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Well, this certainly wasn't on our original route, but after a chance meeting with an English chap in a dingy Fijian hostel who couldn't speak highly enough of Borneo we heeded his advice. Air Asia is cheap, the local equivalent of Ryan Air or Easyjet, accept for one exception...that is the in-flight food isn't some stale sandwich but very smelly pot-noodle!! Anyway, 2 hours from mainland Malaysia we arrived in Kota Kinabalu, the biggest city in the region of Sabah, and sitting in the shadow of the largest mountain in Asia that goes by the same name.
As we only had 6 nights for our side trip, it was a rushed job to say the least. So with so much to see in so little time something had to give, unfortunately it was the mountain ascent. We still managed to get some pretty good views of the summit via our bus trip from KK to the regional town of Sandakan.
The accommodation left a bit to be desired, but the people of Malaysian Borneo were incredibly friendly and not the type trying to flog you something every few feet, which we were expecting.
The main reason we came to Borneo was to see the gorgeous Orang Utans. We spent a morning in the Sanctuary and had the pleasure to see the feeding. The orangutans are free to leave and go out in the jungle, but most of them come back for feeding. They are so clever and very similar to us! They were sitting munching bananas, drinking milk and picking their noses! We stayed on late, after most the tourist busses had left and got some extra time with them. They are shy animals, they will turn their back to you when they eat (I would as well if there were 100 loud tourist taking photos of me having lunch), or when there are French people around! But when it was only a few left, they would face us and they didn't mind.
So much of the Rainforest has been destroyed from increasing palm Oil production that only small pockets remain. However, they are teeming with wildlife. We decided to take an excursion along the Kinabatang River to see if we could spot Orangs in the wild. It was amazing to see them simply hanging in the tree tops. The other main attraction was the Proboscis Monkeys. If you've never heard or seen one, please check them out on the net. Very funny indeed, pot-bellied, long legged monkeys with what looks like male genitals for a nose!
Borneo is also known for its abundance in Marine wildlife and in particular the Green and Hawksbill Turtles. The National Park Island of Sipadan was to be our next stop. We haven't dived since we qualified in Honduras 6 months ago so we were both a bit nervy. But everything went fine and we had 2 great dives. Saw turtles, sharks and thousands of barracudas. The second dive was the best; we were lying close to the bottom, a metre from a very big and beautiful turtle.
Ok. enough of the wildlife lecture...on to chill in Bali.
Phil and Sofia (We still like rice, will update you on that in 2 months time....)
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