I Just Can't Believe That This is My Life, In My Fantasy We're Running Wild

It is starting to feel like things relating to my trip are beginning to pick up a bit of pace. After my eleven initial days in the Philippines, the last couple of stages in my journey have been quite short and thereby have come and gone in a flash.
I left the Philippines last Monday and have already arrived in my third different place since then in less than a week.

Looking at my original 'schedule' I'm actually a few days ahead of where I figured I would be, but I've been pretty happy with the length of time I've spend in each place so far. I don't feel like there's anywhere that I've missed out things I have wanted to do, and having a few days to spare will naturally come in useful later on when I have days where I feel like I am really tired, or where there are loads of places that I would like to visit and will struggle to find them into the time scale I gave myself.

I spent most of yesterday travelling from Brunei to Kuching, so it was another one of those days when 'travelling' lived up to it's billing. Despite their relative proximity on a map, the only (sensible) way to get from Brunei to this part of the Sarawak region of Borneo which is by plane.....via Kuala Lumpur.
When I looked at flights originally the company I was going to book it through were trying to charge me some kind of outrageous booking fee so I did it through Air Asia (still having to book two flights) and ended up paying about fifty pounds less for the privilege.
Waving goodbye to Brunei, I made my way to the airport in a taxi this morning at about 7.15am, checked in and waited in the airport lounge. Having not had any breakfast I really wanted to get something to eat, but the few cafes there were in the airport were ridiculously expensive - even for an airport. I managed to scrape together enough dollars to get myself a hot chocolate, knowing that soon enough I'd be on the plane, and carrying out my usual act of falling asleep like a baby in moving vehicle.

Not that any of my sleeps on planes are comfortable, but I woke up with a particularly sore neck on the move from Brunei to KL. I have thought about investing in one of those U-shaped travel pillows, as considering the amount of time I spent asleep when I'm travelling, I'm sure it'll be well worth it.
As I was taking two separate flights I actually had to go through immigration, collect my bag, and then go back to the departures lounge and check-in again.
I seem to have a thing at the moment about standing behind people who are extremely slow whenever I'm at passport control or trying to check-in. It took about half an hour to get through the line in Malaysia, and then when I got to the baggage collection area, I'd taken so long that my bag was actually going round with the luggage from another flight.

Thankfully KL Airport is one of the easiest ones to navigate, and all I had to do was go up two floors to find the departure area for domestic flights. It's strange that considering it's part of Malaysia that the airport in KL consider travelling to Sarawak as a domestic flight, but at the airport in Sarawak itself, I had to go through the international arrivals immigration section.
I checked in, and then had to wait for about three hours before it was eventually time for my flight to board. I grabbed myself some lunch and listened to a few of the many podcasts which are continuing to stack up on my iPod before eventually my 3.25pm flight to Kuching was ready to board. Despite booking a window seat, someone had stolen it from me when I boarded my flight, but I was too tired to get them to move so I just sat in the isle and went back to the land of nod. Naturally, I always choose the window when I'm on a plane, but not sitting in one was confusing me as I couldn't see out of the window that the plane had descended from the clouds and onto the runway until both wheels touched down and hit the floor.

I managed to book myself a taxi to take me to my hotel, and it took about twenty minutes before we eventually got to the Marco Polo Guesthouse which is where I am staying for the next couple of days. I've decided to mix things up a bit on my second stay in Malaysian Borneo by not staying a hotel. I still have my own room here, but there are shared bathrooms and toilets in use. I figured that it would be a good opportunity to test how comfortable I feel about sharing in case further down the line I have to spend some time in a youth hostel. It also gives me more options going forward, hopefully meaning I can save money for pricey hotels of expensive locations like Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.

When I came in the owner of the Guesthouse was very welcoming. He spent about twenty minutes chatting to me, and advising me of the best things to do, and the best places to go whilst I am here. He was intrigued to hear about where I'd been so far, and also where I was continuing on to after this stay.
Giving me a map he pointed me in the direction of what Sarawak has to offer and it seems like I might actually be turning into more of a backpacker over the next couple of days with national parks to visit, and some potential animal encounters maybe coming along.

