A PASSAGE TO INDIA: 263. MONKEY FACES IN SANDAKAN

A short flight of slightly over 2 hours - Singapore to Sabah's capital city of Kota Kinabalu, took me into the heart of Malaysia's rainforests...

A domestic flight took me across the state to Sandakan, a coastal town overlooking the Sulu Sea. Across this sea is the Philippine island of Mindanao.

There's a ferry service between Sandakan harbour to the Philippines side that takes up to 16 hours.

Where the 'wild things' are except they aren't wild, being protected species in sanctuaries, fed by human keepers, protected from predators...

In a reserve it's where you get to see the different species in one dedicated location/s...

At a park next door, is the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre - these are the world's smallest bears...

This was the closest I could get to one. It's hot and sunny, that's when they retire to a shady spot to conserve energy.

The little scamp is in the background...

Labubu? Labuk Bay! The residents here are as unattractive as labubu...!

Almost human...!

We were in time for their lunch...they must be famished with all that prancing around..

The silvery langurs seem the calmest. Gentle, non-aggressive, they accepted their lunch of long beans when handed to them by the keeper, no snatching...the young langurs are a bright orange!

They live happily in the same reserve since they are not predators to each other - the silver leafed langurs, hornbills, the proboscis monkeys, a species that's unique to the Bornean jungle and is equally unique in its appearance...the male of the species seems to wear his manhood on his nose.

A canopy walk

Bonus - spotted these snakes in the branches. That unusual tree is a Klinki pine. It's dead fallen branches look like large centipedes. Sabah has some pretty unusual and unique life forms.

Black squirrels are uncommon...

Lantern flies

The most destructive and divisive predator - the upright-walking 2 legged homo sapiens...

Lots of monkey faces, they're everywhere!

These look like the 7 dwarfs!

More unusual things about Sabah - red flesh durian - used in cooking quite tasteless as a fruit...

Breadfruit, left. Tarap, right. Tarap is easily opened when it's ripe and soft. It's sweet, palatable...

Their layer cakes are too pretty to eat each loaf like artwork...

Kota Kinabalu's waterfront juts out into the South China Sea

Tanjung Aru beach to catch the sun

Sim Sim floating village. Homes and restos on stilts built out into the water. The eyesore is what the tide brings in which is chiefly human litter...a pity as this place has potential but will need a lot of work and moolah to clean up the environment and spruce up the residential buildings...a colourful paint job can do the trick if a somewhat temporary fix...

The sea breeze was lovely, it distracted me from the filth below...

Visit this dental clinic for 'gentle' surgery.

'Blind' is a good, proper word, not 'politically correct' words like visually impaired, hearing impaired etc, etc invented by so-called 'normal' people to make them feel less guilty that they are 'normal' not blind or deaf.