Heading up river

Only 2 out of 5 of us ended up making it up in time for the boat today. Backpackers are such slackers. My laundry finally showed up today, so the 3 of us stragglers are going to try again tomorrow. If all goes according to plan, I'll catch an ocean-going express boat here in Kuching to take me up the coast to Sibu. If the boat is on time, I should just be able to catch the last boat of the day up the Rejang River to the town of Kapit.

In Kapit, I'll hopefully meet up with Bathazar and possibly other travelers to head further up the river to visit some Iban or Orang Ulu longhouses. I'll explain what that means soon!

For now, here are a few videos I've tried uploading to youtube. I haven't done this before, so don't be expecting anything really exciting like the cat that plays the piano.

First up is a short video showing part of the boat ride to Bako. It doesn't catch the roughest part of the ride, but it gives you an idea. This was taken by Kevin from Calgary:



Next up are a couple of orang utan videos. The first shows the mother and child coming down from the trees to start feasting on fresh fruit:



The second one is my favorite. It shows the female meticulously husking a coconut only to have it snatched away by the male before she even gets to taste it. Her expression afterwards is priceless. This same scene was repeated on another feeding platform nearby (still photos showed a bit of that, with the male spilling the coconut milk down her back in his haste). You can't help but feel a little sorry for her, but it's kinda fun to watch anyway:



Finally, I've added some photos poached from fellow travelers (Kevin from Calgary and Tom from Belgium) which do better justice to Bako National Park. I'll try to stick these in chronologically eventually, but for now they start on page 22.