Hi guys,

Well yesterday was the day of our orang-utan visit and we were both very excited. I kept singing/humming the song from the Jungle book much to Katie's annoyance but it seemed to fit. The sanctuary we are visiting is called Sepilok and is located 20 odd km north of Sandakan where we staying.

On our way to the town we had our first experience of been over hassled at the bus station in Kota Kinabalu by touts/children. The bus station to get to Sandakan is located a fair way out of the city as is often the case in Malaysia so we opted to get a cab there and pre-booked our tickets in advance. Many buses run the route between KK and Sandakan as they are really the only two big hubs in the whole of this state of Borneo but it was clearly the job of these touts to get you on their associated companies bus and where quite aggressive in doing so. As soon as our taxi pulled up at the station the touts came running over to the car opening all the doors and the boot lifting our big bags out and starting to carry them towards the buses (this is quite common in Asia either carrying your bag to get you on that particular bus, or doing so and expecting to be paid for it after even when you didn't want them to) in this case it was the later but when there are about 15 or so people crowding around you lifting grabbing at your bag it can take a few seconds to understand the situation. So we quickly stated that we had already booked and got our bags back before the tout associated with the company we were using led us over to the buses and ticket station.

Malaysia is generally a very fair and honest country and even in a poor state such as Sabah, where we are, the price tends to be the price that both westerners pay and so do the Malays. So the only way these touts can generate extra income is to attract you to their company allowing the company to do well thus they do well. It was quite amusing watching this same routine every time a taxi pulled up while we waited for the bus although there aggressiveness (which really was just over excitement than intentional) did generate a few worried expressions from unsuspecting westerners!

Our bus journey over was pretty un-eventful although the views of Sabah were impressive as the bus weaved its way through the national parks. It got us to Sandakan about mid afternoon so we checked in to our hostel and then headed out for a late lunch. We did attempt to have a brief wander round the town but to be honest there really is not much to see here. It made KK seem full of cultural heritage. There are a few attractions further out of town but most were either other wildlife sanctuaries or diving/water activities so Sandakan is really just a base for travellers rather than the attraction.

The next day was the day of the sanctuary visit; we got a taxi from the town which we shared with a polish couple we had met and set off very early morning because we wanted to be there for feeding time at 10am. The Sanctuary itself is in fact a British run charity, gaining a large part of its funding by allowing tourists to visit a very small part of it. As this is a sanctuary which aims to rehabilitate the Orang-utans back into the wild they can only have very limited contact with humans so it did surprise me how restrictive they were but I can understand why.

Seeing them was fascinating and it was great to see them in the wild rather than a zoo like we have a few of the animals on the trip. We had to stick to the walkway and it was up to them if they wanted to be seen so feeding time was the only way they could be encouraged into the tourist part of the reserve. I took a silly number of photos (243 in fact, post initial-vetting), but Katie, rather harshly in my opinion, limited me to uploading the best 50!

We stayed for the feeding on the platform then on our walk back to the main reception there were 3 young orang-utans in the trees just off the walkway which is where a lot of my pictures are from. They where no more than 2 ft away from us and at one point one of them even came for a walk/swing on the hand rail at the side of the path. The guides were quick to limit the number of people close to the Orang-utans allowing small groups to pass at a time and only photos without flash were allowed to not scare them.

Orang-utan literally means 'man of the forest' and it was great to see them in their natural surroundings. After the tour we watched a video about the centre's work and the orang-utans before catching the local bus back to Sandakan.

In the evening we watch a little bit of the royal wedding (yes they are just as fixated by it all over here too). Then went out for food and some of the best we have had on the trip, we had china plates and everything! We had just gone to a restaurant on the harbour front below our hostel and it turned out to be fantastic and really cheap. We had seafood fried noodles, pak-choi and the best part was a dish of Thai steamed fish, yummy! Our guide book had said that food here was good but this was the first time we actually noticed the difference to what we've been having over the last few weeks.

We are now in Semporna after another day on the bus (this time much less eventful) from where we will be doing our diving course. We've each been given an enormous textbook by the dive company to absorb so might be a bit too preoccupied for any blogging, plus we're spending the next 4 nights on a remote island in the Celebes Sea so internet looks unlikely! Will update on return to Kuala Lumpur!

Lots of love Martin and Katie