Creatures of the land and sea (jungle trip + more diving)
So we are now preparing to take our leave of Borneo, after a fun few days checking out the oranguatans, snakes, birds and insects of the jungle on a Kinabantangan river tour and at Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary. At Sepilok we stayed at Labuk B&B; a really lovely place with an outdoor jacuzzi and just ten minutes walk to the sanctuary. The jungle trip we went on to the following day was a two night/three day job with a company called Nature Lodge, and included four river cruises and three jungle treks; two at night time. It was pretty good; we were lucky enough to see wild Orangutans on the river’s edge and we saw some beautiful birds sleeping on the last night walk.
Again we met some nice people there; we haven’t been alone since we boarded that boat back in Lombok, so there’s been practically no rows at all (except for the odd grump on long bus journeys!)
After the jungle trip, we stayed in Sandakan for a night, and then back to Kota Kinabalu for our last couple of days. Today we headed out for a bit more diving just off the coast here near Gaya island with Sabah divers whom we can wholeheartedly recommend. Nice people, professional, no bullshit; by which I mean they’re not all about acting cool and talking exclusively about fish and/or diving. I had a bit of trouble equalising (balancing air/water pressure in my ears) so I had to sit one dive out but I got it sorted for the afternoon. I’m getting into this whole diving lark a bit more in last few days and Eddie is getting more ‘back’ into it. I think Sipadan was so built up for us (it’s on lots of ‘world’s best’ lists and people talk it up alot) that we almost enjoyed today’s diving more; although there was less to see, there was more time to look at what we did see. In Sipadan you’ve big expectations and you see so much you can get overwhelmed!
So tomorrow we fly back to Bali as our next flight is to Melbourne in two days time. We’re looking forward to meeting up with our old friend Michelle there, plus her hubby and baby. We’re both really looking forward to the next stage of our journey (Australia, Fiji and New Zealand) but have definitely a new interest in Asia after the last six weeks here; trips to China and Vietnam at least are on the cards for the future. Borneo has been great, but different from what I expected. You do almost everything here with a tour company; its all activity based and all well set-up for tourists to do one trip after another, with a very well worn track of activities: Climb a mountain, trek the jungle, dive Sipadan and see orangutans – that’s Sabah in a nutshell!
Tags: Borneo, Diving, Jungle, Kinabatangan river, Labuk B&B, Nature Lodge, Sabah divers, Sepilok, Wildlife