The minivan dropped me, Chris, and Beth outside 'Uncle Tan's B&B’, just a couple of kilometres from the main road. Having left the jungle with no running water, we arrived to find no electricity here. Which didn’t help the run down, dingy look and feel of the place. We had booked one night’s stay here, but did not have high expectations having read the reviews online. Included in the price of your stay is three meals, set at specific times of the day with no flexibility, and according to the reviews was very average food.
Sepilok is pretty much one road leading off of the main road, towards the jungle, with the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre and the Sun Bear Conservation Centre at the end. There was very limited choice of accommodation in our price range, hence why we ended up at Uncle Tan’s.
After being pointed in the direction of our room, which I am not too sure should be called a room since the walls do not reach the ceiling, so really it is a small division, our first point of call was to find somewhere else to spend the remainder of our time in Sepilok. We passed by the abandoned basketball court and just about visable sign, and started walking down the road. Despite it being 10.30am, the humidity was intense, and walking in the heat was tiring and extremely sweaty. We ended up walking around viewing a couple of options for accommodation, and sussing out the attractions for two hours. We must have covered about 6km, and were relieved to see a local lady selling coconuts at the side of the road. This gave us a little ‘pick me up’, but we soon realised we would need to pick up the pace to make it back for lunch at Uncle Tan’s at 12.30pm. All feeling tired, hot, sweaty, and hungry, we marched on with purpose.
We made it back right on time, found a table, and headed straight to the buffet lunch laid out. We were pleasantly surprised to find a large choice of various vegetable dishes, along with some chicken and rice. Yet we were even more pleasantly surprised to actually enjoy the lunch, and even go back for seconds! As we let our food go down, we discussed how to best utilise our time in Sepilok, and decided to head to the Rainforest Discovery Centre for the afternoon.
It was a couple of kilometres walk to reach the Centre, where we paid 15 ringgit each (just over £2.50), for entry into the rainforest. We mooched along the canopy walk, high up in the trees, keeping our eyes peeled for any birds, flying squirrels, or even orangutans. But either the animals were out of sight and sensibly out of the heat, or we were rubbish at spotting them, as we saw nothing. So we decided to take a short stroll around the lake and through the 'plant discovery garden'. The Centre was extremely quiet, just us and one other family on a tour walking around. But as the afternoon went on the humidity became more and more unbearable and none of us were really enjoying walking around in this heat. Luckily at the end of the plant discovery garden was an air-conditioned exhibition room, so we took advantage and plonked ourselves down on some seats.  
The buffet dinner that evening was unexpectedly good, with plenty of choice again, and more than enough food to go around. Besides the whole place needing a re-vamp, there was a large school group of around twenty 15/16 year olds who acted as though they owned the place. Unfortunately for us, our "room" was sandwiched between two of theirs, and seeing one of the boy’s peer over the wall into our room just before we switched the lights off was creepy and totally not acceptable.

To add to the unacceptableness, a group of them decided to ‘plan’ their day’s activities at 6am outside our door. As I stormed through the group looking angry and grumpy on my way to the bathroom I did hear an apology, but that was not going to make any difference! Even worse, when we got up, dressed, packed, and went for breakfast, they were nowhere to be seen – they had gone back to sleep! Alright for some! We were livid, so I thought it was only right to speak to one of the teachers about the antics of their pupils.
Thankfully we had found a room at ‘Sepilok B&B’, so with our backpacks on, we made the couple of kilometre walk first thing to avoid the main heat. As expected our room was not available to check in, so we re-jigged a few things and made our way to the Sun Bear Conservation Centre, to see the worlds smallest bear (120-150cm in height). From what we had read we all pictured an area in the jungle where we would have to sit quietly and patiently for the sun bears to make an appearance. With no set feeding times, it seemed as though you would be lucky to see them. However, as we tip toed up the steps and onto the viewing deck, right in-front of us was three young females, with another young female chilling at the top of tree, and further over to the left was a couple of older females. We quickly snapped away thinking we were extremely lucky and this wouldn’t last long; Chris on the SLR, Beth and I with our iPhones, and I took plenty of video with the GoPro. However it soon became clear that the bears were around for the long-haul!
We were pleased to have the platform pretty much to ourselves, with the occasional small group stopping by. We took the time to ask plenty of questions, learning about the sanctuary’s work. Most of the bears at the sanctuary had been rescued from captivity. Uneducated or selfish people keeping the bears as pets, cooped up in small cages for their entire lives. One bear was even rescued from being killed and eaten at a Chinese restaurant! Since most of them had grown up around humans it was clear why the bears were not afraid of human presence. However, we learnt that one bear in particular had ‘jungle phobia’ and was too scared to leave the comfort of his cage.
