Ravenous bloodsucking leeches of Borneo

Before getting to the leeches, we enjoyed a few days of world class diving at and around Sipidan.

Getting there involved about 90 minutes of discouraging driving: Instead of thick jungle terrain, there was mile after mile of palm tree plantations (for palm oil). Uniform rows of palm trees extended as far as the eye could see in every direction - like a terrible infection spreading across the land. Later, on the bus ride away from Sipidan, the blight continued for hours more in the other direction. No wildlife here! And sad to think that the need for alternative energy that I strongly support could inadvertently drive the spread of palm plantations for "bio" fuel production - a very bad solution from this perspective. But on to Sipidan...

The diving was great! We saw dozens of sea turtles: The green turtles let you scratch their back; the hawksbill do not. There were giant "bait balls" of Jacks and of Barracuda. These are swirling masses of a thousand fish swimming together in a giant ball shape - so dense it is dark. As you approach, the giant ball envelops and surrounds - very cool! (see it in motion here)

But perhaps the best sighting in Sipidan was of a whale shark. These gentle giants grow to 40 feet long (size of a bus), but this one was just a twelve foot long baby. It is a filter-feeder, so there is no danger. We are still hoping to see an adult someday, but whale sharks are elusive.

Next, a jungle boat excursion on the Kinabatangan river provided the chance to see lots more Proboscis monkeys and macaques. But the highlight was finding a courting pair of wild orangutans perched high in a tree beside the river. Seeing an orangutan in the wild is quite rare, so we were very happy to get to see them - it was one of the reasons we included Borneo on our trip.

Watching the different primates was fascinating. Orangutans high in a tree will use their body weight to rock it back and forth until they can reach the tip of a neighboring branch. The branch is then reeled in to bring a stronger limb (or the trunk) close enough to climb across. The Proboscis monkeys also rock back and forth, but when they feel close enough, they leap across for the neighboring tree. But the Macaques are crazy jumpers! They seem not to care at all about their destination - they just jump as far as they can and grab a handful of whatever they find when they get there. They were all like superheroes up in the trees: Turns out that an Orangutan is 3-6 times stronger than a man.

We also did a few hikes along the river through the deep jungle mud. We had hoped to see wild Pygmy elephants (or a very rare Sumatran rhinoceros), but instead we were besieged by leeches. I've never encountered leeches before, and I had no idea what we were in for. These critters are much bigger, faster moving, and craftier than I had imagined. They drop on to you from their perch underneath a leaf as you brush by. Then they relentlessly stretch and wiggle their way into the seams or edges of your clothing and search for bare skin. With some sort of natural anesthesia and anticoagulant, they painlessly bite into you and start filling with blood. Sorry, there are no pictures of the leeches, as they were always too urgently dispatched. I lost a few milliliters of blood to these foul creatures on my ankle and toe, and then proceeded to bleed slowly into my socks for hours afterward.

Every hike ended with a "leech check," where we inspected each other clothed and then naked for unwanted hitchhikers. We missed two of them one night until we reached our room and promptly flushed them down the toilet. Bad idea! A minute later they came climbing up the side of the bowl. Could have been really bad timing! Another flush brought the same result, so we had to take them outside.

From the jungles of Borneo, we made our way to our departure city. Our trip home has taken 52 hours: From Kota Kinabalu to San Diego (thru Manilla, Tokyo, Atlanta, and LA). While quite arduous, the long trip back did give us a chance to slowly re-adjust to civilization as we know it.

Settling in at home has been wonderful - we live in a truly delightful place, and there is so much to appreciate. We feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to take this trip. Enriched by experiences I had never imagined, I hope to carry a new appreciation for keeping life simple and for the freedoms and prosperity of our democracy. Thanks for following along with us.

P.S. Upon our arrival in Los Angeles, the pilot announced that we were carrying a fallen soldier home from Iraq. Everyone remained seated as the soldier accompanying him departed the plane first, and it was a tear-jerking moment to see the rows of uniformed men and women standing in formation on the tarmac below. It is the closest I've been to the terrible sacrifices being made (profoundly sadder for the ignorant policies that caused it).

