June 21, 2016 – July 3, 2016
Sabah, Mount Kinabalu and Sandakan, Malaysia
As my plane was landing in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, there was soundbite that was on repeat in my head. The soundbite was of Sir David Attenborough narrating a documentary about Malaysia in his unique and wonderful British accent. He starts with “In Borneo…” and then talks about all the wonderful things I saw. Here’s a taste to jog your imagination 🙂
He was my very own personal narrator throughout my time in Borneo. As I traveled across the island he talked about the verdant jungles of Borneo and their pygmy wildlife, the crystal clear waters surrounding the island of Borneo, the amazing sea-gypsies of Borneo that get land-sickness because they live the majority of their lives on the water, the giant odoriferous flower – rafflesia – that grows on the slopes surrounding Mt. Kinabalu in Borneo, and most devastating, the omnipresent destruction of the natural habitat of the orangutans and proboscis monkeys in Borneo, due to deforestation.
I started in Sabah and I arrived with no plans so I spent a few days figuring that out. In the meanwhile, I got some pointers about life in Malaysia from my SugarShack who lived there as a kid. She told me what foods I must try (nasi lemak and murthabak) and that to fit in with the locals I just need to add -la at the end of everything I said. Good tips. Sabah is like a legit, really nice city, and a bit of a surprise after South East Asia. It was clean, modern, malls everywhere, KFCs and Pizza Huts all around. It was almost luxurious. So, I went and got a $7 semi-traumatic haircut. It was in a little shop in one of the malls, there was no hair washing or even wetting, I sat on a folding chair and it was over in 5 minutes. It was only semi-traumatic because when she was done it actually looked okay. Eh…it grows back. Also, while I was putzing around I decided to get scuba certified!! That takes 3 days so I ended up being in town for about a week. While scuba-ing I explored the Ramadan markets (Malaysia is primarily muslim and it was Ramadan), the fish market and the city mosque. Here are too many pictures of the mosque and markets.
After being terrified and amazed during my scuba lesson dives, I was certified! Next step, Mount Kinabalu. Mount Kinabalu is the tallest mountain in Malaysia and is surrounded by a lovely national park, a world heritage site even. You can take a bus from Sabah to the mountain but because it was just a few days before Eid, lots of people were heading out to town for the holiday. It was a full bus and a winding ride through the insides of Borneo. A girl in the back ended up getting carsick on a guy that ended up at the same lodge where I was staying. He was so nice about it. I don’t know if I would be able to pull that off. So this lodge is in the most wonderful location. There is a steep hill that leads up to the Mount Kinabalu Lodge and along the way there are beautiful tropical flowers and cute stray puppies running around and then from the deck of the lodge you can see this beautiful, lush green valley with wispy clouds stuck in the middle. At night, I saw like 50 different types of moths. It was AMAZING.
The guy that got thrown up on (we’ll call him Bob) and I decided to wander to the national park for a hike but on the way down the hill from the lodge, a Malaysian guy with a car stopped and asked if we wanted to tag along with him as he looks for houses to buy. And he proved the theory that Malaysians add -la at the end of their sentences! You were right Sugarshack. He drove us past several villages and to a point where we could see the peak of Kinabalu. It was a beautiful ride. After our ride-about, the dude dropped us off at the national park and we hiked around and then stopped at the little restaurant right across from the park for some lunch. This is where I had the absolute best laksa ever, like forever ever. It was spicy, and tangy, and soupy, and noodley and it made me so happy. Even after Bob told me his theory that whatever the customers don’t finish ends up back in the pot. I’m blocking that out forever.
When we got back from our hike, several more people had arrived at the lodge and everyone got to know each other as dinner time neared. We were treated to a magnificent sunset in the valley amongst the trees and the clouds. As nighttime came, we ended up playing several rounds of card games as the kitties that lived at the lodge snuggled up. The next day Bob, another guy from the lodge, let’s call him Gob, and I decided to take another hike in the park. We had picked out a trail that was supposed to be relatively easy, and in hindsight it wasn’t that bad, but man it was a long hike. I think it took us a total of 8 hours and I was 100% the reason it took so long. I hadn’t established my hiking legs by that point and both Bob and Gob are European and hence expert hikerinos (my new theory is that all Europeans are expert hikerinos). Bob was hiking in sandals and a smoked much of the hike…I was still slower. They were really nice to put up with my slow butt. Oh well…it was a beautiful hike and I love how the pictures turned out. Such amazing flora and fauna.
