Orangutans and Vicious Macaques

Day 3

Thursday, January 15, we had a lazy morning then headed back to the airport for a 1:10 flight to Sandakan on the other side of the island. It was the shortest flight I've ever taken: only about 40 minutes! By the time we got up to cruising altitude it was time to come back down. We didn't even get a chance to power up our iPods. We checked in at our hostel, Sandakan Backpackers, and decided it was worth a couple extra dollars to switch from a six bed mixed dorm to a three bed private dorm. The six bed dorm was tiny and had two antisocial British guys already there. As far as hostels go Sandakan Backpackers is just 'okay'. It's clean enough and the location is good. Beyond that it's a little blah. After eating a small cafe on the waterfront we trekked through town to the travel office. We had four full days in Sandakan and not a thing planned for it. Scuba diving was at the top of our list and I was really looking forward to it. The woman at the travel office was amazing. She was all smiles and warmth and her English was really REALLY good. She was so excited to have us there. We were her first Americans. We told her our time and budget constraints and our wish list of things to do and she went to work pulling books and brochures and talking a million miles a minute. Sadly, scuba diving was not in our near future. I didn't think it'd be a problem. When I went diving in Mexico all I had to do was an hour (or not even that long) 'resort certification' class that covered the basics before going on the dive. But here in SE Asia it's a lot more involved. All the diving packages were at least four days long and we didn't have enough time. Upside: getting certified for real is a lot cheaper here than in the States, so I put that on my list of things to do before I leave Asia permanently. Downside: no scuba for us this time around.

We told Travel Woman that we were also very interested in seeing local wildlife, so she gave us the information for a brand new B&B in a little village called Sukau (pronounced Sue-cow) where we could take river cruises and also all the information we needed to visit the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center. Everything in Sandakan closes really early (I thought I was in the U.K. for a moment) so we stayed in that night, ordered pizza, and played cards.

Day 4

Friday, January 16th, we slept in until 9am and had another free breakfast of tea and toast. I called Jamal, the owner and operator of Sukau Greenview B&B, and arranged for a 3 day/2 night stay with 4 river cruises and one jungle trek. I also had to call Nazim and arrange for transport to Sukau for the next day. After another nice waterfront lunch we found the Batu 14 bus that would take us to Sepilok, a 45 minute trip. You can only see the orangutan during feeding time and there are only two per day. We chose the 3:00 pm feeding time. We arrived at the center with just enough time to buy our tickets and camera permits before filing down the wooden walkway through the jungle to a wide observation platform. Further out in the forest was another smaller platform and there two men ascended and began to scatter bananas and sugar cane from large buckets. First only one solitary male came swinging in on the rope bridges that went from tree to tree, but he was soon followed by more. There were adolescents, and females with their babies (one of which was VERY small). They devoured the bananas first, then leisurely chewed at the sugar cane. One young male wrestled with an older adolescent. His mother looked on as she ate and only intervened once or twice when it looked like it was getting too rough. All they did in relative quiet; their movements slow and deliberate. They were wonderful.

After staring in awe for about 40 minutes we decided to head back to the front gate to peruse the gift shop before catching our bus back to Sandakan. We had two directions to choose from: either continuing on into the jungle or going back the way we came. We decided on the latter. It was just the three of us on the walkway when we spotted a fourth more unwelcome visitor. It was huge. It had giant teeth. It was a pig tailed Macaque. We thought it would leave when it spotted us, but it just sat there daring us to come near. We debated on whether to go back, but we knew we were almost to the gate. All the while that Macaque just sat there on the railing up ahead, crushing nuts with its massive incisors and listening to voices that were now coming from the other side of the trees. We decided to keep going and I doled out the only advice my addled brain could remember: Don't make eye contact. (Thank you, Animal Planet!) As Kim and I were on the verge of Rock, Paper, Scissors Cara took fate by the short hairs and ventured forth. I held my breath as she walked passed the furry bundle of thinly veiled violence. I had seen these creatures enough on Wildlife programs to know they could be unpredictable. Cara ran the gauntlet and emerged unscathed. Bolstered by Cara's survival, Kim and I moved hesitantly forward. I wanted to look at the thing in the way a child wants to yell in a library, but librarians don't have four inch fangs so I wasn't too tempted. I even turned my camera away lest it think it was an eye. Thankfully, the Macaque was more interested in listening to those voices than us. We all made it to the gate with little more than rapid heart rates and strong urges to use the facilities.

After a 45 minute bus ride back to Sandakan, we took a short nap before heading out for dinner. That night was rough. Our neighbors were Eric the Know-It-All Canadian and a girl whose name we never did catch so I’ll call her Generic Australian Girl. They came in loudly intoxicated at two in the morning and their drunken conversing woke me up. I went out into the hallway and knocked on their door but got no response. I told a girl who worked at the hostel but got little more than a shrug from her. I went back into the room and knocked on the shared wall between our two rooms. I was going to politely ask them to be quiet (I really was!) but, when I knocked on the wall, Eric the KIAC shouted “F*&% off!” I instinctively shouted back, “No, you f*&% off, a##hole! We’re trying to sleep!” Not exactly my proudest moment. The situation worsened when their conversing turned to intercourse of another sort. That lasted until four in the morning! Part of me wanted to congratulate Eric the KIAC for having the ability to perform for so long while under the influence and GAG for the number of exclaimed yesses, but really I just wanted them to shut the hell up.

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