On the 7th April Tim, my aunt Elaine, my Mum and I all flew out (via KL) to Sandakan airport in Borneo and traveled to Sepilok where our hostel, the Sepilok Jungle Resort, and the Orangutan sanctuary was. Our flight from KL was delayed for 3 hours and a whole day spent in airports is never fun but we all got there in one piece and managed to get a good night sleep before our time orang spotting.
The hostel was alright, we stayed in a four person dorm. Basic is the word to describe the accommodation I guess, but it fit the purpose; it wasn’t like we were going to sit around in it all day.
We got up early and got dressed for our day in the jungle, covering up as much as we could, protecting ourselves for whatever might come our way and had breakfast. The first feeding in the jungle was at 10am so we wandered down at 9ish as our hostel was 100 meters from the sanctuary.
We got a good viewing spot, a few orangutans were already mooching about, a couple of younger ones playing with each other, there was also a mother carrying her tiny baby which was really cool to see. It was pretty much amazing and as usual I took hundreds of photos, but I always say, best that you snap away at the time and delete later rather than regret having only a couple of shit pictures because you didn’t want to take too many in the first place.
After about an hour of watching them eating and climbing we attempted a walk through the jungle. There were laid out trails for you to follow and apparently you may get to see the orangutans in the trees. We didn’t see any; we saw a snake that Tim and I are convinced was rubber. During our walk – we didn’t get too far – it started raining, not UK drizzle but rainforest rain. We ploughed on, undeterred by a ‘spot of rain’ then the inevitable happened…the leeches came out. One evil critter launched itself from the trunk of a nearby tree sensing our liquidy lunchy presence and landed on my mums hand, with a squeal she shook her hand and it flew off, I did my leech dance to ensure there weren’t any on me and announced that the walk was over.
We made it back to the lodge wet through, camera soaked and knackered (whoops) it is still drying out a couple of weeks later, checking for leeches, Elaine had one in her trainer, she flicked it onto the floor and we watched its zombified little squirmy body hunting for its next victim as it worked its way across the floor boards to us, nasty things. Leeches are to me as cockroaches are to Tim I think. People were emerging from the forest covered in them, it was grim.
So defeated for the time being we limped back to the hostel to dry out our clothes and get a noodle lunch ready for the next feeding at 3pm.
The orangs weren’t out in force the second time, just the two younger ones who enjoyed a good game of rough and tumble the first time. This time the feeding area was descended upon, stealthily I might add, by Makaks (monkeys) little ones and big ones, you could see the trees shaking and swaying in the distance under their weight as they moved towards the platforms. The orangs did a good job of defending their territory, bearing their teeth to any monkey who dared come near them and shaking the ropes that they swung on to get near the platform forcing the monkey’s retreat. It was amusing each time watching this little battle of wills take place.
Massive Makaks also emerged from the undergrowth
from beneath our platform as the men with coconut milk and fruit filled buckets began feeding the orangutans, who just stuck their head in the buckets, nice. One monkey just sat in the distance, he was rather large and the crowed were willing him to come closer but he sat just like a human on a ladder, his legs dangling, his little feet swaying as he watched forlornly at the fruit while the smaller monkeys ran the gauntlet of the swaying rope.
It was far more dramatic the second time, hearing the screeching and watching the leaping monkeys attempting to nick some fruit, some were successful too. We didn’t bother with the jungle the second time, as true to form the rain began again so we ambled back to our hostel for more noodles and to arrange bus tickets to get us to Kota Kinabulu the next morning ready for our flight to Singapore the next day.
The bus trip involved being dropped off at a school bus stop nearby and watching all the kids being dropped off with their massive school bags, what the hell do they carry? Eventually our coach turned up and we hopped on. The trip took 6 hours but it was alright because we had lovely violent Thai movies to watch, badly dubbed Chinese movies to watch and the UK movie, The Water Horse. Odd. We traveled through mountain ranges and palm plantations and saw some spectacular views before being dropped off in a small town outside of KK.
We had no money so hunted out a bank and then hopped into a taxi to take us to KK. We picked a central park to be dropped off at, Tim and I expected some greenery at this park but oh no, true to Asian form this ‘park’ was in fact a car park, a concrete haven for all to enjoy. Beautiful.
We mooched around what turned out to be a bit of a pit stop town, had a pizza at Pizza Hut, mmmmmm, walked along the boardwalk at the sea front, took some photos of each other eating an ice cream and hopped into a taxi to get to the airport for our flight to Singapore.
