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Published: January 8th 2012
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Q: How many people can you get in a minibus in Sandakan?(Read on and find out!)
I flew from Miri (Sarawak) to Kota Kinabalu (nicknamed KK), the capital of Sabah to start my exploration of the north of Borneo. KK itself is a nice little city which is easy to explore with a great night market selling freshly caught seafood in little tents right on the sea front. It is also a great jumping off point to visit Kinabalu Park and the infamous Mount Kinabalu which has broken many a traveller. I had decided I didn't want to do the 2 day climb and then risk leaving myself broken for my upcoming diving so opted to head to the park for one day and navigate some of the trails by myself instead. Again, I didn't really encounter anyone even though I was trekking for about 6 hours although I did end up with some friends along the way in the form of some sneaky leeches that found a way into my trekking sandals....ewwww!! It was amazing although ever so slightly unsettling to be deep in dense primary rainforest with just the jungle sounds and my thoughts for company.
Kinabalu Park
My rainforest adventure KK was also a nice place to find a little local cafe, order an iced coffee (some times easier than others!) and watch the world go by.
My next stop was Semporna which was another 9 hour journey over to the east coast. I had plumped for the overnight bus to save money on accomodation and give me extra time in places but this meant arriving in Semporna at 4.30am! In the end it was just after 5am when we got there because one of the buses tyres blew at about 2am; as soon as we pulled over every single bloke on the bus trooped off to see if they could help fix it whilst us sensible women stayed snuggled under our blankets, half asleep! I was a bit of a zombie for my first day there but managed to organise all my plans for diving and explore the tiny town a bit before bumping into a friend from Kuching who was coincidentally staying in the bunk below me in my hostel!
The following day saw me heading off on a dive boat to Mabul Island and the beginning of my borneo dive adventure. I can't lie, the
following 3 days of diving were definitely some of the best diving I've done and I loved every minute; there was a real mixture of macro species like cool corals and nudibranchs & big stuff like huge reef sharks and sea turtles the size of tabletops (this is no exaggeration either; some were longer than me) as well as truly weird stuff like hairy frogfish (look them up!). It also reminded me why I love Scuba so much and I could easily have spent a week or two diving there daily but unfortunately had to move on to pastures new after just 3 days in the water.
After another long bus journey, although this time with one of the boys from Semporna to keep me company, I arrived in Sepilok. This is the home of Sabah's orangutan sanctuary and basically what makes it a stop on peoples tours of Borneo. That and its proximity to the Kinabangatan River which is renowned for its diversity of wildlife. So after one night in Sepilok I headed out to the river on a tour with "Uncle Tan" in an attempt to see some of the local critters. It was a bit of
a soggy trip out there but pacamacs and binbags kept the worst of it off us and our bags. The tour groups description of very basic was pretty accurate; our accomodation was four wooden walls on stilts with no door or window, 3 double mattresses and 3 mosquito nets. The wash block had a row of toilets, a sink and a platform area for "showering"...this involved putting on your bikini, standing on the platform and washing as best you could with buckets of rain water...all very 'I'm a celebrity' but without the glamour!!
Over the course of three days we did river cruises at various times of the day as well as day and night jungle trekking to try and see as big a selection of wildlife as possible, and boy were we lucky. We saw 5 wild orangs high up in the trees as well as gibbons, macaques, a 3m reticulated python, tree frogs, kingfishers, various types of hornbill, monitor lizards and a mangrove snake (oh and some massive wolf spiders, which at 3am in the pitch black when you need a wee, are a little scary!).
Once back in Sepilok, it was time to see some
more semi-wild orangutans at closer range. It is the same situation as Semonggah and you never know how many are going to turn up. Everyone quietly waited on the platform as the minutes til feeding time ticked up and there was a feeling of excitement and anticipation in the air. At 3pm on the dot, a worker headed up to the platform with the food and a few minutes later there was rustling of leaves and a mum and baby swung down to feed. The baby was tiny at only a few months old and clung tightly to mum the whole time. These were are only initial visitors, along with some cheeky macaques, and after they'd had their fill they disappeared and most of the tourists started to leave but I waited for it to quieten down and thought I'd see what would happen...and about 10minutes later with only a handful of us on the platform Mum&baby and another female appeared and swung right down to the platform before walking along the boardwalk away from us. They had been literally a few metres away and I felt very priviledged to have seen them so close.
My final stop on my Borneo adventure was Sandakan which is where I was flying out from to head to Vietnam. Its not a very inspiring town and there's not too much to see and do there but it did have some good cafes so I spent a lot of my one and a half days just sipping iced coffees and people-watching.
And finally, the answer you've all been dying to know! It stems from my transfer to the airport....I decided to get a local minivan rather than a taxi to save a few pennies, found a van going that way for a good price, climbed in to the empty van with my rucksack & daypack and waited....after 15 minutes we were on the move....with one foreigner plus baggage, 16 local women with their days shopping, two kids and the driver!!To say it was a bit of a squish is putting it lightly; I ended up with both packs on the floor in front of me and my feet on top of them and practically at head height! After 30minutes, I was having a little difficulty extricating myself from the van as I couldn't really feel my feet but think I gave the locals equal measures of amusement and bemusement!
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