We woke up around 7 to get ready and get our bags packed for pickup at 8:15. Around 8 we got a text from Laura that she was going to make her way down to the lobby. We were shortly behind her, arriving at the lobby around 8:05. As we arrived we looked around to notice that Laura was no where to be found. Caitlyn started getting a phone call from her, but as service was so poor, we were having difficulty understanding each other. We eventually realize that the bus had arrived early, and was waiting on the opposite corner for us. We lugged our luggage across to the bus, where the helpful staff popped out to assist us. We got on the bus and are introduced to the driver, another staff member, and what seemed like the main tour guide named Paul. The bus was a standard large transportation bus with under carriage storage. There wasn’t anyone else on the bus at first, and we quickly picked seats at the very front. We made a short ride through town, and eventually started making our way to the outskirts of Sandakan. We drove up a winding hill to find a beautiful resort-like hotel at the top. 8-10 people were waiting outside, which hopped on the bus with us. Paul introduced himself as one of the guides for our adventure, along with Marty who was sitting next to him. Paul went on to say that he is “in training”, but Marty was kind enough to allow him to handle this portion of the tour. He continued to tell us all about today’s plans, the sanctuaries we will be visiting, and some facts about the indigenous animals. We made the ~30 minute drive to the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary.
As we arrived to the sanctuary, we were informed that we were here before it opened, and that we would have about 15 minutes prior to entering. Outside the bus, many people went to the bathroom, while David and Caitlyn went to the cafe to grab a water. It was already shaping up to be a HOT day. We stayed close by our guides, anxious to be given the green light to head inside as several other buses had pulled up shortly after. Soon enough, we heard those magic words! We put pedal to the metal and started our fast walk toward the entrance.
As we got towards the entrance, Paul excitedly pointed towards something. We looked up, and to our surprise saw an Orangutan hanging out on the roof! It was unbelievable to be so close to this wild animal! We were the first of the tourists to arrive at the entrance, and took advantage of the time advantage by snapping some photos with the orangutan. While we maintained a respectable distance of ~15 ft from the Orangtuan, some other tourist were getting as close as 6 ft under it. We watched it for several minutes before some employees came over and told people to back up a bit, especially as she was a fully wild Orangutan and not one of the rehab ones that is more familiar with people. They warned us all that this Orangutan could be dangerous. That was enough for us to back up even further.
We eventually left and went inside the Sanctuary. The first part of the Sanctuary included a 5 minute walk through a raised platform through the Borneo jungle. With each twist and turn of the pathway, we took in different sights and sounds of the rainforest, anxious to have our next wildlife sighting. We eventually approached the nursery building, excited to escape the already brutal heat.
There were two large rooms with floor to ceiling windows and stadium style seating allowing views out into the nursery. However, we were disappointed to realize that AC was not a luxury we would be blessed with. We quickly went to one of the rooms that had a platform near the top to try and get the best arial view of the area. A large slanted window stood between us and a playground-like area full of three juvenile orangutans. We got to watch the orangutans swinging around on ropes, playing, and lounging. Eventually an employee emerged with a large basket of mixed fruits, vegetables, and leafy greens. He dropped some of the contents on each platform, and the orangutans went wild! Soon enough, more orangutans were making their way to the area, climbing across ropes that spanned into the forest. We watched as more and more orangutans came to feed on the goodies. We laughed as we noticed many of the orangutans seemed to have a food preference, including a cheeky one that loaded up both hands and both feet with and abundance of carrots, and attempted to waddle away with his bounty. We even watched a few small black squirrels slowly work up the courage to go to the feeding deck and steal some food (which was shortly followed by some of the orangutans waving and chasing away the uninvited intruders.) At one point, we witnessed an orangutan standing on his back legs while holding on to a rope, and taking a few steps before returning to walking on all fours.
