Butterfly Park

Just around the corner from the bird park is the butterfly park, a place for photographers to while away the hours (until it rains).

 

Birds of Malaysia

KL Bird Park, the largest walk-in free-flight aviary in the world.  Strangely it reminded me of Sydney zoo, the way you can see the city & the zoo together.

From outside the bird park

Spotted dove

scarlet ibis

black crowned night heron

Western & Victorian crowned pigeon

vulturine guineafowl

oriental pied hormbill

rhinoceros hornbill

New Year, new jungle

Of course the reason I came to Brunei was not to admire the mosques but to head into some more primary rainforest of Temburong.

The speed boat ride in was amazing, carving through narrow ribbons of the brown Sungsai Brunei to Bangar and from there a short drive to Ulu Temburong National Park.

Geko at night

I was staying in a tent on the waters edge with a night walk first on the agenda. This was cut short slightly by a run for the shelter of the longhouse as the heavens opened, but not before there was time to spot a few stick insects and gekos.

Observation tower

Inside the rainforest and having climbed 1,000 steps there was an observation tower reached by climbing scaffolding.

Ulu Temburong NP

We also visited a waterfall which included a free foot spa with the fish ticking your feet as they eat the dead skin - people pay good money for this!

Feeding the fish

2013 started with a jungle trek in secondary rainforest, myself, the village head, a guide to translate, a trainee guide (her younger sister) and a 'protector' - the guy with the parang. It's incredible that if I'd done the walk on my own I'd have stopped a couple of times to take photos of insects & the foliage but here every couple of minutes we were stopping to learn about the medicinal properties of a plant, eat a fruit or make a hat from a leaf.

tree vine in the rainforest

Brunei - BSB

So next stop from Kuching was Miri, but it only took an hour there to decide to move on after just one night. The destination of Bander San Begawan awaited

Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque

Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque

Being an Islamic state mosques were prevalent & the most interesting buildings.

waterfront sculpture

I have resoundingly failed to record one of the common delights of Malaysia - the huge roundabout statues such as a 10ft swordfish. In BSB a personal favourite was the mosaic clock roundabout.

clock roundabout, BSB

Across the water from the main town lies the biggest water village in the world, Kampong Ayer. There's an observation tower and interesting museum documenting the history of the village.

Kampong Ayer

observation tower & visitor centre

 The best way to see it though is from one of the omnipresent motor boats, you can't walk along the shore without a fusillade of offers of trips. There's a huge number of schools and they are all massive long buildings. The police, fire brigade & petrol stations are dotted around. It's a little difficult to reconcile the current state of the houses with a small area of modern, uniform houses that in theory the whole village will be like in just 1 year (according to my boatman). It would take an area of extreme variety and individuality and transform it into a Milton Keynes housing estate, I can't see it happening.

School

police station

Another fascinating museum was the royal regalia museum.

royal regalia museum

Full of extravagant gifts from countries around the world it makes you think they could have spent their money on more worthwhile projects, but at the same time is a fun game of guess the country. There's also plenty of background information on the sultan himself, did you know the sultan was a keen tug-of-warer, although in later times enjoys badminton and golf?

Baku National Park

Another day trip from Kuching to follow trails through a national park, Baku is a bus and boat ride away, and once the tide had gone in far enough we were able to approach.

Approaching Baku

Following the trail

There were a few animals to spot along the way; wild pigs, monkeys and plenty more that spotted us that we didn't manage to spot.

Wild pig

silver leaf monkey

Tide coming in

Probiscus monkey

Kayaking and Longhouse

After Semenggoh it was straight onto the river for a days paddling through some more wonderful scenery.

Kayaking

Waterfall

Flora along the way

Rambutan fruit

Final stop of the day to see a traditional longhouse, with bamboo decking this is part of the Bidayuh culture, although the was a bit of an incongruity seeing the basket of skulls from headhunting days in the same room as the wi-fi box.

Annah Rais longhouse

Semenggoh Nature Reserve

The chance of another visit to see Orangutans, this time at Semenggoh, and by coincidence I timed my visits almost exactly a year after my friend Emma was volunteering here. So Emma, this post is for you & I'm expecting you to be able to identify all of the orangutans pictured below (as a clue there's only actually 3; a mother, son & a young male)

mother & son

juvenile male

As usual there was also the chance to see a few plants and oddly a couple of crocodiles.

Crocodile