What a birthday I just had! It was fantastic and I couldn't have hoped for a better day. In the morning I went to the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary where I got to watch the feeding of the rehabilitated orangutans. They were really cute, playing around on ropes and getting themselves covered in milk. It was mega-crowded though, so after the feeding finished I went for a walk on one of the jungle trails with Laura, a girl from New Zealand I'd met at my hostel. By the time we got back virtually everyone had left and we had the place to ourselves. Just as we were walking back along the boardwalk, we saw ahead of us a large female orangutan sitting on the railing. We stood still and watched as she approached us. After a short pause, she smiled and walked right past us - we could have reached out and stroked her she was that close! She then ambled off and climbed a nearby tree. It was magical.

After we'd recovered from our encounter, we went to watch a short documentary about the work they do at the sanctuary; it was heart-breaking and uplifting at the same time. I was so glad I had supported their cause. We returned to our hostel for lunch before they drove us to the Kinabatangan River, a 3 hour bone-jangling ride in a minivan primarily travelling through palm oil plantations. We were headed for Uncle Tan's jungle camp. There was a group of 15 of us and we were then taken by boat to the lodge, an idyllic group of basic chalets tucked away on the riverbank. In the evening we had a huge feast with over 20 delicious dishes followed by fresh coconut to drink - yum! The staff had found out it was my birthday so they got their guitars out and sang me happy birthday in English and then in Malay! It was so lovely. Then to top it off, they gave me 5 cans of free beer which I shared out with the people I'd met. It was brilliant and I was so touched by everyone's kindness. Later in the evening we went out in the boats and spotted some crocodiles, birds, lizards and frogs - awesome! What a brilliant day.

I spent 3 days in the jungle and I loved every minute. It was the perfect balance of adventure on the boats and walking in the forest, mixed with chilling out in the lodge and getting to know the rest of the group. Strangely I met 2 poeple who live in Finsbury Park who had only met each other the day before in Sepilok - it's a small world! We all go to the same local pub so I'll probably bump into them when I'm back. The staff at the camp were brilliant, so welcoming and enthusiastic, and clearly very knowledgeable and passionate about the jungle they live in. They have amazing eyesight too! How they spotted half the things we saw I have no idea. We saw so many monkeys I lost count. The most common were the long-tailed macaques and the pig-talied macaques. We also saw lots of proboscis monkeys which have to be the weirdest primate in the world. We also saw lots of wild orangutans which was incredible, especially when 3 of them came right into the camp and climbed over the roof of my cabin! The male was showing off to the female with her baby, breaking huge branches off trees and throwing them around. It was an impressive sight! Other wildlife we spotted were gibbons, crocodiles, monitor lizards, kingfishers, horbills, eagles, frogs, millipedes, centipedes, lantern bugs, spiders and, best of all, a 4m python weighed down by its dinner. Awesome!

The time I spent in the jungle was absolutely brilliant and I had so much fun. However it was sad knowing that the animals were so easy to spot because of the wide-spread palm oil plantations leaving the animals nowhere else to live except the small strip of forest on the river banks. And this isn't even primary rainforest; most of it has only been allowed to grow back after pressure from local environmental groups. But the government is on side and supposedly cracking down harder on illegal deforestation, as well as working with locals to help regrow some forests and protect the wildlife. Tourism is helping as it gives people an alternative wage source to growing palm oil and that has to be a good thing. I know I was very lucky to see so many animals in the wild and I hope when I come back in the future their habitat will have grown rather than shrunk.