Watts down in Borneo?

A visit to Borneo is like stepping through the screen into 'Planet Earth' or plunging in to 'the Blue Planet'. At times you almost expect to hear David Attenborough's dulcet tones introducing the arrival of the orange haired 'forest man', talking us through the mating ritual of the promiscuous proboscis monkey or urging us to 'act now' on the blatant issues of expanding palm oil plantations and the blanket of plastic suffocating our oceans.

Borneo is an island in South East Asia; it is part Malaysian, part Indonesian and partly home to the small nation of Brunei. Libby and I recently spent an action packed and nature filled two and a half weeks travelling around Sabah, the Malaysian section at the very north of Borneo; I will try here to give you a taster of what we got up to. 

Come the 3rd July, the day had finally come, we were set to depart from Heathrow for our 13-hour flight to Singapore then 2.5-hour hop across to Kota Kinabalu in Borneo. It happened that this date coincided with the release of Libby's results which would, after 7 dedicated years, dictate whether she would become a qualified architect. Due to a lack of wifi we would have to wait until Singapore for this much anticipated update, so we passed the time by sipping on Singapore slings and making the most of the on-board entertainment. Within minutes of arriving in Singapore we had true cause to celebrate; Libby had passed her final exams with flying colours so is now a qualified Architect! Not a bad start to the holiday.

During our trip we stayed in all manner of accommodations, from city hotels to jungle lodges and a swanky suite to a basic bunk room (an experience which reminded us why we no longer share dorms). For our first night we'd splashed out on a decent hotel room with access to a rooftop pool which was most welcome after just 4 hours sleep and nearly 16 hours cooped up on planes. After a quick explore and the first of many noodle dishes (a tad too spicy for Libby) we set in for an early night, ready for our first adventure the next morning.

Mount Kinabalu

It turns out a great way to beat jet lag is to climb a mountain. The 4 am start meant little to us as our body clocks hadn't a clue what was going on. Packed breakfasts in hand, we were met by our Amazing Borneo shuttle for the 2 hour drive over to Timphon Gate, set at 1866 m a.s.l., ready for the start of the Mount Kinabalu climb. Despite being just a 17.5 km round trip, the Kinabalu climb (and moreover, descent) is not for the weak-kneed. Libby and I were guided by a very smiley Joseph, on the first day up to the Panalaban base camp at 3244 m a.s.l. where we stopped for an extensive buffet dinner (noodles included, of course) and a few broken hours of shut eye before our 2 am start ready for sunrise at the summit (4095 m a.s.l.). 

Day one was step after step through dense jungle with occasional glimpses of the misty view. As the

kilometres slowly ticked by, Libby was cursing me and my unfathomable desire to climb mountains (had the Inca trail not been enough?!). We sat and ate our packed lunches of chicken, potato and vegetables, boiled eggs and snacks in one of the little shelters seen along the way; many of which, surprisingly, were adjoined by flushing toilets. This lunch stop was not the welcome rest I had expected as I spent the entire 15 minutes stamping my feet and trying to shoo away some very persistent squirrels who obviously knew where to find the trekkers and their food. I'm sure the 2 km after lunch was more like 10, this wasn't helped by the increasing altitude and ever-growing steps, but by 1.30 pm we had made it to base camp, just in time to beat the afternoon rain. Over the next few hours the rest of the walkers arrived and by 5 pm all 180 of us were there and ready for our early dinner and bed.

Well aware of our impending 1 am start we wanted to get as must rest as possible but unfortunately we were sharing a dorm room with one very loud snorer and a poor lady who was suffering from sickness so up every 30 minutes to run to the bathroom; the hike couldn’t come soon enough. After our ‘supper’ of eggs, bacon and beans (Libby was very happy with this ‘normal’ breakfast), we were fuelled and ready to start the climb. We ascended by torchlight, just Libby, Joseph and I, and looking back could see the snake of headlamps winding up below. Within a few hundred

meters we were out of the trees and the clouds had finally cleared so we could see the lights of the local towns and the glow from Kota Kinabalu. At this point, both Libby and I were full of energy, so we powered our way up the granite slabs and wooden steps to the checkpoint where we decided to stop a while to avoid a chilly wait at the top for sunrise. A few hundred meters of ascent later and a final scramble up some steep rocks, we made it! The jelly legs and distinct lack of sleep were all worth it (I think Libby agreed), to see those first rays of light appear over the surrounding mountains, illuminating the jagged peaks and jungle below.

