Borneo - welcome to the j u n g l e
went to Borneo for 2 reasons:1. orangutans2. survivor season 1
this was a total ppp spontaneous addition that cost me way too much but like i just couldn’t think of any other logical way to follow up gorillas in Uganda.
Borneo is 26% Malaysia, 73% Indonesia, and 1% Brunei. i went to the Malaysian part to a little town called Sandakan, which is about 30 mins from the orangutan samctuary called Sepilok. it was a reminder of Rwanda because everyone stared at me or yelled “hello” because i was white. stayed at Sandakan Backpackers and booked my tours through them - Borneo is all about the excursions. it really is a jungle out there, and i only scratched the surface!!!people were overall friendly (like my lil uber driver named Ming) but i was a wee bit creeped out with all the stares :|
- met Rina for delish pizza and drinks on a rooftop restaurant above Nak Hotel and good life chats- River Jungle cruise at Kinagatangan River - was cool because you stay overnight in the jungle. the cruise felt a lil like a safari but we didnt see any elephants (they actually have pygmy elephants there) and it was so hard to see the animals in the trees. did a night walk with lots of weird creatures like a bird-deer and raccoon-cat, lots of colourful sleeping birds that made me feel like i was in a Planet Earth episode. leeches that stuck to our guide’s neck and came into our room with my roomie. this is my life lol. i didn’t even know about leeches before, except i think in one book if a Series of Unfortunate Events. ppp has pushed me out if my comfort zone in ways i didn’t even know were possible. went on 2 cruises and saw an orangutan and its baby, lots of monkeys including Proboscis monkeys with the big nose, a croc hidden in the water. lots of tropical birds, a snake, lizards.
- Sepilok orangutan sanctuary - was SUPER cool to see the orangutans cause they are hilarious and like where else would i see them. they’re only in Borneo and Sumatra. but i was hoping for an experience more like the gorilla trek, while this was more like a zoo - watching them play in the nursery through glass, and none showed up for the feeding lol. (there’s a feeding at 10am and 3pm). but anyway they are so goofy and just hang and swing and eat. one did like 8 somersaults to get across the lawn lololol. they seem like a fun time, i wish more humans were like them.
- Turtle Island - 1 hr boat with Aussie Ben and a fam from Barcelona and from Denmark. great meals, hung out at the perfect picturesque beach all day, pretended i was on the same beach where Richard Hatch won the title of the FIRST SOLE SURVIVOR. we waited after dinner for our little guide to come out yelling TURTLE TIME! which meant a turtle had come onto the beach. was around 9:30 pm for us. we watched her lay 82 eggs (felt weirdly intrusive but kinda amazing to watch), then the ranger buried the eggs in the fenced area to keep them safe from the giant lizards. then we let 152 little newly hatched baby turtles run into the sea. only 1-2% survive because or predators, current, etc and i almost cried i was rooting for those little guys so hard. i like to think our group had a higher success rate than 1-2%.
Borneo is off the beaten path, and basically every animal i saw was one that i have never seen before or even heard of. not exaggerating. if you’re looking for a real adventure in southeast asia, this is it. didn’t quite fit in my “play” theme (didn’t make friends really, didn’t dance) but definitely was something i needed to do! yolo!