WanderingWhy…

For those of you obsessed with chronological order (like my wife), we are now in Singapore but this post covers our time in Borneo.  Disclaimer printed I’ll move on.

I was so excited to visit Borneo.  It’s a place we didn’t intend on visiting, but super cheap flights on Air Asia put it easily within reach.  Another traveler told me about the opportunity to climb the highest mountain in Southeast Asia and the orangutan sanctuary in the jungle there–sold.

Borneo did not disappoint.  With the exception of some mild shock over the vanishing rain forest across the north of Sabah, it had everything I was hoping for: jungle, caves, bats, mosquitoes, mud, wildlife, leeches and incredible diving.  Admittedly I didn’t do an eco-challenge type of trip for WD’s sake but she was a trooper for most of my insane ideas.

First stop outside the city of KK was Kota Kinabalu Park.  For some reason it seems to rain a lot in the rain forest and there was a storm cloud over WD’s head for most of our hiking around the base of the mountain.  We opted out of the mountain climb since we both have injuries that would make us regret attempting it.  After two days of stomping around the base of the mountain and not getting any warmer or dryer we decided to head for the orangutan sanctuary.  Mt Kinabalu was nice enough to reveal itself the final morning as we hiked out to catch the bus.

WD needed a break and we found a great “Jungle Lodge” right outside the sanctuary.  A welcome bit of comfort warmth and relaxation.  WD has already told our tales from this amazing place so I won’t bore you with our wonderful time.

After recouping we decided to dive into the jungle.  I just wanted one night but surprisingly WD suggested two.  Two nights with the malarial mosquitoes and jungle creatures? Okay, I wasn’t going to talk her out of it.

We met an Aussie couple on their honeymoon and this seemed to be the rougher, adventure part of their holiday.  Our first tour stop was the Gomantong caves which our new friends described as “dodgy” (I love Aussie slang).  I’d just call it shit cave.

Gomantong is impressive but more a working cave than a clean, well-lit tourist attraction.  There are over 2 million bats and swiftlet birds in this cave and it’s prized for the bird’s nests which are used for the famous bird’s nest soup.  Most of the nest is composed of the bird’s saliva which is the treasured soup ingredient.  Mouth watering yet? Good, because I’m going to ruin your appetite.

We entered the cave along the boardwalk which looked like any other “stay between the lines” tourist attraction until we stepped into darkness.  Shining our headlamps around I saw the boardwalk covered in guano–a nice word for shit.  Bat shit, bird shit… bull-shit for all I know.  Not only shit, but shit eating cockroaches.  Did I mention we were wearing only hiking sandals?  We slid along as fast and as stable as we could with WD’s death grip on my bicep.  I teased her that she should be holding the handrail which was as well decorated and crawling as the boardwalk.

I know you think I’m exaggerating as usual.  I wish I had my camera but they actually wanted $10 to bring a camera in.  Probably for all the shitty photos you could take.  The overwhelming smell made it hard to breath at the deepest part of the cave and we stomped our feet to keep the roaches from crawling over them. It may have been worth the camera fee to capture the breathless, frozen, get me out of here expression on WD’s face.  Too much fun.

Our time at the river lodge was much better.  The cabins were pretty clean comfortable and we felt much better after a cave-cleansing shower.  We had an afternoon riverboat trip to see some wildlife.  I didn’t expect much of anything thinking the wildlife would only be active in the morning but thankfully I was wrong.  Here are some pics:

We spent another day in the jungle which was pretty uneventful.  An early morning hike in the mud to see nothing but tiger leeches.  I’ve never even seen a leech but we got the full treatment and did nothing but schlep around in the mud for an hour and pick them off our clothes every few minutes.  When we got back in the boat we realized a few had found bare spots of skin to chew on.  Life experience of being bitten by leeches–check.  Later on our night hike one got WD on the neck.  Somehow she suffered her freak-out in silence and completed the hike covering her jugulars with both hands.  Like I said: trooper.

We finished our time in Borneo snorkeling and diving in Tun Sakaran Marine Park.  A much less adventurous time except for the sharks.  WD has already posted about our time here as well, but she did not dive Sipidan.  If there was any time for her to get back in the water and try diving again this was the place.  I don’t know if I have ever had better diving conditions: warm water, fantastic visibility, and all around incredible diving.  Sharks, barracuda, tons of turtles, and beautiful colorful reef that drops off 600m around the pinnacle that is Sipidan.  There were some ridiculously beautiful resorts out on the islands here too.  Next time we do this trip with the big bucks.

I think about the travel here and it only cements my argument that the time to do a trip like this is now–I can’t picture attempting this in retirement.  Hell, I might (but I’ll skip the shitty part).

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