Kuching Borneo home of the big ginger apes!

---

We arrived in Borneo after the most airconned flight I’ve ever been on, I was soo cold. When we arrived in Kuching it was a relief to feel the roasting heat from the sun. We collected our bags and got a taxi to the hostel we were staying. For a big city with a big enough airport I though it was odd these was no bus service.
We checked into a hostel with no windows, not so nice but it seems like you have to pay a lot of money for a hostel with a window not to mind say a view. We went for a wander around the town. It was a gorgeous day. A lot of shops and restaurants were closed because it’s the Hary Rya festival to celebrate the end of Ramadan. However there were stalls setup down on the waterfront. I bought a really nice bracelet. Time to start collecting presents. Only 6 weeks to go.
Kuching means cats in Malay and there’s statues of cats everywhere. Malaysia in general seems to be mad for cats. Where are all the dogs gone like0.
The next day we got up early and made our way to the Matang Wildlife Centre. The guidebook said you could get a van. This is not a bus but a shared taxi type thing. People just meet up there and share the price of the mini bus. The direction in the guidebook we’re farly vague to we went into tourism information to clarify. The lady here said there was no such van and to get a taxi.. Us being stubborn like we usually are decided to go with the van option. We walked around a bit and after talking to a few people got on a bus, the driver said he was going to Kabah National Park. Matang is a part of this so we said sure we’d give it a go. The bus left us off 15km down the road from where we wanted to go and said he’d pick us up again at 4.
Off we went walking up the road in 40 degrees heat. Yvonne stuck out her thumb to the first car that passed. He stopped and turned out to be a great guy. He was only going up the road about 4 miles but dropped us the whole way up to where we were going. Then he refused to take any money. The wildlife centre is a rehabilitation centre for injured and orphaned animals from the jungle. Animals which have been confiscated from local tribes which keep the animals as pets or worse yet for dinner also find a home here.

The sanctuary was a path through the jungle. We thought they were going to be feeding the animals but turns out they don’t feed then in the evenings until the centre is closed to the public. We saw alligators, very different to camens I’ll have you know. Owls with broken wings and feet, very sleepy cat/bear things . Porkipines, hornbills, gibbons. The biggest was definitely a absolutely giant Male Orangutan. He was soo cool. He’s hands we like leather, one finger was the size of my whole hand. The place was really quiet. When we got up to where he was kept I got kinda excited and started talking to him. I was just joking calling him George but he must have recognized his name (found out later he is George). He looked right up at us. He was smiling and looking from one to another. It was so mesmerizing we didn’t get a photo. It was very special. Then he just swung away into he’s house. Turns out its very rare to see him. He was a place at the back where he can hang out in the sun away from the public.
We got the local shopkeeper to drop us back to the bus stop. Gave him 10 ringitts(2 pounds) for the 15 km trip. They’re was already an English couple at the bus stop. They had been there an hour already. We were having the usual chat with these when a car pulled up and asked us if we wanted a spin. So we hopped in. He turns out to be a football supporter who wanted to practice his English. Gary and him chatted all the way back to Kuching.

The next day we planned on going to Guntang National Park. This is where the biggest flower in the world is sometimes in bloom. There’s also 7 waterfalls and a mountain to climb. What attracted us mostly was the opportunity to swim in a waterfall in 49 degrees heat. From the guidebook and a sign at the hostel we thought a bus would be leaving for the town near the national park at 8:30. It takes 2 hours to get there so we thought it best to get an early start. We got up early went to bus station but after multiple inquiries found out we were at the wrong bus station. Turns out people forget how to speak English when they’re asked where the bus is. We got a bus out to the express terminal well outside town and found the next bus wasn’t until 11:30. We decided it was still worth it. We would get 3 hours at the park.
After hanging around we finally got on the bus. 45 minutes into the spin we heard a loud bang from the engine. Familiar unpleasant sound for Yvonne. Everybody was told to get off the bus. Some of the local women snapped big leaves out of the bush and used them for shade. We were just sitting around in the sun for an hour when Yvonne got the bright idea to hitch a ride to town. First car stopped for us. When we got to town we then had to find a taxi to take us to the park. By the time we got there we only had 2 hours left before we had to get the bus back again.
Park headquarters told us there was no flower in bloom. He also showed us the root to the only waterfall we could get to go for a swim and get back for the 4 o’clock bus. So off we went as fast as we could, into the jungle again. We reached the waterfall after a bit of a hike over jungle and across rocks! Was great to jump into the water once we got there. It was freezing cold exactly what the doctor ordered. We were having so much fun at the waterfall we forgot about the time. It was when other people turned up that we asked them and got a fright to hear it was 3:30. We dressed fairly lively and ran as fast as we could back to the HQ. From here we asked a lad on a building size would he drop us back to the town to get the bus for 10 riggnets. He agreed and we made the bus which got us all the way back to the bus station outside Kuching.

On the bus we were talking to a lad from KL. He was working with the bus company for day covering for he’s sister. We asked him how to get back to Kuching. Turns out he didn’t know he’s ass from he’s elbow and we ended up getting him back to town. From town he refused to leave us. We told him we had to go meet friends and he wanted to come too. Then he wanted to know what we were doing tomorrow. We said we were thinking of going to Semenggoh Wildlife park and he said he’d a friend working there and would take us. He wanted to swap number but because we had no number he said he’d collect us at our hotel in the morning. We eventually ended up running away down an alley while he went in to a shop. It was really really funny. We couldn’t stop laughing for ages. Such bad Karma though. An hour later I dropped our new camera and broke it…. Lesson learned.
That evening we went out and bought yet another camera. No 3 of our holiday so far. No including the ones we came with. Some joke. Went for a slightly cheaper model this time! The next morning we went to the wildlife sanctuary. We got the bus there and we very early. This was good though because it gave us a chance to read up on the history of all the oran-tangues. Most of the older ones had come here from Mantang once they’re injury's were healed. This is a massive area of jungle where the orangutans are released onto. They are completely free yet none have left the reserve. The get fed daily because there is not enough fruit int eh jungle for the 27 adult apes. There are also lots of babies who were born in the reserve.
Before feeding time a few of the mothers with newborns came swinging around the vines where we were waiting. This was great to see more so because it was totally unexpected. Turns out that these new mothers get given some sort of glucose supplement this time of the morning so they were turning up for this. There wasn’t many tour buses around at the time so we got really close to them.
Just before feeding time 3 tour buses arrived and the place was packed. It was mostly mothers turned up for the fruit. The males get enough food in the jungle so sometimes don’t come for the free handouts. Richie the adult male didn’t turn up. He’s 140 kg’s. That’s 30 kg’s more that george we saw a few days before. Turns out George and Richie used to live here together until they fought for the alpha male position. It was a vicious fight where George lost 3 fingers. It had to be stopped by the staff via tranquillizers. In the wild George would be dead. HHe got shipped off to Mantang for the rest of he’s days. Poor Grorge it so much nicer in Semmogagh. How did he think he could win that fight. Stupid boys!
We went back to Kuching and went to see some of the sights. Usual mosque museum type stuff. More importantly we found a shop that fixes digital cameras. We dropped ours in and said we’d pick it up in the morning if there was anything he could do. We weren’t very hopeful. When we went back the following morning the camera was working. Only the motor a wee bit broke. So we headed back to the airport like happy camera. Maybe a bit sad we didn’t go to Bako National Park. That would have been a better use of our time than Gutang but sure that’s it. We’ve realized we never have enough time anywhere. X

---