March 23 2012

We got up at the crack of dawn today for a 7am flight across the island to Sandakan, where we were collected by a guide called Ronnie and his driver Amad. Another English couple and three Swedish girls were in the same party and we started our day out by taking the 45-minute drive out to the Sepilok Rain Forest Reserve where Orang-Utans who have been orphaned or injured are cared for before being released into the wild. It was the ones who have been released that we came to see, because they tend to make their way back to the Reserve twice a day for feeding time! We weren't allowed to take bags (or food or insect repellent) into the Reserve, so I grabbed my cameras but soon regretted not taking my long lens with me, because the feeding platform where the orang-utans pitched up was about 20 metres from us, so I wasn't able to get close-up shots of them. The video was much better with its 28x zoom, but you'll have to wait to see that! Luckily, the macaques who were all over the place came right up to us, so the photos of them are much better.



The orang-utan is sitting next to the ranger, with a macaque climbing the tree in the foreground, waiting his turn.

A baby macaque, wondering where his mum is?

A family get-together

 This was our first experience of a tropical rain forest, and even though we had the advantage of touring around on an elevated walkway (which at least kept the leeches away from us) all other aspects of the experience were for real - the steamy heat, the noise of (mostly unseen) birds and other creatures and the occasional rattling of branches by god knows what just behind you!



Sandakan Water Village

After a couple of hours in the jungle we were driven back to Sandakan for lunch and were then taken on a tour of the town. The first stop was a water village, where all the houses are out in the sea on stilts. At first we felt a bit embarrassed walking around on the boardwalks which connect all these dwellings, wondering what these apparently poor people thought of these bloody tourists with their camera peering into their homes, but astonishingly the residents were really friendly and welcoming, even though they got nothing from us. The children, especially, seemed really excited that we had come to see them!

After leaving the water village, we were taken to the central market, a local church, then up to the hills above the town to a Buddhist temple. The views from here were lovely, although it was slightly odd to see reverse swastikas everywhere. Nothing to do with the nazis, of course, but an ancient Buddhist symbol. You can see it in the topiary in the next picture.

View of Sandakan from the courtyard of the Buddhist temple.

Our final stop was at the site of the Sandakan prisoner-of-war camp just outside the town. This was where the Japs incarcerated British and Australian troops, as well as some locals, during the Second War. Something over 2500 of them were imprisoned here and only six survived. The lucky six only managed to get away with their lives by escaping. The rest died either of starvation or maltreatment in the camp, or on the "death march" across the island as the Japs tried to escape their pursuers towards the end of the war. The whole site is now a dedicated memorial and although none of the original buildings survive, you can still get a feel for what it must have been like.

The memorial at the highest point of Sandakan POW Camp

On a final sad note, we got back to Sandakan airport (I call it an airport - actually it's a shed) to discover that there had been some confusion with our online booking and our flight had already left. We therefore had to sit around for four hours waiting for the next one. Happy days!

Jenny's bit: Not sure what to say about today, reckon you see more of the animals in the zoo but I guess that's not the point.  It was lovely having a guide to explain not just the animal stuff but also how people live here - there were some very posh stilt houses!  Can't get over how friendly everyone is, the taxi driver seemed desperate to practice his English which was sweet. Came back hotel hot, sticky and exhausted. Jx