Wilderness & Wildlife in Borneo

The country is a nature lovers paradise with wildlife watching and mountain trekking as the top two activities. Whilst here, you want to try
- Climbing Mount Kinabalu, South-East Asia's highest mountain
- Swimming over the coral reefs
- Trekking in the rainforest
- Riverboat / rivertaxis through the jungle
- Chillin out on the beach

Quick Tips:

Pack for hot climates but if taking on Kinabalu be aware that it can get very cold. Water should never be considered truly safe in most areas because of the jungle influence so purchasing bottled water is a good idea if you're only there for a short while. Food is wide and varied with western influences much in evidence. Shopping aint too great although music CDs and VideoCds are half the price here compared to the UK. The main centre to arrange activities is Kota Kinabalu, known locally as K-K.

Best Way To Get Around:

Although possible to do this on your own arrangements, tour companies are in good supply and are cheap so worth using to save time. Distances travelled are often considerable so internal flights will be necessary. Roads around major sights and towns are in good order but elsewhere can be torture as they are usually damaged by heavy rains. The main International airport is in Brunei, where regular buses will take you over the border into Sabah but take a few hours. If you have time on your hands then its possible to take journeys through the jungle by riverboat, these are private operations and display their times on big clocks mounted on boards when they are in dock, best ask the locals for advice to make sure you dont get stranded although most rural communities will be happy to offer you a place to stay for a price but facilities will be very basic!

Given that most of the country is covered in dense rainforest and jungle its an excellent place to get up close to wildlife, one of the most impressive locations being the Mulu National Park – only reachable by air or boat its cut off deep in the forest.

We flew into the park by scheduled flight from Miri on board a twelve seater plane which flew low over the forest, the cockpit was open to us all so we could see the runway as we landed which was really neat. At the entrance to the park there is a café/restaurant and some accommodation, there are also a number of river camps down the river run by private tour companies.

In the park itself there is a long boardwalk which is a great help as the ground is little more than a mix of roots and mud so would be heavy going. From the boardwalk be on the lookout for massive amounts of wildlife – particularly insects and birds which are often well camouflaged, don’t run your hand along the handrails as you may discover some extra insects hanging on the side!

The park guide assures us that the vast majority of insects are completely harmless – and don’t even bite.

The walk can be slippery in places if its been raining so wear sensible shoes – this takes you to a massive cave where they have built a shelter outside, at sunset the sky comes alive with thousands of bats streaming out of the cave. During the day its possible to enter the cave but as its home to a few thousand bats then its also home to a few thousand tonnes of guano – the smell is strong to say the least. If watching the bats at sunset remember to take a torch to get you back along the boardwalk.

The highest mountain in South-East Asia its summit is at 4102m . To gain access to the park you need to get a permit – this is not available at the park entrance, but can be got in Kota Kinabalu (tel 211991).

There’s not much to the national park except for the mountain and the main path has been well constructed with a number of water stations and seats which are handy near the start where you are still in dense forest and it can be really hot.

The park entrance is at 2000m and the normal ascent involves going up to the incredibly ugly Laban Rata hut at 3500m to stay overnight and then heading to the summit for sunrise, then back to the park entrance the same day. No-one is allowed above the Laban Rata Hut without a guide being present although this is not strictly enforced as guides have to look after a number of people and the route is well defined. The route has large ropes secured to the ground to follow / aid you and on the way down its tempting to run your hand along the rope – this means youll either get rope burns on your skin or destroy a pair of gloves in the process – I would advise taking an old pair of tough gloves for this, such as gardening gloves.

It’s a typical tourist thing to attain summits by sunrise but this is more because they want to get you back out of the park that day rather than because its necessarily spectacular, in reality its damn cold at 4 in the morning and a tough slog up the hill so fitter people are best to leave it till later to start their ascent. If you don’t make it to the summit the views from the path are excellent once you get beyond the forest cover and also has the advantage that you wont be jostling for position on the summit peak.

When going up or down the trail below the hut try to get away from the groups of people as they scare most of the wildlife away, one trick is to wait at the larger seating areas and stay really quiet and still – after sizeable groups pass a squirrel or two will come out to check for any food left behind – once they spot you they disappear again to await their next opportunity.

The mountain guide we had seemed to know only the basics of the plant life in the park and not much else but was very cheery and keen to help when people in other groups were struggling, - it became apparent that we were fitter than he was so he happily waved us on, at the end of the trek he refused to take a tip but instead let me buy him a meal at the restaurant which was nice.

