One major reason to visit Sarawak was the Bako national park. It is home to the most elusive long nosed monkey or the Proboscis monkey. It is endemic to South East Asian Borneo islands. Mostly live around the mangrove forests.

Bako national park is situated on one of islands of Malaysian Borneo. Boat journey to Bako is bliss. The scenic mountains, rocky structures in middle of the ocean, islands, mangrove forest this cannot just be expressed in words. Irrawady dolphins can be spotted on the boat trip to bako national park. We were lucky to spot few of them.

We reached Bako very early in the morning. Misty mountains over looking the ocean welcomed us. Boat journey to the island was about 30-35 mins. On the way we saw some beautiful structures of rock formation in middle of the ocean. Colors of the water was also heavenly.

Went to the information center directly and hired a guide. We trekked through the jungle to reach other end of the island. Could get a 180 degree view of ocean from the mountain peak. We saw a group of silver leaf monkeys on the near by tree. What amazed us the most was look of the baby monkey, which has an orange fur although adults are black and silver colored, little one looked very adorable. But still no traces of long nose monkey yet.

Later desended from the peak and reached a tiny beach. We were the only people on the beach and spent some time admiring the place. Near the mangrove area spotted some Bornean bearded pig. These pigs are generally found in some rainforest and mangrove forest of South East Asia.

There was a fishing boat anchored close by and we requested him to take us near the rocky structures. Thankfully he accepted and were able to see the structures in proximity.

The rocks of different hue and shape gives the area a mystic atmosphere. These shapes are caused by rain erosion while colors are created by oxidation of iron present in rock.

Our guide in Bako NP

Later in the afternoon we reached near information center again. Still didn’t get lucky enough to see the Proboscis monkeys. One of the travellers guided us to a place where they saw the Proboscis monkeys. Saw a snake in close proximity and within minutes we heard the monkey sounds and got to see them finally.

The proboscis monkey or long-nosed monkey has an unusually large nose, a reddish-brown skin color and a long tail. It is endemic to the southeast Asian island of Borneo and is found mostly in mangrove forests and on the coastal areas of the island. They are the primate world’s most accomplished swimmers

Their webbed feet help them to successfully out-swim aquatic predators, such as crocodiles, and to swim across deep waters to find food or escape potential danger.

We spent quite a lot of time observing these unique looking creature and their behaviour. Later on decide to do another trek on the opposite side of the island. The forest was very thick and couldn’t feel any heat during the sunny afternoon. Although it’s a rain forest there are no leeches because it’s an island and leeches cannot survive in salty water.

Towards the end of the evening we started descending back to the start point then on went to the jetty waited for the boat to arrive. Till then was admiring the beauty of mountains and ocean in front of us, sitting on the beach. Returned with full satisfaction and experience spending an entire day in the national park on a Borneo island.