What are you looking at??????Well, I took a 6 hour bus ride to get to Sandakan in southeast Borneo for 2 reasons - the Japanese & Chinese War Memorial, and Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary.
Didn't end up going to the first one because the taxi driver was going to charge me an extortionate amount, which I refused to pay. Taking the bus was another option, but that only would get me closer; I'd still have to walk about 2km to the sight. And it was hot.
The orangutan sanctuary turned out to be a big disappointment : ( As you can see, I was able to get close to the monkeys. However, the orangutans were so far away!!! You know, I was sort of expecting something like the koala park in Brisbane and the panda habitat in Chengdu....yes, where you can hug the cute creatures! Oh well. Nonetheless, it was nice to see the orangutans playing around in a semi-natural, rain forest environment, but in all honesty...the zoo would have sufficed.
With nothing left to do in Sandakan, I wanted to take an earlier bus back to Kota Kinabalu. On the phone and at the station, the agent told me it was all sold out. School holidays just started. Damn it - I was stuck. Then, I ran into an ANGEL in the form of a retired school teacher. She was so nice, and somehow managed to get me a seat on the "sold out" bus, kept feeding me throughout the journey, and even had her husband drive me to my guest house in KK. The kindness of strangers : )
Although I didn't quite enjoy my short trip to Sandakan, it totally ended on a high note. Good memories.
2 comments:
i like the first animal - so cute. is it a monkey or a orangutan?
that one's the monkey... i wish the orangutans came that close too
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