Uncle Tan

To kick start my two weeks holiday – Kinabatangan here I come! In just 3 short days, I felt as if I was thrown into a time capsule where the hours were determined by the sun rising, insects cricking and stars appearing. We’ve been looking forward to this trip – praying hard that we’d see the most notorious, scariest, rarest and wildest animals ever to roam the face of Sabah.

We arrived Sandakan with no hassle, and was transported immediately to Gum Gum the base camp of Uncle Tan (btw if you want to know more about Uncle T, check out www.uncletan.com). At base camp we were fed and left to laze a few hours away. The girls bought ourselves Adidas Hutan (inexpensive jungle shoes) so we didn’t have to worry about ruthlessly trashing our Nikes.

The afternoon flew by and was soon on a van to the boat dock where the adventure begins. The boat ride was a safari in itself – keeping all eyes on the right, left, front and top, we had our first glimpse at nature at it’s best. After an hour of spotting animals and getting used to mode of transport for the next few days, the boat stopped at a riverbank (totally unnoticeable if we didn’t stop). Three flags stood tall at our arrival and a simple wooden stairs ushered us up to the top of the river bank. Hauling our bags, we walked 500 metres to the little campsite (our home for 3 days).

With the premonition that it would not be a 5 star resort, I was all prepared to rough it out. To my amazement, the place wasn’t that bad after all. Our tiny hut was big enough to fit 6 people, with clean wooden floor boards, mattresses and mosquito nets. The hut even had a small verandah with bunk chairs to enjoy the cool and warmth of the rainforest. The next place I needed to check was definitely the TOILET. A huge sigh of relief to find the toilets quite clean and water wasn’t sparse – the only problem was that we had to fill our buckets before going in and if we didn’t have enough, well wrap yourself in a towel and fetch more water!

Just before dinner the camp staff gave us a short briefing preparing us for the night and day events. I had excitement and a slight sense of panic reeling in me (What if the tarantula climbed on me? What if a huge frog leaped in front of me? What if a snake bit me?) I could only brace myself for the worst and enjoy the most out of it!

After dinner we had our first safari ride. Walking back to the boat dock in complete darkness, we climbed into the boat and sputtered down Kinabatangan. The river was dead silent with no ripples heard. Everything was at a stand still and our eyes peering into sheer darkness trying to spot a creature. The guide shone his spotlight right and left eyeing and soon! The boat stopped and we saw a kingfisher – still, silent and unperturbed. The creature had no idea 12 pairs of eyes were staring gawking at it. I was dumbfounded at how close one can get to a bird without even a twick from it!

The same process followed as we spotted an owl, more kingfishers, a python, the eyes of a crocodile and lots of proboscis monkeys and long tail maccas.

Day 2:

Up and early for the 6am morning safari. We were forewarned that the creatures would scurry away within 2 hours of waking to shelter from the slithering heat. This time we spotted even more monkeys (by this time, we weren’t that amuse by those long tailed creatures and was aching to see other remote wildlife). We saw various kinds of hornbills, eagles, kingfishers, tons of egrets and a baby croc!

The baby croc (picture taken too late, hence u only see the eyes!) & one of the many Egrets

Headed back to camp for breakfast - fried noodles and pancakes. Enjoyed the morning and was soon preparing for the morning hike.

The guides told us that a pair of orang utan’s had visited the camp area and was to stay for a few days (if it had found a good resting place and abundant fruits). We gave it a shot, and went back to where they last spotted it. But since it was drizzling throughout the morning, the orang utan had clambered into her nest and snuggled in too comfy to climb out. We only saw traces of it’s orange fur :(

Since we didn’t see much that morning, the guide decided to venture in further. And further means messy-er, gooey-er, muddy-er and slimy-er! Rain was falling from above, the ground was as slushy as you can get. We stuck our feet into the thick mud, pulled it out again and toddled along the same pattern. Esther (8yrs old) braced through the adventurous ordeal without more than one initial whimper at the beginning. She thoroughly enjoyed it and didn’t bother about getting dirty. We didn’t manage to capture much wildlife, but the journey itself was an adventure worth the slime!

Me trying a 'Jane' stunt on a vine. Us cleaning up after the muddy hike.

We sat back and relaxed for most parts of the afternoon and almost immediately dozed off to lala land. Waking to the pitter patter on the rooftops and a call for our evening safari. On our way back from the safari, we met some newcomers to the camp. More people to join us- Japanese, Swedish, Dutch and Americans.

As time began to tick my adamant feeling of the night hike slowly crept back in. I gave strict orders for Terence to trail me on the night hike. We clattered our torches, wore our raincoats and tall fisherman boots bee lined into darkness. The guide showed us various insect (centipedes, millipedes etc), frogs and scorpions. Terence and Denise had a hair rising experience having a REAL black scorpion crawl on their palms! I watched in horror thinking the only time I’d do ever it is over my dead body! We hung on to trees, walked along tree roots, stuck our feet into more mud. I was praying hard that no creepy crawly will find itself anywhere close to me. But I had wanted to see the hairy beast – Tarantula! (for some reason) Thankfully it was 10 metres up on a tree. Even at that height, the 8 legger looked enormous. (It gives me shivers just talking about it!) By this time, rain had started pouring again, and water levels rose in mere minutes – still threading along, we managed to see more frogs and more creepy crawlies.

We only managed to snap a shot of the frog before my camera went dead:(

Day 3:

Determined to follow the new group on another morning safari, I woke at 6am to find it raining. Going back to bed wasn’t a good idea as they decided to carry on with the morning safari despite the rain. When we got word that it was on, it was too late, trudging to the boat dock to find all the boats gone. Dampened but not willing to let our last morning there pass by, we cleaned up and waited for any activity that might be happening. Much to our surprise, the orang utan we had tried spotting was only 300 metres down the trail from camp. And there was not only one but two of them. Swinging slowly and clumsily from branch to branch, munching on leafy greens and doing what it loves best – basking in the sun. We stood there observing for a good 15-20mins before deciding that the mosquitoes were eating us alive.

It was time to head home. Back to the concrete jungle and engines vrooming. Time has passed enveloping us with nature and its beauty. I want to return again soon… this time to see giant crocs and possibly elephants!

More pics of animals we saw...

Giant monitor lizard and proboscis monkey



Our very own rare species of babi hutan


Under the influence of our very own babi hutan, we succumbed to it