We made it!

Now for the tricky part: the walk down. We set off in high spirits and welcomed our 8 am breakfast which included our first taste of Borneo’s delectable pineapple, I’ve never tasted anything quite like it! A couple of hours, and countless steps later, our energy had depleted, and we were progressing at snails’ pace as each step was made with great effort and accompanied by a good ‘oomph’; it appeared we had aged at least 60 years in about 4 kilometres. Finally, the gates came into view and all that stood between us and our shuttle was a steep set of concrete stairs (why would they put those there?!). Once back at base we were rewarded with a good hot meal (a burger for Libby and a chicken, egg and anchovy rice dish for me), then we caught the very full minibus back to our hotel in Kota Kinabalu, ready to collapse into bed for a decent 11 hours sleep.

Sepilok

The following day gave our legs a much-needed rest as we took the 6-hour bus across from Kota Kinabalu to Sepilok. This drive across Sabah really highlighted the deforestation issue in Borneo as we travelled from the lush jungle covered mountain sides of the Kinabalu National Park out to the vast expanses of palm plantations that cover most of the island. We’d obviously heard of the damage caused by our high demand for palm oil, but the scale of the problem didn’t really hit home until we were driving through mile after mile of pure palm for as far as the eye could see. https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/8-things-know-about-palm-oil

On arrival at Sepilok, we were dropped at the side of the road, about 3 km from our accommodation; luckily 2 German girls helped us out and called us a cab as our legs were not up to that walk in the midday heat. Here, we were staying at the Paganakan Dii Tropical Retreat, a family run jungle retreat, consisting of little wooden huts with semi-outdoor bathrooms, nestled amongst the trees and surrounded by the buzz of bugs and birds.

During our stay at Sepilok we visited a proboscis monkey sanctuary, where a plantation owner had returned some of the land to mixed jungle to provide a habitat for the comical proboscis monkeys. We spent that afternoon at the Rainforest Discovery Centre, an area of preserved rainforest with canopy walkways and lakeside paths where we were lucky enough to spot our first orangutan swinging through the treetops; a goosebump inducing sight I’ll never forget.

The next day we got our fill of orangutan encounters at the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, where rescued orphaned, injured or displaced orangutans are given the care needed to return to the wild. Watching the young (5-10 year old) orangutans playing in the orphanage, from behind glass so we didn’t disturb them, was like observing a school playground as they tussled and tumbled around the apparatus, helping each other out to reach the fruit filled platforms. The adults were just as caring;

we spent 40 minutes watching an adult couple munching their way through bananas, watermelon and sugar cane, giving each other the occasional reassuring pat or stroke on the cheek. After these two orangutans disappeared back into the canopy, the majority of the camera wielding tourists left but luckily Libby and I decided to wait a little longer. Just as we were discussing how incredible it would be if an orangutan were to just pop up right in front of us or swing over our heads, there was a clatter. Sure enough, an orange-haired hand appeared right above our heads as the curious ape slowly swung by, inducing yet more goosebumps and Cheshire cat grins. We then visited the Sun Bear Sanctuary

which was interesting to see and though I’m sure they're doing great work in helping rescued sun bears that had previously been kept as pets in cages or were destined to have their gall bladders used for Chinese medicine, this experience felt a little too much like a zoo for us.

That night we had a quick stopover in the coastal town of Sandakan, ready to be collected for our Kinabatangan river cruise experience the next day.

