RM 6,980 nett

Arrival at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) OR Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT). Please ensure you have provided us with the correct flight details and correct airport.

Meet at airport for transfer to twin share accommodation.

1800 hours – Welcome dinner and briefing.  Please check with receptionist to confirm meeting time

ORIENTATION

After breakfast, transfer to Project Site: Zoo Negara.

When you arrive at the zoo you will meet your programme facilitator who will show you to your accommodation and then take you on a short zoo orientation. You will be given a thorough health and safety talk, a tour of the zoo and then you will go shopping for food etc

PROJECT DAYS
Working hours at Zoo: 0800 hours – 1700 hours

Weekends / Days off:  Usually, weekends are given as off days.  A total of 2 off days will be allocated throughout the programme which may be combined subject to discussion with your programme facilitator.  You may choose to explore other parts of Malaysia at your own expense or stay at the volunteer accommodation

DEPART KUALA LUMPUR, ARRIVE SANDAKAN

Transfer from Zoo to airport for your late afternoon flight out to Sandakan, Sabah.  Airfare not included.  Please have dinner while in Kuala Lumpur as shops will be closed in Sandakan by the time you arrive.

Upon arrival at Sandakan Airport (SDK), you will be met by a driver who will transfer you to small town accommodation.  You will arrive late evening and will not be met by the facilitator till the next evening.

INTRODUCTION WELCOME TO SANDAKAN

Sandakan is a lovely little town that starts becoming lively at 5am.  Spend the 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

1600 hours, meet at lobby.  Transfer to dormitory-style accommodation.  

Welcome dinner & introduction to the 2nd half of 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

ZOO NEGARA
At the Zoo, your role is to assist the zoo keepers in their daily jobs of cleaning cages, zoo compounds, feeding the animals and preparing enrichment activities for great apes, especially orang-utans and a variety of other zoo animals.  Basically, take care of animals as a zookeeper assistant would.  You will learn about the personalities of the various animals and their roles in the larger web of life in the wild. 

Interacting with the Malaysian zookeepers by working alongside them allows you to understand the conditions they work in, gain insight into the “behind the scenes” of working in a zoo and a chance to improve living conditions of captive animals in the zoo. 

It is advisable to do some research into animals and their behaviour in the wild before arrival and perhaps visit a zoo before you depart, so you have some understanding of how they work.  The zoo greatly appreciates volunteers coming up with new enrichment ideas.  You must check with the zookeeper or programme facilitator before implementing the activity.

Volunteers may be able to interact with the animals under the supervision of the zookeeper or programme facilitator.  Direct contact is not allowed as these are wild animals and can be unpredictable.  Health and safety is paramount at the zoo.  WOX and the keepers take this very seriously.

Please make sure that you wear t-shirts that cover your shoulders (no singlet, or sleeveless shirts) and long trousers and shoes that cover your feet - trainers or trekking shoes are ideal. Additionally 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.  Wellies/ gum boots are available for most activities, though if you have feet larger than size 10 we advise you to bring your own as larger sizes are not available in Malaysia.  You are welcome to bring your own Wellington boots if you do not feel comfortable wearing used boots or if you prefer your own.  Please bring good socks as boots can get very uncomfortable when worn for long periods.

If you feel tired take a break. Do not continue working as you put yourself and other volunteers and keepers in danger. Volunteers normally have weekends off but days off will be determined by your facilitator at the Zoo according to the zoo schedule.

SANDAKAN
After your stint at the zoo, you will be transferred to the airport for your late afternoon flight to Sandakan.  You will arrive late in the evening and transferred to your hotel.  Take this opportunity to rest and recover from your stint at the zoo.  Do take your dinner while you are still in Kuala Lumpur as Sandakan is a very small town and it is highly likely that all shops will be closed by the time you arrive.

You may spend the next day exploring the quaint town of Sandakan.  Take a walk along the seafront, or check out the many old town shops, historical monuments including those commemorating the heroes of the Death March, temples and other nooks & crannies.  If you feel adventurous, try to have a sumptuous seafood lunch in one of the water-village restaurants

SEPILOK
The same evening at 1600 hours, you will be met at the entrance of your accommodation and brought to Sepilok for the welcome dinner and an evening understanding the Corridor of Life and the second part of the project.

The serene surroundings of the lovely wooden longhouse set within the lush green surroundings of Sepilok offers you the quiet time to reflect on the importance of the Corridor of Life and our role in conservation of the habitat of these lovely animals.

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.

Note: It is at the discretion of your programme facilitator to amend and change some of these routines and the times they are carried out. This is a guide, not a definitive programme with exact times.  Life in Malaysia, be it in the zoo or in the village, is not of the same standards as what you are used to at home