It was Dave’s birthday whilst we were there and to celebrate we were up at 6am one day to catch a bus to hopefully see our first orangutans at Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. There are a couple of places to potentially see orangutans in Sarawak but we decided this was the easiest way to see them for us on a day trip. We walked to Plaza Merdeka and found the bus in the local square, which would take us there. We got on early when it arrived and then it filled up with lots of locals and lots of backpackers, eager like us to catch a glimpse of these majestic creatures in a semi-wild environment. The bus there took an hour (4RM) and dropped us off at the entrance.
We purchased tickets, 10 RM, from the ticket office and walked the 20minutes into the park eager to get there. Once entering the park areas there were several paths through the jungle you could take that all lead up to viewing platforms. There are two feeding hours per day, once in the morning (9am-10am) and once in the afternoon (3.00pm-4.00pm). These feeding times allow tourists the potential opportunity to see them. It is not guaranteed that you will see them due to them having the potential to rome the jungle and live off this. This center has 653 hectares of forest which the orangutans can rome freely in. Many of them have been brought from the wild to the center due to injury or deforestation which has lead them to be captured and moved to the park to not interfere with crops, be kept as pets or killed. Due to injuries some of the orangutans fill their diets with the fruit provided by the rangers and are not confident to go into the jungle on their own. Others once rehabilitated, and gain confidence may go off into the jungle and live off the natural resources within it. Another good thing about the Semenggoh is the Wildlife Centre where you can see where the Orangutans are taught to fend for themselves before being released into the forest.
We went for the morning session and were incredibly lucky as at the main viewing platform when we first arrived there were two playful orangutans gracing us with their presence, before we had even had the morning briefing from the rangers. At 9am the other observations trails/areas opened and we got two see two more older orangutans and a baby hanging around and eating bananas. It was a magical experience to see these creatures in the jungle, even if it is not fully wild. It is great to know there are a few of these rehabilitation centers working to save the population of the bornean orangutans.
When the hour was up we walked back through the park and waited for the bus for a few minutes before catching it back to town, thrilled that our mission had been successful. To celebrate Dave’s birthday we found a nice restaurant and had a meal at The Barber. This had a very cool design aesthetic with lots of traditional barber shop props. We had delicious burgers and beers, worth the slightly higher price (25MYR & 20MYR), before finding more cheap beer at The Wrong Place.
Alex
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