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…
Sutera Harbor Sanctuary at Kinabalu Park
I didn’t write yesterday 23rd January as there was little to write about. The day mainly consisted of:
1. Wake up at 6am and have breakfast at Barefoot Lodge in Sukau where we’ve spent the last couple of days.
2. Jessie drove us to the Mile 32 checkpoint to catch the K.K. Bus to Kinabalu Park where we are now. On the way to the bus a saw; millions of palm trees; 3 dead dogs (one of them looked like a stuffed dog that had been pushed over with its eyes open and legs sticking out); one dead Monitor Lizard (very large lizard); and lots of kids going to school.
3. Took the bus from Mile 32 checkpoint to Kinabalu Park. As you would expect the driver drove the bus as if it was a race car whilst we watched Transporter 3 on pirate DVD wit very poor english subtitles (it’s not out on DVD in UK or Norway yet.
4. Arrive at Sutera Harbour Sanctuary in Kinabalu Park where we’re currently staying. Our room has a “view” towards Mount Kinabalu but the only window in the room is actually on the back with a view of the water tank. You have to go out front to see the mountain and when it’s not covered by clouds it’s very mighty and beautiful. Wish they’d stick a window on the front of our room though… A quick review of Sutera Harbour Sanctuary at Kinabalu Park: besides the window issue the towels had stains and the pillow sheets smelt of sweat really badly. We’ve had to ask them to come change pillow cases both yesterday and today. I’ve got a feeling their cleaning contract will be going out to tender soon… We stayed at the Hillside Lodge.
5. Went to the botanical garden to see many beautiful flowers & plants including cinnamon, several orchids, ginger, banana trees, etc. Pictures to follow.
6. Had dinner and went to bed.
It’s funny how so little happened and I still managed to write so much!
Rain, Guard Bats & Bugs in the Dinner
It’s 945pm 20 January and we’re in the bedroom at Barefoot Lodge in Sakau, 2 hours south of Sandakan, Malaysia, Borneo.
Today we willingly left the comforts of the Shangri La resort in Kota Kinabalu (KK) to venture on a 2 day/night jungle safari by the rivers of the east coast of Borneo.
We took Air Asia from sunny KK at 1pm, landing in heavy rain at Sandakan airport. We were met by the lodge staff at the airport, who first brought us to a cheap local diner (£1 for the meal – they were paying as it’s included in the deal) and then on the way to Sukau on a 2 hour journey in heavy heavy rain.
The view on the way consisted of primarily palm oil plantations, with palm oil being Malaysia’s largest export industry. They extract the oil from spikey fruits in the palm trees in large factories and the oil is then used for cooking oil, soap, cosmetics and soon bio fuel! It’s also worth noting that the emergence of palm oil plantations is the main reason why the rain forest is disappearing and the orangutan have become an endangered species. Why do I know all this stuff you ask? Jessie our driver is a very nice guy and told us everything we needed to know.
On arriving at the lodge just before dark it was still raining, and the contrast from Shangri La’s deluxe rooms became clear. The rooms at the Barefoot Lodge are small with white painted boards for walls, two single beds and a bathroom with electric shower. A slightly musty smell and of course no aircon and a plug to charge the camera battery.
Dinner was at 7pm – we had time for a quick nap first. A combination of the rainy season and the economy meant that we were the only guests staying there, i.e. we were alone for dinner, except the 5 house kittens of course! Although we’ve taken malaria tablets we were still a bit apprehensive seeing 100′s of moskitos buzzing around the wall lights. The food was served and we sat down, very wary of our surroundings.
And we were right to be. A second after sitting down something flew across the room just above our heads -a bat! Slightly scary at first, but we were calmed by Jessie who told us it was their guard bat, Batman. While the bat was hovering above we started eating. A selection of vegetables, chicken, tuna, pumpkin, melon and rice. Just as I was about to dig in suddenly a bug fell into my food! We removed it with an unused knife, which we decided to dirty just in case they thought the knife was clean and decided to reuse it without cleaning it 
Tomorrow morning we’re going on a morning cruise at 630am followed by a jungle trek. We have to borrow special leech socks which are massive, kind of look like large christmas stockings only without the decorations. Then we’ll have breakfast followed by more activities. With this being a, not high, but special risk malaria area we’ll be wearing plenty of insect repellent with Deet and rain coats and in general long sleeves. Wish us good luck!
