We arrived about an hour before feeding time (the important time) and bought our tickets (30 RM each) plus a camera fee (10RM). We had to put our bag in a locker because some cheeky Orang-utans or monkeys may just steal it, there was even a rather cute picture of an Orang-Utan running away with someone's bag. Serious business.
We entered the sanctuary on a boardwalk (and stayed on a boardwalk throughout for that matter) and were immediately surrounded by trees and forest, which seemed like an excellent habitat for large apes. We only saw trees as we walked, trees and then more trees and a fair amount of people walking ahead and behind us. There were a lot of people and when we arrived at the feeding area there were even more people. Like The Lonely Planet said.
We waited. The time came and went (as far as I know, I did not bring my watch as I assumed that something small and detachable might attract the attentions of a curious monkey or ape and I did not really want to fight an ape or monkey over a 100 NT watch) and no apes arrived. A man arrived on the platform where the feeding was to take place (about 30 feet from our viewing platform) with some bananas. A girl walked around with a sign that said silence (and the same in Malay) and everyone hushed and waited some more. After a while there was a murmur again as people started to get bored.
Now seems to be an excellent time to tell you some Orang-Utan facts. Orang-utan means "wild man" in one of the Sabah dialects and some native tribes still think very highly of them. Orang-utans are the only great ape in Asia, they are also the only ones that make nests (which they do 3 or 4 times a day). They also, unlike other apes, prefer to be along, the only time you see more than one at a time is when they are seeing a mother and child (when the child is about 7 it ventures off on its own). Courtships are apparently only long enough to impregnate, then its alone again (until the mother bears the infant, then she has a drain on her resources for the next 7 years). Males can grow to about 1.4 meters and can have an arm span almost twice that (it would not be a good idea to get into a boxing match with one, as they apparently have the strength to rip a person in half). The more dominant (read attractive to females) have big pads on the sides of their faces, that looks like it would be really soft if one would let you pinch it. Females are smaller only growing to about a meter and do not have the reach or the pads. Females are the only types that you are able to see at the feeding platform that is in Sepilok. Male or female, they are generally not aggressive. There is said to be less than 30,000 left in the world with a diminishing population due to deforestation.
After about half an hour another man came leading, lo and behold, an Orang-utan. She climbed up the stairs to great fan fare and photo taking and posed. Yes, she definitely posed because she posed a few more times in different postures before grabbing and eating her bananas. She then posed some more. During all of this the crowd was taking pictures furiously.
Now, I have some mixed feelings about all of this. While I think it is absolutely great what they are doing at the center I still wonder at the way it is presented to the the tourists. There probably were about 500 people on that platform and I wonder how many of them actually took the time to learn even the basic stuff about the ape that was being photographed. Or maybe how to help her kind out. There was an information center there, but so far as I can tell Nancy and I were the only ones who entered it. I like that people are seeing, but it would be nice if people were forced to learn a bit first before running off and snapping as many pictures as possible of this rare ape on display for them. I don't know maybe I missed something, but a bit more forceful information probably can't hurt. We may be on vacation but we shouldn't be brain dead.
That being said I am sure I am sure I am just as guilty of such an attitude while on vacation somewhere.
After our girl had eaten her fill she climbed on a rope and showed off to the crowd a bit (she was obviously very used to people) by flipping upside down and climbing backwards and then she was off. And just like that, so were most of the people. As they were leaving a female pig tailed macaque wandered through from the other direction and more photos were taken, but this was apparently a less interesting speciment. Pig tailed Macaques (besides having short tails) females have big colorful (pink, red and blue I think) bums, sort of like baboons, but theirs don't stick out. One of the attends warned the people that they could be aggressive. This one just watched us. She came very close. Close enough that we could see the intelligence in her eyes. We could really see her thinking. It was actually a little scary.
In any event she was not thinking about much and her family showed up soon after and hung around eating bananas (taken from the feeding platform) and what looked to be bamboo. We watched them for a while, the small ones were very cute. They jumped around in the trees and on the benches and rails, having a grand time.
We headed back to the main center as it would soon be lunch time. We were prevented from going further by several more macaques sitting in the middle of the path grooming each other. Along with some other tourists (snapping more pictures). Oddly two different types of macaques, long tailed and pig tailed (guess how they are different...) were there in perfect harmony.
After sometime, the staff came along and chased the monkeys away to let us pass.
We wandered the center for a bit and spent a good deal of time in the information center, where we also learned about the sad fate of the Sumatran Rhino (only about 400 left and they don't breed in captivity) among other things.
We went back to the feeding area (Panakagan Dii didn't pick us up until 4) after lunch. On our way there we came across an Orang-utan also on her way there. We stopped and watched her. She stopped moving and looked at us. Then she turned and moved in our direction. We were a little surprised at this and moved towards the feeding area, she followed. We mentioned that we were being followed to the staff coming our way and they told us to hurry to the feeding area, looking a little concerned. And that was our close encounter with a great ape.
I'm assuming she was the one that we saw arriving for the food shortly after we did, but I can't be sure. The afternoon feeding was more or less the same as the morning except this girl was less of an exhibitionist. Also after she left the macaques had a scrap over the left over bananas. A long tailed macaque dominated the platform chasing away and pig tails that came too close (big or small). The pig tails seemed to have had a strategy, because one attracted the long tail's attention while others ran and grabbed the food.
We returned to Panakagan Dii and relaxed in our "tree house". At dinner we spoke to some of the other guests including some English teachers who worked in Semporna, another destination of ours. We spent time swapping teacher stories including the differences between Malay and Taiwanese children. Apparently Malay boys only listen to men (our new friends were all women), certainly not the case in Taiwan. We also spoke to Angeliec (I think), a Dutch lady traveling by herself (because all of her friends were not so adventurous). She was a daycare teacher and she only worked 4 days a week (we were jealous of this). She seemed a little melancholic and mentioned a few times that the last time she had traveled was with her ex.
We had another wonderful rest and then we were off to Uncle Tan's in the morning. And quite the adventure.
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