Got the bus to Sandakan, a harbour town. It took 7 long hrs! Stayed at a place called Borneo Sandakan Backpackers, a street back from the seafront. It's run by two lovely guys, Gary and Johnathan, both locals. 70 MYR, free coffee, tea, water, and eggs/toast/jam for breakfast. Oddly for a backpackers they make the coffee for you and cook your breakfast. And wash up. What a treat, usually you help yourself!
Tried this local dish, fried banana with cheese and condensed milk, odd but ok
Saw some Monitor lizards whilst taking a stroll...
The next day we took a bus to Sepilok to the Orangutan sanctuary, they have a couple of feeding stations that they can come to if they want. Therefore you are in no way guaranteed to see one. But we got lucky, we saw two mothers with babies, and a few others. One cheeky one then swung around the trees near the walkway and tried to grab Matts camera. We stayed in the reserve and walked the trails so we could be around for the afternoon feeding. None came! So we really were spoiled in the morning.
Had a couple of lazy days, found a nice roof top bar (Nak Hotel), great coffee, chilled tunes.
We also went to Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey sanctuary, and although it was great to see the monkies up close, it felt a bit wrong too. They were too close to humans I think. Also the guy that owns it is a Chinese Malay, Mr Lee who happens to own the Palm Oil Plantation which covers about 500 hectares, so he has actually cut down the rainforest, therefore limiting the habitat for the Proboscis, who now rely on the feedings as they cannot find enough food from the trees! And he makes money from the tourists who pay to visit. It's twice the price of the Orangutan Sanctuary and the only way to get there is with their mini bus which is also expensive. All in all it all seems wrong. Anyway here are the pics. What beautiful noses!
You wouldn't want it on your nose as a wart!
Next we headed for Bilit, on the Kinabatagan River in the jungle. We booked it through Johnathan where we were staying. The minibus picked us up at 12.30, we were the only two on the bus, it was like a private tour! 3 hours later we arrived in Bilit.
We passed a lot of Palm Oil Plantations on the way, there has been so much deforestation for Palm Oil and Logging. For miles and miles all you can see are Palms.
A guy picked us up and took us up river in a boat to our lodge. What a great place, right on the river, in the jungle. And guess what..no other other guests that night so we had the whole place to ourselves. The night before they had 45 guests!
They keep you busy, we had a quick snack, then a 2 hour river cruise, back for dinner, then a night trek. Next day, up at 5.30 for early morning cruise (that's the one we saw an Orangutan on), you don't really need an alarm as the monkies wake you up running on the roof!, back for brekky, then a jungle trek, we saw Elephant poo, but no Elephants!
Back for lunch, some free time, yay, Matt fished and caught a couple of small Catfish (the big ones gat away). Our idyll was ruined when 4 other guests arrived! We did another evening cruise, dinner, then another night trek. No Tarsiers to be seen.
Our guide Wasu
Whilst there we saw an Orangutan, lots of Poboscis monkies, several different species of Hornbill, Dusky Langurs, Silver Leaf Monkies, a Reticulated Python (hard to spot as it was asleep in a tree), a yellow and black snake (don't know the name), several different Kingfishers, Fish Eagles, Oriental darters, Monitor Lizards and loads of other stuff.
Spot the snake
The night walks were all about looking for Tarsiers. Unfortunately we didn't see one. We met an Aussie guy by Oxbow lake who saw one the previous night, a mother and baby. The guide had some good photos. You have to wear leech socks for jungle treks. We saw a couple of leeches but luckily didn't get any free loaders.
This shot is at night, unfortunately we woke him up with our torches
Baby Proboscis
Come and get it ladies
Really enjoyed our time in the jungle, a lovely place to spend a few days after being in the city/town. The locals and guides all seem really happy, their kids are growing up swinging on jungle vines, with monkies all around. In the evening they fish, sit around playing guitar, singing. It was fab.
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