Kuching Part 5 - Semenggoh Wildlife Centre

Apologies for the long gap in between posts - a mix of work, holidays, computer trouble and being distracted took its toll and even when I had some time, the mind wasn’t much interested in writing.

Anyway, here we are again, taking off from the last post when we’d gotten back to the car, were leaving Kuching headed for the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre.

This place certainly proved to be a spectacle. A popular destination, we parked the car at the designated car park and walked in to the main meeting area where we found a large group of school kids and a smattering of adults. We waited around for awhile and had a quick peek at a number of crocodiles in concrete enclosures, then a Ranger came out, gathered the kids in a group and began talking to them in Malay. Turns out he was giving a briefing and the tourists there (including us of course) hung on at the fringe of the group. We needn’t have feared for he later spoke to us all in English and explained that we may not get to see any orangutans and so on. Managing expectations as it were.

The crocs here were big, but quite inactive.

He told us it was now a pretty abundant season - there were many fruiting plants and the orang-utan thus has less of a reason to visit the centre. When food was scarcer in the jungle, the supply that the rangers put out were very welcome, but this was less so now.

Still, after some waiting around, it turned out we would see some action after all and at the ranger’s instruction, we all hurried off to the feeding station near the carpark.

And what action! We didn’t just see one or two, but a pair of younger orangutans, a mother and child and the star of the show, Ritchie the alpha male. The younger and smaller pair came swinging along ropes laid out high above the ground. The descended in turn onto the wooden platform and helped themselves to fruit and coconuts laid out on the deck, or thrown up at them by the rangers.

And they came swinging through the jungle...

That's an orangutan nest up there. They sleep there at night.

Yummmmm.....

Their gymnastic abilities are quite a sight to behold.

Then the crowd began getting excited at something else, and I spied a mother and her young one ambling along on the ground. They came up to about 30 metres from us and stopped at a construction site where some workmen had been busy a few minutes before. The workers had been told the apes were coming so had quickly packed up their gear and moved away. It turns out they’d left a small bag of tools, nuts and bolts and the two primates found this and spent some time playing with a hammer and some long bolts.

It was fascinating watching them play with tools. The mother seemed to know how to hold and use a hammer and I half-expected her to hold a bolt in one hand and drive it into the wood with the hammer in the other. She didn’t quote get there though we chuckled at her antics. The ranger who’d briefed us eventually distracted her with a newspaper which she perused with intent - enough for the ranger to quickly grab the bag of tools and take it away.

Then quite suddenly our attention was drawn to some calls and shouts from further back. One of the younger orangutan rapidly climbed up and disappeared into the trees. The other moved off to a discreet distance as a huge lumbering shape made its way into the open. Ritchie, all 150 kgs of him, propelled himself along the ground - knuckles before feet - with a palpable sense of power and might. He occasionally paused to cast a sweeping almost disdainful glance across his kingdom and the 50 or 60 weak fair-skinned and relatively hairless bipeds who looked on in awe.

He moved with astonishing grace - astonishing because our minds had trouble wrapping themselves around the idea that something built like an army tank could move with panache and such fluidity - right up to the platform then amazingly climbed up the rope. He seemed to defy the laws of physics - not just by being his size, but by so effortlessly and adroitly casting himself up the thick rope.

Ritchie is huge and it's astonishing how agile he is.

Once on the platform, he was King. A bottle of milk was dispensed with in the manner a thirsty miner would down a pint of ale in an English pub. A dribble of milk went down his chin, and he went about his business polishing off fruit and coconuts. One of the pair of males came back and joined Ritchie. For some reason this fella was allowed to do so. He and Ritchie seemed to get along quite well. The ranger said the other male was not as close and would never have been allowed to share a platform with Ritchie.

We spent quite a long time watching all this, and the show didn’t stop even after feeding time - as we sat at the little drinks stall later, along came the mother and child, followed closely by a couple of rangers who made sure no one disturbed them. They patiently followed this pair as they made their way to and then through the car park and back into the jungle.

