On a recent trip to Malaysia, Chris and I and a group of other travelers that we met at the airport stayed at a wonderful jungle lodging called the Paganakan Rii. It's a beautiful place nestled in the jungle. Everything is well maintained, the dorm rooms that we stayed at were huge and nicely constructed. For hostel prices, this place is pretty much a resort compared to a lot of holes that Chris and I usually find ourselves in. Enough about that, let's get on to the elephants.
So at this resortish hostel, we got to meet Mr. Aji. Mr. Aji started his career as a jungle tour guide about ten years ago. He's great at it and he obviously loves what he does, proven by his small van that we had the pleasure of riding in. The interior is literally covered with pictures of all the possible jungle animals can be seen in Borneo. The upholstery of his car, from the dashboard to the seats, from the roof to the floor, were covered in crazy, colorful, jungle patterns made of faux fur; zebra stripes, leopard spots, etc. I felt like I was inside of a crammed jungle disco. (Sorry I failed to take pictures)
So our troupe booked a tour with Mr. Aji to float through the famous Kinabatangan River of Borneo. We saw lots of different things: snakes, probiscus monkeys, baby crocodiles and huge lizards. Good ol' Mr. Aji had an amazing eye for spotting anything living through the thick jungle vegetation. A couple of times, he would yell excitedly, "Look there! Snake!" or "Over there! Lizard!", "Monkey!" Each time I would scan and scan on either side of me and realize that suddenly the snake or whatever was two feet from me, or directly above me. Mr. Aji would intentionally get as close as possible. We woke up one slumbering snake and he even urged one of our guys on the boat to touch the poor snake.
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| Our troupe. Mr. Aji in the back with the scarf and glasses. |
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| Mr. Aji in the background, "Touch it! Touch it!" |
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| Poor snake slithering away after being poked by an unwelcome human finger. |
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| This is a probiscus monkey. It was jumping from branch to branch. They're awesome! |
While floating this river, everyone, especially Mr. Aji had all of his senses alert for any signs of pygmy elephants. Unfortunately to our dismay it was starting to look bleak. No matter where we looked we couldn't see them. Mr. Aji was starting to give up when he got a call. There was a sighting nearby! We got back on land, hopped inside of his van and drove into literally, somebody's jungle backyard.
We drove through a very narrow unpaved road that cut through the middle of the jungle. It was very muddy from recent heavy rainfall and the windows were steaming up because of the thick humidity. We knew we were close because the lush jungle vegetation on either side of us looked like elephants had just trampled through. We slowly trudged up the road, on alert and holding our breaths, when we suddenly heard an elephant's trumpet! It was such a beautiful sound and I suddenly became very aware of how exciting this whole situation was. Through the steamy windows we desperately scanned the jungle all around us hoping to glimpse an elephant. For a split second Andy (our new friend) and I saw one! But the van passed it and when we backed up, it had disappeared into thin air. We slowly turned around but it took FOREVER because the road was so narrow so it was like a 40 point turn. We managed to get back around and luckily one of the elephants had gotten curious about the commotion we were making and peaked it's not so pygmy head out.
We were so excited! Mr. Aji told us that we could get out of the van, which seemed a little dangerous but why not? He warned us not to make any sudden movements and loud noises because they had a baby elephant with them so they were very aggressive. I got to stand about twenty feet from this magnificent creature! I could tell that it was agitated because it was trying to hide it's baby from our view. It kept disappearing back into the jungle then coming back out. Then we saw mama elephant and I started to think, "hmm I really don't think they like us being here." Then I realized that papa elephant was getting closer and definitely unhappy. Mr. Aji whispered to us, "Shhh... slowly get back into the van." I was suddenly very aware that this elephant was going to attack one of us. The thought of being crushed by an elephant flashed through my mind, I even thought that I could crawl under the van, but then I realized the van was half the size of the elephant. Without a word, we slowly but urgently crept back into the van.
Chris took this video footage of the elephant but when Mr. Aji told us to get back into the van and the elephant started coming towards us, he panicked like a little girl, then the battery "ran out".
When we got back in the van and shut the door behind us, we zoomed away and all of us broke out into excited chatter and whooping. Mr Aji started handing out high fives and we all nervously laughed when Mr. Aji quite seriously exclaimed, "Wow, so many times I have to climb tree! We are lucky!" Then he told us a story about a time when he encountered aggressive elephants while touring around a very obese German couple. He said they were each over 300 pounds, he laughed and said, (his words) "I never knew that such fat people could run so fast!"
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