bako national park

Our next destination was Bako National Park. A short boat ride in crocodile waters (!) took us to the island where we were promised to see monkeys and wild boar behind every tree. There would be trekking (in pouring rain it turned out) and even a burglary...

 Wild pigs roaming around everywhere. Our guide called the big ones 'Osama' because of their beards. One of these little ones came up to our veranda one day and tried to chew up some shoes. Luckily I caught him out and sent him on his way. But cute as a button they are!

 Oh right, the burglary. On the door to the kitchen there was a sign: Please close the door. Beware of the monkeys. Before we arrived we had been warned by the guides that the long-tailed macaques were infamous for stealing food and drinks and other shiny objects from tourists (a group of students once got mugged of all cell phones. Hilarious of course for everyone except the victims).

But as it always is, people are stupid. I peered out through the window to the veranda and saw a whole bunch of macaques sitting on the table, munching on bottles and cans and threatening to take our clothes. We went out to shoo them away but they did not budge. After a while they left and that's when we noticed the open door. To the kitchen. Inside we found the fridge door open as well - and the inside completely empty. KitKat, Toblerone and coke had been stolen by the little cheeky monkeys, and later on we saw them in the trees holding on to a piece of chocolate or playing with red cans. The monkey above came as we prepared to leave and hijacked our last bananas, munching away on the veranda despite our presence. Gotta love it.

Caught in the act, this one. They also broke into one of the rooms but didn't take anything.

We went on a night trail and saw sleeping birds, frogs, and fireflies. Fireflies are beautiful - blinking like Christmas lights in the trees and flying around in complete voiceless serenity. Then we trekked for 1½ hours to go to a beach and got caught in pouring proper rainforest rain for an hour. 'Wet' is not enough. The reward was definitely worth it though, and had we known what awaited in the jungle we might not have complained as much.

For all photos: CLICK HERE

Jo x