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Published: June 13th 2008
Organ-utan Rehabilitation Centre
The first guy came swinging in....Hi everyone,
How are you all?
A lot has happened since our last blog but I'll try to keep this blog short and sweet where possible. We left the capital of Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, on 2nd June and travelled on a long and winding road through the mountains to Sandakan. Whilst in Sandakan we were lucky enough to find a bargain and clean hotel (a rarity in Malaysia!), called Mayfair Hotel. It was run bu a very helpful Chinese man, who lent us free DVD's, arranged our transport and made us feel very welcome. For any travellers reading this blog, we can't recommend this hotel enough!
Our reason for staying in Sandakan was to visit the Organ-utan Rehabilitation Centre at nearby Sepilok. We had heard a lot of great things about this centre so we were excited to be able to visit it in person. We had the opportunity to watch Orang-Utans who had been rescued, nursed back to health and gradually eased back into the wild. There were two daily feeds for the organ-utans who were in the final stage of the rehabilitation programme, living in the wild but still relying
Organ-utan Rehabilitation Centre
They're just really hairy and flexible human beings! on the centre for their food. Eventually these organ-utans will start hunting for themselves and no longer come to the daily feeding sessions.
As it is in the wild, there was no guarantee to see these "men of the forest", but luckily we were able to see about half a dozen of them at each feeding. The organ-utans range from newly born to 20 years old, and the majority of them end up at the centre after been orphaned by poachers or having their homes (the rainforests) cut down and being made homeless.
The pictures really do speak louder than words but even the pictures don't do justice to the amazing feeling you got seeing these magificient creatures swinging through the jungle in the wild. It was quite amusing to watch them as they are so like humans (but slightly more flexible I'd say!) In fact, they apparently have around 94% the same genes as humans, so not unlike us at all!
Once they had got their fruit from the feeding platform they would swing off again and dangle in some pretty unusual positions whilst eating their food. At times it
Organ-utan Rehabilitation Centre
They hang around in all sorts of strange positions.... was difficult to tell which were their hands and which were their feet and they look very similar.
After the organ-utans had finished eating and swung back into the dense forest, loads of other monkeys (Macques) came jumping onto the platform to finish off the food. There were tonnes of them and they were all fighting over the food and making plenty of noise. Very different types of monkeys than the shy organ-utans! It was a great day at the rehabilitation centre and we learnt a lot about these endangered creatures. If anyone gets the opportunity to go - go!
From Sandakan we journied on the 4th June to Semporna on the Southern tip of Sabah, Borneo. From here we caught a speedboat to the island of Mabul and settled into a basic but picturesque accommodation, which consisted of huts on stilts over the ocean. We eventually got used to sharing the toilet and cold shower with 15 other people!
By this point, I (Michelle) had noticed that I hadn't done any diving for at least 2 weeks and was in desperate need of a scuba "fix". Where better than to get
this fix than at "The Best Dive site in the World". Sipadan Island, Sabah has been voted as the top dive site numerous times and is always ranking in the top 5...so I was curious as to what makes it so special...
I was very excited to hear the other divers tales of the numerous turtles, sharks and endless visibility that they had experienced at Sipadan and I couldn't wait for my 2 dives which I had booked there on the 6th June. I decided to hire an underwater camera for the day so I could hopefully capture and share this underwater world. Unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse and when I did the dives the visibility wasn't all that good (around 8 - 10 metres). However, this certainly didn't spoil the dives for me, as I saw around 10 turtles on each dive, around 15 sharks on each dive (white tip reef sharks and grey reef sharks) and lots of other life - it was amazing!
The turtles were Green Turtles and they were huge - upto 2 metres, a lot bigger than I had expected. They were really graceful
Organ-utan Rehabilitation Centre
The other monkeys tried to collect the remains from the forest floor. considering their size and were quite happy for me to take photos of them - some ene posing for the camera :-) The sharks were equally impressive (although they certainly weren't too keen on posing for the camera!) They were upto 3 metres long and constantly swimming past us. One even got a bit inquisitive about the underwater camera I was pointing at it and decided to come and have a look. He didn't get too close though and soon decided to swim away when he realised that I wasn't any threat to him. I apologise for my awful photos of the sharks but they were really difficult to capture on camera as they swim so fast. In truth, the pcitures don't really do justice to the superb world under that sea.
The first dive I did at Sipadan was called "Drop Off Point". Self explanatory really - at around 20 metres down the sea bottom just drops to around 600 metres deep. Swimming along the edge of the drop off point, it really does feel like the edge of the world. At this dive site there is a really dangerous cave called Turtle Tomb. Lots of
turtles (and even dolphins) lose their way in the cave and end up dying there. Therefore there are lots of skeletons. Numerous divers have also died from trying to explore the cave - the most recent one being just last year when 2 Japanese divers went missing after entering the cave. Needless to say, I wasn't willing to pay the extra money to hire a specialised guide and equipment to marvel at the reminaing skeletons (yuck!!). We did see the entrance to the cave though and it was pitch black so I was quite relieved I wasn't entering it!
