Borneo

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We had an early flight from Singapore and by lunch time we had dumped our bags at the backpackers (bunk beds for the 5th night in a row, yay!) and we were sampling the gastronomical delights of the local hawkers stalls of Kota Kinabalu. We hopped on a moving local bus and hung on for dear life (half out of the door, true indian-style!) and got off at the Sabah museum to get some culture and understand a bit about the history of this part of Borneo. We walked down an overgrown pathway leadin to a rusty old gate... This place didn't look very open... The old ticket office was closed and empty. Hmmmm.... Wandering around the side of the building however, we found much more life, a full carpark and a brand spanking new ticket office. So we paid our fee and went into the building to be faced by what looked like the skeleton of a dinosaur! Turned out it was a whale that had been found. It was humungous!!!!! We walked the corridors finding out historical and cultural tidbits as we went. After the museum we walked around the heritage village. A full village had been recreated so that tourists can see how the old tribes used to live. I have to say, the beds really didn't look comfortable. One of them had wooden blocks for pillows! 

It was getting late so we took the easy way home- taxi! Dinner was enjoyed on the harbour front where, under the cover of darkness and strategically placed neon lights the harbour almost looked pretty. You just had to forget the stench of the amazing fresh fish market next door. Rich adventurously tried the local desert, ABC, basically crushed ice, condensed cream, and wierd flavourless jelly lumps. I don't think he was overly impressed and wolfed down the last of my chocolate ice cream to get rid of the aftertaste!

Sandakan, Sepilok, Semporna and Sipaden... An alliteration of destinations!
We had a very early flight to Sandakan from Kota Kinabalu but the 40 minutes flight cost the same as a 6 hour bus journey. For once we thought, sod the carbon footprint, we're flying! And we had the added bonus of flying right past Mount Kinabalu. Yes, I do mean past, no flying over the mountain. We were pretty much right along side it on the plane! It was an amazing view. We touched down and got straight in a cab to Sepilok OrangUtan Rehabilitation Centre. We were given a brief talk and watched an inspiring video showing us all the good work they have been doing. Then we got to walk out along a long boardwalk into the jungle reserve where the orangutans live. Just before 10am the two 5year olds that are being rehabilitated had just been left a coconut each. The challenge was to actually get it open. They both struggled but one of them got there and started to enjoy his feast. Once the other had gotten into his coconut the smaller orangutan gave up and went to see his friend. Orangutans don't seem to share easily though. At this point the heavens open, we are in a rainforest afterall! Another, larger orangutan turned up and the two smaller ones scarpered. Not forgetting their coconut of course. The larger one quickly opened up the discarded coconut but evetually resorted to putting the shell on his head to shield him from the rain!! 

Soaked through we retreated to get more waterproofs and Rich went out for a second viewing.

Our whirlwind tour of Borneo continued as we were picked up in the torrential rain and taken to the jungle retreat on the Kinabantang River. We were a little surprised to arrive at a dusty old shack in the middle of a palm oil plantation, but to our relief we were ushered to a boat and ferried across the river to the lodge, set on the banks within rainforest. Accomodation was basic, but for once we had our own bathroom :-p After a welcome drink and chat with the group, we got into an open-top boat and set off with our guide searching for wildlife. We wouldn't have seen any wildlife if any of it was daft enough to be out - literally seconds after we set off, it started spitting and within minutes we were in the middle of a torrential downpour. Visibilty reduced to a few metres and we discovered how waterproof our waterproofs actually were. Eventually the guide decided to turn back, and we arrived home looking like drowned rats.
Fortunately the rain stopped that evening and after a hearty dinner, we were taken on a rainforest night walk. We had been warned about leaches so gimpily we tucked our trousers into our socks and jumpers into our trousers. Looking like a bunch of trainspotters, we trailed the forest and saw frogs, insects, sleeping birds, snakes (happily only baby ones!) and a big spider who thankfully left Rachel alone. 

