Rasa Ria Orang Utans & Turan Croc Farm

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We had another early start this morning, up at 7, breakfast and then waiting for the minibus to come and pick us up at 8.30am. It took about 45 minutes to get to the Shangri-La Rasa Ria Hotel and Orang Utan rehabilitation centre. The hotel was absolutely gorgeous with its golf course and glorious views over the South China Sea. It had its own little beach with wicker sun loungers placed in small groups around the grounds. We were let through the hotel complex and to the Rehabilitation Centre. Here we watched and video on how the centre work with Sepilok to rehabilitate young orphan orang utans. After the video we were led up into the rainforest surrounding the resort to a feeding platform. One of the rangers climbed onto the platform and started shouting. Very soon we could hear a rustle in the trees and two small orang utans came into sight, swinging through the trees. The first one came to the platform and we were told that it was Katie. She helped herself to food from the platform and sat quite happily eating. Soon she was joined by another small orang utan. The first one disappeared quite quickly but the second one seemed more than happy to stay around and helped itself to fruit before climbing back up into the trees. Here it snapped a large branch off and then made its way back down to the feeding platform. Here it hung from one of the ropes and kept tapping one of the rangers on the shoulder trying to get him to pass it some fruit. Sometimes it was lucky and he gave it some and then he stopped and it had to come down from the rope and get its own. It dragged the branch with it and hid behind the leaves while it ate. After it had finished eating it happily sat and played with the branch, putting it over its head, snapping bits off and eating more fruit, eventually lying on her back stretched out on the platform. The other one came back for a short while for more fruit and then went back into the forest. Eventually Katie took back to the trees, swinging over our heads and the rangers told us it was time for us to go back to the centre where they would show us one of the babies.

As we started our walk down from the feeding platform, Katie decided that she wanted to get a little closer and came down the side of the hill, swinging again above our heads. The rangers were shouting at her and followed her down the hill. She dropped to the ground like a naughty child and was told off by one of the rangers. He said she loved expensive cameras but once she had it we had to consider it sold. They did seem concerned about her getting too close and this was because they can catch diseases from us. So after another telling off she climbed back into the trees and we were encouraged to go back down to the centre.

In the centre we took a seat for about 5 minutes before one of the rangers told us that he baby was back along the path. I'd expected a ranger to be holding it but he was climbing up a tree and went high into the canopy. After a while the ranger shouted of him and he came back down to the ground for a hug from one of the rangers. He them put him on a rope and encouraged him to go along it and then back again. After 15 or 20 minutes the ranger took hold of him and fed him a bottle of juice and cradled him in his arms. The most beautiful sight in the world! He said the baby was now tired and that we could take our last photo's and then he was going to take him back. The whole thing was an absoutely wonderful experience and something that I'll never forget. They said that if deforestation continues, orang utans could become extinct in the wild within 10 years. An awful thought. We went back to the centre and chatted to some of the wardens who clearly loved their jobs. One asked where we were from and when we said the North of England he said, 'Wye Aye Man', which was really funny. We wandered back through the resort and back to our minibus where our driver asked if we wanted to look at a crocodile farm. We decided we would and it was only a 10 minute bus ride.

Turan Crocodile Farm was in stark contrast to the Orang Utan rehabilitation centre. The conditions weren't great and it seemed such a shame for such huge animals to be caged up. However some of them had been born with birth defects and probably would not have survived in the wild so maybe it was a good idea for them. We had a quick look around but it wasn't really for us so we made our way back to the bus to be brought back to the hotel.

Time to be packing our bags again tonight as tomorrow we fly very early to Kuala Lumpur for the last day of our journey together and 'High Tea' and Atmosphere 360. Tonight we will go up to the beach to watch the sunset again and eat dinner.

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