Hvis I tror at vi ligge og daser i sengen til langt ud paa morgenen, saa kan I roligt tro om... vi har ikke sovet laenge en eneste dag endnu - og i dag er ingen undtagelse! Vi skulle afsted fra Turtle Island kl. 07:30 for komme ind til fastlandet, saa vi kunne opleve Orangutan rehabiliterins centeret og den beboere. Hvor er de bare charmerende, de der orangutaner. Ikke noget at sige til at der er mange der vier deres liv til at redder dem fra at uddoe. Vi saa en 8-10 stykker, hvilket skulle vaere et helt ok fremmoede at "skovens maend". De blev hurtigt efterfulgt af nogle mindre, og lidt kaekke aber, som ogsaa gerne ville spise med ved "de riges bord". De smaa aber er langt mere naergaaende overfor mennesker end orangutanerne, men sidst naevnte der var besoeget vaerd. Kunne nu godt taenke os, at faa lov at komme lidt taettere paa, selvom det siges at de lugter rimeligt ilde.

EV: If you think that we enyoy our holiday by sleeping in you are so wrong! Haven't sleeped in one day, and today is no exeption. Today we had to leave Turtle Island at 7:30 a.m to go to the main Island to see the orangutans at the Sepilok Rehabilitation Center. Those orangutans are so charming, no wonder there are a lot of people that wants to save these creatures from extinction. We saw about 8-10 orangutans that came up to the feeding platform for some lunch(bananas), which should be quite a normal number for this kind of event by the "man of the woods". The orangutans were shortly soon being accompanied by some other more cheeky monkeys, that wanted to get a piece of the action. They were a lot more comfortable with humans that the orangutans. We would have liked to have seen them more close up, but it is said that they smell terrible(uses their own pub as deo). But no matter what is was a fantastic experience!

Efter besoeget hos orangutanerne, tog vi videre med Jetty op af den stoerste flod paa Borneo (2. stoerste i Malaysia), for at studere det vilde naturliv i regnskoven. Det startede godt ved at det foerste vi saa, var en stor korkodille, som laa og solede sig inde paa flodbredden - vi naaede en afstand af 5 meter, foer den syntes at nu var det nok og lod sig glide ud i floden.. laengere oppe saa vi et par stykke mere... de ser faktisk lidt farlige ud i virkeligheden.. ikke kun paa film :o)

EV: After sseing the orangutans, we headed out towards Sukau, the main village on the Sungai Kinabatangan river. Sungai is Sabah's longest river(the 2. largest in Malaysia), to study the wildlife in the rainforest. We had a good start on our 42 km river cruise down the river, where the first animal we saw was a big crocodile, that was laying in the sun. We got as close as 5 meters away from it, before it decided that it was enough, and sliped down into the water. A bit further up steam, we saw a couple more crocodiles......they actualy look as dangerous in real life, as in the movies!

Derefter saa vi en flok orangutaner - utroligt at se dem ude i den fri natur! Lidt skaegt at de bygger reder oppe i traerne hver dag. Og meget inponerende, hvordan de kan svinge sig fra gren til gren... uden det store besvaer og uden at falde ned :o) Det gaelder i virkeligheden alle aber.

EV: Then we saw a group af orangutans - it was amazing to see them in the wild! It's a bit funny that they build their nest up in the trees each night. And impressive to see them swinging from tree to tree.......without any effort, and without falling down. That goes for all monkeys.

