Just a short piece up the coast from Brunei is the Malaysian state of Sabah and the port of Kota Kinabalu, or “KK” as it is known locally and shall be known in this blog for efficiency. KK is the capital of Sabah and therein lies an interesting story… by the way, it was very hot in Indonesia and Malaysia. These are equatorial countries and you know it as soon as you step outside. Hot!

After World War II, the independent countries and sultanates of Malaya, Sarawak, Sabah, Brunei, Kalimantin, and Singapore were brought together to form Malaysia. However, Singapore and Brunei chose to remain as independent states, Kalimantan went with Indonesia and forms the southern two-third of Borneo, and Sarawak and Sabah joined Malaya to form Malaysia. What is interesting in this whole thing, is that both Sabah and Sarawak are still independent in that they each have their own government, but they still receive funding from Kuala Lumpur (KL), the capital of Malaysia, and report to KL administratively.

For our short stay, we took a bus tour to a local wildlife sanctuary, Lok Kawi Wildlife Park. This facility recovers and nurses abandoned and injured animals from the wild and, where possible, releases them back to the wild. However, to make ends meet, they have added some exhibits of non-indigenous species and the facility has become zoo-like in their presentation of the animals. This is necessary to generate sufficient funding to keep the mission going.

We were fortunate to have as our guide/interpreter one James Chew, a member of the Murut tribe and a headhunter! Actually, James is an extremely knowledgeable man in his mid-fifties, actually is a Murut tribesman, and is descended from that former headhunting tribe. It is only as recently as the 1960s that this practice was ended. James explained that the practice of headhunting was to assure that the men of the tribe could provide for their families and that they were brave warriors. Headhunting was not cannibalism. They also did not “shrink” the heads as was done by some Amazonian tribes. Once we got that out of the way, James provided a wealth of information on Borneo’s indigenous wildlife, plant life and customs. James also runs two-week “bush camps” for tween-agers and teen-agers. He told some interesting and funny stories about how these kids react to losing iPod, iPhone, and Internet while in the bush. This was probably one of our best tours to date.

Back to the sanctuary: Among the rare species we viewed and visited with were Sun Bears, Orangutans (“Orang Utan” in Malay since orang = man and utan = ape), and Proboscis Monkeys. We also had an up close and personal encounter with a three-year old baby Pygmy Elephant.

The Sun Bears are a unique species found only in Borneo and a few parts of nearby southern Asia. They only stand about four feet tall and look cute, but they have claws and teeth to rival a grizzly. We watched one open a coconut to drink the juice and eat the pulp. It took him (her?) about two minutes to take a fresh coconut and remove the husk, break open the “eye” end, drink the juice, and start scraping out the pulp.

The one on the left has just asked for a new coconut to tear apart. The one on the right is about two minutes later after he tore off the husk and cracked the "eye" end to get a drink.

We also met two “tribes” of Proboscis Monkeys. Each tribe consists of one male and up to about thirty females. The two tribes had be kept separated by fencing because the males will fight each other to the death to protect their harem if they feel that their territory is being invaded. It is really easy to tell the male from the females: the male has a HUGE nose, whereby they come to their name. The females also have large protruding noses, but they tend to be more pert-looking and upturned at the end. The males are also most definitely male (but this is a family-oriented blog and I can’t go into more detail here).

The male Proboscis Monkey is characterized by the "Jimmy Durante" nose. The females have a similar, but perkier looking appendage. The baby on the right is a female and is only about six months old.

The Orangutans are the stars of the show. The sanctuary has six in residence currently: one male; four females; and, one baby of currently indeterminate sex, but most probably female. They, too, are coconut eaters and are just as efficient, if not more so, as the Sun Bears. They knock the coconut against a post or tree to crack it and get to the juice and pulp.

The one on the left is a female. We couldn't get clear shots of the male as he kept to the back of the enclosure. The baby on the right is a bout a year old and is just discovering coconuts. He will carry this one around in his mouth for a while and then try to open it befort giving up.

Our elephant encounter was quite unexpected. We were moving from the main elephant exhibit to another when we came upon a trainer/keeper walking a baby elephant along one of the paths. He stopped and allowed us to feed her (carrots), pet her, and have our pictures taken with her. The Pygmy Elephant is actually a misnomer. The bulls stand about six to seven feet high at the shoulder when full-grown and can weigh about three tons and the females are slightly smaller. This baby was about three years old and as you can see from the pix, she was just as cute as any other three-year-old – possibly cuter…

We managed to get up close and personal with "Lola" a three-year old pygmy elephant. She will grow to about twice her current size by the time she is a teenager. The sanctuary hopes to be able to release her back to the wild.

After our animal encounters, we drove to a cultural center/museum and had a look at a number of indigenous tribal home styles. These were examples set in appropriate woodland and jungle settings. The museum also had an interesting exhibit on headhunting, but our time there was too short and we had to return to the ship before we could really see a lot. It was hot and we were ready to get back to the relative comfort of the ship and it’s A/C. It was hot, Hot, HOT and humid!

I had an opportunity to use a real blowgun and try for a balloon pop. On the left I received my instructions and on the right I saw the results - I popped a balloon on the first try! Unfortunately, they had no cheap plush animals to give as prizes. My prize was that I remembered to blow out rather than to inhale...

We are now on our way to Haikou, China. First we have a couple of sea days to recuperate and cool off as we head a little further north. Did I mention that it was HOTTTT!