Face to Face with Orangutans

Kuching, Malaysia - An excited silence permeates the humid air.

After walking a half-kilometer through dense tropical rain forest, the crowd of about 50 waits impatiently.

A loud crash grabs everyone’s attention. Through the dense green leaves, we see a flash of orange.

Suddenly, the jungle is filled with a cacophony of rustling leaves and sharp cracks as unwilling trees bend against the weight of full-grown orangutans.

Cameras fly to people’s faces as they snap photos of the gentle, quiet creatures who descend from the treetops to some of the fruit left by workers at the Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Borneo. It’s one of the last regions on Earth with wild orangutans, and the population is declining rapidly as deforestation destroys their habitat.

It’s difficult to imagine harming these magnificent apes surrounding us as we stand on a wooden observation deck. Being so close to a full-grown orangutan — sitting on the railing not a foot from our group — couldn’t happen in a place like the states where someone sues after spilling hot coffee on themselves. The park rangers warned us not to touch them — previous visitors have landed in the hospital by doing so. But that was the only warning we got.

And it’s hard not to reach out and touch the female staring at us so intently.

I’m on another trip to a seemingly random country with my adventurous aunt and uncle, Karen Lupo and Dave Schmitt, who have become my favorite travel partners. If you saw the list of countries we’ve bounced around to, you might think we simply spun a globe and chose a random location. In reality, we searched for places where our weak dollar would have some leverage and unique experiences awaited.

This was the salient moment when I realized we had chosen well.

We spent three weeks touring the country, going from the welcoming, ultramodern metropolis of Kuala Lumpur to the caves of Mulu National Park. I didn’t set foot in any of the breathtaking caves because I was so sick I begged for death. I recovered just in time for the wildlife portion of the trip.

And there’s only one way to describe how I felt during the hour I watched those animals with their deeply intelligent eyes eat, play and bond: I felt closer to God.

The rangers at the center work to reacclimate the apes to the wild, and those who “graduate” go back to the jungle. But many apes will stay at the center because they never will be self-sufficient.

That mix of joy and despair seemed to tinge every experience we had in Malaysia. We saw amazing animals, but they may not be around for my children or grandchildren to see.

We spent a day hiking through Bako National Park. It was true jungle hiking, using roots and branches as toe and hand holds as we scrambled through dense foliage. But our sweat-soaked T-shirts seemed worth the effort when we stood only inches away from another great species: proboscis monkeys, again unique to Borneo. My uncle Dave described them as Jimmy Durante monkeys, with their oddly long, floppy noses. And all three of us couldn’t stop giggling over what the natives call “chili peppers” — the males’ bright red, always-erect penises.

The park and its animals, accessible only by boats that depart every few minutes, draw tourists from throughout the world.

“I wanted to see the wildlife and do some jungle trekking,” said Marion Deliere, of Lyon, France. “It was very easy to get here, and everyone said it was beautiful here — they were right.”

On our third day of the wildlife tour, we decided to check out the Irrawaddy Dolphins that live in the brackish water between the South China Sea and the fresh, inland water.

Farrah “Ruby” Marcel, our guide for the tour, ….more at The Salt Lake Tribune