Sabah and Sarawack, Borneo

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I arrived in the small capital of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah mid morning from KL. My plan being to head directly for the Information Center to book a place to climb Mt Kinabalu. I had been informed by other travelers that it was often fully booked (mostly by Malay rather than travelers much to  my surprise). This I found to be the case, so that meant I had a couple of days wait.

Once I had finally booked accommodation on the mountain I could relax and walked the short distance to Borneo Backpackers which was a little back from the sea front and quite. I spent a day here and went for meals at the Phillippino market in the evening which was very cheap (about 2 Ringet for a meal and coffee), thats about 25p, plus you get loads of food, rice and vegetables etc.

So after a couple of days I managed with 2 others to get a long distance taxi (for the same price as the bus) to Kinabalu, The information centra had booked me into one of the lodges at the foot of the mountain. So I had 1 day to wait before I could climb, that was until I found a cancelation which meant I could climb the following day which saves valuable time.

At 4095m Mt Kinabalu is the highest mountain in Asia. You cant miss it, even flying into KL it towers above all else around it and is clearly visible from 85klm away. Our taxi driver stopped on route so that we could take some pictures as we approached, luckily it was clear visibility.

An early start the next morning as you have to be at the information centre for 7.30am so that you get a guide, although you don't actually need a guide its compulsory and costs 70 Ringet, they do little except follow you up the trail. We started the 4 hour climb to the the overnight lodges at 8.45 and arrived early afternoon, the rain managed to hold off except for the last 45 minutes which was not too bad. Once in the cafe at the lodge it rained hard for the rest of the afternoon. Needless to say I was more than pleased to be in the nice dry cafe drinking coffee and looking out the window at heavy tropical monsoon rain as this is still the wet season, shame as its a great view out over the valley.

After a meal with a small group of europeans we made for a reasonably early night as we shall all be up at 2.00am for the 2.30am start for the 2.5 hour climb to the summit. I am glad to say that its clear and with a full moon, so a procession of head torches makes its way slowly to the top of the tree line emerging onto open granite rock. The entire summit area is flat / sloping granite, and there are ropes to help pull yourself up the steeper sections, although in reality they are not that steep once you see them in daylight.

I arrived at the summit around 5.15am and waited till around 6am for the sun to rise over the south China sea. You can see a long way from this altitude, infact about half of Sabah and as far as Indonesia. After lots of photo's it was time to start the decent to the overnight lodges for a coffee and quick breakfast around 8am before the 2.5 hour decent to the information centre. By the time you reach the bottom you are more than glad to see the control gates as 8.75 klm of descent takes its toll, as do hundreds of steps. But its well worth it for the spectacular views from the summit and the huge area of granite which is quite unusual.

I arrived back at the info centre around 12 noon, and having decided to head for Uncle Tan's I caught a bus at 12.30pm for Sandakan which is about 5 hours to the south west. Arriving at 7pm at a hotel (that was all I could find at this time of night) it was DEFINATELY time for a shower, a quick meal and then some much needed sleep having been on the go for 17 hours plus.

I awoke the next morning feeling much refreshed and caught a bus to Gum Gum Village which is where Uncle Tan's is based. What is Uncle Tan's, well Uncle Tan (who has since passed on) runs 3 day wildlife trips in the Jungle based at a camp. The camp itself is 1 hour by road followed by a 3 hour boat ride up the river ?, the camp consists of lodges and accommodation (well organised but basic, in a fantastic setting surrounded by Mangrove's and pristine jungle and water, as their has been so much rain water in the lagoon is high which enables the boats to get to the camp. En route here we spotted lots of Proboscis Monkey as well as long tail Macacks, and Hornbills, Eagles and brightly coloured Kingfisher.

Over the next few days we are taken out by Lan and his guides on separate\ boat trips and jungle walks, boats trips are very early morning (6.30) for an hour before breakfast and late afternoon with a afternoon jungle walk and a night walk, both about 1-2.5 hours, this then gives the best chance of seeing as much varied wildlife as possible. Proboscis monkey and other species tend to feed close to the river early in the morning and late afternoon when its cooler. This also gives us the chance to have a rest (and swim) in the hottest part of the day.

But this place is not just about Monkeys, most people come to see one species in the wild, Orangutan, I am very glad to say that I was lucky and we found a female and another with her baby very close to the water on 2 separate occasions, quite an experience, and fascinating to watch as they are only 15 or 20 feet away in the trees.

The night walk revealed all sorts of things, many species of frog, and a huge Trianchular spider (to name but a few things), a new species only recently discovered so that was a real surprise.

So over 3 days we where well fed and looked after, definitely a worthwhile thing to do, and for 280 ringet very good value for money.

After returning to Uncle Tan's accommodation for one night I caught the 8.30 bus for the 6 hour roller coaster ride to Samporna. You go here for one reason only, to dive. Its a dirty, rough and very poor town on the south coast od Sabah, but its home to one of the best dive sites in the world, the island Sipadan (which also happens to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site as well).

I had booked a PADI open water course at Scuba Junkie in KK. So I duly arrived to be met off the bus by one of the guys from Scuba Junkie and found that they had booked me into their own backpackers, all very friendly and convenient and right on the water front.