The Kinabatangan River

Our Kinabatangan River experience included two evening and two sunrise river cruises, two night walks through the nearby rainforest, an explanation of how the local river people use the jungle in their day to day lives and an evening of dancing and conga with the local guides (in which I got dragged into the middle to perform what looked like a courtship dance!). The night walks revealed a

range of resting birds, including two varieties of kingfisher and a white crowned shama, endemic to Borneo, and a couple of spindly snakes, winding their way down a tree near our hut (I wasn’t so keen on these ones!). The river cruises were where the true gems were found. Within 10 minutes of our first boat ride, our dreams of spotting an elusive pygmy elephant were met and exceeded as we came across a heard of about 40, trying to cross the river up ahead. We watched on (along with about 10 other boats) as a family of three scrambled on to the muddy bank and then another took the plunge and swam across to join them. Having been doubtful as to whether we would get to see these endangered creatures, we were treated to 4 sightings over our 2 days, along with plenty of monkeys (mostly the silvery lutung, proboscis and long-tailed macaque), a couple of crocodiles (scary stuff!), regular and rhinoceros hornbills, a white bellied sea eagle and a few giant monitor lizards, lazing on overhanging branches.

While we loved our couple of days exploring the Kinabatangan river and getting a glimpse of its varied inhabitants, it was time to move along and give Libby a much-needed rest from the copious mosquito bites that were blooming on her legs.

Semporna and Mabul Island

From mountain to jungle and now onwards to the ocean; it was time to begin our underwater adventures in the beautiful, briny sea. We didn’t get off to the best of starts in the town of Semporna; on arrival we discovered that the hostel we had booked no longer existed, and we were instead lead to an odd, empty hostel by some insistent locals, where the only member of staff(?) spoke no English and just sat back to play his video games. After a 20-minute wait and no sign of the owner, we decided this was not the place for us so set out to find some more suitable accommodation via the Scuba Junkie wifi. Once settled in to our clean, comfortable and most importantly, legitimate hotel, we went for a wander around Semporna, which Lonely Planet describes as a town ‘you won’t be filling up your memory card’ in. Our immediate impression confirmed this but after a few hours exploring the

jumbled streets filled with twisting markets and cheery locals we decided Semporna wasn’t so bad after all. Despite our change of heart, it wasn’t quite happening enough to spend a full day there, so we booked on to a snorkelling trip to 3 nearby islands. This included a walk up a tourist clad hill, a couple of stop offs on white sandy beaches and a snorkel in the surrounding turquoise waters. We experienced what it’s like to be the minority as we were the only Caucasians at any of the stops, making us of great interest to many of the guides; this came in handy when one decided to set up a few perspective shots for us, resulting in some fun photos.

The following morning, we took our underwater adventures up a notch; it was time to dust off our PADI/BSAC certificates on the reefs around Mabul Island. Having seen orangutans and pygmy elephants, the last animal on our wish list was the turtle and we had high hopes of seeing these serene creatures on our trips with Scuba Junkie, just off Mabul.

Within 20 minutes of arriving at the island, we were kitted up with wetsuits, fins, BCDs and tanks and ready for our first dive. During this dive we were refreshing our underwater skills at only 5 m depth and then going for a quick explore around an artificial reef, just off the jetty. Having conquered the regulator and mask removal and buoyancy exercises we dropped deeper for a short fun dive and to our great surprise, came across 5 turtles sleeping on the reef! All

were green sea turtles and two of them were very large (about a metre in length). I was gutted that I hadn’t had my camera with me, but I needn’t have feared as on many of our subsequent dives turtles would come drifting over-head or we’d happen across another sleepy one, chilling on the reef.

During our time with Scuba Junkie (a company I’d thoroughly recommend for both their hospitality and conservation efforts) we went on 6 dives and 3 snorkelling trips at natural and artificial reefs around the islands of Mabul and Kapalai. I was a particular fan of the diving; it’s always so calming drifting along 20 m below the surface, breathing slowly and steadily through your regulator and catching a glimpse of the alternative world that functions down there. It’s just a shame when you’re brought back to reality by the appearance of a crisp packet or a plastic toy gun; something that is seen all too often, so we tried to gather up a few little bits along the way. Other than plastic and turtles we saw a whole plethora of tropical fish and sea creatures, including blue spotted rays, tiger fish, frog fish, many pipe fish, clown fish, puffer fish and a giant eel called Elvis. The first of our snorkels was a little less successful as the visibility had reduced to about 1 m, but after the tea and cake break things had cleared up a little and we were able to get a good view of the bustling reef life during our second and third trips.

