Markets, Palaces, Ballet and a Change of Guides

May 30. This morning, after an elaborate buffet brunch at the hotel, we meet our guide, Imam, and walk the short distance to the market. The city is pretty much overrun with motor bikes, which dominate the traffic, buzzing in and out. Miraculously there seem to be few, if any, accidents. Everyone does adhere to […]

To Indonesia

May 29. View from our hotel room is not too shabby. After breakfast at the club room at the hotel, we are transferred back to the airport for our full day’s journey (with stops in Singapore and Jakarta) to Jogyakarta on the island of Java in Indonesia. Check-in goes fine in the Kota Kinabula airport […]

More Canopies and More Orangutans

May 28. We rise early for bird watching. Another lovely breakfast served to us by the river.  Here we are, with Jariah. Azmil had in mind a walk along the road to spot birds, but we had another idea. We’d all enjoyed the canopy walk so much the other day that we wanted to do […]

Leeches and Orangutans in the Wild

May 27. We rise early for another private breakfast in our pavilion by the river, served by Jariah. We learn that Jariah is 25 years old and has been at the lodge for 2 1/2 years, her first job after college. We set out through the very muddy forest. Azmil finds some interesting birds, including […]

An Interlude: Impressions from a Nightime Game Drive

This is not a normal post, as it attempts to capture my impressions of a single event that lasted only an hour and a half. These photos were all taken on May 25, in a truck on a night drive from my seat behind the “spotter,” who shines an extremely bright light back and forth […]