The jungles of Borneo are famous for being home to the orang utans. Short of going to the zoo, the best way to see the orang utans up close is to go to the Shangri-la Rasa Ria resort forty-five minutes north of Kota Kinabalu. It felt a little odd going to a five-star resort better known for the elaborate breakfast buffets and high thread-count bed linens to see primates in their natural habitat. But the Shangri-La Resort and the government of Sabah jointly developed a wildlife preserve and rehabilitation center for orphaned and rescued orang utans. It's turned out to be a mutually beneficial arrangement: the resort is assured a steady flow of visitors and the government gets a partner with deep pockets and marketing savvy.
We called ahead to book a spot to ensure that there would be room for us. Once we arrived we had to walk through the Shangri-La’s cavernous and opulent lobby and then walk through their meandering, impeccably landscaped grounds. Eventually, we made our way to the northern edge of the Shangri-La where the resort ended and the jungle began. In the preserve's welcome center, we sat down and watched an informational video about the orang utan that was already in progress. When the video finished, the guide had us follow him outside.We began a steady ascent into the Borneo rainforest. Ten minutes later we were on a large wooden viewing platform in the middle of the jungle. Twenty feet away was a smaller feeding platform where the ranger had just dumped a bucket of fresh fruit. We all staked out our location along the railing on the viewing platform and got ready to wait for orang utans to show up.
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