Don’t Plan Ahead

People may ask why we chose Borneo as a destination.  It has often been said that long term travellers should never plan too far ahead in case you may get talking to fellow travellers who tell you about that amazing trip they made, or those magical spots that was a highlight and it could well be somewhere that you had never contemplated going.

Borneo was probably one of those places.  It was always on the radar but not high on the ‘must places to visit’ list.  However, we got talking to a couple from Denmark in the back of a songthaew in Koh Yao Noi, Thailand who had just come from a month travelling around Borneo.

We had some time between house sits so decided that Borneo was an easy and cheap destination to get to and thought ‘why not’, so preparations were put in place to fly from Singapore to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the state of Sabah, Borneo.

Kota Kinabalu – not famous for its sites

Kota Kinabalu has a population of around 500,000 people and to be honest, was a bit of a culture shock coming from the pristine streets of Singapore.  It’s not a ‘pretty City’.

We booked our 3 night accommodation on booking.com and tried to find something which was going to come in on budget.  This was

not an easy feat as it appears that even though tourism isn’t high on the list for Kota Kinabalu, they charge out accommodation as if it was a high volume destination. 

We settled on a budget hotel called Hotel Five 2.  A family run guest house in the central city right beside the nightly markets.  Okay, so the room was small, the bathroom was even smaller and we needed ear plugs, we enjoyed our stay here and soon made some friends with the owner (who loves NZ) and the locals at the surrounding street food restaurants.  We scored a room rate of 103MYR ($34nz) per night.

We hit the streets the next day and headed for the local Tourist Information Centre.  Sometimes it’s just easier to find stuff the good old fashion way – yes, we found some pamphlets and booklets and decided on the route to take to take in the highlights of the city over the next couple of days.

It would be fair to say that at times we struggled to find anything exciting to see.  You can tell that the city is trying to get its act together and clean up some areas but with a decline in tourist numbers due to heightened security warnings,  it is not a place that you would want to spend a great deal of time in.

In saying that though, we did manage to fill in our days here by coving on foot nearly 20km one day and 16km the next day, in soaring heat in the 30’s and 100% humidity.

The Clock Tower, Floating City Mosque, multiple night food markets and a melting pot of cultures meant that we were fully immersed in a culture that we really knew nothing about.

The Floating City Mosque was the highlight for us.  After a gruelling 9km walk to get there, we were drenched to the skin, only to discover that to get in, we had to hire the right attire which meant robe and hat for Scotty and full longsleeve dress and Hijab for me.  Well this just added to our body temperature but we endured and had a very enlightening stroll through the amazing mosque (I was so hoping that the clothes were going to be laundered after we had finished with them but I very much doubt it). 

The locals were very friendly and we befriended a young Muslim girl who was only too happy to discuss the protocols and traditions surrounding her religion.  I asked her how old she was, expecting her to be around 12 years old, she was actually 20!!

Below is a vlog on how we filled in two days in Kota Kinabalu.

 

Flight out to Sandakan 

We had a choice to make – either a 6 hour bus ride from Kota Kinabalu to the west coast town of Sandakan, or a 45 minute flight for $40nz each.  We saw the state of the buses, weighed up the time (and safety factor) and decided that the flight would be much more advantageous for us.

Once we landed in Sandakan, we  headed to a small settlement called Sepilok where there are a couple of sanctuaries that we really wanted to visit.  This is where you will find the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre and the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre.   In fact, these sanctuaries were the main reason for us coming the Borneo. 

As this was always going to be the highlight of our trip we decided to splash out for a 3 night stay at the Sepilok Nature Resort.  Although this set us back 318MYR ($105nz) per night but it was worth it.  Firstly we were in our own private chalet situated right on a lake, surrounded in jungle and believe me, we did get up close and personal with nature.  We could watch the monkeys jumping from tree to tree right above our heads as we sat on our balcony sipping our morning coffee. 

Another bonus staying at the resort was it’s close proximity to the sanctuaries.  This meant that we could easily spend all day wandering between the two, making sure that we could get to both feeding times for the orang-utans.

Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre

Now I’m not about to start sounding like David Attenborough here but our visit to this Rehab Centre was amazing and we learnt so much about this amazing creature.

Don’t come here expecting to be able to hold/cuddle orang-utans.  It’s all about making sure that they are equipped to go back into their natural environment in a gentle and gradual process which involves as little human contact as possible.

As much as we were in awe of these creatures, we were also greatly saddened by the things we learnt about the plight of the orang-utans.  They are the only great apes of Asia, found in Southeast Asia on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra.

The destruction of the tropical rain forests in Borneo and Sumatra is the main reason that they are threatened with extinction.  This has been caused by illegal logging, felling of rain forests to plant palm oil plantations as well as mining, clearing forest for settlements and road construction.  Also the illegal animal trade has been a factor in the decline of this species as they are hunted and eaten by some of the indigenous people of Borneo.

The centre is open from 9am until 4pm but is closed from 11am to 2pm.  Feeding times are 10am and 3pm and there is also a nursery you can visit to watch the youngsters at play.  The great thing about the nursery is that it is us that are in enclosures, not the Orang-utans so you can sit there and watch them in their natural surroundings.  There are no boundary fences surrounding the sanctuary and they are free to roam over 40 hectares of rainforests.

Entry fee is 30MYR ($10nz) which gives you an all day pass so you can come and go as you please throughout the day.

Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre

Home of the World’s Smallest Bear

We really didn’t know anything about these Sun Bears before visiting the conservation centre which is located right opposite the Orang-utan Rehab Centre.

Sun Bears are the smallest bears in the world and are found in Southeast Asia.  These bears continue to be threatened by forest degradation, illegal hunting and poaching to obtain young cubs for the pet trade.  They can be found in places such as restaurants as a draw card for diners, kept in small cages with no access to outdoor areas.

They are currently operating at full capacity with around 44 bears so they are unable to start a breeding programme but it is still early days as the centre only opened in 2014.

There is an awesome canopy forest walk where you can view the bears in large forest enclosures which provide a natural environment to help rehabilitate them back into the wild.

We were captivated by these small bears and watched them for quite some time as the rain bucketed down.  Watching the young bears go crazy in the rain was very entertaining.

Opening hours are 9am to 3.30pm and do not close over lunchtime so it is  good to shoot across to this centre while the Orang-utans are closed during lunch hours.  Entrance fee is 31.80MYR ($10.50nz).

Rainforest Discovery Centre

Two kilometres down the road from our resort is the Rainforest Discovery Centre.  Although the main purpose of the RDC remains as an environmental education centre for students and teachers, it has opened its doors to the public since 2007.

Here, we were able to discover the rain forest from the treetops along a 350m long Canopy Walkway.  We scaled 3 soaring towers so we could look down onto the tree tops.  I even managed it with my irrational fear of heights!

An added bonus for us was spotting a mother orang-utan and her baby perched high in the tree tops.  It was a real treat seeing her truly in her natural surroundings.

We covered over 10 kms as we continued along some of their forest walks looping back to the education centre.  Drenched in sweat and buggered, we walked the remaining 2km back to the resort in time for a well earned cold beer or two.

The centre is open daily from 8am to 5pm.  Entrance fee is 15MYR ($5nz).

More of Sabah to come in Part Two…….enjoy our video of some of our highlights at these awesome centres.