Arriving in Borneo & an easy mistake to make

The flights over to Malaysia were as good as can be expected, despite the standard annoying/odd people on both the Auckland to KL and KL to Kuching flights (fat smelly man, loud talking kiwi, tissue throwing children). Despite it only being a fortnight I found myself getting quite emotional about being away from Amelia for 2 weeks. We’ve been together literally every hour of every day for the last 10 weeks so I guess it’s to be expected. She’s off to Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Singapore with her mum while I’m in Borneo seeing the wildlife and local communities. 

Arriving at Kuching airport after the long night of travel feeling pretty shattered Amelia and I had our emotional goodbye before I picked up some cash and Leo, the chap who runs the charity projects here, whisked us (Melanie, another girl on the project, and I) off to the hotel in Kuching where we were staying for the night. Tomorrow we head into the rainforest for the start of the project. Our hotel for the night is very quaint/charming. It’s like a little green oasis off the very busy highway somewhere in Kuching (don’t have a clue of the geography at the moment so couldn’t point to it on a map). There’s a courtyard with pools, loads of green, and a massive decorated Christmas tree in the centre. It’s very strange seeing Christmas decorations up when the weathers so hot and humid. We checked in at 1 and had our welcome meal at 6 so had a nice bit of time to relax and get washed from the excessive day of travelling. I’m sharing a room with one of the other volunteers called Michael who was already in Kuching so was getting themselves over to the hotel sometime in the afternoon. 

That evening we all met in the courtyard for the welcome meal where we realised the mistake Leo had made. Michelle rather than Michael arrived, to all of our surprise, so our group comprises of 5 of us. Alex, one of the vets who works for the charity came to meet us and talk us through the project as Leo’s house had apparently had a fire, not ideal in the slightest. The food was great, the company as good, and at about half 9ish I headed to bed absolutely shattered.

Let’s just say it was fortunate I had earplugs last night otherwise I wouldn’t have got much sleep. At all (somebody snores). Breakfast was great though, some sort of vegetable samosa being the star of the show, and I realised I actually quite like iced tea. After an incredibly interesting half hour chat with Leo about the animals in general, Borneo and the government we headed off to the Matang Wildlife Sanctuary just outside of Kuching. After a delicious lunch (if all the foods that good I’m going to be very happy, none of it was even very spicy which is great) we were dropped off at our accommodation for the next couple of nights, which is apparently the most basic of anywhere we’re going to stay on the trip. If it is it’ll be perfectly happy as it’s actually way better than I thought it was going to be. I’ve got the added benefit as I’m the only man on the trip I have my own 4 bed room and bathroom to myself. Luxury.

This afternoon we had a guided tour around the sanctuary by Alex, one of the vets here. On a tangent but she actually has a baby pangolin in a box in her car. I’ve now learnt that pangolins are incredible endangered and the most hunted mammal on the planet. Their scales are used in traditional Asian medicine. Someone found it on the side of the road and reported it but they don’t have the space here at the centre so they’re having to take care of it from their homes in the box and today was the first day Alex had managed to get it to eat ants. In the centre as a whole there’s a huge array of animals, saved from around Borneo in various different states of health. Most of their animals are illegally kept pets or found and reported by people (like the pangolin). There’s a complex political situation here, whereby the centre is actually run by the government (department of conservation) and the Orangutan Project (the charity we’re here with) work with the animals rehabilitation and, where possible, release back into the wild. A lot of animals can’t be released as their behaviour is so changed by their interaction with humans that they just won’t be able to survive in the wild. However I got to see my first orangutans, they’re amazing. As it’s the start of monsoon season now it was raining pretty heavily on our tour, and apes do not like the rain. One was using a bit of cloth to shelter, another some leaves, all very unsuccessfully. Around the rest of the centre are other monkeys, birds of all shapes and sizes, porcupines, turtles, sun bears, the list goes on. We also, after being told that we probably wouldn’t see any snakes as they’re scared of humans, saw a green viper in the middle of the road. These are very dangerous and can require amputation if it’s a bad bite. Also there are apparently loads of these in the rainforest where we’re going later on in the project. Excellent news. 

This evening we had a brilliant meal once again and, because it’s too wet to go on a night hike, we saw a couple of movies about the orangutan conservation mission and the Matang Wildlife Centre itself. Eye opening and pretty tragic to see how badly humans are affecting the orangutan’s home. I’m absolutely shattered now so very much looking forward to a much better night sleep than last night in my own room. I’ve attempted to erect our mosquito net by duck taping the edges to the wall. We’ll just have to see how successful that is by morning...