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Published: January 20th 2011
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A full bus, a seat for 5 hours on the floor, torrential storms, major traffic and a fallen tree blocking the road. It could have been the journey from hell but we kept up our motto of “Just smile and make the best of a bad situation” and still soaked through we arrived at our lodgings in Sandakan. The rustic conditions of our wooden hut took us right back to nature with an open air bathroom that used branches for toilet roll holders and clothes hooks. It was a good job they supplied us with a huge can of bug spray to ward off the forests army of creepy crawlies.
The next morning we woofed down our free breakfast and caught the free shuttle bus to another Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre called Sepilok. This one is much more well known and that is reflected in the price, it was 10 times more expensive than Semongok and they also had the cheek to charge a camera fee on top. However, it was still worth the fee to see our orange friends in action once more. We got to see several of them swing through the trees including a little baby who was
too young to be away from its mummy. They swang through the tree tops to claim their free grub but as soon as the feeding platform was empty tens of naughty macaques stormed the area and scavenged what they could from the buckets of food left unattended. They all fought for fruit until another orang-utan came sliding down a tree onto to the platform and scared them off single-handedly.
As we watched the primates tussle for teritory Jo was tapped on the back by a friendly face. Maria from Finland, who we had met in Mui Ne, Vietnam a few weeks ago. Once the feeding time was up we made one of the biggest mistakes of our trip, we left Maria and her friends to go and pack our bags and move hostels whilst they went on a trek at the centre. When we caught up with them later it turned out they had been luckily enough to see an orang-utan up close and it then proceeded to climb on Michael and give him a cuddle. They showed us the pictures and we went green with envy. So we were determined to watch the afternoon feeding and hang around
in the hope of a similar experience. We saw several orange men from a distance again but we wanted more and as we were leaving the centre we saw one sitting in the trees by the entrance. We hung around and hid in the bushes as the security guards went to lock the gates, then slowly but surely Oscar the orang-utan came down off his perch and ran a muck around the reception area. He sat on a chair, opened a bottle of water with his mouth and drank it, then went over to a desk and opened the draws before running off round the corner. We followed him and managed to get within 1 metre of this amazing animal before being told to keep our distance by the staff. As he disappeared back to his rightful jungle home the staff who were unaware we were still on the premises escorted us to the exit. A little naughty of us but well worth it for a once in a lifetime experience. We also took a brief trip to the rainforest discovery centre where we enjoyed a stroll on the tree top canopy walk and a bit of exploring through the
hundreds of different fauna and flora.
That evening we headed over to Maria and Michael's hostel to share our travelling stories from the past month and relive our excited day over a few beers.
The next day we took it easy and made the most of the blazing heat by relaxing at our impressive swimming pool. We had the worst garlic bread ever (toast with butter and whole garlic cloves) then headed back to our room to freshen up before meeting our Borneo buddies again for dinner at their hotels restaurant. Despite us all having an early departure the next day we stayed up till 3am drinking cheap and horibble local spirits and inventing our own drunken drinking game which we dubbed Borneo Blackjack.
Overall we had a fantastic time in Sandakan, its just a shame we had to share our bed with some sneaky and unwelcome companions. What we thought were mosquito bites turned out to be bedbugs and by the time we left we were covered in hundred of small, red and very itchy spots. A bit of an unwanted early Christmas present.
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