Getting back to nature in Sabah

Borneo is the third largest island in the world, and it’s divided between three countries: Malaysia, Indonesia, and itty-bitty Brunei. Two of the thirteen states of Malaysia are found on Borneo: Sabah and Sarawak. Mount Kinabalu is in the state of Sabah, so with Krista we continued our adventures there.

After climbing Kinabalu, we hobbled around Kota Kinabalu (the nearest city) for a couple of days. Krista spent one day scuba diving, and Grant and I took a speedboat out to Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park. We weren’t up for much more than sitting on the beach, and luckily that was about all there was to do there. The park is made up of five small islands, that are largely populated by tourists and monitor lizards.

It was really easy to get here, as the Jesselton Point Ferry Terminal in Kota Kinabalu has a dozen different speedboat operator stands with hourly departures. It was a nice treat to be able to enjoy the beach without any planning.

Grant left us in Kota Kinabalu to go back to work, and Krista and I continued to make our way around KK, going blocks out of our way to avoid having to step up or down high curbs. On the whole, I didn’t feel that there is much to recommend for Kota Kinabalu itself, other than proximity to the natural wonders like Mount Kinabalu. We were happy to move on to the second part of our trip near Sandakan, and surprised to see our old friend Lowe’s Peak out of the window on our flight!

We landed at Sandakan, and went straight to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. There are two places in Borneo where you can see the wild orangutans being fed, one in Sarawak and this one in Sabah. At this point I’ve visited both, and I think Sepilok has a more serious approach to it. At Sepilok, we had to lock up all of our belongings, and could only keep our cameras with us so that there was no chance of a forgotten granola bar or water bottle distracting the orangutans while they fed. The experience began with a brief presentation from a ranger and a short video talking about the work being done at the center, which helped to set the stage for what we were about to see.

Sepilok was established in 1964, and there are about 60-80 orangutans living on the 43 sq. kilometers of land that make up their reserve. We had heard reports from people we’d met that during their visit they’d only seen two orangutans, and had been underwhelmed by the experience. It might have helped that we tried to keep our expectations low but we were really excited and impressed by it! The feeding platform is out along a boardwalk, and we were lucky enough to be standing right in the front. There are lots of ropes and smaller platforms for the orangutans to approach/feed on, and it took a little while for them to show up, but in the end we saw seven or eight of them plus dozens of long tail macaques. I probably took seven or eight hundred photos too, but I’m trying to show some restraint here.

After the orangutans had eaten their fill (pretty bland food, bananas and milk, to encourage them to go forage for more interesting things to eat), we were on to our next stop: the Kinabatangan Nature Lodge. Just getting there was quite the experience, as it really is in the middle of nowhere, but after a long and bumpy minivan ride followed by a short boat ride we had arrived. They offer very basic accommodations on the banks of the Kinabatangan River, but the point of staying here isn’t to stay inside, it is to get out! They go on evening and morning boat trips up the river searching for wildlife, and out of the many animals commonly seen we were really hoping to spot some proboscis monkeys and pygmy elephants. Luck was with us! On that evening’s cruise, we saw orangutans in the wild and lots of monkeys, including both harem and bachelor groups of proboscis monkeys – who really do have some of the funniest looking faces.

As we were just giving up on seeing the pygmy elephants that evening, the muffled cry went up from another boat, and our captain swung around to check it out. Success! Three of them appeared in the foliage on the far bank, coming down to the river for a drink. This was the first time I’ve seen elephants in the wild, and it was pretty exciting. I can’t imagine exactly what they thought of the two boats full of tourists jockeying to take their picture as they came down to the river for their nightcap, but we certainly were grateful that they had made an appearance!

Still tired from our climb, we crashed early that night, but we were up for the 6 am river cruise to keep looking for more animals. The morning was foggy, and we saw more birds than anything else, but it was a nice relaxing way to end our wildlife quest.

All in all, we definitely enjoyed our time in Sabah, and if you’re looking for immersion in nature with a healthy dose of wildlife sightings, this is a great destination. The cities that we visited weren’t very impressive, but you hopefully are not going to spend much of your time in them while in Sabah anyway!

Catching up…

I know, it has been forever since I’ve updated this blog, but don’t worry – in the meantime we’ve done lots of things to share here! We’ve been hosting a steady stream of visitors since Krista kicked everything off in April/May, and now believe it or not, we’re in the final stretch of our time in KL. In fact, Grant is booking my return ticket to the US as I type. I’ll be headed back (first to Maryland) at the end of October, and Grant is expecting to return when his project ends around November 15th. I think everyone who reads this blog already knows, but we’re expecting our first child at the end of December, and it’s funny but the airlines don’t like the idea of a really pregnant lady on a 25+ hour flight! Honestly, I don’t really like the idea either, but what can I do.

Highlights from the past few months that I’ll work on posting about:

• Sabah and Bali with Krista in May
• Beijing and Sarawak with my parents in July
• KL & Singapore with Brenna and Mark in July
• Vietnam with Grant, his parents and Blythe in August
• Phuket with Blythe in September
• Singapore for the F1 race with Grant in September

Then there’s our last big trip while we’re here, which we just booked yesterday. We’re leaving on October 11th for five days in the Maldives and four days in Sri Lanka! Go big or go home, right? Or should it be go big and then go home? Bear with me, and I’ll put up as many stories and pictures as I can in the meantime.