Sabah - Part 2

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Sabah – Wildlife adventure continued

We left the lodge and headed for Seplikok Orangutan Centre, which was “ok”. We, and 20 other tourists, saw a mother and her baby and another lone babe. It allowed us to wander round and say things pretentiously like “they are a bit more orange in the wild”. Apparently in the afternoon there are a lot more at feeding time. That afternoon we were dropped off at Nipah Lodge and were the only guests at this out of the way (in the middle of a plantation) accommodation! Us, and the “guys”, ventured out in the evening for a spot of glow worm hunting. Which was lovely…an experience punctuated by Tory whispering to Will “I think we are being kidnapped”. In all honesty it was fun and everyone at the lodge was really friendly and helpful.

The next morning we set out for the early feeding at Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary. This was an incredible place. Nipah Lodge is affiliated with the sanctuary so we got a lift with the guy who fed the monkeys. The first feeding platform is a walk out and in the middle of the mangrove forest. The feeding guy called them on the way through and we could see them rustling in the trees from a distance. It took a little while but we were eventually surrounded by 3 groups – two family, and one bachelor otherwise known as the unlucky group. The whole time it was just us and another couple. As you can see from the photos we got up close and personal with them!

That afternoon we stood at the side of the road and waited in hope for a bus to collect us and take us to Ranau. It was an interesting bus journey to say the least, Tory had a seat that rained and sat with a plastic bag on her lap, and we saw about 1000 people massacred thanks to the showing of Rambo and Saving Private Ryan. When the bus stopped it was all we could do to stop ourselves army rolling off the bus and into a trench. In the middle of nowhere, we then found out we were meant to be 15K further up the road. We wandered round the town trying to find our accommodation, internet, a taxi and then a taxi that knew where we were going!

We got up the next day and headed to Kinabalu National Park for the guided nature walk, as Tory had not been yet. Unfortunately, the walk was pants and we realized we could have got a $50 flight from Sandakan to Kota Kinabalu and missed the journey out all together. To add insult to injury we couldn’t even afford the buffet lunch. So we took ourselves and a pack of Cadbury chocolate biscuits back to the road to wait for the next bus to Kota Kinabalu. Luckily, we found someone wanting to do the same thing and jumped in a taxi for the same price and a faster more comfortable journey – future travelers take note!

Back in Kota Kinabalu we stayed in a lovely place called Lavender Lodge. The first evening we treated ourselves to a movie and were the only people in the cinema watching Scream 4, apart from the usher, who every now and then turned up behind us scaring the pants off us! Yes Will did jump, yes he is a big big girl.

Will spent a day diving on Gaya and Sapi island with Down Below divers. It was great to get the first dive since his PADI course under his belt. He learnt to jump off the boat backwards, saw a lion fish and a big sea cucumber. The next day we both ventured to Mamutik island and did some snorkeling which was really good. We saw lots of fish and Tory got bitten as she was trying to pet the fish. Embarrassingly on arrival we were short of money (no thanks to deposits for snorkeling gear) and had to borrow money off a fellow Irish girl – think being approached in a train station and being asked for money for train fare with all sincerity.

And so ends our Borneo adventure.

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Photos

Will says pah to mosquitos
Tory disappears inside early not to be eaten