Mon, Mar 17 – The Long Ride Home

The alarm went off at 3 AM, early, even by birding standards. We hauled our bags downstairs and met Adrian, our amazing local guide who never seems to rest. He bused us to the airport and left us with instructions on how to check in. There were few people around and we had to sit for half an hour until anything opened up. We scanned our bags, checked in with Malaysia Airlines and went to our domestic gate.

We boarded and got our two window seats, Bob in front of me, as we both want to see the scenery. We circled around Kota Kinabalu seeing more fancy condos and a beach resort before heading west to the Malay peninsula and the capitol, Kuala Lumpur. We were given a full breakfast of chicken and noodles and fruit and landed at 8:30.

K L Airport

Finally- Durian!

We walked through the lovely airport with its palm-filled atrium and shops worthy of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills! We managed to find a small stand selling Durian products and shared a Durian frozen fruit bar. It was quite delicious but did have a faint taste of old onions! I wanted to buy some gum, but nothing so plebeian was to be found, so I’m going home with a few very pretty Ringgit notes.

We’re flying Malaysian Airways, and on the same model plane, the 777, that is now very mysteriously missing. A little creepy – but what could we do? And anyway MA is an excellent airline with good legroom and good food...and they start all their in flight announcements with “ Ladies & Gentlemen, Boys & Girls…” which for some reason always struck us as very humorous! We got seats 35J & K, the same as we came over on, and started watching movies. We got lunch and a snack and arrived in Tokyo in the early evening. We had to disembark, walk quite a ways,go through security. go upstairs, walk in the opposite direction, and get right back on the same plane. We were served dinner with a delicious cold noodle salad with soy sauce, a packet of dried seaweed, and some wasabi. After dinner we took an Ambien each and slept pretty well until the same morning when we got lunch and landed at LAX at 1:40 PM.

At the great new Tom Bradley terminal, we were whisked through immigration, quickly picked up our bags, and dashed by customs. We were scheduled to ride home on the SB Airbus leaving at 3:30, but we as we emerged from the terminal, there was the 2 PM bus right there by the curb! What luck!!

Bob collapsed into a deep sleep all the way home, and awoke as we arrived in SB at 4:30. We grabbed a cab driven by a wild woman in a bright green wig (St. Paddy’s Day – who knew) who got us home in time for me to dash down to the Cat House Hotel and grab a howling Maddie! She yowled all the way home and has been super affectionate ever since! As we’ve had so much Asian food lately we drove over to Montecito for an Italian dinner at Via Vai. A great trip, but we’re all happy to be home!

Miss Maddie

XXX, Katy

Sun, Mar 16 - Returning to Kota Kinabalu

At 5:45 AM on an overcast morning we gathered at the bus for a short drive to area where the very rare Everett’s Thrush lives. We entered the forest in the dark, walked a short way, and sat/stood for 45 min waiting for the thrush that only can be seen at dawn. It was a long chance, but Rose Ann had been told by a researcher working nearby that the thrush comes by occasionally around sunrise, and she didn’t want to miss the chance that we might see it.

Temminck's Sunbird (Randy Beaton photo)

It began to drizzle which rapidly turned to moderate rain so we gave up, returned to the bus, and drove to breakfast for fresh roti and lentil stew. We returned back up the road to try once again for Whitehead’s Trogan and the elusive Black-sided Flowerpecker. At about nine Rose Ann saw that it was going to be stormy and rain all day which makes for really impossible birding.

Utensils delivered in a dish of hot water

Delicious Noodles!

We returned to our rooms, packed, loaded up the buses, and took off down the mountain. Just before we left a Temminck’s Sunbird flew by and Randy got a terrific photo. The weather improved as we got to lower elevations. We stopped at a gas station next to a marshy area and birded a bit. Adrian directed us into a small town where he knew of a family noodle restaurant. We created quite a stir when all 14 of us in our birding garb walked into this little café! We all got plates of noodles, vegetable, fish, or pork, which were all quite good. Then we noticed Adrian eating a plate of a chopped green and we asked what it was.

Cooks preparing our lunch

Bitter Melon

Delicious in garlic oil!

