All too soon though, our glory had subsided and it was time for an emotional farewell with fellow king of the mountains, Rich, and push on across Borneo. Until next time good man. Next stop was Sepilok and a rare chance to see Orang Utans in their natural environment. A fairly well trodden path this seemed as on my bus across the island I teamed up with new friends Franz, Maartje, Alex, Claire and Johhny Irish for a few days. Yet more pleasant company and we soon found ourselves staring open mouthed at these strange orange beasts as they swung their way gracefully through the jungle before us. They seemed rather sad much of the time, perhaps they’ve had a hard time of it over recent years, or perhaps that’s just how they look. Us onlookers were certainly won over, particularly by the young ones sitting nervously struggling with bananas half their body size. We hitch-hiked nervously back into town sitting amongst large tanks leaking of petrol whilst watching the ash scatter wildly from our chain smoking truck driver and promptly celebrated our arrival, and a good trip, by hitting the local food market in Sandakan where I decided adventurously upon a tasty chicken heart kebab. It was a surprisingly tasty meal, until I realized that 9 chickens had died in order to make it…
We continued our good form by hitting the local nightclub for some sociable drinks. It was a particularly quiet night I thought as I headed to the toilet (first as per usual). Things had livened up somewhat upon my return however as I found everybody in the club celebrating my 23rd birthday. This was tremendously generous of them, particularly as it was 6 years too late. Before I knew it then, I was on first name terms with the live band and was up at the front having a dance with the lead singer. We taught the locals how to Macarena, sank a few more drinks, and turned in pleased at a good day’s work.
Paths though, all too soon diverge and I was off again. Having hit the heights of Borneo, I thought it was time to explore the depths, around the reefs of Sipadan.
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