The second dive site was called "Barracuda Point" and luckily it didn't disappoint and I was huge schools of giant Barracuda's. They were that big that when they swam overhead they took all the light away. really great. I really enjoyed the two dives at this fantastic spot and wished that I could have done some more when the visibility was good...because if it was great diving when the visibility wasn't so good then it would have been really special if the visibility had been good!
Anyway, whilst we were staying on Mabul Island we
Mabul Island, Borneo
A Malaysian family enjoying their Saturday together adopted a little Malaysian cat and called it Ginger. It was really friendly and during the day constantly slept on our bed. The guys at the dive shop had taken to looking after it and feeding it...so it had definitely became a spoilt little kitty!
Where we stayed on Mabul Island, we were in the centre of quite a large water village community. There were lots of kids fligning themselves off their homes and into the water as not many of them go to school here. There is no school on the island and a lot of the families can't afford the boat fuel to take their children to the mainland everyday to receive an education. They were all really friendly though, always saying hello when they walked past us - the only English they knew. WE had a nce relaxing time on Mabul, jsut looking out to sea and daydreaming when we wasn't diving or in the sea.
We left Mabul on the 8th June back to the mainland, in time to catch the night bus back to the capital, Kota Kinabula. Unfortunately we didn't get a very good impression of Semporna during
Mabul Island, Borneo
Our adopted cat, Ginger, asleep on our bed out very short few hours here. I got the impression that they don't see many westerners here so we were a big novelty to them - getting stared at everywhere you went was quite unnerving! We were also hounded by a large group of begging children who wouldn't leave us alone and followed is around half a mile down the street until we eventually had to shout at them to leave us. They were pulling at our clothes and unzipping our bags - not a very pleasant experience! We were glad to get on the bus at 8pm - even though we knew we would now be stuck on it for another 10 hours. Thankfully we arrived in the capital early at 4am, and with no accommodation booked we heading back to the same hotel we stayed at last time.
We left KK on 10th June and flew back to the Malay Peninsular to Johor Bahru. From the airport, we got a taxi straight across the border into Singapore - where we are at the moment. We really like Singapore, it's a big modern city and certainly the most developed place we've been to on the whole
Mabul Island, Borneo
Our home on Mabul Island trip so far. We're currently staying in the Little India district, which seems to be quite a good location.
Yesterday (12th June) we went to Sentosa Island which was really lovely. In the morning we went to Dolphin Lagoon, where I swam with the Indo-Pacific Pink Dolphins. This was really nice and I was taught how to get the dolphins to do tricks - they were really well looked after and it was a very special (early!) birthday present from Stu. I got to interact with 3 pink dolphins for around 45 minutes and the trainers were excellent. After the session had finished I dried off whilst we watched the dolphin show. In the afternoon we got one of the free buses which run around Sentosa Island to the Underwater World, which was okay. Obviously it's nicer seeing this marinelife in the wild in the sea - whether snorkelling or diving - it's totally do-able around here. Although we did both enjoy seeing Gracie the Dugong. We had a very strange experience of hand feeding the sting rays. We weren't too sure whether to be afraid or not when the huge rays were all racing towards your
Sipadan Diving, Borneo
A green turtle, poses for the camera hand holding a small piece of meat between your fingers! our hands live to write the tale though so I guess it was safe enough.
Stu also caught upto me on the 'snake holding front', as he held an albino python outside Underwater World - to prove a point to more more than anything after the Snake Farm in Bangkok! The guy made him wear an Indian turban whilst he was holding the snake :-)
Whilst we've been in Singapore we hit the shopping malls - WOW! A shoppers paradise. Unfortunately our budget didn't quite match our enthusiasm so we had to be on our best behaviour and refrain from a shopping spree. I did treat myself to a new top and Stu a new top & pants. It's really nice to be able to where something different after wearing the same things for 3 and a half months!
Anyway I better bring this blog to an end (was that cheering I heard?!?!) as it has turned into quite a long one.
We hope to hear from you soon as we are both missing everyone from home.
Sipadan Diving, Borneo
A white tip reef shark slides past me... Lots of love,
Michelle & Stu xxxxx
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Krystyna
non-member comment
Great Blog!
Dear Michelle and Stu Really enjoyed reading your last two blogs, the monkey's look fantastic, you are so lucky. The photos underwater are truly amazing you seem to be very proficient in the diving. I must admit I have tried it once and it is something I too could get into! It is such a lovely feeling of freedom being underwater, although I am a bit worried with all the sharks around you, what type are they? For some reason I was unable to leave a comment last time, software problem. I am so pleased you are both having a good time, all those memories are priceless, but what on earth are you going to do when you come back to reality? Take care. Love from Krystyna and family xxxxxx