Work Travel Volunteer

A case study of a short wildlife responsible travel holiday, looking for orangutans on the Kinabatangan river, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Ecotourism in Borneo is increasing in popularity for small organisations as a way of making a living. 

"Batu Puteh consists of one long track leading to the jetty and the river, ramshackle wooden homes on stilts, one cafe and two shops. We stayed with a lovely family. Gradually worked out that the gran and grandad from one side live there, the gran from the other side also lives there (the grandfather passed away pretty recently), the mum and dad, another random man, possibly an uncle? plus five children. Numerous other relatives kept popping in and out throughout our time there too.

The children were all lovely. As seems usual, I don't think I heard any of them cry once. They have no playstations, no books, no toys and yet seem quite happy. In terms of poorness, yes they are, compared to our standards of living, but they have all the food they want, clean running water, shelter, access to a school and doctor and a huge family and friend support network, and it kind of makes you think does all this stuff we fill our lives with really make us any happier?

Anyway....our first cruise along the river spotting wildlife ended in disaster. Managed to see a harem of proboscus monkeys, our first hornbill, cheeky macaques and igrets before the heavens opened. On our way back we passed the Raleigh International volunteers who are working here too.

Our next early morning trip was miles better. Gorgeously beautiful too. All the mist was hanging low in the tress and just above the water and it all looked very Lord of the Rings. Saw more macaques and proboscus, silver leaf monkeys, a gibbon (huge arms!), crocodiles and hoorah not one, not two but three orangutans which made the trip for me! Seeing them out in the wild is so much better than in sanctuaries or zoos. Quite sad though as well, as really the only reason we saw them is that there is so little jungle left here, all the animals tend to migrate around the river's edge as there is nowhere else left to go to.

Logging and palm oil plantations are huge business here and primary rainforests are being destroyed at an alarming rate. Visit Orangutan Conservancy for more details.

For the rest of our day, we walked around the community's eco-lodge in progress (being built by Raleigh), had a wander through the river bank edge and tried to avoid leeches (grim), visited some more caves with ancient burial coffins in (double grim) and played volleyball with the villagers. Headed out again at night to see spooky animals! Was actually pretty scared as saw three crocodiless eying us up in our flimsy boat. Kept my hands well in.

The next morning, we sadly said goodbye to our hosts and set off back to Kota Kinabalu. Our family gave us a sarong each as a leaving present and we promised to send our photograhs of the children, which we did. "

Kate travelled with Miso Walai homestay