Borneo

Borneo is one of those countries that you have heard of, but know nothing about, well it was for me. On arrival you could tell you’d left Indonesia (even though most of Borneo is Indonesian territory), there was instantly a more western presence, the usual Mc Donald’s and Starbucks lighting up the night sky. 

We headed for the city of Kota Kinabalu as it was nighttime when we arrived and this was only a 30 min taxi ride. It was 10:30pm by the time we dumped our stuff at the hotel, but we managed to be in a bar, ‘The Rasta Room’, by 11 in time for a few beers before bed.

The next day wasn’t a good one. It was hot and we wandered around the city trying to find out how we could get on a tour or find a way to see the sights, it didn’t help that it was Sunday as well so places weren’t open. This proved really difficult and resulted in cross words and frayed nerves (life isn’t all instagram moments you know 😂). So we went to bed with no room booked for the next night and no plan how to get around the island.

The following day we decided that getting back on the road on a bike would be the best way forward. We found a great little hire place and there were a couple of German guys at the store just returning from their tour and that made us feel a little safer (not recently but kidnapping tourists has been an issue in Borneo), so we were off, 2 weeks to explore.

The roads in Borneo are not good and that’s being polite. There are massive pot holes everywhere and roads that sink without warning, resulting in you being bounced up and down.

But we headed off towards ‘The tip of Borneo’, which is what it says on the tin! A peninsula on the most northerly point of the country. This was a long journey, about 100 miles which doesn’t sound a lot but we could only travel at about an average speed of 25-30 miles an hour due to the road conditions. It didn’t help that the rains have started, so with about another 40 miles left the heavens opened and we had to continue in a full on tropical rainstorm for the last leg.

For our accommodation for the night Richard had found a ‘Natural retreat where the owner is passionate about the jungle’.

Now when I ever hear passionate in a review I always assume it’s a dump, and wasn’t wrong this time. We were completely soaked from head to toe, the chap was very nice but the whole place was in decay, we were booked into what looked like a store cupboard with only room for a mattress and about 4 ft triangular head room, and it looked filthy.

So I had to go and have that awkward conversation to the owner, that did he have an alternative, which he did, a hut that was equally miserable but at least it had some covered outdoor space and you could stand up. I’m so glad we had managed to get a bottle of wine. Everything feels better with wine!

The next day at least the sun was out and we headed the 90 miles back down to the main highway that would take us over to the East coast. The main road was mainly single highway and very busy with trucks shipping produce and fuel across the country.

However, it eventually wound up into the hills revealing some stunning views across the valleys.

There isn’t too much as you make your way East a few small towns with not a lot to see. Although we did see a sign to look at a Rafflesia Keithii, which is a flower that has the largest bloom in the world. I always expect these things to be bigger than they are, but it was very surreal.

Our next destination was a little jungle lodge that I’d found, but hadn’t realised it was a 128 mile journey to get there. As the rainy season has started the weather is very changeable and that day it was blazing sunshine and very hot. But we set off on a journey that was to take us about 7 hours (resulting in very numb bums from the bike and sunburnt arms and legs).

We started off as usual trying to find breakfast on the road from one of the many roadside stores, today’s treat was steamed chicken buns.

We made all the 128 miles without too much issue, until the last 5 meters to the accommodation. To gain access there was a really steep driveway which we started to head up, as it got steeper the bike stalled and the brakes would not hold us and we began to slide backwards down the driveway, getting faster and faster, until it skidded sideways throwing us both off, with Richard falling down the hill and the bike landing on top of me. Luckily I only suffered bruising and some gravel grazes on my back, but Richard wasn’t so lucky with some nasty cuts.

This did kind of put a dampening on the mood (we’d chosen this place as it was our 24th anniversary), but it could have been a lot worse.

The cabin though was great, and we had a direct view of the jungle from the bed.

I even had a snake come and visit me in the shower!

One of the main reasons for visiting Borneo was to see the orangutans. Unfortunately due to deforestation to make way for palm oil plantations (we saw thousands of acres of these lining the landscape right across the countryside), the only real place to see them was at a rehabilitation centre, where they roam in a large jungle area that does have a perimeter fence.

The centre does have a good record of releasing them back to the wild, and it was great to see them roaming free and not in some small enclosure.

The only way to see them was when food was placed in a platform in the jungle. It wasn’t guaranteed that you would see any as the food laid down was purposely bland to encourage them to forage in the jungle.

However, we were lucky and a couple showed up with their young clinging on as they swung in.

So mission accomplished!

The accident had left us a little nervous about the journey ahead as the roads were reported to be even worse along the route we had originally planned (although not sure how that could be possible), so we decided to head back on the road we had come as this would knock about 300 miles off our route back to the city, and we had passed through a mountain village that looked lovely so we decided to stop there for a couple of days to explore.

So our time in Borneo is coming to an end, we have been incredibly planned (for us) and have booked flights from here to Sumatra, then onto Singapore for a few days (someone said the Xmas lights in the city were really amazing so we thought why not), then down to Sydney for Xmas and New Year, then finally onto Hong Kong… then, who knows.

We’ve been away for just over a month now and I can’t believe how much we have packed in so far!

PS

Richard says I have to add this, a dead snake at the side of the road!