Elephants at last

7-9--09I have spent considerable time, energy, and money to find elephants in asia as I love elephants and would really like to seem them before they go the way of the dinosaur in asia. The best place to see thim in peninsular SE Asia, Khao Yai NP in Thailand: I took two tours and biked up and down where they were supposed to be, though the new year's eve crowd had most likely scared them away. I took a bus over the pass in burm where they are most frequently seen, and I trekked for 7 days in the jungles of taman negara, the most likely place in peninsular malaysia to see them. The guide books and websites and tour promoters had said that on Sungai Kinabatangans where I went with Uncle Tan's was a great place to see them. But there, the guides told me that the elephants were downstream this time of year. This was ok, since I saw so much with uncle tan's and had a lot of fun. They directed me though to go do a tour with this guy named Roy in the lower kinabatangan, so I decided to do that as the price was a bit cheaper than uncle tan's and only a bit above my budget. I felt like it would be a good operation, b/c the guy, roy, drove out to sepilok when I was at uncle tan's base camp to talk to me about it, and he said that elephants were in the area and that the boats would take me there. So after my time at Danum Valley, I called him up and he picked me up for a 3 day 2 night trip on the lower kinabatangan in Billet. I got picked up and went with a fun british couple (hannah and andrew) who were on a day trip first to goanmatong cave where there was tons of bats and swiftlets. The cave was incredibly huge and the locals were collecting swiftlet nests to sell to the chinese for bird's nest soup. The bottom of the cave was covered in thick guano with cockroaches crawling everywhere and the caves had a very nasty smell. Afterwards we went to the camp and then onto the river for the afternoon river safari. Saw the usual characters: hornbills, longtailed macaques, proboscis monkeys, but no elephants. The brits left as they were just on a day trip, and then I was all alone. Did a night walk where we saw lots of cool birds and even an owl. Apparently a very rare owl that they said I was lucky to see, but in truth, I'd rather see no birds and see an elephant instead. There were tons of mosquitos. The worst I've had on my trip yet! So bad that they weren't even influenced by my mosquito repelling shirt. I was completely covered except for my hands and they attacked those and could even bite through my socks (remember this is asia, so you can't be wearing shoes anywhere) The next day I had the morning safari and we went to an oxbox lake and again saw the typical. I spent the afternoon on a hammock by the river reading and swatting mosquitos. For the evening safari, two germans and an italian guy on a 3day/2n tour joined me. The guides told me that there were no elephants in the area and that they would charge me 100 dollars to take me to where they were, which of course was too expensive for me especially since it obviously couldn't be a guarantee. The camp was nice as it was very peaceful and quiet compared to uncle tans, but it is really the first place I'd been on the trip that I wished I hadn't gone (other than those places I had to go b/c of dengue and rabies shots of course). Mainly b/c Uncle Tans was so much better: had better activities, more activities, and we saw more. The guys at this place were very nice and they tried hard, but it just wasn't the same, and the elephants weren't even in the area. Did a jungle night walk that night and two swiss people staying in a camper van joined. They'd been travelling in their camper all around the world and had been gone for an amazing 15 years!! yes, 15 years. That's quite the trip.





The next morning we had a river safari, and then given a tip from one of the guides I headed to the little river village of Sukau. There was a very cheap, yet very nice B&B there that did boat rides (B&B 6 dollars, 2 hour boat ride 3 dollars compared to my 3 day trip that had cost 90 dollars). The guides there were avid naturalists and they had seen elephants the last few days. We headed out that afternoon and almost immediately we saw an elephant and her baby. We watched them for a bit until they disappeared behind the tall grass and trees. We then went up a small and narrow tributary where there was literally monkeys (long-tailed macaques, pig-tailed macaques, proboscis, silver leafed) on every single tree. It was amazing! And they were so close. It almost felt like a set up disney ride for the jungle book or something. On the way back (in the rain) we passed by the elephants again and this time we could see the whole heard up by the water's edge. There were at least 20, but it was hard to know how many there trully was b/c the tall grass was good at hiding them. But yes! Finally, got to see the asian elephant in the wild. The elephants here on borneo are actually a subspecies of the elephants on the mainland, and are known as pygym elephants as they are the smallest known elephants. I would have liked to stay maybe one more day to see the elephants again, but time is always a concern when you've had to book a flight, but more importantly, in the rainforest where I've been for quite some time there is no ATM's. I hadn't expected after uncle tan's and danum valley to do the next jungle camp, nor the b&b, so I barely had enough reserve cash to get back to KK. Actually I was 2 Ringit (60 cents) short of being able to pay the bus ride to KK, but the conductor on the bus overlooked it.


Back at the longdistance bus station in KK, I rant back into Hannah and Andrew. Originally I was planning on meeting up with them in Brunei, but they had come back a day earlier, so it was nice to see them in KK. Tomorrow we will be taking a ferry to the island of Labuan and then onto the small, but incredibly rich country of Brunei Darrusalem.





I have been dreaming that on this trip I would run into some researcher or ngo supervisor or national geo something or other that would offer me the perfect job or the perfect grad school solution that I am looking for. At the B&B there was a family from Miami (of Ohio) university. I could tell they were up to something different as they were meeting different people and on different tours. At dinner there were two tables. I had come back from my room a bit late for dinner as I was really into my book at the moment. As I'd only been there for the day, I didn't really know any of the travellers and felt weird if I had pushed into their table which was full. The family and some of the other people they had been meeting with were watching a powerpoint on a laptop given by the american guy. I felt rude sitting by them as it appeared they were having a meeting, so I kind of sat by myself for a bit. I went up for seconds on fruit and overheard some of the presentation and it was about a conservation biology masters. There was one chair left in the whole place (I had been sitting on a distant couch), and it was at their table, so I thought maybe it was destiny and sat down. I just heard the very end of the talk, but the guy was very nice and excited about his research and conservation. But I hadn't really heard much of what it was. I had gathered it was some conservation masters program, that for the most part can be done at home while you're stil working, but you have to (get to) go to all these field centres to work more hands on with conservations with the field centres being everywhere from kenya to costa rica to asia. (he was here trying to get the kinabatangan to be another center for his programme). I finally introduced myself and found out they were quite nice and he told me just a bit more about the program, but not too much as it was late and they were off to a community meeting about conservation in the area. But he have me the websites, so I'll have to check it out. It sounded pretty cool, though the only thing I didn't like from just the little bit I knew was that it was a thing you can do from home. One thing I really miss about college is al the friends and activities and hanging out, and I'd love to do that again. From visiting my friends in grad school (Whitney, Sara bates, sherman, anna bender) it seems like it can kind of be like college all over again, so that is something I'd really like to have. But hey, I'll have to check out his website when I get the chance, and you never know.

Go Lance! Fly up those Pyranees!