Uncle Tan's Wildlife Camp
I had a great time at Uncle Tan's camp. We saw a lot of wildlife, but most notible were: an orang utan in the wild, a red leaf monkey, the tiniest leaf frog in Malaysia and a herd of Asian pigmy elephants.
The elephants were a special treat, as they aren't usually around this time of year. Lan, the manager of the camp, got permission to go 1 1/2-hours down river to try to find them. We saw them foraging by the river banks and pulled over to a place where we could go onshore. He told us to hide in the grass as the elephants tromped past about 15-feet away on the trail above us. When an elephant came into view, we jumped up, took a photo and then dropped for cover again. It was quite cool and exhilarating.
Later on we boated further down to where they were lounging by the river. This is where we counted 35 of them. A few of them went into the water, ass end first. Our boat almost touched shore and we were less than 15 feet from them at times.
On the way back, in the dark, the engine quit. Lan got out the light and began doing engine repair. It took about 15-minutes but he got the engine running again. Whew, we didn't have to spent a night on the jungle floor with bananas for dinner...
Uncle Tan's was very cool but we exhausted after three days. We had survived about 8 one-to-two hour boat trips and several jungle treks.
After we left Uncle Tan's, we caught a bus to Semporna and stayed overnight at the floating Dragon Inn. Aptly named, as it is built on stilts over Semporna harbor. While Semporna is a dingy, dirty town, the Dragon Inn is quite nice. It has long boardwalks, a good restaurant and probably 50-100 rooms, all built on stilts over the water. The rooms have heated showers, air conditioning and a TV! They keep groupers, crabs and other sealife in a netted area next to the restaurant, so in terms of seafood, you can't get it much fresher!
The next morning we headed to the Seaventures oil rig (converted to a dive resort) where we would be staying for the next three days. There were two of us and the captain in a boat with two 200-HP outboards. That thing flew!
I had a great time at Uncle Tan's camp. We saw a lot of wildlife, but most notible were: an orang utan in the wild, a red leaf monkey, the tiniest leaf frog in Malaysia and a herd of Asian pigmy elephants.
The elephants were a special treat, as they aren't usually around this time of year. Lan, the manager of the camp, got permission to go 1 1/2-hours down river to try to find them. We saw them foraging by the river banks and pulled over to a place where we could go onshore. He told us to hide in the grass as the elephants tromped past about 15-feet away on the trail above us. When an elephant came into view, we jumped up, took a photo and then dropped for cover again. It was quite cool and exhilarating.
Later on we boated further down to where they were lounging by the river. This is where we counted 35 of them. A few of them went into the water, ass end first. Our boat almost touched shore and we were less than 15 feet from them at times.
On the way back, in the dark, the engine quit. Lan got out the light and began doing engine repair. It took about 15-minutes but he got the engine running again. Whew, we didn't have to spent a night on the jungle floor with bananas for dinner...
Uncle Tan's was very cool but we exhausted after three days. We had survived about 8 one-to-two hour boat trips and several jungle treks.
After we left Uncle Tan's, we caught a bus to Semporna and stayed overnight at the floating Dragon Inn. Aptly named, as it is built on stilts over Semporna harbor. While Semporna is a dingy, dirty town, the Dragon Inn is quite nice. It has long boardwalks, a good restaurant and probably 50-100 rooms, all built on stilts over the water. The rooms have heated showers, air conditioning and a TV! They keep groupers, crabs and other sealife in a netted area next to the restaurant, so in terms of seafood, you can't get it much fresher!
The next morning we headed to the Seaventures oil rig (converted to a dive resort) where we would be staying for the next three days. There were two of us and the captain in a boat with two 200-HP outboards. That thing flew!
posted by Chris at 10:00 PM
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