Orangutans and Rain
Trip Start
Jan 15, 2007
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5
Trip End
Feb 01, 2007
Where I stayed
Sandakan & Sepilok, Sabah, Malaysia
Sunday, January 28, 2007
In Sandakan we were able to visit the Orang Utan sanctuary at Sepikok. It is in a beautiful setting but alas, we visited on another heavily rainy day. We only saw 5 orangs as most of them did not want to venture to the feeding area under the deluge. It was actually kind of disappointing as we really can get a much better look at them at the Sacramento Zoo. Nevertheless we saw them in their true habitat and I must admit the little ones especially were awfully cute.
Sandakan was a bit dreary because of the weather. We hit a spell of rain which dampened our visit to the Orangutan sanctuary. However, it is a beautiful location with floating mosques, Chinese temples and houses on stilts.
We also visited the Sandakan Death March and POW memorial...a camp established by the Japanese in World War II which housed British and Australian and New Zealand prisoners. The existence of this camp resulted in the deaths of more than 3,600 Indonesian civilians and 2400 Allied POWS. By the end of the war, of all the prisoners who had been incarderated at Sandakan and Ranau (the site where the March began) only six Australians survived, all of whom had escaped.
