You can only get to the Bako National Park by boat and it was a rough ride. The rain and sea spray got under my gortex to mingle with the sweat from the warm breeze. Even with my sunglasses on, the rain stung my eyes so much I could barely see. I missed all the shanties on stilts across from the boat ramp despite the garish colours. Once in the park, the rain came down harder and permeated everything so that the sheets on our beds were damp before we even lay on them.
But before we thought of doing that, we took a wet walk through the jungle, up over a nearby hill to a local beach. Its colour wasn’t enticing enough for a swim, though whether it was the sand churned up by the rough seas or the tannin in the river water spilling out is uncertain. The next day, forecast to rain all day, actually remained sunny long enough for us to walk to a further beach, take a tepid swim in the less murky waters and to get burnt on the way home. Each step was on well marked but sodden trails and I’m amazed that I didn’t see a single leech. Back home, I would have had 40 in that same distance and weather conditions.
Animal-wise, it was almost as disappointing as the orangutans. We saw long-tailed monkeys and silver-leaf monkeys, but the proboscus monkeys seemed determined to stay out of camera range. Ours, at least. Others had up to 20 monkeys playing around them within minutes of us returning to our cabin.
The locals were friendly, but generally kept to themselves. I spoke to one of the workers who helped out in the kitchen, bringing water and doing other odd-jobs. He told me that he spent 3 weeks in the park then got 1 week back in Kuching. From what I saw, he spent most of that 3 weeks watching TV in the canteen.
We cut our trip short because of the weather and got a boat back to the mainland on calm seas with a clear view of the beautifully garish shanties and a sighting of a baby crocodile resting on a buoy.