Well I think it's safe to say I have now seen the ugliest monkeys of all: the proboscis monkeys. They live in the trees along the Klias river in Borneo and are active in the evening when they eat. They have fat bellies and huge long, fat noses. The females have pointier ones and the larger males, with what look like big beer bellies, have bigger dangling noses that look like huge penises hanging out from their faces. Maybe that's why each male is considered a king and gets up to 8 females in his family. All the young males will leave the family by age two as there can only be one male. We also saw macaque monkeys, considered the naughtiest of all the primates.
It took nearly two hours driving time to reach the area where we had tea & a snack, then boarded the boat for about a 2 hour cruise down the river in search of wildlife. Mostly we spotted and watched the monkeys springing through the trees and munching large leaves. They have long white tails, hairy backs, and long front appendages. We got within 15 feet or so of a few of them, and they didn't seem to mind the boats pulling up to watch them. We must have seen about 50 of the proboscis monkeys on the journey, and I appreciated that we were seeing them in the wild, in their natural habitat.
Back at the lodge we were served a Malaysian buffet dinner, which was tasty: chicken curry, fried Mee (skinny noodles), sweet & sour fish, soy beef, & lots of veggies & papaya. Again I had a salad with cucumber & pineapple which go really well together & I hope to remember this & make it at home.
We loaded back onto the boat for a shorter cruise to see the fireflies. I didn't understand what the big deal was, we have fireflies n the US, in PA at least. I was reminded that there weren't any in Aizona, which I didn't notice until after living there a couple years, then returning to PA in summertime & seeing the "lightning bugs" & realizing I had missed seeing them while living in Arizona.
Anyway I was pleasantly surprised to see these fireflies, which were quite different than the comparatively big slow ones we have. These collected in one specific type of tree only & lit it up light a blinking Christmas tree. They are small & fast flashers, the females we were told are the brightest (insert obvious comment) in their attempt to attract males. I enjoyed the peace of being in the wilderness at night, besides the boat motor of course. I was reminded of a few other jungle trips where I traveled down river at night in search of wildlife, namely Ecuador, & Belize.
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