Bitter Melon...so we ordered two plates which came out fried in garlic oil and very good and very bitter, but the bitterness doesn't linger. How neat to eat at a real non-tourist place! (Restaurant photos courtesy of Randy Beaton)

The vans drove 40 min to a rice paddy area where we birded along the road. We were able to add many marsh birds that we hadn't seen earlier for our trip list, and it was nice to be out of the dense forest and in the open! We saw little shacks scattered throughout the paddies that Adrian says people stand in when rice is ready to harvest and shake strings attached from the huts to stakes to keep the birds away. There were also whirl-a-gigs and scare crows.

Paddy scarecrows

Newly planted paddies

We left at 3:30 and drove into Kota Kinabalu proper. It is quite a prosperous city with lots of apartment buildings, plain to fancy, and lots of cars! We drove past the lovely water front park with its bike & running paths full of people in the early evening strolling, fishing, and chatting and continued on past some very interesting looking open markets that would have been fun to explore.

One of many round-about sculptures

We got to the Promenade Hotel at 5 and Rose Ann gave us an hour to clean up which we all took full advantage of, reappearing all scrubbed, beards trimmed, and in our remaining clean clothes!

Rose Ann led us a few blocks to a row of restaurants built over the South China Sea. An Australian seafood restaurant could accommodate all 14 of us, and we settled down to a long table overlooking incoming freighters, islands and the setting sun – very romantic and exotic! Rose Ann and John kindly bought us several bottles of wine for our Farewell Dinner and we all had a good time.

Overlooking the South China Sea

Bob and I are leaving the earliest, and so will not see any of our group tomorrow, so we said our goodbyes and returned to our room to pack for the flight home.

Sat, Mar 15 - A Windy Day

Windy morning!

Bob and I awoke to fiercely blowing winds and climbed on the bus at 6:20. We drove up and down the road stopping at various points to look for Whitehead’s Trogan and a Black-sided Flowerpecker that we’re missing, but the wildly waving branches made birding almost impossible, so we were allowed a little time to check out the park shop and bought a few souvenirs. The views of the mountain were constantly changing and were very beautiful.

Chicken Satay

Liwagu lobby

We had another delicious lunch at Liwagu - chicken satay for me - and then a break until 2 PM. Bob and I sat on our little terrace and watched the clouds form and dissolve around the beautiful mountain top in the afternoon light.

Rose Ann decided to take us along the Silau-Silau and Liwagu Rivers along a new combination of trails. We were still hoping to see the elusive Trogan, a bright red bird with a silvery breast that usually sits calmly in one spot for a while. The trail went up and down through lovely scenery. Adrian, our local guide, pointed out a colorful Trilobite Beetle, a 3" long red and black beetle that never leaves its larval stage. We also saw the world’s smallest orchid, white and purple and the size of a small lentil!

Tiny Orchid

Trilobite beetle

On the way back, having seen no new birds due to the wind, I slipped and fell, jamming my knee. A few seconds of intense pain, but then I was able to walk back to the bus OK. Thank Goodness!

Back in our room, I flipped the switch for hot water and soon took a relaxing shower before dinner back at Liwagu. Our group had earlier eaten the restaurant out of vegetable samosas, our favorite dish, but they were miraculously back in stock and we cleaned them out once again.

Fri, Mar 14 - Rain, great birds and plants!

The alarm went off at 5:15 and immediately it started to rain. We headed for the buffet at the Kinabalu Balsam Restaurant and then drove up the road and walked around in the drizzle/ rain. Suddenly we saw probably the most spectacular bird of Borneo, Whitehead’s Broadbill, a fluorescent green bird about 10’ long with black under the chin and black edging the feathers on the back. Even in the middle of a very green forest it glowed! It flew around several times so we all got good views.

Whitehead's Broadbill
From surfbirds.com ©Simon Harrap

We then split up into two groups and hiked from the top or bottom of a trail that follows the Silau-Silau, a nearby stream. Bob and I hiked up stream with John and got very good views of the Bornean Forktail, a lovely bird with a very white crest, very black body adn white again on its lower back and a very long white and black striped tail!

 It started to rain in earnest but we had no choice but to continue up the trail climbing up muddy roots and rocks with our bins, umbrellas and walking stick! We met the other group coming down and finally got to the top and our bus. We drove back to the Liwagu Restaurant for lunch. I had a great plate of veggie-filled samosas with a delicious peanut sauce.

