Our newest country brought us to Clare's sister as she met us in Kuching, Borneo after finishing her own organized tour of southeast Asia. Our primary reason for staying in Kuching was to visit the Semmengoh Nature Reserve to see some orangutans. These mighty creatures only live in the wild on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, and so we spent a long time researching on where we wanted to go, and what areas might be the most accessible. We were very happy with our choice to go to Kuching, the capital of the Bornean state of Sarawak as it was a great base to not only see the orangutans, but to visit some of the surrounding areas.

Kuching is a small, quiet city that it is both easy to walk around, and easy to organize safe, affordable transport to wherever you need to go. Once we realized this, we cut down on the walking due to the heat (it's always about the heat), and shared several rides to wherever we needed to go with some friendly fellow travellers we met at our hostel. The name, Kuching, means "cat" in Malay, and so the city is adorned with sweet cat sculptures, and even a cat museum which contains a huge array of cat memorabilia, history, and folklore about the cat. We loved it, but it is definitely only a stop for someone who has a serious devotion to cats!

We made two trips into the rainforest via Bako National Park and Kubah National Park. Bako was particularly fun as it involved a boat trip into the park itself, and it was here that we got to see the rare proboscis monkey. It took us almost the full day, but we finally got a glimpse of one waaaaay up high in the trees swinging around, and then another in a small tree by the boat on our way out of the park. We also had the privilege of seeing a small family of leaf monkeys - grey, but with a tiny bright orange baby! Adorable.

But the main highlight of our time in Sarawak was of course, the orangutans. Semmengoh rescues and rehabilitates orangutans before releasing them back into the wild where possible, and the ones that visit the centre are classified as "wild", or "semi-wild". They know they can come to the centre for two feeding times daily, but luckily, many of them choose to stay in the forest to find their own food during the fruiting season. In a very nonintrusive way, visitors can attend the centre during feeding times, and watch from a platform to see if any oranugtans come to the feeding area. There are times when none show, but over three visits, we were lucky enough to see 10 different orangutans, including 3 babies, and the 3 alpha males. We were shocked at just how large and imposing the alpha males are in the flesh, contrasted with the wee babies who were so precious clinging to their mums' bellies; just so enchanting; we could have stayed there for hours. We loved watching them swing through the ropes and the trees with their super powerful, long arms, and hanging in funny poses with various combinations of arms and legs. Our favourite behaviour was perhaps watching a mum smash a coconut against the trunk of a tree, the sound echoing through the forest, before pouring the liquid into her mouth and breaking off pieces to feed her baby. The whole experience was just divine, but heartbreaking to learn that this species is now critically endangered, mostly due to habitat destruction. Another talking piece for home, and further motivation for us to research and practice how to travel and live more responsibly.