Any which way you (Sanda) kan

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A side note for those wondering about the blog title...as Sandakan is where we flew into, we just couldn’t resist a reference to the Clint Eastwood films from the ‘80’s featuring Clyde the Orang-utan...and yes it does show our age!

So we were up and at ‘em at 5am so we could get another extortionate taxi to Kota Kinabalu airport...we decided on the 45 minute flight versus the 6 hour bus journey as it ended up being the same price. Well that and because we had heard the road was very winding so with Donna’s tendency to get travel sick we really didn’t particularly fancy that journey!

On the approach to Sandakan we saw why the bus would be a bad idea - it was mostly mountains, although it seemed to us that a lot of the rainforest had been taken away and replaced by palm oil plantations which was a little disappointing considering the Malaysian government is quite conservation ‘friendly’ (or is it a case of conservation only when there isn’t money involved?). We landed safely and on getting off the plane the humidity hit us - it was 8am in the morning and the temperature was unbelievable...we wondered just how hot it was going to get.

Our first surprise in Sandakan was the taxis...yes you’ve guessed it, overpriced! We found a couple (who were on their honeymoon incidentally) to share a taxi with as the pricing system for the taxi’s was zone based. We were all going to the same zone (the one Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre is in) and thought a double drop off wouldn’t be a problem, especially as we were paying 35 ringgit for an 11km journey. We reached the couple’s accommodation at Uncle Tan’s first...the taxi driver then decided to rip off his passengers and demanded 15 ringgit extra to take us the 2.5km to Sepilok Jungle resort where we had booked to stay. Well you’ve guessed it, we refused to pay, had a little argument with the taxi driver about his decision (we didn’t swear too much, we had honeymooners with us!) and set to walking the 2.5km.

Now, 2.5km is nothing to walk especially as we only had light day sacks with us but walking 2.5km in a rainforest type location with 36 degrees heat and 80+% humidity (even at 8am!) was a killer...thank goodness we had our trusty umbrellas to keep the worst of the sun off us. Surprisingly Donna didn’t grumble too much although lots of new names were invented for the robbing b*stard (the politest we can put here, there are children reading!) taxi driver. Neil became increasingly concerned for the welfare of his Cadbury’s chocolate stashed in our backpacks and resorted to all sorts of funny positions to try and keep his head and bag shaded at the same time! To be honest though we would choose this walk over and over again to try and teach taxi drivers that some people (us!) will not be exhorted out of more money on their whims and we are actually thinking of starting an online club of ‘we hate taxi drivers in tourist destinations’...we know there would be quite a few takers for this one!

We must have looked right states by the time we arrived at the resort...we tried to check in straight away but our room wasn’t available (more on this issue later!) so we stashed our bags in the office - after Neil had carefully checked the chocolate status and was relieved to see it hadn’t melted - we quickly changed into non-wet and sweaty clothes (YUK!) and headed out to the Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre. More than once we said this place sounded like the Priory for orang-utans! We were worried as we had been set behind due to our impromptu sweaty walk and thought we may have missed the first feeding of the day as Donna couldn’t remember whether it was 9 or 10am (it was 10am). The centre was literally a two minute walk from Sepilok Jungle Resort and we went and bought our tickets. These were 30 ringgit each but then they charge 10 ringgit extra for a camera...we wonder about places like this (it was the same in China) you pay extra for a camera...every single person there that day had a camera so why doesn’t the Centre just include it as part of the ticket price?

In a strange way the Centre reminded us of Iguazu Falls in Argentina, maybe it was the wooden walkways and the tall rainforest trees...there was a lack of waterfalls though so we suppose our comparison isn’t really that accurate after all! We had a short walk through the rainforest and we reached the feeding area; we were gobsmacked by the number of tourists who were there...there were literally hundreds of people which made getting a good spot to see the orang-utans a bit difficult and really tested the limits of the zoom lens on our camera, so apologies if some of the photos are blurry. We had heard that there was always more people at the morning feeding as all the jungle tours start at the Centre before moving onto other locations. So standing on our tip-toes and craning our necks, it wasn’t long before we were rewarded with a first sighting...first we had a false alarm with a macaque monkey but then an adolescent orang-utan came casually swinging through the trees and sat expectantly on the feeding platform waiting for her food.