We enjoyed watching the feeding for 30 or so minutes before moving on to the outdoor wild feeding platform. We left the building, and made our way another ~5 minutes along the wooden platform into the woods. We came up to an outdoor large deck which looked out on another feeding platform a few feet off of the ground ~ 50 ft from us. There were multiple ropes leading from into the jungle to the platform. We tried to snag another good spot, although by this point the mid morning sun was blazing as hot as ever. Eventually, an employee walked out and dumped a big basket of food similar to the indoor location and walked away. Quickly, we saw lots of small monkeys (pig tail macaques and long tail macaques) run and climb down to the platform and feast. Not long after, we saw a flash of dark orange in some tall nearby trees and soon saw a mom Orangutan with a baby clinging to her climb across the ropes to the platform to eat. The other monkeys scattered at mom approached, and she took up a good seat on the platform to feed herself and her baby. We watched them eat, as the macaques slowly started to make their way back to the platform (clearly gauging the response of mom and baby to make sure its safe.) After some time we saw another young Orangutan hanging on the rope leading to the platform. He seemed pretty timid, and hung a good distance away while watching the others enjoy the food. After some time he started to make his way across, but wasn’t brave enough and never came down to eat which was sad to see. As we stood here taking in the scene, the heat continued to creep up on us, to the point that we were sufficiently sweaty, and several people had asked about our portable fans and where to purchase them for their own use. We finished up here, very very hot from being in the jungle, and headed back towards the parking lot.
Now was the chance to pay a small fee and go across the street to the sun bear conservation center. We entered and immediately were in a very small education room, which discussed the diet of the sun bears, their anatomy, and what about them makes them unique. Marty educated us on many of these factors before we proceeded in to see the bears.
We walked across more raised wooden walkways, this time ~10ft above the forest floor, until we got to an area past tall fences. We were told that the sun bears in this center were rescued from illegal activity and had to be raised in captivity for safety. Sun bears survive in the wild based on their claws, which they use to climb trees, scoop food, and dig in the ground. While the conservation cuts their claws off so they can’t escape as they would die in the wild, they do feed them plenty so they didn’t need claws to climb trees and open the trunks to get to bees. We saw two divided areas of the sanctuary, one for the female bears and one for the male bears. We watched as three small bears (probably the size of a lab or another medium sized dog) walked around and explored their enclosure. Some did seem a little sad, doing repetitive behavior like walking in circles or walking back and forth along the same line of fence. As we continued on the walk way, we saw a few other bears on the other side of the enclosure. We wandered around for around an hour, watching the bears groom, sun bathe, and interact with each other.
As we finished at the Sanctuary, we stopped by the gift shop to grab some cold drinks to quench our thirst, along with a pack of hand drawn post cards which depicted the Borneo big 5.
Back to the bus, we got to our seats and enjoyed the cool breeze of AC. We took off, driving around 30 minutes to the Sandakan hotel and Palm Cafe Steamboat and Grill for a prepaid buffet-style lunch. The entire dining room was ours to enjoy with plenty of delicious looking delicious. Along with a buffet of hot and cold foods, there was also a make-your-own noodle station where you choose the ingredients you wanted in your dish, the sauce, and the type of noodles and the chef cooks your food and brings it to your table. After we indulged in the savory options, we took a peek at the dessert table which had bites of various sweets along with local fruits. Caitlyn tried the langsat. which reminded her of the taste and texture of lychee.
After lunch, we took a short bus ride to the docks to be picked up for the ride to the lodge. Our bags were unloaded as we waited in the shade for the boats and captains to arrive. A short wait later, and we were split into two groups depending on the “Paul” boat or the “Marty” boat. After hearing that Paul was in training, we were happy to learn that Marty would be our guide for the trek to the lodge. We piled into one of two small motorized boat and chose some good seats with minimal sun exposure for the journey (David made sure to ask which side of the boat had less sun to avoid a nasty burn!)
