Good evening peeps,
As many of you know, Kaela and I have recently returned from Sarawak, one province of Malaysian Borneo. We flew into Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, and proceeded to use it as our home base. The evening we arrived, as it turned out, was the first night of the Mooncake Festival (A Chinese festival. We were unable to get a clear answer on what it was celebrating, though). This meant that right outside our hostel the street was packed with all types of food stalls and tons and tons of people. We spent the evening sampling one of everything. Kaela claims her favorite was the stall serving sword sized skewers of honey roasted chicken wings and I personally loved the barbecued corn on the cob.
The next day, we hit up Semmengoh Orangutan reserve. Just a short bus ride from the city, it is filled with rehabilitated orangs. It is so successful, that they have to supplement their diet with fruit and things because the forest is above its natural carrying capacity. Hanging around close the interpretive center was the 'Hot Mama' of the forest and her newest baby. They call her that because her bangs and the hair around her face has a unique style to it. Her baby was still young and although he never left her body, he was scrambling all over her the entire time. They were not even 10 ft away in a tree and we got some great close-ups.
The morning feeding was then held a short distance into the jungle. We got to watch as a half dozen orangutans worked their way through the tree tops and took their turn grabbing some bananas, coconuts, and maybe a sweet potato and then climbing off to enjoy their snack. The highlight was when, after some huge crashes and swaying trees in the distance, the old alpha male Ritchie made his way to the platform. Everyone else didn't dare interrupt him, so he had his pick of the food until he was all filled up. Although most of these animals are technically only semi-wild, it was great to see them in their natural habitat.
