20. Malaysia @ Borneo - Kinabatangan

We decided to go on a little vacation to the rain forest.

To get to our jungle lodge we had to drive for about 2 hours and 

then cross the river "Kinabatangan" to our lodge that was called Kinabatangan Adventure lodge. It was a really nice place to stay about 5 minutes boat ride from the nearest little village called Bilit. We had our own air-conditioned room (we only paid for a fan room) with private bathroom, tea and coffee facilities and a little table and chairs. Our room was one of four in the building. There was maybe six buildings all together the biggest one serving as a restaurant. It was really quiet and relaxing lodge.

Anorher lodge had much more people which made us glad that we we're not there. As it is a lot nicer to be on a river cruise when there's not too many people in boat.

Sometimes the weather was with us, but we also had rain.

We saw again a lot of Proboscis monkeys,

or nose monkeys as we call them. 

They gather in the trees before dawn to spend their night there.

We both like monkeys, but we were hoping to see orangutans.

We saw different monkeys. Different types of Macaques,

but also Silvered leaf monkeys.

We also saw many different birds like different species of Hornbills.

We saw Rhinoceros  hornbills, Oriental hornbills and Black hornbills.

We saw the White Bellied Sea eagle.

And the Stork Billed King Fisher.

W saw some Water Monitor Lizards on the ground,

and some in the trees.

On this picture we see the orangutan high way, they can use if they want to cross the river, but we did not see any orangutans.

These figs are a part of the daily menu for the monkeys and the birds of the forest. Also fruit bats like them, but they are not for humans.

More birds on top of the tree. This one is a blue throated bee-eater.

No animals in this picture. Only water.

We walked around the lodge and here is the view.

There are about 40 different species of Heliconia, which is Carina's favorite flower in the rain forest and also in the banana family. The flower is sometimes called "Lobster claws" or "Parrot flowers".

In the area were many butterflies.

It was amazing that there were that many and they were in all bright flowers.

The sunset was beautiful and peaceful.

This is a morning picture and that's why it deserves it's place in this blog. The cruise we went on in the morning was really peaceful, but we did not see as many mammals as we did in the afternoon.

We can now conclude that the rain forest and jungle are some of the places we like the most. We did not see any orangutans, but we had some really nice days on the shores and on the Kinabatangan river.

19. Malaysia @ Borneo - Sandakan + Sepilok

It is said that some of Southeast Asia's richest wildlife areas await the visitor when going to the east coast of Borneo.

So we took a bus to the city of Sandakan after a couple of days stay in Kota Kinabalu.



The bus ride to Sandakan took about 6 hours. The road to Sandakan goes near the Mount Kinabalu so it was kind of mountainous. The views would've been great if there weren't all the clouds = we could not see a thing.

When we got to Sandakan we were told that there's no bus from the bus station to the city. The bus stations are usually always a bit away from the city. With a bit of stubbornness we "knew" that there is a bus. So we walked trough a bunch of apartment buildings and found our way to the bus stop with a lot of help from very kind local people. Later in a tour office the people laughed when they heard that we made our way to the bus stop. They were glad to tell us the name of the stop so we could take a bus back to the station when we would leave Sandakan. We never needed the name because we took a taxi to the long distance bus station when we went further.

The town of Sandakan has about 200.000 inhabitants and is the second largest town in the Sabah region of Borneo.

We found quite a nice and cheap hotel called City View Hotel.

This was our view from the hotel window when we woke up the day after arriving. Sunday market....

The William Pryer Monument. William Pryer was the first British Resident in northern Borneo and the founder of Sandakan.

We had a little stop at "the English Tea House".

The Tea House.

Having a break at the Tea House.

The gate to the Puu Jih Shih Buddhist Temple,

Buddha.

The temple was of course on a hill, but the view was very nice.

The view over Sandakan. Not a very pretty city, but we both liked it.

The coastline of Sandakan. We both think it is one of the nicer places on Borneo.

We stayed in Sandakan for a few days before going further.

One of the days in Sandaken we went to Sepilok Orangutang Rehabilitation Centre.

The center was founded in year 1964 to rehabilitate orphan orangutans.

The Center cares for young orangutans orphaned as a result of illegal logging and deforestation and those who have been illegally caught and kept as pets.

