Blogs from Kampung Bilit, Sabah, Malaysia, Asia

Geo: 5.4957, 118.206Luckily we set our phone alarms as a back-up, because we are pretty sure that the gong was not rung this morning. Once we collected our life jackets we went to the jetty and got into the boat. Being our last cruise I hoped that we would see something new. Our first sighting was a troop of Long-Tailed Macaques in the top branches of a large, tall tree. This morning there wasn't much mist at all compared to yesterday morning.I was then very impressed with the guide when he spotted a snake curled up on a tree branch. This snake seemed quite long and it was mainly yellow in colour. It is called a Grey Tailed Racer. It was virtually on the branch above us. I really hate snakes and was glad when the ... read more

Geo: 5.4957, 118.206Rach and I had a sleep in this morning. When we got up I opened the curtains and looked out at the town. I could see fishing boats, a cloudy dark sky and a trail of rubbish in the water. I hadn't noticed the rubbish yesterday, it was a bit gross, luckily we wouldn't be swimming in it.Later this morning we were going to be transferred to our lodge in the jungle and we didn't want to be in a vehicle on an empty tummy, we needed a big breakfast. So we decided to go to McDonald's for breakfast. We got there just before 9am. We were very surprised to discover that it wasn't yet open. This was a first for us, waiting outside a Macca's for it to open. I enjoyed hot cakes, ... read more

We were heading out today to Kampung Bilit for our two night stay in The Last Frontier Lodge, based near the Kinabatangan river and in the rainforest. Kampung Bilit is a small village with 150-180 people whose livelihood depends very much on fishing and craftworks. The village consists of mainly of Orang Sungai, which literally means River People. After getting a little worried, as all our planning for this trip had been done over the internet, Gert (owner of the TLFL) finally arrived 20 minutes late. The journey to TLFL lodge took approx 2hrs in Gerts' 4x4, the road surface was very good apart from the occasional pot hole, until we got to the dirt track leading to TLFL. After 20 minutes on the dirt track we arrived at TLFL and the infamous 539 steps! Atfer ... read more