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Published: October 21st 2008
Me
Outside SepilokI survived Borneo!
What an awesome experience that was!
I am sat in a hotel in Kuala Lumpur taking a day out to get organised, have laundry done and book flights etc and have so much to share with you all. Firstly, i must let you know that i have now added pictures to ALL the blog entries so please go back over the last 4 or 5 because they are now supported by new photographic evidence! Yes i have found a pc that works beautifully and i will be taking full advantage of this wonderful piece of equipment to back up all the photos to make room for more!
Well the last blog entry left me feeling extremely excited about the impending trip into the Jungle to meet Orang-Utans, Proboscis Monkeys and whatever else decided to show its face during the trip!
I was collected by the tour guide at 8am and met with my two traveling companions again from Norway, Hannah and Alf. They were great and we headed up to the famous Sepilok Orang Utan sancturary. I urge you to Google this place simply to see the work they do, its truly wonderful and a different world!
We marched a little way through the sancturary to a viewing platform to watch morning feeding time. This takes place on a feeding platform and is really the only way you are guaranteed to see more than one Orang Utan at any one time. The Sancturary is a rehabilitation centre, so the OU's may spend up to 5 years there before being released back into the wild. We were lucky enough to have around 5 OU's visit the feeding platform that morning, including a mother and baby.............i cannot stress enough how "human like" these creatures are, and it was interesting to discover we are in fact only 3.6% away from each other when it comes to DNA! (i think some of us are closer than others to be fair!)
It was very tough to get good photos of the OU's as one side of the platform was lit and the other in the shade, we were also quite a way away, however i can tell you that these guys did not let us down on the entertainment front and even performed the mating ritual in front of us!
We were then taken to a dock where we boarded a speed
Baby Ronny!
Mother and baby. boat to take us two hours out to the Kinabatangan River. This is the longest River in borneo and takes us straight into the Juingle. We stopped for lunch at one of the very few villages en route and docked at our destination for the night, The Old Ben Kinabatangan Riverside Lodge. Accomodation was very very basic with no aircon but a shower and bed which was all we needed! It was however SO humid and hot in the Jungle that i think i had around 4 cold showers in 12 hours! one being in the middle of the night!
That afternoon we went out for 2 hours on a riverboat cruise down one of the smaller narrow rivers leading off the Kinabatangan. This was a small shallow boat seating about 6 people and really allowed you to get close to and feel a part of the jungle. This part of Sabah is a class 2 Rainforest, it falls into this class due to having its few human inhabitants and villages here and there, other than that, its pure jungle at its finest!
En route we saw a number of baby Crockodiles and got up close and personal with a
Ronny
Little Ronny! rather Large DADDY CROCK! this baby slipped into the water a few feet from us and for while, went silent. We stopped the boats and remained very very quiet. They only clues as to where he may be, are the bubbles that appear every few seconds. Imagine my horror when the bubble appeared to the side of my boat, next to my seat! he hung around there for a few seconds and i think i forgot to breath! Crocky Wok was a foot away!..... I quietly urged the driver to move on....or i'd feed him to the crocks!
The animal most people come to see on this river is the Proboscis Monkey. These are the strange looking monkeys with fat tummies and big droopy noses. They jump from tree to tree and cause havok most of the time! we sat right under the action as Hareems of them flew over our heads and finally settled down for the night. Throughout the day we had been fed a long constant stream of information on all the animals we were seeing, too much to write about and probably not as interesting to you all as it would be if you were sharing
their habitat for the night as i was!
As the sun set we headed back to camp for dinner and a couple of educational dvds on the area, animals and conservation projects. I had been getting on very well wit Hannah and Alf, they have been married for 25 years and have 3 almost grown up children. We shared the same enthusiasm for our surroundings and that is a wonderful feeling to have when you are in such a mind blowing place.
The next morning i was taken back to Sandakan dock to change boats and embark on the next part of my trip to Turtle Island.
I had no idea what i was in for and i would not have expected it to have been one of the highlights of my trip so far.
There are three island north east of Sabah, Borneo that act as sea Turtle Sancturaries. only one is set up to accomodate tourists and this was our destination. Hosting only 25 rooms, this island takes only 20 minutes to walk round and looks like the island from the reality TV show Survivor!
it is also only 10 munites by boat from the Philippine islands,
Oobi doo...
i... wanna be like you o ooo! so James when you go traveling to the Philippines you MUST do this trip!
If i thought Phi Phi was paradise i was mistaken! This place makes Phi Phi look like romford! (Sorry Katie :-) )
The pictures speak for themselves i feel. so we had lunch, were shown our rooms, which although even more basic than in the jungle, had aircon! fabulous! I spent the afternoon snorkling in the clear HOT sea...yes the sea resembled a hot tub in some places......a warm bath in most.
I lazed on the shore of the beach and hung with a couple of new friends.
That evening we ate lunch after a 40 minute educational talk and dvd, after which we had to stay in the main room till the turtles decided to come to shore. Now this can happen at anytime between sundown and sunrise....we we were armed with pillows, games, books, cards and anything to keep us entertained should we not get to see the action till 4am! My group consited of two aussies and a family of four originally from England now living in Bangkok. After the kids had done the card tricks to death i decided it was time
to introduce everyine to Grab Cork! for those of you that dont know this game, it is a card game leading to the tustle of grabbing corks from the middle of the circle. In this instance we used our torches instead of corks, but had a very loud, very funny hour playing this instant ice breaking game. Just as i was about to anialate my guide Sam, we got the signal. The words we had all been waiting for "Turtle Time" came over the radios and we grabbed our torches and ran down to the beach. The next 40 minutes can only be described as out of this world. i watched a mother Turtle over a metre long, lay 105 eggs into the sand. I then observed them being burried in the hatching areas before gasping at over 75 baby turtles scuttle and stumble down the beach heading for the sea to start the life on the planet. it is something i will probably never see again, and something we were unable to photograph well, due to not being allowed to use the flash, but something that will live in my memory for ever as one of the most wonderous
sites i have ever seen.
The following day my guide Sam took my on a private tour of 3 pl in Sandakan. The Water village, a place so polluted i nearly gagged at the smell, the Bhuddist temple, very interesting as i am currently enjoying what i am learning about the "religion" if you can call it that.
Finally i was taken to the Sandakan War memorial situated on the old Japanese Prisoner of War camp. Nothing prepared me for this. all i ask is that you goole it and learn for yourselves about the march accross Sabah. its not something i want to get into right now. its something one should learn about alone.
I finally caught a flight to Kuala lumpur where i was in desperate need of not only a warm shower, aircon ,and sleep but a LAUNDRY service! i have run out of clothes! its official! After a stint of 4 or 5 days where i have spent each of those nights in different places, i need 24 hours to get myself together, take a break, confirm flights book accomodation and do laundry!
So tomorrow i fly to Bangkok then straight to koh Samui
for 4 or 5 days. i haven booked a flight back fro KS yet as i am waiting to see if i can bring my flight to Melbourne forward allowing me to visit a friend in Port Augusta. she teaches children out in the bush and has invited me to join her.....you know me.....if there are kids involved im there!
I hope you enjoy all the new pictures and keep sending the messages.....
i cant believe i have only been away 3 weeks!
Till Samui.... xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Niki
non-member comment
hey
Loving your pictures! Fantastic shots of the beach, looks amazing. Take good care of yourself beautiful and enjoy every moment :-)