Thank you, Asia "Fireflies" (49 days until Wisconsin)

Almost exactly six years ago, I had one of the more memorable natural encounters of our travels.  It was an Easter holiday trip to Borneo.  We were there for some sun, sand, and orangutans.  We didn't know it, but we were also there for fireflies.  

I expect everyone has some childhood memories of seeing fireflies after dark in their yard or an empty field.  They can't help but make you smile.  The intermittent light reminiscent of stars in the sky just beacons to us as children.  Perhaps you caught one in your hand to see it glow.  Or put it in a jar.  Or squashed one. 

I never did that. 

Well, while in Borneo, we decided to do a river trip where we were told we could see the proboscis monkeys.  You know, the monkeys with the unusually long noses.  I have to tell you, I didn't really see one and the trip was looking pretty disappointing.  We managed to see hundreds of mud crabs along the shore, but that wasn't quite the same thrill.

The shoreline of the island where I had no success seeing proboscis. 

Alas, our guides told us that we would stop, have dinner on shore, and then go back out after dark to see the fireflies.  Initially, this didn't thrill me either.  I could see fireflies back at home at my parents' cabin in the valley - for free.  I didn't need to pay for a trip to see just fireflies instead of rare monkeys.

Little did I know what awaited. We had two boats for our tour group.  Our family was on an open boat with about 15 other people aboard.  Our captain steered us slowly along the same length of long island that we had unsuccessfully attempted to see the monkeys, but now it was after dark.  He shut off the lights.  Now we were just under the clear night sky with a dark island off to our left.

That is when the magic began.  One of the tour guides took out his flashlight and began creating sequences of flashes with his hand on the flashlight.  Instantly the section of dark island just opposite lit up with hundreds - maybe thousands - of fireflies.  "Flash. Flash," our guide said.  "Flash, flash," the fireflies responded.  And then there was a new sequence, and the next thing we knew dozens of fireflies came toward our boat!  They actually landed on our boat, on the inside of the boat, on our hats and clothes, all over.  A child's dream!  After some minutes the fireflies returned to the island and all went dark.  We marvelled at our experience, amazed that humans could talk to fireflies.

But it wasn't over!  The boat slowly moved forward to a new section of dark island and guess what?  It happened all over again!  This was the coolest thing ever, I'm not lying.  

Sunset from the shore after our dinner.

I don't know if I could flash-light speak to the fireflies in Wisconsin or not.  But I might try - in, say, 49 days. 

All photos are from our Borneo trip in 2015.  Photos by © Brenda Brayko. All rights reserved.

Who would ever have imagined? Borneo!

First, allow me to acknowledge a miracle.  Our five day spring break trip to Borneo, Malaysia, was in jeopardy due to the flu.  My son had just finished two weeks with the flu, mostly fever.  The day before we were to fly out, I had full blown flu symptoms.  High fever and aches.  The morning of the flight I was at 102 degrees.  I loaded up on drugs and by noon which was go time I was at 99 degrees and the achiness  had disappeared.  We were off!  While the flu didn't leave me altogether, I did have respite enough to enjoy the trip.

As for the trip itself - one word = amazing.  We went to the area called Sabah to Borneo Beach Villas next to the Nexus Resort, where we were able to use their pool, restaurants and shops.  Our suite was on the beach front and lovely.  

During our five days we took two excursions.  One excursion was to Shangri-la Resort to the orangutan reserve.  According to the Sumantran Orangutan Society, 

1. "100 years ago there were thought to be 315,000 orangutans in the wild. There are now less than 6,600 left in Sumatra, and less than 54,000 in Borneo. It is thought that Sumatran orangutans may be the first Great Apes to become extinct unless people help to protect them."

Where we were, they had just two five-year olds there.  The rest were gone, adopted (not sure by whom).  But it was a rare privilege spending an hour watching them (from a railed-in platform) in their habitat alone with the myriads of monkeys.  We watched them swing in the trees, pull in a rope and use it as a swing, interact with each other and the pesky monkeys who wanted the food provided by the worker.  It was blasted hot, though, so I was happy we each had our ice/water bottles along.

Our second excursion was to see the proboscis monkeys in the mangroves on the river about an hour away.  We were with two other expat families.  We saw those crabs that have the huge claw.  Hundreds of them on a muddy shore.  And more monkeys.  And a king fisher bird, beautiful.  But seeing the proboscis was more difficult.  We did have a tiny spotting for a few minutes, but never a real good view.  Then off to a buffet dinner by locals with about seven different Malaysian dishes and an amazing sunset.  For some reason there was a heard of cows at the beach at sunset, too.  Interesting.  The highlight was going back to the river after dark to see the stars and the fireflies.  I didn't know humans could communicate with them.  But our guide was a firefly whisperer.  He had a yellow flashlight that he used to speak to them.  As he spoke, they would light up like crazy inthe trees along the shoreline.  Then he would change to a beckoning motion and they would literally come to the boat and fly around and land on us. So super cool.  There were hundreds of lightening bugs! (So, no pictures!)

Other highlights were swimming in the pool and in the ocean.  We also just happened to be in the same place as the neighbors who live directly above us in Hong Kong!  We spent a whole day in the resort pool and ocean with them and then another evening was a nice long dinner together at the Malaysian restaurant.  Quite lovely.

Now for the things that we liked most.  1. The sunsets. 

2. No solicitors. 3. The super warm ocean, and clean. 4. The warm pool. 5. Interesting finds like the brain seaweed and the giant beached jellyfish.   

 6. The Easter Buffet. 7. The fireflies.  Okay, that might not be in the right order.

Altogether, one of the best locations we've traveled for beaching.