Day 32: Sakau & Orangutans!!!!!

After a night sleeping through the sounds of the jungle, our alarms and the roosters went off around 4:45 a.m. We got ready, had our coffees, knocked on the doors of the Germans who had insisted we go at 5:30 instead of 6 a.m. but who were still sleeping at 5:30, and at 6:00 a.m. got into the boat with Eagle Eyes for another river safari.

There are not nearly as many mammals to spot alongside the Kinabantangan River as I had though; however, there are tons of different birds. We spotted 4 different species of Hornbills (including some really rare white breasted one), 3 different types of King Fishers, Broad beaks, huge endangered Storks, some tiny bird that was smaller than two finger digits, etc. We saw 2 different species of monkeys. Then, Eagle Eyes spotted our first oranguntan!! I'm not sure what I expected, but this was beyond expectations. Unfortunately, one, this was a male and you only see males in isolation, not surrounded by a troop of orangutans and two, he was high up in the top of a fig tree eating breakfast. 

It was amazing to watch. He is basically a big orange hairy thing on the top of the tree. A bit like how I imagined Big Foot's hide to look. He just sat there, in a more refined way, reaching with his long arms to pluck various figs & eat them. Sometimes he'd walk out on a branch to get the ones that were on the farthest limbs and then retreat back to his tree chair. Once he was hidden from view all we saw was his long arm reaching out beyond the cover of the trees to pluck figs, and then disappear. 

Not only did we see this orangutan, but on our return journey, we saw our 2nd! I certainly have not had my fill of orangutans, but am still fascinated by them. We both want more! However, after our river safari, after much debate (and after the infamous Osman had a family emergency and wasn't taking people on his pygmy elephant safari), we decided lets just get out of dodge. We'll go to a (dare I say it) rehabilitation center, and hopefully we'll be able to see both orangutans and probiscis monkeys up close.

We trekked to town, found a car that would take us to 'The Junction' where lonely planet said we could stand by the side of the road and flag down a bus, packed up in 30 minutes, and went. The Junction is literally a tree-barren area by the side of a round about. My poor vampire skin can't take such intensity. Then I remembered something my friend Kim had given me. It was something that, upon leaving Melbourne, I had debated whether or not to bring with, and figured that although its slightly heavy, I'd carry it and see. It was a sun umbrella from China! Normally, I would have shied away from using it - white tourist who can't take it; however, I had seen some women using them in Sandakan a few days before. When in the jungle..... Out it came! Instant shade. It. was. amazing. Kim - THANK YOU! We took a picture, which we'll have to send you. This moment almost deserves an ode. 

Ode to the Shade Umbrella: 

Oh give me a home, where the sun mostly roams

Where the trees provide plenty of shade 

But when burning outside, sweating and unmade 

The sun umbrella provides plenty of shade

Okay - not my best. I'll work on it! But it deserves it! After standing there for an hour, we had no fewer than 5 people stop and ask us where we were going. Finally, a good Samaritan told us its hard to flag a bus here, he'd take us a bit down the road to a proper bus stand. We jumped in the car, and went about half the distance to Kota Kinabalu (our final destination). I swear, all we passed were palm trees for 200 kms. It was such a sad scene. I'm not a real protester or avoider of products, but seriously, no more palm oil. (Pallavi has since refused to eat Nestle ice-creams and says #SayNoToNestle). 

On the way, we had passed one bus going to Kota Kinabalu. Finally, we reached the last point the guy could take us, and we got off, had lunch, found the bus station, and waited for another hour and a half. When the luxury bus finally came, it was the same bus we had passed before!

We finally reached Kota Kinabalu, got a cab, got off near where backpackers are, only to realize that my ukulele had been left behind in the cab! That is how we learned about how easy it is to file an insurance report at the local police station and all about different cab companies. 

Such a up & down day. Loved the orangutans, but am absolutely exhausted and hot from the journey and a bit heartbroken about the ukulele. Hopefully we'll be able to find it tomorrow. 

Day 31: Sakau, Borneo

Today we head off into the jungle to try to see orangutans in the wild. Apparently the best place to see them is near a small village called Sakau, which is on the Kinabatangan River. Tragically, the reason why this is the best place to see them is because the palm oil plantations have deforested so much rain forest that its pushed the wildlife all towards the river. However, this small sliver of rain forest (literally the rainforest stretches along the river for kms, but is only 300 metres deep) is now protected, so off we go.

Lonely Planet is right in that, although you think you might need to book some sort of tour in order to go to the Kinabatangan River, you can do it on your own. It was easy enough to get transportation within the budget we'd expected to the village. However, nothing can prepare you for when we got there.

