SEPILOK ORANGUTAN TIME :-)

After a 5 hour bus journey, we finally arrived in Sandakan. We stayed at a hostel called Sunset Harbour,the owner Nafis was a lovely indian lady, who when we got there offered to cook for us for free. We had fresh fish with rice and pumpkin curry, it was delicious and we ate it with our hands. We ate dinner with a Canadian family, Rio and his mum and dad, Shelia and Gregg. Jeffrey one of the men who wortked there took us to Mile 4, a 10 minute drive away, where there are lots of bars and clubs. Before we left we drank a lire of Captain Morgans Rum, so were pretty drunk! When we got to Mile 4 it was quiet so i asked some of the local men that were at a bar where was the best place to go. He said he was the owner of the club and that we could take a seat with them. It was Mafia night all over again,lol. They bought us drink after drink and fed us french fries and other snacks. The club got really busy and we danced all night with the Filipno waitresses, they loved it. We got in around 4am and had to be up at 7am to go to the Orangutan sanctury. Very hungver and feeling sorry for myslef i had breakfast which was a bit different to what im normally used to, it was an indian dish, Nafis cooked for us again, we had Indian chappati things with a curry sauce, delicious even if it was 7am in the morning. We then all headed out together to Sepilok, Me,Lucy,Gregg,Rio,Sheila and a russian lady called Sophia (she was a funny one) Jeffrey drove us and it took around 2 hours to get to. Sepilok is somewhere i have always wanted to go due to the famous SORC (sepilok orangutang rehabilitation centre) a government funded project that takes in orphaned orangutangs and teaches them to fend for themselves until they are ready to be released into the wild again. First we watched a video it was a 10 minute long documentary explaining the importance of the work they do there, and showing the full process from finding an orangutang orphan being kept as an illegal pet, to the rehabilitation proccess, and then finally the releasing of the orangutang back into the wild it was a great video. After this we made our way along the the raised wooden walkway through the jungle to the feeding platform to watch the orangutangs get their breakfast it was an amazing thing to watch and it is one thing to see orangutangs on the tv but to see them in real life is just another thing, they are 96.4% human and you only need to look at them to see this. watching them on the feeding platform a little distance away was amazing and as close as we excpected to get, but really just wanted to have a cwtch off one :-(
The orangutang centre really was amazing and definately up there as one of my favourite days so far.

The next stop on our day tour was The Kinabatanang River, it stretches over 560 kilometers and is the second longest river in Malaysia and the longest in Sabah. Kinabatangan is also well known for its remarkable wildlife and fascinating habitats found throughout the sanctuary.
We saw Proboscis monkey's, these monkeys are even more rare than Orangutangs and can be found in sabah and know where else in the world! Even though they are rarer than orangutangs they definately arent as lovable! They have big floppy long noses and big pot bellies making them actually quite ugly, but they were still pretty amusing to watch.We also saw several types of Hornbills,Crocodiles,Long and Short tailed monkeys.

After a long ride back to the Hostel, Nafis cooked for us all again and we had noodles with seafood and veggies, again very delicious! She also made us a hot drink, made with fresh lemon grass and honey, really nice before going to bed.