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Banana's and Milk
From Sipadan we made our way north to Sandakan, a jumping off point to visit the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre and jungle tours. In the morning we caught the local bus just outside the city and were dropped off at the door-step of the Rehabilitation Centre just in time to purchase our ticket, check our bags and reach the viewing platform before the banana's and milk came out for feeding time. In a tree just a few meters away from the viewing platform the big-cheeked dominate male and a young orang-utan sat around lapping milk from a pan and peeling banana's for a mid-morning snack. They're an interesting animal, genetically 94.6%!l(MISSING)ike humans. Females have only 3 or 4 young in their lifetime and babies stay with their mother for 3 to 4 years learning to climb, forage and build nests. Yes, they build nests and are the only primate to do so. They're quite similar to humans if nests could be akin to tree forts. The work the centre does is good, and it was nice to see orang-utans not in a zoo, but it really wasn't that exciting. The centre has very little information on
hand about the orang-utans, which was a bit disappointing. You can see them, but don't learn much about them. The tid-bits above I learned from a video showing in the canteen.
The orang-utan population is struggling, nearly endangered, with approximately 30,000 wild orang-utans left in Borneo and only 7,000 in nearby Sumatra, Indonesia. Habitat destruction from palm oil plantations and illegal logging are major contributing factors.
Village Homestay
From the Rehabilitation Centre we were picked up to go to a village homestay where we could also do jungle river tours to spot the Borneo wildlife. Our homestay family was lovely. Authentic, yet they new foreigners didn't drink the local water and liked to have toilet paper. A Muslim family with six children and the father was the headmaster at the local school. It was the father's duty to entertain us which meant offering cigarettes and sweet tea along with conversations about religion. The youngest of the kids, a five year old boy, was at home ill with the flu. Being home allowed him plenty of time to terrorize the litter of month old kittens and we had to remind him more than once to be gentle with the
kittens. Pinning them against the wall and dragging them by the hind leg is not kosher behaviour. But boys will be boys!
At dusk we loaded into a boat and headed down river in search of wildlife. We spotted hornbill birds, heron's, proboscis monkeys (the one's with the really big noses) and macaque monkeys. All in all it was an enjoyable boat ride so we signed up for a sunrise trip as well.
We were up early and standing on the side of the highway by 5:30am waiting to be picked up for our sunrise boat trip. We waited and waited and waited.... the sun rose... and still we waited until Jarrod got fed up and walked to the boat jetty and told them to pick us up (me and Emily on crutches).
Finally at 6:30am we were in a boat and heading up river. Unfortunately, most of the animals had already eaten breakfast and retreated back into the jungle (or palm plantations). We saw only a few birds and the odd macaque monkey.
What's That Orange Thing in the Tree?
Almost back at the boat dock Jarrod spots an odd orange colour in the Y
of a tree. By golly!
It's a wild orang-utan! We move closer in the boat and the orang-utan quickly climbs down the tree and into the thick jungle brush. The boat driver quickly rams the boat into the muddy bank and disembarks signaling us to come with him. Without a second thought we take off our sandals and follow through the mud and up on the grass where we quietly stalk the orang-utan. The boat driver spots it again and starts franticly waving his arms for us to back up. Now it dawns on us that orang-utans are actually quite strong and could kill you. Jarrod be-lines it back to the boat leaving me and gimpy Emily in his dust. From behind a tree we watched the orang-utan climb back up into the tree he was previously sleeping in and we move back to the riverside (and the boat) for a better view.
There is a stand off between us and the orang-utan. Who will stop watching who first? He doesn't seem too happy, we've woken him and now we won't leave! We can hear him grinding his teeth and he's ripping branches as thick as my wrist off
the tree. He's got slightly larger cheeks that stick out, a feature of dominate males, and he's about 5 feet tall. Yes, he could likely rip us apart if he wanted to. For half an hour we watched him swing from branch to branch, do his morning business, and rip off branches until we decided to leave him in peace. We lost the stand-off.
Memorable Next Stop: Tommorrow we're heading 300km out to sea aboard a little ship that has "unlimited soft drinks, ice-cream & snack free of charge." Gorging on junk, however, is a secondary objective. Main objective: diving at pristine Layang Layang
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