Beautiful Borneo!

Hello again!

I can't believe that it has nearly been a week since I left Borneo and I am still yet to blog about it! Time is going even faster now that I am nearing the end.  I am still in Singapore at the moment after delaying my flight to Thailand until tomorrow (Tuesday).

Borneo was wonderful and I am so pleased that I decided to join Julie on the last leg of her trip, we had a brilliant time and just when I think that things cant get more beautiful or amazing, they do! We squished a lot in to our ten days and I was shattered by the end, but it was completely worth it, although we hardly touched the surface of the amazing state of Sabah, which is in the Malaysian part of Borneo.

It was the first country that I have been to on this trip where there was a language barrier.  However, this was not so much of a hindrance and it certainly makes life more interesting! The people on the whole were generally very friendly and we only had one occasion when we were surrounded by touts (it was like being a celebrity) which was when buying our long haul bus ticket, although as soon as we had bought, we were old news!

The flight from Singapore to Kota Kinabulu (the capital) was just two hours and we arrived in time for lunch.  It was all very straightforward and the luxury of not having to cook and lunch costing just a pound, was very much a novelty.   We then spent the rest of our first day wondering around, looking at the markets and then discovering that great chain and wondering, if there is anyone in th

e world it hasnt made it to....

On our second day we visited Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park, a group of 5 islands, situated just 15 minutes by speed boat from KK.  Just when you think the beaches cant get any better and this is what you find.....it was beautiful! We spent our day on two islands,

 the first was called Mandurah and was the only island in the National 

Park where you can stay.  The second island we hopped to, is called Manutik and this is the one in the picture.  It was a very relaxed day, we snorkled and enjoyed the sunshine and could see the afternoon storm brewing in KK from our remote island! How wonderful! The boat rid

es were really fun too, speed boats shotting everywhere! That evening we went to the night market.  We had wondered around on our first evening but had already eaten.  It is meant to be one of the best night markets in South East Asia and we were both completly blown away! It is mainly fish and vegtables for sale, i have never seen anything like it, it was massive and despite the amount of raw meat there were no flys and it did not smell, incrediable when you consider it was not below probably 25 even at night! A sign of pure freshness i reckon.  We ate at a typical philipino BBQ with all the locals, its just plastic bowls and no cutterly!  But it has 

to be some of the best fish i have ever eaten! Normally I would have been a bit apprehensive eating at this kind of thing, but it was an incrediable experience and great food! We were the only westerners in sight, we later found the rest of the tourists not even 150m down the road eating at the local Irish pub!  What an experience they missed, the bbqs made it roasting hot but it was soo much fun!

Day 3 - we got the bus to Sandakan, 6 hours east of KK.  For an asian bus it was pretty comfy and even had air con, i certainly wasnt going to complain for the 6 pounds it cost me!  Although this is a prime example of the language barrier, when the bus stops for a break, you never know how long it is going to stop for, it could be 5 minutes or 55! Patience really is a virtue when it comes to travelling Asia.  Sandakan was ok, there is not a lot in the actual town but we were using it as a base to explore the local wildlife.  It does however have an interesting history, which i will share with you now.  Sandakan was the site of a Japenese Prisoner of War camp during WWII.  In September 1944 there were 1800 Australian troops and 600 British.  More Australians died here than during the building of the Burma railway.  Early in the war conditions were bearable, but as the allies progressed, rations were cut, prisoners weakened and disease spread.  It was decided to move the prisoners inland, 250km through the jungle to Ranau.  On 28 January 1945 470 prisoners set off, 313 made it to Ranau.  On the second march 570 started and only 118 made it.  Conditions were horific, not boots, rations less than miminal and many fell by the wayside; the Japenese disposing of those who could not walk.  Once in Ranau the prisoners were put to work carrying 20kg sacks of rice to Paginatan 40km away.  Disease and starvation took a horendous toll and by the end of July 1945 there were no prisoners left in Ranau.  The only survivors from the 2400 at Sandakan were 6 Australian escapees.  

There is a memorial park at Sandakan but unfortunatly we ran out of time to visit as the next few days were monkey mania.  Our first day of monkey business was at the lesser well known attraction of the Probiscus Monkey Sanctuary.  This type of 

monkey can only be found in Borneo, a pretty incrediable thought really.  They are funny looking things but we had a really great day!  We decided to stay for both the morning and afternoon feeding, and were the only ones to do so! We thought we would be hanging around for ages in between but had lunch and was shown around the new lodges that they are building and then were treated to a lunchtime feeding, with just one other couple, the monkeys were so close and it felt like we were even more in the jungle! It was a boiling day and we were both shattered by the end! That day proved that hanging around and

 having a little patience was worth it!

Our other day of monkey business was at the much more famous Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation centre.  Where as the day before there had been a maximum of 15 people at one feeding, here there were hundreds! But we were prepared and had our spot on the fence 40 minutes prior to the first feeding! Where as the probiscus literally came crashing through the trees, the orangutans were much more graceful and were swinging along the ropes.  They cannot say how many will turn up for feeding, as these orangutans have been released into the semi-wild, they say between 0-11.  On our first feeding we had 7, which was pretty good!  You dont get too close, but that is for the orangutans benefit as at the centre they are trying to keep it as realistic to the wild as possible.  The fact that people couldnt follow the basic instruction of 'silence please' was slightly frustrating, and some orangutans definitly didnt approach as it was too noisey which was such a shame.  Between feedings we hung around in the cafe and caught up with our diaries and watched a DVD on the work at Sepilok.  The afternoon came around really quickly and we were like the cats with the cream as we made our way to the second feeding as a female orangutan was hanging in the tree right next to the broad walk.  It was amazing! We were so close and and was fun to watch her just playing in the tree! I didnt really mind about the second feeding after that, i had my photos and such a special experience.  Only 3 turned up to the second feeding, there were lots of other pesky monkeys around and it was over pretty quickly, or so we thought....all the orangutans went out of sight and then one decided to come and have another look.  After about 15 minutes of playing in the tree of front of us and hanging around....this is what happened.....

How cool is this!! It came right onto the barrier and nearly stole a women's camera case, which the women would have deserved as she had her camera lense right in the orangutan's face.  An extra special moment though!

Our last main adventure of the trip was a 2 night jungle experience on the River Kinabatangan.  It was a great couple of days, which involved lots of river cruises, early morning (6am!) and late afternoon and a night walk through the jungle and a longer 3 hour walk on Easter Sunday!  It was lots of fun, even with the Glastonbury style mud! Leech socks and all we had a really ace time! The walk through the jungle was pretty amazing, thankfully although we did get leeches on us we were observant enough for them not to get to the blood sucking stage! phew!  On our river cruise we saw a crocodile, which was pretty cool apart the size of the boat we were in (it was one moment when i wanted to erase all of my interesting crocodile facts from my mind!) lots of probiscus monkeys, birds and an orangutan in its nest! yes trust me, they do sleep in nests which they build in 5-20 minutes, pretty impressive!  Unfortunatly our quest for elephants failed due to being stuck in a torrential down pour! Just when i have never seen rain so hard, it gets harder!  It was so hard it hurt, you couldnt look up it was so heavy.  It has to be one of the funniest afternoons of my whole trip, but i think you had to be there!  We certainly couldnt have been any wetter!

We had one day back in KK before flying back to Singapore.  Unfortunatly the weather didn't hold for a beach day so we opted for shopping instead and then our final night was spent back at the BBQ!  

We crammed a lot in to our 10 days, but it was amazing and i will definitey be going back! There is still so much to see and the diving there is meant to be amazing!

Im home in 2 weeks today....doesnt feel quite real yet!!!!