up close and personal with jimmy durante monkeys

...or, they're also known as 'dutch' monkeys...or, probiscus monkeys. they're only found in the wild around this part of the world--borneo, malaysia--and we have been making our way overland across the peninsula to a dive town in the southeast. this sanctuary, in sepilok, was a great stopping point! we took a taxi waaaay off the beaten path about 30 minutes down a dirt road...well, past an oil palm plantation...more on that later. we were allowed to go in for their afternoon feeding time, otherwise, one wouldn't really get to see them as they live pretty deep in the reserve. as a worker made loud calls, you could see them working their way closer and cautiously. she called for a good 15-20 minutes before the food was brought out onto the platform and we could see them hanging around. one even came across the man made planks to be first one in line. these monkeys don't have contact with humans, but there's been land set aside for them to live. it's quite sad...there are oil palm plantations all over the place here which produce palm oil. it is malaysia's number one export and a huge money maker for them, but slowly, they are eradicating all the wild primates living places. the same is true for orang utans which i will post about next. there aren't many of either of these monkeys left and conservationists predict that there will be none in the wild in about 20 years...bummer. as we've been traversing the peninsula of borneo, we've seen tons of oil palm trucks with full harvests and hours and hours of passing plantations. man can be so stupid sometimes...geesh. the probiscus monkeys are really cool though. they're super strong and very powerful. males are distinguished by their thick fur 'jacket' it looks like they're wearing, along with bare skin resembling tighty-whities. when one comes and wants to make a show, he shakes the branches of a tree or pounds his four feet while running on the feeding platform. they're very loud and vocal. males bark at each other to establish dominance and will bare their teeth to each other. the females stick close to their troop 'leader' and he keeps a close eye on them. since the males are constantly erect with their bright red penis, they can mate quickly and at will...which was frequent while we were there! ha! oh my... it was a very interesting afternoon watching these unusual creatures. when the food was gone off the platforms, a few younger boys hung around for a few minutes playing, but mostly, they quickly lept back into the jungle and out of sight. oh, and they were fed pancakes and green melon looking fruit cause they can't digest much sugar and prefer starches. i'll include a link on the side of the blog if you're interested in learning more or donating. word of mouth is a good start at conservation... love, janice

probiscus monkey photos

more photos from diving ko haa

photos from diving

scuba diving in thailand

well, first christy had to get her padi certification to see if she would even like it! prone to liking control and not being scared or nervous, i wasn't quite sure, but she came through the course with minimal discomfort and was a trooper the whole time. while she was in class for 2 days i was roaming the beaches, getting massages, exercising, riding around on a scooter and just plain chilling. her first dive was nerve wrecking, but she got through her skills and moved on to her second dive with a little more comfort. day 2 i joined them and my first dive i did with a cool guy, paul, from ireland...love the irish! and then the second dive when christy only had a few minutes of skills to do, i joined them for the fun dive. the photographer who took all the photos is phil north of liquid lense out of england. he's great and i only included a fraction of photos he's given us. i put a lot more on facebook if you're a 'friend' of mine, but in general, the photos are fabulous and he makes us look a lot more graceful than we are! christy describes her underwater pose as something resembling a frightened kitten...while you're supposed to be streamlined, arms up under you and relaxed! lol...she did great and i was so happy to be back under the warm, turquoise water. the coral's beautiful, the fish are fantastic...some of the things we saw are puffer fish, clown fish, lion fish, scorpion fish, eels, nudi branches, barricuda, cuttlefish and tons more. it's such a peaceful feeling to be breathing underwater if you can get past the horror of it all! ha ha...the breathing from a respirator is almost meditative, i feel. and, believe it or not, you can hear the fish eating off the coral--it makes a crackling noise. good times and beautiful water! i'm so fortunate... love, j

as for the photos in the next posting, the first one is of us...me on the left, c on the right. 2nd one is us swimming, c in foreground, me farther away. 3rd one is of me doing a boat entrance and the 4th is of the islands we dived around called koh haa which means 5 islands in thai. stunning!

