Days 41 & 42: Kuching, the city of cats and Bako National Park

It was a short flight to Kuching, in western Borneo. For those of you not up on your geography, Malaysia is split into two parts, the peninsula where Kuala Lumpur and Penang reside, and the top half of the island of Borneo, which it shares with Indonesia.

This afternoon was the start of my trekking tour. There were a dozen of us and I was sharing a room with Cath from England. I had time for a short exploration of the city, the name of which means 'cat' in Malay.

At the hotel I had double-checked, and yes, my Canon battery charger and extra battery were missing. Hence my relief when I noticed a Canon store right by these cats. (I can't remember ever seeing a Canon store in my life, and here, just when I needed one desperately, I found one!)

A clerk took my camera into a back room, then returned saying that they could not help me; the camera was too old and the charger had been discontinued. Story of my life! Another shop sold me a general charger which they thought would work. When you attached the battery to the prong thingies, the light glowed, showing that it was supposedly charging. But it wasn't. It just showed that I had wasted my money.

At least I had my Olympus back-up camera! I took that out with me when we all went out to eat at a restaurant with a view of the harbour. We sat outside and there were a few city cats around. My Olympus worked better in the dark anyhow, and I took several cat photos. It was only much later that I realized I must have left my camera on the table at the restaurant!

I noticed it was missing the next day, but thought it was in my big bag, which I had left behind at the hotel. We were travelling by boat to Bako National Park, staying in a hostel, so I only had my backpack with me.

On the way to Bako:

We went on a long, rocky uphill hike this afternoon. The view from the top made it worth the effort in the end, but there was more to see in the first hundred yards. Like this Long-tailed Macaque...

The wooden walkway ended quite soon and it was all rocky and uphill from there...

A pitcher plant:

View from the other side of the mountain:

The following shots are from the boat that we went back on.

Somebody warn Keith Richards!

Some beautiful and deadly snakes; the first one is a Paradise Tree Snake. It's slightly out of focus but I didn't really want to get any closer!

A beautiful pit viper:

View from the National Park headquarters veranda: let sleeping pigs lie...

That's a bearded pig:

I nixed the next hike, preferring to wander round by myself.

I saw a troop of probisus monkeys, endemic and rare.  Of course my camera decided to seize up.

We went for a night hike and this is some kind of creepy spider.