On the advice of a fellow traveller, we had driven up a really ulu road somewhere near a hill near Jelebu on the edge of Seremban. We were on the path to some rhinos...the feathered variety... rhinocerous hornbills to be exact. The path up was certainly challenging and not for the faint hearted. The tires of the rental car slipped and spun burning rubber occasionally especially where the tarred road had long disintergrated into loose rocks. Up we went twisting and turning slowly making our way deeper into what seemed to be a path of no return, all the while hoping, praying that there would not be another 4 wheeled vehicle heading the opposite direction as the path was barely wide enough for our vehicle. Oppurtunities for allowing another vehicle to cross paths were few and far between which meant that one vehicle would have had to reverse quite a bit in order to allow the other to pass.
There was a break higher up and we took the oppurtunity to park the car and get out. LKS soon started his hornbill calls which sounded like a short cough. In the distance, coughs were heard. I took the oppurtunity to walk the opposite direction away from all the coughing. There was a lot of croaking which I was informed came from frogs. This sounded more like a birdcall than anything you'd expect from a frog. I never did see a frog. Further up the path and around a bend, I heard a slight whooping sound. Ah ha! there might be monkeys. I was expecting the ubiquitous long tailed macaques. I could only catch a fleeting glimpse of something monkey-like swinging at great ease through the trees. The speed was incredible. This was no macaque. I could just make out the white outlining of the hands.
I think there were at least two gibbons in the trees. One was a dark brown and the other was a lighter shade of brown. The darker one paused to munch on some leaves and was facing me directly for a few seconds. Then it saw me and immediately scampered off. The gibbons stayed out of sight after that.
A fabulous wild encounter! Totally unexpected. I hope Jelebu-Seremban keeps its forested hills intact. Priceless!
Find out more about gibbons here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibbon
and Seremban : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seremban
Find out more about gibbons here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibbon
and Seremban : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seremban
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