At Sepilok the new arrivals are given a complete health check before starting on the long road to rehabilitating them back into the wild, which normally take up to seven years, but in some cases never is a possibility.

Baby orangutans are cared for 24 hours a day, just like a human baby and as they grow older they join their peers in the nursery.

Today about 80 orangutans live in the reserve surrounding the rehabilitation center.

Now food time. It is food time twice every day at the center. The orangutans can show up or not as they live in the wild, but a free meal is often welcome.

A mom and her one week old baby.

Today the center houses 26 orangutans in addition to those living free in the reserve.

The facility provides medical care for orphaned and confiscated orangutans.

After Sandakan our next stop was a trip to a jungle lodge just on the shore of the Kinabatangan river.

18. Malaysia @ Borneo - Labuan + Kota Kinabalu

To get back to the Malaysian side of Borneo we went by boat and bus.



We took a bus to the northern tip of Brunei, to a town called Serasa. Then we took a boat to Labuan island where we spent a night before we went by boat to the little town Menumbok and by bus to Kota Kinabalu.

This is our first ferry to Labuan. An ok good boat, but the sea was not very calm and we were happy when we after about an hour reached the Labuan island.

Labuan island is mainly known as an offshore financial center and as a tax free island.

There is not much to do as a tourists on the island beside visit the beaches.

After a lot of hotel searching we found a not very cheap hotel that stank of smoke and had a shared bathroom. It was the cheapest in town even though it was not cheap, but in the end we took it.

The weather (it was raining like it would never stop) and the hotel were not with us, so after just one night we went further.

Markus felt very bad, probably because of some cheap Indian food. At least our soon to be helper thought so. So in the morning Carina went to get  some boat tickets for the fast boat to the mainland. She was told that there would be no boat because of the bad weather. When asking about if they in the boat office new when the next boat out of Labuan would sail the answer was "probably in a few days or later".

We wanted to get out of Labuan as fast as possible.

Problems:

1: Markus was very sick and we were afraid it was the same kind of food poison he got in Bolivia some years ago.
2: The hotel sucked big time and was not cheap.
3: The weather was bad.
4: There was absolutely nothing to do on the island and ending up in the hospital on Labuan would be bad.

Carina complained to the receptionist who did not understand many words, but then a man came in to the hotel and it turned out that he was the cousin of the owner of the hotel, spoke ok good english and drove us in his car the 200 meters to the boat terminal and showed/helped Carina to buy real ferry tickets out of Labuan due 2 hours later.
Markus felt really bad, he could hardly move, but gained the spirit and strength little by little.

This is our real ferry. It looked really old and it moved really slow.

We found a spot to lay down, and after less than 20 km and a couple of hours (not a writing mistake) we could take the bus from the tiny town Menumbok to Kota Kinabalu.

From the ferry we could see the mall and the businesses and offices on Labuan. Otherwise the island is little and flat.

Our detour to Labuan island was not good in any way, but the island has the potential of becoming a really really nice place. Exactly these words have we said about many many places in Borneo.

When we came to Kota Kinabalu it still rained, but Markus was feeling much better.

Kota Kinabalu is the capital of the state of Sabah.

Sabah is Malaysia's easternmost state on the island of Borneo. Sabah is often referred to as "Land Below The Wind" a phrase used by seafarers in the past to describe lands south of the typhoon belt.

Kota Kinabalu has about 500.000 inhabitants. The city and surroundings are major fishing destinations and the city is one of the major industrial and commercial centers of East Malaysia. Further the city is the starting point for many tourists who wants to visit the Sabah region of Borneo. All the above factors makes the city of Kota Kinabalu one of the fastest growing cities in Malaysia.

We stayed a couple of days in Kota Kinabalu and did a little sightseeing, but most of the time stayed in our hotel.

The Atkinson Clock Tower is the oldest standing structure in Kota Kinabalu.

We walked to a view platform, where we had a wet view over the city.

In Bali we were so unlucky because we got our credit card identities stolen and with that about 1250 euro or 9000 dkkr. When we noticed we contacted our Australian bank and they cancelled our credit cards. Later we got all our money back and the bank send us new cards to the Finnish consulate in Kota Kinabalu. One of the days the consul came by our hotel with our new credit cards. Jubii new credit cards with money.... :)

After a few days in Kota Kinabalu we were ready to move on further on our hunt to see the orangutans.