It has been the day of days, for all sorts of reasons.
Lets get this straight. When you come to an area looking for something special that this area specialises in and you don't see it you begin to create all sorts of logical arguments as to how the holiday has been fantastic and the scenery awesome (which it has) but you can throw all that out the window when that something special does appear and you can admit to yourself that your holiday would have been the poorer without it.
So it was with us. On our morning boat trip, our last boat trip, we finally saw our first orangutan in the genuine wild. Perched on tree branch, looking more like tree than ape, we saw it. And then, wonder of wonders it turn out to be a mother with baby. Can't tell you how joyful we felt. Again no chance to break out into a dance as we were still on a boat, but it was brill. We also saw a monitor, a mangrove snake, a couple of impressive crocs and a real bunfight between a dominant male macaque and the whole female membership of his harem. The harem won hands down and drove him into the water. Women power with dirty great big teeth. All photographed by a boatload of tourists. Oh the shame of it all, and he did look remarkably embarrassed.
Lets get this straight. When you come to an area looking for something special that this area specialises in and you don't see it you begin to create all sorts of logical arguments as to how the holiday has been fantastic and the scenery awesome (which it has) but you can throw all that out the window when that something special does appear and you can admit to yourself that your holiday would have been the poorer without it.
So it was with us. On our morning boat trip, our last boat trip, we finally saw our first orangutan in the genuine wild. Perched on tree branch, looking more like tree than ape, we saw it. And then, wonder of wonders it turn out to be a mother with baby. Can't tell you how joyful we felt. Again no chance to break out into a dance as we were still on a boat, but it was brill. We also saw a monitor, a mangrove snake, a couple of impressive crocs and a real bunfight between a dominant male macaque and the whole female membership of his harem. The harem won hands down and drove him into the water. Women power with dirty great big teeth. All photographed by a boatload of tourists. Oh the shame of it all, and he did look remarkably embarrassed.
nd then we left Myne Resort, having changed our itinerary to take in another day in sandakan. It's worth mentioning that the service provided by the staff was probably the best we'd ever experienced.
We arrived in sandakan after a drive that once again reminded us that the most dangerous creature on any continent is the taxi driver, and the next most dangerous is other drivers. Do you close your eyes so you don't see what's happening, or keep them open so you're ready for it?
Our tour guide from myne, the garrulous Remy, met us and had arranged a couple of tours for us. They would provide us with the extremes of holiday travel.
We arrived in sandakan after a drive that once again reminded us that the most dangerous creature on any continent is the taxi driver, and the next most dangerous is other drivers. Do you close your eyes so you don't see what's happening, or keep them open so you're ready for it?
Our tour guide from myne, the garrulous Remy, met us and had arranged a couple of tours for us. They would provide us with the extremes of holiday travel.
First up he took us to the sandakan crocodile park. I cannot begin to tell you how horrible this was. It was to good holiday experiences as Julian Assange is to secrecy. It was so bad it transcended its own awfulness and became one of those memories you can bring out when everybody needs a good laugh. In fact, no great holiday is probably complete without one of these experiences. Let me provide you with a picture. Imagine a concrete frontage and tacky sign welcoming you. Then imagine one of those horrible old zoos with concrete cells for cages with sad looking animals in them. So not like how we'd ever want too see animals. And then there were the animals. Woo hoo - a goat. Look - pigeons - whoop-di-do. And the ostrich, god help me. He was the mangiest, baldest and oldest looking ostrich I've ever seen. And to cap it all off he only had one eye! Lordie lordie - a bald decrepit, one-eyed ostrich. We certainly hadn't thought we'd see one of those in Borneo!
Surely it couldn't get worse we thought, but we were so wrong. Having toured the blessedly limited number of animals we got to the amusement area, which was definitely a poor choice of name. It took horrid to a new level. There we could be photographed standing next to a stuffed crocodile with boxing gloves, or a crocodile towing a carriage, or even a crocodile driving a boat. Kate flatly refused but our guide was so enthusiastic that I found myself snapped with an array of sad, undignified stuffed crocodiles. To be honest, it wasn't hard to smile, the tricky part was not to laugh.
