June 30th, 2016

Day 92: Bako National Park

Kuching was a nice stop for a day-trip and to get chores done, but ultimately, we didn’t travel this far from NYC to hang out in cities – time to explore a new National Park! Bako is famous as the only place in the world where you can see Proboscis Monkeys in the wild, so we allocated 3 days and 2 nights to make sure we had enough time to find & photograph them.

We had asked for bus directions the night before, and everyone confirmed that the No. 1 bus would pick-up around 7AM from any bus stop on the way out of the city (saves us the trip of going all the way to the bus terminal!). Sure enough, a big red bus drives by around 7:10AM and we hop on and buy tickets to Bako – the end of the line.

Taking the bus from Kuching to the Bako boat terminal

An hour later, once we reach the boat terminal, we have to book our boat passage to and from the park, and buy our permits. Since the boats don’t start running until 9AM, we have plenty of time for an egg sandwich breakfast and a cup of coffee. By the time the boats get going, there are at least another two dozen tourists waiting for a ride (they must have taken taxis, since the bus only runs once/hour). After a 45min drive, we arrive in the park, and follow the boardwalk to the HQ to check in. Halfway to the main building we spot out first Bearded Pig! We gleefully start snapping pictures – little do we realize that not only will we see dozens of pigs during our stay, *all* the wildlife we see in the park will be right around the Park HQ.

Checking in at the jumping off point for Bako

Boarding the boat for Bako! We also learn that there are crocodiles in the park, and one in particular has been hanging around the Bako beaches, which means no swimming anywhere in the park

On our way to Park HQ, and we see our first Bearded Pig, rooting around near the boardwalk – couldn’t give a shit that he is destroying the lawn

Welcome to Bako! Beware of animal attack. Seriously – you can get really close to the animals here – it’s tempting to reach out and pet them…DON’T.

We couldn’t check-in to our room until 2PM, so we dropped off our big bags in the HQ luggage room and picked up a map of the park. The Lintang Trail was the only open loop in the park, and took an estimated 3-4 hours to complete, so it seemed like a good way to kill some time, explore the park, and maybe spot our first monkey! Negatory: other than some mudskippers and crabs, we didn’t see a single animal on the trail.

Heading into the Bako jungle on the Lintang Trial – it’s an easy boardwalk for the first kilo or so, but turns into a brutal uphill climb

A school of mudskippers, *literally* hanging out in the mangrove beaches of Bako

Mudskippers & Hermit Crabs!

Taking a lunch break on the Lintang Trail

The “viewpoint” from the top of the first hill – the dense jungle vegetation makes it hard to see the beach below…

The trees thin out for a bit at the top of the hill, exposing us to the cruel sun! We’re happy to duck into the shade of the forest again.

After 4 hours of trekking, the trail finally leads us back to the beach – if only we could take a swim! Darn that croc!

Once we return to the Park HQ, we pick up our bags and get the keys to our cabin. Online reviews prepared us for the worst, but we didn’t think it was that bad – basic sure, no AC and no hot water for the shower, but honestly a COLD shower was exactly what we wanted after our hike!

We were super excited when we saw that the windows of the cabin had screens – we started to think that maybe we could sleep with the windows open at night. We were warned that monkeys will break into your room if you leave the windows open, but we figured we could air out the room while we sat on the porch and snacked on some cookies. NOPE. About 5min later we heard a crash behind us – sure enough, a macaque had quietly pushed the screen aside and crept into our room and stole our can of Pringles before we noticed the break-in! Lindsay was REALLY pissed off at the monkey, taking the theft very personally. Igor kept trying to reason with her that a wild animal really shouldn’t be held to the same standards as humans, but she refused to cut the thieving monkey any slack.

Our cabin in Bako National Park – a detached duplex. Paper-thin walls and no AC, but it was clean and there was a ceiling fan over the bed.

Watching a bearded pig walk by our window, before getting down to business and hanging our new mosquito net

Macaques EVERYWHERE. As soon as they saw our open windows, they planned their heist. See the thief running off into the jungle with our Pringles?!?

Monkeys can be such assholes. After stealing our food, this monkey comes over and starts masturbating in front of Igor – then the whole pack starts fucking with a poor monitor lizard. Jerks.

Our first snake of the entire trip. This guy was a lot nicer than the stupid macaques. Just slithering in a bush – not bothering anyone.

After closing down our room, we headed back toward the park HQ to see if we could get some advice on the best place to try and spot Proboscis monkeys at dusk. The ranger suggested either the Delima Trail or the Paku Trail. Since we already walked the Delima Trail as part of our Lintang trek in the morning, we started heading down the beach toward the Paku Trail, when all of a sudden we heard a loud rustling in the trees above us…

PROBOSCIS MONKEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This guy let Igor get about one meter close – no zoom lens needed

A large, male Proboscis Monkey just posing for the camera – look at that belly, THAT NOSE!

Celebrating our Proboscis Monkey sighting – we LOVE BAKO!

We no longer had a need to head down to the Paku Trail, so we spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach, checking out the cool rock formations and chasing bearded pigs during sunset. Dinner at the park café was pretty decent (they even had beer!), and we had a beautiful starry sky to end the night. Awesome day.