Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Sandakan is famous for the Sepilok Orangutan sanctuary about half an hour outside the town. The first orangutan sanctuary in the world, the centre rehabilitates orphaned orang-utans and those rescued from captivity, before ultimately aiming to release them to the wild. Orangutans naturally spend a lot of developmental years with their mother learning how to survive in the wilder wider world. As the young orphans miss out on this mothering the centre staff have to take on this role initially- what a great job that would be! As the orphans reach the age of five they leave the nursery and move to the equivalent of secondary school where they have to learn to be more independent and resilient. Human interaction is reduced and the orangutans are free to roam if they choose. Many continue to visit the centre for food until they feel more secure and then gradually branch out on their own.
We had a great time visiting the sanctuary and finding out more about their work. Unfortunately illegal logging, as well as keeping young orangutans as pets, ensures a steady stream of new recruits for the centre. Despite the centre's success in returning many of their pupils to the wild, the orangutan is still in danger of extinction. One of the highlights of our day happened as we were walking to the feeding platform. One of the orangutans came down from the trees and decided to walk along the handrail alongside the boardwalk. John nearly wet himself as the orangutan strolled towards him. He didn't seem to know whether to put his camera in his pocket and beat a hasty retreat or stay and click away. Fortunately, he did stay and managed to get an odd shot before the ape moved on past him.
The rest of our visit was spent viewing the apes coming down from the trees for some food, and watching the young orangutans in the nursery. As the apes are wild animals they don't always visit the platform so we were delighted when a group of four put in an appearance. They all have their own individual characteristics of personality and appearance making them great fun to watch, especially in the nursery area where it was easy to pick out the mischievous ones. It's also quite sobering to know that they apparently have 94% of their DNA which is identical to that of humans. In fact, when you see John standing so close it's really only the bright red hair that distinguishes one from the other. :)
Another monkey found only in Borneo can be seen in Sabah, the Proboscis monkey. Despite the increasing destruction of rainforest for palm plantations, there are still a few swathes of land where the monkeys can live. As we're reaching the end of our twelve-month trip the budget wouldn't stretch to any of the accommodations or tours along the Kinabatangan river so we had to be content with a closer encounter nearer to our Sandakan base.
A couple of local entrepreneurs, having bought land at Labuk bay to create a palm plantation discovered proboscis monkeys there. In turn, they found out more about them and agreed to leave some of the land in its original state, creating a wild sanctuary for the animals. Visitors can observe the animals at a couple of feeding times during the day when the animals can come down to the platforms for small amounts of food. The rest of the time they are free to forage for their own food and roam through the surrounding jungle. We found in addition to the Proboscis monkeys, famous for their unusual noses, that there were also silver leaf monkeys and macaques living there to add to the mix. It was nice to be able to be so close to the monkeys although we were constantly reminded by their behaviour and the presence of a uniform-clad guy with a rifle, that they are still wild animals.
Our time in Sandakan has been filled with nature-related activities, and we had considered staying closer to the sanctuaries in Sepilok. We opted instead to stay in Sandakan and commute to the natural areas. This turned out to be a good choice as we got a chance to experience a little bit of local life, eating at the local food outlets, and wandering through the markets. John hates markets, especially wet markets because of the smell of damp giblets and innards that seems to prevail, so he waited outside while I whipped around the central market in the town. The fruit and vegetable section was one of the cleanest and well-organised markets I've seen in a long time on this trip. There were many vegetables and fruits which were still unfamiliar to me after ten months on the road, and which seem specific to this part of Malaysia. The sellers were friendly and keen to engage in conversation, always speaking in English too which was a bonus. At the back of the market was a large area devoted to fish and chicken. Unlike other south East Asian markets the chickens on sale were already dead, plucked, cleaned and sold bald as coots minus heads, and neatly packaged in cling film, with only a pile of fresh livers squashed across the breast for dignity. The fish were also sold already dead, with the exception of a few of the crabs who were still trying to fight for survival despite the elastic bands holding their pincers firmly out of harms way. There was a wide range of fish and some brightly coloured specimens. There were also some large stingrays and sharks looking for buyers and a huge colourful lobster who looked like he could take on all the fishmongers single-handed. Fish is certainly a popular addition to the diet for many of the Malays here, and bagfuls of the shiny specimens were quickly snapped up.
The only disadvantage of staying a distance away from the places you want to go is that it puts you at the mercy of local transport if you're doing things on a budget. For us, with time to spare, this is outweighed by the chance to experience the journeys with the locals. In many places in Asia minibuses provide much of the local transport. Sabah is no exception. You have to be willing to spend a lot of time hanging around waiting for the bus to fill up before it leaves, as well as erratic timetables or lack of them. It's still fun though to pay peanuts to be squashed up with your knees under your chin, hoping the driver won't stop for any more passengers. For those of you for whom English is not the first language - in this context "to pay peanuts" means to pay very little not actually paying with peanuts! Thought I'd better clarify that just in case you start filling your suitcase with nuts instead of ringetts!
Yesterday we headed out again to Sepilok, this time to the Rainforest discovery centre. The canopy walkways, observation towers, jungle trails and "I'm a celebrity style " suspension bridges made for a great day. We were disappointed not to see any more hornbills today, having seen some flying above the trees the day before, but we did hear some amazing cicadas and birds which were incredibly hard to spot. We're wishing we could stay here longer, but having left all our big bags at our last hotel in Kota Kinabalu were a bit worried they will have been sold off if we don't go back soon. Certainly, if we make it to Sabah again we would head down to the Kinabantan river area, and try and find a way to explore Semporna and Sipidan on a limited budget.
- comments