Saturday, February 25, 2006
Working Out Well
There won't be too many Orang photos from here at Sepilok though, at least not from our work areas as these are not allowed until the time we leave. But i'll see what i can do ;-)
If not, i can still add plenty of new ones from our time at Rasa Ria. Only as a last resort will i revert to more shots of damp underwear drying on the line. Ok Keith? :-)
First work day proper at Indoor Nursery and Quarantine.
Although it's called Indoor Nursery as well as the indoor night cages there are also 2 large outdoor cages where the older and fitter ones spend daytime before they return to the indoor cages for sleeping in. These youngsters are at the first stages of rehabilitation.
The Quarantine area is where new arrivals spend there first 3 months before being allowed to join the others in whatever section is most appropriate for their age and development.
This morning was a bit chaotic, they are not as structured or organised as i would have expected so it was quite hard to keep track of exactly who had been doing what jobs and when. We have some crib sheet instructions to follow but usually we have to try to double check with one of the permanent rangers.
At the end of the morning climbing session i had my first orangutan "golden shower". Merudu (who along with Sogo Sogo is one of two little girls who are particularly frightened of men) decided to panic and unload on me. She placed it perfectly so it looked like i had wet myself, which highly amused Vicky and Nick!
Maybe tomorrow morning i'll have a shave before work, then maybe she'll start to love me a bit more?!
By lunchtime we were a little behind with the schedule but not bad for a first day. The afternoon shift went much better. We had the feeding and cleaning done in good time so the afternoon play session for the older ones was a full 90 minutes. For super-climber Susanna it was a lot longer as she disappeared up into the tree tops and refused to come down by the time we left work!! Elis the Head Ranger reckoned she would make her own way back down after we had left so he said he would put her back in the Nursery later. Fingers crossed she'll be back inside tomorrow or we would have had just witnessed our first release back into the wild (but several years before she is ready!!).
Another good day - all of us now very tired, sweaty and smelly but with VERY BIG grins on our faces. Really feel like we are contributing a lot to the rehabilitation process now.
After a freshen up it was haircut time - resident masterchef Amoi, queen of the ping pong table, dutchess of all card games turned out to be the demon barber too...


...ps i'm not being rude, that's just me ordering a number 1 on the sides, honest ;-)
Friday, February 24, 2006
"Real" Orangutan Work Begins
What i call "proper" orangutan work began today. We went down to the Indoor Nursery and Quarantine area with Caroline and Ruth so they could start the handover of those duties to Group 1. Officially we start there tomorrow but this way we can hit the ground running. Also it was a sunny day so a great chance for us to get a good number of the Orangutans outside for some exercise and play which has been severely limited lately because of the rains, which have conveniently stopped since we returned from KK. Maybe this is the end of the rainy season at last??!!
Duties started with a bit of cage cleaning and then some milk preparation and bottle feeding. A couple of the youngsters needed bathing too.
All in all i'd say we have about 20 orangutans to look after in these two areas. The majority of them are between 6 months and 7 years old, the one BIG exception is Bidai, a large adult male over 20 years old with big cheek pads and a gruff roar, who is currently in quarantine but (thankfully) we heard today had just been accepted to transfer to the new KK zoo any day now. Bidai is a very sad case. He can never be rehabilitated because is partially paralysed on the right side of his body after being crushed by a tree that was being felled. At least at KK zoo he will have a much bigger enclosure than can be offered here and should live out the rest of his days in some degree of relative comfort.
Mid-morning to lunchtime is the time to take out some of the younger OUs for exercise and climbing. Today there were 5 of us so we took one each. One of the 5 was Sogo Sogo, my adopted little girl. She is very cute, with very long hair including a huge shock of it on her head. A bit like Mowgli at Rasa Ria would have looked before his head was shaved!
She is incredibly nervous with Nick and I, pretty much refusing any contact with us and sticking with the girls. Her nerves will probably ease over the next 9 days as she begins to associate us with food and fun! Sogo and a young male called Eniro are both excellent climbers. I can already see that these sessions are going to be a real chance for us to improve their lives and promote some of the skills they will need if they are to be released into the wild several years down the line.
After lunch it was more cleaning and feeding and giving out electrolites to drink, then we were able to take out 6 of the older OUs for their exercise.
The biggest of them was Kimbal, who i think is about 6 years old and a bit of a bully to the others and to us. Had my first bite of the day from him too. Nothing major, he didn't draw blood!
Walking back together we reflected on the day and still had a real buzz - this is what we came here for!!!
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Day started badly and ended worse...

Ruth popped into the Nursery to check on Juri - news was better than expected. Texted Yvonne to let her and the other Singapore escapees know.
Took a ride into Sandakan town with Nick, Caroline, Vicky and Rebecca to get some more phone credit, check out the cheap DVDs etc.
Had good lunch at Fat Cats cafe and some great cakes at Fat Cats cake shop next door. 3 cakes for less than 3RM (that's less than 50p!) - Ness you'd be in heaven there!
Nick needed to post a parcel, and had a very dry mouth after putting over 50 stamps on it!!!...