One of the conservation projects that Scuba Junkie has set up on Mabul is a turtle hatchery. They pay the locals an equivalent of £200 for any turtle nests they find to deter them from eating or selling the eggs. They then look after the nests and guide the baby turtles to the ocean as soon as they hatch; a phenomenon that occurs every couple of months. On our last night, just as we finished our dinner and large pile of pineapple, an announcement went out that one of the nests was hatching and they would be released to the water within 10 minutes. We hurried straight down to the beach where we were able to see the baby turtles that they had collected into a bucket and watch them all scurry down the beach and into the waves, guided by torchlight; heart-warming.

Our time with Scuba Junkie was an unforgettable one, not just due to the amazing experiences but also down to the stench I carried with me in my hair. I’m not sure what I swam through during our last snorkel, but it must have been some sort of decomposing sea creature as I spent the next 4 days stinking of rotting fish. Even after 6 hair washes the smell still lingered! Libby was not best impressed with this as she had to spend 11 hours sat next to me on the bus journey from Semporna to Kota Kinabalu the next day.

Kota Kinabalu

Last stop: Kota Kinabalu, and this time we would actually have time to explore the city. On this

occasion we were staying in a hostel, out near the airport. Initially we feared we’d booked another duff as we kept knocking at the door to no response. After the 11 hours on a coach we were both pretty tired and hungry, so we decided to go for dinner at a nearby restaurant and then try again. There was almost a meltdown when Libby’s noodles arrived and they’d missed off the ‘not spicy’ order (luckily my dish was very mild so we were able to swap) but once we’d been well fed everything seemed better, we gave the hostel owner a call and soon were let in to our fresh room by a very smiley host. The breakfast in the hostel was above expectations; the owner’s Mum had a café below so we headed down and selected a couple of cakes/pastries/steamed buns with red bean paste to go with our sweet coffee (if you ask for milk you tend to get a good dollop of condensed milk out there).

Day 1 in Kota Kinabalu was spent tracking down gifts in the various markets (the air-conditioned ones were our favourites!), taking in the view from the Signal Hill observatory platform (I can’t say Kota Kinabalu is particularly pretty from above) and cooling down with a beer before the sea side night market where we tucked in to BBQ’d fish and shellfish noodles.

Day 2 involved another snorkelling trip out around the islands of the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park. The corals here were much smaller than around Semporna and many showed signs of bleaching, but we still saw many colourful fish nonetheless and had a great time chilling out on the beach and getting a big shock from a giant monitor lizard lying across the path on our coastal stroll.

Day 3 was my dream, a cookery class which started with a visit to the Kota Kinabalu fresh food market to pick up supplies. Ash, a guy from Borneo who had spent much time overseas, including many years in the UK, showed us around the market, greeting many old friends and handing us a range of leaves, fruits and spices to sniff and taste along the way. My definite favourite was the mangosteen which flesh has a sweet and tangy flavour. In the fish market we were amazed at how cheap all this fresh fish was, I so wished it would be possible to take a suitcase of them home with me.

Once we had stocked up on supplies, Ash drove us 20 minutes south to his mother’s roadside restaurant, stopping off for some deep-fried banana along the way. Ash’s mother took over from here. After a refreshing welcome drink, we set about creating two of her signature dishes. A fresh chicken and coconut curry and wild fern salad. She guided us through the various stages; the trickiest part was toasting the freshly shaved coconut; this took about 30 minutes! We then sat down to quite the banquet; our 2 dishes were joined by fall-apart five spice beef, buttermilk prawns, spiced aubergine, tomatoey fish curry and steamed rice. This was all finished off with a green, coconut filled pancake bites, a chewy madeleine and a sweet coconut milkshake, yum.
For our final night in Borneo, we enjoyed Libby’s birthday present from Simon and Lisa, this was a night’s stay at the very fancy Pacific Sutera hotel. We were expecting to be in a deluxe double room
(already swish enough), but when we arrived at our door we were greeted with the sign ‘Executive suite’; what an amazing surprise. We skipped and jumped our way around the lounge, dining area, toilet, palatial bedroom and ensuite with a shutter to wave back through to the bedroom (not so suitable for us!). The place was over twice the size of my apartment in Stockholm and had fantastic views across the hotel pool and out to sea. We spent the afternoon and evening making the most of the facilities, taking a dip in one of the 3 pools and sipping on cocktails in the adjacent bar while watching fire eaters putting on a performance. Due to our extensive lunch we weren’t very hungry until about 9pm by which time only large meals were available at the restaurants so we decided to return to our suite and order our first ever room service. We felt a little ridiculous being served a very well-presented bowl of french fries while sat in our pyjamas (I’m sure the hotel staff wondered what on earth these two scruffy girls were doing in such a fancy suite!).