tiger temple outside of bangkok

you can google it for more info, but basically, it was GRRRREAT...said like tony the tiger for emphasis! i loved the place cause this thai monk (who's in one of the pics) started a sanctuary for the bengal felines and over the past 14 years has bred over 40 tigers and put them back into the wild. he rescues any animal that he can and so within the grounds there are all sorts of beasts roaming around. in the morning, the tigers are led down to the river on chains where they can play and swim for a while. then, they are led to lunch and then back into a canyon, where the photos are taken, so tourists like us can come in and be photographed with the kitties. we have to pay an entrance fee and then depending on what photos you want, an extra fee, but it was so worth it. i actually got to have 2 different tigers on my lap just out of shear luck. i asked the monk to take a photo with me and he whisked me away and, as on my facebook video, gave me a second chance to have a massive, heavy and very sleepy head in my lap! amazing! their fur is quite prickly and we were instructed to keep our touches below their head and to be firm and not light with our pets. they are not drugged, just sleepy and are treated very humanely...squirt bottles of water are used to correct behavior and train. i totally loved the place...and then you could walk around and see other tigers of different ages, as well...and maybe nibble on their ears from behind when they weren't looking! ha! oh, and the one shot of me with a fully awake and upright tiger is walking it down to the canyon after lunch. we had to line up, give our camera to the guides and stay behind the tiger. i actually got sprayed with cat pee pee which is deemed good luck...and smelly! luckily, my guide took the brunt of the tiger's squirt... oh, and it was reeeally hot there that day...i was wearing a tank top, but because it's a buddhist temple, i had to cover my shoulders. all i had on me was a cashmere sweater cause the a/c inside vehicles and buildings can be extremely cold. doh...i was sweating my butt off, but it made me feel for the tigers who can't take their sweater off the minute they leave. all for now, love, j

yakman feeding our yaks in sikkim, india

india UGH!

...well, at least the trekking in the wet and cold and the noise and bazillion people in the cities...other than that it was fun! our friend (my old peace corps buddy), anita came in for 3 weeks for the 'india leg' of our trip. we started in delhi, flew to bagdora where our guide met us and drove us into sikkim. the trek started out great with a beautiful day. we were "making a lot of sweat" as the tour guide said, so were down to short sleeves and shorts early into the trek...despite the leeches which we had to fend off with our trekking poles...eeks... day one was the highlight of the trip weather-wise though. our first night we realized our tents were virtually made of cheese cloth with a (thankfully) very durable fly. although bigger than our lil' mongolia pup tent, it was cold and didn't retain much heat. our sleeping mats were as thin as a mouse pad and my sleeping bag had a big tear on the inside. ok, so i'm used to sleeping in my clothes while trekking...and wool socks and scarf, gloves and hat. thankfully by the second night they told us they had 2 "hot water bags" for us to take with us at night into the tent...too bad there were 4 people, but it was one time i'm happy to say i'm bigger and stronger! : ) day one lunchtime, also, by the way, saw me step into some soft moss and fall backwards while yelling some really profane language...into a big healthy crop of nettles. not only did i get nettle stings all over me, but i also busted a bone below my right ring finger...fun. i was ahead of the pack, but luckily our guide was showing us where we were having lunch...the small path on which i slipped and so was close by cause i couldn't even get back up. picture an incline board of nettles...i needed a hand to get up so of course i reached out my right hand for assistance not realizing yet, that it was broken. ugh. so, some of the other highlights were christy's 40 mysterious, huge, welt-like bug bites all over her torso, anita's altitude sickness at 4,300 meters, quite a bit of rain, no place to get warm and dry, and slippery, yak poopy trails. now i'm not totally complaining...we had a lot of laughs in between our slips on our butts and made a nice new friend, sachi, who's from india. she's great and helped us pass the time in a positive way. the food was great, our porters and guides were very patient with us and all in all we had a good time, but were happy to stroll back into yuksam a day early and stay at the poshest place in town! it's good to be done with trekking for a while.

then we went to darjeeling where we soaked up beautiful views without having to trek, sipped on darjeeling teas, shopped, ate good indian food and saved a sweet little starving street puppy with the mange. time well spent.

next, we were in calcutta for a few days. we flew in and immediately the honking started as soon as we stepped foot out of the airport and didn't stop until we were back at the airport to leave. ugh. the streets of calcutta are everything mother theresa said. we went to her home and saw where she lived and then died after 40 plus years of service. geesh, what a woman. an incredible life. saw a few other sites and ate more good bengali food before making our way back to the airport to say good bye to anita and head back to thailand. we had a great time with anita for 3 weeks and were sorry to see her go. we were also truly thankful as she transported a 50 pound bag back to albuquerque for us. huge relief!! thanks anita!!

now we're in bangkok and trying to figure out our next move. i'll post about that soon, but also hope to put some more pics online as the internet is much more available now. much love, j