Here is abbadave's account of our wonderful adventure in Borneo
we arrived in Kota Kinabalu via Singapore on the morning of 20th May with a short wait for our coach to arrive taking us to our centrally located hotel in under half an hour arriving around half past twelve, the keys as with all our properties were handed out very efficiently by our wonderful Tour Leader Erica Hajda who met us at LHR guided us through Singapore and was one if not the most organised TM's i have encountered with JY, always always cheerful and entertained us throughout, nothing got on top of her and she always gave us detailed info for the following days events, i often wondered where she got the time from to do so much so a BIG thanks to Erica
ok so after a short wait for our room to be ready with a nice refreshing drink whilst we did so, a few of us wasted no time in getting out and about to explore our nearby surroundings
This evening Erica walked us to the nearby night market but with darkness yet to descend and many stalls still settting up this was a little early and so our welcome dinner at the hotel rounded off our first evening in Kota Kinabalu
This morning, Saturday, we set off on a long coach day and with seat rotation in place for the next three days it was a pleasant surprise to find yourself sitting with a new partner each day, the highlights today were a stop at Mount Kinibalu and Poring Hot springs where a nice jungle trek was taken before the canopy walk which was hard going to get to it but we all made it and then the narrow swaying canopy above the tree tops was a little dicey to say the least but if you just slide along the ropes looking straight ahead you ought to be ok, if your a little nervous about doing this you don't have to just speak to your TM or guide and maybe you could by pass this and spend time at the resort or dipping those tired feet in one of the several hot spring pools, a visit to the Botanical gardens to see the world's largest plant the 'Rafflesia' before returning to our coach as a storm was brewing up ahead and boy did we have a storm on the way back with the Thunder rumbelling Lightning flashed and the rain fell before returning to the hotel around 7.30
most of our group followed Erica to Little India this evening for dinner, an Italian just down the road whilst a few dined at the hotel
the following morning we departed at 7.30am with another long day ahead as we head out of KK with views of the river and the Dragon boat racing to our left we head for the 'Tip of Borneo' stopping on route at a market in Kota Belud, avery interesting and colourdul market giving us around 35-40 mins there on a really warm morning, with a lunch stop being made at a Longhouse before venturing to a more traditional Longhouse which was like s mall village all living under the same roof with our final stop of the day being at the northern 'Tip of Borneo' which to honest was a long way to go for what it was, still the sea views were rather nice, another timely storm came our way again once on the coach and making our way back which was around a 4hr drive, the lightning was flashing again the rice fields were flooded and so we returned to our hotel in kk at 7.10 to be precise 9 not 7.11 sigh! )
on Day 5 we left kk for Sandakan where our tour was really about to take off, a very long drive with part of the way being the same route as y/day stopping once more for refreshments at Mount Kinibalu, we also did a death march/war memorial visit on route and lunch at the Tree Plantations where in the super gift shop there was our chance to purchase Sabah Tea and several cuddly Orangutans plus other gifts that we were attracted to, as the afternoon wore on we were greeted by the usual Thunder/Lightning and heavy rain and we made our hotel by the sea the Four Points at around half past five to the joys that we didn't have any electricity so some of us took a walk into the nearby shopping mall and took dinner in the hotel of which we found the service to be very slow but the food was worth it when we got it, perhaps they were not geered up to catering for so many of us at one time
Day 6 was one of those exciting days we all look forward to on the tour, firstly a 45 minute drive to Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, out first pot of call was to the nursey section where we had special permission to visit allbeit seeing the young ones play and show off their swinging skills through a glass before making our was over to see the adults being fed along with many macaques and then over to see the Sun Bears before we returned late morning back to Sandakan before making our way to the jetty where our speedboats awaited to speed us off to the jungle, say goodbye to wifi for the next few days as our trip by sppedboat took around 2 hours spotting many Proboscis monkeys, macaques, mother and baby orangs, birds etc on route arriving at our lodge for lunch shortly before half past two, the Abai Jungle Lodge was a beautifully constructed site and on wandering round one of the many footpaths with jungle all around i spotted a OWL, it was just sitting there peering at me for quite a while too so i stood there chatting to him until some of the others arrived before he flew away into the bushes
later this afternoon at 3.45 we took the first of our wildlife cruises and we say 3 species of Monkey, Prosecus, silver leaf and macaques, 2 baby crocs over the far side of the river, various hornbills and kingfishers, a flying fox and the highlight as darkness descended was the fire flies which lit up the tree like a Christmas tree, we also saw how the monkeys prepared for bed high up in their trees
Dinner at the logdes were excellant, hot buffet style and with me being a fussy eater there was even plenty to choose from to keep me fed and heavy rain greeted us as we turned in tonight, being so hot it was naturally difficult to sleep and the fans were a little noisy, as i woke in the night there was something flying round my ear from time to time which prompted me to get up and investigate, surely not a mossie with my own and the camps mossie plugged in, it turned out i had a couple of them mothy type things flying round and so i set about tackling them but the little blighters had gone to ground, sigh!
