Borneo: Sepilok & The Kinabatangan River 5-11Mar 12

I flew with Air Asia again to Sandakan, about a 40min flight from KK. I’m starting to dig Air Asia, the pilots seem to handle the turbulence and landings nicely. It was hot and raining when I got there, big heavy train drops and apparently it had been raining for days. Everything was steamy and luminous green. The airport is neat and well run; to get a taxi you go to a counter and tell them where you’re going, pay for the ride and then take the ticket to a taxi. The cost was MYR 30 which is what the guidebook said, it's nice how organised and non scam-y Malaysia is, no touts or people yelling at you for cheap rides and hotels. The airport was in a much cleaner, prettier and more rural surrounding than KK. I was happy to get out of the town and get somewhere rural and jungly.

My driver was an old jolly retired man, who rattled away at me in English and didn’t wait for my replies to his comments, I think he just liked being able to practice English on someone. He boasted happily about how many tourists are surprised how well he knows the language, and that all the other taxi drivers came to him if they needed translation. He was surprised to find that I was alone like everyone is, but then he said ‘don’t worry, you can meet your orangutan friends tomorrow’. Hehe. He swooshed through the wet and potholed streets through some villages and then turned off the Sepilok roundabout (which had a big wooden sign with an orangutan on it) and into well kempt road leading to the Rainforest Discovery Centre. On this road was Sepilok B&B, and we pulled into the wet gravel driveway up to the reception house. The taxi driver was chattering away to the very last, and made sure the receptionist saw me and waved enthusiastically as he drove away. I really like Malaysians!

Sepilok B&B is in a beautiful location, practically backing onto the jungle. It’s got some longhouses and cabins dotted around the property and can take quite a few people, but it was ghostly quiet when I got there at about 3pm. The rain was coming down persistently as I went to the reception area, which has a deck that acts as the internet, restaurant and common area. They said that the dorms weren’t open because of a water supply issue, so they tried to charge me MYR 68 for a room with three beds instead of the MYR 28 for a bed in the dorm which was quite cheeky, but I got them down to MYR 48 in the end. They put me in a house a short walk away from the reception area, and it was completely empty and quiet. I squished down there with my bags, it was great to have a whole room to myself. It was a really nice room, clean with comfy beds and the bathroom right next door, so it was almost a luxurious amount of space. I went out for walk in the rain to the tiny shop down the road, which was seriously local and I got very much stared at when I went in. I was starving and bought a bag of chocolate chip cookies and some water, and some natural mosquito repellent because I realised that I was now in the middle of the jungle and didn’t have any yet. No deet here though, wherever you look only natural repellent. So if you’re planning a trip buy deet at home. I walked back down the luscious green road back to the B&B, and still not a soul in sight so I went back to my room and watched a movie. Actually it was a lovely peaceful moment to relax so I relished it. When dinner time came I squished to the reception area with my laptop and ordered some spaghetti. There was one other group there now, some British people who were loudly talking about nothing interesting and two French girls who ignored everyone so I just entertained myself with internet and movies until I realised that I was the only one there in a pool of light amidst a dark jungle and very loud insects and frogs shouting at me to go to bed. It was great walking back in the mud and pitch dark to my own little house, where a family of white squawking geckos was waiting for me in my room.

The next morning the sun shone, and I took a walk about two hundred metres down the road to the Rainforest Discovery Centre. It has some high up canopy walkways, some short forest walks and a cultivated garden with beautiful flowers and indigenous plants and also some 5km walks if you fancy sweating your guts out for a longer walk. There was hardly anyone there, so I had a great couple of hours wandering around and looking at all the Latin names of plants and checking the jungle insects out in near solitude. You just can’t believe how things grow here... the lushness, heat and moisture overtake you, so you feel like you could almost start sprouting some plants and vines of your own out your head. Masses of big juicy plants, trees, moss covering anything and everything. 