I was shown my room and introduced to another couple of the guests who were sitting relaxing on the patio. One of them, an English guy called David, offered me a quick tour of the town centre when I was ready, and after a little nap (you'd have thought I'd slept enough today) I met up with him and we wandered off towards Kuching's waterfront which is where the majority of the shops and restaurants are based.
David explained that most of the shops in the area where we are staying are currently closed because it is Chinese New Year, which is celebrated as a national holiday here, meaning that we had to walk about ten minutes to get to where we were going. By this point in the evening it was starting to get dark so the traditional Chinese lanterns and fairy lights all down by the river shone impressively making the whole area look very inviting.

We walked along the full length of the main town before settling on a restaurant where we chatted about our experiences and some of the options available in the Kuching area itself. It seems like there is quite a bit to do, and I spent some time last night trying to plan out what I can get up to whilst I'm here.
David suggested getting a drink in a swanky looking cafe by the water so we sat there for a few hours looking out on the very still looking river before eventually retiring for the night.

             

Having been given so many good ideas about what was around, and the different things there are to do in Kuching I decided to make the most of a good nights sleep by spending today at the Semenggoh Orang-utan Centre. This area of the world is well linked with the great apes, and I had considered going to a very similar place when I was in Sabah, but I had much less time there, and the location was less easily accessed using public transport.
One of the things that I was given on my arrival here was a bus schedule which makes things an awful lot easier. Just like the rest of the world Asia is known for it's slightly unreliable bus service, and travellers are sometimes known to have been stranded during days out because the last bus simply hasn't turned up. 

The main bus terminal is downtown near where I had dinner last night, and when I arrived, the bus I needed to board was actually there waiting to go in about half an hour or so. The cost of living is massively reflected in the price of a bus ticket which cost 4RM for a return fare (about 80p) and after grabbing myself a couple of drinks for what was like to be a long hot afternoon in the sun I got on board. There were a couple of people already there, mostly 'foreigners', who I have to say I have seen a lot more of in Kuching than any other of the places I have visited so far.

After about a forty-minute ride we arrived just outside the Semenggoh Centre, but had to wait until the park re-opened at 2pm before being able to enter. One thing which I have discovered before in this part of the world and find hilarious is that usually when you go to places like this non-residents are charged double the price to enter. On this occasion a ticket for Malaysians was 10RM, but for us 'foreigners' it cost 20RM - still, that only calculates to about four pounds so it isn't too bad. It is strange how they are allowed to discriminate in that way though - I can't imagine the London Eye or Madame Tussauds suddenly deciding that they were going to charge tourists an increased price to enter, I think it would probably start a riot!

The main attraction of the park are the orang-utans but walking towards the main feeding area there were a few side paths and a couple of little gardens off to the side which visitors were allowed to explore. You arrive at the visitors centre where there are pictures of the different Bornean apes which you are likely to see as well as an interestingly placed sign which reminds you not to get too close in case the orang-utans decide to give you a 'love bite'.
Having recently visited the thoroughly excellent Chester Zoo I was pretty excited to see how getting even closer up to them would be. Me and Sarah spent about an hour watching them swing around on ropes, fascinated by how they move, spend their time grooming each other, and essentially how scarily similar they are to humans in the way they behave.

There was a little bridge with benches on where people were sitting waiting, and one of the park keepers announced that the staff would be putting some food out, and the orang-utans would likely be there feeding in front of us. He also said that they like to roam around, in which event we always needed to make sure they were a couple of feet away from us. People are obviously also not allowed to eat in front of them as they will definitely make a move to steal whatever it is away from you, and they have also been known to try to grab people's cameras and bags - it was at this point I made sure that my camera was tied around my wrist and that both the straps on my bag were clipped together!

