Up at 6:45, got ready for our day trip to Matang and Kubah. Our taxi driver was waiting for us when we went down at 7:20. He took us to Matang Wildlife Centre, about 45 minute drive. AT the centre, saw crocodiles, deer, rhinoceros hornbills (official bird of Sarawak), monkeys and an orangutan. They had another "orangutan" in the same enclosure, but it looked a lot more like a gorilla than an orangutan, having short, fat, stubby hands and fingers, and a different face.
Then we walked a 5km rainforest walk through magnificent rain forest to Kubah National Park. Very beautiful rainforest, very green and lush and thick. Ground was very wet too. We stopped at a nice waterfall and went for a swim. When we got out, Roz had two leeches on her, one already sucking her blood, the other just walking around her leg. I searched myself, and found none. We pulled the one attached to her leg off, and it bled quite a bit for a while afterwards. As we continued along the hike, we kept getting attacked my leeches, finally realizing that they hide in the moist undergrowth of the forest, not necessarily the streams, and they attach themselves to our shoes and climb up to our skin. We had to stop every five minutes or so and do a "leech check". At one leech check, she took of her shoes to check for leeches, and found one sucking away near her ankle. We pulled it off, and that wound bled quite profusely for a while, soaking her sock in blood.
When we finally reached the end of the trail, we did one last leech check, she took off her shoes and socks, and there was another leech inside her sock that hadn't attached itself to her yet. I never found any on myself, I always caught them when they were crawling around on my shoes. At the end of the trail, I did a final leech check as well, taking off my shoes, not finding anything. We walked to the park headquarters, on the way I noticed my hand had blood over it, I couldn't figure out where it came from. I assumed it was from one of Roz's wounds. Later I found out I did have two leech wounds on my leg, and blood was all over my leg. Never saw any sign of the little buggers, though. They must have had their fill and dropped off. They sure leave big, nasty holes, though, that bleed pretty good!
At the Kubah park office, we talked to the park ranger for a bit, he told us how we could get back to Kuching, and that there was a cafeteria just down the main highway, maybe 10 or 15 minute walk away. We both hadn't eaten anything, other than chips and granola bars all day, and we were hungry, and it was about 2:30.
We walked to the main highway, and there was a family park at the intersection, we paid the 3 ringget to get in, and had some nasi goreng (fried rice) for lunch, walked around the park a bit (they have a nice swimming hole), then walked to teh bus stop to wait for the bus. It was pouring rain at this time, fortunately the bus stop was covered. There was an older man selling fruit (can't remember name), and he gave each of us a bunch for free while we waited.
A minibus came and picked us up, we tried to give the old man back his fruit, but he insisted we take it, and put it in a bag for us. The bus driver asked us where we're going, we told him, and on his way back to Kuching, he stopped at another fruit stand and bought some of the same fruit from her, and gave everyone in the mini-bus a bunch. We declined, as we already had a whole bunch of them!
Back at the hotel, we showered (each in our own rooms), she wasn't feeling well, headache, so she slept, meanwhile I went to the town square, where they were having a big party, the sultan of Brunei was supposed to be there, and the prime minister of Malaysia, and they had live performances and free food. There were supposed to be 100,000 people there. I got there early, but already the lineups for the free food were insane, but none of the dignitaries were there yet, I only stayed for about 15 minutes, then went to McDonalds for supper, then used internet until about 10:00, then I was going to go back to the party, but it was pouring rain out (monsoon season right now), so went back to the room and to bed. At 11:00, I got woke up by a bunch of loud bangs, my first thought was gunfire or bombs, then I realized it was fireworks. I couldn't see them from my window, so got dressed and went out front of the hotel, which gave a great view of them. Then back to bed.
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