Marty’s photo of the day #3677: When Deb and I backpacked through the rainforest of Borneo, tiger leeches, posed like this one, were an uncommon sight. That’s because we usually didn’t see them until they grabbed onto us, worked their way through our socks, and started draining us of our blood. Fortunately, tiger leeches don’t […]
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Tag: Borneo
Borneo stick insect
Marty’s photo of the day #3644: Here’s one of the many stick insects I photographed while backpacking in the rainforest of Borneo.
Orangutans vs Republicans
Marty’s photo of the day #3610: While on the island of Borneo, I watched two baby orangutans comfort each other, when they wandered too far from the orangutan rehabilitation facility and became lost in the dark. Meanwhile, in Montana, our Republican governor and legislature have passed bills taking away women’s rights, taking away trans rights, […]
Orangutan close-up
Marty’s photo of the day #3606: Here’s a big male orangutan, I photographed on the island of Borneo.
Borneo Mushrooms
Land leeches and crabs
Marty’s photo of the day #3578: Growing up in northern Minnesota, I learned that leeches and crabs lived in lakes and rivers. In Borneo’s rainforests, that’s not always the case. Leeches would get into my socks as I backpacked, and if I looked carefully, I’d occasionally find crabs staring at me from large leaves.
How’s the war?
Marty’s photo of the day #3564: This excerpt from my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, tells the story: Our adventure began on Friday, April 11, 2003, when we landed at Kuching Airport. Our guide, Bayang, picked us up with the Borneo Adventure van. He was a muscular, round-faced man in […]
Maroon langur
Marty’s photo of the day #3561: This is a maroon langur, photographed on the island of Borneo. I’ll never forget hiking through the rainforest during the heat of the day, and finding them draped over branches, like clothes drying on a line.
Nanga Sumpa
Marty’s photo of the day #3551: For anyone who has read my latest book, Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer, this is Nanga Sumpa, the Iban longhouse that Deb and I raced the flooding deep-canyon river to get to. In Borneo, entire tribes live in a single longhouse, and when […]
Our feet tell the story
Marty’s photo of the day #3539: For those who have read my just released sixth book, Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer, this photo says a lot. I took it the day after Deb’s and my backpacking trip on the mountainous island of Borneo with the Iban tribe. When torrential […]
Defying death in Borneo
Marty’s photo of the day #3525: One of the chapters in my newly published sixth book, Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer, follows Deb and me on a death-defying backpacking trip in Borneo with the Iban, a tribe once famous for headhunting. Here’s an excerpt from that chapter. Johnathan was […]
A whole other level of stupid
Marty’s photo of the day #3458: “Trump did what? And his cult bought it? Oh, man, that’s a whole other level of stupid. Even baboons wouldn’t fall for that.” (Orangutan, photographed on the island of Borneo)
The end of navigable water
Marty’s photo of the day #3437: For those who have read my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, or have seen my college show, Around the World in 90 Minutes, this is the navigable end of the Batang AI River in Borneo. Here, Deb and I would get out of our […]
Borneo frog
Marty’s photo of the day #3426: So many animals on the island of Borneo are still unknown to science, and sometimes the difference between species is subtle. I photographed this frog while on a night hike, deep inside Borneo’s rainforest. As near as I can tell, this is most likely a brown marsh frog or […]
Pitcher plant
Look down. No! Look up.
Marty’s photo of the day #3396: When hiking in the rainforest, it’s always important to look down, so you don’t accidently step on a venomous snake. Then again, it’s important to look up too. In this photo, I’m in the rainforest of Borneo, standing underneath a Wagler’s pit viper.
Rainforest night hikes
Marty’s photo of the day #3375: Whether Deb and I are in the Amazon Rainforest or the rainforests of Australia, Central America, or Asia, we always head out on night hikes. The first time we did that, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but after that such hikes became travel highlights. After all, at night […]
Bob, is that you?
Marty’s photo of the day #3344: I photographed this tree frog at night, deep in the rainforest of Borneo. If this frog has a name other than “Bob” it is certainly a scientific name only. So many species on the island have yet to be cataloged or given common names. Well, “Bob” is a common […]
Pig-tailed macaque
Borneo’s comb-crested agamid lizard
Marty’s photo of the day #3296: We head to the rainforest of Borneo for this photo of a male comb-crested agamid lizard. Only the male lizards sport the comb-crest.