Rob and Anna's travel adventure

I must give the credit for this title entry name to Rob. After hitching a ride, we reached the Osipelok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center, where the wild orangutans (previously orphaned or captured) are rehabilitated and released back to the wild. The center has been very successful, and many animals have been fully adjusted to be functioning on their own. It is a long process, and for some orangutans an additional assistance before transitioning on their own is still needed. For example, Orangutan moms-to-be often give birth closer to the center (the center is located at the edge of the rain forest) where they feel safer; and recently released to the wild younger Orangutans supplement their forest diet with the fruit and milk that the center workers bring to a specified area in the forest. The public is allowed to observe that feeding area. Sometimes none of the orangutans show up if the forest is in blossom and natural food is sufficient for the primates. We got very lucky though, and both in the morning and afternoon around 8 orangutans showed up. They are very cute, and shockingly resemble humans. Their eyes are very expressive, and even mannerisms and behavior are strikingly familiar. The orangutans one by one slowly appeared from the dense forest, some were playing with each other, some were just hanging around on the vine. I was very touched by one group of orangutans - among them was a mother with a baby 'tan surrounded by one adult male and one young adult 'tan. They all were taking turns to look and gently touch the baby 'tan. It almost looked like a real family of humans, the only difference was the fur instead of clothes, and they were so much quieter than humans. On another occasion a young orangutan stepped off the vine and joined the viewers on the observing platform; it was a young 'tan, who obviously was still craving a human attention, and was not entirely ready to be on his own in the forest. The center workers gently picked him up, and carried him away from the crowd. He was re-introduced back to the canopy of the forest, where he will continue learning his self-reliance skills; it might take him some time before he is entirely independent. Rob also encountered a large male orangutan who made an appearance in the accessible area. Apparently, this now adult male was brought to the center when he was still a young baby. After learning the skills, he was introduced back to the forest, and disappeared for 10 years. One day he showed up closer to the center as a completely self-reliant dominant orangutan, and since then makes a once-in-a-while appearance that Rob was lucky to see.

I almost forgot to add a few notes here about the leeches... We decided to explore a trail, Rob wasn't very keen on it, but went along; as it turned out he knew better not to. It was raining hard a night before, and as we came to find out during the "trail exploration", lots of leeches came out for a snack - us, that is. OK, we had an experience with the leeches when we trekked in Taman Negara National park, but nothing like this. These ones were blood thirsty, literally, and they were big. Normally, you expect to find them maybe around the ankles, or knees in the worst case scenario, not this time. They were crawling on our arms, backs, legs, trying to penetrate our specialized gore-tex boots, they were persistent and disgusting! We hurried back, trying to get them off us as we walked. Then we noticed two of them trying to penetrate our pants closer to the "private" areas, how unexpected is that?? We finally reached the edge of the forest, there were still two leeches around our boots. Well, that was it I thought. No, I was wrong... When I returned back to our room, and took my backpack off, I heard something falling to the ground. And, there it was - the heavy bloody leech that attached itself on my back, right under the backpack. My shirt was stained in blood, but I did not feel a thing. The whole notion of these blood suckers was so disgusting, I rushed to the shower trying to forget it's ever happened. It does make a story though, doesn't it? Let's leave it at that...

Osipelok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center was definitely a memorable stop-over. The place we stayed at was nice and peaceful, and I was able to catch up on my blog entries, from where I am writing this one. However, due to a tourist traffic a ''rip-off a foreigner" attitude exists among catering services, which bitters us. Locals not involved in services for foreigners are welcoming and friendly though, and this is what I will try to focus on in addition to having seen adorable wild orangtuns.