P.P.S. Here are some final figures to summarize the trip: 7 countries, 74 days, 21 flights (24,870 miles), 6 buses (1,364 miles), and 0 days of food poisoning.

P.P.P.S. The final slide show of our best Borneo photos is here.

Finally, wildlife ...in Borneo

We wouldn't really be able to use the folding bicycles much in the jungle terrain of Borneo, and the extra weight and bulk would cost us a bit of freedom. So, during a stopover on our way to Borneo, the friendly policeman with a machine gun pointed us to the post office -about a mile walk outside the airport. We took the opportunity to mail our bike suitcases home. It was wonderful to have the bikes with us until now, and it was a bit sad to see them go.

One of our main objectives in Borneo was to see the Orangutans. And so we were very pleased that our first stop was the Semengoh Orangutan Preserve, where we saw half a dozen orangutans coming out of the forest: first hearing something distant high in the trees, then after a minute seeing some closer branches swinging, and finally watching the Orangutan as he made his way from tree to tree towards the platform with food (the forest there does not contain sufficient fruit to support the population without some supplementation). Before arriving, I was worried it might feel a bit like a zoo because of the feeding platform, but I was transfixed watching a juvenile climb up a vine and make his way from tree top to tree top. He would swing the trunk back and forth with his body weight until he could just reach the leaves of a neighboring tree. Then he'd reel the branch in until he had something substantial, and finally let go of the original tree. Watching this beautiful and effortless display, I was fulfilled. [video I took of the process]


Eileen's favorite day of the entire trip was nearby Bako National Park. Walking along a path in the jungle you can sometimes focus on the ground too much - where you put each step. When I looked up one time, I found myself face to face with a large Proboscis Monkey at eye level sitting on a branch just 6 feet away. I nearly walked right by him, and he was watching me calmly to see what I would do. He was the most bizarre creature I have even seen, yet somehow almost human too. I would have been only mildly surprised if he said "oh, hello there."


Both the Proboscis Monkeys and the Silver Leaf Langurs we saw next would have been right at home in a Dr. Seuss story: Absurdly long-nosed or pointy-headed characters. We watched a troop of about twenty Silver Leaf's making their way thru the jungle. At a break in the canopy they had to drop to the ground to cross: Some bold, and some timid (dragged along by the mother's hand - very human).


The third kind of primate we saw that day was the long-tailed Macaque - called "Naughty" Macaques locally. One tried to steal the water bottle from the backpack I had momentarily set on the ground. When I ran to shoo him away, he didn't back down surprisingly. The size of a small dog, he came after me with some aggression. I put up the sole of my boot in a kicking motion to back him off, but he simply hissed at me and bared his teeth ...and then came at me again. It was a bit scary because of the disease his bite might carry (e.g., Rabies). It was a battle of wills, and I had to get more aggressive with the little guy to back him off finally.

Bako also contained the most wild jungle - just what we'd expected from Borneo: giant trees, hanging vines, tree ferns, spiky palms, exposed roots, mud, and giant boulders. In addition to all the primates, we also spotted a deadly green tree pit viper and a wild boar.

Accessible only by plane or boat, we traveled next to Gunung Mulu, the largest cave system in the world. It contains the largest single chamber and largest passage, which is big enough to fly a 747 through. You may have seen parts of it in the "Caves" episode of "Planet Earth." We were in awe as thin streams of water came down in apparent slow motion from the roof hundreds of feet above.

After proving our agility in an intermediate cave (with snakes and spiders), they took us to the "Clearwater Connection," a 5 km long trek underground that includes a section of the longest underground river in the world. Most of the journey was walking, but there were roped sections to be climbed or descended and three small "squeezes." One of the squeezes was so narrow my chest would not fit through ...until I exhaled completely and forced myself between the rock walls (a tense moment). Another squeeze took the form of a chimney whose vertical walls were only twelve to eighteen inches apart - we entered from the side, about 20 feet above the exit hole at the bottom. It was too narrow to "fall," but also too narrow to bend your arms or knees to find the next hold. Reaching the underground river was the highlight for me. It's pristine waters provided a chance to rinse off all the cave muck (guano) and to cool down (caves here are hot and very humid inside).


