Kuching - Semenggoh Nature Reserve

So this was the main reason we came to Borneo - to see an Orangutan in the wild!  Semenggoh Nature Reserve was our first stop.  This park is set aside to rehabilitate and re-home orphaned and displaced Orangutans.

The aim of this park is not to have Orangutans in cages, but to have them freely roaming the park and to offer food at food stations to supplement their diets if required.  In the fruiting season, these Orangutans are self-sufficient and there are days when no Orangutans will visit the feeding stations.  Not great for tourists like myself, but perfect for the Orangutans!

We visited in late August which was the start of the fruiting season and was lucky to see one adolescent male Orangutan.  Generally the food supplied will help supplement their diets but won't be the food they prefer as this will teach them to be dependent upon handouts.

We were super excited to get to see our first Orangutan in the wild!  Enjoy the photos.

Kuching

Kuching - legend has it that this city got its name from James Brooke, the first British Rajah of Sarawak pointed to a cat when asking the name of the city and the locals replied 'kucing' the Malay word for cat.

The name took and the cities theme is cats.  This is our first stop in Borneo and we are here for around 5 days before flying to Kota Kinabalu.

Apart from being home to a squillion cats, the city is built along a picturesque river with some impressive government buildings and for us, situated near Semmengoh, an Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre and wildlife reserve and the Bako National Park.

This is one of the old government offices which has been retired and is not in use as the built a new flash one on the other side of the river.  This was taken from our accommodation which was a new modern building 10 minutes from the city - just a few ringets away in a Grab!  Our AirBnB host actually came to the airport to meet us and to drive us to the accommodation and see us settled in.

This is the new government building on the other side of the river - an impressive landmark.  It is hard to get a grip on how the government thinks with modern buildings rotting away and new buildings popping up and lot of the homes surrounding the city being little more than tin sheds.

If it wasn't the stink of Durians, then it was always the stink of fish markets and stalls.  I don't know how the sea life can restock at the rates it is being harvested in this country.  I didn't see much in the way of shark fins so either all the sharks are gone or sharks aren't on the menu in Borneo.

KL Bird Park and the Twin Towers

We decided to go a bus tour of KL - ended up ditching the tour and getting a grab rather than sit in the gridlock which is part of life in KL.

Lots of the locals get around on Motor scooters.  Everything is optional - red lights, walkways, crossings, one way streets... just make it up as you go!

We decided to go to the KL bird park for a change of speed.  I have seen more cassowaries in Malaysia than I have seen in Australia on this trip!

Golden Oriole.

Fancy pigeons over here - plump ;-)

Some very funny looking owls.

This was one of the local kingfishers that was flying around looking for something to eat.

First time I have ever seen a toucan!  Close relative of the horn bills apparently.

Blair and Ellen - Ellen just a tad excited about playing with the birds.  Similar to our rainbow lorikeets but with some vibrant colours on their breasts.

Lots of the other birds are familiar to their Australian counterparts, such as egrets and herons.  The hornbills were the standout bird for me which I got to photograph in the wild in Borneo.