Simon at Sepilok

Work was postponed today (well for a half day at least) so that we could attend the first ever Sabah cultural day.

At first I thought we were heading for some sort of daytime rave as the road we were heading down was getting smaller and bumpier with each passing kilometre. Eventually the free-for-all double and treble parking signalled we were there.

Ethnic regions from both Sabah and Sarawak had sent representative groups to dance and perform in front of some major big-wigs in the Malaysian and local government. One of the attendees was supposed to be the Malaysian Minister for Culture. I assume he/she was one of the "big four" allowed to relax at the front in the comfy leather armchairs...

As guests of the Malaysian Tourist Board we were treated as minor celebrities too, which meant we were allowed to stand quite near the Ministerial area for the dancing and speeches and gently simmer in the red-hot sunshine.

After the dancing we were led across to four large tented areas, each of which was hosting an actual wedding ceremony from four different ethnic regions of Sabah.

Once again we were treated as honoured guests and were encouraged to sit amongst each wedding group so that the Tourist Board photographer as well as friend and family of the wedded couples could take photographs of us all!

It seems that us Orang Puti (White Men) are still quite a novelty here.

By now we were all gasping for a drink and we managed to stake claim to the final half dozen coconuts. The whole place had run out of bottled water and canned drinks so we were quite lucky.

We left soon after that and stopped off at a supermarket for a well earned ice cream.
Boy was it hot today!

This afternoon 3 of us headed into work so that we could help clean up the orangutans and take a few of them out for exercise. As the sun was so strong today we had to use the more sheltered tree and rope area - I think Merudu, Annekara, Rosalinda and Eniro enjoyed the session as much as we did. It was also the first time that i've carried Merudu that she hasn't pee'd on me so i think she's finally starting to accept me!

Sogo-Sogo is still isolated in the Clinic area along with Naru and Nonong. She has a bad fever and is giving us all cause for concern. I managed to get her to eat some banana today which was better than yesterday, but she is still very weak. Hang in there my little one... :-(

After work, we were entertained by the continuing story of the new water tank. It was delivered to Sepilok by lorry last week but it wouldn't fit under the entrance sign (doh!). So it has been sitting on the grass outside the resthouse while a low trailer was constructed. Today it was finally moved into position and after one false start where it became wedged under the sign they finally managed to squeeze it through...