Sabah (Borneo) - animals, animals and more animals

After our one night in Sandakan, the rest of our trip included a visit to the famous Turtle Island and the Sepilok Orang-Utan Rehabilitation Center.
At Turtle Island we had the entire day for swimming, lying on the beach and snorkeling on the reef just next to the island (due to poor visibility it was very hard to spot any fish at all). At night it was turtle time, where we not only had the opportunity of watching a turtle lay there eggs, but they were also collected in order to increase the percentage of hatchlings surviving. Then we watched the eggs being carried to the hatchery, where they are safe from potential predators. The last part of this guided tour was the release of hundreds of hatchlings into the open sea, where they will spend the rest of their lives.

Beach on Turtle Island

Protected area for the hatchlings

Sunset on Turtle Island

After Turtle Island we travelled back to Sandakan to get ready for our last Borneo adventure - having a close encounter with the man of the forest (as orang-utan can be translated from malay). Even though we did not see them in the wild, at least we had the opportunity of seeing them at the rehabilitation center, where there natural habitat is still preserved. The reason why it is hard to spot any Orang-Utans in the wild is because their natural habitat has radically been destroyed because of legal and illegal logging, agricultural land adaption, etc.
We also visited another sanctuary where they are rehabilitating Proboscis Monkeys ("Nasenaffen"), but you can also see Long-tailed Macaques and Silfer Leaf Monkeys.

Feeding time for the Orang-Utans

One proboscis monkey

One proboscis monkey family

So in the end we did finally see some animals in Borneo. Our last night we spent in Kota Kinabalu before my dad and I returned to Kuala Lumpur to spend one final full day togehter.