For the second stage of my eventful journey in Borneo I traveled to Kuching to start my volunteer work at Matang Wildlife Center.
This was a very exciting moment for me as it was the first stage of my journey that I had traveled alone.
During my four weeks volunteer work I was given weekends off.
During that time I was able to explore Kuching-the Cat city for myself, I went to Damai Beach Resort for one weekend and I even traveled to Gunung Gading National Park where I was lucky enough to see the Rafelsia flower in bloom!
Matang Wildlife Center is a rehabilitation center open to the public.
Unfortunately most of the animals in this particular center have been so damaged by human beings (in some truly disturbing ways) before they came here that there is no way they will be able to be released back into the wild due to their own levels of trauma and loss of natural instincts.
As you can understand because of this fact, this particular center needs a lot of resources to keep it running as they are constantly taking in new animals.
This is where the volunteers and their donations come in….
The work that I undertook in Matang was very physical work- it mostly involved cleaning out cages/enclosures and helping others to build new enclosures and work spaces.
During my time volunteering I was not allowed any physical contact with any of the animals due to the risk of humans infecting these animals with life-threatening diseases, for example, a baby Orang-Utan could easily die from a common human cold!
The weekend I went to Damai Beach resort I was fortunate enough to find an entire family of Silver Langur Monkeys!
Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Borneo: The oldest rain forest in the world - part two
..
