Kuching, Borneo (Part 1/In Search Of Orangutans!)

We left Langkawi 6.9 and flew to the Malaysian part of Borneo called Sarawak.  The capital city is Kuching (which means 'cat' - the city was named this due to a misunderstanding with a Brit guy called James Brooke who sailed here around 1838 and helped the locals win an uprising against the Sultan Of Brunei and went on to become the Sultan Of Sarawak himself).
After a smooth flight of 2 hrs, a cheap taxi ride from the airport (thanks to our Grab app), we were deposited at our hotel. Our room was very comfortable with hot water, kettle, air con and Fox Movies on a flat screen tv!!!! For well under 20 quid too! Only thing was no breakfast so we had to buy some supplies and use our plastic bowls/cutlery to russle this up every morning which really wasn't any trouble.
We didn't do that much in the first couple of days as my knee was abit sore plus feeling lazy so we kept local and checked out the immediate area and the riverfront. We explored the Chinese museum and learned about the early Chinese settlers who came here as a result of the population explotion in China (one quarter of the Sarawak population is from the Chinese migrants from the mid 1800's to the early 1900's).  We checked out the only scooter hire place in town but decided to give it a miss due to the caveman like mechanics at work there. It started raining heavily and the weather was crap for the next day or so which put a hold on our activities. On the Saturday we made the effort to get up early and head to Semenggoh Wildlife Park to see Orangutans.
We got a taxi there as it was raining (took about 1/2 hr) and the park tickets were less than £2 each so not an expensive outing. We walked around under our brollies hoping the  rain would stop and not expecting to see any Orangs due to the weather. More tourists arrived all dressed in rain coats and ponchos and we all waited patiently for the warden to take us to the feeding area. We were rewarded with a clearing of the rain and the arrival of orangutans in the form of 2 females with their young clinging to their sides....

The apes were breathtaking to watch - they moved gracefully and surprisingly slow but they are probably just cautious of the human presence as they are wild animals (the park is a sanctuary for them so they live in the wild and only come in for feeding when they want to). We stood watching in awe for nearly an hour before the wardens asked everybody to leave as the park was closing.  Back at the shelter was a surprise in the form of an orangutan who was casually sitting on the floor looking at everybody (he went on to lay down flat and wave his arms up/down like he was making a snow angel!).

We couldn't get a signal on our mobile so we walked 15 mins to the main entrance hoping to get a ride back in to town. Luckily, a local bus was waiting so we hopped on board - the driver was some crazy 72 yr old guy who went around winding all the tourists up and boasting (not in English just in hand gestures) about his full head of hair (shame about his lack of teeth!). In was a fantastic day out and a memorable experience to see the orangutans.