🇲🇾 The Semenggoh Wildlife 🦧 Center in Kuching/Sarawak/Borneo

Two highlights in Kuching were definitely the visit to the orangutans 🦧 and the Bako National Park 🏞️. We stayed at the Kuching Waterfront Lodge from April 20th to 26th, 23 and took the public bus each time to get to our destination , because they start very close by. 🚌 Namely not far from the Masjid Bandaraya Mosque, the central City Public Link Terminal. Early in the morning we took the bus to the Semenggoh Wildlife Center. The journey took a good hour. We paid 1 ringgit per person and the way back was free. We were there during the week. The center is open from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. (feeding at 9 a.m.) and from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. (feeding at 3 p.m.). The public bus let us out right at the entrance. The first visitors quickly joined us. When the ticket offices opened, every visitor had to fill out a form and we paid 10 ringgit per person for entry.

On foot we followed the approximately 1-1.5 km long tarred road towards the feeding stations. You can also have electric cars transport you there for money. We always prefer to walk, although of course it's not without it given the temperatures and humidity that prevail there. While feeding the animals, a visitor's circulation collapsed and the only solution was to lie on the floor and put his legs up 🙆‍♀️

On the way we passed large signs with each orangutan pictured with its name on it. The visitors were also asked to remain calm.

One by one all the visitors arrived at a large gathering point near the two feeding stations. The employees tried to summon the animals by calling specifically into the forest. However, for the first time without success. At times we even had to take shelter because it started to rain. It was unbearably warm and we were sweating profusely. 💦

Then we were suddenly asked to follow the employee to the visitors' stand, from there we had a great view of the forest and the trees and of a large stage on which another man was standing and looking out for the orangutans. He was armed with fruit to feed, but we waited and waited but unfortunately not a single animal came. It's a shame, but of course you have no guarantee that you'll actually see animals in these rescue centers. In addition, some visitors once again made a huge racket and talked loudly and laughed as if it were so difficult to remain silent for a moment! 🙄

We went back to the meeting point and suddenly we spotted them... 🦧😃 three orangutans came over to be fed. 🥬🥥🍎🍌🍠🥕 we couldn't believe our luck and watched them up close for a while. There was also a small baby orangutan. It was so beautiful! The time flew by. We had to or wanted to take the bus back at ten o'clock, so we set off a little earlier and got the bus on time.

Conclusion: we are grateful and happy to have seen orangutans twice, we even had one for a short moment, all to ourselves (see article on the Sepilok sanctuary in Sabah). We liked this visit here to the Semenggoh Wildlife Center better than the one in Sepilok. Sepilok seemed more like a visit to the zoo to us. In Semenggoh the monkeys were not behind a window, they can look for their food in the forest independently and are not dependent on the feeding stations - unless they cannot find enough food in the "wild", they can resort to feeding on their own initiative. In comparison, there are fewer orangutans here and depending on the time of year, you may not see any animals, that's something you should know.

There follows an extra article about Bako National Park so that the text doesn't get too long. 🙂🦧🍌