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We found a cheap flight from Bangkok to Kota Kinabalu with Air Asia. This was great as it brought us directly to Borneo so we could avoid traveling via Kuala Lumpur, saving us some time and money.

The Unique Wildlife of Borneo

Odv
2006-04-15 18:37:04

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a free meal.

Orang-utans are genetically speaking 96.4% identical to human beings and are one of the three closest relatives to us. Rather appropriately orang-utan is a Malay word that literally means "man of the forest".

When we arrived at the feeding spot, we saw two orang-utans in the distance. They made no attempt of approaching, so after about 30 minutes many of the visitors left to go see the movie. Apparently our furry tree-climbing relatives know this, so it was only after most people left that they came down from the trees to eat the food placed by park rangers.

At one point a squirrel walked across the rope, from which the orang-utans were hanging. Apparently orang-utans can be practical jokers as well; one of them, tugged at the rope and the squirrel nearly lost its balance!

Only one other visitor and us had been patient enough to wait, we quietly observed these two orang-utans peacefully eat sugarcane and bananas, until the park ranger finally came to kick us out.

Unfortunately, a lot of the forest in Sabah has been logged or replaced with palm oil plantations, drastically reducing the habitat of animals like the orang-utan.

We traveled on to Sandakan, where a memorial commemorates the death of 2400 British and Australian POWs through starvation, overwork, beatings and other punishments at the hands of Japanese imperial forces. Just before the end of the war the prisoners regardless of their health were forced to march to Ranau, 260 km west of Sandakan. Any prisoner who slacked off was shot and left in the bush. Those that made it to Ranau alive, were executed there. In total all but 6 of the prisoners died. The end of the war came just too late for them.

Near Sandakan on Selingan Island (a.k.a. turtle island), is a reserve open to tourists who wish to see the whole sea turtle reproductive process. We saw a nesting turtle, reburied the eggs in the hatchery and released young ...