Adventure in Sabah, Borneo, Part 1
Sabah bursts with superlatives. It’s more biodiverse, more conservation-oriented, more overflowing with fascinating plants and animals… It's mind boggling! This is the place to be to enjoy beautiful rainforests and oceans teeming with wildlife while enjoying Sabah's frontier feel - here you can have an adventure.
Sabah is part of Borneo, a region of primary and secondary rainforest stretching across the regions of Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia and Kalimantan in Indonesia. The rainforest in many areas has been taken over by palm oil plantations which threaten Borneo's unique ecosystem.
Conservation agencies in Borneo and international organisations like the World Wildlife Fund are working to preserve this precious region and its beautiful wildlife, which includes endemic species such as proboscis monkeys that are only found in Borneo, and species threatened worldwide such as orangutans and Asian elephants.
In our three weeks there, we saw a huge range of gorgeous landscapes and beautiful birds and animals, so we're dividing our trip into two parts.
Part 1 (this video) covers:
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Mt Kinabulu National Park
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Sepilok orangutan sanctuary
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night walk in Sepilok
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proboscis monkey sanctuary
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Lankayan Island and turtle sanctuary.
Getting there and around
Kota Kinabulu (KK) is Sabah's capital. It's a quiet place: the population is predominantly Muslim and people are friendly. This place is where you can book trips to wherever in Sabah you want to go if you haven't prebooked online.
Singapore and Kuala Lumpa offer the most flights to KK, a roughly 2-hour ride from both cities.
We hired a car to get around. There is patchy signage so we would advise taking or hiring a GPS. Roads are potholed and local people are careful and cautious drivers, meaning travel times are slow but accidents are not frequent.
Trips to Mt Kinabulu National Park (2 hours drive from KK) can be arranged in KK.
Sandakan is the dropping off point for the other destinations in this video. There are frequent buses from KK to Sandakan. Transport can be arranged to Sepilok. There is accommodation in Sepilok to suit all budgets, most spaced out along the main road to the attractions. Once you're there, everything is within walking distance, i.e. the orangutan sanctuary, the sun bear sanctuary (which sadly we did not see) and the rainforest discovery centre. Many guesthouses offer night walks which we highly recommend despite leech attacks :) If you are not staying somewhere which provides a night walk, you can book at other places to do theirs.
The proboscis monkey sanctuary is about an hour's drive from Sepilok. Most accommodation offers trips if you don't have a car. It's a terrific place and worth seeing.
Lankayan Island is easy to get to. Just meander down to Sandakan Yacht Club and jump in your boat. You must have booked on the island before they'll take you. The boat takes about 2 hours to get to this paradise.
What to see
Mt Kinabulu National Park
http://sabahtourism.com/destination/kinabalu-park
Mt Kinabulu National Park is a joy for people who prefer cooler weather and alpine vegetation. If you really want to, you can climb the 4,100-metre-high Mt Kinabulu but you need to prebook and it will be crowded. At times, apparently, there are queues!
We walked the lower trails, of which there are several, ranging from a few hundred metres to around 7 kilometres and saw heaps of birds, squirrels and butterflies, as well as gorgeous trees, shrubs and flowering plants.
We stayed in accommodation in the national park, meaning we were there at dawn before visitors arrived and there after they left. There are a couple of cafes where you can eat meals so you will not starve and it is wonderful having this alpine national park to yourself, especially at dawn and in the late afternoon when the birds parade.
Accommodation and food in the park are more expensive than outside the park, but we thought it was worth it.
Sepilok orangutan sanctuary
http://www.sabahtourism.com/destination/sepilok-orangutan-rehabilitation-centre
Sepilok is a fantastic place, harbouring a large amount of secondary rainforest with a diverse ecosystem of plants, birds and animals. Most lodges are down the main road which means you are within walking distance of the orangutan sanctuary, the sun bear sanctuary and the rainforest discovery centre.
