So after getting back to our lodge we had some breakfast and left to go back to Sandakan. Not before a huge monitor lizard ran out in front of us as we slowly edged our way through the village in the car on the bumpy road along the river. Tom quickly wound his window down while I tried to take a picture but he was too quick. He stopped and took one look at us and ran off! They're pretty darned quick when they want to be! Pretty cool to get that close though.
 
Before we gave the car back though we went and had a look at Sandakan Memorial Park. This is on the site of the notorious prisoner of war camp from where the infamous death marches started out from. In 1943 there were around 2,500 Australian and British POWs at Sandakan, the majority were Australian. In January 1945 the first of three “death marches” took place where prisoners were forced to march 260km to Ranau. The allies were putting pressure on the Japanese so they decided to move the POWs. By the end of the war there were only 6 men out of the 2,500 who survived these marches and they only did so by escaping. Those who were not fit enough or collapsed from exhaustion/starvation were either killed or left to die on route. This was a huge number as they had been kept in such appalling conditions with so little food for so long they just couldn't make it. Those that managed to reach Ranau were killed later after they eventually became too weak and sick. The few who remained were ordered to be shot once the Japanese were forced to surrender. Absolutely shocking and just horrific brutality.
 
The park is now a memorial to those who suffered and died here, including on the death marches. I take an interest as my granddad was a POW himself in Malaysian Borneo. He was imprisoned for three years at a camp in Kuching. He was one of the lucky ones and survived to return home but harrowing to hear of the kinds of treatment he would have likely received at the hands of the Japanese. 
 
On a lighter note...lets talk about Orangutans some more!
 
Just outside of Sandakan is a place called Sepilok which is the location of Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. It was founded in 1964, to rehabilitate orphan orangutans. The site is 43 sq km of protected land at the edge of Kabili Sepilok Forest Reserve. Baby orangutans are often caught during illegal logging or forest clearance or captured by poachers who slaughter the adult parents to reach them. Some are caught to be kept as pets. 
 
At Sepilok the orangutans are slowly rehabilitated which can take up to seven years of intensive care. When ready they can then be released into the reserve to fend for themselves and mix with wild orangutans in the reserve. The centre has a couple of large feeding platforms which the orangutans can come back to for food if they want to, to ease them into the transition. Sometimes once released the orangutans aren't seen again, others like to come back to the platforms every so often. The food provided is designed to be monotonous and boring to encourage them to go and forage for themselves. 
 
There are around 25 orangutans being rehabilitated in the nurseries here and around 60-80 living free in the reserve. Visitors are not allowed any contact with the orangutans being looked after at the centre. The prime concern is for the orangutans rehabilitation and they are very susceptable to human diseases and infection. To give them the best chance of survival once released into the wild any familiarity with people is discouraged. 
 
So we headed into the dense forest along the designated walkways to the platforms for the 10am feeding. Very difficult not to be excited!! It wasn't guaranteed that we would see an orangutan as they are all wild. It's actually viewed as a positive thing if you don't see them as it means that they are off fending for themselves and their rehabilitation was a success. There were lots of macaques hanging around, they knew it was feeding time too! We all waited quietly, only talking is quiet whispers as we'd been told they don't like noise and wouldn't come down if they didn't like it. There were lots of ropes reaching from tree to tree so they could come from any direction. There was movement and rustling in the trees after about 10 minutes. An orangutan! Over the next couple of hours we watched a couple more come down onto the platforms. All the while the cheeky macaques were sneaking up and stealing bananas from under their noses hehehe. Then just as we were about to leave a mother with a tiny baby came down. Aaaah! It was just so wonderful to watch and be that close to them. Absolutely amazing. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.
 
We wanted to come back for the 4pm feeding so had some time to kill. We decided to walk one of the trails into the forest for a couple of hours. Hardly any of the other tourists decided to do this so Tom and I had the forest to ourselves for most of the time. It was just amazing being right in the reserve and it being just us with all the noises of various wildlife around us. We saw lost of huge bugs and massive ants! We bumped into a group on the way back from their walk and they said that the had been followed for a while by a curious orangutan!  Amazing! We spent the next hour stopping and looking and listening to ANY rustling in the trees. We were just heading back after unfortunately not spotting him and then there was a rustling in the trees! We ran back down the path to get to where it was coming from and there he was! In the tree right above us! I was so excited none of my photos ended up being in focus as I was frantically clicking away. Then he started to climb down coming straight for us. We quickly backed off away from the tree and he climbed down and just sat on the path a matter of a few metres away just looking at us. We didn't know what to do! We backed off as I was actually a bit worried at this point. These guys are wild animals, four times as strong as humans and could rip your arm off if they wanted! He then moved off very slowly along the path away from us stopping every few meters with his back to us looking away. We took a few steps closer and waited. He moved off again, we shuffled after him. We repeated this for about three minutes until he went round a bend in the path and sat behind a wide tree trunk. We didn't see him come out the other side and we couldn't get close enough to the tree to see him sat there as we'd have gotten way too close otherwise. After about five minutes Tom left the path and waded into the bushes to get a better view of the other side of the tree to find he'd vanished! They're so stealthy! So so amazing to get that intimate experience though. I just kept mouthing to Tom “OH MY GOD THIS IS AMAZING!!” the whole time :). We don't know if he was fully wild or an orangutan who had once been rehabilitated. Either way it was one of the best experiences of my life! 
 
On a huge high we headed back for the 4pm feeding. We were lucky enough to see another mother with a tiny baby as well. So great to see that they are integrated sufficiently to be able to start having babies. She stayed around for quite a while which was just lovely and was later joined by a friend. I could have stayed there all day watching them.
 
What an awesome day!! The centre is doing such great work but sadly the funds they receive are limited. They receive some funds from Sabah Wildlife Department and from the sale of entrance tickets but that's still not enough for what they need. Orangutans are only found in Borneo and Sumatra. Sumatran orangutans are critically endangered and Bornean orangutans are endangered. I seriously hope we never reach the stage where they end up being wiped out completely but it is a very real possibility, very soon. 

Our last night staying in Sandakan and we somehow managed to lock ourselves out of our room at 11pm at night. Doh. Both just wearing our PJs. We didn't have an ensuite at this place so had a shared bathroom. We'd just popped out to clean our teeth. The door to our room was one of the ones that just locks as soon as it shuts unfortunately. I'd spent every other evening saying "Have we got the key, have we got the key??!" but on this evening we both forgot. Argh! Went down to reception, which was just run by a couple of young lads who were a bit half soaked. Did they have a spare key? Course they didn't! They had a drawer full of keys and tried every one but none of them fit our door. Oh dear! They then tried to get in by running a card past the lock and after five minutes of trying told us to go and wait downstairs. After a long half an hour they returned and had managed to get in. They'd only gone and broke in through the window! We were about three floors up too. They just forced the window until the latch snapped. Oh well, at least we were in and could go to sleep now!