Something to Declare

Post No. 10. If it’s Monday, this must be Sukau (cont’d).

Monday, March 27. This one will be a quickie. After the last post, an experience of note was a night cruise yesterday evening (March 26) on the Kinabatangan River. The goal was to see nocturnal wildlife.

Our guide drove the boat slowly along the shore of the river. We were amazed at his eagle eye and ability to spot signs of animal life, such as kingfishers and monkeys:

On the subject of nocturnal animals, a moment to pay homage to the much-maligned bat.

When we were preparing for this trip, we got ourselves into a lather about health precautions. Made sure to pack (in addition to sunscreen, insect repellent, band-aids, Bacitracin, and face masks): Imodium, Colace, and Pepto-Bismol, as well as Covid tests and Paxlovid, DayQuil and NyQuil. Read and re-read CDC warnings about tropical diseases, particularly those spread by mosquitos, to wit: Yellow Fever, West Nile Virus, Dengue, Zika and, of course, Malaria. So we filled prescriptions for Cipro, ZPAC and Malarone.

At this point, with only five days left, our hysteria seems to have been unjustified. Thanks to the bats. Turns out there are few mosquitoes in the area of northeast Borneo that we are visiting. The bats eat them. Each bat can consume upwards of 1,000 mosquitoes in one hour. As the bats swoop over our heads on our evening walks, we whisper “Kinnahora” (the Yiddish/Hebrew incantation against the Evil Eye), give thanks to the bats, and wish them bon appétit.

Fingers crossed 🤞for Kuala Lumpur and Penang, which come up tomorrow.