Proboscis monkeys at Weston Wetlands, Sabah

Sabah is home to the curious looking proboscis monkeys and after hours spent on reading Tripadvisor reviews we decided to take a river cruise in Weston wetlands, about 2,5 hours drive from KK. We wanted to avoid traveling in a convoy of tourist buses and figured most people would be beading to Klias wetlands, a tad closer to the city.

Weston village was almost as fascinating as the surrounding nature. The houses built on stilts by the water, kids fishing, motorbikes on the narrow walkways. Before embarking on the river a local cakes and tea are served by the jetty, with a (thankfully) short dance performance.

We did not get completely lucky on our attempt to avoid crowds. While the tour was well organised and we spotted several proboscis monkeys with binoculars provided by the organisers, we only got glimpses of the wildlife – thanks to being squeezed into the boat with so many others and to our fellow passengers sticking their cameras everywhere. For some reason the boatman did not make any effort to make sure both sides of the boat get a good view so we didn’t get any decent photos.

There than the proboscis monkeys, we saw some silver leaf monkeys, birds and a baby crocodile – apparently a rare spotting.

Unlike on Gaya Island, in Weston you get a beautiful sunset – if not blocked by the clouds.

A simple dinner was served at the jetty, and afterwards we squeezed once more to the boat and headed out to see the fireflies. Although our companions on the boat completely disregarded the ban of cameras, light of any kind and noise, we saw amazing amount of fireflies – truly like clouds of twinkling stars. Compared to the informative guiding of Hafiz in Cherating though, the guide here seemed to be there merely to do the headcount.

All in all it’s not fantastic given the tedious drive. We were glad we went just to be on the river and see a glimpse of the nature – but if you have a chance to see wildlife and rivers in other parts of Borneo, you can happily skip it.