Day 7: Buses and Orang-utans

Today dawned hot and humid (what else could it be, but of course we are British and have to check every morning just in case it has cooled down!)

Ozzie comes home!

We sat down to breakfast - bread and jam from the 7-11 we picked up yesterday.  Matt put a piece of bread on Tom's plate who immediately exclaimed ANTS!  The pack of bread was crawling with ants, so that went in the bin.  Unfortunately we didn't have anything else in for breakfast.  As McDonalds was only across the road, we decided to go against our principles and have breakfast there.  We were surprised to find sausage McMuffins, but they there were so we each had one and some rather good orange juice.

Now, our first job in the morning was to go to the Express Bus Terminal and book a coach from Sandakan to Kota Kinabalu on Saturday, just to be sure of a passage!  We located the Express Bus Terminal on Google maps and headed on our way - me navigating using Matt's maps app on his phone and believe it or not, it worked well, no arguing (Matt has resigned himself to directions: 'my way' and 'your way' instead of left and right now and it makes for a more pleasant experience - as otherwise I am always stressed about giving out the right directions)  However, Google maps didn't do us good as it delivered us to a depot of dead buses - in fact I would call it a bus graveyard.  We thought it couldn't be right as we had seen the coaches and they looked lovely.  We did see some behind the depot so we walked up, but it wasn't the right buses and their was no ticket counter etc.  Humm, now what to do?

Fine set of gnashers

We decided to head into Sandakan and see if we could a bus station where they might be able to help.  We found the bus station but it was very busy and there was no where to park.  It didn't look like the sort of place where someone would be able to speak English to help either, it looked pretty poor and run down.  We headed on and found a shopping mall.  We decided to park in there and see if we could find some info.  Luckily the lady in the information booth was very helpful and directed us back out of the city.  We found it - yahoooooo!  Lots of nice looking coaches, and two ticket counters, you travel with the company that do the trips on that day.  So we are booked on.  Phew.

Hanging around

We popped back to the flat, picked up some bits and pieces (including Ozzie our orang-utan who has come with us all this way to see his homeland again - yes, we know, we are soft and a bit mad!) and then went to our local shops and cafes for lunch.  We ended up in Mel's Fresco Bites cafe and ordered spaghetti carbonara for the boy and a local dish for us - not sure what to expect but it was fried fish, rice and some vegetables.   All very nice.  We then headed off to Sepilok and the orang-utan sanctuary, with me directing Matt all the way, once again without a wrong turn!

We got there dead on 2pm which is when it opens.  We were greeted by an English lady who chatted about the orang-utans we were about to see and introduced a film by an English camera man about the sanctuary and the work they do.  We then went on the boardwalks to see if we could see any.  We didn't have to go far, before we even got to the boardwalk, a small orang-utan walked across the path in front of the ticket office!  Wow, we didn't get a photo though - he moved too quickly.

Swinging

We walked along the boardwalks and within a minute we saw our first orang-utan in the woods, hanging about, then another and another.  They were walking on the boardwalks - the guards having to keep an eye on them and us!  Wow, such close encounters.  It was amazing and they are such human like creatures, loads of expression in their faces, and of course the most amazing limbs and climbing abilities (apparently it is not good for them to be on the floor as they can pick up bacteria which is harmful to them).  We carried on to the feeding station and waited and waited and waited and waited in the sweltering heat - wow was it hot and humid, everyone was wilting.  No orang-utans came.  We only had 2 hours in the reserve, after 30 minutes of waiting we gave up and went to the outdoor nursery instead.  There we observed from a building 'stage 2' orang-utans playing outside whilst being informed about them by another English lady. (The place is funded via a British Charity so there are quite a few British staff & volunteers).  All very very cute.

After half an hour and about 200 photos, we headed back via the feeding platform, still no joy there and on back to the ticket counter.  Just as we were about to emerge, a leaf dropped onto the boardwalk, and another - hum....we looked up and suddenly Tom whispered 'there's one over there' and pointed.  He was right, there was an orang-utan in the trees quite near to us, so we stopped and watched.  He got nearer and nearer and nearer.  On to the boardwalk he came, we gave him as much room as we could, but he saw Matt's camera and he wanted it.  Unfortunately there were no members of staff near us at the time.  He got hold of Matt's camera and pulled and pulled at it - well you know Matt, he was not going to give up his camera willingly, especially as it had the new lens on it which he had only bought last week.

Lunch time

Anyway, over to Matt for the rest of the story...

Yes, when he realised I wasn't about to hand over £2000 of camera plus lens without a struggle, he decided to climb me and try for my hat and/or glasses instead. I'm sure I could see a glint in his eye as he mugged me. Tom burst into tears as he thought I was going to get hurt (I thought so too - they've got serious teeth). I ended up limping back towards the walkway entrance with him still attached to me (not easy), and after a bit, a couple of visitors summoned a guard with a big stick, who chased him off. However, he apparently just legged it back up the walkway and picked on someone else instead. I later found out he's an 11 year old male called Kalabatu, who's known as a bit of a character. Still, he didn't hurt me at all, but he was incredibly strong. I'm sure he could have done some serious damage if he'd felt like it. We were told at the start that an adult orang-utan has 4 times the strength of an adult human, and I don't doubt it. My heart was pounding and my hands shaking for quite a while after the incident, but the only "damage" was a good smear of orang-utan snot on the front of my new lens. Could have been much worse, and will be a good anecdote in the future.
Anyway, here's a video clip that Nik managed to get before Tom started crying: https://youtu.be/hEsmcQC45Tc

Words fail me.

Once Matt had recovered, we got back in the car and headed back to Sandakan via Giant Supermarket to pick up some breakfasts, drinks and snacks.  We wanted to pick up some beers as well, especially with what had happened to Matt today, but the alcohol area was closed off for maintenance - there was no one in there doing any maintenance, the beer was tantalisingly close, but not to be had - bummer!  As we were ready to leave, a huge rainstorm descended upon us meaning we had to wait quite some time to be able to get back to the car.  We still can't get over warm rain, it's fun, but still to get totally drenched is a pain.  Eventually it died down enough that we only got wet, not drenched!

Our great ape

We came home for showers, but on trying to get into Tom's room, we discovered it was locked.  Asian door handles have a knob on the back, if you depress them and then close the door, they are locked from the outside.  Guess what Tom, the eternal fiddler, did to his door!  Yep, you guessed it, we searched the flat no keys anywhere, so I had to message our host and explain what had happened, she wasn't best pleased.  Then of course Tom started crying, because he thought Archie (his toy sloth) was locked in there alone, and then he was crying because we were cross with him.  Not a great end to the day!  Luckily our host's father in law lives next door and has a jar of keys.  He came with them all and tried them one by one, the door opened, all was well!  Phew!!!!!

We headed out for tea: back to Cafe Classico - Tom and I had a burger each with some great fries whilst Matt had Roti Chennai which was recommended him by the owner who came over to speak to us.  We all had a silly cocktail as well, and the bill - it came to £6 in total.  Wow!  We are paying local prices here as we are in a local suburb, no other white faces to be seen here, we are quite the celebrities.