Far behind my mind, all this while, I knew there's this one Orang Utan rehabilitation Centre in peninsular Malaysia. (Orang Utan are mostly found at the east Malaysia by the way.)
But, it didn't trigger me much to get my butt there.
Anyway, here I am, 16 years after it was built. On this very sunny day. 😌 I swear I'm already a few shades darker.
The Bukit Merah dam and its jetty to the Orang Utan island.
The view from the jetty. The place where we got our entrance ticket. RM30 per adult.
Since it's a low season (I think it's the Puasa month and eve of Raya day, we had the whole ferry to ourselves. Private charter yo. 😎
The entrance to the enclosure. For a change, the Orang Utan will be observing us in a caged passage while they roam freely. 😂
That's our island ranger, Ina (Hopefully I got her name right.) who welcome us immediately after we disembarked from the ferry.According to her, there's approximately 20 Orang Utan roaming freely in this 5.6 hectares island, which is manned by approximately 25 people.
So meet Mike. He has passed on. But, a statue of him was made.
Meet April who was born in the month of April.
Do you know Orang Utan shares almost 97% of our human genes? They have fingerprints and 32 teeths like us too?
And, they do eat Panadol like us if they are unwell. 😯
We are fortunate to be able to get to enter the staff 's path to get a more closer look on them.
Bijeh, the predominant male in the island.
We managed to sight quite a number of them 🐒 and the island ranger patiently describe their characteristics and also answering our questions.
And suddenly, one of the Orang Utan start drinking their pee 😨😨 she said it's actually good for them as it contains minerals which would help them grow better. 🤔🤔
Well, if you think RM30/adult is costly for just about approximately 200 meter walk, I will tell you
the reason why you should not fuss about it.
We found out that this foundation solely rely on the ticket sales and donations to run this facility with approximately RM100k expenses a month. Can you imagine how many visitors do they need to expect?
And speaking of dedication, they totally nailed it. Few months back there was draught that hit us, Malaysia. With the hot weather and no rain, the lake totally dried up and cut the ferry access to the island. The staffs had to kayak for 1 1/2 hour to reach the island to send food supplies for the Orang Utans. And there are times they decide to sleepover there as it is a hassle to travel to the mainland. 😔😔
Orang Utan princesses swinging happily as we watched them.
So, if you're traveling the north south highway, and had some time to spare, perhaps you can do a pit stop over here? It's just by the Bukit Merah exit. And, of course I hope they can continue their aim.
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