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Published: March 29th 2009
Naths birthday meal...
Care of Mr Ronald McDonald! mmmmm.... Brad wasnt stopping for noone, ha!We were soooo excited about coming to Borneo, for both of us its always been one of those really far away sounding places that you never expect to visit ! Plus it wasnt part of the plan initially, so was like an added bonus ! The only downside was we could only fit in 10 days, so we headed straight for Sabah, on the eastern side. It was about a 2hour flight from Southern Malaysia to Kota Kinabalu, the biggest and busiest town in Malaysian Borneo. (Borneo is split in two, the top half is Malaysian, the bottom is Indonesian)
We arrived and caught a cab into the centre, to a hostel where we'd planned to meet up with Brad and Laura again, a couple we met and travelled with for a few days in Laos back in November last year ! Was really nice to see them, and we spent the first eve chatting away frantically about what we'd all been up to over the past few months ! The next day was Nath's birthday, and I was feeling extremely guilty not having been able to get anything for him....we spend every minute together and he always has all
Naths birthday eve....
We were still able to focus at this point....just....! the money ! Pretty poor though, and I was completely put to shame by Brad, as when we went down for some breakfast that morning, the table was piled high with all these wrapped goodies for Nath ! It was so nice of him, and seeing as we'd only really spent about 5 days at the most with them previously in Laos, he was more spot on with his choice in gifts than I would've been ! Nath's little eyes were constantly lighting up as he unwrapped the likes of hobnobs, a tin of spam, baked beans, a can of special brew (!) and some whiskey! After a birthday lunch at Maccy D's we headed out for a fantastically messy evening which involved copious amounts of beer and gin, and horrendous hangovers the next day ! It just so happened as well that we were all heading on the next day to our next stop, about 6 hours bus ride away. (Definitely becoming a pattern on this trip!) As usual I spent the morning quite unwell, and just sitting by whilst the others tucked into their breakfast of Roti and curry sauce, feeling sorry for myself. Until I woke up
Partners in crime !
Brad & Laura, we met these guys initially back in Laos before xmas and then met back up again here in Borneo ! This is on Naths birthday eve the day after we arrived, that morning Brad presented Nath with a whole selection of birthday pressies over breakfast ! Was so nice ! Plus they were all either edible or drinkable, in the short space of time we'd all spent together he'd got Nath spot on ! half way through the windiest bus journey possibly in the world, to find poor Laura suffering the effects of that and the hangover in the pitch black squat toilet in the back of the bus ! Anyway, that was most definitely a day all of us wanted to be over asap !
We arrived in a small town called Sandakan, which was to be our base whilst visiting the Orangutan rehabilitation place in nearby Sepilok. We headed off there early the next morning on the local bus (which ended up stopping about 3kms from the place so we thumbed a lift the rest of the way!) and arrived in time for the morning feed. The rehab centre is based in an area of protected forest, and was turned into an area to both house and treat orphaned and injured orangutans, and then re-introduce them back into the wild. The area of forest is massive and really quite dense, and they have these twice daily feeding times (Once in the morning and then again in the afternoon), on platforms which can be viewed from close by, that enable the apes to come back for some food if they want. Some
Macaque monkey and baby
This was in the Orangutan rehabilitation place in Sepilok, these macaques were everywhere, waiting for the orangutans to come so they could pinch their food ! do quite regularly, whereas others can be released into the forest and start completely fending for themselves straight away and therefore dont ever venture back to the feeding platforms ! Is all extremly well done, in terms of the boardwalk through the forest to the platforms, and the centre where they show you exactly what they're doing for the orangutans.
When you get to the platform, the first thing you see are these Macaque monkeys, everywhere ! They know theres food coming too ! They can be quite aggressive though and apparently some tourists have gotten to close and ended up regretting it. The big male actually got all territorial at one point when we were there and jumped forwards baring a whole load of very big pointy teeth !
Anyway, when the Orangutans decided to make an appearance, the monkeys were very quickly forgotten! These creatures are absolutely incredible. They swung in, big and hairy and super muscley, but yet completely graceful and gentle ! (Although we were told an adult male could fully rip a human quite easily in half!) One was a female with a tiny baby clinging onto her. It was amazing. She took no
Orangutan!
This was a female swinging in with a little baby clinging to her chest, she was so graceful ! real notice of us at all, and other than the buzz of the rainforest, everybody was completely silent. She happily munched on some bananas before swinging back off into the forest !
