AT SEA Bako National Park Malaysia to CAMP LEAKEY
Wednesday Oct 17, 2012
www.ecosystem-guides.com Damon Ramsey
We are at sea all day today heading south from Bako Island, Sarawak Malaysia to Kalimantan, Indonesia. Dayaks were the inhabitants of Kalimantan through the 17th century, then the Malay migrated in and built their own sultanates. Chinese miners from the Lanfang Republic defeated the Malay Sultans and created their own republic which ultimately ended when the Netherlands took over in 1884. The Dutch created a "transmigration plan" in the 1930's to move population from the densely populated areas of Java to Irian Jaya and Kalimantan. The 1960's brought about the clearing of lands from rain forest to palm oil cultivation which has devastated so much of Indonesia and Borneo today, and this also caused huge conflicts with the local Dayak tribes' traditional way of life and there have been major conflicts resulting in over 500 deaths in 1996, 1999 and 2001.
Today there is still conflict and tension here in Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation in the world, and Indonesian being one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. By the way, Indonesians almost all speak at least one other language including Javanese, Minangkabau and Sundanese - which they use at home and within their own communities. The language is known as Bahasa Indonesia, or shortened to "Bahasa", which literally translated means the language of Indonesia. (Bahasa simply means language).
We had a slower start to the day since we are all day at sea on our long run heading South from BAKO National Park Malaysia to Camp Leakey in Borneo. The sky was quite dark and in fact there was a major electrical storm aft of the ship on the horizon, with Carrie sitting out back at the smokers' table on deck 3 watching it - the rain was a tropical downpour - and yesterday the Expedition Leaders' were suggesting that the winds we were seeing were suggesting that the monsoon season was fast approaching - we're hoping that doesn't mean too much rain when we get our beach break in Bali after the cruise ends.
Terry was snoozing (and snoring) as long as I would let him sleep (I was reading with my book light) so I flung the drapes open and suggested it might be time to rouse himself! We had lattes in the Club Lounge aft on deck 2 then headed down to the Restaurant for breakfast which had been moved inside due to the rain with the start delayed until 8am. The fruit every morning is wonderful - we are all enjoying the figs, dates (fresh, sweet and soft), melons, sweet pineapple, tiny bananas, and mangoes so much - and the muesli. Jay the short order cook was ready with his ever present smile to cook eggs to order and a welcome to the day.
By 9:30am we were seated front row in the Main Lounge for Mick Fogg's presentation - from Sultanates to States. Mick is just back on duty today after being under for the last 3 days with a bug picked up from guests on the last cruise - his Aussie sense of humour and deep knowledge of the history of this part of the world are so very amazing. The borders and religions of all the countries have changed so much, and are continuing to change - even today some islands are being claimed by Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Japan! (they are known in Japan as SENKAKU and in China as DIAOYU islands).
In barely more than an hour amazing Mick (amazing depth of knowledge) had taken us from the Malay Archipelago to what is now the current 17,800 islands known as Indonesia. Below is some of what Mick told us - I may not have all the facts correct but I can tell you it was an amazing history of this part of the world and sure makes you want to do more exploring here! We learned about Borneo as a trading centre from the 500's to the 1300's known as the Colony Era for the Chinese, Indian and Japanese trading in gold, camphor, tortoiseshell, hornbill ivory, rhino horn, beeswax, rattan through to the Javanese trading in diamonds in South Borneo. Then the colonial wars looking for spices with arrivals of the Netherlands (Dutch East India), British East India, Portugese, Spanish arrivals. The island originally was mostly Buddhist, with coastal areas Hindu starting in 1635 to gradual conversion to to Islamist with the Muslims today .
Malaya was under UK rule, and Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (from UK) established Singapore in 1819 which was outside the realm of the Anglo Dutch Treaty of 1824 which really angered the Dutch. Then there was World War II with Japan taking over the entire island of Borneo within 12 months from 1942 - and occupying Borneo (with associated atrocities) until 1945. 2 days after Japan surrendered Indonesia declared their independence. This Independence has been both successful and unsuccessful to varying degrees and corruption is now at every level of local and Federal government. From 1950-1957 there was Independence which was a disaster with so many people trying to rule, then 1957-1965 Guided Democracy which was a 3 way blend of the Army, the Islamic Groups, and Communism (PKI). China, USA and Russia (imagine that!) each working against each other as their governments came in to develop their own businesses and backed various factions of the power struggle. Mick suggested watching the movie "The Year of Living Dangerously" for a brief glance at Indonesia in 1965-1966. Somewhere between .5 and 3 million were murdered during this year.