We got into our car and drove back to The Kebun, happy we’d seen so much today.

Find out more about Semenggoh Wildlife Centre here.

Kuching Part 4 - Kuching Town

Getting in to Kuching itself took longer than we thought. It looks like a quietist sort of town but the traffic can be worse than it at first appears. What was refreshing is the lack of aggression though and one indicator of this is the fact we only heard a horn sound after a day or so.

After breakfast, we drove in, found some parking by the river, bought and set out some parking coupons and wandered off. Now a quick word about the coupon parking system in Kuching: It’s relatively cheap at 20 cents for your first half-hour, another 50 cents for the next half-hour, and 80 cents for every subsequent half-hour. I like this tariff - it encourages you to do what you need to do quickly and then move on, freeing up the space for someone else.

We wandered around the Sungei Santubong riverfront along Jalan Gambir and Jalan Main Bazaar and gazed across at the umbrella-shaped roof of the State Assembly building with some wonder. This is quite a striking building visible from many points along the riverfront and indeed kept popping up in the background of quite a few of the pictures I took.

The State Assembly Building was in many shots.

 Here's an HDR shot of the State Assembly building.

  Here's another from an altogether more interesting angle.

I have no idea what this was but it now houses some shop or other.

This was a very interesting wall with a fable carved onto it. 

I’ve said before that I don’t care for a lot of modern architecture. I do believe a lot of old architectural knowledge has been lost or at least eschewed in favour of a starker aesthetic. If nothing else, I believe the colonials knew how to build buildings that maximised comfort in the tropics and we no longer care for that same efficiency.

The old Courthouse in Kuching is one example of what we’ve lost. High ceilings, wide verandahs, deep roof overhangs, all contribute to a cool environment where the afternoon tropical heat is kept at bay. The courtyards also add an element of lushness and greenery which further reduce the buildup of humidity and discomfort which I find now so common in the glass and steel developments we seem to love so much nowadays.

Wide verandahs act as a buffer against the afternoon heat. 

The shops - in this case a tour agent - housed in this Tourism building are suitably understated and keep very much to the character of the architecture.

Enjoying a mid-morning break at the Magna Carta Cafe.

The loo is tucked away and named The Privy Chamber...

We spent a pleasant hour or so walking along the corridors and enjoying a cup of tea (or coffee as it were for the two ladies) in the legal-themed cafe/bar, then eventually headed out once again. The streets in this part of Kuching were for the most part narrow channels through which Kuchingites (is that what they’re called?) and tourists ambled or drove slowly. They were a blend of old and new shops of varying trades. Old tinsmiths worked next door to backpacker-inn hoteliers who were in turn neighbours to kueh lapis shops selling their confections next to fruit and vegetable shops who displayed their produce alongside colourful textiles from the merchant in the next shop lot and all punctuated by Kayu Gambir and mobile phone top-up stalls in the corridors.

Along Jalan Jalan Ewe Hai or Jalan Carpenter, the streets perpendicular to Jalan Main Bazaar, we found a proper Kolo Mee shop and sat down for something more authentic than the ones we’ve been getting in Singapore. Although the dish looked plain, it turned out to be very delicious indeed. There’s something in the oil and clear sauces that belie the wondrous flavours that tickle your taste buds. In my usual fashion I had an order with most of everything and finished just about every last scarp of the liver, meat balls, char siew and whatnots that was in the bowl.

Yes, that's seafood sold next to fabrics.

There's that building again...

 Here's an HDR shot of the State Assembly building.

A number of B&Bs and hostels in town, not all of them successful.

Very good.

Note the name...

It's very good indeed.

Have I said it's very good?

A bit more wandering around and we eventually settled on one particular Kueh Lapis stall which we conveniently found just before a short and heavy downpour. Safely sheltered, Sharon took her time to choose and in that most Sarawakian of ways, the shop supervisor was friendly, patient and helpful.
We found our way back to the car and set off for Semenggoh and Orang Utans… more in the next part.