KK

Went out to the Bako national park. It has been a protected area since 1957. The brochure said. Likely to see wild animals. We took a .30 bus ride to the jetty and then took a boat down the estuary, it was high tide. We cruised out to Bako along dense jungle and high cliffs. It reminded me a bit of boating the fjords around Ketchikan but it looked more like the home of King Kong. We arrived at the dock and had reservations for a dorm room. As we stepped up onto the doc a kind German let us know that a few 300 meters down a plank walkway were a few monkeys. We headed down as quiet as possible. I found a few people standing around and they let us know that over in the trees were a few Proboscis monkeys, AKA big nose, AKA Jimmy Durante monkey. I soon spotted a small one, and thought "oh how cute" then i saw an adult. About the size of a small child. Bigger than Abbie, smaller than Henry. Johnny had his video camera on one and got a great shot of him leaping to another tree. They were soon done doing their thing and headed back into the thicket. We headed towards the lodges, on the way we came across some 30 Macaque monkeys, these are the little ones that you think of when you think of monkeys. It was about now that the mosquitoes came out in full force too. So we headed on down the trail, another few hundred meters ( we don't use feet anymore) i spotted a big bore like animal. I didn't know if we should be nervous or not. Soon another person came up and told us to pay no mind, aside from checking it out, not to be scared. It had big ole' teeth in the front and used its nose to rip up large chunks of grass and dirt in search of worms. It was like a piggy rototiller. We had been there for less than an hour and seen all this wildlife. We settled in and joined a night hike, there were like 13 of us so we didn't see much. The next morning we planned on getting up early. I actually woke up at 3am to the sound of thunder. I got dressed and walked down to the beach and sat and watched some amazing lightning for about an hour. At 7am i got us all up and we walked back to where we saw the Proboscis' There were none so we headed up the 45 minute trail. just a few minutes into the hike we heard some thrashing in the trees and spotted about 20 or so. We sat and watched them for well over an hour. What i also think is neat is they are only here in Borneo, No where else in the world not even in the Zoo, or so they say. A couple was headed up the trail so we left so that they could check them out too. Too many people would have scared them away. The rest of the hike wasn't nearly as cool, monkey wise that is. The landscape was great. Crazy big insects and plants i'd never even imagined were around. It isn't so much hot as it is humid, I was totally wet, but not uncomfortably hot. I was well doused with bug spray, so didn't end up with many bites either. At the end of the hike we saw three more of the wild pigs and the family of little monkeys again. We had only planned the one night so headed back on a boat, bussed back into the city and took a night flight to Kota Kinabalu or K.K. for short. The whole trip to Bako food, transportation, and lodging $20 each.
Now in K.K. I just finished day one of four on PADI Open Water Dive Certification. There was a little questionnaire that asked about any complications from leg or arm injuries. Since i marked yes i had to first see a physician. $15 and 15 minutes later i was cleared and oked to dive. Today was all in the classroom and tomorrow we head out to some island, very exciting. I have yet to buy a camera or hear back from Travel insurance people.