Singapore was cool, Tim and I managed to do a load of things that we hadn’t managed to the last time. Tim got to see the worlds biggest disappointment in action (the worlds larges fountain was switched on) while mum, Elaine and I sat in the long bar throwing nut shells on the floor feeling like complete rebels.
We had tea at Raffles, stocking up on sandwiches and mini chicken pies, just as lovely as last time. And we hung out in China town. Mum was disappointed by Singapore, its newness and corporate blandness compared to her childhood there. But China town is more like what it used to look like. Tim and I walked around there last time but it was all closed, but this time we actually got to look inside the shops.
We had breakfast at the China Town McDonalds – Tim and I are now regulars there – and then went for a walk, we came across a tea shop full of cool tea pots, tea and cups and all sorts
with a group of men at the back taking tea the Chinese way. It was really cool but they didn’t take cards so we hunted down a cash point while we took an extended walk around the area.
After about an hour of walking we went back to the tea shop with cash and proceeded to shop like mad! The shop lady recommended to us another tea shop where they demonstrate the Chinese tea ritual and teach you how to take tea their way so off we went. The Queen (Elizabeth II) had visited and taken tea at this shop. We choose to sit on the floor and try a green tea. So a man sat with us and ran through how to make and drink tea. It was fascinating. We chose a green tea which I swear smelled and t
asted like a mix of a roast lamb dinner and green beans. It was cool, none of us had ever done anything like this before and we learned a lot. I now have the set to make tea the Chinese way and have bought some nice rose tea to make when I am back in the UK and missing Asia!
After a couple of days in Singapore we all flew back to Bangkok where mum and Elaine stayed with us for another week before going back to the UK. The demonstrations during Songkran dampened what we could do but hopefully we managed to fit everything in. We visited the Grand Palace and reclining Budda as well as Wat Arun. We took mum and Elaine to the tea shop by the flat, I had the apple crumble this time, lovely I might add, we got a good soaking on the last day of Songkran too, just as we were walking down the street back to the flat there were a bunch of people with buckets of water. There isn't anything you can do and they weren't rude about it, we held out our bags and cameras and they were careful not the get them wet as a bunch of them poured buckets of water down the back of your neck. We were all sodden and the security staff in our building all giggled as we walked in the foyer. We all walked home looking like we had full nappies but at least we were only a couple of hundred meters from the flat!
The hostel was alright, we stayed in a four person dorm. Basic is the word to describe the accommodation I guess, but it fit the purpose; it wasn’t like we were going to sit around in it all day.We got up early and got dressed for our day in the jungle, covering up as much as we could, protecting ourselves for whatever might come our way and had breakfast. The first feeding in the jungle was at 10am so we wandered down at 9ish as our hostel was 100 meters from the sanctuary.
We got a good viewing spot, a few orangutans were already mooching about, a couple of younger ones playing with each other, there was also a mother carrying her tiny baby which was really cool to see. It was pretty much amazing and as usual I took hundreds of photos, but I always say, best that you snap away at the time and delete later rather than regret having only a couple of shit pictures because you didn’t want to take too many in the first place.
After about an hour of watching them eating and climbing we attempted a walk through the jungle. There were laid out trails for you to follow and apparently you may get to see the orangutans in the trees. We didn’t see any; we saw a snake that Tim and I are convinced was rubber. During our walk – we didn’t get too far – it started raining, not UK drizzle but rainforest rain. We ploughed on, undeterred by a ‘spot of rain’ then the inevitable happened…the leeches came out. One evil critter launched itself from the trunk of a nearby tree sensing our liquidy lunchy presence and landed on my mums hand, with a squeal she shook her hand and it flew off, I did my leech dance to ensure there weren’t any on me and announced that the walk was over.
We made it back to the lodge wet through, camera soaked and knackered (whoops) it is still drying out a couple of weeks later, checking for leeches, Elaine had one in her trainer, she flicked it onto the floor and we watched its zombified little squirmy body hunting for its next victim as it worked its way across the floor boards to us, nasty things. Leeches are to me as cockroaches are to Tim I think. People were emerging from the forest covered in them, it was grim.So defeated for the time being we limped back to the hostel to dry out our clothes and get a noodle lunch ready for the next feeding at 3pm.
