April 20, 2002.

Borneo is one of the biggest islands in the world. The land in the island is divided up between 3 different countries, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. Anna and Thomas visited the part of Borneo that is in Malaysia. Borneo is very near the equator, and it is very hot and humid all the time. There are many unusual and special animals that live only in Borneo, and Thomas and Anna saw quite a few of them!

One of the  first special animals that Anna and Thomas saw in Borneo were  sea turtles. They saw a mother turtle laying eggs at night on the beach of a small island near the big island of Borneo. They couldn't take any pictures of the turtle, but  here is a picture of a special place where turtle eggs are protected until they hatch. People have made places like this to try and help more turtles hatch and grow up to be big turtles, since there are not very many sea turtles left in the ocean.

After visiting the small "turtle island", Anna and Thomas returned to the big island of Borneo and went to a special park to see orangutans. Orangutans are animals that are very similar to gorillas, chimpanzees, and also humans! There are two slightly different types  of orangutans. One of the types lives only in Borneo, and the other lives only on another nearby island called Sumatra.

A large part of the land on the island of Borneo is a very thick jungle. The hot and humid weather helps plants to grow  very fast and very large. Anna and Thomas visited the jungle, using both boats on the rivers and their own two feet to walk on trails.

This Jungle "pill-bug" is huge!

They saw some very beautiful and unusual birds.

The first picture is of a colorful bird called a Kingfisher.

The second picture is of a bird that is called a "Snakebird"

because it looks like a swimming snake when it is in the

water.

The Proboscis monkey gets it's name from it's very

big and unusual nose. Proboscis monkeys live only

in Borneo!

The Proboscis monkeys make huge jumps from

one tree to another very high up in the air.

There are crocodiles and large lizards in Borneo.

This picture is of a Monitor lizard.

There are people living in Borneo today who live in the jungle and try to live the same way that their ancestors have lived for many hundreds of years. They grow rice, hunt, and fish for food. Many of these people live in villages where there is only one house! The house  is very big and called a "longhouse". Everyone shares a big long living room, but  different families get their own private rooms to sleep in.

This woman lives in a longhouse. She is weaving mats for the people who live with her to sit on.

In addition to the special birds and animals, there are also some very unusual flowers and plants in Borneo. The world's largest flower grows in Borneo, but Thomas and Anna didn't get to see one. They did see several types of plants that actually eat insects for food! This is a picture of Anna holding an ant-eating plant called a "Pitcher Plant". The plant is  shaped like a pitcher.

There are large modern cities in Borneo, and there are primitive longhouses in the jungle. Here is a picture of another type of community. These houses on stilts are part of a "fishing village" along a river. The people who live here catch fish to eat and sell for money. The houses are on stilts because the water level of the river changes, and sometimes it can get very high when it is rainy.

Borneo is one of the few places in the world today that still have large thick jungles. It was wonderful to be able to see it. The people who live on Borneo seem to be very serious about protecting their jungle from being destroyed or ruined. We hope the jungle that is in Borneo today will be there forever.