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In the morning, there was a short jungle walk behind the lodge. For birdwatchers, there are hornbills, kingfishers (we saw one), egrets, darters, owls, kites, eagles, broadbills, doves, storm storks, herons, hawks, ospreys, and many others. My birding consists of ..."what's that green bird...ooh...that one is yellow..."...and so forth. Lots of different primates, snakes and birds...the trip here was a big success with the exception of wild Orangutans - very difficult to see in the wild.
By boat back up the Kinabatangan River to Sandakan to catch a plane back to Kota Kinabalu and a transfer to the Shangri La Tanjung Aru Resort.
view of Mount Kinabalu from the plane
Continue reading "Back to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah's Gateway" »
Visited Gomantong Caves, famous for edible bird's nest. Have you heard of Bird's Nest Soup? If so, this is one of the areas where the makings originate. Over 1,000 Swifts nest in this cave and only two varieties of swifts make edible birds nests. Twice a year, men climb bamboo ladders to over 150 feet to collect the nests off the cave walls. They harvest between March-April an August-September and were busy collecting the nests while we were there. Good quality birds nests can fetch more than US$ 200 per pound and these collectors make a good income doing this! Highly dangerous and they deserve every $ they can earn from this. Just looking at those flimsy ladders was enough to give us "flop-sweats." The limestone cave had two caverns filled with bats, swifts and cockroaches everywhere ...crunching beneath our feet, climbing up the walls, Ick...ick... ick.
inside the cave
Continue reading "Gomantang Caves and Sukau" »
We planned to visit Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary ( 26 km from Sandakan) after overnighting on Selingan Island. The next morning our boat prepared to leave for the 2-3 hour ride back to Sandakan....View image...
The Sepilok Orangutan sanctuary was about a 15 minute drive. Orang utans ("wild man of Borneo") that have been abandoned by their mothers or formerly in captivity are rehabilatated until fit enough to be returned to the wild. They are fed bananas and milk daily and are encouraged to forage for themselves. But even those in the wild come back for the free bananas. Babies stay with their mothers for up to six years in the wild while they learn survival skills. At Sepilok, a young ape is paired up with an older "buddy" to learn these skills. There are about 60-80 Orangs living in the sanctuary, an open forest reserve where the orangutans are free-roaming. Wild Borneo: The Wildlife and Scenery of Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei, and Kalimantan
Sepilok Orang utan Sanctuary
Continue reading "Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary" »
Sandakan, located on the Sulu Sea, at the northeastern tip of Borneo is Malaysia's biggest fishing port. We were going to spend the night on Selingan Island, part of Turtle Island National Park. This is one of the most important Green and Hawksbill turtle breeding spots in Southeast Asia. Green turtles swim hundreds of nautrical miles across the sea, but always return to the beach where they hatched to lay their eggs some 20 or more years later.
Turtle Island was about an hour boat ride from Sandakan but before we left, spent some time walking around Sandakan and learning a few facts about the town. Sandakan served as a major port for early settlers (primarily Chinese) to Sabah and was the former capital of British North Borneo from the years 1884-1946. After WWII the capital was transferred to Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu). In the early as a major port for early settlers to Sabah, and most Chinese came through this port.
Continue reading "Kota Kinabalu to Selingan Island, Turtle Island National Park" »
Out of the jungle for a quick day trip to Brunei, a small very oil-rich sultanate. What a change to leave the rainforest for Islamic Brunei, officially the Sultanate of Brunei, has a higher GP per person than the United States. It is located on the coastline of the South China Sea, and completely surrounded by the State of Sarawak. There are two unconnected parts to Brunei and our car had to ferry from one side to the other.
But before the road trip, Jacob, our wonderful guide took us to a shop that had some older items to satisfy my "hunting-gathering" instinct. My purchases? An older bead necklace with a leopard's tooth on it and one of those beaded baby carriers. The natives each create their own baby carrier while pregnant...spending months weaving the bamboo or rattan, designing and handbeading it. (I almost feel this "possession/compulsion" taking hold of me. What did I need a baby carrier for? Even if it is semi-rare.)
native baby carrier
Continue reading "Brunei" »
You have to fly from Miro to Mulu on a small plane with weight allowances. Not only do they weigh your small bag but your must also declare your weight! The flight was less than 30 minutes over rainforest - dense vegetation, rivers and mountains.
