Bako National Park

A 30-minute (37 kilometers) drive from Kuching brings us to a Malaysian village built on stilts over the river: Kampung Bako. Another 25 minutes boat ride out in the South China Sea to reach this coastal park. The park HQ is at Telok Assam but from the coast you would never know as it’s totally hidden behind trees. First time visitors are often confused when the boat suddenly turns towards the shore on what appears to be a collision course with the dense mangroves. But the skilled boatmen head for a narrow channel that leads to the small jetty at the HQ. From the moment you step off the boat it’s quite clear that Bako is a protected area. For a start the wooden chalets and resthouses are surrounded by virgin jungle, and what’s more, wildlife is everywhere. Almost every type of vegetation in Borneo is found here - 25 distinct types of vegetation form seven complete ecosystems from beach vegetation and mangrove forest to dipterocarp rainforest.

The constant erosion over millions of years, had turned Bako into a picturesque coastline of steep cliffs, rocky head-lands and many stretches of sandy bays. The erosion caused by constant waves at the base of cliffs had carved and created many of the rocks into sea arches and sea stacks. Beautiful sandstone formation featuring pink and iron patterns on cliff faces can be seen along most of the coastline.

Within the Park, it is not uncommon to see troops of long-tailed Macaques and silver-leaf monkeys along with giant monitor lizards, plantain squirrels, wild boars and mouse deers. The most significant animal in the Park is the bizzare long nosed proboscis monkeys found only in Borneo island.

Left: Proboscis Monkey - The local Malays call it Monyet Belanda, which means Dutchman monkey, as a joke on European traders and colonials. Both were hairy, had big red noses and pot bellies! Their nose is so distracting that we often miss out how colourful they are: contrasting with their warm red-brown coats, they have a creamy chest, with long grey gloves and stockings and long white tails. They may have orange shoulders and a little cap of darker red fur.

Only in Borneo. Only in mangrove swamps or forests along rivers. The Proboscis eats mainly leaves (95% of their diet). Because it feeds and lives in mangrove and riverside forests, the draining of wetlands and development along riverbanks for agricultural purposes and human settlement are its biggest threat through habitat loss. In 1977, there were about 6,400 of them in Sarawak, but now there are only about 1,000, with perhaps another 2,000 in Sabah and 4,000 in Kalimantan.

The male averages 24kg in weight, twice as much as the female.