Have You Seen An Orang Utan Dreaming?

I've had just enough time...   to share an orang utan's grief.

Taken in the orang utan island, Bukit Merah.

High above my head,
High on top of a dead tree.
An Orang Utan hang motionlessly.
Was he staring at the sky
Or was he looking at the jungle green
Just beyond the electric fence?

I couldn’t tell.

But what was apparent to me was -
His longing,
His pining,
His dream.

I thought it a great idea. An island reserved specially for orang utan for them to roam free. I gladly paid the RM28 for the boat ride that I was told, helped to maintain their natural habitat. But what I saw shocked me. I saw a small strip of land by the shore barricaded from the jungle. I saw the angry faces of apes with vengeful eyes staring back at us from two layers of fences, one electrified. I saw an orang utan that gave me the same look that Caesar of the “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” did. I saw it throwing an empty coconut husk at us in frustration and anger. I saw baby orang utans in diapers. But the saddest sight and most tragic to me was high above us on top of a dead tree was an orang utan pining for his home. I couldn’t wait to get off the island and away from that cursed place. So if you heard about an island paradise for orang utan in West Malaysia, think twice about going there.