You need to buy tickets for the orangutan sanctuary which is only open at feeding times. These are twice a day. You can get there early and watch the primates, along with their fellow apes, pig-tailed macaques, vie for food. Food is put out by the keepers at feeding times but much of it gets stolen by the macaques so the orangutans are encouraged to forage for themselves when they can.
The young are kept in a nursery reserve and cared for by humans until they are stable enough to be placed with an adult orangutan who will teach them the skills they need to survive in the wild. The aim is to rehabilitate all primates rescued from the pet trade, though this can take up to 7 years. In the meantime, the sanctuary monitors their health and their physical and mental wellbeing.
Sepilok night walk
Night walks are amazing as there are so many nocturnal mammals, reptiles and birds. The downside are the leeches – cover up, wear a hat and don any wellington boots (wellies/gum boots) provided by your lodge.
The wildlife is astounding. On our night walk, we saw:
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common palm civet
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lesser mouse deer
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slow loris
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collared scops owl
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frogs
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sleeping birds, including hornbills
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many wriggling leeches.
Despite the leech attack highlighted in ‘Storytime’ in the video, the night walk was one of the highlights of our trip.
Proboscis monkey sanctuary
http://www.sabahtourism.com/destination/labuk-bay-proboscis-monkey-sanctuary
The proboscis monkey sanctuary is a beautiful stretch of private property designed to produce the best possible habitat for one of Borneo's endemic and most endangered species. These comical-looking primates are evolved to exist in a moist rainforest climate, and have webbed hands and feet so they are good swimmers and can avoid crocodiles, their main predators.
There are two main viewing areas where you can see the monkeys playing, grooming each other and eating, and four feeding times when more of them are about but they are always around the sanctuary Walking between the areas is pleasant as there is a lot of shade and you can see other animals like sunbirds, mudskippers, hornbills and large lizards. At certain times of year there are friendly grey-leaf monkeys about too.
The local staff are enthusiastic, helpful and know everything there is to know about this enigmatic primate.
There are kiosks in the viewing areas where you can buy drinks and snacks. It's a fun day out.
Lankayan Island
http://www.sabahtourism.com/destination/lankayan-island
This modern-day paradise is a two-hour boat ride from Sandakan and a millenium away from the rat race. There are 16 chalets and 9 hotel rooms and you need to prebook before you can board the boat.
For a tiny island, there is so much to do. There are diving packages with access to wrecks, coral reefs and the like, and cheaper non-diving packages. Included in both packages are:
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your accommodation and three meals a day
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snorkelling and swimming off the beach with turtles between March and September
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for a small fee, getting a boat to a good snorkelling site where you can see parrot fish, wrasse and other tropical fish
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kayaking (for a small fee)
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access to the turtle sanctuary.
Lankayan Island is a turtle sanctuary where green and hawksbill turtles regularly visit to lay their eggs on the beach. As tourists, we're allowed to view weary females digging a hole and laying their eggs in it which volunteers scoop up and place in a hatchery. The females don't notice as they don't look back. It seems mean but more baby turtles survive this way.
Once they've laid their eggs, the females make their tired way back to the sea for some well-deserved rest and relaxation.
We also witnessed baby green turtles hatching and being released on the beach. They have to be able to run down the beach to the sea so they can imprint the location in their brains and return to lay their own eggs as adults if they're female. It is so inspiring seeing baby turtles begin their (hopefully) long and satisfying lives.
Why go?
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Where else will you see such a huge range of remarkable wildlife in such a small area?
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Whatever your tastes, you will find something you like to do whether it be lazing on a beach watching the ocean, walking, wildlife spotting, bird watching, snorkelling, diving... the list goes on.
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Certain places such as Lankayan Island restrict the number of tourists allowed at any one time so you can avoid crowds and noise and be at one with nature.
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Sabah is very reasonably priced and there is accommodation and food options to suit all budgets
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It will blow you away.
Do you have questions or comments about this article? Email maddestinations@gmail.com or leave a comment under the video.
