Borneo and More 2015
Chiang Mai, Thailand. A tradition on New Year's Eve is to send khom loi lanterns into the sky. A khom loi includes a burner at the bottom that heats the air inside the paper balloon, giving it lift. Here, a young Thai woman and her partner are about to launch a khom loi.
Chiang Mai, Thailand. An ex-patriate joins the New Year's Eve celebration. The site is the Iron Bridge over the Ping River, which flows through Chiang Mai.
Chiang Mai, Thailand. A young ex-patriate woman is about to launch her khom loi from the Iron Bridge, which is lit with banks of LED lights, some of which cycle through various colors.
Chiang Mai, Thailand. A young woman has just enthusiastically launched her khom loi from the Iron Bridge. Another one in the backgound is almost ready to launch.
Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. Wat Rong Khun, better known to foreigners as the White Temple, is a privately owned and funded art exhibit in the style (loosely!) of a Buddhist temple. Here a Buddhist monk surveys the main building.
Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. Looking across a fish-filled pond to the main building of Wat Rong Khun (or the "White Temple"). The bridge to the entrance of the main building crosses over a sculpture representing a sea of arms reaching out for help from the fiery depths of hell.
Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. Wat Rong Khun (or the "White Temple") is the extravagant work of wealthy local artist, Chalermchai Kositpipat, who has been developing the site since 1997 and who is said to expect work to continue until 2070.
Ban Mae Khao Tom, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. The Padaung subgroup of the Karen tribe is based mainly in Burma (Myanmar), but some have emigrated to northern Thailand. Within the Padaung, women adorn themselves with neck coils. The practice starts at age 5 or so, with a coil that has a few turns. As a girl matures to adulthood, the original coil is replaced with successively longer ones with additonal turns.
Ban Mae Khao Tom, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. A Padaung Karen woman works at a loom. Padaung women produce beautiful fabrics and clothes made from them.
Ban Mae Khao Tom, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. A young woman in a Padaung Karen village market stall. The coil press down on the wearer's clavicle and rib cage, resulting in the appearance of a long neck.
Ban Mae Khao Tom, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. A young Padaung Karen girl, already started with the distinctive brass neck coil.
Ban Mae Khao Tom, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. A young Padaung Karen woman.
Ban Mae Khao Tom, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. A Padaung Karen girl.
Ban Mae Khao Tom, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. A vendor from the Akha tribe -- with traditional garments and headgear, as well as a modern pair of glasses -- pauses in reflection.
Kumai, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. This port city was the base for search and rescue operations for AirAsia flight 8501, which crashed off the coast at the end of 2014. This Indonesian Sea and Coast Guard cutter is between trips to the crash site.
Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Travel to and around the park is usually by klotoks, traditional Indonesian wooden boats like this one, on the Sekonyer River between its southern terminus in Kumai and the Camp Leakey dock, pictured here. Camp Leakey was established in 1971 by Dr. Birute Galdikas, when she launched her decades-long and ground-breaking orangutan research and conservation efforts.
Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Kacong, a male organgutan, greets visitors near the Sekonyer River dock as they head for the Tanjung Harapan feeding station. Many of the individual orangutans that frequent the feeding stations are individually known and named by the ranger and guide community.
Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Tery, a subadult male organgutan, stands near the Tanjung Harapan feeding station. Each feeding station is a raised wooden platform on which rangers place bananas or other fruits (and sometimes milk), as supplementary food for orangutans rehabilitating in the nearby area.
Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. After the main feeding session at the Tanjung Harapan feeding station, Kacong lingers nearby.
Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Kacong, a male orangutan, near the Tanjung Harapan feeding station.
Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Male orangutan Kacong, near the Tanjung Harapan feeding station.
Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Oangutan mother Yolanda and her juvenile Yitno wait for the overdue afternoon food at the Camp Leakey feeding station. Orangutan juveniles stay close to their mothers for up to eight years.
Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Peta cuddles with her affectionate infant at the Camp Leakey dock.
Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. A young male orangutan collects bananas at the Camp Leakey feeding platform. He'll eat them in a nearby tree, out of the way of more aggressive males that might come to the platform.
Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. A juvenile orangutan asurveys the Camp Leakey feeding platform.
Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. A juvenile orangutan doesn't seem to understand that milk provided by rangers at the feeding platform is intended to go into his mouth, not on the ground below the platform.
Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Gina chooses an alternate way to drink milk, while her adolescent Gam focuses on more solid food at the Camp Leakey feeding platform.
Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. An orangutan mother and her baby, near the Camp Leakey feeding platform.
Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. A young male orangutan climbs down to the Camp Leakey feeding platform.
Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Tom, the dominant male orangutan in the Camp Leakey area, lounges on the grounds of the staff housing compound. At the time of this photo, Tom was about 35 years old and had long sported the massive cheekpads of the typical adult male. He wrested the role of Camp Leakey dominant male from Kusasi in 2003.
Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. A long-tailed macaque monkey scans the Camp Leakey dock area.
Orangutan Care Center and Quarantine facility, Pasir Panjang, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. This facility provides care and rehabilitation for confiscated ex-captive organutan orphans to prepare them for release back into the wild, if possible. Local women play the role of surrugate mothers for the young orangutans, including the infants pictured here, as a partial substitute for the intense care provided during the first 8 or more years of an orangutan's life by his or her mother..
Orangutan Care Center and Quarantine facility, Pasir Panjang, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. An adolescent male orangutan focuses on visitors.
Orangutan Care Center and Quarantine facility, Pasir Panjang, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. An adolescent orangutan perches in a tree.
Orangutan Care Center and Quarantine facility, Pasir Panjang, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. An adolescent orangutan moves between trees.
Lower Kinabatangan River, near Sukau, Sabah, Malaysia. A Bornean pygmy elephant mother and her baby graze among the riverbank grasses. Bornean pygmy elephants are genetically and behaviorally distinct from the larger Asian elephants.
Lower Kinabatangan River, near Sukau, Sabah, Malaysia. An adolescent Bornean pygmy elephant browses among riverbank grasses.
Lower Kinabatangan River, near Sukau, Sabah, Malaysia. A buffy fish owl, alert for night-time prey.
Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia. Kozi, the alpha male of one of the resident family groups. Each alpha male has a harem of females and their offspring. Bachelor males are continually challenging an alpha male; the alpha needs to fight them off to maintain his role.
Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia. A mother and her nursing infant.
Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia. Alpha male Kozi monitors his harem and watches for threats.
Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia. An infant gets ready to leap to join its mother. Infant proboscis monkeys have very dark head coloring, which gets lighter and more brown quickly as they grow.
Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia. This juvenile is past the infant coloration stage.
Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia. A mother grooming her juvenile.
Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia. A female proboscis monkey displays her long tail.
Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia. A mother and her infant.
Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia. A mother and her nursing infant.
Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia. A mother grooms her juvenile.