Hotel City View Sandakan

... seems to be a frequent occurance!

Yesterday ... well i got up a bit late so didnt do much except walk around town and investigate the possibility of going to Turtle Island .. Unfortuneately it is fully booked up and places are limited so i cant go :-(

Today i went to the Sepiloc Urang Otan Sanctuary ... to see the Orang Utans that are trying to be returned tot he forest. We got there (also with Tom) and watched the ...

... the deluge, and within seconds we were in the midst of a downpour so intense we could barely open our eyes and our faces stung with the impact of the raindrops. Thankfully we had remembered plastic bags for the cameras, but with no such protection for us we were sodden through within no time at all (yes, again) with water fast pooling at the bottom of the boat. We saw another frantically bailing out as our boatman somehow managed to navigate down ...

... there it was packed but we found ourselves some room to get photos and waited. Even though there were more people than we'd have liked and the heat was cruel (who'd have guessed it could get so warm in a tropical rainforest?), it was brilliant. Five Orang-Utans came in for feeding and whether or not they intended it, entertained us with their antics. After watching then for about 30 minutes we made our way back up to the information room, read a bit about what they ...

... we only saw one orang utan. In the afternoon there were half the number of much quieter tourists - they had actually all turned off their mobile phones. We were treated to a group of 4 including the rarely sighted alpha male. Very lucky apparently. After most people had departed, one of the females came and sat next to us on the rail and stayed around for the next half hour. It was wonderful to be so close to this charming animal.

From Paganakan Dii we were picked ...

... least the leeches didn't get us! (poor steve) bed time came but it was a short sleep in order to be ready for the morning cruise. we spotted a wild boar, s'more birds, and more elephants (i even spotted one first!). then came the rain. and more rain. so it was time to head back for brekkie. had to leave for kinabalu park after food, so headed off with sarah, our new friend who's a PT for the UHN and knows mutual colleagues of leora. small world. westward we go...

... had been out diving when we left yesterday so we had not been able to get it all finished. Anyhow Vicky the lady from Singamata said it was close so I got her to talk to the bus driver to make sure they waited and sure enought the paper work turned up with time to spare and we set off after an amazing time in Semporna. The one thing i will say though is you would not want to stay long in Semporna town unless you were out diving every day. There is nothing to do and we ...

... to sleeping in the jungle and were so exhausted by all our activities we just totally zonked out. Then the next morning - our final morning - we had one last boat ride where we were lucky enough to see 5 more wild orangutans. One of them was a big male on his own who wasn't intimidated by us at all and so we were able to watch him for fully ten minutes which was lovely, just eating the fruits from the tree he was in. And then before we ...

... asian rhinos. We spent the first few days snorkling on our own little island - Manukan off Kota Kinabalu - Trish and Jenny had to share a tent but Jenny didn't snore. Apparently Trish does. Amazing snorkling and drinking pina coladas to top it off. All 5 of us are getting along pretty well. Everyone thinks that Glenn has 4 wives. Some of the ...

... shake and the ropes spanning the trees seemed to wobbling up and down, this was far too much movement to be caused by the wind and sure enough a large orange orangutan came swinging into view. She landed on the platform with ease and as she turned, a small baby clinging onto her chest came into view. A few more orangutans were starting to arrive, a couple of younger looking ones as well as another mother and baby, suddenly it almost felt like the ...

... and a canopy walk, seeing the jungle from a 26m view point. To add to the numerous monkeys, orangs, birds, reptiles and creepy crawlies, we finally happened upon a snake (something Lenny said he had been wanting to see, although it was a relatively harmless but still venomous 20cm example!). So a short flight back to KK and we are in for a treat, the Shangri La Rasa Ria hotel - although I think we have already told you about that in our previous Borneo entry.