Sandakan & Sepilok (Oct 2014)

Since we have living in Singapore we haven't had the need to do many domestic flights. So while Sophie and Zac have experienced a couple of domestic flights most of our air travel revolves around larger International airports.  Our kids are used to waiting around to catch a plane, it is just part and parcel of a trip. I do think it is safe to say, this time they were sick of waiting. There was lots of burning off steam around seated passengers, all very patient passengers. It is a while ago now since we took this trip, but the wait seemed to go for longer than it should.  The plane may or may not have been late, hunger might have been a factor.  No playground definitely was a factor. Changi airport has spoilt us.


Once we arrived and managed to find a taxi to take us from the airport, we negotiated a fee to our accommodation which was in the direction of Sepilok via a quick visit to St Michael's and All Angels church.  One of the few buildings built of stone in Malaysian Borneo.
Fitting us all into a taxi with our luggage was a little like playing Tetris. I have a vague recollection of no one having very much leg room, with 3 adults and 4 young kids in a sedan plus the driver. The luggage space wasn't huge, and for this trip we were carrying one of those supposedly portable cots (there are much more compact designs on the market now), but as Sam is our last baby and we had the port a cot in Singapore so we didn't go and buy a new one. Usually we don't bother lugging it along, this trip involving stays near rivers and jungle we deemed it necessary.

Poppa, Sophie, Zac and I had a good look around the church, once we found someone to let us in. The stained glass windows were stunning, they were donated by Australia on the 60th anniversary of the end of World War 2. Afterwards we thought we  were headed to find an ATM before heading out of town. However, the driver kindly took us to Agnes Keith house, the home of an American author who came to Sandakan with her husband in the 1930s.  It has been restored and made into a museum (Let's put that detour down to our complete lack of Malaysian and our taxi drivers minimal English). Knowing we had a bit of travel to get on with and we were possibly going to attempt to go to the war memorial too that day, we stretched our legs those that were awake had ice cream and then onwards we went to find an ATM.

Cash out was like playing roulette with maximum currency withdrawals.  We knew we would need a fair bit of cash, the next leg of our trip would be mainly cash only for accommodation and added tours. Steve plugged a number in, the ATM rejected it for being too large an amount. Repeat this several time and finally we hit the jackpot.  Wedged somewhere close to the middle of the backseat of the car with everyone else, I handed my card over for a repeat trip for Steve. Finally we were off towards Paganakan dii... This was to be our base for the next 2 nights and as the fluency of my Malaysian hadn't improved since our trip to Agnes Keith house, our taxi driver didn't take us to Sandakan War Memorial on the way. In hindsight a great thing, the kids were sick of travelling and Poppa managed to go back there another afternoon and spend as much uninterrupted time there as he wanted.

Paganakan dii is a welcoming (and quiet when we aren't staying there) retreat set in a deer reserve. The simple huts are built up on a narrow ridge, and our rooms had wooden walls that slide open to reveal a simple and calming view of jungle.  Not exactly 14month old proof balconies meant that we didn't capitalise on the sliding wall, though it was nice to open them up every now and again.  The meals were fairly simple affairs, breakfast included a staple of bread, sausages and eggs.  The gluten free gang we are survived on fruit shakes, eggs and vegetables. Being willing to eat plain rice regularly means we can generally find something safe to get by on. The common area and bar had a small activity box of games that we utilised quite a bit while just chilling out between activities.

Staying in such a peaceful place with no pressures to do anything meant that once the kids were tired and ready for bed we followed pretty soon after.  After all we would likely be up with the birds and have a fairly physical day ahead of us. Transfer to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Sanctuary was provided so all we had to do was make it to breakfast on time.

Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Sanctuary and the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre are conveniently located right next door to one another. The later only opening to the public in 2014, so had we managed to take this trip when it was originally planned we would have missed this. We started the morning at the Orangutan sanctuary.  We made it to the watching area for the feeding platform for the adults with plenty of time to spare. Hung around a little before someone mentioned that further on in the area dedicated to the younger orphaned Orangutans it was feeding time.  While the food is provided at set times daily, they are encouraging the Orangutans to forage and feed themselves, so there is no guarantee that on any given day you will see any or many.  Fortunately for us we saw several, one younger one came back to play around on the ground and ropes while we watched for a while and there were a couple of lovely older ones at the other feeding platform, one with a baby hanging on, content to lie around and munch on the fruit provided.  They really are amazing creatures, almost humanlike.

Our own Orangutans.

Once we had enough of observing the Orangutans we headed out of the Sanctuary and over to the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre. Here is where 36 rescue bears are housed, with the ultimate aim of release back into the wild.  Sun bears are the smallest of bear species and great tree climbers. They are under threat largely due to: deforestation of their natural habitat, Chinese folk medicine desire for their gall bladders and bear paws, and the illegal exotic pet trade.  Bears in captivity are kept in appalling conditions so their bile can be milked and replaced frequently as their survival of this treatment is poor.

The Conservation centre acts as a research and rehabilitation centre.  It looked fairly slick and new as it had been recently opened.  Upon returning to Singapore I learnt that a friends son had volunteered there and assisted in building the boardwalks that we enjoyed while we were there. It is a small world we live in.  On the way into the centre we passed a random roaming Orangutan who happened to be hanging out on the railing for a while before it got too noisy with us approaching and he decided to head into the surrounding forest. Just another special memory for us.  We managed to see a few Sun Bears foraging around in their enclosure and the ice cream on the way into the centre was a nice little pick me up from the heat of the day.

After visiting the Sun bears we had a bit of time to kill before the scheduled transfer back to the accommodation. We opted to have some lunch at the little restaurant and just try and relax a bit. I took the opportunity to work out how much cash we would have left and we figured another ATM run was in order as from now until we got back to Kota Kinabalu it was unlikely credit cards would be accepted.

We headed back to paganakan dii, organised some transport for Poppa to do the trip to town for cash and come back via the war memorial. That way he could wander around uninterrupted by our four, we took a wander down the hill to the feed the deer and try and find the Crocodiles in their enclosures.  The Crocodiles or Buaya (in Malay) were large in size and contained in cement pits. The barriers between the walkway and pits were a little rickety for my liking, dare I say not up some countries safety standards. The deer quickly came running over when they spotted we had bread. It worked out to be an easy afternoon of kids entertainment with animals, climbing frames nearby and just hanging around. Poppas taxi arrived back while the kids were climbing, so he hopped out there and we all walked back up the hill together.

Secure fencing?

The following day we headed back into Sepilok to the Rainforest Rehabilitation centre for a look around. There were a couple of informative displays that Zac insisted we explain in great detail. We learnt several things including the existence of the Sumatran Rhinoceros, currently critically endangered with only 6 small subpopulations throughout Sumatra, Borneo and the Malay Peninsula. After the displays we headed off on one of the shorter rainforest walks, including a treetop section.  Enjoyable, hot and sticky, so towards the end the kids were starting to whine. We headed back to Paganakan dii, wolfed down some lunch and ran down the hill to the coach that was waiting to take us on our next leg of the trip.  On to the Kinabatangan river for a 3D2N stay including river cruises up and down the river in the hope of spotting some wild monkeys, crocodiles, birds and if we get lucky pigmy elephants.