22nd – Flight to Borneo to see the Orangutans! The charming riverside town of Kuching was our host for visiting our ginger-haired friends. It was very clean, which made me question if we were still in Asia. Kuching is the Malay word for cat, and they seem so proud of this, which is evidenced by the numerous cat statues around the town. They even have them cast in iron on their drain covers.
Anyway, we were not guaranteed to see any but the Orangs didn’t let us down. We visited Semenggoh Wildlife Centre where they have 22 Orangutans that they have rehabilitated and set free. Their feeding times are twice daily at 9-10am and 3-4pm and they can choose whether they come back to eat. Some of them are completely wild and rarely come back for the feeding, whereas others come back more regularly. We only saw 4 Orangutans on the day we went but were assured it is a good thing as it means the less they come back, the less reliant they are on human support. We were just happy to see the ones we did. They are four times stronger than humans, which was obvious in the way they gracefully and effortlessly moved through the trees using the vines and branches. They were so playful they would make us chuckle to ourselves as they randomly just hung from the vines or branches upside down by their feet or threw things down for fun. Of course we were advised not to stand directly below them. There were buckets of bananas, of course, and other fruits for them to come down and collect at will. Many came and put several fruits in their mouths, hands and feet while keeping a hand and foot free with which to climb. It was amazing to see them free like that, with no restraint or timetable, and even after we had left the park it made us wonder where they were and what they were up to. Since nothing was put on for show and they were doing exactly what they usually do, we suspected they were off doing exactly what they were doing while we were there, which made us laugh so much. Helen couldn’t help but sing ‘I’m the king of the swingers, the jungle VIP’ from the Jungle book all the way back to the bus. I may have joined in once or twice.
25th – Flight to the Philippines.
Yeah you joined in! Awesome pictures
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