At about 4.45pm whilst munching on our ice creams at the bus stop cafe, the shop girl kindly asked us where we thought we were going. We advised of our intention to be on the 5pm bus to Sepilok, which was met with a bit of a grin, a bunch of jabbering to the other shop assistant in Malay, a laugh and the reply of "Sorry, there's no bus. The only one from here is 10pm- I think".
Once again we had been foiled by the public transport system. Wandering whether we should skip the Orang Utan Centre and head direct to our next appointment in the morning, catch the 10pm bus (which would have us in Sepilok at 2am- with no accommodation booked!) or to go back to the main part of town and see if there was another bus (or very expensive taxi), we were approached by a youngish Malaysian guy who had overheard our dilemma and debate and was about to head off for Sandakan (Sepilok is on the same road). He offered us a lift- but added "only if you don't mind riding in this", pointing to a 44 tonne truck full of pumpkin!
With it getting dark and none of our other options being that great, we took his offer and rode (slowly) in the front of the pumpkin truck. Wadi spoke reasonable English and was apparently accustomed to picking up travelers who had missed that bus. The journey took about 1.5hours extra but we got to Sepilok around 11pm. This included heavy rain, missing sections of road (probably due to the rain) and a stop for dinner at a truck stop full of male Malaysian truck drivers, staring and poking fun at their friend and his strays. He told them all Matt was "his Australian brother". Not knowing what to get we asked Wadi what was good and ordered the same. You would never have guessed it, but the meal was one of the best we've had in the whole of Malaysia.
We'd made a call on the way and booked the hotel across the road from the Orang Utan Centre, which was about 2 k walk from the main road where we were dropped. Once we arrived, it was quite obvious that a call at 9pm requesting a standard double room for that night had translated to 'please take advantage of us and put us in your deluxe suite, leave the key with the night security guard so we can't argue and charge us for it in the morning'. We enjoyed the sleep in air conditioned luxury, but not the bill in the morning, especially given it was obvious there were plenty of "standard" rooms available. It did not help that a few extra items had appeared on the bill including Pringles and French toast that we had supposedly consumed between the hours of 11pm and 7am (when the restaurant was closed??).
Anyways, the Orang Utans!!!! We missed feeding time by 10 minutes, by the time we had argued over the bill and our "free" breakfast had taken about 30 minutes longer than it should have taken to make toast and instant coffee, but we saw a few of the guys anyway:
There were only two "hangin out" when we got to the viewing area. For a few minutes they showed off their climbing and rope skills and one (the girl actually!) cheekily peed from her elegant feet-up-around-ears position onto the viewing platform and then they were off into the trees. Their auburn hair and grins were very charming.We hung out at the platform for a bit as some other travelers had said that once the hoards leave after feeding time, they sometimes come back and climb onto the platform.
Whilst the Orang Utans had done their bit for the tourists and left, the macaques came back in droves. They were everywhere! Right the way along the boardwalk back to reception, playing and swinging, carrying babies and picking fleas and of course some were 'goin for it'!!
For the rest of the hour or so we had until "Uncle Tan" picked us up at noon, we wandered round the boardwalks in the park with a tight hold on our camera and bags, avoiding the money squabbles and poo!
Unfortunately, we didn't see any rhinos...
That may be because its estimated that there may be as little as 50 left in Sabah's jungle due to loss of habitat and fertility problems.
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