One of the things I had always wanted to go to Borneo for was to see the orangutans or 'men of the jungle' which their name translates to and the best chance of seeing them is to visit the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. Here they rescue orphaned orangutans and ones that are being kept illegally and rehabilitate them so that hopefully in the future they will return to the wild. One of the biggest issues in Borneo was the deforestation that had been going on that would often kill the orangutans or leave them with nowhere to go but thankfully, many new laws have been introduced to protect the forest and therefore protecting these creatures before it is too late.

So in the morning I headed to the bus station and arrived in Sepilok just in time. To stop the animals getting too much contact with humans is to visit at feeding times when you can watch from a platform as orangutans (if they feel like it) come to another platform in the jungle to get food supplied by the park staff and is usually for the orangs that are not quite adapted to fending for themselves or just too lazy to do so. When I arrived there were dozens of Macaque monkeys of all ages all messing about with each other and you have to watch out for them as they are prone to stealing cameras, hats, bags and food from the visiting tourists.

Right on time just a few minutes before the food was delivered the ropes leading to the platform began to move and shortly after one orangutan after another swung along the ropes into view. They stopped to look at us all standing on the platform and when you see their features close up and how each has different faces you see just how like humans they are. Apparently they share 96.4% of our DNA and it's not really a huge surprise. They didn't really stay around too long as it was raining and they don't really like the wet so they waited a few minutes for the food to arrive, ate a little bit and then swung off again with their feet clutched on to bunches of banana. The Macaques stayed around to pick up whatever was left over and continued to play and fight with each other.

The next morning knowing that my bus didn't leave til midday I couldn't resist but to head back to the centre for the morning feed and headed to the feeding platform about half an hour early just expecting to see the Macaques. I'd got really lucky along with the other few people there as there were already 3 orangutans messing about on the ropes and one sitting in the tree above us. One of the small curious ones leapt from the rope and then climbed up on to our platform to check us out. He had a really cheeky face and seemed to be loving doing roly-polys all over the platform before jumping up on to the railing and posing for photos! For this feed the weather was much nicer and again there were 8 orangutans although not all the same as yesterday. They stayed for much longer with some just sitting around eating and others playing on the ropes and in the trees. It was mesmorising to watch and I absolutely loved it there. The little Macaques eventually plucked up the courage to get on to the platform sneaking up behind the orangutans to grab some of the food. Eventually they gradually all left again heading back into the forest and I could go back each day if I was staying around and watch them again and again.

The only negative was how busy it was there in the morning to the day before in the afternoon. The centre does a great job for sure and the money it generates by letting the tourists in is obviously a huge help but these orangutans are supposed to be getting ready to go back to the wild and it's not very wild having dozens of us tourists gawping at them while they feed. It just makes you wonder a bit how many will develop enough to ever become totally wild animals again. But an amazing place and somewhere I could definitely see myself working for a while.