TSDayOut Special Edition: Semenggoh Wildlife Centre

I woke up with a great view from my hotel window looking like this on my 3rd day of TSDAYout special edition! 

view from my hotel window early in the morning!

I'm that type of girl that fancy mountains than beach and I can just stop and stare at this magnificent Santubong mountain which I've managed to hike till the top in 2007.

Because I could not stop staring at this beautiful site, I noticed that I am going to be late for breakfast as we supposed to depart by 8am. So after light breakfast, we are off to another unique destination to witness orang utan conservation centre which was about 20-30 minutes drive from Imperial Hotel. 

I am ready for my next adventure! to the jungle we are heading! 

You may choose to drive there or you can opt to take public bus, City Ring number K6 from Brooke monument downtown. cost you only RM3. 

I think Sazlan got the wrong bus hehee

We will first arrive at the Botanical Research Centre, Semenggoh. Here, you need to purchase the the ticket at the ticket counter and choose to walk for 10-20 minutes or you can hop in the bus or if you are lucky like us under this TSDAYOUT special edition, we have people drove us there via van. Rugi tak join kan (dont you just envy us)? Well, next time don't forget to register and join TSDAYOUT ok?

The entrance of Semenggoh

Park at your own risk..Please be silent as we do not want to chase away the orang utan

Here we are!

Upon arrival, we were told not to make any noise as this will chase away the orang utan. Typically, orang utan are well known to be a shy-type animal and even though these semi-wild species spend most of the time roaming around this forest but there are no guarantee they will appear during feeding times. Hopefully it will be our lucky day! As I entered and passed by the trail for about 10 minutes walk, I could not help it but to enjoy the beautiful lush greenery this place could offer. I visited this wildlife centre before in 2006 and at that time, not much development was made. They do not have any proper shelter for visitors to sit or watch the orang utan and they certainly have not built the Gallery hut where they kept all of the birth & death certificate of these orang utans. Definitely worth re-visiting this place as I get to see the improvement made to sustain this wildlife centre. 

The gallery where some of portraits and history of these orang utans being displayed here

So if you have the chance to visit this centre, please observe your surrounding as you might bumped into some of the creepy crawlers or bugs that are also the permanent resident in this forest. 

a lonely path is always a great moment to reflect about yourself with sanity

I have a soft spot for ray of sunshine in the jungle like the above. there's something about it that i cant explain.

Hye grasshopper

Hello there!

Upon reaching to the spot-watching of the orang utan, there's this one senior guide was giving briefing on what to expect and that we should remain quiet as noise might chase them away. Also not to use flash when taking pictures. Waited for almost 25 minutes, then I thought to myself..probably today might not be our lucky day. But after several attempt of calling and imitating the voice of the orang utan by the guide, finally, one after another of the orang utan approach slowly and came very close to the feeding platform and the visitor areas. It was really a close encounter with the wild and semi-wild orang utan. The last i've seen in 2006 was like 200 metres away. But this was almost few metres away hanging above us on the branches of a tree. Amazing! Suddenly i felt it was like a scene from Planet of the Apes. 

slowly approaching towards the feeding platform

Ritchie, male orang utan enjoying its bananas!

And papaya!

i guess the Ray of Hope did lead us to witness with our very own eyes of a close encounter with the orang utan that morning.

Enjoy the video below specially created for you out there who perhaps after this, would like to make a trip there to Semenggoh Wildlife Centre. Even if you did not have any plans, I recommend you to start making one because for over 30 years, Semenggoh's staff trained young orang utans who had been orphaned or rescued from captivity to survive in the wild. It is now used as an orang utan study centre, but still a lifelong home for its successful graduates, semi wild orangutans and their offspring. They spend most their time roaming in the forest but frequently come back to the centre for free meals during feeding times.

For Reservations and Enquiries, you may refer to the following:
National Parks Booking office,
Visitors Information Centre, Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg,
93000 Kuching, Sarawak.
Tel: +6082 248088 
Online booking : http://ebooking.com.my 

Semenggoh Wildlife Centre
Tel : +6082 618325 or +6082 618324 
Opening Hours (Weekdays only except Public Holidays) 
1)8am - 11am 
2) 2pm - 4pm 

Feeding time:
1) 9am - 10am
2) 3pm - 3.30pm


Entry Fees
1) Adults : RM5 (Malaysian) & RM10 (Foreigners)
2) Senior Citizen: RM3 (Malaysian) & RM10 (Foreigners)
3) Disable RM3 (Malaysian) & RM5 (Foreigners)
4) Children (6-18 years) RM2 (Malaysian) & RM5 (Foreigners)
4) Free for Kids under 6 years old

You may also check out the snippet of my 4D3N of TSDAYout Special Edition at the link as follows : 

Day 1      - Amazing Race @ Heritage Trail

Day 2 (a) - Empire Hotel Subang

Day 2 (b) - Sarawak Sunset River Cruise

Day 3      - Semenggoh Wildlife Centre

Day 4 (a) - Semadang Kayaking

Day 4 (b) - Fairy Cave & Wind Cave

I would like to convey my gratitude and sincere thanks to Tourism Selangor, Sarawak Tourism Board,  Air Asia and Empire Hotel Subang for making this trip possible, memorable with fun, laughter and awesome!