Sun bears survival is threatened by habitat loss, illegal hunting, and as I just mentioned, through capturing for the illegal pet trade. The sanctuary improves the living condition of rescued sun bears. At the Centre they are able to express their natural behaviours in the forest enclosure. Once they have adapted to the forest the Centre aims to release the bears back into the wild, however unfortunately for some this will never be possible. The bear with ‘jungle phobia’ for example, but also some of the bears had their claws clipped when they were kept in captivity, and unlike dogs for example, their claws do not grow back. For a bear, claws are essential to survive in the wild as without them they cannot climb the jungle trees. 
For those that cannot be released, the Centre provides them with an improved long-term living environment.
After a couple of hours enjoying watching the bears, we made our way back to Sepilok B&B hoping to check into our room. Unfortunately it was still not ready, so after a short rest, we meandered out for some lunch. We hoped that the local lady’s street stand would suffice, however it was her husband running the show today and not serving any food, just our luck. With not many options, we ended up at the café of the Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. The food was reasonable and it was in an air-conditioned room. Then it was back over to see the sun bears again, and luckily we arrived just in time for feeding. The cheeky macaques also arrived in time for the feeding, which was very funny to watch them sneak up and steal the various fruits and vegetables. It was extremely easy to get lost in time observing these beautiful animals. Their mannerisms and temperament were very similar to dogs. In fact the Chinese even call them Dog Bears, and being dog people, we were all fascinated.   
We finished our time at the sanctuary watching a short National Geographic documentary about the centre, and an ice-cream for the road!
We checked into our room, a four bed dorm, with another British girl already staying in. It wasn’t much better than Uncle Tan’s, but at least it was a proper room, and hopefully no strangers in the night! We ate dinner at the guesthouse, nothing special, but Chris and I could finally enjoy a beer, having gone quite a while without one!

I awoke early with excitement and raring to go, knowing we would be seeing the orangutans today. I was surprised and grateful for the number of birthday cards I received! Chris and Beth even sneakily managed to buy birthday postcards without my knowing! Chris was treating me to the orangutan experience as part of my birthday present and had managed to sneak off yesterday to buy a very cute cuddly toy orangutan key ring. We had a quick breakfast and quickly walked the few kilometres down the road to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre.
Since we arrived slightly too early for the first feeding, we made our way to the outdoor nursery, where the young orangutans would be. Unfortunately this area is only viewable from behind glass but understandably as otherwise the young orangutans would be climbing all over the tourists! But also the glass is to protect the orangutans against disease. Before the young orangutans reach the outdoor nursery, they first spend time in the ‘nursery’ learning skills such as the ability to find food, build nests, and climb – skills they would learn from their mother in the wild. Once ready they move to the outdoor nursery where their freedom is increased and their dependence on food and emotional support is decreased. Volunteers monitor the young orangutans in this area and every time one of them touches the floor they encourage them back on the platforms or ropes. Seeing the young orangutans wrap their arms around the volunteers was heart-warming, we were very envious.
After observing the young orangutans playing in the hammocks, climb along the ropes, and play fight with one another, we made our way back along the platform through the forest and to the feeding platform.
Having gone through the nursery, then moved to the outdoor nursery, most orangutans achieve total independence and become integrated into the Sepilok wild orangutan population. Situated throughout the forest are several feeding platforms, which slowly encourage the orangutans to migrate away from the centre and further into the wild. One of the first feeding platforms is close by to the centre and has an area for tourists to view the wild orangutans feed. Two local workers carry a wicker basket full of various foods such as bananas, sugarcane and lettuce, and scatter the food across the platform. You could have heard a pin drop, as everyone waited in silence with anticipation. We almost felt nervous, not really knowing when or if we would be lucky enough to see one. But it wasn’t before long that a female orangutan appeared from the jungle and made her way slowly onto the platform to the bananas. Shortly after a couple of young males appeared. One cheeky male grabbed as many bunches of bananas as he possible could, filling both hands and both feet, then continued to climb the tree so he was up high and out of the way of the others. He then sat and munched his way through each bunches. It was absolutely fascinating and mesmerising to watch these incredible animals in the wild. We spent just under an hour captivated by the ‘man of the forest’, before being told it was time to leave.
Not ready to leave the site, we decided to watch a short video learning all about the centre. Then we meandered back to the guesthouse to have a look through some of the photos.
Soon enough, it was time to grab some food, which we went to the local street food store for some chicken and rice, and were kindly offered some free homemade and freshly made doughnuts since it was my birthday. Then it was back to centre for the afternoon feeding.
