Day 40: Orang-utan hunting

We'd been really looking forward to today, as we'd planned a visit to Semengok Wildlife Sanctuary on the outskirts of town, where a tribe of around 30 orang-utans roamed freely. They're native to Borneo although not this particular area, and are heavily threatened with extinction due to habitat destruction (mostly chopping down jungle for palm oil plantations).

It's located just on the southern outskirts of the city and you basically have two options for getting there - either a private tour with a hotel pickup and entry for about 75 RMY each, or the DIY approach involving a public bus and some walking. We decided to skimp for a change and go the public bus option.

Feeding time at 9am meant that we had to catch the 7:15am bus, and that was leaving from a bus station nearly 30 minutes walk away. So we were up at 6am and walking by 6:20, stopping briefly to grab some baked goods for breakfast. The bus was easy enough to find and we paid our 4 RMY each for the ticket and waited. It left on time and trundled through the suburbs, until we reached the end of the line at the sanctuary 45 minutes later. Nice and early for the feeding time, but the bus drops you off at the front gate which is still 20 minutes walk from the orang-utan centre.

We bought our tickets and started walking, along the way we struck up a conversation with a young English guy from Cornwall holidaying around Asia on his gap year. Good company for the 20 minutes! We arrived at about 8:20 to a fairly empty area, but it gradually filled up with people until by 9am it was fairly crowded.

The guides escorted to the feeding area, and here we waited. They called the orang-utans, loudly, softly, yelling, but nothing happened. We ended up waiting a whole hour and didn't see anything - understandably very disappointed! But they're semi-wild animals and not kept in cages, so sightings can't be guaranteed of course. The park closed at 10am and wouldn't re-open until the afternoon feeding session at 3pm, so we canvassed our options. Eventually we decided that if they hadn't eaten in the morning, they would hopefully come in numbers in the afternoon.

So we walked back out of the park, boarded the public bus and paid our 4 RMY tickets back to Kuching. By the time we arrived back it was nearly midday and definitely lunchtime given how early we'd been up, so we wandered briefly before settling on an Indian/Muslim restaurant. Shandos had a buffet plate of curried chicken & rice while I had a beef & vegetable martabak.

Back onto the bus for the third time at 1pm, and again we trundled out through the suburbs to the sanctuary. We walked the path again, this time with a Swiss/South Korean couple who we'd seen in the morning. They were on an 8 week summer holiday from their home in Europe. When we arrived at the feeding area - we were in luck! The grandma was sitting in the middle of the road, and a young female was in the trees nearby. Both at about 10m distance from us.

The keepers shuffled them down the road with food and into one of the feeding areas, where a crowd formed and we all gawped. They're just such amazing creatures - although they're bipedal they really have four arms. It's incredible how they just flick back and forth between holding say a coconut in their hands vs their feet vs holding on to branches and ropes.

After about 15 minutes the keepers' radios all crackled, and the jungle in another direction started rustling. A mother and her daughter both turned up for food! They went down into the feeding area as well and helped themselves, while the original pair hung around up in the trees. And then a grand entrance - the second-largest male on site came around a corner a hundred or so metres away. A brief moment of panic since the keepers weren't sure if it was the alpha male, who apparently likes to dominate the shelter where we were, well, sheltering!

Thankfully it wasn't, but this guy was still huge! Very long hair, 2 metres tall and several hundred kilograms in weight. Him and the alpha male are apparently so big that they don't like climbing trees anymore, they mostly just stick to walking around on the ground! We watched him feeding for probably 30 minutes, including one part where he bashed open a coconut on a tree and drank the milk!

After all the excitement we'd forgotten that "feeding time" wasn't actually until 3pm, and it was only just approaching 3pm. When the time came the keepers took us back to the original feeding spot we'd been to in the morning, where there was just the one orang-utan - a younger female. She had her bananas and coconuts, but mostly sat high up in canopy munching so we couldn't get a great view. Another young female turned up about 20 minutes later, so we watched that one as well.

Somehow time got away from us, and we suddenly realised with a shock that it was 3:50, the last bus for the day left at 4pm and we were 25+ minutes walk from the gate! I asked one of the employees if there was another bus and he said no, and a few minutes later the manager came running up and offered to drive us to the gate to make the bus, which we gratefully accepted! Made it just in time.

Not much to report for the rest of the day, it was nearly 6pm by the time we got back to the hotel. We intended to freshen up and have another night on the town, but in the end after our showers we just zonked out and only made it as far as the Chinese noodle cart downstairs!

Moving on tomorrow - we're heading a couple of hours eastwards to a beach place called Damai where we'll spend a couple of days chilling out by the pool. Tough life!Read more