And then we came to the piece d' resistance - what the crocodile park was famous for - its death defying, terrifying crocodile show, featuring humans taking life-threatening risks with crocodiles!!! Or at least that's what it should have been but nobody told the crocodiles. They tried to confuse one small croc by dragging it through the water backwards so they could wear it on their head but the croc remained far too frisky so they gave that away. Then the reverse happened with the larger croc. They were going to get it out of the pool to lie on top of, but the croc wasn't having a bar of it. We watched three men unsuccessfully trying to convince it, before we gave up and left. The only real sense of tension had been the fact that since everything had cocked up there was a chance one of the people could actually have been eaten.
And then we came to the piece d' resistance - what the crocodile park was famous for - its death defying, terrifying crocodile show, featuring humans taking life-threatening risks with crocodiles!!! Or at least that's what it should have been but nobody told the crocodiles. They tried to confuse one small croc by dragging it through the water backwards so they could wear it on their head but the croc remained far too frisky so they gave that away. Then the reverse happened with the larger croc. They were going to get it out of the pool to lie on top of, but the croc wasn't having a bar of it. We watched three men unsuccessfully trying to convince it, before we gave up and left. The only real sense of tension had been the fact that since everything had cocked up there was a chance one of the people could actually have been eaten.
I should also mention that the crocodile farm not only offended on the visual front, they had taken the aural side to new levels as well. During our entire visit tinny 1970s soundtracks, including such classics as RaRaRasputin, blared out from even tinnier speakers. And when the crocodile wranglers came out they we accompanied by the soundtrack of Bridge Over the River Kwai, complete with gunshots. Considering the history of sandakan lord only knows what possessed them to think that was in good taste. Help me Rhonda.
Oh, and the place stunk too.
One final note on the croc farm. For some time we had been wondering if our chatty guide was in the habit of making things up. As we entered the farm he took us to see the dugong they had in a tank. Imagine our surprise when all we saw was a large fish. In fact it was the same species of fish we'd seen in the amazon last year, an arapaima. Are you sure this is a dugong we asked? Oh yes, it lives in the ocean and feeds on seagrass he assured us. We knew that the arapaima lived in fresh water and wouldn't know what to do with seagrass if it saw it. The dugong-fish episode didn't do our guide's cred any favours. We took a photo and confirmed it later with one we had on the iPad from our amazon trip. They were identical.
Oh, and the place stunk too.
One final note on the croc farm. For some time we had been wondering if our chatty guide was in the habit of making things up. As we entered the farm he took us to see the dugong they had in a tank. Imagine our surprise when all we saw was a large fish. In fact it was the same species of fish we'd seen in the amazon last year, an arapaima. Are you sure this is a dugong we asked? Oh yes, it lives in the ocean and feeds on seagrass he assured us. We knew that the arapaima lived in fresh water and wouldn't know what to do with seagrass if it saw it. The dugong-fish episode didn't do our guide's cred any favours. We took a photo and confirmed it later with one we had on the iPad from our amazon trip. They were identical.
After the horror of the croc farm we did go and see the sandakan war memorial, which we would have wandered around in deep contemplation, if our guide, Remy, wasn't chatting to us every step of the way. We had hit Remy overload.
But I must also give Remy his dues. After all, the croc farm was a truly memorable experience and if it hadn't been for Remy we would never have come to sandakan and missed out on what was to follow.
Our new digs were great and right on the border of the sepilok nature reserve. This was to have its own remarkable rewards. As we returned from our excursions what should we see in the jungle behind our chalet other than two wild orangutans! They were incredibly close and happily ignoring us while they ate. We were no longer orangutan repellents.
In fact, things just got better and better. We were picked up for a night walk in the sepilok reserve where we might just see some orangs and giant flying squirrels. This was arranged by Remy and we were the only ones on it. Things started brilliantly when we saw two orangs immediately after we had entered the reserve, but then it went so quiet that the tour guides were reduced to pointing out pretty uninspiring insects, including one stick insect that was so small and insignificant that it was more of a twig insect.
