Dhahran British Grammar School Expedition 2006

28 March 2006

After a group photo in our sarongs we headed back to Sim Sim by speedboat. We switched some of the students between boats to make for a pleasanter and more harmonious journey.

My boat had problems with a filter and we were forced to stop several times to that the driver could repair one of the two outboard motors. Despite the noise, wind and thumping of the boat, most of us slept through a large part of the journey.

We were soon back at Sabah’s second largest city, Sandakan. It was originally Sabah’s capital and the first place on Borneo to have a school.

We had lunch in a nice hotel at Sandakan, in a restaurant filled with policemen. Aristo looked worried – perhaps they would know that he had bought counterfeit DVDs. After a heavy lunch some of the kids went swimming in the hotel pool. The fact that they all survived just goes to show that you CAN go swimming on a full stomach.

With an excellent video presentation about the Sipilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre to whet your appetite, it was with hearts already melting that we walked along the slippery boardwalk to the feeding station. On an open platform in the forest more than fifty tourists and twenty or so orang utans had gathered in anticipation of the afternoon’s feeding session. Thick ropes connected the trees around the feeding station and the orang utans were swinging casually back and forth, waiting for the wardens to bring along lunch.

These animals are almost through the rehabilitation process and have been at the centre for between four and ten years. They are fed bananas every day in the hope that they will get bored with the diet and start foraging in the wild.

Orang utans have four hands and their climbing skills make compulsive viewing. Their movements are slow and elegant, their strength awe-inspiring.

As soon as the food arrived, all the animals headed over to the platform and took combs of bananas from the wardens. T hey were soon joined by short tailed macaques who showed no fear whatsoever of the tourists. The boys were amused when a male macaque ran up behind another monkey and copulated with it enthusiastically. The same boys were then rather shocked to see that both monkeys were well endowed with testicles as they walked off, or indeed just as they were before, had they but realised.

The macaques and orang utans were quite enchanting, although some of the students appeared too hot and tired to really appreciate them. They spent their time just sitting, staring into space.

This centre has had quite a lot of success in reintroducing orphaned orang utans back into the wild. Initially, rehabilitated females proved to be poor mothers and most lost their babies. Orphans themselves, they were without a role model and didn’t know how to care for their young. More recently though several animals have managed to raise young successfully, and we did see the daughter of one of the centre’s graduates near the feeding station.

The guide had several interesting stories to tell us about the orang utans. One current resident is bisexual and really doesn’t mind who he makes friends with. On graduate won personality of the year award a few seasons back after he stripped a Frenchman bare. The man had arrived at the park early and had wondered in even though it was closed. Someone had inadvertently left the gates open.

Along his way he met Raj, a well-known orang utan of mischievous character, who reached for the Frenchman’s camera. When he whisked it out of the way, the orang utan caught he shirt instead and wouldn’t let go. Prepared to sacrifice his shirt, the Frenchman let the animal pull it over his head. Raj wasn’t really interested in the shirt though and, after sitting on it for a while, chewing a corner and spitting on it, he discarded it. He then made another attempt on the camera. This time Raj caught hold of the man’s shorts; elasticated they came down all too easily. The Frenchman stepped away quickly, if not fast enough. A large, strong finger looped into is underpants and with a quick rip he was naked and running back to the park entrance, protecting his modesty with his camera, which one hopes was substantial. Unfortunately for the man, nobody at the now open reception spoke his language. His English was poor and so he was quite unable to explain the recent trauma he had been through. People though him quite mad.

The lodge at Sepilok had seen better days and dated from the time when preserving the environment in Malaysia meant producing buildings out of concrete shaped to look like trees. Not content with virgin rainforest to walk though, an idealised Garden of Eden had been constructed, complete with buildings straight from a Postman Pat cartoon. Whilst the hotel and restaurant were running to seed, the gardens had been kept immaculately. From the rooms to the open-air Chinese restaurant where we sweated our way through dinner and breakfast, a raised wooden walkway wound across artificial lakes, past hibiscus, durian trees and the spectacular fans of traveller palms.