Our next destination in Borneo is Sipidan, another top ten SCUBA spot!

Stunning but sorrowful Cambodia

We stopped in Cambodia for one thing: the extensive ruins of Angkor Wat. It was built by 300,000 people over 37 years - that's almost 12 million man-years (for comparison the pyramids at Giza took only half a million man years)! It is the largest religious monument in the world (the outer wall is 2.2 miles on each side). And Angkor Wat is just one of hundreds of ruins in the surrounding area. They were built almost 1000 years ago, when the local population was one million - at a time when London was just fifty thousand).

We also visited Bayon, famous for the four giant faces atop each of 54 towers. It had many levels and interior rooms - easy to get a bit disoriented. But our favorite was the "Jungle Temple," Ta Prohm. Left un-restored, it has giant trees growing all over and within. You may have seen it in the movie "Tomb Raider." It was otherworldly - immense mature trees growing right out of the temple itself: gnarled roots twisting through rock walls.

Each of the temples was built by a king during his reign. Some were Buddhist, and some were Hindu. Unfortunately one of the Hindu kings ordered the (accessible) images of Buddha in the other temples destroyed. Damned religious intolerance. Curiously, the Buddhists that came later did not deface the Hindu symbols.

Cambodia was very hot and humid, so we did our bike rides in the morning before it got too hot. One morning we woke up before dawn and rode about four miles in the dark to arrive at Angkor Wat before sunrise. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we were not alone. Several hundred other people crowded the prime viewing locations, but thankfully we were able to tune them out with some choice music on our iPods. Once the sun was up, we rode on to see other ruins, encountering a troop of playful macaques on the way.

Cambodia is a terribly tragic place. Eileen and I watched "The Killing Fields" on our laptop one night, and it was a sobering reminder of the brutal rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. One quarter of the adult population was killed - over one million people, mostly focused on the educated class. And it was not that long ago - peace only began in 1993. One of our guides told us he had difficulty learning as a child. The military would sometimes shoot at the schools, and the kids would all run home. We didn't see many middle-aged people. And because of the widespread deployment of land-mines during the struggles, we encountered a sad number of amputees.

When we asked our guide about the current government, he said it was a Democracy. Probing a little deeper revealed that there was only one party, without opposition. And after cautiously looking around a bit to see who was nearby, he told us that free speech was not possible. We've encountered this non sequitur quite a few times in the countries of Southeast Asia: "Democracy" without free-speech.

Outside the ruins was the town of Siem Reap, where some very high-end hotels and lot's of good restaurants catered to the large tourist population. We enjoyed the good food, but stayed in a more modest hotel that was perfectly adequate. The local taxi's were appropriately called "moto-trailers:" A seating platform on two wheels attached to the rear of the motorbike's seat. It was a heavy load for a small 100cc motorbike, but it was the braking that was most problematic - often skidding the motorbike's only braking wheel to slow the full weight of the trailer and passengers.

Our next and last visit is to Borneo, where we hope to see more wildlife, especially the Orangutan.

Central and Southern Vietnam

First the 12 hour sleeper bus to Hue: What is a sleeper bus, you might ask. In place of conventional seats, there are interlocking reclined torture pads: your feet go into a small wedge shaped compartment that forms the back of the person in front of you. My feet are not wedge shaped. And my body is much, much longer than the average Asian body. Thus I had to sleep forceably pigeon-toed (and I didn't walk normally for the next two days). Eileen and I were on upper "bunks" but unfortunately not next to each other - I had an aisle spot, but Eileen was sandwiched into a spot with five across, sleeping just inches from strangers.