The park keeper put some bananas on top of a high-perch where there were already lots of skins from earlier on, which had obviously been part of their first feed of the day. I was surprised that within about two minutes, out of nowhere these two orang-utans came strolling down the path and into a little wooded area where the bananas were. It was crazy to see them so close up, and although guided by the park keeper to the place where the food was waiting for them - it amazing to see that they were essentially free to roam around wherever they wanted.
I spent about twenty minutes snapping away with the camera, photographing and observing their movements in sheer amazement. I don't know how many other animals there are in the world that I would stare at intensely whilst they were eating, but there is something about them which fascinates me.
I think one was a fully grown female, and the other was a little younger, probably an adolescent as it was a bit smaller, but it was fully independent of its parent and soon enough it was hanging off the ropes using one hand on one foot to hang off in a flexible position that even some great yoga couldn't achieve. They mostly used their spare hand to eat food with, and then their other foot to hold and peel their next bananas.

It was honestly an incredible sight, and it's really hard to describe how truly fantastic it was to see them so close up.
Just when we thought they excitement had ended, there was a bit of a stir from people over the opposite side of the viewing gallery to me, and out of nowhere three more orang-utans, clearly remembering it was feeding time, came gracefully swinging out of the trees and into the main feeding area. They joined the other two, and soon I began attempting to take a photo with all five of them in.

The original two had, had enough food and wanted to go for a little walk now, and sure enough began strolling across the bridge of the viewing gallery where people were rapidly backing up like the crowd at a golf tournament when someone hits an errant drive. The two orang-utans sat on one of the benches, with the older on spending some time grooming the little one, before they moved off again, about three feet away from where I was standing. They were clearly interested in the presence of human beings - despite seeing them all the time, but it was at this point I was able to get a good look at them and see close up what I have only seen on postcards and through fingerprint-heavy glass at the zoo.

As those two trundled back into the forest there was another stir from people watching the additional three who had come to feed as a large adult male slowly plodded his way along the path to where the remaining bananas were sitting. He was a huge, well built orang-utan with dark orange, almost maroon hair, and I guess the others were a bit intimidated by him as they grabbed as many bananas as they could before retreating into trees fairly high up.
I stood and watched for a little while as the staff at the park explained that there was then another area opening up which is where a couple more orang-utans were going to be fed. These ones were a little shier and didn't come out in the public area so I wandered down the path a couple of minutes walk to find another really open area with ropes which is where there were four more of these wonderful animals - two mothers and two babies.

The youngest of all the ones I had seen were incredible. Obviously not quite self-sufficient as yet, there are more bright orange in colour and were holding onto their parents for dear life, not yet appearing to have confidence in their own ability to swing on the ropes and eat. There was one little one really high up in a tree, with it's mother just below, and then the other two were sitting right in the middle - the baby clinging on for dear life. In all the orang-utan excitement it was hard to take in all the wildlife around with a flying squirrel bravely roaming his way across the ropes a couple of times, and also a large number of geckos having attached themselves to trees around the area
Again, it was hard to appreciate how strange it was to be so close up to all of these animals, and although no camera zoom will be able to capture the experience as well as my eyes I took some picture of them orang-utans eating before it was eventually time to wave goodbye to the park and get the bus back to the city.

Thankfully there would be no such incident of being stranded as the bus hadn't returned to Kuching after dropping us off, choosing instead to stay and wait for the return journey. The bus driver rather conscientiously counted how many of us were on board, clearly wanting to make sure that he didn't leave anyone behind before eventually returning to the bus terminal.

I wouldn't in any way like to claim to be some sort of animal expert, but I do really like zoos and would one day love to go on a safari to see animals in the wild.
I've always found animals fascinating, particularly monkeys who I could honestly watch in action for hours. At London Zoo there is a little area where they are freely allowed to roam around with the public and it is a great experience. This was different though, as despite clearly being looked after, and also not really concerned by the presence of humans at all, it was definitely a memorable moment on this trip.

Getting as close to the orang-utans as I did today gave me a new found love of the creatures, and being able to see them from just two to three metres away was a fantastic experience. I'm really glad that I was able to enjoy Semenggoh today, and I would thoroughly recommend anyone who has the opportunity to visit this centre as you will not regret it.

Before you leave, check out the videos on my Youtube page

Wild
Jessie J (2013)