We took a taxi from Poring to Ranau in order to catch an Express Bus into Sandakan. The taxi cost us RM30, and the bus only an extra RM20…bargain! The ride took about 5hrs. We checked into The Samila Hotel which is a simple guesthouse in the middle of town. At RM58 a night we were sold!
We had breakfast at The Penang Curry House, a local favourite that does a mean Murtabak – which is similar to an omelette wrapped in a roti. You dip it in a chicken curry sauce. It was absolutely delicious! The staff in the restaurant was real friendly too. After breakfast we roamed around town and around 1pm we headed towards Sepilok Orang-Utan Rehab Centre which was 27kms away from town. We found out that Orang-Utan means Jungle People.
The feeding of the Orang-Utans were at 3pm and the crowd was slowly gathering. The feeding platform is actually very close and the Orang-Utans are only a few metres away. Sepilok houses around 100 Orang-Utans but only around 20 come back for regular feedings. We counted around 7 Orang-Utans, and most of them were little babies…so cute!! There were vicious wild monkeys that gather around and steal the food as well. They tried to scratch one of the tourist on the platform! That was pretty scary, we were all running away from the monkeys!
By the time we left the centre it was 4.10pm and the last bus back to town left at 4pm, no taxis anywhere…bugger! We decided to walk to the front of the gate where more buses were likely to arrive, that’s 2.5kms away! We started walking on the double, after about 15mins we saw a bus coming towards us. The guy waved at us and we ran towards it, never been happier! The bus was so hot and squashy but it was the only means of getting home. The bus ride only cost RM1.80 which was a big difference compared to the RM25 we paid for the taxi into Sepilok! We went thru some local villages and all the kids kept waving at us, they thought we were Japanese tourists! Ehehehe We probably had more fun riding the bus than visiting the Orang-Utan Centre!
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