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Been back in Singapore for awhile but I’ve been too busy to sit down and go through the 18GB of photos in my portable drive, let alone write the trip report!
Pretty eventful trip i must say…. a mixture of the good and the bad.
Here’s and inkling of what to expect from this trip’s photography…
The star of the whole trip was a herd of about 50-60 Bornean Pygmy Elephants, crossing the river during a heavy downpour. My boat was the only one there, i suspect it’s because of the rain that no other boats were around ( unlike my previous encounters whereby dozens of tourist boats would have crowded around the river bank, thus blocking the elephants of their path to cross the river ). We kept a distance and tried to stay as inconspicuous as possible. The elephants were clearing pretty much all the vegetations in their path before making their way down the river ( stumbling, sliding and some even slipping down the mudslide and into the river with a huge splash! 
). The best part has to be the new born calf ( just over a week old ), tucked in between the two females, learning to swim across the river. As seen in the last photo, the river was very deep. Even the adults were just an eye above the water. It was such a heart-warming sight to see the adults encouraging the young elephant to swim across and finally reaching the other side of the river safely.
On the 3rd day, was out shooting on the boat for the whole morning. It was so scorching hot, i felt like a baked toast, i could eat myself. When we finally docked, i took out the camera and went on land. Feeling too tired to carry my heavy tripod along, i stupidly left it on the boat, unattended.
Not too long after, another boat past by ours and the big waves caused our boat to rock. Alas, my tripod lost it’s balance and fell into the river below. The tripod, including the Karingphochi ballhead and Wimberley sidekick cost me 1k. Everyone’s jaw dropped when they realized the cost of my carelessness.
Nobody saw the tripod fell in though, but i guess that’s what happened. No one is to blame really, except myself. Accepted the fact that i can never get my tripod back and moved on ( the river was too deep and current was strong that day ). I was more worried about the crocs, that they may accidentally choke on my tripod or something… sigh.
Hand held my D200 + 80-400mm + SB800 throughout the rest of the trip.
On a brighter side, my skin has turned bright red… now i feel like a tomato, i can eat myself.
On our last day there, met up with Dr. Marc Ancrenaz, one of the world’s top veterinarian and conservationist. He left France 10 years ago and with his wife, came to Borneo to help the orangutans. Since then, he had set up a research camp by the Kinabatangan River. He had offered us a ride back to town to visit Sepilok in the morning. It’s really interesting and fun talking to someone with so much knowledge about the orangutans, as well as the many other wildlife that lives by the river. I deeply respect him for the work that he has done.
to be continued…
August 31st, 2007 at 1:46 pm
November 30th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Hey. Hope you still remember me. You’ve got a really nice website. oops I forgot you’re a design student. Wow some of the pictures you took is fantastic!
December 1st, 2007 at 2:08 am
Hi Tianhong, of course i remember
thanks for visiting! 
June 20th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
网站设计的真漂亮。