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As you will know from the last blog, we absolutely
loved Sipadan and tried to book on for more days of diving but, alas, all of the permits had already been booked. So, it was time to move on. Next stop was the town on Sepilok on the edge of the jungle. The famous thing to do here is Sepilok Orang Utan Cente where injured or orphaned orang utans are rehabilitated over a period of several years before being released back into the wild.
We checked into a grimy room at the Sepilok Jungle Resort and spent an evening talking with other travellers while watching the thunder storm outside. The thunder was scarily loud, as if it was right on top of us, and the rain dripped off the roof and the many trees of the jungle beyond, forming mini-waterfalls. Bugs of various types flew into the open restaurant and onto the table on an all-too-regular basis. This was starting to feel more like the real Borneo!
The next morning, we headed to the Orang Utan Center for the 10am feeding. In order to help the animals leave the sanctuary and live in the wild, they are enticed out
deeper and deeper into the forest and given less and less food until they no longer depend on humans. Visitors can witness the feeding at the first platform. At 9:45am, a fairly large group of tourists gathered and waited in the blazing sun, the foreigners sweating buckets, the locals seemingly cool as cucumbers. Right on cue, a few minutes before feeding time, there was a stirring of the crowd and cameras started being switched on. Someone had spotted an orang utan. The first thing we saw was the shaking of the trees and then a fuzzy orange thing came around the corner, swinging easily on the ropes put up by the center to guide the orang utans deeper into the forest. More and more started to show and by 10am when the guides appeared with the milk and bananas, there were about 10 orang utans, including a few babies. They deftly drank the milk, either putting their face into the bowl or picking it up, and ate the bananas before swinging off back into the forest, doing a few acrobats as if showing off to their adoring audience.
A lot of people were heading deeper into the jungle to
"Uncle Tan's" to do a river cruise with the hope of seeing elephants (rare) and monkeys. Having talked to people who had been, however, the words
scorpion and especially
tarantula had come up way too often and so we decided to give it a miss. Instead, we headed to Mt. Kinabalu National Park.
It was a rediculous 85RM a night ($30) for a dorm bed in the park boundaries, which we were not keen on, so we luckily found a hotel just 2km outside the park for 85RM for both of us for our own lovely room. It was still quite pricey, but a relative bargain compared to the accommodation inside the park! We even had a balcony with a view over Mt. Kinabalu. Not having the clothes, the budget, or the inclination to make the ascent to the summit, we decided to instead do some walks around the base and get some nice views of the mountain and the surrounding jungle scenery...or not!
We set off on the Silau-Silau Trail which is really short and easy. Easy, that is, apart from the fact that Scott inherited a UFB (unidentified flying bug) which stayed with him the whole
walk, buzzing around his hair and even biting his cheek at one point! No matter how much we swiped at it, it just wouldn't leave him alone. He spent the whole walk looking at the ground to avoid the deep mud, with his hands flailing around his head to avoid getting bitten!
The trail ended back on the main road, which we were relieved about. After a few more minutes of battling the UFB, it finally left him alone. Phew! We decided to take another trail back named the Kiau View Trail. I guess we were being a little too presumptuous but we just assumed that the trail would have a view. It was exactly like the first trail - trees everywhere blocking any kind of view (grr, darn trees! 😉), full of mud, and the same kind of UFB found its way to Scott's head for the duration of the walk! He also found another hitch-hiker, a leech! Again, he spent the whole walk watching the ground for the deep mud pools and flailing his hands in the air to bat away the UFB. Then, he got caught on a prickly bush which ripped a small hole in
his T-Shirt before letting go. It was quite comical, like a cross between an episode of "Mr. Bean" and "I'm a celebrity, get me outta here!" With Scott's recent antics, and my fear of tarantulas, we decided to take a short-cut we saw and headed back to the asphalt road! It was a good job we did as minutes later it began to rain and we have no waterproofs! I guess we were right not to try for Uncle Tan's deeper in the jungle, or for the summit of Mt. Kinabalu!
The next day we did a day trip to a canopy walkway (which was fun if not a bit dodgy due to poor construction!) and the Poring Hot Springs. These consisted of a cold swimming pool and many small two-person tubs. Unfortunately, we only realized after the cold bath that you had to fill up the hot baths on your own. Turning on the hot spring water tap, we watched as the water level barely moved up the side. After an hour of filling it, it was still only about 6 inches deep so we gave up and went back home for a warm shower!
Our final
stop in Borneo was back at Kota Kinabalu (KK). We checked back into the same lovely hostel we had stayed in when we first arrived and then had three full days to explore the area around the city. On the first, we set off ready to go to the islands off the coast but then spotted black clouds and high winds all around and so instead went to the newly-opened wildlife park. Touted as an "alternative way" to see animals, with large enclosures and a more natural feel than a zoo, we were a little disappointed. It could have been much worse, but to be honest it wasn't exactly perfect for many of the animals. The birds had it best, being housed in a spacious avery made by throwing a huge almost transparent net over the treetops. The sun bears also looked particularly happy, constantly running around, playing with each other, and climbing the trees. Very cute! As for many of the other animals, no comment. Let's just say that animal-rights activists would not totally agree with their animal-friendly claims.
The next day the weather was decidedly better so we went for the islands. We chose Mamukit Island. It
turned out to be really nice with white-sand beaches and rediculously warm water. Isn't the ocean supposed to cool you down?! We'd been expecting it to be hopelessly crowded, being only a 20 minute boat ride from the city, but it was surprisingly relaxed and peaceful, the perfect retreat from city-life. As we walked onto the island along the jetty, we saw a small sign saying "jellyfish season". We didn't think a lot about it until we saw a few people going into the water wearing full-length stinger suits. We did some asking around and soon found out that the jellyfish they so casually warned about are actually box jellyfish, the same ones that kill people in Australia. At least in Australia there are lifeguards with treatments just waiting to help you if you get stung, and reliable emergency services. The same can't be said of Malaysia in our limited experience of medical services here.
The thing we found really strange was that they made us wear life jackets on the short boat ride out, even though it was a perfectly calm day, but they neglect to mention that the jellyfish in the swimming area are in fact the
evil deadly kind! We found out that a girl had died there last year from a jellyfish sting, but of course it is not exactly made public knowledge. Scary, very scary indeed! The good news was that we made it out alive (obviously, or we wouldn't be calmly writing this blog) and tomorrow we are off to the morning market before catching our flight back to Manila and then back to Thailand to arrange the next leg of our trip. Not exactly sure what that is yet...watch this space!
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Janis
non-member comment
Checking in
Scott and Sharon: I really enjoy reading your travel blod and seeing the pictures of your journeys. Sharon you have a great way with words and sharing your stories. Do you have a sense when you may be returning to California? I think you often, enjoy and stay safe. Love, Jan