For David’s birthday we headed to Kuching, Malaysia. Borneo is an island administered by three countries (Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei).  About five years ago we visited Borneo for our first time, flying to Miri for scuba diving and Sandakan for wildlife, both of which we loved. The rainforest in Borneo is one of the oldest in the world and is estimated to be about 130 million years old. Orangutans can only be found in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra, and all three species are considered Critically Endangered. The word “orangutan” means ‘man of the forest’ in Malay.

I planned the trip so we would be trying to encounter semi-wild orangutans on David’s birthday. We flew to Kuching at 8 PM after work on Friday, and used Grab to get a taxi to a hotel near the airport, chosen because it looked clean and included breakfast. Little life hack, you can get a cheap sim card at the airport, and once you have a local number you can sign up for “Maxim” a local app like Uber/Grab, but it is much cheaper but we didn’t learn about it until the end of the trip. 

We checked out of the hotel around 7:30 AM and used Grab to get to the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre, which is an orangutan sanctuary and nature reserve. It offers the chance to get up close to semi-wild orangutan. Our Grab driver was super nice and offered to wait for us during our visit, which really helped because we could leave our baggage in his car. Don’t worry, we took our valuables and had airtags in the bags, and he had a 5 star review on Grab. The entrance to the sanctuary was just 10RM ($2), and we had a lovely 15 minute walk up to the feeding platform. There is an option to take a shuttle but the walk was beautiful and we even saw a wild orangutan in a tree! 

When we visited the Sepilok Orangutan Rehab Center in 2019, we saw many orangutans and we both loved it because it was our first time seeing them in the wild. But unfortunately we didn’t see any large males, which are identified by their large cheek pads. Then, we did a few nights along the Kinabatangan River to spot wildlife, and managed to see one male but it was very far on the top of a tree. So on this trip, we were both crossing our fingers for a male, and fortunately for us we saw two, one of which was the alpha male, which was so amazing to see up close. 

We also got to see an older female orangutan that looked like a sassy auntie. It was so cool to see each of their unique personalities. One of the males poured liquid on her head and she looked so disappointed. Then she moved to a tree to get some peace and quiet away from the others. The alpha male spent most of its time on the feeding platform, enjoying things like bananas and sugar cane. We also got to see it walk on two legs, and it’s crazy how much they resemble humans. Apparently we share like 97% of our DNA with them. Overall we watched them from like 8:30-10 AM before heading off to Permai Rainforest Resort, which was another epic adventure.