"A few miles our elephants may be seen upon the road, and orangutans and gibbon apes are one jump away in the jungle, and crocodiles are caught off the customs wharf, but at four o'clock in the afternoon we are drinking our afternoon tea." ~ Land Below The Wind

It's about time I made my way to Sabah, Malaysia!

Located on the northern portion of Borneo Island,
which consists of Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei

 it lies below the typhoon belt of SE Asia,

and is nicknamed Land Below the Wind.

Having read Agnes Newton Keith's book quoted throughout this post, 

I felt prepared to be as enamored with its wildness

 as she had been before the war came along and changed everything.

We dined at the English Tea House...

overlooking the harbour near the museum of her home in Sandakan.

"I had always wanted to live on a hill-top...When the possibility of our moving was discussed everyone reminded me of the violence of the wind on that hill-top, of the age and enfeebled condition of the house there, of the superior condition of paint and polish in the house which we still occupied, of the hill-side garden without top-soil where flowers would not flourish, and of the difficulty of coercing a vigorous enough stream of water up the hill to gush through a water closet.  I worried about the last.  Only people who have lived both with and without plumbing can appreciate it.  Finally I decided that I would not allow the lack of a w.c. to keep me off the finest hill-top in Borneo."

On the outskirts of Sandakan,
on the way to our lodge in the rainforest...

we stopped by the Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre for the 10:00 feeding. 

They feed these animals the same thing everyday...

in hopes they will leave and re-enter the surrounding jungle.

 Although, they looked quite content...

competing for the goods...

as they are thrown about...

for the taking.

Clearly the old saying, 
"You can pick your friends and you can pick your seat, 
but you can't pick your friends' seat", 
does not apply in the animal kingdom.

In pursuit of food, 
there was verbal warning from the long tailed macaque in front...

to the one behind who didn't listen.
Those tails give a powerful wollap!

"Jojo...was my first ape in Borneo...He lived in freedom in and out of our house, spending his lesser moments in the tops of mango trees, but always ready to come when I called.  When I stood on the top verandah and called "Oooooh? Oooooh?" he would come from far trees, swinging and dropping from mango to jack fruit, to chiku, and then through the burning crest of the flame-of-the-forest, his black face pushing through the crimson flowers...As he neared me he made small answering noises of infinite delight until, in that last moment before he flung himself into my arms...
"As he was my first ape, our wedding presents were still intact.  With a human curiosity Jojo would surreptitiously pick them up and look on the bottom for the price marks, and if what he found was not to his satisfaction, as apparently it frequently was not, he dropped the gifts scornfully, thus clearing the house of surplus ornamentation."
Agnes Newton Keith, 
Land Below the Wind

Our journey continues into the jungle.