At the supermarket i picked up a bottle of a local "brew", not entirely sure exactly what it is (probably a rice wine cunningly disguised in a large old Carlsberg glass bottle!) but at 4RM (65p) it's worth a tryout. A few of us also picked up some cheap DVDs which are good for the quiet evenings in here. Official DVDs work out about £3 each and "copies" are about £1.
The return journey to the resthouse was an experience - 5 of us plus the old Hongkonese driver squeezed into an early 70s Nissan with bench seats front and rear. It appeared to have very little in the way of brakes and even less in the way of suspension movement! I think the car was probably worth less than the fare home!
Back at the resthouse, more bad news from Ruth as we found out that Juri had just died.
That's two youngsters who have slipped away now in past 3 days. Not at all what we expected when we started here :-(
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
A Sitting Down Day :-(
Up at 9.30am. Lazy day in prospect, but not quite as much fun as I expected in reality......spent as much time on the loo today as in front of the laptop catching up with the blog.
Last time I ever have a KFC........ hmmm, well, maybe the last time i ever have a KFC at an airport........ well, okay, okay, maybe that's pushing it too far still - how about that's the last time i'll ever have a KFC at Kota Kinabalu airport. I can live with that. I think....... ;-)
Need another early night tonight as tomorrow at 3.45AM I'm hoping to watch Chelsea v Barcelona live via the Astro satellite dish here.
Bit too early for a beer maybe? I'll let you know....
Update: There is a big concern today about another of the orangutans, Juri, who is also showing signs of fever. He will need to be monitored closely...
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Final Words of Wisdom From Rasa Ria

Once again today i was the Ranger who led the guests to the platform, walkie talkie in hand. This time though I had Francesca following me up and as she was at the front of the queue with me she got pole position on the viewing platform too!

Shame my 7-in-1 memory card reader isn't an 8-in-1 that handles Fuji xD media or i could have posted some of her pics here.



So off to the airport we went, traffic lighter than expected so we had 2 hours to kill before the short flight back to Sandakan. Tried once again to sort out my "Sepilok" Celcom SIM card at a phone shop at the airport but it still won't send or receive texts. Bummer. After that a quick KFC
Bit of a turbulent flight but got down safely, and it was kinda cool to watch one of the aircraft wheels right by my window as it touched the runway.
Our ride was waiting for us outside and soon we were back at the Resthouse. Expecting a big welcome back from the others we were greeted with SILENCE!! They had all gone out to dinner at the Banana Cafe up the road!
About an hour later they returned and we were all swapping stories.
The shock news was that one of the young orangutans, Akut Boy, had died today after a short period of fever. No one is sure what the cause was. Everyone understandably depressed.
From what we hear it seems that our suspicions are confirmed that the work at Sepilok is much more real and "hands on" and the Rasa Ria experiment is not going to be popular with the others...
Early-ish night back in an air conditioned room and a rest day ahead for most of us tomorrow, so drifted off to sleep dreaming of my first lie-in for ages..... total luxury!!!
Party at Aromaitie and Au Revoir Rasa Ria


Last night we took the Rangers from the Rasa Ria Nature Centre to a cafe to say "Thankyou" for putting up with us for the past 3 days. An unexpected bonus was a re-run of the CFC v Colchester cup tie on a big TV near our table.
Not much else to say about the night except that the food was good (nice Kung Po Chili Chicken) , everyone had a great time and the Tiger was well and truly tamed ;-)
This morning it was meant to be an early rise to pack up the bags and leave the hell hole of a room (at last!!!). Unfortunately the after effects of the Tiger mauling last night meant we didn't actually leave until 6.45am and therefore missed breakfast at the staff Cafe De Ria.
Nobody at the NIC is looking great today. I wonder why??!!

Well, just had lunch and gotta go back to work for our last afternoon, then it's a quick shower and change and off to KK airport for the flight back to Sandakan. It's been a really mixed past 9 days, some great memories but we can't help thinking that big parts of this stint were a bit off track from the main aims. I guess that's the problem with being guinea pigs - hopefully the later groups will get some benefit from our feedback.
Monday, February 20, 2006
Penultimate Day at Rasa Ria

Work Day 8 at Rasa Ria started in usual fashion with a 5.30am alarm (combination of my phone playing Star Wars Imperial March tune and Nick's playing some mystery tune that we all have grown to love!). My phone also had a text from Ness letting me know that Chelsea had knocked the mighty Colchester out of the FA Cup. Waved it in front of the Man Utd poster in the room and felt good.
Today was one of those days with no running water at the house. Not uncommon but at least last night was a little cooler in our room so no-one was feeling too mucky. Honest...
Our lift into work was late this morning - Remy lives opposite us and 15 minutes late he came rushing out of his house repeatedly saying "Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry" ad infinitum until we had reassured him for the 100th time it was OK.
Breakfast at the staff cafe was just toast today as the fried rice was either all gone or just off the menu. No Milo either, so a bad start to the day but it got a lot better...

Back at the NIC (Nature Interpretation Centre) base and it was time for Orangutan feeding once more. This time i was handed a walkie talkie and led the group of about 45 people to the platform.



Sunday, February 19, 2006
LOL
More mutterings of discontent from the troops in Group 1...
Nuff said.
Let's keep it positive from here on... :-)


Some days they can be quite quiet and even just disappear off into the trees but today they were happy to play close to the platform.
Having seen a good number of the feeding sessions now it always amazes me how some people make the trek up to the platform, watch for 5 minutes, take a couple of photos to prove they were there then wander back down. It is mostly the Japanese guests that do this, i mention that purely as an observation - no other agenda! Everyone is free to stay for an hour so why do they leave so quickly? Maybe it's the heat. The sessions usually get better as people leave too, the numbers on the platform start to reduce and the orangutans usually get a bit braver and move closer.
But I was caught out once when i suggested to some people they should want to wait to the end when the orangutans would probably come back from the trees. Of course that day they stayed away. Ranger Lynn just laughed and said that's why they don't try to suggest that to people at all!
Today we were allowed to take cameras with us to the platform so i also sneaked a few shots of the walk down too:
Nice boots Nick...
After the viewing the babies needed a bit of a hose down too...
Tonight the girls joined us and braved the ethnic menu at our "local" cafe Transit - great coconut Fran...