I left KK on Monday to go to Sandakan. I was interested in seeing the orangutan conservation area. It’s been on The Discovery Channel before and it supposedly is a pretty big deal. I had a choice of either going by myself or taking a tour that would be three nights. The tour included much more than just the orangutans, but it was also kind of expensive, so I decided to just do it by myself. Big Mistake. Yeah, the orangutans were cool, but the whole thing lasted maybe an hour and a half. The park was laid out in such a way that it was more of a zoo than being a part of the experience. It was still cool to see, but to make a 7-hour trip to see it was probably not the best idea.

Right across the street from the orangutan park there was a Sun Bear Conservation Park. Sun bears look a lot like black bears, but maybe a bit smaller. I think I heard someone say that it is the smallest bear, but I’m not positive. The main building is very nice and after you pay your $10 you start walking up some stairs, maybe 50 or so, and you get to a deck/viewing platform. Below the deck there were about 6 bears. After I took a bunch of photos I went to go further into the park to maybe get a view of other bears… Turns out, that was it. The bears were cute and I’m glad I went, but I think the experience kind of summed up how I’ve felt about Borneo since I’ve been here. It’s kind of a tourist trap.