If Thailand was about Food and Bali was about Self Love then Malaysia/Borneo has been about self-endurance and physical challenges. I have never pushed myself this much, I have climbed thousands of stairs and walked over 150 miles, in the most hot and humid of climates. This has been the most physical of all the places I have visited and believe it or not, I feel more alive than I have felt in a long time.
Kuching has to be the friendliest city have traveled to, every person I have passed on the street or stood in line with greeted me and complimented my tattoos and their smiles genuine. This is a large city in Borneo and was not exactly what I expected when I hear the word Borneo. Here there are malls and typical city buildings with lots of shops and places to eat even 7-11’s. A variety of street art was found all across town. Our first day I started early in the morning with my travel partner and headed to see the Orangutans at the Semonggoh sanctuary. They do not promise you will see any as this is a wild open sanctuary that the animals live in and can freely go as they please into the wild. However, fruit season has ended, the sanctuary feeds the Orangutans twice a day, and they only let people visit for 2 hours. I got lucky and got to see 7 including 2 babies. A great way to start my time in Borneo. The following day it was off to Bako an area an hour drive to the fishing village to catch a 15 minute boat ride to the national park. This is where you truly feel Borneo. This is a wild animal national park with the animals freely running around and watch out as the Macaque monkeys will take your stuff, I lost 3 bananas and my travel partner had her cookies and juice stolen 2 different times by different monkeys. And these guys are quick like lightning, you don’t even have time to protect your stuff. The park has bearded pigs, crocodiles, several types of monkeys included the proboscis and silver leaf monkeys as well as a ton of other wild animals. Our 6 mile trek led us to the cliffs overlooking the sea-stacks. Honestly this was such a fantastic experience to be among all these animals with no cages, I even saw pitcher plants in nature which is the first time I have seen them outside of a botanic garden and it was cool for the gardener in me.
Mulu was deep into Borneo, literally flying in there is nothing but green trees. You cannot see any roads or a city, no buildings, just nothing but green trees and a river that snakes thru the country. The airport is one of the smallest ones I have ever flown in to and literally was only the 30 people on the plane and 1 plane. The baggage pick-up is just the guys bringing the bags over and pretty much setting them down. We booked at the Mulu National Park HQ in a hostel and lucky for us we were the only ones there in the dorm of 8 beds that was inside the national park. The boardwalk paths go ever different direction some lead to caves and some to the summit and others loop around and back. The caves, Deer cave is the bat cave I watched millions of bats come out of the cave the 1st night. The bats come out in this long line and they spiral and swirl around in this mesmerizing snake like pattern, mostly to avoid the bat hawks that wait for them outside. It was a 40-minute stream of bats coming out. It was so fantastic that it literally brought me to tears. As a kid I would watch NatGeo and see the bat exodus on TV and thinking how lucky those people were to be there seeing that, how far away the places where and how much it costs to travel to those places, and here I was, watching them with my own eyes, smelling the guano and getting emotional. I did some guided tours as well since you cannot enter the caves without a guide and visited Winds and Clearwater cave and the Deer cave for my last evening to see the bats again. The Deer cave adventure was called Valley of Eden, you go thru the cave to enter a valley only accessible thru the caves, we hiked to a beautiful waterfall to swim and have lunch. This was the roughest trek, thru the rocky cave climbing over guano covered rocks seeing poor dead bats that have fallen from above. We crossed a river that was chest deep, hiked up 3 big hills and back 15 kilometers. There is pretty much no Wifi in Mulu but just enough in the café to get my work done. A real place to unplug and be surrounded by nature and the symphony of the forest.
Kota Kinabalu, I don’t have much to say about this city. It was very busy and packed full. Sabrina and I booked a tour that the hostel girl Valerie sold us on saying how we would be in a small group and how amazing it was. So when we got picked up and had to drive 2 hours picking up the van load or people and arrived at the boat on the river to be packed in like sardines with a ton of Chinese tourists we definitely did not feel happy about that. I kept thinking but the snorkeling will be fantastic. We arrived at the island with white sandy beached and beautiful crystal-clear waters. After everyone changes and grab gear, we head back to the boat to go snorkel. Probably the worse experience I have had, heavy current immediately takes you far from the boat, with no fins (and an injured ankle) staying close was a tough job. I eventually gave in and held on to the long rope and floaters they had thrown off the boat. The mask and snorkel leaked, and I didn’t get many photos as I had to hold on to avoid drifting. The rain came in and poured down on us, we piled back onto the boat to head back for lunch. This is the part where we see the island is so beautiful yet so covered in plastic. I spent part of the time picking up trash and filling a bag full of plastic several times to take to the 1 small trash can. It was very upsetting. After we left we still had the river tour to see monkeys and fire flies. Honestly that part was a joke, river was a loop, saw a couple Macaques and then we go back to be taken to a tourist location to eat a horrible meal and then back to the river boat for fireflies. The hi-light was most definitely the fireflies, the trees glowed like Christmas trees with thousands of male fireflies glowing. The next day we saw a beautiful sunset by the hostel we stayed in and that is about all I can say about this destination.
The last stop with my travel partner was 1 full day in Sepilok, Sandakan at the forest edge, we planned for a day of Proboscis monkeys at the sanctuary. This was a super sad day, yes we saw a ton of the monkeys and that was fantastic as they are only there in Borneo. But this sanctuary is there because the deforestation killed their habitat. Palm oil plantations line the road for miles, as far as the eyes can see, miles and miles of palm oil plantations where a once thriving jungle once stood. These poor monkeys only have a small strip of the mangrove nature left squished between the rows of palm trees and the ocean. This was the most eye-opening day, the destruction our food habits have caused the wildlife and the fact that we pretty much have killed off the animals and plants in those areas. I have to say please stop buying products with Palm Oil, download the APPs that help you shop to avoid those products and please sign the petition at SaveMulu.org so they do not do this to beautiful Mulu. The next morning Sabrina departed, and I went back to Kuala Lumpur for Hari Raya.
Proboscis Female
Hari Raya with Andy, so previously in my last blog I mentioned a local guide that invited me to come visit his family for Hari Raya. I arrived late in the evening to his family’s house and met his cousins, we sat outside talking till 3 in the morning, about life and nature and supporting family. I was so honored to be there. The next day we shared a lunch traditional style, on the floor using your right hand to eat with. The village is along a river which catfish is the local staple. So the food was catfish but prepared several ways and honestly, it was fantastic, Every single item I ate, the pumpkin, the catfish and there was a smaller fried fish as well. I met his grandmother who they believe is 88 years old, I love elders and wow my only regret is I didn’t get a photo with her. I hope to see her again. Next stop before I headed back to Kuala Lumpur was Andy’s fathers house. His father and 2 sisters where a pleasure to meet and we had a nice conversation about travel. The sisters and I connected, and I hope to one day travel with them. I was invited back to both homes and to be honest, I would love to see them again. I want to see my new little niece Andy’s daughter and her cousin who I got to show the photos and videos of the big nosed monkeys to from my phone. It was a quick visit but one I am truly grateful for. After all I travel to meet people and get a real feel for how people live and learn about the culture.
Enjoy the Bako photos
This trip has been a wonderful journey not only having a partner to share everything with (Sabrina) but to see all that I have seen and experienced from the people, places, nature, food, miles or trekking and an eye-opening experience with Muslims. I would say that Malaysia and most of Borneo has been a real adventure. A mix of big cities and rural jungle, clean air, nice climate and a huge variety of ethnic foods, a true melting pot. Be fearless and go forth into the world, it is warm and welcoming. My family has grown by many.