thought i will be coming back on the 23rd, but the flight back to johore is on 21st. good also lah, cos i really miss sg, miss my home, and of course miss darling.
i must say the sabah trip is very fun. its a different type of holiday compared to the previous ones that i had been to. i get in close contact with nature, by taking river cruise along the banks of rainforest, jungle trekking in the rainforest, watching newly hatched baby turtles venturing out to sea. all these are really unforgettable. the pace of life in sabah is very laid back, and everything is done at a very slow pace, and time passes by really very slowly. i think its a good break from the busy and stressful city life in singapore.
must also mention my tour mates, who make the trip unforgettable. i made two new friends. one is meishan, who is a bio teacher in a girls' top school. she is a very vocal person, 快人快语，有话直说，has strong leadership qualities, and loves animals. another girl is arlene, also a bio teacher in a neighbourhood sch in the west. she is different from meishan, very quiet, gentle, and always say everything in complete sentences. she dun like to use short form, or broken sentences when she speaks. amazingly she doesnt teach english.
last but not least, is my colleage deyang, who jio-ed me for this trip. well i must say he is a amazing person. dun see him skinny and nua, but he enjoys outdoor activities. he is very knowledgeable, loves eco-tourism, and is very strong in the command of both english and mandarin languages, be it written or spoken form. he teaches biology and english. btw deyang, meishan and arlene were course mates in nie.
ok now let's talk about day 1.
we went to sepilok, to visit the orang utan sanctuary. orang utans are now considered endangered species, so the purpose of the sanctuary is to protect them from getting extinct. there is a big platform, where during feeding times, all the orang utans will gather at the platform to eat bananas and jack fruits. not only were there orang utans, there were also monkeys, called long-tailed macque.
from left to right: deyang, arlene, meishan, me.the orang utans are very well-behaved. but the long-tailed macaques are brats. they snatch food from their own kind, and even fight with one another just for a single banana. its damn scary seeing them fighting and screeching. meishan said that the macaques are like that, and they are not scared of human beings. they can also be found in singapore, for example macritchie reservoir, and sometimes they will snatch food from the public.
our first night's lodging is this ulu placed called sepilok b&b. b&b stands for bed and breakfast. its a very cheap dormitory, and cost 23 ringgit for one person for one night.
cannot expect anything much from a place like that. i am just thankful that the toilet is not dirty, and got hot water for us to shower. there is even internet access too. the only bad thing is that there are hell lots of mosquitoes, but well, if you look at the pictures, this kind of forested area confirm will breed lots of mosquitoes.
