Semenggoh, Borneo days

Flying above Kuching made us eventually grasp the importance of the moment: we were getting ready to land in the island of Borneo! The name itself summons images of deep jungle, wild animals and above all monkeys. From the airplane we could see a large winding river and vast extensions of rainforest. We were a bit tired after the night at Singapore's airport, but we felt ready for the adventure.

Welcome to Borneo

The arrival at Kuching airport marks also our return to the world of Couchsurfing. After a few failed attempts in Thailand and Malaysia, we have found again someone willing to host us. She even came to pick us up at the airport and drove us to her place, which turned out to be a hostel with a very special price for CS members. This kind of arrangement is not exactly orthodox for couchsurfing standards, but it was actually a good deal for us. It is cheap and many couchsurfers usually stay there, so it's easy to meet people. Furthermore Frankie, the owner, is always organising trips, dinners and activities for the guests. Right after our arrival she proposed a tour for the next day to the Semenggoh park, a small conservation area dedicated to orangutans. We wouldn't miss the chance!

The next day as promised Franky grouped a few couchsurfers in a couple of cars and drove us to the park. Along the way we stopped to pick-up a new guest that had just landed: the girl went straight from the airplane to a natural park... what a service!

Semenggoh is a relatively small forest park dedicated to the conservation of orangutans. It started as a rehabilitation centre in 1975, but it worked so well that soon the surrounding forest couldn't host any more animals and they had to be relocated to another park. Today they don't admit more animals for rehabilitation, focusing instead on preserving the well-being of the 27 orangutans that already live there, and studying their behaviour.

The animals are free to roam around the park as they please. Twice a day the park's staff offers them fruit at a couple of feeding platforms where the animals can come to eat. This is when tourists have a chance to see them, from observation points at safe distance. The rangers always remark that the animals do as they please, and they may decide not to show up, or come later when all the tourists have already left. We went twice to the park and enjoyed the sight of our reddish friends both times, but we've heard of a guest of our hostel who went five times to the park and didn't see them at all!

Feeding time!

Grabbing some fruit from the platform

and enjoying the treat

One banana per foot, one in the mouth... ready to go

 The name Orang Utans means literally "person of the forest" in Malay language, and it's a very appropriate name, since their behaviour is very human-like, just as the look in their eyes. We saw three-year old playing around like little kids, only to run towards their mum and jump on her back if something scared them. All the animals here are really entertaining to observe during the feeding time, while moving around the branches or simply hanging from a rope striking a funny pose while eating fruit. They may be dangerous as well, under certain conditions (especially with their child around). For this reason the rangers are always around, controlling that nothing bad happens.

This mum is a famous biter. Tourists, keep off her path!

This doesn't look comfortable

But we're not going to argue with her

Much scarier albeit less famous are the three cages containing three crocodiles. It was great to be able to observe them from so close, but even behind metal bars they are a really scary sight. It's terrifying to think that their brothers live in the rivers of this area. I don't think I'll ever swim here.

We enjoyed our visit to Semenggoh  so much that we went there again after a couple of days, but we could have gone there many times more. You never have enough! Here we really started to feel the magic of Borneo.