Of the various flights and journeys we have planned during our travels through Asia, there is really only one or two that are likely to be quite tiring. One is the flight from Vietnam to Japan in April; the other was ahead of us – the flight, or rather flights, from India to Borneo. Our first flight was leaving Delhi at 23.00, six hours later we would arrive in Kuala Lumpur for a four-hour stopover, with a final three-hour flight to Borneo.
Added to this, the not-so-wonderful fact was that we arrived at Delhi airport at 4pm, which meant we were stuck on uncomfortable chairs drinking bad coffee and eating stale muffins while doing the umpteenth Sudoku for a lot longer than we had hoped.
Despite both of us being desperately tired, we just couldn’t get to sleep on either flight so arrived at our hotel in Sandakan rather knackered. Despite this, we noticed it was already well into Happy Hour, so decided to make the most of the opportunity and have afternoon drinks instead of a nap!
We were spending four days in Borneo – two in a region called Sepilok (famous in particular for its Orangutans and Proboscis monkeys) and two on Seligan Island where we were hoping to see Green Sea Turtles nesting.
Most of the sanctuaries in Sepilok were within walking distance of our hotel or a short cab ride away, so we decided to spend our first day “acclimatising” on the sofa with beers and cocktails and would visit all the sights the following day. This evening was also Derek’s first venture back into the carnivore’s world after about 10 days without meat in India. Sadly, the beef burger disappointed, but we were both pleased meat was back on the menu!
About to eat beef again for the first time in about 10 days!
We had two visits planned for the following day. First up was the Sun Bear sanctuary. Sun Bears are found throughout Borneo, but due to extensive poaching and killing (mainly for ridiculous Chinese medicinal purposes) the bears are now an endangered but protected species.
Most of the 25 bears at the Sun Bear Sanctuary were held as pets prior to arriving here and are slowly being taught how to survive in the wild before being released back. They are quite lazy creatures but extremely good climbers and would often find a shady spot at the top of the tree to snooze.
Our second stop was a sanctuary for Proboscis monkeys – a species also endemic to Borneo. We were both quite excited to see this strange looking monkey up close. There were two platforms a few kilometres apart from which one could view the monkeys and watch them during feeding time. We decided to go to both, even though it would mean about three hours of monkey time.
This little chap greeted us at the entrance to the sanctuary
We were in for a treat! At the first platform, several monkeys were already waiting for their free meal. As soon as the ranger put out some fruit, the monkeys started appearing from all over the forest.
While extremely agile in the trees, they had the strangest running style on land. They seemed to be slamming their hands and purposefully hitting the ground, hence making a huge ruckus. Perhaps it is a mechanism to scare off other animals and show their dominance, but it also made them seem rather “clumsy”.
Most monkeys immediately grabbed three or four (however many they could manage in their hands) pieces of food, while hastily eating whatever they could fit in their mouths. After just a few minutes the first batch of food was finished.
Then the funniest thing happened. All the monkeys still on their way to the platform, who didn’t get any food, stopped dead in their tracks and sat down – shoulders sagged and they looked completely defeated.
That sad face!!
They then started making the strangest but funniest sound. It sounded as if they were saying “UH-OH!” as in “Uh-oh we didn’t get any food”. They repeated this sound, sitting with slumped shoulders and huge ‘beer bellies’ looking most sad. It was hilarious and completely adorable! It was made even funnier when you looked at their nose wagging every time they vocalised. It just cracked us up.
All sitting around a wishing well
This must be the biggest… er… nose in Borneo…
A few small macaques also visited the platforms in search of food, with an older monkey (Mr Miyagi’s lookalike) keeping a watchful eye over the younger ones.
After a while, we headed to the second platform for another feeding session. While still great to watch, the proboscises weren’t as active here as earlier but perhaps this was just because it was late in the day. We had some action as they all came swinging in from the nearby trees. It was interesting to see how some of the smaller monkeys reacted with surprise and fear long before we could even see some of the bigger males approaching from high in the treetops.
The females call the males over when they’re ‘in the mood’ using very distinct facial expressions
But we had a few other visitors to distract us. We spotted a beautiful hornbill, which was quite exciting. And there were several silver leaf langurs hanging about for the free food as well as the ever present macaques.
By the end of the day all this monkeying around tired us out, so back at the hotel we felt obliged to support their Happy Hour again and enjoyed another lazy evening by the water.