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Sepilok Forest Reserve
Sabah, Borneo
This is a reserve to help rehabilitate Orangatangs and instead of having caged animals it is bascially just a protected forest area with much human protection. The "park" has nice bathrooms (which is a great relief after days on the road!), an info centre that has people there at least at feeding times. There is a video room where they show a video about everything thats going on.
Following typical tourism in Malaysia, you must pay more if your foreign and more if you want camera/video etc. Not very often can you do anything for free in Malaysian tourist spots, luckily you don't get stuck with needing a tour guide here also! When we were there it was RM30 each (non local) and 10 more for a camera. It's worth it if you would like to get closer to the animals without messing around with wild animals. And to be perfectly honest, though i quite dislike teh Malaysian syystem of greed, i dont mind paying for something that is going towards something other than raping the natural forests taht they have done so much of. So this time, is a good timeto dish out te extra money. If your no a budget traveller, then you probably don't care as its just like $10-$13 US.
Getting There
We drove and found little info at all on real direction in Borneo online, alway just bus and taxi tips. So if your taking a bus or taxi, you don't really need toknow....just ask the driver and say the name of the place. If your driving from Kota Kinabalu (KK) take teh road to Ranau (2 hours) then towards Sandakan (4 hours). The road to sandakan is much worse, try not to drive it at night, trucks go fast on it and you hit a lot of holes. ALWAYS HAVE A SPARE TIRE! There is a turn about with a big Orangatang pointing down one of the roads. Take taht road and stay straight. From Sandakan drive towards KK about 20-30 minutes and turn at teh same turn about. There are signs when you are close. If you get lost ask to go to "Sepilok" (pronounced like it is spelled in English). The road the sanctuary is on also has a lot of tour operaters for river cruises so you can follow their signs as well.
Leaving from KK try to be on the road around 6am to make the 3am feeding. I always say leave more time for new places...things always go wrong/take longer than usual. From Sandakan allow an hour just in case. The roads are good from Sandakan to Sepilok, and not far....but Murphy's Law and all...
Times & Cost
When we went there in February 2011, the feeding times were at 10:00am and 3:00pm. These seem to be teh only times to have a good chance at seeing the Orangatangs.
Cost per non local was RM30 and RM10 for a camera.