The orangs weren’t out in force the second time, just the two younger ones who enjoyed a good game of rough and tumble the first time. This time the feeding area was descended upon, stealthily I might add, by Makaks (monkeys) little ones and big ones, you could see the trees shaking and swaying in the distance under their weight as they moved towards the platforms. The orangs did a good job of defending their territory, bearing their teeth to any monkey who dared come near them and shaking the ropes that they swung on to get near the platform forcing the monkey’s retreat. It was amusing each time watching this little battle of wills take place.Massive Makaks also emerged from the undergrowth
from beneath our platform as the men with coconut milk and fruit filled buckets began feeding the orangutans, who just stuck their head in the buckets, nice. One monkey just sat in the distance, he was rather large and the crowed were willing him to come closer but he sat just like a human on a ladder, his legs dangling, his little feet swaying as he watched forlornly at the fruit while the smaller monkeys ran the gauntlet of the swaying rope.It was far more dramatic the second time, hearing the screeching and watching the leaping monkeys attempting to nick some fruit, some were successful too. We didn’t bother with the jungle the second time, as true to form the rain began again so we ambled back to our hostel for more noodles and to arrange bus tickets to get us to Kota Kinabulu the next morning ready for our flight to Singapore the next day.
The bus trip involved being dropped off at a school bus stop nearby and watching all the kids being dropped off with their massive school bags, what the hell do they carry? Eventually our coach turned up and we hopped on. The trip took 6 hours but it was alright because we had lovely violent Thai movies to watch, badly dubbed Chinese movies to watch and the UK movie, The Water Horse. Odd. We traveled through mountain ranges and palm plantations and saw some spectacular views before being dropped off in a small town outside of KK.
We had no money so hunted out a bank and then hopped into a taxi to take us to KK. We picked a central park to be dropped off at, Tim and I expected some greenery at this park but oh no, true to Asian form this ‘park’ was in fact a car park, a concrete haven for all to enjoy. Beautiful.We mooched around what turned out to be a bit of a pit stop town, had a pizza at Pizza Hut, mmmmmm, walked along the boardwalk at the sea front, took some photos of each other eating an ice cream and hopped into a taxi to get to the airport for our flight to Singapore.
Singapore was cool, Tim and I managed to do a load of things that we hadn’t managed to the last time. Tim got to see the worlds biggest disappointment in action (the worlds larges fountain was switched on) while mum, Elaine and I sat in the long bar throwing nut shells on the floor feeling like complete rebels.We had tea at Raffles, stocking up on sandwiches and mini chicken pies, just as lovely as last time. And we hung out in China town. Mum was disappointed by Singapore, its newness and corporate blandness compared to her childhood there. But China town is more like what it used to look like. Tim and I walked around there last time but it was all closed, but this time we actually got to look inside the shops.
We had breakfast at the China Town McDonalds – Tim and I are now regulars there – and then went for a walk, we came across a tea shop full of cool tea pots, tea and cups and all sorts
with a group of men at the back taking tea the Chinese way. It was really cool but they didn’t take cards so we hunted down a cash point while we took an extended walk around the area.After about an hour of walking we went back to the tea shop with cash and proceeded to shop like mad! The shop lady recommended to us another tea shop where they demonstrate the Chinese tea ritual and teach you how to take tea their way so off we went. The Queen (Elizabeth II) had visited and taken tea at this shop. We choose to sit on the floor and try a green tea. So a man sat with us and ran through how to make and drink tea. It was fascinating. We chose a green tea which I swear smelled and t
asted like a mix of a roast lamb dinner and green beans. It was cool, none of us had ever done anything like this before and we learned a lot. I now have the set to make tea the Chinese way and have bought some nice rose tea to make when I am back in the UK and missing Asia!After a couple of days in Singapore we all flew back to Bangkok where mum and Elaine stayed with us for another week before going back to the UK. The demonstrations during Songkran dampened what we could do but hopefully we managed to fit everything in. We visited the Grand Palace and reclining Budda as well as Wat Arun. We took mum and Elaine to the tea shop by the flat, I had the apple crumble this time, lovely I might add, we got a good soaking on the last day of Songkran too, just as we were walking down the street back to the flat there were a bunch of people with buckets of water. There isn't anything you can do and they weren't rude about it, we held out our bags and cameras and they were careful not the get them wet as a bunch of them poured buckets of water down the back of your neck. We were all sodden and the security staff in our building all giggled as we walked in the foyer. We all walked home looking like we had full nappies but at least we were only a couple of hundred meters from the flat!
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