Yesterday was our second big adventure in Borneo: Orangutans at Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. This is my third time to see them and I am still amazed at how intelligent they are.
We were lucky to see the two best occurrences when viewing Orangutans, a dominant male (Freddie) and a female (Seduku) with her baby (Saddam). There are 20 Orangutans living in this area but today we only saw six. Saddam was by far the most interesting. We could have spent all morning watching him build his tree nest and throwing sticks at the people. But Seduku didn’t want to hang around after Freddie showed up.
Since Freddie is dominant, he fears no one and comes right down to the ground to feed. I was able to get close enough for a good picture. But don’t be deceived because I had to fight through the crowds to get it. Noticed how amused Rasa is in the second picture. Everyone in this picture is only half of the crowd in the park. The rest of the mob was up the trail at a different feeding station.
This reserve is easily accessible so for us there were too many people here for an intimate experience. And even though the Orangutans are captivating anytime you see them, the setting has a lot to do with the overall experience. In this case, Rasa and I both thought Tanjung Puting in Indonesia offered a more intimate setting. At this park, you had a greater chance of the Orangutans going through your pockets. But then again, a crocodile ate a tourist the week before we got there so maybe the crowds wern’t so bad at Semenggoh.
We just arrived in Kuala Lumpur and picked up Mom. We’ll spend three days here eating and walking before we change to Thai food. Before we left Kuching we did some serious shopping. Borneo is rich with culture and we found some choice handicrafts there. The only problem was deciding what to buy and then carry for the next month. So far we decided to carry an antique basket, a hand woven tapestry and a necklace talisman used by a tribal healer (probably one of our best finds).
Here are the coordinates for the Orangutan Center. Notice how close the city sprawl is to it. 1°24’6.36″N, 110°18’51.55″E
Going to bed now. Will give some more details about Kuching tomorrow.
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Robert J Kent Jr
Wat/San/Health Engineering Consultant
