Bounding into Borneo...
after a bit of deliberation. We hadn't initially planned on coming here, as we weren't sure we were packed appropriately and thought it was going to be constant downpours of rain and just a bit of a slog - but after talking it through with Sean we opted to go for it, and touched down in Sandakan. After making it through the tiny airport, first thing we noticed was the humidity had ramped up - quite a feat given the rest of Malaysia is pretty damn humid as is. We got another Grab taxi, this time thankfully with a fully awake driver, and got to Sandakan Backpackers Hostel. Accommodation was grand, ticked all the boxes, Sandakan itself is a bit of a small town, but a good base and on the coast. We didn't plan on spending too much time here as there's plenty to do in Borneo. Our first wildlife adventure was to head out to Sepilok, a twenty minute Grab from our hostel, and home to both an orangutan sanctuary and sunbear sanctuary. First up for us was the primates, as we headed in to try and see the morning feeding time slot:
We did however miss out, as its a semi-wild sanctuary, and none of the orangutans showed up to the feeding platform. This is a good thing, as it means the orangutans are hunting out enough food for themselves on the grounds. We went on to the nursery then where they look after the orangutans that aren't yet equipped to look after themselves - which was amazing, each of the orangutans have their own personalities and interact with each other and the zookeepers differently. We decided we'd be back for the afternoon feeding time after a quick stop over to the sunbear sanctuary.
We got back just in time to see the afternoon feeding, and caught back up with some of the legends we saw at the nursery in the morning. To finish off the day, a mother+baby climbed down and walked along the railing of the walkway all to the exit - we followed her (at a safe distance!) back through the entire park.
Not a bad start to our time in Borneo! Next day was a bit more chilled - planning for the days ahead, and we even made it over to the cinema to see Toy Story 4 (which was unreal, well worth the €3 each). We booked a Kinabatangan river cruise for 3D/2N through our hostel, so our next few days were all planned out:
We had our first river cruise, spotting monkeys, orangutans, crocodiles, and various birds along the course of the river, en route to arriving at our accommodation. We were all pleasantly surprised to see it was somewhat decent - hot showers and clean beds, so far better than we'd expected (Jesus our expectations of places this year has been very low). No air conditioning though, which in this heat/humidity wasn't too fun. That night was our first trek into the jungle - you've to cover up completely so as to protect yourself from leeches/spiders/scorpions/everything else in the jungle. Fair enough, but it's still ~30 degrees and ~100% humidity at night, so you'd nearly want to take your chances with the spiders if it means you get to take off a jacket.
Waking up along the Kinabatangan makes for some serious views:
And once we were fed and watered for breakfast, a day trek into the jungle was on the cards.
One last night trek was offered to us, Dani choosing to head on while the others took it handy - no more leeches for us.
And that was that! Absolutely amazing experience, and the food/accommodation was better than we expected too. After making our way back to Sandakan, we had a couple of days to fill - we opted to head on over to Turtle Island (Selingan) to see the conservation program they had there which again, was an amazing experience. The survival rate of turtles from birth to adulthood is about 1%, so the conservation program is well needed - but there were parts of it that almost felt a little....commercialised/cruel, in order to get people to visit and fund the program. We got to see wild baby turtles crawling across the beach and taking their first swim in the water, which was incredible, but if we weren't lucky enough to see that (and most people aren't, this was in your free time rather than part of the conservation program/activities) - it mightn't have been for us. Thankfully we were lucky, and it was well worth our visit.
After seeing the whole process involved in the turtle/eggs conservation, we got one last night in here, and met back up with Sean to carry on to our next stop, Kota Kinabalu - the largest city in Malaysian Borneo. The wildlife in this part of the trip was like nothing we've ever seen before, so a definite highlight in that regard - looking forward to see what else Borneo has to offer!
Big love,
Dani & Stu.
after a bit of deliberation. We hadn't initially planned on coming here, as we weren't sure we were packed appropriately and thought it was going to be constant downpours of rain and just a bit of a slog - but after talking it through with Sean we opted to go for it, and touched down in Sandakan. After making it through the tiny airport, first thing we noticed was the humidity had ramped up - quite a feat given the rest of Malaysia is pretty damn humid as is. We got another Grab taxi, this time thankfully with a fully awake driver, and got to Sandakan Backpackers Hostel. Accommodation was grand, ticked all the boxes, Sandakan itself is a bit of a small town, but a good base and on the coast. We didn't plan on spending too much time here as there's plenty to do in Borneo. Our first wildlife adventure was to head out to Sepilok, a twenty minute Grab from our hostel, and home to both an orangutan sanctuary and sunbear sanctuary. First up for us was the primates, as we headed in to try and see the morning feeding time slot:
We did however miss out, as its a semi-wild sanctuary, and none of the orangutans showed up to the feeding platform. This is a good thing, as it means the orangutans are hunting out enough food for themselves on the grounds. We went on to the nursery then where they look after the orangutans that aren't yet equipped to look after themselves - which was amazing, each of the orangutans have their own personalities and interact with each other and the zookeepers differently. We decided we'd be back for the afternoon feeding time after a quick stop over to the sunbear sanctuary.
The sunbears were cool to see, and it's probably frowned upon to criticise a conservation effort based on enjoyment/interest, but the sunbears were miles away as you look on from an elevated platform/walkway. Orangutan sanctuary all the way.
We got back just in time to see the afternoon feeding, and caught back up with some of the legends we saw at the nursery in the morning. To finish off the day, a mother+baby climbed down and walked along the railing of the walkway all to the exit - we followed her (at a safe distance!) back through the entire park.
We had our first river cruise, spotting monkeys, orangutans, crocodiles, and various birds along the course of the river, en route to arriving at our accommodation. We were all pleasantly surprised to see it was somewhat decent - hot showers and clean beds, so far better than we'd expected (Jesus our expectations of places this year has been very low). No air conditioning though, which in this heat/humidity wasn't too fun. That night was our first trek into the jungle - you've to cover up completely so as to protect yourself from leeches/spiders/scorpions/everything else in the jungle. Fair enough, but it's still ~30 degrees and ~100% humidity at night, so you'd nearly want to take your chances with the spiders if it means you get to take off a jacket.
Waking up along the Kinabatangan makes for some serious views:
And once we were fed and watered for breakfast, a day trek into the jungle was on the cards.
And that was that! Absolutely amazing experience, and the food/accommodation was better than we expected too. After making our way back to Sandakan, we had a couple of days to fill - we opted to head on over to Turtle Island (Selingan) to see the conservation program they had there which again, was an amazing experience. The survival rate of turtles from birth to adulthood is about 1%, so the conservation program is well needed - but there were parts of it that almost felt a little....commercialised/cruel, in order to get people to visit and fund the program. We got to see wild baby turtles crawling across the beach and taking their first swim in the water, which was incredible, but if we weren't lucky enough to see that (and most people aren't, this was in your free time rather than part of the conservation program/activities) - it mightn't have been for us. Thankfully we were lucky, and it was well worth our visit.
After seeing the whole process involved in the turtle/eggs conservation, we got one last night in here, and met back up with Sean to carry on to our next stop, Kota Kinabalu - the largest city in Malaysian Borneo. The wildlife in this part of the trip was like nothing we've ever seen before, so a definite highlight in that regard - looking forward to see what else Borneo has to offer!
Big love,
Dani & Stu.
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