Similar to the morning, we firstly made our way to the nursery, and caught the feeding time there. One young orangutan was feeling greedy and sat with a banana in each hand and foot as he feasted upon another. They were so adorable and human like as they interacted like children in the playground.
We made our way back to the adult viewing platform in hope of seeing more wild orangutans. Lucky enough a few more appeared for the afternoon feeding. The female and two males from this morning returned, but also another male. We overheard a keeper explain that there was a love triangle going on between the female and two of the males. Interestingly, one male kept backing off, as the other and his friend sat flirtatiously on another platform. The female didn’t seem to be bothered at all by the males and sat close by to the keeper as he handed her juicy sugarcane. A large number of macaques decided to join in the party, or more try to ruin the party by stealing all the food. They are the reason behind the saying ‘cheeky monkey’, as they creep up and on the sly grab some food and shoot off with it. Even some baby macaques tried their luck, but were warned off by the older and more experienced ones. It was hilarious to watch, and intriguing to study the behaviour of the orangutans as the macaques moved in. The female tended to turn her back to them as to ‘pretend’ that they weren’t there. Whereas the males every now and again would warn them away.
Again we spent about an hour viewing the adult orangutans before we made our way back to the outdoor nursery for the last half an hour of viewing. We could have sat all day watching them as they are incredibly entertaining. Even just spending half an hour observing them, it is possible to learn and clearly see characteristics and personalities in each young orangutan. We were some of the last people to be ushered out of the viewing area, and to our amazement caught site of one of the adult males from earlier up in the trees, right near the outdoor nursery. This was a huge highlight as I am sure it is rare to see any of the adults this close. I snapped away, not wanting to miss the opportunity to take a close up picture. We pushed our luck with staying right until the keeper was practically pushing us back along the walkway. It was the best way to end our day at the Centre.
We picked up a fresh coconut to drink on our walk back to the guesthouse and since it was my birthday it was only right to tuck into our new favourite pecan icecream. We didn't have much time to rest before we were heading back out for a night trek through the forest. Coated in mosquito spray we made our way to the Rainforest Discovery Centre where we were joined by a lovely friendly Swedish couple. Within minutes our guide and spotter pointed out a deadly green viper, camouflaged on a plant right next to the walkway. Of course Chris pushed the boundaries and approached dangerously close to get a good video on the GoPro! We continued along the walkway and onto the canopy walk where we waited for the spotter and our guide to find a flying squirrel. It didn't take long before they pointed one out high up in the trees. It was impossible for us to see, so who knows how on earth they spotted it! It was only until the guide used the Swedish lady's camera to take a picture of where the squirrel was resting that we were able to see it. We were told to wait until the squirrel began moving either to the end of a branch or up to the top of the tree, then to get our cameras at the ready as the squirrel would jump. Rightly so, the squirrel jumped, opened up its furry parachute-like membrane and soared through the sky for about 50 metres over to another tree. I have seen flying squirrels on television, but to see one glide in front of us was something else. It was so cool! There are recordings of flying squirrels gliding for 90 metres!
As the sun set and the light disappeared, we walked down from the canopy for a short briefing on our jungle trek, then off we went, trying to keep as quiet as possible along the tracks as to not scare the animals. The spotter pointed out plenty of colourful sleeping birds. They only fly away if you happen to move the branch they are perched on, so it's possible to get really close and see every detail. The spotter pointed out lots of common tree geckos and a very well camouflaged stick insect which was huge.
The guide had us stamping and lifting our knees up high as we passed through some fire ants nests, but perhaps he was just winding us up, who knows! We also saw a tortoise crawling his way through some thick mud and plenty of creepy crawlies hidden in the forest floor.
After an hour we appeared back onto the main track and just as we thought we had seen all the wildlife we would see, the spotter quickly hushed us all, stopped us in our tracks, and pointed out the very rare lesser mouse-deer. Our guide had the biggest grin on his face, as he had never seen one on the night trek, and was right at the front of the group snapping away on his phone. Apparently only one other group had ever seen one, so we felt extremely lucky. The deer stood dead still, perhaps startled, for ages, allowing us all to take plenty of pictures. What a great end to my birthday.
We were surprised and extremely pleased by the amount of wildlife we saw on the night trek, having not seen a lot on the two night treks we had participated in near the Kinabatangan River. By now it was 8pm and we were more than ready for dinner. So it was back to the guesthouse for some local food and some birthday beers!

Up, packed, fed and caffeinated, a guesthouse staff member dropped us to the main road to catch a bus to Kota Kinabulu.