A popular place for locals to visit during the holiday period, the main attraction is listed as the hot spring pools – these are well developed swimming / sitting pools which utilise the natural hot sulphur springs – supposedly good for your health but also a nice way to relax for a while. As far as we were concerned though the better attractions lie uphill from the spring pools – there’s a high level walkway strung up between the tops of the rainforest trees – about 60m up, you start off by climbing a staircase to the ticket control then off you go on rather shaky rope bridges – they have been enhanced for the tourists but are certainly not for anyone who has trouble with heights or balance. There are other rope bridges in the area but these are for scientists only as they lack the safety nets etc of the tourist ones and are closed off. We didn’t see any wildlife other than birds but did get a great view out of the forest and had a good laugh posing for photos on the bridges. Also at the park is a small museum dedicated to insects – the display cabinets (dead spiders and the like) are not very appealing but the butterfly house (live butterflies) is very interesting and worth taking your time or you’ll miss many. The park also has a restaurant (basic stuff) but service was fairly slow for anything other than drinks / ice cream etc.

Why go to the jungle if they can bring it to you – that’s pretty much the way things work here. The centre rehabilitates Orangutans and sends them back out into the wild and obviously makes a fair profit from tourists to supplement the cost of their work.

The centre has two features – the visitors post / reception area and the jungle boardwalk. At the visitors post there’s a shop and some displays on the wildlife of the area. Information on the Orangutans is given in a small cinema where you are told about the natural landscapes they prefer and that much of the jungle is being decimated by industry near the centre. The film lasts about twenty minutes and if its busy then take some water in with you as it can get pretty hot in there.

The jungle boardwalk isnt very long and you reach the main viewing area after about five or ten minutes, take your time going along the walk and keep a good look out into the jungle on either side – you will be getting watched! The arrival of humans on the boardwalks is a signal to the animals that feeding time is approaching so you’ll see more if you wait behind a bus-tour group as they make enough noise to attract everything for miles around.

Once at the viewing platform be on the lookout for monkeys – they are anything but friendly, make sure your bags and pockets are all shut, don’t feed them nor even look straight at them, showing your teeth is a sign of aggression and they are more than ready to have a go at you if they reckon there’s a possibility of getting food. The guides tell of one tourist who ignored the warnings and taunted them – only to be left without her bags and most of her clothes ripped to shreds. The monkeys do however know they are onto a good thing and are used to having people around so you will get really close to them – or rather they will get really close to you.

The Orangutans will make their appearance – usually spotted by the noise and movement as they swing through the branches and you’ll find that the viewing area becomes surrounded as they sit in groups of two or three. Park rangers then turn up and pour out food onto a platform opposite the viewing area and all hell breaks loose, The Orangutans are fairly well behaved but the monkeys are hilarious in their antics as they try to steal the food, both the Orangutans and the park rangers run a constant if relaxed battle to keep them away, All this activity happens only a few feet in front of the viewing area making for a spectacular show.

Lies about an hour offshore – to the north of Sandakan, its home to a turtle sanctuary. Access to the island is restricted in order to protect the turtles so booking is essential – look for the tour operators down at the floating village on the waterfront at Sandakan who will take care of the booking and transport to/from the island.

The usual trip is to head out there in the morning, spend the day relaxing on the beach, or you can hire snorkel gear to swim over the coral reef, but the coral is in very poor condition as the water is so shallow that years of tourists have stood all over it killing it off so you have to head quite far out to reach the deeper (and instantly colder) water – beware of the water currents over the deep channel if you’re not a strong swimmer and ask advice from the local staff if unsure.

An evening meal is served at the main building and the evening is spent sitting about at the main building or the accommodation blocks until the turtles arrive to lay the eggs. Visitors are prohibited from the beach area after sunset and are taken by a guide to see the turtle after the eggs are laid, as it makes its way back to sea.

The eggs are later uplifted by the island staff and moved to the hatchery near the main building – this area is heavily fenced in to defend it from predators such as birds, or from humans standing on the buried eggs. Turtles can arrive at any time during the night but it can be quite late – 3am when we were there. The accommodation on the island is basic but clean and comfortable, certainly suitable for a few days stay if you want a total escape. We were advised by the guide to be careful not to leave valuables in the rooms as they are quite remote from the main building and not the most secure but none of us had any trouble.

Located outside Sandakan we visited this memorial on route to Sepilok, we expected a plaque or cairn but got much more – although little evidence of the camp remains the area has been well cared for and includes some of the machinery used by the hundreds of prisoners who were here and forced into labour by the Japanese during World War Two.

A well cared for central exhibition building has accounts written by the prisoners, photographs of the location and a listing of the names of hundreds of British, Australian and American soldiers that were marched through the jungle, without food, water or medical supplies, eventually to their deaths shortly before Borneo was retaken by allied forces.

The memorial probably should not be visited by young children as the impact of the exhibition could be quite harrowing.

Despite the difficult surroundings in which the prisoners worked it is apparent that they still gave a show of resistance to their captors, such as the generator which was constantly sabotaged and accounts of deals struck with local villagers for food and other supplies.