the following morning we had an early start at 06.30 till about 9, our early morning wildlife cruise with some of the wildlife we spotted were, Proscesus monkeys, black hornbill, great tagret, collared kingfisher, storkbilled kingfisher ( the largest KF in Borneo ), Hornbill oriental pied, and a cruise round Oxbore Lake watching the monkeys clamber from tree to tree as they play and dive into the water below to round things off before returning to camp for breakfast in the jungle surrounded by more cheeky monkeys looking to steal the minute ones back is turned
at 11.00 we returned to the water for a visit to a local village where we all indulged in our very own tree planting operation soon to be followed by lunch in the village and a Leo guided walk round and so we returned to the lodge at around 1.30 and with little time to relax we were back out again two hours later on a one and a half hour cruise down river to catch the Pigmy elephants and on the stroke of five not only did we see any but were in perfect timing to catch a family of elephants cross the river, a perfect end to a perfect day but... there was more to come as on the way back we spotted a mother and baby orangutan in the trees on the banks of the river, truly amasing
after dinner this evening Erica and Leo split us into two groups on a jungle trek round the lodge but the earlier rain had disturbed the wildlife and all we saw was some elephant prints and a couple of birds and no sign of my little owl friend lol also asleep i guess
Day 8 was another breakfast with our monkey friends who were getting more and more determined to have some fun with us, firstly a melon was swooped upon then the little monkeys stole my toast , 2 slices they had as quick as a turn of the head, the little monkeys
following breakfast it was time to depart for our Riverside lodge at Sukau, around a 2 hour journey down river or up river i don't really know, on route we saw a male Orangutan in a tree on the oppisite side from the mother and baby we saw y/day and most likely searching for food on that side of the river and then wow wow wow 2 elephants right in front of us as we pulled up it was incredible, arriving at our lodge for lunch to a very warm welcome as the music played and the refreshing drinks were handed out which was followed later by yet another exciting cruise, amongst what we saw were macaque monkeys ( excuse my spelling at times ), oriental hornbills, Rhinoserous hornbill, Darter bird i think and yet more Orangs high up in the trees mother and baby and then as darkness fell we caught those monkeys preparing for bed again
Tonight at Dinner we had the opportunity to wear our Sarongs as we had a lesson on how to dress them of which you can buy to take home for just 10 ringitts
our time in the jungle ended after an early bfast on Day 9 as we headed at high speed back to Abai jungle lodge for toilets and refreshments before continuing on to Sandakan seeing on the way another crocodile and more elephants, many jumping fish were sighted as we raced along into the open sea, in Sandakan we were able to visit the very interesting war memorials then once back at the Four Points hotel in Sandakan for lunch there was an opportunity to reunite any belongings with your case and some last min gift shopping before our mid afternoon flight back to Kota Kinabalu
this evening we visited the handcraft market on our way down to the waterfront for a meal at another italian restaurant
our final day in Borneo took us on the North Borneo Railway, a very enjoyable journey with bfast and lunch well until of course we broke down or rather there were technical problems with the front engines and so we had to turn back and then this evening we were taken to a floating fish market with cultural show for our farewell meal as in the morning some of the group return home whilst we fly on later to enjoy Singapore giving us time to soak up the sun around the local market right across from hotel with it being a sunday was in full flow
SINGAPORE
a very brief description of our three nights in Singapore, as your TM does not accompany you we did have a very good rep in Iris to look after us, the hotel is very well situated a short stroll to Clarke Quay where it all happens, take the bumboat for $25 up to see the merlion a very worthwhile trip, Gardens by the Bay is a must even if your not into gardens etc you'll love it there, breakfast with the Orangutans at the zoo was also superb but i'd not bother with the night safari, the singapore after dark was hugely over priced, you can do Raffles yourself, take a taxi for under six dollars or the MRT if your adventurous to city hall not Raffles Place, a Singapore Sling costs $32 the views from Marina Bay Sands were stunning but the light lazer show was poor really and the Rickshaw you can nogotiate a price yourself from Bugis street although as six of us did the Singapore after Dark it was still a lovely evening but very very overpriced even when they did give in and give us dinner with that in a nice chinese restaurant, one word on the Furama ask for a back room as we were kept awake by music from a night club having our rooms on the front side
i also agree that a number of us had trouble with our bridge cameras in Borneo so any questions just ask and i'm sure one of us can answer them
a wonderful time and you future borneoettes are in for quite a treat though like we mention what you see is just pot luck so i do hope you see some orangs in the wild
i'm afraid my review is not a patch on Bob's or Jaya's ( i'm afraid I cannot live with theirs ) and is pretty much similar having gone off my notes i had taken
regards
Dave
