Borneo 2015 – day 03

Wednesday 1st July

Today, we met our taxi downstairs at the pre-determined 08:00.
Thankfully, Cath had had the presence of mind yesterday to ask James about the best way to get to Semenggoh. He had advised us NOT to go via bus, as the bus drops you at the ticket gate, a mere 1.8km down the hill from where the orang-utans are. If you book a taxi, the taxi will wait for you to purchase your ticket, and then drive you the 1.8km up to the car park closer to where the action is. Good tip! I was rather thankful that we were able to sit in our air-conditioned taxi driving up the hill, while all those who had arrived via bus had to walk up the hill in the 35 degree C heat…
We exited the cab, and almost immediately were captivated by the arrival onto the roadway from the jungle, of a mother orang-utan and her baby. We had been told (again by James) that we should never forget that these are wild animals, no matter how docile and huggable they may appear. Smart money says you should keep at least 5 meters distance between them and you. I had thankfully elected to start the day with my longest lens (a kit 75-300mm) attached to my camera. This enabled me to keep my distance but still get good close-ups. There was a park guide there, who was walking down the road alongside the two orang-utans, maintaining a good 4-5 meter gap between the native animals and the touristy ones.
Within an hour, we had seen so many orang-utans, I was done. I’d got a bunch of photos I was happy with, and I’d been as close as I wanted to be. At one point, we were sitting 5 metres from an old female who was eating bananas. She seemed quite content (probably used to it, by now), and even tolerated the less-respectful tourists who were sliding along the same bench seat on which she sat to within 2 metres to have their selfies taken. It was suggested by the park rangers that the female orang-utan was actually happy to be near the 2 legged animals, as it kept a rather aggressive male orang-utan at bay.
We left the conservation centre and had our taxi drop us at a shopping centre we’d discovered on the first day. Money exchange, lunch, more wandering of the streets, and then back to our hotel for a swim. We chilled out for the afternoon before heading down to the riverfront to watch the sunset. More photos, then we wandered up to a place called TopSpot which we had heard was THE place to go for fresh seafood. And it did not disappoint! Fresh tiger prawns were about 20cm (8.5 inches) in length and each weighed in around 350 grams whole! You buy by the 100 gram increment at RM9 (AUD$3.00). We indulged in 2 of those, a fillet of what is known locally as threadfish (we suspect it may have been tuna, or something like that), a serve of deep fried calamari, a large plate of fresh veges, 2 bowls of rice, and an oyster pancake (which would have fed both of us by itself, had we known!), and the whole lot set us back RM101 (about AUD$30)! Crazy cheap, and ridiculously awesome food.
Tomorrow, we pack our bags for an 11:00 flight to Gunung Mulu National Park. If you know your geography, it’s located about 50km west of the small Sultanate of Brunei. Gunung Mulu promises much for the nature lover. Really looking forward to it!