However the best part of the day was yet to come, we hung about the rainforest for the rest of the day, walking through and taking it all in, and then went back again for the afternoon feed. There didnt seem to be as much action as the morning, so a lot of people didnt hang around for very long, except us and few others. And our reward was to see one of the females swing in with her baby, and then sit for a while munching away. Then, this massive male turned up ! He was huge ! and he went straight up to her, actually cupped her face and they kissed !! Honestly, we were all stunned, it had to be the most tender thing I've ever seen, particularly between two animals ! Then they sat together stroking the baby and passing it between them, just like a couple with a newborn ! Incredible.
The main point of coming to Borneo for us was to
Mummy & Baby
Close up of mum swinging in with baby, she'd just stop every now and then and chill there hanging by a foot or a hand see wildlife, rainforests and for the diving. We'd already been lucky enough to see the orangutans, but decided we'd all go and spend some time in a nature lodge right by the kinabantang river. We were taken by 4x4 to a remote place by the river, and then put in a boat which took us along the river into the rainforest and to our lodge ! It was a very basic place, right in the rainforest, which provided us with somewhere to sleep and eat and also an evening and early morning trip on the boat along the river to (hopefully) spot some wildlife ! It was also bloomin hot and sticky, and we spent the whole time sweating !
That evening we went out on the boat and saw an Orangutan in the wild ! Although this dopey woman on the boat decided to scream at something completely unrelated, and it scarpered. This woman actually became the bane of our lives for the rest of the time at this place ! We also managed to sit and watch a group of Probiscus monkeys for ages, they are super ugly with these massive noses and huge great tummys !
Happy Family !
This has to be the most tender moment we have ever seen, and between these amazing creatures ! They were like doting parents over their tiny little baby, which they passed between them and kissed and cuddled, was incredible ! They're really big too. We saw lots of different birds and monkeys too. After dinner we were taken out on a night walk through the jungle, we were given welly boots but it was up to us to defend ourselves against the leeches.... Now, I can cope with most creepy crawlies if I really have to. But leeches ?? No. No way. Some other guys there were telling us horror stories about how persistant they are here too. And it had not long stopped raining so they were out, in full force. Hence my outfit ! ha ! The headnet was really intended for mosquitoes and flies, I hadnt actually used it up until now, it was super hot under there too but sooo worth it ! Nothing was getting in there. and nothing did either ! We caught a couple trying to sly their way in through Laura's trousers though, and a couple other guys got bit.
The walk was really eerie, and we even had to wade through some parts, (which particularly upset that loud woman I mentioned earlier who then frightened off anything that may've been close with her wailing!) but it was good fun ! We
Ooerr !
Honestly, these monkeys have no shame.... saw lots of insects and creepy crawlies, but the most amazing was the kingfisher, which Nath managed to get an amazing picture of. He was just perched on a branch right by the path, sound asleep until we all got too close then he opened his eyes. But he didnt move at all !
As we were more pushed for time, we left the nature lodge the following day, and Brad and Laura stayed on for a couple more nights. This is when they managed to see that Western tarsier I've put on here, gutted !! Great pic though. After a fond farewell, we got back on the road and headed over to Semporna, which was to be our jumping off point for Sipidan ! This was the place I had been looking forward to the most. We were to stay one night in the small town of Semporna (which is a total hole) and then get on a boat early the next morning over to Mabul island, which is the closest you can stay to Sipidan Island. Since some tourists were hijacked there a few years ago and taken hostage by Filipino pirates, the area is forbidden to
En route to the nature lodge
Me, Nath, Brad and Laura on the kinabatanga river stay on and heavily protected by the military. They only allow 120 divers or snorkellers there each day, luckily we booked ahead !
We went out for food the first night and bumped into the 4 Canadians we'd met before on mainland Malaysia ! So we ended up spending the evening in scuba junkies bar, drinking buckets and watching a local band knock out all the old classics ! They were really good ! Yet again, this was the night before we had to be up super early to catch the boat over to Mabul....