1966-1968 was the New Order - and later comparisons between Sukarno vs Suharto suggested that Sukarno was trying to inspire a country with Imagination, versus Suharto who was trying to provide full bellies but empty spirits. From 1998 through present day is known as REFORMATION but with bribery and corruption being rife through every level of government where a $7,000 motorbike can buy almost anything, and worse yet, the bribery is all being paid by International Companies to get what they want - it is not Indonesians bribing other Indonesians.
Mick recommended a great book on how the island of New York was traded for the island of Banda called "Nathaniel's Nutmeg".
Sabah (northeast corner of Borneo) was known as British North Borneo, capital city is Kota Kinabalu ruled until 1942 by the British North Borneo Company. Sarawak was originally just the small town of Kuching (Kuching comes from the Malay word kucing which means cat- although Kuching was probably named not from the animal cat, but the green longan fruit known locally "as cat's eye fruit" because of the round white ball inside the outer casing. Sarawak grew from Kuching to the large province in Malaysia under the rule of the First White Rajah Brit James Brook who was in power from 1841-1868. The second and third Rajah's were James Brook's two nephews - although he disinherited the first nephew and threatened death to him if he ever returned to Sarawak - his nephew held different views on how Sarawak should be ruled.
The other country on the island of Borneo is Brunei - believed to have been named Brunei by the Portugese who could not pronounce Borneo! The Sultan of Brunei kept selling off parts of his country because he could not afford to maintain -ultimately Brunei was reduced to a very small country with a tiny population and guess what? Oil was discovered 974 feet down in Brunei and now Brunei is the richest country in the world! Out of all of the land that the Sultan of Brunei had sold, he had kept the piece of land that contained 99% of the oil!
Oil was first found in MIRI Sarawak and it was executives from two oil companies who had stopped off in Brunei and apparently one of them said "I can smell oil" and they started drilling (and were successful) much to the satisfaction of the Sultan of Brunei.
The next slide show and talk was given by Damon Ramsey (www.ecosystem-gudes.com) titled "Monkeying Around In The Jungle". Damon has a great sense of humour and his wonderful pictures of the various monkeys, orangutans, gibbon, and other creatures were a pleasure to watch with information about each of them
as Damon introduced each slide. Damon has already produced several eco guides to various animals and has another guide book due out as Damon said, in 2062 - very slow going he thinks! All the primates remaining today in the world are 50% in South America, 25% in South East Asia, and 25% in Central Africa with a tiny amount in Northeastern Australia. South East Asia has the largest continental shelf in the world, and as the sea levels continue to go down, eventually the primates and other animals will be able to walk across the continental shelf from Borneo to Malaysia and Sumatra and even parts of the Philippines!
Damon gave us lots of good information regarding orangutans and proboscis monkeys, but told us that Dr Biruta Galdikas would be the best source of information (from Camp Leakey) and she is expected to talk to us onboard and give a couple of lectures after we have visited Camp Leakey.
Then it was time for a few rounds walking around deck 3 outside to get the blood moving again - the rain had stopped and it was nice and warm after sitting so long in the cold air conditioned lounge, and so good to get some fresh air and exercise before we headed down to the indoor The Restaurant on deck 2 since it was still too damp outside and precluded lunch outdoors at the cafe. Lunch was the best roast turkey with cranberry sauce and lots of salads and the always very fresh and tasty cuts of cheese with a glass of pinot grigio and rum and raisin ice cream for dessert (Terry asked them to hold the raisins and go heavy on the rum!).
CROSSING THE EQUATOR
Right after lunch it was back to the Club Lounge for the 1:30pm "crossing the equator" event - after Max warned us that we would "feel a slight bump" as we crossed the equator and entered the Southern Hemisphere! It was a lot of fun - we were treated to blue champagne which represented the aquamarine ocean waters, and then entered King Neptune with his Queen Aphrodites! After a very funny welcome by King Neptune (he is in command of everything in this part of the world - except when he has to listen to Captain Vincent!) the Queen had one huge fresh fish which we all had to line up and kiss after first dancing under the limbo rope (representing the equator)!