All good things must come to an end and we had sadly reached the final day of our Borneo adventure. We started the day with an extensive buffet breakfast, taking it in turns to stock up on fruits, pastries and in my case a flaky roti while the other protected our remaining plates and drinks from the persistent birds who would dive straight into any unattended dishes. We then went for a final stroll around Kota Kinabalu and picked up the last few gifts, finishing with a very early dinner (turned out to be dinner number one of four) before heading over to the airport for our flights home.

We certainly weren’t going to go hungry on this journey. On arrival at the airport we were given food vouchers to spend at the McDonalds because our flight had previously been put back about an hour. We assumed this was instead of an on-board meal so tucked in to a burger and icecream, despite not being all that hungry from our 4 pm dinner. Less than 2 hours later we were up in the air, bound for Singapore and the smell of food filled the air; it was time for dinner number 3! Within 5 hours we were on our next flight, ready for the 13 hours over to London and here came dinner number 4 and my final taste of fried noodles. All this food made for a sleepless night, so I passed the time watching many films and eventually arrived in London at 7am, somewhat zombified, struggling to explain to Dad the joys of the past two and a half weeks.

Food

You may have noticed a slight difference between this post and my usual ramblings (except for the ridiculous length of this one); there has been minimal mention of food. Fear not, I’ve saved this up for its own section tagged on the end, so if you have no interest in food you can stop reading now!

Borneo’s cuisine is a melting pot of Malaysian, Indonesian, Indian and Chinese, including plenty of fresh sea food, the most incredibly flavoursome fruit I’ve ever had the pleasure to try and as I may have mentioned a few times, many, many noodles. It didn’t matter if it was breakfast, dinner or lunch; rice, curry and noodles could be provided at any time of day and always in great abundance, at wonderfully low prices (we always manged to track down some cereal or toast for Libby’s breakfasts though, noodle was pushing it a bit at this time of day). Almost every meal, be it halfway up Mount Kinabalu, sat alongside the Kinabatangan River or out on the island of Mabul, would be finished off with a good pile of refreshing watermelon, papaya and if we were lucky, some of that sweet, sweet pineapple.

One of the highlights of our time in Semporna was a popular seafood restaurant along the waterfront

called ‘Fat Mom’s’. Here we tried the ginger and spring onion fish and sticky prawns with noodles in broth; delectable. Another meal which stuck out for me was our first experience of the Kota Kinabalu night market. While initially slightly overwhelming as all of the stall holders tried to capture our custom, once we’d settled on a popular looking spot it was a great experience. I went up to select our fish (a red snapper) and decided to have it BBQ’d and served with noodles and stir-fried greens. The freshness of the fish and simplicity with which it was cooked meant it could have graced the table of any fine dining restaurant and been a standout dish.

Between the delectable dinners I tried out a few of the local specialities, including the infamous durian fruit. You couldn’t miss this fruit’s presence in Semporna as the entire town has a subtle rotten egg smell from this delightful fruit. It was durian season over there, so we were frequently approached by people with

wheelbarrows full of the stuff and any market would have at least one stall piled high with the spikey, green fruit. I must say, it didn’t taste as bad as I had expected; if you can get past the cheesy socks smell, the flavour is actually quite sweet and fruity, kind of like a cross between avocado and honeydew melon. While this was palatable, I far preferred the juicy mangosteen, the fleshy jack fruit, the sour snake fruit and the lychee-esk, bristly rambutan.  

Overall, I’d say that Borneo should be high on the list for any foodie as it presents such a range of flavour-packed dishes with incredibly fresh and exotic ingredients.

Afterthoughts

So that’s it, a whistle-stop tour of mine and Libby’s Bornean adventure. I hope this has given you a good taste of what we got up to, highlighted some of the environmental concerns we spotted along the way and shown you a few of the experiences that Sabah, Borneo has to offer.