Sepilok, Borneo

We headed to Sepilok in East Sabah for some jungle time and to check out the local animals. The bus ride made me sick (Ben) but there were some great views of Mt. Kinabalu out the window. As in true bus ride tradition, we got Jet Li movies which we couldn't hear properly, but that doesn't really matter anyway does it?

Once in Sepilok we stayed at Uncle Tan's place, ready for 2 nights deep in the jungle about 2 hours away. That night we had our first taste of tropical thunderstorms, and also some fish that the staff fished out of the nearby lake. There were some mussle/oystery type thingamibobs that also came out of the creek and were about the size of the mouse I'm using on this computer.

The photo of the two orangutans and the bucket was at the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Sanctuary, where animals that need help are rehabilitated in preparation for the wild. This feeding platform is one of the last stages before they are left to their own devices. They are free to come back to the sanctuary later (there are no fences). We have put up the link to the Orangutan Appeal UK that fundraise for Sepilok on the right.

The next day, we rattled our way through acres of palm oil plantations before getting to the Kinabatangan River. We went on some night boat safaris and jungle walks ankle deep in mud and saw heaps of the local wildlife, including this greedy wild orangutan with his mouth stuffed with figs. We saw 5 in total, including a baby, which was the highlight. The sad part was the soundtrack of trucks and bulldozers in the background, clearing yet more land for palm oil plantations.

There were proboscis monkeys, which are monkeys with huge Muppet-like noses and brown/white hair which made them look like old men wearing waistcoats just hanging out in the trees (didn't get any good photos of them). Two night previous, on the night walk, the tourists came across a 6-metre python!

After the adventure of Uncle Tan's place (highly recommended), we went with Dan and Becky who we met from Melbourne, and began the 4-day Sepilok Grand Canasta Championship at Paganakan Dii (http://www.paganakandii.com/), an extremely relaxing place in the jungle. We basically woke up every morning, resigned ourselves to the fact that none of us could muster the energy to leave, and played canasta, drank beer and ate until midnight. One night the owner, Anton, got us a bucket of local rice wine, cooked rice with yeast, sugar and water left for a few days and drunk through a bamboo straw. You can imagine the hangover. Here is Taren in action drinking it, the M stands for monkey (doesn't it Dan?).

Well, we're heading off to the Philippines tomorrow (I think I can spell that country now). Stay tuned, thanks for reading!

Ben and Taren