a baby on her stomach. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
;)
The male striking a pose. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
;)
The male walking by. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
;)
A purty butterfly that kept landing on Joe's hand. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
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