Upon our arrival in Hue, someone from our hotel met us at the bus station and put us in a taxi to the hotel - he was driving a motorbike himself so was only there to guide us in safely. In fact, the hotel staff were falling all over themselves to be helpful at every opportunity. They enjoyed seeing (and test-riding) our folding bikes and brought them in for safety each night. The staff was always joking with us, and at times it was very funny (just my kind of irreverent humor). I've heard that humor doesn't always translate across cultures well, but I have to say the Vietnamese people are hysterical.

They are also very passionate - speaking with great intensity or animation in their voices. For example, we had a silk sleeping liner made and the seamstress raised her voice quite a bit while explaining to us how the maximum length was dictated by the fabric somehow. It seemed like she was angry, but I don't think she was - she only wanted to do the best job she could for us. She was very helpful and accomodating to make it extra long for my height.

We enjoyed a few days in Hue, riding our bikes to the local temples and other historic sites. Hue was the capital for awhile, and there is a massive imperial city enclosed within a moat and several walls. We learned all about the emperors' strange way of life. They had hundreds of wives and only eunichs could be trusted in the inner compound (no other men permitted).

Back in Thailand, as we were riding an elephant, I thought "King of the Jungle." Then one day at the zoo looking at the massive adult tigers, I thought the same thing. So who is the real king of the jungle, I wondered: the elephant or the tiger? Well in Hue, I found the answer: Apparently one of the emperors there built an arena for the two to fight. Disgusting, right? Would they even fight each other? Turns out there is a consistent winner - which do you think? Turns out, it was the elephant somehow.

Our next stop was Hoi An, by far the most pleasant town we visited in Vietnam. The rest of Vietnam seemed to be composed in a Lego assembly of identical concrete homes (tall and very narrow unpainted cement - very communist looking). But Hoi An was a very old trading town on the river, and it has retained it's character. It has adapted to tourism and has many great restauraunts. At night, they light up the streets with oriental silk lamps and open the streets to just foot traffic - beautiful.

The streets are lined with silk shops and tailors, and we had custom clothes made. As little as $15 for a silk dress for Eileen or a shirt for me. The area is famous for this, and some people bring photos of designer or wedding dresses and get them custom made for a tiny fraction of the cost back home. Again, it was great fun to interact with the Vietnamese people - they always wanted us to be happy.

The food here was so good, we decided to take a cooking class. We spent half a day preparing AND EATING five or six dishes, each at our own workstation. It was wonderful - so many yummy spices and unique flavors. We have all the recipies and can't wait to make it for everyone when we get home.

We took the bikes with us in a taxi to the ancient My Son ruins about 30 miles away. They were Hindu temples very well built from brick without mortar so they were well preserved for the 1000 years since their construction. Sadly, we learned that the few structures we were looking at were all that remained of dozens more that were bombed by the Americans in the war. I don't know the details, but it was another discouraging reminder about the profound losses of war.

During the bike ride back from the ruins, we saw someone carrying a full sized refrigerator with him on the seat of his motorbike - quite a balancing task, not to mention the wide profile he presented driving down the street. But I still think the live cow was the greater feat.

Our last stop was a brief stay in Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh City. Every bit as crazy as Hanoi, we only stayed for the opportuntity to visit the Cu Chi tunnels. This was an area of extensive tunnels and underground living quarters used by the Viet Cong - the guerilla resistance in south Vietnam. Unbelievably, they extended all the way from Saigon to the Cambodia border (including directly beneath a US military base) - over one hundred miles! We got to go down inside the tunnels a bit (very claustrophobic), and see some of their military strategies like bamboo spiked pits and land mines (made from the gunpowder of US bombs that failed to detonate on impact). And we watched a documentary film there that glorified their struggle against the Americans, "a crazy bunch of devils that bombed civilians and killed women and children." It was very interesting at one point when a (brave) Dutch person in the audience asked our host why he kept refering to their fight with the Americans - weren't the South Vietnamese involved as well? "Yes," the host conceded and from that point on he aways mentioned the Americans and South Vietnamese together.

Vietnam was great. I was worried for a few days when we in Hanoi at the start, but our visit turned out beautifully. So many great things to see and do here. Here is a link to a slideshow of our best photos (press F11 for fullscreen). Next stop: Cambodia.