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On our way to Borneo we had a quick stop off in Georgetown in Malaysia. We arrived late in the day and crashed out to only wake up to a really cute colonial city, all ours to explore. So we of course headed to Tesco Extra and spent 3 hours there in the morning. After a lovely trip to Tesco we headed to the Botanical Gardens for some live music (at the bandstand don't you know). After walking for miles we managed to miss that but 10 minutes, but we did see them packing up so that was just as good. We took a strole around the gardens as the sun went down and looked in at all the lovely exhibits (of course all closed) and thought how nice they would have looked in the day. Now, we were told by everyone how amazing the street food in Georgetown was so we were really excited, only to find that we arrived too late on Saturday night to pick up anything good and most places are closed on Sunday. So our street food experience didn't live up to the hype and we ate the same thing for dinner two nights in a row. I guess it means we will have to go back. Oh dear!
And so off to the Jungle we went.
The next day we embarked on a trip to the rainforest and started with a flight to Kota Kinabalu. Stace was already not in the best of moods so after two local buses and a 6 hour wait at the bus station and a 6 hour coach ride we were both at out wits end. By this time it was 2am and instead of arriving at the bus station in town, as promised, we found ourselves on the outskirts of Sandakan. The only lights we could see were from a Best Western Hotel and the receptionist took pity on us and let us use the loo and sleep in reception on the sofa for the night. We will be forever grateful for this kindess and always book Best Western above any other hotel in future. We urge you to do the same. :)
Then after a further 1 hour bus ride at 6am we were ready to see our ginger jungle friends. The Sepilok site is a rehabilitation center as opposed to a zoo or safari type set up. Their aim is to get orphaned organ utans skilled to live in the jungle on their own. This can take 10 years or more, some come to the feeding stations everyday for years, others, once released, never come back. The orang utans were gorgeous and funny and everything we hoped they would be and we had a great morning watching them in their natural habitat. We also went for a jungle trek in the afternoon and saw no wildlife except Brett got hit in the face by a flying lizzard. Good times.
The trees and flowers and plants were amazing and the magnitude of some of them felt out of this world. We were hoping to see more Orang Utans but weren't that lucky. However when we went to the feeding station again in the afternoon to see the Orangs we were treated to a mother and baby coming to visit and a close encounter with a grumpy pregnant Orang Utan who came right up to the walkway and we all got hearded away quickly by the guides. They are such fascinating animals and so clever and so like us. Beautiful and definitely worth the long trip there.
Day two was another Jungle experience and we headed to the Rainforest Discovery Centre. We had the place to ourselves and strolled around the exotic gardens and exhibits and it was so interesting learning about all the flora and fauna. After a while it started to rain (well it is the rainforest) so we legged it to the cafe to find a group of Japanese tourists and true to form they had the biggest camera lenses we have ever seen. They were covered in Camo and all on prepped and ready to capture an exotic bird in flight. The funny thing is we were trying to take a picture of them taking pictures. Ha! After the rain subsided we walked the suspended walkway in the canopy of the rainforest 20m up, which was breathtaking. Being up in the trees gave us such a different perspective and you could really see the scale of the forest and the height of the trees. It was fantastic! After our hard day exploring the rainforest we relaxed by the pool and chilled out ready for the trip back from where we came. Little did we know what we had in store................
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Lou What a cliff hanger! What happened!!!! Lovely post and one that made me PAH HA HA out loud at Brett being hit in the face by a flying lizard! xxx