Borneo

When I told friends I was going to Borneo they invariably had two questions:

Where?

Why?

Where is part of the Malay Achipelago in Southeast Asia, Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is part of Indonesia.

Why is for the wildlife.  And the mountain, more to come on that.

The Borneo rainforest is one of the oldest in the world and one of the largest of the fast-disappearing rainforests in Southeast Asia.  Due to its island isolation many unique endemic species have evolved. The country is perhaps most famous for the endangered Bornean orangutan.  Add in pygmy elephants, clouded leopards, fruit bats, monkeys, crocodiles and birds, birds, birds.  A wildlife lover's (me) paradise. I really wanted to spot an orangutan but I tamped down my expectations.  I knew that they are an endangered species and I figured we would have to trek deep into the jungle to hope to catch a fleeting glimpse of one.  As for pygmy elephants, I crossed that off the list, so rare as to be almost impossible to see.  But still I held out hope to see Borneo's big five:  orangutan, pygmy elephant, crocodile, proboscis monkey and rhinocerus hornbill, a large bird with an eponymous beak.




Summit view

But before we embarked on our wildlife trek we made our way to Mt. Kinabalu.  The mountain is the highest mountain in Malaysia and we wanted to bag it while we were in country.  At 13,435 feet it is not tall but it is a strenuous climb over steep boulder fields and loose scree.  the upper reaches, on summit day, are often over slick rock in uncertain weather. This is a non-technical climb so no specialized experience is needed, just strong legs, good lungs and perseverance. Only 185 permits are granted each day and it takes two days to summit.  After an overnight at the lodge in Kinabalu National Park at the mountain base we awoke early and prepped for our climb. Day one is a slog from Timpohon Gate at 6,122 feet to Laban Rata guesthouse at 10,300 feet.  We took seven hours to make it to the resthouse. Day two from the resthouse to summit starts at dawn and takes about four hours, allowing time to descend back to Timpohon Gate.  The views from the mountain flanks are spectacular and we enjoyed a gorgeous sunset from the resthouse balcony.








Jungle cleared for palm oil plantation

And then onto the jungle. From Mt. Kinabalu we proceeded east toward Sandakan.  Unfortunately, this part of the trip was depressing.  We drive through dozens of miles of palm oil plantations and miles of jungle being cleared for palm oil plantations. The rainforest is rapidly being destroyed here for the sake of palm oil and the wildlife is being driven out with nowhere to go.

We stopped on the way to explore Gomantong Cave and on the way in, not ten minutes into the jungle we hear a commotion on the canopy and look up to see a male orangutan swinging through the trees.  Success, and we've barely started our trip!  This huge cave, with a roof towering 300 feet overhead is famous as home to 275,000 free-tailed bats that emerge in the evening to feed.  But its real claim to fame is the resident population of white swifts and their valuable edible nests, which are harvested for bird's nest soup.   Locals climb to the roof of the caves, using only rattan ladders and ropes to collect the nests. But the cave also has a stultifying side:  the thousands of bats and swifts generate copious amounts of excrement and the cave floor is meters thick with guano.  Stinking, disgusting guano.  The ammonia smell is overwhelming and the waste attracts thousands--and I mean THOUSANDS of roaches. The cave walls and floors seem to move with the scurrying of herds of large roaches.

Back into the fresh air and onto Sandakan province and our destination in the jungle; Sukau Rainforest Lodge, a National Geographic Unique Lodges of the World. This eco-friendly lodge located on the banks of the Kinabantangan River, is accessible only by boat.  It is isolated and beautiful.  An open-air dining area on the river complements cozy rooms at the lodge. This lodge was used by Sir Richard Attenborough while filming a documentary on Borneo in 2011.

The rest of our time at Sukau is spent taking daily boast trips into the jungle, exploring the inner reaches on the Kinabantangan River and tributaries. These all day excursions let us see a multitude of animals including more orangutans, proboscis monkeys, long-tailed macaques, rhinocerus hornbills, pig-tailed macaques, crocodiles and a variety of bats, monkey and birds.  Truly one of the most wildlife-rich places I've ever been.  The jungle is thick and verdant and smells of rich loam and vegetation.  Forgetting the dismal scenes of palm oil destruction, one can enjoy one of the last truly wild rainforests in the world.

After an all-too-brief stay at Sukau we travel downriver to the city of Sandakan and stopped along the way to visit the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center and the nearby Malaysian Sun Bear Rehabilitation Center.  Both facilities are nonprofits that care for and rehab wild animals for their release back into the wild.  Most of the animals are orphans resulting from poaching or jungle destruction.  The facilities nurse the animals back to health and, if possible, the individual animals are returned to enjoy life in the wild.  It was a somewhat sobering reminder of what is happening to the wildlife in Borneo.

We decompressed in the energetic city of Sandarkan with a couple of city walkabouts and w visit to the teeming city market before catching a flight home.