River safari

Kinabatangan river

As if I didn’t have enough jungle already, I had to go even further. I thought that a boat ride on the Kinabatangan River might offer more opportunities to see wildlife. And I wasn’t disappointed. I was lucky with the weather as well because although it rains almost every day, I was able to go on all outdoor excursions that I booked without being caught in the rain.

I was excited to see many proboscis monkeys, native to Borneo. They're quite distinctive, orange in color with huge noses and what looks like beer bellies.

Proboscis monkey

We saw several species of hornbill birds.

Hornbill

The jungle was full of macaque monkeys. Here they are seen climbing cables that were actually raised for orangutans to cross the river tributaries as orangutans don't like to swim.

Macaque monkey peeing

Our boat escaped in the nick of time when a macaque monkey that was perched above us decided to pee.

And there just had to be another tourist related incident on the river cruise. We noticed a macaque monkey that was quite agitated and our guide explained that it's a dominant male protecting his family from the tourists. We moved further away so as not to agitate him further. Then a boat full of Chinese tourists navigated very close to the macaque and the tourists proceeded to taunt him. I couldn't believe that tourists would be so rude as to have fun with an animal that was already agitated. The macaque eventually backed off into the jungle. Isn't it sad that tourists who come to observe wildlife don't understand that they should behave like visitors in the jungle?

Chinese tourists taunting the macaque