1 week ago
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One curious fact about human nature is that the grass is invariably greener on the other side.
This came into focus when I visited Sandakan, Sabah, in Malaysian Borneo, which is just a hop, skip and budget airline journey away.
The place was teeming with Europeans who had travelled 10,000 km southeast to see hornbills and macaques in their native habitat.
Meanwhile, us Singaporeans are travelling 10,000 km northwest to appraise Aperol spritzes in their natural habitat.
Northeastern Sabah attracts, en masse, the kind of eco-travellers who have enormous telephoto lenses and like to aim them at something you can’t see in the trees even if you squint very hard, causing you to wonder if you are a victim in a hidden camera prank, until you finally espy the red breast of a Hello Kitty-sized kingfisher (viz, two apples tall).
But, while MacRitchie Reservoir may be overrun with protein bar-snatching monkeys and Pasir Ris residents may be chasing hornbills out of their HDBs, one thing you certainly will not find in Singapore is wild pygmy elephants.
Well, you won’t find regular-sized elephants, either. But, in Sabah, apparently, these trundling oxymorons exist. And, they exist alongside sun bears, orangutans and crocodiles, oh my!
And so, sheer curiosity lured me there. I really wanted to see a fun-sized elephant.
English (US)