Travel 012 : Sandakan, Sabah : 15 Jun 2012 : Sepilok

Sepilok has two attractions namely RDC (Rainforest discovery centre) and the orang-kutan rehab center.  We planned to cover both of them today as we will be moving to Sandakan tomorrow.  The rehab centre attracts crowd only two times a day when they feed the orang-kutan (at 10am and 3pm).  so we decide to go to the RDC first when the sun was not punishing much (relatively speaking) and try to catch the 3pm feeding at the rehab center.  Both are just five minutes drive away and our lodge is just in-between.

RDC is a huge rain forest reserve with trails of different length and difficulty.  It also has a canopy walk which is only partly open and also a plant discovery garden.  When we visited in June 2012, they were constructing a huge car park and so we end up parking our car at the road side.  But with traffic almost nonexistent only with a few tourist buses and few cars, this is not a problem.  We started with the plant garden.  It was well sign-boarded and categorized that my daughter able to locate and pin-point many species.  It was raining last night and we still had some wetness on the ground.  I guess because of the rain, there were many mosquito like flies that bothered my younger one.  As it was just the beginning of our walk into the RDC, we have to keep the kids encouraged to proceed further.  As we came out of the garden by walking over a hanging bridge, we started into a trail.  Walked about half-a-kilometer and across a ginger garden, we spotted the first set of monkeys in the wild.  That was also the place where the canopy walk started and so we climbed many steps to enter into the bridge. 

Each pillar connecting the walk also act as a watching tower. Walking along this elevated path, we spotted a couple of birds and we walk back to take some rest at the only restaurant in the RDC.  Though we carried water with us, after long walk, anything cool that we drink is a heaven and so gulped a Fanta.  With the clock only showing about 10.30 am, we want to walk along the "Pita path" and see the Sepilok giant.  It is a tree believed to be the biggest and oldest in Sepilok.  As we walked along the pita path, it was proving to be more and more tougher (especially with young kids).  But at the end, we got to see the giant tree.  Walked back along another path that loops back to the restaurant.  By this time, everybody could make a call to go back to the lodge.  We walked back to the main entrance and drive back to the lodge.  It was already about 1.30 pm and we took our lunch at the lodge and ready to visit the rehab center.  At about 2.45, we entered into the center and joined many tourist groups that were arriving for the 3.30pm feeding time. 

Along with the crowd and under the hot sun, we were waiting and hoping to see some orang-kutans.  The rehab center is targeting these monkeys to live their own life (it is a rehab center after all) and so this feeding is not the main source of food.  Also, the forest is being too wide that some orang-kutans have to travel few kilometers if they want to make it to the feeding place.  With all these, there is no guarantee that we get to see any orang-kutans, but yet, we waited patiently.  Nearing 3.30pm, there was a man carrying food and sat on the platform.  Along came one orang-kutan.  We were watching at far distance into the jungle to see for any tree movements.  At the end all we got to see are wild squirrels, flying lizard and some birds.  As a consolation there was only one monkey on the platform for the entire period.  At one side, it is nice to observe that the orang-kutans are more self -reliant that they didn't turn up for the feeding.  On the other side, for the money we paid (60 MYR per person), we saw no monkeys.

With this, we return to our lodge, had coffee and snacks and rested for the rest of the day and enjoyed the serene surroundings of the lodge.