Even though there were so many people around we still found the orang-utans amazing animals...a second orang-utan soon joined the first and they started feasting on the bananas and condensed milk the keepers gave them. The orang-utans are so human in their expressions and antics...they had us laughing quite a few times at the cheekiness of them. One instance was one orang-utan tipping the remains of the condensed milk on her head so she could use the steel tray to try and sledge down the stairs of the feeding platform - the keeper had to struggle to get the tray off her before she went sliding down the stairs; the other instance was when the keeper clapped his hands together and made a noise to scare a macaque monkey away from the food...the orang-utan copied the keeper, slapping her hands together and making a noise too with a cheeky grin on her face. Other smaller things too were amazing - watching a mother come with her baby to feed and the two adolescents helping to look after the baby, making sure it was getting enough food and stroking its back while it was feeding. We watched fascinated until they lost interest and had their fill of food to go swinging away back into the jungle.

Now it was time for our own feeding and we headed back to the resort to get some food...we were soooo hungry as we didn’t have breakfast! The resort’s menu had a good selection of food and considering the location and the fact there wasn’t much of anything else around the prices were okay. Notice we say okay...it’s quite hard to describe because the dishes were expensive but not too much of a rip off (if that makes sense!). We scoffed our food and guzzled about 3 litres of water (it was soooo hot at this point!) and tried several times to check into our room. The staff were a bit slow here and kept telling us to come back in 15 minutes, so after two hours of going back to the staff every 15 minutes Donna shouted at them (in a nice way of course) and miraculously a room was found within 5 minutes. We quickly dumped our things in the room and did a quick change into our swimwear and headed off to the resort’s pool (we had to pay an extra 5 ringgit each to use it though) to cool down and relax before the afternoon’s feeding at the Centre began!

Feeling a little more refreshed and cooler than we did at the morning feeding, we headed back to the Centre - tickets are valid all day on the day of purchase so you can come and go as you please. We have to say the afternoon was a lot better with far less people there and the dominant males even came out to feed...this resulted in the women and children having to snatch the food when the males weren’t looking which made for fun watching. There were also several instances of bum sniffing going on by the males when the women were swinging past...look at the last video, it’s a bit blurry but the sniffing was definitely going on - we say the women should have farted in the male’s face for making them steal food! There were lots of yoga poses and showing off swinging with the orang-utans in the afternoon - we were glad we had gone back in the afternoon.

We took some time to watch the video which been made by a guy who works for the BBC (can’t remember his name though!) and it was interesting to watch the stages of rehabilitation from rescuing the babies from people who keep them as pets, to slowly re-introducing them into the wild. We were surprised to learn that orang-utans are unique in the animal world in that they have a buddy system where the stronger help the weak gather food.

Happy to have learnt more about the orang-utans we headed back to the resort for a shower (and a much needed sleep!) and later that evening we had food in the restaurant and witnessed the resort lose a booking of 12 people because their rooms weren’t ready (it was 8pm!), the group just walked out in disgust when the resort tried to put them in rooms with dirty sheets from the previous occupants!

Our time in Borneo came to an end very quickly...it’s a great place to experience. We were shocked at how many tourists there were in both Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan - the numbers in the morning at Sepilok were unbelievable. Even so we were really glad we experienced the Rehabilitation Centre, it’s fantastic work that the staff do there with the ‘men of the forest’ and as there are so few of them left it seems like they need all the help they can get. We will be back to Borneo...inspired by the good food, friendly people (taxi drivers aside!) and amazing scenery.

Our next destination...erm...third island to the left and carry on going!

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Comments

[kelly]

alternative to Sepilok
Thanks for this post! We were in Boreo at the beginning of August as well, but didn't make it all the way to Sanadakan. I wanted to go to Sepilok, but my boyfriend isn't too fond of monkeys. Luckily however there is a smaller Orang-Utan Sanctuary, not far from Kota Kinabalu. Rasa Ria, works in conjunction with Sepilok, and functions the same way (2 feedings a day), but is a lot less busy. They limit it to 65 people per day. I was able to get quite close and some good shots. After reading this I feel a better about missing out on Sepilok. Anyway... just thought I would mention this here, for anyone considering heading to Sepilok... and let them know that there is an alternative, closer to KK. You can see my pics and read about Rasa Ria here if you're interested! http://www.haveinternetwilltravel.com/2009/08/15/rasa-ria-orang-utan-rehabilitation-center/