A walking stick on Keith's hat

Birding in the wet jungle

2 PM we all set off for the other side of the park at a much lower elevation, where there is a large hot springs resort, Poring Hot Springs (named for Poring, a high-quality type of bamboo). On the way we stopped at a Rufflesia garden. Rufflesia is rare parasitic plant that has a very complicated life cycle; the park officials encourage the local people to grow them, allowing the gardeners to charge tourists a set fee to view the flowers. The flowers which can reach almost 40” in width and 20 lbs. in weight give off an odor of rotten meat, attracting flies. The flies spread the pollen and fertilizing the flowers. The resulting fruit is then eaten by squirrels and tree shrews that disperse the seeds. The seed must fall near a particular species of vine which it invades and parasitizes.   A small bud grows beside the vine which finally turns into the flower which is open for only a few days after which it collapses and dies if it hasn’t been fertilized. The family who owned this plot grew all sorts of exotic fruits which I could have spent quite a while tasting and photographing!

Rafflesia bud

Rafflesia flower

We stopped across from a fruit stand to check out a weedy area that contained some very large pitcher plants, Nepenthes sp. The fruit stand was selling Durian, a foot long spiny fruit that has been called “the King of Fruits” by some! It is supposedly wonderful to eat but many people think it stinks horribly and can make your breath smell foul for days!  I was sorely tempted to try it, but being on a small bus, thought the better of it!!

Durian fruit

Pitcher Plant, ~6" long

We arrived at the springs at almost four and walked through a park and past the baths. We returned to the parking lot to await the Waterfall Swifts who fly out from behind waterfalls just at dusk.

Poring Springs baths

Alas, they didn’t show, but we had a very interesting day nevertheless. We got back to our Lodge at seven and walked over to the Liwagu restaurant for dinner. I had prawn fritters, elaborately coated shrimp with a delicious hot sauce and tequila and lemon water to drink. Several of us followed dinner with a great dessert of banana in pastry, raspberry sorbet and mango pudding!

Beautiful moth outside Lynn's door

Thu, Mar 13 - Exploring Mt. Kinabalu Park

We all slept in and reconvened at 6 AM which felt very leisurely. And we have an additional van which Rose Ann must have ordered up from Kota Kinabalu – so we’re riding in comfort now! The temperature was 59 degrees - lovely and cool after the hot lowlands. We all walked up the road a bit trying for the Crimson-headed Partridge. We got it to respond to the tape with its loud raucous call but it didn’t show itself. The vans took us back to the restaurant for breakfast. I had porridge with some unlabeled savory and sweet things to put on it and a scrambled egg with some delicious roti, Indian flat bread.

Mt. Kinabalu from our room

The vans took us up to the end of the road to a locked fence at the Timpohon Gate through which the hikers who are going to climb the mountain set off for the shelter half way up the slope. There they spend the night in a dorm and take off at 2:45 AM, climb to the top just in time to see the sun rise over Borneo, if it’s not cloudy or raining, and then start down, arriving at the gate late in the day.

Hikers setting off for the peak

Not my idea of a good time but there was quite a crowd of hikers waiting to be let through the gate. There were also some colorfully-veiled women tourists from Kuala Lumpur whom I was trying to surreptitiously photograph, when they turned and asked if they could photograph us! So we all gathered together to be to be in a picture with other exotic tourists!

Various "exotic" tourists

We had lunch at Liwagu Restaurant near our lodge which has an interesting menu; I had chicken curry with roti bread that was excellent. We sat on a cool verandah with pots of blooming fuchsia overhead and got some excellent views of Temminck’s Sunbird, a brilliant red hummingbird-like bird.

Delicious Roti and chicken curry

Our vans took us to the Bukit Ular trailhead and we, with our boots on, marched into the beautiful woods. There was some mud and our shoes would have done the job, but since we all packed with the expectation of lots of rain and mud, plus leeches, we want to use some of the equipment we hauled here! We walked through a forest of tall trees, ferns, and small palms. Kinabalu Park has the world’s highest number of rhododendron, fern and orchid species for a park - we’re concentrating on birds, but there’s a lot to see!

The trail came out of the woods and followed a narrow damp path along the edge of a very steep and seemingly bottomless cliff. I found it quite scary to hike there and bird at the same time, and fortunately had a walking stick loaned me by Rita who says she only needs one. But we saw some good species including a flock of small round Red-breasted Partridges, warm brown with bright orange breasts, and we managed to switch positions on the narrow trail so that all 14 of us got to see them.

It was getting dark when we returned, so we dropped our gear in our rooms and went back to the Liwagu where we had a set menu of a very good beef and fish dishes, various veggies and, of course, a large mound of rice.

