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Published: June 28th 2007
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Orangutans, Sipolak, Borneo Amir and I decided on northern Borneo (the Malaysian part that we would travel around being called Sabah). We agreed on three things we wanted to do in Sabah, 1) Climb the mountain, 2) See the famous Orangutans 3) Swim with Turtles
So we boarded our Air Asia flight and headed to Borneo, knowing that with Amir's organisational skills everything would run smoothly
We flew from KL to Kota Kinabalu (KK) in Malaysian Borneo. On arrival at the airport in KK we headed straight to the information desk where the local girl told us that the good thing about being her being Christian (as apposed to Muslim) was that she could have many boyfriends! We didn't take the hint and asked her about the things above and main points of interest in Sabah.
She asked if we had dive permits for diving in Sipidan and Accommodation booked on Mount Kinabalu. Traveling with Amir is definitely doing everything on the spur, and so we told her no with a grimace!
Mountain Trekking up Mount Kinabalu So we went straight from the airport to the booking office for Mountain accommodation at the advice of
the Christian Information lady at the airport, and were told that we could get a room the next night 😊 All sorted then, a night in KK then off to Base Camp (mountain HQ).
For some strange reason we got it into our heads that climbing the largest mountain in south east Asia may be an "enjoyable" thing to do, oh how we were going to be proved wrong!!
At 4,095.2m high though not comparable with Everest was still going to be no walk in the park, but buoyed by the false optimism that we had from reading that no special climbing equipment was required and that you didn't have to be super fit to do it we took up the challenge.
Well it started OK, we shared a guide with two fellow climbers at Base camp and started off the first 6KM to the accommodation at 11am which would be are base for the night before heading upto the summit.
Amir and I set the pace, though it rained heavy and Amir had no waterproofs and was lent a bin bag by our guide! We arrived wet at about 4pm at out accommodation
We
were knackered, and went to sleep at about 8pm because of this and the fact we had to start climb to the summit at 3am the next morning!!!!!!!!!!!
Well we were kept awake by heavy rain all night (well the bit we were meant to sleep) and at 2.30am we woke up (got up) to cold showers and put on our 1 pound bin liners we bought at the accommodation as even my waterproofs were not going to keep out the rain we had listened to.
Wow it was touch, due to the rain as we climbed we were following a path that seemed to have turned into a river, and we were all doing this in the dark with no moon to even give us some light, it was miserable
The reason we left so early in the morning was to try to reach the summit by dawn and see the sunrise. Well Amir was really struggling by then (even the guide pushed him a little way), and I don’t blame him as probably the last time we had been walking at these times in the morning world have been home from nightclubs with a
stomach fellow of beer.
When we reached the summit, it was freezing, but the views were amazing. We took our pics then at about 6am started our dissent back down the mountain, getting to the beginning about 8 hrs later.
We were asked if we would climb it again, no way once was enough!
Monkey'ing around Was only about a 5hr bus journey to get to the Orangutan sanctuary in Sipolak. This is apparently only one of 4 Orangutan sanctuaries in the world (that's right isn't it Amir?), and goes right into Jungle where the Orangutans live "Semi" wild. When we arrived we got there just in time for afternoon feeding. This was a bit of a Zoo affair, because although as said we were in the jungle, we were on wood walkways with another 50 other tourists all taking pictures as the warden feed the monkey’s bananas.
Anyway there were a couple of Jungle walks, which in flip flops was very difficult and after about 20 minutes of getting stuck in mud and slipping we decided to head back to exit of Sanctuary. I hadn't spotted it and Amir saw it about 10
mins after we had left the sanctuary - a leech had attached itself to my foot and was happily sucking out my blood, arrhhh!
It was getting towards the end of the day and we were one of the few tourists who hadn't left the sanctuary post feeding time. Just as we were heading for the exit, and had got to the relative safety of the wooden walk ways, two young Orangutans walked straight upto us and didn't seem to mind in the least as we stood by them, filming and taking pictures. This is what he had come for and luckily we got it on our way out!! Have attached a small video clip of Amir with the Orangutans (The Orangutans are the Orange ones!).
Also worth mentioning are the two black guys we met in Sipilok on a night out who were from Fiji and Western Samoa and were in Sipilok teaching Rugby. They seemed to be minor Celebes in this town and we had a good night drinking with them and even did a Karaoke duet!!
Sharks Tail Final destination was to head to the Island of Mabul which on the South coast
of Sabah (Malaysian Borneo), was the nearest Island to Sipidan, our prime diving destination.
Unfortunately we found out that as well as needing permits to enter waters to Scuba dive or snorkell you had to also have a dive qualification which Amir didn't. Also accomadation had been removed from this island to preserve its natural existance which was good.
So we decided to have a couple of dives of Mabul that were still very good, and was a good refresher prior to me diving at Sipidan and which you didn't need a qualification to dive in. We also had a day relaxing on this island but unfortunately it was no paradise with a Gypsy community with make shift housing living all over it! -Kick them off I say just as they did in Sipidan, ha ha.
Wow, the diving was amazing! It is supposed to be one of the 10 best dive sites in the world, and it didn't disappoint 😊 There is a cliff drop under the water that goes down about 800m, and as far as I was able to go was full of sea life.
Saw absolutely loads of Sharks (white tip was
one), and absolutely loads of Turtles which were amazing.
The underwater cliffs had natural shelves where the Turtles, which seemed to all be easily over a meter long were just lying back relaxing as we swam past. , We went past many of these Turtles and I was able to stroke them as they swam past. Lucky for me none of the sharks seemed interested in taking a bite out of me either (the leech I encountered earlier being more dangerous!!
Though Amir wasn't able to dive he still came to the Island and snorkeled, which he said was very good and also saw the sharks and Turtles and plenty more.
With all three missions accomplished, we flew back to KL where Amir and I said are good buys, I headed south to Jakarta in Indonesia whilst Amir headed North to Bangkok in Thailand.
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