26. Day / 4th winter trip
Today it should be the day, I would tick a further box at my 'Lifetime-To-Do-List'.
The Semenggoh Nature Reserve is located approx. 25 miles south of Kuching, one should plan a good hour drive. Because one has to pass the airport out of Kuching (heavy traffic) and the road outside the city is quite narrow and full of trucks (slow). At the Semenggoh Nature Reserve 28 orangutans live in a rainforest of about 1,000 hectares. Unlike a zoo, the terrain is open, and so the orangutans could leave the area at any time and look for a different habitat. The Nature Reserve was founded by the Malaysian government in the 1970s to provide a habitat for displaced or abandoned orangutans. Today the grandchildren of the first primates live in the reserve, the alpha male is 35 years old and weighs 140 kilograms.
There are two daily feeding times, first one between 09 and 10 o'clock, 2nd one between 15:00 and 15:30. However, as the orangutans move freely in the huge reserve, and because mostly there's enough food to be found, there's no guarantee that one would see Orangutans at all. So raise the chance with an entrance ticket (US $ 2.20) for the morning spotting, one could come again in the afternoon. But one should plan 2 days, just in case no Orangutan shows up the first day.
Since the chance to see the orangutans is quite small, we decided to get ready for the morning feeding. So we took our breakfast at the still empty club lounge at 06:30, sat an hour later in our more comfortable Toyota Wish and left the hotel underground car park.
Good thing we left early, from the airport the traffic was quite strong, we also noticed that the rental car was only a quarter filled, so we could not cover today's route with the remaining fuel.
Even Google maps had problems to help finding our way, the system could only seldom locate our position, so that we had to search for our way to the destination.
First we drove past, because Google did not know about the entrance of Semenggoh Nature Reserve. Nevertheless, we succeeded, purchased 4 tickets at 40 Ringgit, then drove into the park to the still almost empty visitors car park.
From there walked in the drizzle via the visitor center (with smoking zone & washrooms) to the covered waiting area.
There, shortly before 9, we received a security briefing from a guide, that one should talk quietly, keep distance from the orangutans and should not take photos with flash. It was also made clear to us that there would be the possibility we would see: nothing!
At 9, a barrier was removed and we (about 20 people) were allowed to follow the guide through a mudpath through the rainforest to the feeding zone.
At the feeding zone there was a locked podium for the tourists
and opposite one for the orangutans. On this were already fruits laying.
And we were lucky, a male orangutan appeared, took fruits and moved away on a rope. Hanging on the rope he started eating.
But got even more lucky, a mother with her boy arrived, also took fruits, then hitched on the rope closer to the visitor podium,
to eat quite near to us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6_5...ature=youtu.be
It was interesting that the mother did not voluntarily give her boy food, instead he always had to grab the hand of his mother, took take some fruits. Only after the mother had brought the fruit from the podium for the third time, she gave something to her boy voluntarily.
As more and more people were pushing onto the podium, it was time for us to disappear, heading back for the car.
The 'Fairy Caves', or second stop, were about 25 miles west. Since Google maps did not work, the ride was a bit difficult, especially as the road conditions changed. In addition, the gasoline was running low, we realized that we would not return to Kuching.
The landscape, in combination with the deep hanging clouds, the rocky, wooded hills, all in green, was a dream. Unfortunately, there were also 'shadows', the first palm oil plantations spread out and made the landscape boring, uninspiring.
In Bau we found a gas station, filled up the car at US $ 10.50 for 5.5 gallons, bought some chilled, canned coffee.
Continue on the main road until the 'Fairy Caves' were signposted to the right. Car parked in the visitor's parking lot, first enjoyed the scenery.
Bought admission tickets at 5 ringgits.
First one has to climb the tower by stairs, then over another stairway to the entrance of the cave.
Inside, it is really steep and narrow, two long, slippery ladders lead upwards
to the main cave.
The condition of the stairs, ladders, and wooden bridges, let's say, is pretty much like all we've already seen on Borneo, in dissolution.
Some more steep, worn-out concrete steps upwards, until we came to the entrance of a large cave, deep into the mountain. There was a signboard 'no entry' - which invited us, exactly, to enter. The concrete path continued into the dark. Since we were alone in the cave, we switched on the flashlight of our mobile phones and got deeper, into the mountain. The path became worse, some pieces of wood were missing on the somewhat rotten wooden stairs and bridges. But what we saw compensated, we came into very large halls, saw flying bats, very impressively.
Our ladies did not feel comfortable any more and the way was getting worse and worse. So just before a big lake, with a bridge in disappear over it, turned around, came back into the big main cave, wandered around, admiring the vegetation
and plants.
We then had seen enough, descended to the car, drove almost an hour back to the hotel.
Since we were hungry, we were looking for a 'Warung' (typical Malay restaurant) near the hotel. Here, of course, typical Malay food was on offer for self-service.
A plate taken, loaded and to checkout, where we paid for four of us US $ 4.
If you like it spicy, the food was completely okay. Since our friends are not used to the extreme spiciness however, we ordered another two Roti with egg and onions
- nothing special at all.
For a double espresso up to the club lounge and to the room, we needed to recover a bit, especially me, who was driving.
Around 6:00 pm we met at the club lounge, ate some fruit to get out of the hotel at around 19:30 towards the highly recommended 'Kubah Night Market'.
This market is located on the other side of the river, right on the bank. We parked the car and searched for the entrance. In principle it is a series of food stands of the more simple type, with tables in the direction of the river.
The food offered didn't convince, so we walked briefly to the fruit & vegetable market to buy some fruits.
The offer does not correspond to what one expects of a tropical country, no comparison to Thailand where prepared ready made mangos, pomelos, papayas, etc. are waiting for the customers. Here there were only whole fruits, problematic without kitchen or even cutting knife. Also the offer was pretty bad, apples, bananas of all sizes, small pineapples, half rotten peaches, imported kiwis - not impressive at all. The only convincing was the selection of different chilis.
After we had bought bananas, mangoes and a guava we drove back to the city center, we had decided to go to a restaurant, which offered typical 'Borneo cuisine' (Dayak kitchen), the 'Lepau'
Is wasn't located far from the hotel, we first checked the interior,
then decided for a table outside.
We ordered 'Fish Umai', a starter made with lemon juice, chili and onion, marinated fish (left) as well as dark rice cooked in a banana leaf.
The Borneo-style 'Ceviche' was very specific in the taste, very fishy - the rice was overcooked and very tasteless.
As main dishes, we had chose 'Ayam Pansuh', chicken cooked in bamboo,
a chicken soup with sour aubergine and 'Midin', a fern growing in the rainforest, seasoned with garlic.
I'm not a big fan of boiled chicken, there wasn't hardly any taste, boring. The rainforest fern one could eat, also the soup soup - but the rest was, in my opinion, inedible.
Including drinks we paid only US $ 18 - but for non-tasty food it was too much. But, no matter, we had tried typical Borneo cuisine on the end.
Back to the hotel.