A day with Pongo and Nasalis

This entry is more photo's than words.  I snicked down for some ice last night and took a quick picture of our hotel’s Malaysia Day celebrations.  This half is almost finished but not the back half.  I also asked them if they knew how we could get to the Orangutan sanctuary in the morning.  They gave me a bucket of ice, did some research and rang me back; they wanted 380 Ringitts each from a tourist company to take us there and back including entrance fees.

We had a wonderful breakfast at the hotel, best since the Nap Patong.  We ordered a taxi and he took us downtown; they only charge £3 so its not too bad.  When there, we talked to another taxi driver and he only wanted 40 Ringitts to take us there; we had already research that it was only 30 entrance fee, but they also want 10 Ringitts for each camera.  We arrived at Sepilok Orangutan rehabilitation centre with 30 minutes to spare before feeding time.

They have a long wooden walkway through the rain forest to the viewing and feeding platforms.

Only one came with a young one in tow.  They have obviously done a good job rehabilitating them all.  Maybe more would have came if we had waited, but it was so hot Claire wanted to go.  At one stage, she almost broke into a sweat.

Our driver had already offered to wait and take us back for an extra 50 Ringitts which we had agreed to and I brought him a cold water back with me.  We asked him how much he wanted extra to take us onto the Proboscis monkey centre; he didn’t really want to go but said he would do it for an extra 110 Ringitts making 200 in total.  It turned out good value because the roads get so much worse the further you go.

We are pleased that we did go as there were things going on all the time with action right from the start.  Trouble was they wanted 60 Ringitts entrance each plus the usual 10 for each camera.

Straight away I spotted some grey monkeys in a nearby tree and one came onto the roof with somebody elses brown baby and eventually onto our viewing platform.

I spotted some proboscis monkeys playing with their feet (or was it their hands?) on a nearby branch; presumably waiting for their feeding time at 11.30am.

Somebody tempted a grey monkey with some long beans which he happily ate.

Before you knew it there were monkeys everywhere.

One of them seemed to have the hots for Claire.

Finally the food arrived and they could have a proper chimps party.

With lookouts.

I took dozens of photo’s but only have space for a few of them.  It turned out to be a great day out for Claire, me, the taxi driver and the monkeys.

We got our driver of car 1707 to drop us at the Swiss Inn for lunch, it was only a short walk back to Claire’s favorite supermarket and another taxi took us back to our hotel to relax for the remainder of the day.

They have all the mod cons in our hotel; the lights come on when you open the wardrobes and they even have a light that comes on inside when you open the safe door.  They have a contraption by the side of the toilet which I tried.  It has variable speed water jets that spray up your bum; perfect if you have just been through what I have and after a hot, sweaty day out with Pongo.  They seem to have come on a long way since that first prototype knocked your glasses off Jimmy!  What a shame we don't have a photograph to remember that one by.