Vi ankom til vores Lodge house i Sukau ved tretiden, men det stadigt var varmt og overskyet, men da vi skulle paa vores river crouse var der kun varmen tilbage.. ca. 10 efter at vi var sejlet ud, begyndte det at regne. godt at vi havde regnslag med! Vi havde hoert fra nogle af de andre gaester, at de havde set elefanter - det er ellers kun nogle faa dage om aaret, at de er at se i dette omraade. Vi droppede derfor turen til Ox-Bow lake for at tage paa elefant jagt... og heldigvis! Vi fandt et par elefanter paa vores vej op af floden. Den foerste vi saa svoemmede i floden, en ung han elefant, som boltrede sig i vandet og legede med en prawn-rusen den havde fundet inde ved bredden. Helt exeptionelt at opleve og hele rejsen vaerd! Vi saa endnu en elefanter som badede og een som stod inde paa breden (en stor han elefant) - syntes vi kom lidt for taet paa eller ville drille lidt, den kastede i hvert fald mudder efter os... heldigvis ramte den ikke :o) Desvaerre fik vi ikkke de bedste billeder af sceneriet grundet regnen :o(

EV: Upon our arrival at Old Bens Lodge at the riverbank at around 3 p.m., the weather was hot and cloudy. 10 min. into our first real rainforest river cruise it started to rain, and by god we were happy for our raincoats! As we sailed out, we were told by other boats that there way elephants in the area. This only happens a few times a year that the elephants reaches this area(on their tour around the rainforest), and we forgot all about going to Ox-bow lake, and headed out for the elephants. And we got lucky!. We found 3 male elephants(these are pigmy elephants by the way), where one was playing in the water. He had a blast. Rolling around, splashing water, and finally found a shrimpfishingnet(don't know the name of it in english, but it's not a net, but a box of some sort), and found it amusing to throw it around. It was like looking at a kid playing, free of his parents supervision. Unfortunately I hadn't brought my videocamera, since it was poring down with rain. But it will stay in my menry for ever....fantastic experience!! Another male elephant was swimming a bit further upstream, and another big male was on the riverbank. Don't know if he thought that we got too close, or if he just wanted to mess with us, but at one point he took some mud in his trunk and trew it at us:0).....he didn't hit us though.

Vaade var vi da vi, som de sidste, naaede tilbage til "hotellet", saa vi var virkeligt glade for at faa et varmt bad... hvilket ikke var muligt paa skildpadde oeen! Ude paa dette jungle resort faar man kun serveret sin aftensmad, hvis man moeder op i sarong. Meget venligt af dem, havde det lagt en til hver paa vores vaerelser. Egentigt en meget hyggeligt tradition.. men nogle af maendene mente det var et trick for at faa os til at koebe flere oel :o)

EV: Back again at the lodge, wet, but not cold, we took a nice long hot bath, something that was not possible on turtle island, so we enjoyed it immensely. In this jungle resort you only get served dinner if you are wearing the local sarong, so luckey they provided one to each! A very fun and good tradition!

Naeste morgen skulle vi afsted paa endnu en flodtur, i haab om at se nogle flere oruangutaner og andre jungle boer. Vores tur blev dog udsat en time fordi det regnede naaet saa forygteligt. Heldige var vi, da vi endeligt kom afsted - vi fandt en ung krokodille, som Iflg. vores guide ikke var mere end et par aar gammel = ca en meter lang. Vi stoppede for vores formiddagste hos krokodillen og fodrede fiskene til stor underholdning for alle - baade turister, krokodiller og den lille Kingfischer... ikke sikker paa, om fiskene syntes det var saa skaegt, paa trods af at de fik mad, eftersom de selv blev til mad for fugl og krokodille :o) Men for var det en glimrende oplevelse at se krokodille og fugl i aktion paa naert hold... og nu foreviget paa video :o) Vi saa en masse fugle, som vi ikke kan huske navnene paa, undtagen hornbillen.

EV: The next day we went out for another cruise on the river to look for some more vildlife. Our trip was prosponed for an hour, since it was raining very har again. When the rain had calmed down a bit we ventured out and found a small crocodile, maybe one years old(1 meter long). Had lunch together with the crock, where we feed the fish, for our amusement, an easy lunch for the crock and the kingfisher. It was fun to see the crock and the kingfisher in action up close. And got it on vidoetape this time. Saw a lot of birds that we can't remember the names of, exept the hornbill.

