Final Leg==Borneo!

I made it to Borneo on Wednesday late afternoon! This is the one place I've never been before, and from what I see so far, it's amazing.

I arrived 2 days before the rest of my four tour buddies, so I was booked into a resort on an island just off the coast--called Eco-Guyana Resort. I took a 10-minute boat ride to get there, around the back of the island to a crescent lagoon where bungalows rise out of the turquoise water on stilts. I'd always seen these kinds of places in my Islands magazines and wondered who gets to go to them. And now I know: ME.

When the woman took me to my bungalow (one side facing the lagoon and one facing into the jungle), she told me that I should only open my windows if I'm inside because the monkeys are naughty and try to get in. Well, I know she was trying to warn me, but of course then I was torn between keeping the windows open in hopes of having monkey visitors or keeping out the mosquitoes. In the end my hatred of mosquitoes won out, I'm afraid.

But it doesn't matter because on Thursday afternoon while I was cooling down inside, a little gray face peered in my window from my porch. Of course I went out and made friends. He seemed interested in my room but didn't want to enter--just peered in the door and took stock. We got to know each other for awhile, I took some pictures, and then he went over the banister and disappeared. (I believe he's called a macac, but I'm not absolutely sure.)

Before that, in the morning, I took a kayak and floated through the mangroves nearby. Very peaceful except for the hornbill bird who makes this amazing whistling noise. In the afternoon I was going to snorkel, but a whole bunch of big pink jelly fish with heads the size of basketballs showed up, and so I hit the pool instead.

Apparently these jellyfish have shown up in record number, and no one really knows why. Also, in the spring they're usually overrun with whale sharks here--but this year, not one. It's scary what the change in temperature in the world is doing. Nature is very confused.

Then this morning I took the boat back here to Kota Kinabalu. My friend from Winston-Salem, Amy, is arriving tonight--along with three other people on our tour--and tomorrow we set out together for another great adventure. So amazing.

How can I go back to grading English papers after this!!!