Wildlife-spotting in Borneo

After two weeks of fun in Western Malaysia, we really thought it was time to stop fannying around and time, to see an orangutan.  Spontaneously, we booked a flight for the next day and NEEEOOWWWW: we arrived in KK.  A traumatic 7-hour coach journey surrounded by vomiting and unhygienic humans left us sitting in the dark, on the side of a roundabout, in the middle of nowhere... however, at the sight of a familiar 'Wildlife' T-shirt peering out of a 4x4, we were transported to a beautiful hostel surrounded by baby turtles, lakes and monkeys jumping around in the trees; Sepilok.

On our first morning we managed to crawl out of bed at 9am and make it the Orangutan Rehab Centre by 10am.  The red apes swung to the feeding block from all directions and we were able to view seven of them fighting over the biggest banana.  We were, at first, a little sceptical of the Sepilok 'Rehabilitation' Centre but were pleasantly surprised by the fact that the crowds weren't so big that we could not see the animals and that it was not simply a zoo built for tourists but actually a fantastic cause! The charity rescue orphaned animals or those that have been inappropriately kept as pets.  They are taught survival skills such as climbing and foraging (what an amazing job those guys have!!!) before being released into the protected forest to fend for themselves.  It was wonderful to be able to see a snippet of all this up close!!! 

The next step in our wildlife adventure was to head to Bilit Lodge on the river bank, where we spent two days cruising the waters in a tiny boat, spotting completely wild orangutans, the hilarious proboscis monkeys, silver monkeys, long-tailed macaques, pygmy elephants, a crocodile, a range of hornbills and some other funky birds.  It was like safari on water and we got lucky(!)