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Date visited: 22nd April - 23rd April
Another mission travelling day:
6am start for the coach to a nearby town. 2 long local buses over 2 hours. A 3 hour plane trip.
Eventually we land in the northern Malaysian state of Sabah, Borneo.
Our plane dropped us off in Sandakan, a city on the East Coast of Sabah and our jumping off point for the region's Jungle activities.
We arrived early and feeling pretty upbeat looking forward to the Jungle camp we previously booked. Sandakan itself unfortunately didn't do much for us - I'd describe it as a bit of a slum town to be honest containing oppressive gloomy flats and dark side-streets - certainly not the place to go for a wander late at night. We tried to find somewhere half decent to eat but this failed so we ended up ordering a Pizza from pizza-hut but this never arrived either despite constant promises from many phone calls. Our first day in Borneo then would conclude with white bread and crisps!
ORANGUTANS!
We began the day at the famous Sepilok Orangutan Sanctary.
We got to the sanctary just before feeding time at 9.30
am. The group of 20 or so tourists (including us) walked through a boarded path through Jungle, passing staff on the way asking us if we had our cameras. I told them not as we were told they charge an extra 10 Ringits just to take pictures (after a hefty admission fee)!. It is virtually un-enforceable so many tourists do not bother with this rule.
After a few patient minutes a few orangutans swung into view using the ropes in acrobatic fashion and heading straight to the feeding platform, which contained their banana breakfast (this platform for their food and the ropes being the only 'unnatural' bit! of the sanctury).
To my surprise the tourists walked away after only about 15 minutes of observing. The orangutans during this time were mainly scoffing their faces on bananas, their backs turned to the audience. Their impatience (the tourists!) and quick exit enabled me to take my best shots of these amazing animals. I clicked away trying to capture as much as possible from them hugging and kissing each other, to inspecting their heads and having fun messing around. After the crowd had cleared I could move right up to the
edge of the barrier and get shots from different angles and with less need to use the zoom feature! It was truly thrilling. For the last few minutes after about an hour, it was just B, me and the 4 Orangutans. They performed more tricks for us than in the previous hour put together - almost as if they knew the tourists would eventually bugger off, and then they could eventually relax. Ha! it was funny at the beginning as it did actually appear the group were 'ignoring' the tourists - especially those whistling and trying to attract their attention - (good on 'em)!
I hope my pictures show some of their near-identical human expressions- especially the cheeky youngster with the spiked up hair (take a look). I could have honestly stared at this lot all day long!
We eventually met our mini bus to begin our journey inland to the Kinebatangan River.
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Dinesh
non-member comment
I see you've taken some lovely pictures of Ben ;)