Day 2: Great apes and strange fruit

Borneo is a full 12hrs ahead of NYC – so no massive surprise to wake up at 2.45am with my brain wondering why I was still in bed and that it certainly wasn’t going to let me go back to sleep! So, just dozed til about 6am, when finally got up, edited a few photos and then went for an early breakfast and my regular game of “guess the fruit”. Today’s entrant was a brown shiny oval fruit with what looked like scales covering it. It hasn’t moved since I picked it out of the bowl and plopped it on my plate, so I’m pretty sure its not an insect of some kind (although given the size of the beetle I saw in Sarawak, maybe I shouldn’t be so sure). Decided to leave that one til lunch and til I was more alert, just in case I was wrong…

So today I was off to see the orang utans at the Serrenghoh Wildlife rehabilitation. Is where they take animals who’ve been confiscated off people keeping them as pets and retrain them to go back into the wild. There were no trips leaving from my hotel, so I had to catch the shuttle bus to the Holiday Inn in Kuching to join up with an afternoon trip leaving from there. Arrived into Kuching about 12pm and trip not leaving til 2pm, so had couple hours to explore. First when and got lunch in a nearby shopping centre – was great fun trying to first decipher what all the foods were and then decide what to have! Was the only white Caucasian in the place, so I guess I found where the locals eat!! After lunch (which was chicken with some rice), wandered along Kuching riverfront for a hour. Kuching means “cat” and there were statues and homages to cats everywhere – obviously much appreciated by a cat lover such as myself!! River very active with lots of paddled water taxis and working boats. Across the river, there was construction going on of this enormous dome structure – presumably going to be a mosque – which absolutely dominated the view for miles around.

At 2pm, joined the rest of the group – 2 50-something Brits. One, a worker for the palm oil industry and his wife a deacon for the Methodist church and volunteer community worker. I decided to stay off the topic of religion and my own experiences with the Methodist church and so we got along fine.

The wildlife centre was a 30min drive out of town – when we got there, we were instructed to leave all bags in the car, as well as bottles of water and any food. Then, short walk down the hill to a briefing by the guy in charge who laid out the rules (don’t get close, no flash photography, keep quiet) before being led to the feeding zone. Luckily, here during the best time to see them – there is no fruit in the forest right now, so they are far more likely to come at feeding time – when fruit is plentiful in the forest, there is far less of an incentive for them to come.

So waited for a few mins before hearing this great crashing noise and shaking of branches – George was on his way!! Was an absolutely amazing sight, seeing this utterly ENORMOUS orang utan swinging and crashing through the trees – quite breathtaking. Came quite close on his way to the feeding platform, which was about 20m in front of the viewing area. Then just plonked himself down and proceeded to munch his way through a vast quantity of fruit! As the biggest male, the guide told us that non of the others would approach until after he’d left - he was way too big and scary! After he’d eaten his fill and lumbered off, then Richie (the other big male) came in, followed by a couple of other smaller apes and finally a mother and her baby! The baby was about 6 months old and there have been several born within the reserve. We stayed for about 40mins watching these great creatures – it was a very moving experience – I just wish Sam had been there to share it with me (and to take much better pictures than the ones I did!).

So then, back to Kuching afterwards and the shuttle home. Been quite a tiring day ,out in the sunshine, so just got room service, edited some photos and hit the sack!