Sepilok Jan 6 to 9

The manager of the Bilit Rainforest Lodge drove us to our next port of call - Sandakan - so our days of catching the public minibuses were thankfully over. We arrived maybe 5 kms from Sepilok, in a private park up a hill to a wooden shack, the restaurant of our hostel called Paganakan Dii. Nick looked downcast and concerned at this stage, wondering what our room would be like.....

Paganakan Dii is a hostel comprising 6 chalets and 2 longhouses built of wood and recycled materials (the wash basin in our outdoor bathroom was an old wok!) in a forest retreat around 5kms from Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. It has its own cafe and a place to relax. Nick's concerns were unfounded as we launched ourselves into a delicious lunch on the verandah with a cool breeze.Our chalet was built of wood and instead of windows the doors just slid open exposing our little room to the elements and our neighbours - a cute little tree squirrel that looked like a chipmunk. The bathroom was outdoors and very spacious and it was cool at night negating the need for any AC.

We spent most of the afternoon trying to work out the last week of our trip as we had decided to leave Borneo early on account of Nick's foot hurting him and rendering him incapable of much more trekking so we opted for some R and R either on a Malaysian island or Thailand.

The following day we visited the Sepilok Rehabilitation centre, Borneo's first orangutan rehabilitation centre that rescues orangutans orphaned due to logging (and the creation of palm oil plantations), ensures their good health and then rehabilitates them over a period of 2 to 3 years into the Sepilok Jungle - a nature reserve. The public gets the opportunity to see these orangutans at the second stage of their rehabilitation at one of the feeding platforms where they come to have part of their diet supplemented by milk and fruit (generally bananas). Most of the young o'tans like to stay close to these platforms within the first 6 months of their release into Sepilok. When we arrived a 4 year old was already waiting for his breakfast, some 30 min early, and started swinging about on the ropes as if he was performing for us. When the keepers arrived he did not hesitate and dived his head straight into the bucket of bananas! The Centre was extremely informative and not too touristy which was good to see and we felt angry at the Malaysian government's raping and pillaging of Sabah - it has effectively stolen its wood, and its land to plant palm oil palms, with little revenue going back into the beautiful state. Tourism is helping but the primary rainforest is now scarce with wildlife even scarcer.

After a break of coconut juice and bananas for ourselves we headed to the Rainforest Discovery Centre to learn more about Borneo's flora and walk the high canopy walk. The Centre is a little treasure trove of butterflies as well as stunning plant life and sometimes o'tans have been seen on the canopy walk itself.

On our last day we went to the Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary, a privately owned affair. To our horror we discovered that it was in fact owned by palm oil plantation owner who created the sanctuary as he was busily tearing down the monkeys habitat. However, it was better than doing nothing and we enjoyed getting the close-up experience of these proboscis monkey families and bachelor groups. We also had the opportunity to play with some silver leaf monkeys who scurried around us in the cafe.

We enjoyed our stay at Sepilok and Paganakan Dii as it was truly relaxing, not too frantic or commercial.