Borneo dream

So we are back from another beautiful holiday. Borneo had always been on my wish list so very glad we did it. We've just visited Malaysian Borneo and more exactly Sabah. It is a beautiful corner of the world with a lot to see so it seems a lot to squeeze in for two weeks but it worked out well (of course I would have loved to stay longer). This was our itinerary (in case you are after some inspiration): 

Day 1 – Land in Kuala Lumpur and connect with a flight to Kota Kinabalu AKA KK (the capital of Sabah). We spent the evening sampling street food at the local Philippino market where there are tons of food on display: from fresh fish to meat stretched along counters under humid and hot air and no ice on sight. The fish was very fresh though so no toilet mishaps. Our “hut” in KK was Le Meridien: it is very central and offers great service (as one would expect). We stayed there 2 nights: the first when we arrived and then on our return from the climb from Kota Kinabalu. The best thing is that both nights we were upgraded to a suite (lavish! hehe the holiday started well): the first time I think because of some “complaint” that we made at the time we reserved and the second night because when we checked-in rain was leaking dramatically over the otherwise immaculate bed. Lots of apologies and a lavish suite later we were more than satisfied although I always wonder why anyone would need such a huge place to spend one night in bed. How sweet.

Day 2 - 3 Mount Kinabalu (my nightmare). Although some may be surprised to read this it was never in my master plan for the holiday. Despite my adrenaline junkie spirit I was never planning to break myself climbing a giant all the way to +4000m above the sea level. I am more comfortable in the sea you see… But S. thought one could not visit Sabah without doing this. In retrospective, forgetting the hours of agony through a total of 17km (8.5 up and then back down) of steep and interminable steps and uneven ground sunrise at the summit admittedly did look good. Also if one does not count the sore knee ligament (me) and the twisted ankle (S.) that slowed our descent to a torturous 5 hours we were relatively lucky with the weather as it did not rain until the very last hour of our ordeal. It took us about 6 hours to get to the summit: the last 700-500m of which took me about one hour (small step after small step and long pause to breathe oxygen starved air) while nausea battled and inexplicably lost against my will power.

Day 4 – At leisure in KK (lots of rest!).

The following 5 to 6 days we could be both seen struggling with sore muscles wandering about the dive resort looking like an old couple in a retirement home.

Day 5-9 Sipadan Kapalai Diving Resort. A water bungalow resort on a shallow sand bank (no beach, no land) from where we based all our diving activities. This is the closest resort to Sipadan (one of the top diving destinations in the world) which is now a protected island and can only be dived with a permit. It is also very close to the island of Mabul (which can be seen from the resort). Because of the permit restrictions on a 4 night stay we were only guaranteed 1 day diving in Sipadan which gave us 4 lovely dives there. Diving Sipadan is like throwing yourself into a fish soup. I lost count of the turtles, sharks, barracudas and all the rest of amazing creatures the reef was teeming with. The rest of the dives were around Kapalai and Mabul. The dives in Kapalai were also very good with lots of good macro life. Both S. and I preferred the dives around Kapalai to Mabul. The dive operation is good if one excludes the fact that they insist on preparing and handling the equipment for you. Not a bad thing per se (although I prefer setting up my own gear and hate when people stick their hands in the way while I am working at it: I don’t even do it to my students!). Nonetheless I allowed it very reluctantly with the result that they flooded my regs on the very first day. I will not provide any details on the scene that followed. After that I made a point of detaching the first stage from the tank myself at the end of the diving day to make sure that the dust cap was on while letting them do the rest of the hard work.

Day 10 – long bus journey from Semporna to Sandakan (6 hours yawn) and night in Sandakan; an old colonial town that was destroyed during the world war and rebuilt to what today looks like a decaying concrete jungle. Had a nice tea in the gardens of a colonial tea house on top of a hill and visited the reconstructed Agnes Newton Keith's house which was possibly the only nice place in town: http://www.sabahtourism.com/sabah-malaysian-borneo/en/destination/92-agnes-keith-house/
Also had a peep at one of the water villages, where people live with no proper toilets and mounds of floating plastic (the sea takes it all and it all comes back to us into the food chain, nice!).