The Royal Mulu Resort was a luxurious retreat built entirely on stilts and our home for two days . ...View image... One sentence in their literature stated "...hike through a Dipterocarp rainforest past Belian (ironwood) trees that may be as ancient as 1,000 years old, immense buttressed figs and poison dart trees..." Can't get away from those poison darts! ...View image...
Mulu map
Continue reading "Mulu National Park" »
After one of the sweatiest, most uncomfortable nights of my life, we had breakfast and hightailed it into our dugout to head downstream. The river was very low and our guide and boat owner had to push us off sandbars and rocks many times but we finally got to the Hilton Batang Ai.
A nature walk there was almost as scary as hiking in the jungle with the Ibans. The naturalist kept telling everyone..."watch out for those hook-like thorns...they'll rip your skin off"....or ..."stay away from that hole...there could be a poisonous snake in it"... and the jungle trails were very narrow. Borneo is not a tame environment...and I was already scared *#*#**##! At times like these, I have to rethink the whole adventure scenario...
Hilton Batang Ai
Continue reading "Kuching to Miri" »
From Kuching, we drove through the countryside and along a mountain ridge to the Ai River to begin a 3 days/2 night Batang Ali combination. It was over a three hour drive to the Hilton Batang Ai Longhouse Resort and from there, we got into our longboat (a large motor-powered canoe), to travel upstream on the Lemanak River.
Our destination was Nanga Sumpa, a large Iban (formerly known as Sea Dayaks) longhouse for a two-night stay. An Iban longhouse is a single building in which each family has their own apartment and shares a large common space for social activities. Today, the longhouses are fairly modern, with electricity and other modern conveniences. A far cry from their infamous headhunting days.
ex-Marine ready for Longboat travel upriver
Continue reading "Batang Ai and Iban Longhouse" »
A ride out of Kuching to Bako National Park. Bako covers the northern tip of the peninsula and has a wide range of vegetation - swamp forest,s mangrove forests, and beaches. It also had a number of well-marked trails covering 19 miles throughout the park - offering strolls and serious full-day hikes.
It only took about 35 minutes to drive to Bako Village from Kuching. From the village, it was another 25 minutes by boat to the Park. Bako has been a National Park since 1957 and is one of the best places in Sarawak to see wildlife in natural surroundings.
Long-tailed macaque and silver monkeys, proboscis monkeys (the male can have up to 10 mates in his harem), wild boars, monitor lizards and numerous species of birds abound in Bako. And then there was the plant life - specifically, carnivorious pitcher plants. (Remember, Little Shop of Horrors with the plant "feed me"?)
I think this was a proboscis monkey
Continue reading "Bako National Park" »
Kuching is the capital of Sarawak, Malaysia's largest state, and uniquely positioned along the Sarawak River. At the beginning of the 19th century, Sarawak was a Malay principality under the control of the Sultan of Brunei until 1839. James Brooke (an English adventurer) used his ship to put down a rebellion again the Brunei Governor and was given the principality of Sarawak as a reward. The Brooke family ruled Sarawak until the Japanese invasion in 1941.
Kuching Map
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This trip was handled by Julie, an agent we had used many times before (unfortunately, she is no longer in business...instead, part of her family's winery in Napa). Julie then booked everything with Discovery Overland Holidays in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Lots of e-mails until we came up with an itinerary. Our focus would be fouring Borneo's National Parks with a little R&R at the end in Kota Kinabalu. The parks were:
- Bako;
- Batang Ai;
- Gunung Mulu;
- Selingan, Turtle Island; and
- Sepilok Orang Santuary
With the time needed for travel from the U.S. and between all these places, it worked out to a 17-day trip. Time to work on the rest of the trip...
Continue reading "Planning A Trip to Borneo" »
I don't know what you think of when you hear the word "Borneo" but I think of Orangutans. ex-Marine (husband, Steve) was in the Borneo jungles during his Marine Corps days participating in a little altercation. To him, the word "Borneo" means mud, rain, leeches, poisonous snakes, heat and humidity. We were definitely on two different wave lengths.
Borneo is a place with lots of jungles, leeches, poisonous snakes, etc., but also has National Parks, white sand beaches and Orangutans - both in the wild and sanctuaries.
Borneo Map
Continue reading "Malaysia's Exotic Borneo" »
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