I thought that one night in the eery jungle Sepilok B&B was enough, so I called up somewhere that was recommended to me by a friend to see if they could pick me up, as they were only down the road. They could, and they did! Just after lunch I arrived at PaganakanDii, one of the nicest places to stay in all of Sabah for sure. It seems almost like a holiday camp when you drive into the gates, with small houses surrounding a couple of lakes with wooden walkways and huts assembled across the water for fishing and picnicking. The car winds you through some gravel roads and thick bushes, and up a really steep slope and there you find yourself amongst some very picturesque wooden log cabins and longhouses. They have a main building with an open deck with bean bags for relaxing and then a restaurant on the deck below, where the food and fresh juices (watermelon juice? YUM) are all delicious and really cheap. Something that I noticed the backpacker places doing in Sabah is to have somewhere you can eat on the premises, there isn’t anywhere nearby to buy food and it makes sense because they almost make more money off the food and drinks than the rooms, which are a total steal at MYR 30 a night. The place was also eerily empty, the guy there said everyone was at the Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, which is the thing to do around here and I’m sure keeps quite a few people in business. But it was beautiful and so relaxing, I had a whole longhouse all to myself! It must have had around 14 beds, with a balcony that faced right out into the jungly-ness and everything was hot, loud with insects and perfect. They had a platform outside that you could sit and gaze out onto more of that jungle. After a nice snooze and shower (really nice facilities at this place, warm private showers and super clean) I went to the main house and got myself some fresh icy watermelon juice and found that some people had arrived at last. There was cute couple from Scotland, and an Australian girl Susie and we spent the night nattering away and eating yum food. They put everything on a tab which is wise so you have no idea how much you’ve ordered until you get your bill at the end. But they are all so nice and friendly I didn't mind.

The next day we all went to the famous Orangutan centre and it seemed pretty packed at 9am which surprised me... where were all these people staying? They piled us into a dark room to watch a video about the centre but I snuck out and made my way into the feeding area so I could catch a glimpse of them first before anyone. There was a wooden walkway and then a huge platform for people, facing into the forest where there was some trees with tree houses and ropes for the jungle people. I got what I hoped for, a first glimpse in solitude of a mommy orangutan with her baby clutching on. They are so human-like, beautiful intelligent creatures who have 96% the same DNA of humans. I watched them in awe for a bit and then the crowds came to watch the feeding at 10am. Another Orangutan came swinging on the ropes to the platform, and I thought of this ‘I want to be like you’ scene in the Jungle Book with King Louis. I hung out at the centre until the second feeding at 3pm, where some macaques joined the party. All in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable day and I’m so happy the centre is there. they are doing something good things in saving these creatures and fighting to conserve their environment from the palm oil plantations sweeping Borneo.

The next day I was to leave Paganakan Dii and head into the jungle with Uncle Tan’s adventures, which has a camp set up in the jungle somewhere along the Kinabatangan River. I got taken to Uncle Tan’s, also just down the road and got signed up and had some free lunch. (If you do a tour with them or stay they give you three free meals a day, tasty Malaysian food) There were about 14 of us going on the trip, and they squished us all into a rickety combi van and drove off in full speed along the bumpy road to the river location, two hours away. It was a sticky, hair raising ride with only a two lane road, so trucks cars and all sorts overtaking at full speed and hitting potholes with full force. I spent most of it chatting to Shawn, a guy from America who was travelling in these parts on his home from teaching English in Taiwan. The landscape was extremely lush and rural, it reminded me of driving through the Transkei in South Africa, although people seem to have much newer, better cars here like big 4x4’s, must be because they’re cheaper here. Petrol is also insanely cheap.

There were miles of palm oil plantations, and still plants and vines crawling over and bursting out of everything. We arrived in a tiny village where out boats were waiting for us. Seven people to a boat, just big enough to carry us. We had to wear stupid orange life jackets though which I hated, besides being hot it made us stand out like sore thumbs as tourists.

