06 Aug 2019
I escorted two clients and a student after a month in the jungle elsewhere. Tabin is higher end tourism and you pay for the experience. The lodge is really nice and the rooms private A frames on the river. Gibbons can be seen near the camp, a rarity elsewhere. The guides are really knowledgable locals and so friendly they became real friends. The night drives and hikes are really wild.
You drive an hour through the ever present Oil Palm plantations; a boon and a bane for locals and for wildlife. These vast tracts of monoculture make large reserves like Tabin critical for protecting endangered birds, mammals and other wildlife. Because of the proximity to the oil palm, the animals come in and out to feast. We saw leopard cats, 6 species of hornbills (!!!), three spp of civet cats and macaques and silverleaf monkeys. The birding is great, and the walks not too strenuous even to the mud volcano where we saw a montjac. The jeeps take the less able to great viewing locations. When we were there the lodge was about half full so very peaceful. In all, it really is like going on safari in SE Asia.