Date: 12th july 2011

Place: Sandakan

Weather: sunny

We slept over the alarm this morning and were woken up by Sheila who was a Canadian woman going on the same trip as us today with the rest of her family. We had to get up and dressed pretty quickly and then had the breakfast we had paid for which turned out to be basically naan bread and curry sauce to dip it in…not really what I fancied at 8am!

Well we got in the car and were only half an hour behind schedule which wasn't too bad. A woman called Sophia had wanted to come to see the Orangutans too so we invited her on our little group tour; that may not have turned out to be our best idea!

The Canadian family were really nice. They were a couple called Greg and Sheila with their 12 year old (I think) son Rio who has done everything you can imagine! They travel loads and he already has his Open Water Diving Certificate and has travelled to loads of countries and knows he wants to be an Author. I can tell he is a clever boy and definitely appreciates the opportunities he has had.

Their family wasn't coming to the first stop with us because they had already been the day before; they were going to see the Probiscus Monkeys instead. We were dropped off at the Orangutan Sanctuary and were given an hour and a half until we would be picked up again.

It was just before feeding time as we got to the platform and the orangutans new it as a few of them had gathered around. There were two with babies hanging on to them which was really cute and another one which was just showing off in front of the crowd doing loads of acrobatics on the ropes. It was soooo hot though I was absolutely dripping so we had to leave.

Geoff was a bit late with picking up but we had thought his car was already there because there was a similar one too it in the car park. We had been sitting by this car for about 20 minutes and then a family walked over and got in. Turned out it wasn't his car but he did eventually pick us up and then we went to pick up the Canadian family.

Once everyone was in the car we had a long drive ahead of us to the river. When we got there there was free tea and coffee though so I was very happy! Whilst we were waiting we were told not to go too close to the water because there are crocodiles in there. We were all given life jackets and then got on a little speed boat style thing ready to explore the river.

We saw lots of wildlife including some weird birds with quiffs (I think they're called Hornbeaks or something but I might have made that up), a lot of monkeys including probiscus ones which have really funny long and fat noses, and we saw a crocodile!! We only saw its eyes above the water though and I wanted to see one fully stretched out on the bank or something.

This was the part of the trip that we realised how opinionated Sophia was. It was pretty funny to hear her to be honest. She kept asking the guide when we are going to see their faces and are they going to be any closer as if the guide could control the monkeys in the wild. She also kept shhing everyone and was complaining about the other boat saying they should fix its engine because its too noisy and they must get enough money out of tourists to do it. It doesn't sound it on here but it was pretty funny when she said it.

When we got off the boat we were supposed to be heading straight back because it was going to be a really long journey. Sophia wanted to eat there though even though we hadn't paid to do so. She also wanted to be taken to the caves which wasn't in the package and none of us wanted to go to so she said that we could wait outside whilst she goes in. She also was then getting herself a plate of food. In the end we got her in the car by driving past and shouting her name to tell her we are leaving.

After a long journey back Greg had a bit of a complain about her to the owner of the guesthouse and then we all had noodles for dinner together with a homemade and own recipe drink made for us too. It was an early night for us that night.