The Kinabatangan River is big and brown with mud. There was recently a viscous flood here so the banks were extra brown and muddy. We made our way down the river away from the village, until all the huts and signs of people disappeared. I think it took about forty minutes to reach the camp, which you could only make out by some boats moored up to some wooden stairs. We were told, or warned should I say, that the facilities would be very basic. Sleeping in a door-less hut, non flushed toilets and no electricity. They warned us so many times not to expect a five star hotel that we I wanted to make a game out of every time they mentioned five star. But when we got there, it was way more sophisticated than they gave themselves credit for. There was a main wooden restaurant deck area, another area for the jungle trekking briefing, nice wooden houses with mattresses and mosquito nets, and proper toilets that you only had to pour a bucket of water into the flush. There were wooden walkways between everything, and they had even cleared and smoothed out a small football pitch and badminton area.  The huts were amongst huge trees that was now in a swamp, probably from the major floods. There were macaques squealing and playing in the trees as evening drew in, and tons of loud crazy jungle insects. When I told my travel doctor that I wasn’t going to take anti malarials, she said as long as I don’t sleep naked in a swamp in Borneo I’d be fine. Well, I wouldn’t be naked. Haha. We had a briefing and then they made us some awesome dinner, flamed up by the manager and head chef. I forget his name but he gave me a ‘sunshine smile’ for this pic. There were only guys working there, all young Malaysians. They really, really reminded me of the Red Indian’s who turned into wolves from the movie Twilight, all fit and energetic and jossteling eachother and playing contact sports exactly as a pack of wolves might play together. They busted out some guitars and tambourines after dinner and entertained us with some classic rock and pop Malaysian style. That night we had our first night river ride, to see what come out at night by the Kinabatangan. It was great to be floating down this river in the middle of Borneo and hearing the sounds of the jungle at night. 

The next morning we woke up at 6am for the early morning river boat ride, and the river was all misty until the sun came up and burnt it all away, and we could look into the trees. We saw some wild orangutans (AMAZING to see these jungle people wild in their own habitat, swinging through the branches and looking at us as we floated by), gibbon monkeys and macaques monkeys. Other animals we saw on the trip were huge crocodiles, eagles, birds, proboscis monkeys, otters, snakes. Not in huge abundance, besides the monkeys who were everywhere, but definitely a really lovely wildlife experience. I’d say that sleeping out in those cabins in the jungle and taking some walks into it from the river banks was great in itself. Also the Uncle Tan guys working there and making us awesome food made it (one evening giving us a cooking lesson, the chef said he had been preparing food for that night for 5 hours that day). All Malaysian or Asian inspired food, very spicy and lots of protein and strange vegetables. There were some nice people staying there too. A group of Swedes, a friendly Spanish couple and a huge, strange family of German giants – Dad, mom and son of around 30. Also my buddy Shawn who I laughed with a lot, making up stories about the people there and about how we would scare the wits out of them by dressing up in a orangutan suit and hiding in the jungle and then jumping out at them.

We stayed there three days and two nights. It cost MYR 430 and I’d recommend it, there are also other guys doing it but I think that Uncle Tan’s has been around the longest. Thanks to my friend Ben for recommending some good stuff in Sepilok! We decided to go back to Paganakan Dii for one more night that Saturday night to regroup, have a shower and chill out before catching the six hour bus to KK the next day. There were hardly any people there again so really quiet, except for a set of couples so felt a bit like a honeymoon hotel that evening, but don’t let that put you off the place.

Both of us had around three days left in Borneo and didn't want to spend it in KK, and it wasn't long enough to check out some of the famous diving areas further South. So I searched for somewhere secluded with some nice beaches but I couldn't find anywhere online that didn't seem overun with tourists, but then at Uncle Tan's back at Sepilok someone had left a window open after they had used the internet, a place in Kudat. It looked secluded, out the way with beaches and some huts. Perfect, to Kudat we go!

Here are the pics.