Returning to Kuching & Hotel pinball

I’d got used to the bugs, spiders, lizards and general rainforest by the morning we left Batang Ai (spiders back at home have no chance now). The 2 hour boat ride back to civilisation passed without even a drop of rain, although we found out that we were due to be carrying back 2 large cool boxes of fish in the bus (minibus, so no external boot area to store them in). For a 6-7 hour bus journey in the heat and humidity of Borneo 2 large boxes of fish doesn’t seem like a happy travel companion. Especially as, when we finally set off, they leaked water across the floor of the bus when we went downhill. Richard quickly stopped off at the first town to remedy this by emptying the water and adding fresh ice. He also then put them on top of the back seats, which looked slightly precarious. One inevitably fell, dripping fishy water onto a bag of freshly washed clothes, and the other sat there, ready to be flung forwards over us at the first emergency stop (fortunately no emergency stops were required). The journey went fine, encouraged by the fishy aroma I felt slightly car sick, but we got to the outskirts of Kuching by 5ish, where we found out Basaga (the hotel we stayed at the first night and run by the charity) is fully booked so we were dropped off at a nice, clean, modern hotel (it has hot showers!!!) in the centre of Kuching, with great views across the city. A great place to be based to explore the city a bit tomorrow morning. 

We headed out for dinner at Top Spot, a massive food market on the top floor of a car park. It was relatively complicated to order anything as there weren’t many menus, we didn’t know which vendors served which tables, and one of the group (hard to not name names by this point) drove me up the wall ordering food. Very very close to losing my temper for the first time this trip. However he food turned out to be delicious and, by chance rather than design, exactly the right amount for us all. We then headed over to monkey bar, another establishment run by The Orangutan Project (if we were going to drink, let it at least help the charity right?). We did pass a very fun looking karaoke/not karaoke bar (it was a band playing that sounded like karaoke, so hilariously terrible) however this was rudely dismissed as a s***hole by the same nightmare of a member of the group who’d made ordering dinner so difficult. However brushing this aside we had a great night, all got far too drunk, and ended up back at the hotel at 3am. 

My solo explore of Kuching in the morning was a reluctant one. The combination of hangover and hot sun led me quickly back to the hotel and the comfy, air conditioned bed. I did however see the waterfront, parliament and Chinatown, alongside some very entertaining graffiti, so not a morning entirely wasted. 

The afternoon was spent at Semanggol, a semi-wild orangutan sanctuary. Semi-wild essentially means wild, however they leave fruit at feeding platforms twice a day to provide a fallback option for hungry orangutan outside of fruiting season. A good thing, however the idea of getting orangutan back out into the wild, while providing a platform where large groups of humans can watch them eat, is a paradox when they’re trying to get them back to fully self-sustaining, naturally behaving animals. Another one of the governments facilities which has a great intention but with a kicker designed to bring in tourists. We were very fortunate and saw a large male orangutan feast on bananas and durian, then swing up into the trees. It’s incredible to think that a 120kg primate can move from tree to tree, they don’t swing like other apes, but literally bend the tree trunk until it reaches another tree for them to cling onto. An amazing scene to witness. 

Happy to have seen a semi-wild chap we headed back to the bus and towards Kuching where we were meant to be staying at Basaga for our final night and goodbye meal. Once again the organisation broke down and we didn’t, for whatever reason, stay at Basaga but back at the Harbour View hotel, where we had checked out from just this morning. Ridiculous planning. After stopping off for some much needed fast food (we didn’t get lunch) we arrived and again settled in. We were treated to a western style meal for our farewell dinner (burger, yum) by Leo and I said my goodbyes as my flight is at 5:45am tomorrow morning and I hadn’t made good enough friends that are willing to get up at 3:00am to wish me safe passage.

To summarise the trip; the second week was amazing, which made up for a slightly lacklustre first week with questionable planning. Borneo as a country is complex, but the natural areas are stunning and the animals beautiful. We clearly have to do so much more to retain our stunning natural environment. Also conservation is tough, really really tough. The orangutan is essentially already functionally extinct (past the point of saving) unless we (the governments of today) radically change their policies of logging, farming and tourism in order to save our natural habitats. And no, £3 a month doesn’t save an orangutan, £3 a month saves nothing, £20 a day might save an orangutan if we’re lucky. The whole experience has made me much more conscious about our impact on the planet and, in particular, it’s animals, and I hope to be able to be involved in conservation much more going forwards. So I guess a hugely informative and transformative experience, also pretty fun and I got some great pictures.