Malaysia - Sandakan and Sepilok

From the jungle we took a shared car to Sandakan, a city on the very north east end of Borneo. This is a very small town with not much to do. We wandered around and saw the sites in a few hours, but more exciting than the tourist spots were the surprisingly nice and helpful people we met in this town. After traveling for so long I have a bias when I meet new people that they are going to want something from me, most often in the form of money. It sounds very jaded, but it is a true surprise when people are being genuinely helpful and just want to make sure you are ok. In this one day in Sandakan we were helped by many people. For example, Helen's computer had broken and we were wandering around a shopping area trying to find a place to get it fixed. A man saw us and asked what we needed. We were both tired and not acting overly friendly, but the guy offered to help us find a store. We thought he was just going to show us on a map where to go, but he ended up taking us to the bus stop, getting on the bus with us, buying our bus tickets, going 4 miles out of his way to find the store, walking us to the place, explaining in Malay to the guys at the store what we wanted, and then promptly leaving us once he saw we were ok and knew how to get back. Stuff like this happened a few times, and I was blown away by the hospitality of Borneo.

Very near Sandakan is the Sepilok Orangutan conservatory. This conservatory takes in abandoned and orphaned Orangutan and nurses them back to health. They teach them over time to survive in the wild and take small steps to reintroduce them to the forest. There is a nursery, and then a series of feeding platforms that go deeper and deeper into the jungle. The idea is that over time they will get more comfortable and be able to go off on their own. The first feeding platform is open for tourists to come watch, so at set feeding times you are able to get a close view of the animals. Orangutan literally means 'man of the jungle' in Malay, and these guys are so human like that it's kind of scary. While Orangutans used to be more widespread, they are now only found on Borneo and Sumatra (an Indonesian island), and are endangered.

The Orangutans seemed to know when the feeding was going to start, and one by one climbed closer to the platforms using ropes that were hung from the trees. They are more solitary animals so they kept to themselves, but some seemed to watch us just as much as we watched them.
Here you can see one guy eating on the platform. There were also a bunch of Macaques that tried to steal the leftover food but seemed terrified of the Orangutans.
Really cute Mom with her baby.
A few of the Orangutans came up right in front of the crowd and settled into this position. They then proceeded to poop right in front of us. I'm pretty sure they thought it was funny.
Some of the bigger Macaques can be kind of aggressive, and you aren't supposed to make eye contact with them. On the path back after the viewing one of the larger males got angry and almost attacked one of the people walking past. He showed his teeth (very sharp) and sat like he was going to pounce. As we were waiting for the bus another one was climbing on this guys car while the guy threw him food. Maybe not the smartest idea...