All I had to do know was go in and make myself known and mike (one of the dive masters) signed me in for the 3 day course and promptly gave me the book and I was sent off to read the first 2 chapters and would start the practical side of things at 11am the next morning, so that took care of the rest of the day.

I found that I would be with 2 Dutch girls for the next 3 days as they where on the same course. The next morning after watching the 2 video's and having been through 2 chapters of the book we headed out to Sibuan to commence our enclosed water dives.

The PADI Open Water Course consists of 5 dives plus a short exam and some other theory test's over the 3 days. It was quite strange the first time. breathing under water through a regulator takes a bit of getting used too, and their is a lot to learn about scuba gear, remembering to breath at all times and never hold your breath, plus you have to complete numerous skills test's as part of the course.

At the same time I did some fun dives as you normally do 3 dives per day with a break of at least an hour between each dive for safety reasons.

Having completed 2 days I decided to follow up the Open Water with the Advanced course which is a further 2 days ( 5 dives, which include a deep dive to 30m, and a navigation dive, both of which are compulsory, plus 3 other dives of your own choice, but no written test).

Its truly fascinating to see so much marine life, fish and inverts, all very beautiful, you never know exactly what you will see which makes it all the more enjoyable and interesting. Its also good to be able to dive in water thats constantly about 28 degrees.

So after 5 dives I got my Open Water and followed on with the advanced over a further 3 days, which included diving at the island of Sipadan ( this small island is now only inhabited by soldiers following a kidnapping of a number of tourists some years ago by the Philippine pirates), this truly incredible reef some 1.5 hours from Samporna by boat is very addictive . The edge of the reef is a near vertical wall that descends some 600m down into the depths, here you see huge turtle, black tip reef shark, Moray eels and Barracuda, large shoals of Jacks and so many beautiful Marine fish and inverts, its truly a garden of Eden. And the water is crystal clear which makes for wonderful photography. Its not hard to see why divers come here form the world over.

I completed 15 dives over 8 days (including a night dive) and gained my PADI Advanced Scuba Diver, altogether a great end to  my time in Sabah. From here I flew from Tawau to Kuching in Sawarack, north western Borneo.

Its quite a change arriving in the fairly affluent Kuching from the very impoverished Samporna, and rather upmarket to be in a Boutique Backpackers with nice hot showers all the time and power and water that does not suddenly just go off for unexplainable reasons. I had just a few days and planned to visit an Iban Longhouse to stay with a local family, this I am very pleased to say I managed to do with a little help from the tourist information centre. 

They privately arrange for you to visit for 2 nights and approx 3 days, and much cheaper than the agents too.

The Iban family longhouse I visited is located on the ? river some 4/5 hours by road (it takes this long as the roads are so bad in Sarawack) and 1.5 hours by dugout longboat from Kuching, so it takes the best part of half a day to get their with an early start.

Its a small group of 7 (a uk family of 5, plus myself and a French chap) that meets at the river after the drive from Kuching. We are met by our guide, who is also a family member form the Longhouse and will be our host over the next few days. After about 1.5 hours in a long and rather tippy long canoe / dugout having successfully negotiated lots of shallow rapids we arrived late afternoon. Quite a place, a huge long building about 200ft long dominates, with lots of small buildings where each family keeps pigs, chickens etc. Each family also has a pond with fish in (to eat not as pets), this is a very practical way of life here and things are very basic.

The house divides into 2 along the middle length wise, one one side its open plan for handicrafts etc, the other is divided into rooms for each family more or less, our host has a room next to the head of the longhouse (who is now almost 80). Most are out when we arrive working collecting pepper seed, rice, or sometimes rubber from the 9000 (or so) trees that they have planted. Each family received 450 trees from the government and their are 21 families here.

In the evening we are formally welcomed to the Lomghouse with a traditional dance and we all presented gifts to the head of the longhouse which are then shared out amongst all.

We are given an excellent meal too, rice and vegetables, rice wine etc, so we all slept well out in the main area of the longhouse as this was the only space for 7.

Next day we where taken on a jungle walk and did lots of swimming in the river to cool off, plus we where treated to lunch cooked in the jungle which was an interesting experience to see it all cooked by traditional methods, like boiling water for coffee in bamboo tubes over an open fire, and rice cooked in banana leaves etc.

That evening all the residents of the longhouse provided us with a handicraft market, quite amazing to see what they make, I bought just a few small things, very cheap and easy to carry. I had watched elders of the longhouse making baskets ,mats etc over the last couple of days so it was good to see what they look like finished.

They following day we departed once more for the boar ride back down river which proved rather interesting as we struck a rock and put a hole in the boat that had to be fixed before we could continue, anyway we got back ok, a little wet as this was a smaller boat and rather tippy. I arrived back in Kuching late afternoon having really enjoyed my visit and cultural experience.

My last day in Borneo dawned and I departed the hotel for the Rainforest World Music Festival at the cultural village about 45 mins from Kuching. This is an annual event which just happens to coincide with my visit here. So I spent the day watching workshops by a columbian duo all about latin American music and also about wind instruments. In the evening I watched (along with about 3-4000 people) the open air concert with different folk bands performing, this included Mongolia which was truly incredible, Austria, local bands from Sarawack, and also Latin America and Plum Ferries from Scotland.

So I had a great time arriving back at midnight I departed Borneo the next day arriving in Bangkok late that evening.