Sandakan, Malaysia

Monday | November 21, 2016

Today was all about seeing the nature of Borneo, especially its famous orangutans and monkeys.

We were able to take tenders to shore, but this is pirate territory so we brought sharpshooters with us. The local police force also provided protection with semi- automatic machine guns.

The ride was made all the more spooky by the presence of these small pirate boats, accompanied by men swimming alongside.

Fortunately they meant no harm, but one can never be too sure. (The Captain advised there was an attempted boarding of another ship yesterday.)

We boarded our bus with Rony, our guide for the day.

Our first stop was the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre in Sepilok, opened in 2014. This park features 43 sun bears, many of them brought to the center as cubs. At the center, they’re taught how to survive in the wild in the hopes of one day being released into their natural forest habitat.

Sun bears are the smallest bears in the world. They are so called because of a sun-like cream to orange mark on their chests. Their tongues are 25cm long, so they can retrieve honey. A sun bear male averages approximately 60 kg, while females top the scales around 40 kg. These delightful little creatures eat termites, fruit, millipedes, centipedes, and honey.

In the center, surrogate mothers teach the cubs how to forage, climb trees, build nests and other tasks necessary for independent survival.

As we walked through the sanctuary, we spotted several of these bears. Some were on the ground.

Some were in the trees.

Not only was it difficult to see them, but it was difficult to photograph them due to the varying sunlight and shade.

We saw the largest tree trunk I have ever encountered including the redwoods and sequoias.

We also saw groups of the cutest young schoolchildren, happy to pose for our cameras.

We took a short walk to the Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, founded in 1964 by a woman named Barbara Edison. This massive facility is 43 square miles.

Around two dozen were being cared for in the nursery while another 80 roam freely in the massive reserve. Native to Borneo and Sumatra, orangutans, and other primates in the wild, are constantly threatened by forest fires, logging, and poaching.

Orangutans are the animals closest to humans. They share 96% DNA similarity to humans and can contract the same diseases as we do. Baby female orangutans will live with their mother for up to 9 years, learning everything there is to learn about being an orangutan in the wild; males are often happy to separate from their mothers at around five or six years of age.

Building nests is an important part of young orangutan training as these monkeys sleep in the trees. Their bond is obvious.

The opportunity to see these playful animals as they interacted with one another was incredible.

This little fellow was holding papaya meat in all four extremities.

And this guy was lazy, having gorged himself.

We then drove about 45 minutes to the Labuk Bay Probiscus Monkey Sanctuary.

The original owner of this land had intended to develop it as an oil palm plantation, but he reconsidered when he discovered the resident monkey colony, only found here in Borneo. We were also able to see these monkeys during feeding time.

These monkeys are unique because they do not eat fruit. In fact, they cannot consume any type of sugar.

They are the largest monkeys in the world; remember that apes are not monkeys because apes have no tails.

But perhaps the most unique feature of these monkeys are their long noses. One cannot help but think of Jimmy Durante when looking at these playful creatures.

These two were obviously in love. (In fact, we saw them mate just a few seconds earlier!)

On several occasions, the large dominant monkeys ran through the area where we were standing, causing several people to be quite frightened.

At one point, this guy became enraged, bared his teeth and seemed poised to attack us.

When this photo was taken, many people made jokes about identifying which one was the monkeys.

Silvertail monkeys were also everywhere.

We even ran into herds of water buffalo, and later cattle, on the way through the park.

Of course, in this amazing climate where rain happens every day, anything can grow.

On the dock, as we loaded into tenders, one idiotic guest commented about storing residents on the roof of the tender – whereas it is our favorite place to sit and socialize!

Back on the ship, I enjoyed a late lunch at Freddy’s before meeting with the residential director once again. I spent a good deal of time in the apartment watching some of the presentations on television, and catching up on my reading.

Later in the afternoon, there was a performance in the Plaza of a young Sandakan-based group.

They were nowhere near as fascinating as the people we saw a couple of days ago so we decided not to stick around too long.

We attended the expedition briefing in Colosseo, which was actually quite short.

Dinner was in Marina where the steaks were marvelous and the dinner divine as long as we stayed away from topics related to the outcome of the recent presidential election!