No sooner than we arrived in Sakau than I started to sweat and had 5 mosquito bites. Thank God for 80% deet. I don't care if its banned in Europe and you need to dispose of it in a plastic bag before putting it in the trash. The container doesn't say it'll give me some sort of disease. The chemist who sold it to me said it wouldn't give me cancer. I say no to dengue & lots of itching. Those mosquitoes can go and f-off!

I swear I'm channeling my Mom's citronella candles. If one candle is meant to give you a 5 ft radius of protection, than en entire seance of candles is clearly going to work even more effectively. My 80% Bushman's deet is my citronella candle seance. (PS - it 100% works. You can practically see mosquitoes die when they hit our protective deet wall.

We also needed accommodation. Sukau is a one street town, but nobody told me it was some odd 10 km street! We had our transport drop us at a backpackers closest to the town (still 1 km away), and Pallavi asked me to go up the road and check out prices. I walked, and walked, and walked, and checked, and walked, and checked, and sweated, and walked, and checked, and sweated. I should have just turned around. So stupid! 50 minutes and a minimum of 5 kms later, I returned and we stayed at this awesome homestay across the road from where we initially had been dropped off.

We asked Ezall, our homestay guide who spoke really great English, who we should go on our river safaris with. He said, I can tell you a lot of groups, but the key is to go with somebody who is good. There are two people I'd recommend. 1. Osman (who we'd heard about and notoriously takes people face to face with elephants and ignores there warning signals ((dangerous!!)) but who has taken David Attenbourgh out a few times and is very good). 2. Eagle Eyes. Alright, old Eagle Eyes it is!

We called him up and went on a night safari. Although we didn't see any night cats, Eagle Eyes spotted amazing colourful tropical birds, a crocodile!, probiocus monkeys, and an owl hunting in the river. Did you know that a crocodile's eyes glow white at night? It looks like a little light on the water. Pretty cool stuff!

Once we finished, we went to Sukau's local night market. It runs Thursday through Sunday. Quite a lot for a small village of 1K. Normally there is music and public karaoke but not tonight. Tonight the local Muslim Imam was speaking to a crowd seated in the square. What was he teaching them? He was talking to them about all the reason why NOT to join Al Qaeda and ISIL

As we sat around eating dinner, Ezall told us about the problems between Borneo & the Sulu people over in the Philippines. Less than 10 years ago, there was war between Malaysia & the Sulu people. Over 300 years ago the Sulu people ruled over Borneo and then the British took over. The Sulu Sultan still thinks it belongs to him, but has only made moves to take it over by force after Malaysia invested in its infrastructure. Apparently, the Sulu's even took over bits of Borneo and Ezall remembers them occupying Sukau for at least 4 months, while he stayed bunkered down in his home stay with his government issued weapon, lights out after 5 p.m. That is why they still have immigration checks here. I had no idea!

Tomorrow, 5:30 a.m., another river safari in search of orangutans! 

Day 30: Travel to Sandakan, Borneo

Welcome to the Jungle! I swear, that song is talking about Borneo. We fly into the city of Sandakan, in the area of Sabah, in Borneo. We decided it cost basically the same to fly here than to the region's capital, Kota Kinabalu and then travel the 7 hours overland to reach here. Why Sandakan? It's near the Kinabantangan River, which is one of the best places in the world to see orangutans in the wild.

The actual journey sounded relatively simple enough (and for the most part, it was):

1. Wear all of our winter stuff & heavy hiking boots so we can get our checked luggage weight to 15kg.
2. Get the 8 a.m. bus from Melaka to Kuala Lumpur
3. Take the flight
4. Try to find the random mysterious bus mentioned casually in guide books that will take you to Sandakan

It is 30-35 degrees Celsius outside (86-95 degrees F). We are wearing sweat pants and jeans, with sweat shirts. Who would have thought this was appropriate attire for the bus & the plane! We were absolutely shivering (even put a blanket on top of us).

Flying into Borneo, all you can see outside is rivers, jungle, and the horrible eye sort of palm tree plantations.

After we'd landed, and they opened up the back door of the plane, near where we were sitting, I swear the heat hit you like some cinematic cloud of badness. You could just feel it coming your way and then once it hit you - you made the sweat pants realize their destiny. Welcome to the Jungle. And it was 5 p.m.

We then tried to find the mysterious bus stop. If you exit the airport, you have to walk a bit to find it (if its still running). The guides all said it stopped running at 5 p.m. It was 5:10. When we made it to the bus stop, we took a guess and just asked a small mini-van there if he was the bus. This kindly older gentlemen said no, but I'll take you. Stranger danger? Hardly. This guy was listening to 1940s jazz music in a grandfatherly kind of way. How much could we pay him? He said nothing. Just helping.

We owe one pay it forward ride in the future.

Overall Sandakan, not too interesting. We will be happy to leave it when we head towards Sakau  and the Kinabantangan River tomorrow.