After my tearful goodbye to my family, we flew from Penang on the west coast of Peninsular West Malaysia to Kuching on the North coast of East Malaysia, separated by the South China Sea. We arrived late, grumpy, sad, tired, and with 3 exhausted kids to a horrible hotel room, filled with smells of smokers. By the time we moved rooms, and were further nickel and dimed by the hotel, we woke up the next morning even grumpier...with the kid version being wild, insane, out of control at the breakfast table.
After a cab then a boat ride, we finally got the kids to the jungle. I mean the real Borneo jungle, this time. No city pretend jungle. Just seeing the Bako National Park jungle coming our way, on our boat ride there, put a huge smile on our faces. After being forewarned that we may not see the rare Proboscis monkey that can only be found in Borneo, the moment we stepped onto the elevated Mangrove pathway we saw two proboscis monkeys fly down from a mangrove tree and run right underneath us, looking right back up at us. They run with an elegant loping, nearly kangaroo-like gait, surprising given their heavy paunch and prominent noses. It was remarkable. Griffin then said it was once in a lifetime moment. Alice said, let's write about it on Facebook.
Yes, Facebook. My god, what have I created???
Two minutes later Alice spotted a long, bright green snake who also calmly stared right back at us as it slowly slithered through tree roots. Alice was calm. I was deep breathing to stave off a panic attack.
We hiked up and down tons of ancient jungle tree roots, thanking god we'd seen a proboscis monkey at the start since we didn't see any the rest of the hike. We arrived at the end of the trail, to a secluded cove with caved unusual rock formations in the water. Ken was elated -- he loves coves, often reminded the one we camped in solo in Baja, Mexico almost 20 years ago. He told the kids stories of our time in the Baja cove. And, we floated, swam and climbed the rock formations...leaving only to eat our Seven Eleven lunch of pringles, oreos, and m&m's in the shade.
No teksis (taxis) were free to take us back to Kuching, so we slummed it with the masses in the public bus back.
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