We departed from the Sandakan pier and went towards the ocean . We looped the outer area of the Sulu Sea before entering the mouth of the Kinabatangan River. Before departure, Paul informed us that the ride would take around 2 hours, and while he would stop for crocodile, orangutan, or elephant sightings, he would continue going for proboscis monkeys and birds. Marty said he had a similar sentiment, but would stop for proboscis monkeys if we had an opportunity for a great sighting. We kept our eyes peeled for any wildlife. With our eyes glued to the shore line, we eventually spotted some white birds (later learned they are egrets.) Soon after, Caitlyn found the first monkey! A small macaque running along the shore. Every few minutes we would spot another interesting bird or monkey. Eventually, Caitlyn managed to spot a small to medium sized saltwater crocodile along the shore (the first of the borneo big 5). The boat stopped for us to admire the young crocodile from afar. We made our way on, and soon after David saw another saltwater crocodile entering the way. We unfortunately moved past too quickly for Caitlyn to see it. We continued to see some more birds and monkeys throughout the trek, along with some of the local villages that Marty told us are only accessible by boat. As we neared the 2 hour mark for our trek, we slowly approached the beautiful Sukau Lodge.
We disembarked our boat, and made our way along the pathways through the lodge. We were directed towards the lodge lobby for our welcome tutorial. As we passed by the main gathering area, a woman struck a large gong twice- we would later learn that this symbolized welcoming new guests.
We were ushered in to the main lobby, and given a welcome drink and a cold towel to refresh. The three of us grabbed the front and center couch to make sure we had good seats to hear all about the lodge. The drinks were a delicious chilled fruited drink, and the cool towel had a beautiful aroma scent. We sat in this reception hall while they told us a little about the lodge, talked through our itinerary, and eventually gave us the keys to our room.
After the debriefing, we were set free to make our way to our room and wander the rest of the resort.
The room was big, comfortable, and had a nice bathroom. We rested a bit and charged our devices. Eventually we realized the back door (more of a fire escape door, even though it was on the ground floor) didn’t really close. This made us nervous for mostly mosquitos but who knows whatever bugs would come in!?
We left at 5 for the late afternoon cruise and stopped by the reception desk to let them know about the problem of our back door. We went to the dock in front of the restaurant and were told our guide would be Marty. We boarded his boat and headed down the river. We got there early enough that we got to be in the front row of seats (the pilot is in the back of the boat).
We saw lots of proboscis monkeys, hornbill birds, lots of macaques, a kingfisher bird, and an eagle even!
After a wonderful river cruise, we headed back to the room for a bit before dinner. Unfortunately, our back door was still not fixed so as we headed to the restaurant, we informed them of this issue. We got to the restaurant a little unsure of when they told us dinner starts and wanting to ensure a good table. It turns out dinner stared at 7, but because the place was packed with 60+ guests, they were happy to let us start eating at 630. We grabbed a cocktail each from the restaurant bar and went to get food.
The restaurant is styled in a buffet fashion, with easily 4 or 5 “main courses”, a good number of sides, 2 soups, a small grill station, and a nice dessert cabinet. We went to and grabbed a plate and sampled a bit of everything to bring back to our 3 person table. We noted that clearly the bats came out around sunset as there were a few bats that kept circling into the restaurant area, probably to eat some bugs. They weren’t visible while near the food, but from a slight distance from the tables, you could see them swoop down and fly between people’s legs and the tables. At dinner, we were told someone would come by and see if we wanted to opt into doing an additional night cruise. We eagerly accepted, and after dinner headed to the docks for our cruise.
The night guide was a different person from Marty, but we never got his name. We were told that the night cruise would use a spotlight at the rear of the boat to find any animals. At first, we were concerned as the guide/pilot would frantically and erratically shine the spotlight all around, in a manner that we were confident wouldn’t be long enough or detailed enough to see any animals. We were quickly proved wrong, as he spotted a tiny ~1.5 ft long snake laying on a branch on a small tree in the sheer darkness. We also saw a tiny crocodile we watched get out of water trying to get away from us, lots of birds, and a kingfisher bird. One man on our boat kept using flash photography and was eventually reprimanded and told to stop as the animals really dislike this.
We eventually finished and came back, heading to bed after a long day.
Steps walked: 11,679
Miles walked: 5.52
Bluming Travelers 