Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia
In Sandakan: Staying at Hotel Seafront (Tel:089-222233)
In Sukau: Rainforest Lodge (No phone 🙂 )
The Sukau Rainforest Lodge was a very memorable way to celebrate our 7 year wedding anniversary. The 2 night package included a visit to the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary, a high speed cruise through the mangroves from Sandakan to Sukau in the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, several small boat tours to view wildlife along the Kinabatangan River, quiet riverside cabin accomodations in the rainforest, delicious malaysian cuisine, and an informative tour through Sandakan at the end.
We got to see at least 11 small orangutans swinging out to the feeding platform at Sepilok. We were very lucky, because often guests only get to see one or two if they’re lucky. Young orangutans are rescued from various unfortunate situations, and are taken to the sanctuary, where they graduate through various stages of rehabilitation. Tourists get to view them at the 2nd stage, following quarantine. The orangutans are fed twice a day on a viewing platform for the tourists to see. The offerings consist of milk and bananas, every day. As they bore of this tedious diet, they seek out other foods from the forrest, on their own, and thus don’t come to the viewing platform as often. When they stop coming to eat milk and bananas, they’re ready to move on to the next phase of their rehabilitation. So this day at Sepilok, we were witnessing a group of orangutans that had only recently been introduced to the sanctuary, and been released from quarantine.
On our boat cruise though the mangroves, we were rewarded with the very rare sight of a wild, dominant male orangutan feeding up in a tree. A rare sight indeed.
Throughout the cruise, and the many small boat trips we took from the resort, we were also overwhelmed by families of proboscis monkeyes jumping from tree to tree, or simply hanging out overlooking the river. These are the most unusual primates I’ve ever seen.
The tour of Sandakan was interesting. The Japanese had built a brutal POW camp here during WWII, and had tried to demolish all signs of its existance (including the prisoners!) after they lost the war. Along the waterfront of this town are dozens (if not hundreds) of homes on stilts, built many generations ago. People continue living there only due to inheritance rights. It’s illegal to build or buy houses out in the water now, due to the environmental impact of all the waste that gets dumped into the water, not to mention the eye-sore and obstruction of boat traffic as the houses sprawl out into the ocean.
