Today we needed to do some work in the morning and so we could only go out to see wildlife a bit later on. The downside of being in the jungle is that you can’t really connect to the internet wherever you are as most places don’t have GPRS, much less 3G. To get around this, we have to do all our work in the hotel room where they have a high-speed internet connection.

This leads to certain “problems”. For example, we wanted to stay in a lodge in the middle of the jungle to observe wildlife day and night for a few days, but since we need internet access to keep up with our work, we had to book a hotel that has a fast connection, and the ones that do are a few hours drive from the heart of the jungle. I guess we’ll have to get used to this as we travel the world balancing our work with our blog.

Anyway, after we finished the things we had to do, we set off to the Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Reserve. This reserve is really part of a palm-oil plantation. Around 7 years ago, it seems the owner decided to do something about the proboscis monkeys on the mangrove swamp he owned, and turned it into a wildlife sanctuary for them.

At first I was a bit disillusioned with this reserve, it seemed a lot smaller than the Sepilok orangutan sanctuary, and more intent on taking tourists’ money than it did on helping wildlife. First of all, foreigners have to pay 3 times more than locals to get in, then if you bring a camera, you have to pay and if you bring a video camera you have to pay more. These camera charges have nothing to do with helping wildlife as a non-flash camera doesn’t harm them at all! But everyone here makes tourists pay to bring cameras in, and they figure if tourists have come so far, they won’t want to leave without a photo!

However, after talking to the people who work in this reserve, I think it’s actually a positive thing for the wildlife. Sure, they’ve lost most of their habitat to the plantation, but at least the plantation is now taking care of them. And even though it may only be doing so to get tourist dollars, at least that is motivating them to do something for the wildlife.

 

Apart from the proboscis monkeys, we also saw two species of horn bills (Grace got her wish! ), macaques and the silver leaf monkey (languor). On our way out we had another funny encounter with nature as an otter had gotten into our car and seemed to be enjoying it too much to leave!

 

Tomorrow we’ll be flying to Kota Kinabalu and off to see new wildlife and places in nature!

If any of you are considering Sandakan, here are some tips. Tours are generally overpriced, way above what you would expect in a place like this, but there is almost no way to visit the places on your own, so you have to go with a guide. And if you don’t need internet, you’re probably better off getting a package that includes all tours and accommodation in a rain forest lodge!

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