We meet the orang-utans

Day 4 Saturday

Early breakfast before leaving for the Sepilok Orang-utan rehabilitation centre.  The temperature is 37 degrees and the humidity must be nearly 100%.  When we arrive Cynthia gives us a strict briefing about not taking anything with us other than a camera into the sanctuary as the orang-utans are very curious and can snatch things from you. You must not touch the Orang-utans either as you could infect them.

Cynthia and me

She tells us that the orang-utans in the sanctuary are all rescued either from the wild as orphans or from cages where peasants are keeping them as pets, which is illegal.  As orang-utan babies stay with their mother for 8 years to learn how to climb, feed themselves etc, the orphans need to be taught these skills by the staff before being released into the wild, which is usually after the age of 8 years. By stages they are socialised with other orang-utans, taken to an outdoor gym area to learn to climb and swing and later taken to feeding platforms in the rainforest a little way from the sanctuary.   Eventually, the human contact is withdrawn from them as is the food provided and they are encouraged to go further into the rainforest to forage for themselves.  Some make a complete break and never come back, others return daily to the feeding platform for the rest of their lives.   We positioned ourselves near the feeding platform and saw a lizard and a black squirrel as we waited quietly until 4 orang-utans swung out of the canopy as the sanctuary warden came with a big basket of fruit.  

They ate daintily, no pushing or shoving, just taking a piece of fruit and climbing up a tree to enjoy it.  

More followed and after they had eaten their fill, they crossed over to the walkway where we were standing to inspect us more closely.  I was only a foot or so away from this one.

It was such a huge thrill.  They have such expressive faces, not surprising when you consider that they share 98% of their genes with human beings.

However the exciement has made Lynn and me very silly and we start monkeying around.  Lynn has a great video but we can't upload it for some reason.

Nearby there is the sun bear rehabilitation centre.  There are 32 orphaned and rescued bears.  They are very dark in colour and smaller than European bears. They are called sun bears (or dog bears or honey bears) to distinguish them from moon bears which have a crescent moon shaped mark on their chest.  Sun bears have a rounder mark, more like the sun.  They bark and growl like dogs and love honey.

At the nearby Rainforest Nature Reserve, we take a canopy walk and spot a huge millipede, enormous leaves and a picturesque lake.

We had a Malaysian lunch.  I chose Hailam turned out to be noodles with vegetables and chicken in a pile.  Half way through, I found a fried egg hiding amongst the noodles.  At the restaurant, there was a large gang of twitchers wearing leech socks, camo gear and wth huge lenses on their cameras, when one spotted some species, the others all jumped up, left their lunch and dashed to set up their tripods

A short ride away took us to Water Town where the houses are built on stilts.  The tribe who live there believe that the water is for the living and the land is for the dead, so they build their houses on stilts in the water.  Some were very spacious and tidy, others were ramshackle and all of them emptied their sewage into the water below.

A lady invited us in to see her home

The bathroom with direct access to the water below

A quick visit to a church which was not anything special and back to the hotel for a dip in the gorgeous pool and a fresh coconut drink.

As it was Saturday night, we dressed up in our finest and went down to the BBQ and rounded it off with cocktails in the bar with some of the others in the group.  We have a very early start tomorrow for a 2 hour drive to the birds nest caves and a river cruise.