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Published: October 30th 2009
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We realise that every place we visit we profess to love and wish we had longer, but we’re afraid that we have to add Borneo to that list as well. Apart from seeing the island’s native orangutans we didn’t really know what to expect from Borneo, or what we were going to do for the week we had there; but after meeting up with two friends from home, Frankie and Alex, the boys had quickly formulated a plan that involved hiring a car and touring the country. An adventure itself when you add in mountainous roads; a somewhat lacking map; tropical storms; and too many opportunities for road kill provided by the local wild dogs. Frankie and I had it tough gossiping in the back and reminding the boys they are not Formula 1 drivers.
Starting in the capital, Kota Kinabalu, we headed straight to one of Borneo’s many national parks - Kinabalu Park with Mount Kinabalu at its centre. Unfortunately a lack of time and planning ahead meant climbing the 4,095m peak wasn’t possible (it takes eight hours over two days) so a trek round the base was second best. Cloud meant we were never able to view the
Kinabalu National Park
Start of our small trek mountain in its entirety, but we understand why ‘freakish’ is used to describe the peak as it stands head and shoulders above anything else on the island. Our Bible (Lonely Planet) suggested visiting Poring Hot Springs but upon arrival Frankie and I realised we would be the only ladies, in let’s say skimpier attire, (religion dictates women should remain covered) we decided to drive on and avoid any eye popping as the Borneo gentleman aren’t afraid to stare!
Sepilok Orangutang Rehabilitation Centre is without doubt the island’s main attraction and although planning on just watching one feeding time we had to return in the afternoon for round two. The oranguangs are so scarily human-like it is quite bizarre watching them as their mannerisms are so similar. The centre provides medical assistance (they suffer from malaria, colds and flu) and food twice a day in the centre of a national park. Although the mackaw monkeys are quick to take advantage of this and spend feeding time trying to outwit both the orangtuangs and rangers for the fruit, much to our amusement.
The show we were treated to at the local Crocodile Farm in between feeding can only be described
Scuba Diving - Mabul
Alex and Frankie relaxing between dives as Steve Irwin’s worst nightmare (second to stingrays). The “show” was somewhat dubious to say the least and the crocs were far from the performers the primates were. Bizarrely the highlight was the Malay take on pet’s corner - they had bags of live fish you could feed the otters with! The Sandakan War Memorial brought us back to reality, but unfortunately a harsh one. Used as a POW base by the Japanese in WWII, the memorial park remembers the 2,400 POWs (predominately Australian and British) who died on the death marches across the island (250km across mountains) as Allied victory became inevitable. It also recognises the heroics of the local people who did their utmost to help the prisoners escape. Truly humbling as only six prisoners survived.
Our third national park visit was an aquatic one around Mabul Island. Touted as one of the worlds best scuba diving spots and it certainly lived up to that expectation. Andy hadn’t dived for seven years and decided to skip the refresher as Frankie and Alex are fairly experienced divers and they had talked him through what he needed to do - big mistake! The first dive was in a
Scuba Diving - Mabul
This was the island we dived off (11 dive sites around the island) spot where there was one of the worst drift currents the dive-master had experienced in five years which meant it was like been dragged along the reef in fast forward. The second and third dives were much less intense and we got to enjoy the amazing reefs and fish that live on them, the highlight seeing some huge turtles.
Its been great having Frankie and Alex has as travelling companions for the last week, however, it has meant nearly every activity has taken on the form of “battle of the sexes” from guessing the distance to our destination to heated pool games. Naturally the girls came out on top.
Onwards now to Singapore where we have two days to explore before bidding South-East Asia farewell for Oz. We’ll try to publish a mini-blog in a few days.
Bex & Andy
P.S. Borneo’s McDonalds has reached a whole new level - not only can you dine in, take away and drive-thru, they also deliver and offer a catering service! McFantastic.
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Kathryn
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oh oh oh- i miss you sooooooooo much. LOVE this pics of you all and am so jealous. xxxxx