Monthly Archives: January 2016

January 3rd, 2016

I didn’t need an alarm clock this morning, I awoke to a chorus of cooing and whoops and cooing.  At times it sounded like an infant and at other times, it sounded like a bird.  It was a little bizarre, sometimes a solo and other times a chorus.  I peeked out of my tent thinking I had to be able to see something but all I could see was that lake and the jungle and it seemed like the noise was coming from all directions.  Later that morning the guide told me that it was the gibbons who sing each morning before the dawn and that the sounds they make can travel up to 2 miles.

After breakfast we tagged along with our guide on a kayaking tour.  There was a total of three kayaks who went along with the guide.  He pointed out monkeys, squirrels, snakes and lizards. In addition, I finally got the hang of kayaking and didn’t steer our kayak into any branches.

After lunch we were put back onto a boat to head back.  It was a wonderful experience but would have been better if it had lasted a little longer!

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Saturday, January 02, 2016

It was off to Elephant Hill’s Rainforest camp, which is a floating camp on Cheow lan lake. We stopped on the way to the camp to see the dam that created Cheow Lan lake.  According to the literature, the creating of the lake created in the 80’s.  When the area was flooded it created a lot small islands.  Prior to the flooding, communist students used the area to hide out from the government.

After the dam, we headed by boat to the camp.  We passed one other camp on the way but besides that, there was no sign of civilization.The lake was surrounded by limestone mountains.  It reminded me of Halong Bay and Guilin.  I cannot imagine how this looked before the flooding.

After an hour, we arrived and were served lunch.  Afterwards we were handed our keys, we stayed in tent 7 – the Sun Bear.  Each tent was named after a local animal.  The tents were pretty much the same tent as the base camp, just a bit smaller and they sat on rafts.  All in all, there were a couple dozen connect rafts with two common areas for dining.

There was a jungle trek in the afternoon. The trek was  4 km and would take over three hours.  The guide warned this was a challenging trek and there was no turning back once we set out. As much as I wanted to go, I reluctantly decided to stay at base camp. With recent surgery, I couldn’t take the risk.  It was something I really wanted to do and it was hard to watch the boat depart. On the positive side, the camp was very quiet and it was very relaxing to sit and listen to the jungle.

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