Orangutans at Sepilok and Final Thoughts

Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia
Tuesday 8 March

My final free day in Borneo! My first visit would be to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. This is the most popular place on the planet to see the orangutan in its native habitat. The Centre occupies part of the Kabili-Sepilok rainforest reserve. Orangutans are only found on Borneo and Sumatra and are severely endangered due destruction of their habitat, there may be only 15,000 left in the wild compared with 250,000 a century ago. Orphaned and injured orangutans as well as rescued pets are bought to Sepilok to be rehabilitated and eventually released into the surrounding forest. Young orangutans spend time in the Nursery learning the skills essential to jungle survival such as finding food, building nests and climbing, skills they would normally learn from their mother. They then move to the Outdoor Nursery where their freedom is increased and their dependence on food and emotional support is decreased. To supplement their diets as needed, the orangutans are fed on a platform in the forest. Mothers who are pregnant or nursing often turn up the feedings, and macaques show up for scraps of food.

I caught a 9am public bus to the Centre for RM4, wisely turning up to the bus station early as the bus decided to leave before its scheduled departure time (note that the bus now leaves from the minibus station, not the Local Bus Station as stated in Lonely Planet). It was about 45 minutes to the Centre, and the entrance fee was RM30 for Johnny-foreigners, with a RM10 camera fee. There were 2 feedings per day, at 10am and 3pm. I'd read somewhere that it could be a good idea to hang about on the boardwalk prior to the start time of the feeding as orangutans would often be seen nearby. This proved extremely sound advice as a group of us were treated to a very close orangutan encounter with a couple of apes swinging about just beside the boardwalk, in fact, one decided to show his pooping ability in front of us! Then, one orangutan proceeded to swing over to the boardwalk and perch itself on the handrail, only a few feet away from us! There were warnings to avoid contact with the apes to avoid potential spread of disease, but this was as close as it would be possible to get to an orangutan without actually holding it. After that, I suspected the feeding would probably be a letdown. Since the Centre was so well-known, the feeding platform is usually crammed and today there must have been two to three hundred people jostling for camera positions. A couple of mothers turned up for the feeding with their babies, and it was entrancing watching them, caring for and feeding their young, just like a human mother. They disappeared after about 20 minutes and a group of Pig-tailed Macaques turned up to scavenge any scraps of food, and it was just as interesting watching them, particularly the very young monkeys playing and fighting.

There were a number of walking trails you could take through the surrounding forest but since it was boiling hot and extremely sweaty, I decided to give them a miss. I also should have paid a visit to the nearby Rainforest Discovery Centre, which offered a canopy walkway, observation tower and walking trails which were good for bird-spotting. The public bus between the Centre and Sandakan had for some reason decided it was only going to do two return trips that day, 12.30pm and 4.30pm, so rather than waiting around for the next return bus, I decided to hire a taxi and driver for the next 2 hours to ferry me around a couple of other places I wanted to visit - RM80 (~£16) for 2 hours, so not too bad a price.

During WWII, the Japanese set up a PoW camp in Sandakan, with 1,800 Australians and 600 Brits imprisoned there. In its early days, camp conditions were tolerable, but as the end of the war approached, the Japanese needed to send more and more soldiers elsewhere and as a result, they didn't have enough people to staff the camp. Their solution was to deprive the PoWs of regular meals, which led to a huge increase in deaths. Also, the they decided to move the camp from Sandakan to Ranau, a 250km hike through the jungle. They carried out three forced marches in brutal conditions, with the men being forced to walk without boots and given meagre rations. Any who couldn't continue the walk were either left to die or killed immediately. These became known as the Sandakan Death Marches. By the end of WWII, only 6 prisoners remained of the original 2,400 - 4 had managed to escape from the Ranau camp and 2 escaped during the marches. It is widely considered to be the single worst atrocity suffered by Australian servicemen during WWII. The Sandakan Memorial Park commemorates the prisoners who died during that time.

The Puu Jih Shih Temple is perched on top of a hill with fine views over Sandakan and Sandakan Bay. I had read a blog by a previous visitor who found a Pit Viper in the grounds of the Temple as they supposedly like the smell of incense, but no such luck for me. Still, the Temple was nice enough, all gold and red glittering dragons, an ornate altar, and landscaped gardens.

Wednesday 9 March

So, time to say goodbye to Borneo and set off on the long journey home. A 3 hour flight from Sandakan to Kuala Lumpur awaits, with an 8 hour wait at the airport for my 13 hour flight back to Heathrow. Then, I've got a 3 hour wait for a 3 hour coach journey back to Somerset!

Borneo is a land of incredible bio-diversity. Flowers 1 metre across that stink like rotting meat. Monkeys with bulbous noses and pot-bellies that can be found nowhere else in the world. Wide-eyed apes peering through the green walls of forest with their inquisitive eyes. Insects and spiders of incredible colours, shapes and sizes that are the stuff of nightmares. Hornbills with massive wingspans soaring across the skies like modern-day pterodactyls. Crocodiles waiting on river banks with patient eyes. Colonies of bats a million strong huddled in the dark recesses of ancient caves.

Borneo has a wonderful range of natural landscapes, from lush green forests to dense jungles, some of the most amazing cave systems in the world, plus a host of wonders off the coast which I didn't experience. As a wildlife lover, Borneo was heaven, with amazing mammals, birds and insects. The locals were friendly and honest, and I made many new friends among my fellow travellers. As through much of Asia, travelling was very cheap too, with affordable, comfortable hotels, tasty food with rich flavours, and transport options to suit a range of budgets.

As my Lonely Planet guidebook summarises, Borneo is a place where the forces of conservation and consumption are in conflict, and the arguments about wilderness preservation versus economic development take on a horrible reality. It is a treasure trove of unbelievable biodiversity which hangs in the balance. The next two decades will determine the fates of hundreds of species unique to Borneo. What the world stands to gain in terms of a few pieces of nice furniture or a few million barrels of palm oil, it will lose in terms of unimaginable and irreplaceable living forms. Go to Borneo and see just what the battle looks like up close - and see what we all might lose.

Me? I'm planning next year's visit already :-)

Expenses (excluding food and shopping): RM548 (~£110) £1=RM5
Accommodation: 2 nights Nak Hotel (RM75/night) RM150
Sepilok Orangutan Centre: RM44 (RM30 entry, RM10 camera fee, RM4 public bus there)
Taxi tour of Sandakan RM80
Taxi to Sandakan airport RM25
Flight from Sandakan to Kuala Lumpur with Malaysian Airlines RM249

Links:
http://www.nakhotel.com/history.html
http://www.sabahtourism.com/en/destination/32-sepilok-orang-utan-sanctuary/

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