Vi havde frokosten og eftermiddagen fri til at slappe af i, hvilket var tiltraengt, eftersom vi har jagtet afsted fra den ene oplevelse til den anden... det kan vaere ldit svaert at naa at fordoeje alle indtrykkene inden de naeste kommer. Efter frokosten gik Lene over til en lille dam, som var placeret mellem husene, fordi nogle af de andre gaester havde set en varan der.. heldigt for hende, var den der stadig, saa den er ogsaa krydset af paa listen over dyr man kan se.

EV: Got some time off from lunch to dinnertime, which was needed, after having chased one adventure after the other......it can be a bit hard to take it all in, before the next adventure. After lunch Lene went over to a small pond, in the lodge complex, where some other guests had seen a small lizard.......luckely, it was still there and she could now cross it on her list over animals to be seen.

kl. 16 skulle vi afsted paa vores sidste baadtur og naturen ville, at det startede med at regne igen, naesten samtidigt med, at vi tog afsted. Ikke nok med det, saa var det et ordentligt tordenskyld, saa vi fik virkeligt naturen at foele og opleve, hvordan det er naar det virkeligt regner :o) Vi blev ikke saa vaade, saa det var faktisk lidt hyggeligt at sidder der i vores baad i hvert vores regnslag.. men man ser ikke saa meget omkring sig... med mindre man er guide og man har sat sig i hovedet at opfylde en af gaesternes(Lene) oenske om at se en slange. Lysende groen og giftig laa den der paa en gren rimeligt hoejt efter normalen, men lige i skudvinken for et kamera, saa den er ogsaa blevet foreviget paa billede og film :o) Saa gik turen tilbage til vores hytte og toervejr! Nu mangler vi kun at se en froe!

EV: at 4 p.m. we ventured out on our final boattrip along the river, and of cause it rained again(we have experienced first hand why they call it a rainforest!!), and it rained hard. We really got to feel one with nature on that trip!! Luckely we didn't get wet(lotte had to put two raincoats on), and found therfore the experience quite nice and fun, exept taht you don't see as much...........unless you are a fantastic guide and want to fulfill your clients every wish. Luckely this was the kind of guide our guide Abbas was, and in the pooring rain he found Lene her snake! Unbeliveble! In an aluminum green and poisonus, it layed there on it's branch, a bit higher than it would normaly, which it made it easy for us to take pictures. When we got what we wanted to see, we decided to head back to the lodge, thunder had started and we felt quite small in the boat.

Tidligt op igen og retur til Sandakan. Vi stoppede ved det lokale markede, hvor fiskene er saa friske at de stadigt spraeller, frugten er fantastisk indbydende og moden er i top... eller i hvert fald tilgaengeligt i overflod, altsaa den lokale mode :o) Derefter saa vi et Kinesisk tempel - imponerende som altid! De forstaar at lave et smukt og dekorativt bygningsvaerk. Efter templet spiste vi frokost paa byens stoerste hotel. Derfra tog vi direkte videre til lufthavnen og hjem til KK.

EV: Up again early the next morning, and headed back to Sandakan. Stoped at the local market, where the fish is so fresh, that they still wiggles. The fruith looked so inviting and ripe......and the cloathing looked quite fashionable(hummm well, local style anyway), and in abundance. Went to the local chinese tempel on the top of the hill, overlooking the Sandakan bay(Sandakan used to be the Sabah capital, until after the 2. WW, where it was moved to Kota Kinabalu). As always the chinese temple was beautifil decorated. Before flying back to KK, we had lunch at Sandakans finest hotel.

I KK har vi brugt aftenen sammen med Lottes familie og har forkaelet os selv med sushi... mmmmm skoent med ris paa en ny maade end den lokale Malaysiske :o)

EV: Back in KK we send the evening with Lottes family, and treated us to some fresh sushi........mmmmmmmmm nice to have rice in a bit different way than the normal malaysian way:0)

I morgen, torsdag d. 11/9, skal vi afsted paa endnu en tur - denne gang til Kudat.

EV: Tomorrow, Thursday the 11/9, we have another adventure waiting for us - this time we are going to Kudat..........more about that later on...

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