By Jonathan Trew
Ever since Marco Polo returned home from China, tales of the Far
East's fantastic wildlife have enchanted animal lovers. From Borneo's orangutans
to Asia's elephants, the Far East's unique flora and fauna have captured the
imagination of adventurous travellers. Not that you need to imagine. In less
than 24 hours, you could be diving Thai coral reefs or watching giant flying
squirrels.
Singapore
Zoo is one of the world's greatest zoos. And it really comes to life when the
sun goes down and some 1,200 nocturnal animals stretch their paws and start
prowling about their daily business. The zoo's Night
Safari is tailor-made for the nature lover who wants to get up close to
the beasts of the jungle without having to schlep to the back of beyond. Discreetly
lit so that you can observe lions, leopards, rhinos, tigers and more acting
as they would in the wild, the 40 hectare park globetrots around 8 different
habitats, from the Himalayan Foothills to a Burmese Hillside by way of Equatorial
Africa. The excursion includes dinner in the Ulu Ulu Safari Restaurant. Asking
to order off menu and pointing at the waterbucks is rightly frowned upon.
Krabi
is a great base from which to explore Thailand's
beautiful Andaman Sea and doing it by speedboat means you will experience this
marine wilderness at full throttle. A speedboat trip around the Andaman Sea
includes visits to Tub and Moh Islands where you can snorkel in the warm clear
waters and come face to face with the hundreds of exotically coloured fish that
call the coral reef home. After a morning spent whizzing from divespot to divespot,
lunch is a picnic stop by Pranang Cave on Railay beach. Surrounded by soaring,
jungle-covered, limestone cliffs, it is one of the most stunning beaches in
the area, if not all of Thailand.
There's something particularly special about Orang-utans. Perhaps it's because
they share 98% of our DNA that we find them so beguiling? While in Borneo,
you can meet and greet these gorgeous great apes on the Sepilok
Orang-utan Encounter. A full day excursion, you fly from Kota Kinabulu to
Sandakan in northern Borneo and then journey onwards to the Sepilok Orang-utan
Rehabilitation Centre. Founded in 1964, the centre teaches orphaned orang-utans
the skills they need to survive independently in the Kabili Sepilok Forest Reserve
where around 80 of the apes are already freewheeling through the trees. After
waving adios to the apes, it's on to Sim-Sim, the oldest water village in Sabah,
before rounding off the day at the hilltop Puu Jih Shih temple.
An elephant ride is unforgettable for so many reasons. From the gentle sway
of their gait to the rough, almost sponge-like feel of their skin, taking a
spin on the world's largest land animal is the sort of memory that makes a holiday.
A visit to the exotic Indonesian island of Bali
will definitely take on a new perspective once you've seen the island from the
back of an elephant. The
Elephant Safari Park at Taro is home to elephants that have been rescued
from southern and central Sumatra. As visitors to the park, you can bone up
on the pachyderms in the information centre and museum before saddling up for
the safari around the park's botanical gardens. There are lots of other spots
for elephant encounters in the Far
East too. Northern
Thailand is particularly good, with elephant
trekking straight from your hotel, visits to an elephant
hospital and more on offer.
If a wonderful wildlife encounter sounds like the holiday you've been looking
for, find out more about the latest deals to Asia
and the Far East.
Jonathan Trew is a freelance journalist who writes travel and food features for a wide variety of UK national and international publications.