And then, like with the orangs, our luck changed. First we saw a baby python and then, high up in trees we spotted a giant flying squirrel. Woo hoo. I'd have been satisfied then but one of our guides said he was looking for a slow loris (which is a form of sloth like creature, rather than an intellectually challenged individual with an unfortunate Christian name). Oh why did he have to say that? Now the obsession was back again, with hardly a seconds respite. We continued our spotting scoring a pit viper along the way before we reached the buildings at the front of the reserve. There were were treated to two more orangs who had climbed up onto a verandah and had fallen asleep, hugging each other. In one day we had become orangutan magnets!!
But I must also give Remy his dues. After all, the croc farm was a truly memorable experience and if it hadn't been for Remy we would never have come to sandakan and missed out on what was to follow.
Our new digs were great and right on the border of the sepilok nature reserve. This was to have its own remarkable rewards. As we returned from our excursions what should we see in the jungle behind our chalet other than two wild orangutans! They were incredibly close and happily ignoring us while they ate. We were no longer orangutan repellents.
In fact, things just got better and better. We were picked up for a night walk in the sepilok reserve where we might just see some orangs and giant flying squirrels. This was arranged by Remy and we were the only ones on it. Things started brilliantly when we saw two orangs immediately after we had entered the reserve, but then it went so quiet that the tour guides were reduced to pointing out pretty uninspiring insects, including one stick insect that was so small and insignificant that it was more of a twig insect.
And then, like with the orangs, our luck changed. First we saw a baby python and then, high up in trees we spotted a giant flying squirrel. Woo hoo. I'd have been satisfied then but one of our guides said he was looking for a slow loris (which is a form of sloth like creature, rather than an intellectually challenged individual with an unfortunate Christian name). Oh why did he have to say that? Now the obsession was back again, with hardly a seconds respite. We continued our spotting scoring a pit viper along the way before we reached the buildings at the front of the reserve. There were were treated to two more orangs who had climbed up onto a verandah and had fallen asleep, hugging each other. In one day we had become orangutan magnets!!
Then just before we were at our car one of the tour guides suddenly ran towards a tree. Low and behold, there was a slow loris, in all its glory, and if that wasn't enough, there were three more giant flying squirrels on nearby branches. As the guide said a the end of the walk we were very lucky people. We had seen everything.
One last observation and this comes as we are about to check out from our resort. This morning I had wandered around the gardens of the resort, which borders the jungle. In that short period of time I saw a monitor lizard swimming, long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques (who proved to be real trouble a the resort, damaging lights, ripping up trees and one even took a swipe a Kate), a red leaf monkey, a kingfisher, a helmeted hornbill and squirrels. Add to that the creatures we saw yesterday and you realise that nature holds all the cards when it comes to spotting animals. I mean you do have to be in the right general area, but after that you just have to always keep your eyes open and who knows what, when, or where you'll see things.
Does this mean we didn't need to go to the kinabatangan river and the myne resort? Absolutely not. We had a wonderful time there and, curiously, by seeing all these animals just recently it took the seeing of them at the resort out of the picture and we could just appreciate everything else we had done there.
For a place that hadn't even been on our bucket list four weeks ago, Borneo had given us all we could have hoped for and more besides. And it's kind of cool to know that you're an orangutan magnet.
One last observation and this comes as we are about to check out from our resort. This morning I had wandered around the gardens of the resort, which borders the jungle. In that short period of time I saw a monitor lizard swimming, long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques (who proved to be real trouble a the resort, damaging lights, ripping up trees and one even took a swipe a Kate), a red leaf monkey, a kingfisher, a helmeted hornbill and squirrels. Add to that the creatures we saw yesterday and you realise that nature holds all the cards when it comes to spotting animals. I mean you do have to be in the right general area, but after that you just have to always keep your eyes open and who knows what, when, or where you'll see things.
Does this mean we didn't need to go to the kinabatangan river and the myne resort? Absolutely not. We had a wonderful time there and, curiously, by seeing all these animals just recently it took the seeing of them at the resort out of the picture and we could just appreciate everything else we had done there.
For a place that hadn't even been on our bucket list four weeks ago, Borneo had given us all we could have hoped for and more besides. And it's kind of cool to know that you're an orangutan magnet.
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