Here are too many pictures of the valley sunset…
Evening at the lodge…
Here’s the hike…
Mount Kinabalu lodge was amazing but the next morning most of us were moving on to Sandakan. You go to Sandakan for the Sepilok Orang Utan Center and Sun Bear Sanctuary. And because this is the access point for the Kinabatangan river. You can take a bus from Mount Kinabalu to this area. To do this you wait on the side of the road outside the national park entrance and you flag down a bus. Because Eid was only a couple of days away, all the buses were full. I was with an adorable young couple, Peg and Kobe we shall call them, and Gob. A bus came by every hour but when they passed us we started to worry. We weren’t really sure why the buses weren’t stopping and worried that we were waiting in the wrong spot. At some point Gob and Kobe decided to walk up the road a bit to see if there was another bus stop or something. And a bus stopped and picked the two of them up but of course it just kept on rolling past us. Peg and I were left behind and wondering…did Kobe just leave his girlfriend behind? Fortunately, Kobe is a good kid and he made the bus stop to let him off and he walked back to us. We watched another bus pass us by and then we started trying to hitch hike. Most people just honked at us and many just stared at us like we were insane. I think one car stopped, but like most of the others that had gone by it was full of people heading home for the holidays. No way they could fit the three of us in their car. And at this point we were a crew and weren’t separating. Many hours later, a bus finally stopped and they found space for the three of us. The young’uns let me have the conductor’s seat and they sat on the steps. Oh and the bus conductor asked me if Peg was my daughter! Peg is white and British. Granted Peg looks quite young but she’s like 20 something. I would have had her at 16 or something. I guess it’s a possibility…but what about the white, British thing, Mr. Conductor??? Anyways, after that I called her daughter and she didn’t even sing the Pearl Jam song to me and just went along with it. Peg and Kobe were so cute.
We picked up more tourists along the way and they had to sit in the aisle. I heard and ignored a lot of retching sounds from the aisle and the seats. It was a long and winding road. I think back in the day we would have seen beautiful natural forest but in 2016 we saw wall-to-wall palm plantations. At least it was green. It was cool to see the bus stop at iftar for all the people to break their fast. It was cool being in a muslim country during Ramadan. Anyway, we arrived late at Uncle Tan’s place. It was pretty bare bones but we managed. The next morning we all went to see the Orang Utans and the Sun Bears…delightful animals.
That afternoon we left for our 2 day tour of the Kinabatangan river. Just a recommendation, if you want to tour the Kinabatangan River, don’t use Uncle Tan’s. I think it’s listed in Lonely Planet but there are much better tour operators that charge the same or even a bit less. Uncle Tan kinda ripped us off. The accommodations were called rustic but were well below rustic. The thing that bothered me most was that the pygmy elephants and orang utans live in a certain part of the river. This tour does not take you to that part. Bob and Gob ended up going with another tour operator and had an almost luxurious experience compared to the rest of us and they saw the pygmy elephants and orang utans. Now that I got the whiny American, and thrifty Asian out of my system, I have to say that I would highly recommend a tour of the Kinabatangan if you ever make it to Borneo. The “rustic” shelters that we stayed in, the delightful company, the constant smell of weed coming from the tour guides, not showering for 2 days and all the amazing animals we did see, made this one of the most memorable parts of my journey. We did two night cruises, a sunset cruise and a midday hike.
Here’s what we saw:
Our last night there we had a “sing along” with our tour guide. He was not good. But him and his crew were having fun so we did as well. I also met another American here that was doing the same thing I was doing…had quit her job and decided to travel. She was a bit earlier in her journey and it was nice chatting with her. I think she’s still on the road…and doing amazing things.
The next stop was Semporna, but this post is too long already so I’ll do that one separately.
nomadshak 