A good time was had by all and then we settled down to watch the IMAX movie Born to Be Wild about Dame Sheldrick's Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, and Dr Birute Galdikas Orangutan Sanctuary at Camp Leakey which we shall be seeing in 'just 2 days time. We'd watched it before at the IMAX theatre in Seattle last summer 2011 when it was first released, then again at home since we gave everyone in the group their own DVD to enjoy prior to the cruise, but we enjoyed it just as much third time around! It was very special for us since exactly 3 weeks ago we had taken the 135 Kyaithani Secondary school kids to the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Kenya, and here we are today about to visit Camp Leakey Orangutan Sanctuary in 2 days on the other side of the world!
At 3pm Mick Fogg came back to talk to us about the Fathers of Evolution - Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace and the "Wallace Line" which is a theoretical (not physical) line that runs through this part of the world, and the amazing research and discoveries of British born Alfred Russell Wallace (1823-1913). He only attended formal school through Grade 8 (Hertford Grammar School) and had to leave when his father lost a lot of money. He then did several jobs working for his Uncle, then later his brother, including map making and surveying but his passion was always Natural History. During the time in his childhood when his father was a librarian Alfred had devoured all the Natural History books that he could find in the library. Eventually Alfred took an exploratory trip to the Amazon (inspired by reading the book Voyage Up The River Amazon by W. Edwards) and did amazing work on his theories regarding the natural selection, Origin of Species.
His main interest was beetles, and as Mick pointed out, beetles comprise more than 1/4 of all described species on the planet and there are more being found every year even today: 370,000 species of beetles, 10,000 birds, and 5,000 mammals. He also did 70 different Expeditions in the Malay Archipelago which confirmed what is today known as the Wallace Line where few species are known to have "crossed over" the Wallace Line. It runs between Bali and nearby Lombok but originally these islands were part of different continents that floated closer together - with their very different animals. During his life Alfred suffered from both malaria and yellow fever, and in fact when he was recovering from the fever at one point he declares that is when he thought a lot about what he had seen and kept notes about. His theories coincided with Charles Darwin's theories but today everyone considers Charles Darwin the man who discovered the origin of species, whereas even Charles Darwin recognised the research and work by Alfred Wallace.
Mick managed to finish this slideshow right on the nose at 4pm - perfect timing for us to participate in the Chocoholics Tea in the Club Lounge - small eggplant sandwiches, followed by very rich intense chocolate squares- enough caffeine to wake us all up again! Carrie stayed with Henry - a super nice older gentleman in his 80's from Australia, who has become one of her partners for the Team Trivia contests which she said are getting harder every day. We all loved Henry's tshirt today "I didn't say that it was your fault ... I said that I was going to blame you!!" The skies were clearing and a chance to sit outside on the wet deck of the Cafe and enjoy the warmth and the views gliding by as I continued with my trip diary. When you are enjoying, seeing, learning so much - finding time to keep track of everything is essentially an impossibility but all I can do is the best that I can! I would hate to not be able to look back over my notes and reaffirm what I have seen, experienced and heard!
The level of expertise in the Expedition Leaders is tremendous - their presentations so informative but also entertaining and fun - too exceptional to not try to retain a little! One last comment from Mick was about the Australian Dingo. Mick said the Dingo is now on the endangered list and even has protected areas to breed in, but there is scientific proof that the Dingo is simply a feral wild dog and no different than the feral wild cats - and they have destroyed several other species in Australia - they are both pests and absolutely should not be getting any protection. Mick recommended one more book "Survival of the Fittest" by Herbert Spencer all about Natural Selection.
Terry and I really enjoyed the time outside on the deck (well I think Terry did since he immediately snoozed!) and at 6:15pm I thought I had an hour left to enjoy when Terry reminded me that shortly the recap slideshow was about to start for the last 2 days! It was a mad dash to get changed for the slide show and dinner, which was delayed for 15 minutes so that we could all enjoy the spectacular sunset. The slideshow was excellent - these guys take excellent photos and so many candid shots of the guests, although this slide show did include a photo of my ripped shorts (with underwear showing) and my expressions - what a laugh!
Dinner was a la carte downstairs in the restaurant and I enjoyed a small serving of rigatoni (OMG so good) with pesto, pine nuts and parmesan cheese, a wonderful salad of mixed greens and a lamb shank cooked to perfection with the meat just falling off the bone. This was followed by trays of miniature servings of a variety of chocolate petit fours. As if that wasn't enough we then were treated by Linda to a glass of amaretto on ice - what a way to end the day! As some headed up to smoke on the back deck, dance with Glenn, or just relax and visit in the Club Lounge we headed to bed and were asleep almost instantly!
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