Orang Utans in Borneo
I got some nice Orang Utan shots whilst in Borneo on two occasions.
Firstly, on our visit to the Shangri La Rasa Ria Resort near Kota Kinabalu we visited a sanctuary for orphaned or rescued orang utans that were in some of their initial stages of recovery, starting their road towards freedom. When ready they will be sent to the Sepilok centre where they will become fully prepared for their freedom. Here are a couple of my shots – there are more where they came from.
This little Orang Utan is well on its way to recovery, playing with the ropes at the Nature Reserve near Kota Kinabalu.
This fella is looking for some food. We got to join the morning feeding session at the Shangri La Rasa Ria Resort Nature Reserve.
Our second meeting with Orang Utans was in Sukau, south of Sandakan on the east coast. This time there was no local nature reserve. We saw a wild Orang Utan mother with her child sitting in a tree chilling and eating fruits. We managed to get quite close to get some nice shots, although I wish I had brought a 4-500mm lens (don’t have one… yet). The below photo captures the mother’s face nicely.
A wild Orang Utan mother chilling in a tree, eating fruits accompanied with her baby (didn't get any good shots of the baby)
So that’s a first taster of the shots from Borneo. More monkey photos are to follow, including Proboscis Monkey and Long Tailed Macaque. I also got some nice shots of Mount Kinabalu as well as some nice sunsets. Watch this space…
Travelling in the Rainy Season
It’s now 430pm and travelling in the rainy season means that every afternoon we can expect some form of rain and wind. The wind has started picking up and the staff are taking down the parasols, so I’m expecting the Norse God Thor to soon pass by with some rain and thunder.
In the meantime Ling is enjoying a nice overpriced massage in our room, which is why I’ve been kicked out. It better be a woman giving her that massage 
Last night we had a Malaysian buffet dinner with a wide variety of foods including Roti Prata, a wide range of roast meat, as well as a large range of curries. It was a very enjoyable experience followed by drinks and listening to the hotel band singing in the hotel lobby. We were both jet lagged and tired so decided to go to bed early, only to find out that our room key wasn’t working! We called on the staff to come and help us, but no one was able to open it, not even the manager with her battery driven lock pick, which I’m sure I’ve seen in one of the Oceans movies. In the end they had to call on the engineers and we were offered free drink in the lobby bar while waiting – should have asked for an upgrade to a suite instead;) the engineers managed to fix the problem and we could go to bed – turned out the battery in the lock had run out and needed replacing! Anyways, we managed to get to our bed in the end and went into a koma straight away…
So far the Shangri La’s Rasa Ria Resort has been great, although I wouldn’t want to stay here for more than a few days to relax, being of the more adventurous kind. Being a 5 star resort, the only thing letting it down are e.g. the plastic toilet seat in an otherwise great bathroom, and a poorly setup TV where not all stated channels are working (not that I’ve been watching it much).
It’s tomorrow the real adventure starts. After a flight to Sandakan on the east coast we’re being picked up and driven into the jungle to a primitive lodge where we’ll stay for the next two nights. We’re hoping to see more monkeys, elephants and they even say you might see rhinos. Wild animals! Wish us good luck… I can feel the first drops of rain now so will go to the indoor bar for a drink.
PS: I know the iPhone photos are poor quality and I’ll make up for it when I get back home.