We arrived at 'Uncle Changs' on Mabul Island the following morning in time for breakfast. En route we went past tons of stilt houses just built right in the sea, with their little boats tied up outside the front door, just like floating villages ! Uncle Changs was the same thing, built on stilts with walkways between all the rooms. The deal here is like all inclusive (although very basic !) so includes your dives, equipment, all your food and accommodation, we stayed for 3 nights and had one days diving booked at Sipidan. The first day we followed one of the boardwalks
Probiscus Monkeys
These things are huge ! And sooooo ugly ! They had massive great dangly noses and big fat tummys !
Very cool though, we watched a whole group of them for ages in the wild whilst out on the boat from the nature lodge. They were right above us in the trees ! onto the actual island, and it took us through a little stilt village and past a small school, was so pretty ! We chilled out on the beach for a while which was nice, although once again, the amount of rubbish here was really sad. Especially when the tide went out, there was just crap and bits of broken glass everywhere. Such a shame. Still, was nice to relax for the day, wandering back in time for our buffet lunch and dinner ! That night it seemed that Uncle Chang himself had made an appearance ! So we dined on fresh tuna cooked on the bbq, free tiger beers all round whilst listening to a makeshift live band !
The next day was the big day. And what we'd both been looking forwards to for weeks, I'd been going on and on about seeing turtles for ages, and we most definitely were not disappointed ! We got up early and sorted out our gear before breakfast, then headed out on the boat for about 25 mins to Sipidan Island, where we then had to sign in with the military police ! I was really nervous if I'm honest, I
On the boat from the nature lodge
We went out on a boat up the river both at dusk and silly o'clock in the morning, and saw Orangutans, Probiscus monkeys, Macaques and allsorts of amazing birds all in the wild, right on the river bank ! was worried about having problems with my ears again and I knew I wasnt going to be babysat quite as much as the last time either ! Our first dive was by the 'drop off', and it was basically a drift dive with the current along the wall of the reef. Amazingly, I had no problems at all and just went straight down ! Honestly, it has to be THE most incredible thing we have ever done ! It was like we had just been dropped into an aquarium. We did 3 dives over the day, the second one was quite scary, he did warn us the current was going to be really strong, and he wasn't kidding ! We were going along quite happily, then all of a sudden just felt this massive pull which was really hard to work against ! I did start to panic a little but Nath had already sussed I would and was right there ! Once I'd relaxed it was actually really cool, we stopped at one point and held onto some coral on the sea bed, with our legs billowing out behind us like we were in a full on wind tunnel,
Ready for the night walk !
No leaches were getting through these outfits, thats for damn sure ! Nath pointed up and we were completely surrounded and in amongst a huge shoal of giant barracudas ! Quite obviously these guys are the reason this dive is called barracuda point ! They were incredible, they have these big mean faces with massive great teeth ! and they were barely moving against this super dooper current and seemed to just be completely still ! We stayed holding on and watching them for ages before we let go and went zooming off with the current, and then it just suddenly stopped and we were just bobbing around again ! Really weird feeling. I also got to see my first turtle on this dive as we zoomed past it perched on a ledge ! The final dive though was the one for turtles, and sharks ! These turtles were the size of your dining room table, they were everywhere ! And they're just so graceful, was so amazing ! I was expecting to be really frightened of the sharks, but when Nath pointed out the first one, I was more in total awe of it ! He just glided on by beside us, taking no notice at all ! They were also
Black Backed Kingfisher
We disturbed this little guy snoozing on a branch, right on our pathway through the jungle on the night walk. He was so brightly coloured, nothing like his name ! everywhere, swimming above and below us, although afterwards the divemaster told us that one type of shark we'd seen was actually quite an aggressive one ! Very glad he didnt tell me that beforehand....
We did buy a disposable underwater camera and snapped away taking pictures of all the turtles and sharks, and of us both messing about suspended next to the reef wall ! But not many of them came out very well....gutted. We were buzzing when we got back though, was such an incredible day !
Our last day at Mabul island was spent snorkelling off the pontoons, even there Nath saw turtles and sting rays ! Later that day we got the boat back to the mainland and our overnight bus back up to Kota Kinabalu, where we arrived in time to catch our flight back to the mainland. Where then we'd catch another bus into Singapore, to meet mum and dad !!!
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dawn stevens
non-member comment
wow!!!
writing this from sunny morocco!!! having a great holiday although not nearly so exciting as yours oh i am so envious luv the photos!! the diving with turtles and sharks sounds the highlight well done you!!! looking forward to your next blog when no doubt i will be replying from good old wet england - enjoy the time with your parents take care both of you luv dawn xx