He crept across the field, hunched low, heading for the building where I sat. He didn't know I was watching from where I was sitting. Once he got to the building, he sidled up the side by climbing the drain pipe. I knew he was up to no-good. Then, quickly he hit his target. He grabbed it from the women and quickly ran away before anyone hardly realized what was happening. But, I saw it all! The hit and run thief in Bako, Borneo, Malaysia!

My journey today is done in two parts . I need the bus and the boat for this trip. Leaving the capitol city of Kuching this morning by bus, I arrived at the river boat dock in Kampung Bako, and bought a ticket on the speed boat to take me to the island. 

I will spend the next two days in Bako National Park. It's the oldest national park in Sarawak. Sarawak is a state in Borneo, which is an island in Malaysia. It's 25 miles from Kuching, but you have to reach it by boat.  

After about a 30 minute boat trip, we were let out a little ways from shore. It was low tide and the boat could not reach the shore. We waded, with our bags, through the water to the sandy beach, where the park headquarters is located.

The number of people allowed to visit Bako on any day is limited and the sleeping space is sometimes hard to come by. I reserved a bed for the night in the park a couple of days before in Kuching.

We (Ian from Australia), and I, got our assigned cabins and heard the instructions from the park rangers about what was expected . Among them, any time we went into the jungle, we had to sign the sheet listing where we were going and when we expected to return.

Armed with the maps the park rangers had given us, Ian (Australia) and Paul (we met on boat, British Isles) and I, headed for the 3 hour trek to the waterfall in the jungle.

What a beautiful hike! The trail was often covered in water (this is the rainforest, after all) and the terrain changed often. Trekking in the rainforest is a new adventure for me. We climbed up the mountain cliff through 'kerangas'. Kerangas is a type of moist tropical forest with sandy soil where the nutrients are very poor. Normal plants you might think of do not grow here. There are plants called 'pitcher plants' and peat bogs to get through, and MUD!
 
Up over tree roots and through washed out trails we climbed until we came out at the waterfall at the end. The hike to it was really fun and more the highlight of the trip than the waterall, actually . 

After walking across the creek on the fallen tree, we cooled off in the pools of the waterfall before starting our trek back.

One thing I saw in the jungle that startled me and made me more observant were the palm trees with trunks covered with needles. They look like porcupine needles and if you grab a hold of one of them while trying to climb up a hill, you could do real damage to your hands. Besides the needles, they look like any other palm tree to me, so could be very dangerous if you are not careful.

 At the end of the day, sitting at the canteen at the Park HQ, we saw long-haired wild pigs roaming around and a lot of the mischievous macaque monkeys swinging through the trees and running along the rooftops.

As I was sitting on the open deck, eating my plate of food, I saw one of these little creatures sneaking across the adjacent open field . He looked like he was up to no good. Across the field he came, hunched over as if he didn't want to be noticed. Then he sidled up to the building and quickly climbed the drain pipe and in an instant grabbed a woman's sweet roll right out of her hands, and made off with it. The woman screamed and the man tried to get his camera working, but it was too late. Monkey and sweet roll were long gone!

A very interesting species of monkey here is the funny (some say weird) looking proboscis monkey. They are commonly called wang-nosed weirdos. They are big monkeys (one of the largest species of monkeys in Asia) and have this huge belly and huge nose. The nose can be up to almost 4 inches long and hang lower than the mouth. They have webbed feet, also. What a sight! 

They can grow up to 30 lbs and be up to 2 1/2 feet tall. I passed one walking right on the boardwalk as I was going to my cabin one time and got a close up photo of him . He walked right past me on his side of the walk and didn't try to steal from me or anything!

I am an early riser. So, the next morning I was up by daylight with the intention of getting into the jungle while the wild-life was still active. 

While I enjoy trekking with others, I also enjoy the solitude of trekking alone. This morning, in the early hours of dawn, I headed into the jungle to find the 'monkey' beach. 

This was another great hike and I enjoyed taking my time and moving quietly in hopes of seeing some wildlife. Only monkeys and lizards and a few birds were stirring around, but the beach area was very relaxing. I sat on the rocks with the water splashing on the beach for an hour or so before heading back to HQ.

I could have stayed longer on the island, but there were no available beds for another night. They need to be booked in advance before reaching the park. So, I caught my boat back to the jetty in the village of Kampung Bako, later in the afternoon. 

Ian and Paul took a boat back also (each at different times), not able to get another night at the park, either.

We met up back in Kuching that night and it ended up we had all done the hike to the monkey beach, but at different times. We all 3 travel solo and it's in our nature to find alone time.