The next morning we awoke at 5.45, and stumbled onto the boat for the dawn cruise. There was a clear sky and this time  the creatures were there to see - crocodiles, eagles, macque monkeys, proboscis monkeys (who look like they have shlong-like noses!), gibbons and then to top it off I spotted a giant monitor lizard chilling out on the banks.

We had a quick breakfast and then we started our long bus journey to Semporna for our diving trip. Having done the nature-loving stuff for the last 24 hours, it was shocking to see just how much of the Bornean rainforest had been butchered to make way for the production of palm oil. We must have driven for over fours hours and saw nothing but palm tree plantations. Borneo is an incredibily green country, but you only have to look a little (every tree is perfectly pspaced from the next and in-line as far as the eye can see) to realise the sad truth.

We got to Semporna, the step off point for diving at Sipidan, and fortunately there was a boat going to Mabul Island, where Uncle Changs island lodgings were. We paid a lot of money for the package which included the trip to Sipidan, one of the worlds best dive sites, so were a little disappointed when we found that our room (in fact all the rooms!) were unfinished. The interior walls were all plywood with markings still on and the doors/windows were unplaned so if you touched them you got splinters! So we ignored the waterstained ceiling, the punctured bathroom door, the missing sink and the tap that continually leaked water all over the bathroom floor, and went out to catch some rays and make some new friends. Uncle Changs was recommended in the Lonely Planet so there was no shortage of people to talk with. I ended up going out for a walk around the island with a guy called Dave who had a fascination for photographing children. There was an abundance of them in the villages we walked through, all very sweet and energetic. We couldn't get over just how many kids there were for such a small island in the middle of nowhere. All the island had was a mosque, a school, a police station and a few dive resorts, all on stilts! We guessed all the families either worked fishing or in tourism.

A Malaysian tourism college had also joined us and they had some dancers who wanted to practise their moves, and a lad called Fazier who clearly made the girls melt and sang his heart out to the classic Malaysian hits. We were quite enjoying this bite of culture, so they decided that they wanted us join them. It was a bit like doing a slow Macarena!

The next day we had an early breakfast and got kitted up for diving. The diving staff didn't seem to have a clue about diving so we had to literally spell out what we needed! Once we'd asked for each piece of kit, and Rachel had explained that no, she wouldn't fit in an extra small wetsuit, we got on the boat and headed for Sipidan. Although the site was great and there were sharks, turtles, and schools of baracudda, Rachel's kit leaked profusely and after 30 minutes we decided to surface early. But neither of our depth gauges worked! Mine read zero and Rach's read 35 metres. Now considering we'd normally only dive to 20m, this was too much to believe so after signalling to the 'guide', we went up as slowly as we could to get to about 5m for the safety stop. But we popped out at the surface! God knows what depth we were at before, so we quickly swam down a little and waited for a few minutes. We finally surfaced, and Rach wasn't in a state to be diving again that day. Speaking with other divers after the dive, the group consensus was that all of the kit was pretty shocking.

I had a final dive later that day and saw some amazing things, but when we got back we had a lot to say to the manager. Fortunately he was understanding (perhaps understanding how much bad press reduces business?) and we received a reasonable refund.

We left Sipidan and Semporna and headed back to Kota Kinabula, taking the luxurious Dyana bus where we watched a cheesy movie about material girls, all in Malay. Wasn't difficult to understand the plot, golddiggers are the same the world over!

With a 24hours to spend in KK, we could have got very bored if it wasn't for the discovery of a marine park nearby, and we took a speedboat over to little Sepi Island. The sun came out and it was a glorious day for beach lounging and snorkelling. Happily Rach got over her anxiety from the diving incident and was happily snorkelling along, watching rainbow fish, nemos, colourful squid and baracuda. We were underwater for so long our faces had goggle creases on them for the rest of the day. We concluded the day with a slap up meal at an american theme restaurant (food is sooo cheap in Malaysia), got slightly pissed and the next day took our flight back to Singapore, ready for New Zealand!               

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