The others went out for a night walk but Bob and I returned to catch a bit more sleep.

Wed, Mar 12 - to Mt.Kinabalu

We managed to get up at 4:15, brought our suitcases downstairs and went to the hotel restaurant where there was a wide variety of rolls and fruit. Bob selected a good looking fried egg which turned out to be stone cold! Not very appetizing. We assembled at 5:30, boarded a new bus. Last night’s was very spacious, but several people complained of a high pitched hum which drove them crazy, so now we have a brand new bus but much smaller with only 14 seats so with our birding hand luggage it is very cramped.

We drove east out of the city for about an hour and into the mountains of the Crocker Range National Park and parked on the side of a busy two-lane highway. The birding was terrific with all sorts of highland species flying in. We saw the Indigo Flycatcher, an azure-blue little bird with a pale belly and a Chestnut-crested Yuhina, a tiny bird with a wide chestnut crest and black, grey, and white body. We also saw a really cute squirrel: Whitehead’s Pygmy Squirrel. It is about 6” long, dark brown and has long white tufts on its ears!

It was great to be up in the less humid and cooler mountains and easier to keep birding for a long time. The birds seem to be higher up in the trees and more active, so photographing them is pretty difficult for me unfortunately. We have some really good photographers along; Randy and Peggy, hauling their huge and very heavy lenses, are able to focus on birds and are getting amazing shots! Bob got about 19 life birds today and is well on his way to achieving his goal of 150 new birds for this trip!

Our Chinese restaurant

Cigarettes with very graphic
anti-smoking pictures on them!

We stopped by a small roadside Chinese restaurant and ordered up some platters of food and drove to a nearby forestry station to bird while it was being cooked. A very friendly marmalade cat joined us for about ¼ mile meowing constantly and rubbing against us. It was great to have a cat fix!

Our birding companion

Lunch

Glossy or Cave Swiftlets?

We returned for lunch and gobbled up platters of fried rice with chicken and fish, bowls of eggplant and mixed veggies. Then we squeezed back onto the bus and made the several hours drive up to the foot of Mt. Kinabalu. We could see the granite mountain with its jagged nearly 14,000’ high top as the clouds swirled around it. We entered the National Park and registered.

Mt. Kinabalu

We are staying at Hill Lodge in some chalets which we were told are very basic, but are really very pleasant and spacious, and even have amenities such as a hair dryer! We have an attractive hexagonal room with a magnificent view of the mountain. Our van took us back to the entrance of the park to the Kinabalu Balsam restaurant for dinner and had a good buffet and beer.

Hill Lodge

Tue, Mar 11 - On to Kota Kinabalu

After breakfast we split up into two groups, one back to where we saw the Pittas yesterday and one, a less strenuous walk along the river. We took the easier route and walked out with Paul, the amazing lodge bird guide, and saw several new birds, plus some great shiny black daddy-long-legs. We returned at 11:00 to shower, pack, and get ready to leave. We had one last wonderful buffet lunch: coconut spinach soup, veg curry and rice for me with litchis and pineapple for a sweet.

Lovely Black Daddy-Long-Legs

Huge tree in the Rainforest

Leech count: with the dry weather and all our leech sock prep, only a couple of us actually qualified for the “Blood Donor” certificates the lodge gives out. I was kind of looking forward to a least a couple of leeches, but no!

We said goodbye to the attentive, terrific Borneo Rainforest Lodge staff and set off in a few vans for the three hour ride back to Lahad Datu. As we left it started to rain and rained most of the way to the airport. Having everything dry made our visit easier, but a little rain would have made the birds livelier and washed off all the dust. Maybe we’ll get some in the mountains?

At the tiny airport we did the List and checked in and watched our luggage carted to the turbo-prop in the drizzle. We boarded and crossed the state of Sabah in an hour, landing at 7 PM in its capital, the city of Kota Kinabalu. This city of about half a million is situated on the coast between the well-forested Crocker Range and the South China Sea. We picked up our luggage and were bused to the Promenade Hotel, a nice, large city hotel. Rose Ann suggested that we order room service for dinner which sounded great, rather than clean up and congregate for another meal together. Bob and I settled into our room, got grilled chicken and lamb and repacked for an early 5:30 AM exit from the hotel. The Ethernet was excellent and I managed to send off another blog post.