RM 3,980 nett

Arrive Sandakan Airport (SDK) and transfer to dormitory-style accommodation.
Please ensure you have provided us with the correct flight details and the correct airport.

1800 hours, meet at lobby for welcome dinner & introduction to the programme

PROJECT DAYS

After breakfast, transfer to Project Site: Sukau. 

After showing you to your accommodation, your will be given a thorough Health & Safety briefing as well as an orientation around the village.

The project at Sukau involves wildlife observation to collect important wildlife population data. Habitat restoration work involves tree-planting and maintenance activities at high priority areas.  These are crucial in connecting fragmented forest in the area to encourage healthy orang-utan and pygmy elephant populations.  Community and Education programmes involve interaction with the villagers and the students of the village school.

Depart Sukau after breakfast for Sepilok.  Walk through the Rainforest Discovery Centre to reinforce what you have learned about the rainforest the last few days.  After lunch, visit Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre where you will learn about the challenges of orang-utan rehabilitaion.  After this learning session, you will head into Sandakan.  Check into accommodation. Free at leisure. Try to catch the sunset from the Ba-Lin bar at the rooftop of Nak Hotel

DEPARTURE
Check out and transfer to Sandakan Airport. 
Optional: independent travel to Kota Kinabalu or Turtle Islands

Note: Changes to the activities will occur subject to weather conditions, school calendar, community and project requirements.  Some or all of the above activities may or may not be included on your itinerary.  Other conservation activities not mentioned above may also be included on your itinerary subject to weather conditions, community and project requirements

Your Role

At SANDAKAN on Arrival
Upon your arrival at Sandakan, you will be met and transferred to the lovely longhouse style accommodation in Sepilok.  Here, you will spend a night understanding the Corridor of Life and the project.  The programme facilitator will meet you at 1800 hours for the welcome dinner and briefing.

Take the opportunity the serene surroundings of Sepilok offers to rest and recover from your long inbound journey.  If you arrive early and wish to explore, Sandakan is approximately 35 minutes away.  There are also many small clusters of shops and housing areas all along the road to Sandakan where you can also stop to explore.  Some sections are Mile 4 and Mile 7.

Sandakan is a lovely little town that starts becoming lively at 5am.  Spend time on the first or the last day exploring its nooks & crannies.  Take a walk along the seafront or check out the many old town shops.  If you feel adventurous, seek out a sumptuous seafood lunch in one of the water-village restaurants

SUKAU
The following day, you will enter Sukau village to start the habitat restoration work. 

Habitat restoration is hard work.  You will not only plant trees but will also help to maintain other plots of land that have been planted by previous volunteers to ensure that the trees have maximum survival rate.  Restoring selected plots of land will create corridors of greenery for the orang-utan, elephants and other wildlife to move between the remaining fragments of forests.  We have sighted macaques, deer and birds within the very trees that were planted by earlier volunteers.  If you feel tired take a break. Do not continue working as you put yourself and other volunteers in danger.

You will help record orang-utan, pygmy elephant and other wildlife numbers to increase our knowledge of species numbers and feeding patterns.  Tourism already creates a financial incentive for local people to protect their wildlife but we need scientific data to give decision-makers evidence on what to change. 

Note: Wildlife monitoring is conducted from a boat as you cruise along the river.

All animals are wild and therefore their sightings are not guaranteed.  You will not be able to touch orang-utans or elephants or any wildlife within the wildlife sanctuary.

Working with the Community
The community living along the Kinabatangan are mostly a local tribe called the “Orang Sungai” who have lived along the river for generations and have always depended on the rainforest and river for daily resources: food and drinks, medicine, poison, hunting tools and traps, building materials, clothing, carrier bags, even cosmetics.  Today, many of them have found alternatives by working in the tourism industry or with research and conservation teams along the river studying this beautiful landscape and its inhabitants.

Working with the community is an integral part of conservation and the most successful ones are those that have brought the community into the folds of the conservation programme itself.  Our community engagement lies strongly in the interaction.  While we have most of our meals in their homes, eating local home-cooked lunches and dinners, we also have mini-projects that we carry out with the community, working with them to understand the complicated conservation world that has descended upon them.

Integral to the community are the children attending the only school in the village.  Aged between 6 and 12, these children grew up swimming in the rivers and romping in the rainforests.  They are the custodians to the exotic destination you are heading to and we work to ensure that these children learn things that will bring them back to their roots.  They are the ultimate guardians of the rainforest.  While we are not able to change the education system, we are able to spend time developing conservation based programmes that will help them take responsibility of and cherish the environment they live in.

Please make sure that you wear t-shirts that cover your shoulders (no singlet, or sleeveless shirts) and long trousers and suitable footwear. It is a good idea to wear 25 SPF sun tan lotion as you may be working outside for all or part of the day.

SEPILOK & SANDAKAN
On your last day at Sepilok and Sandakan, you are a tourist.  You will visit the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre and observe feeding of orang-utans.  In Sandakan you will be able to see the local township and savour the local lifestyle.

On the last evening, you will spend a night at a relatively comfortable city hotel in the heart of Sandakan.  Dinner is not included this last evening to allow you the opportunity to explore Sandakan.  There are a variety of local and western restaurants located within easy walking distance.  There are lovely rooftop eateries where you can watch the sunset and spend the evening with a few drinks and fine food