Day 11-13: delve into the jungle. As our guide drove us through the region to reach a corner of the last 45% of rain forest left, extensive plantations of oil palm stretching as far as the eye can see were a clear mark of how unsustainable the growing human species is. Palm oil is a precious commodity dubbed “green” gold in the region. It is exported worldwide and it has a multitude of uses: from alimentary (think Nutella and kit-kat just for a quick example but it is also used for cooking) to cosmetic and bio-fuels.

On the way we stopped at the Gomantong Caves famous for the swiftlet nests; a delicacy on Chinese menus (what isn’t?) that carry heavy price tags on the market and which of course (money is almost always the driver) explains why humans are ready to make incredible acrobatics and put their lives at risk to fetch. As the government now regulates nest collections we did not witness any collectors yet the visit to the cave was interesting: it is full of bats, swifts, hairy millipedes and humongous cockroaches (my nightmare). The opening is huge and you walk over a boardwalk that protects your feet from the deep dung, the roaches and the other creeps (apparently also scorpions) but it’s impossible to escape the sharp stench. Not recommended for asthma sufferers.

We spent the first two nights in Mayne Resort on Kinabatangan River having a wonderful time on river cruises in search of wildlife: we saw lots of beautiful birds, a croc, monkeys (proboscis, silver leaf an long tail), a wild boar and Borneo Pygmy Elephants; lots of them. The last day in the region we transferred to Sepilok Nature Reserve: a beautiful bungalow resort 2 minutes from the Orang-Utan rehabilitation centre set on the edge of a protected patch of rain forest. Orang-utans are amazing creatures and coming so close to

them is an experience that is hard to describe. They look like children so similar to us and at times so mischievous. When we arrived at the centre for a stroll we witnessed a girl reporting being bitten by one of them while the ranger told us that one earlier stole the camera from one of the tourists and broke it. To me all these stories sounded extremely funny especially when faced by their funny expressions and expressive beady eyes. We kept our respectful distance while interacting with them and we had no issues. We also did a 2-hour guided night walk during which I saw my first huge scorpion in the wild as well as a viper and an owl. I love the forest and the amazing sounds that progressively become louder as night falls. I also saw my first monitor lizard swimming in the resort’s main pond: basically an oversized reptile that must have been at last 1.5m long judging by the huge head.

Day 14-15: back to KK for a ferry across to Gaya Island. An island part of a National Park very close to the coast where we decided to splash out on a lavish resort: Bunga Raya. Beautiful island with white beach backed by a jungle, a big and luxurious bungalow surrounded by wild vegetation, Royal treatment and a SPA: just bliss.

 

Day 16-17: 2 nights (1 full day) in Kuala Lumpur ended with a lavish dinner at Frangipani. Probably the best dinner and service we have had for a while; reminiscent of London's top restaurants.
 
The following day flight back home on one of Oman Air new Airbus A330: really nice aircraft and great in-flight entertainment system. The flight went really fast. By the way The Invention of Lying (by Ricky Gervais) and Shutter Island (by Martin Scorsese) are two really great movies!

 

The climate while we were in Sabah  was mostly humid and it rained virtually every day (even if for just an hour). We had some dramatic storms but the rain never hampered any aspect of our holiday. In fact most of the time it seemed to come with perfect timing apart for the last night in KL when we had to buy a couple of umbrellas at the shopping mall to get back to the hotel. The actual temperatures were not too high (high 20s, low 30s c) but the dampness of the air made it feel much hotter and at times (especially during walks in the forest) it was particularly muggy and unpleasant. If you are planning a holiday there prepare to sweat! All in all a varied and really exciting holiday. Beautiful places and lovely people.

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