Look at that orangutan! Jess with the action photo win!
After a couple of days visiting animal conservatories and other sights around Sandakan, Malaysia, we took our first foray into the “wild” side of Borneo by heading to a lodge on the Kinabatangan River. This was our first of three jungle lodge spots on our Borneo tour, each of which had a distinct trait or tone.
Following so many weeks in cities of various shapes and sizes, it was a really nice reprieve to be in a more tranquil, natural setting. With that said, it did come with drawbacks. Most notably, it resulted in several confrontations with the darker side of nature – insects. During our first night at the lodge, we made the grave mistake of leaving the outdoor light on above our bungalow door in the afternoon. By the time it was dark outside there were, unbeknownst to us, a horde of gigantic, bright green cicadas that flew inside when we opened our door to go to dinner. After a vicious battle to kill the savage beasts (which flew around like drunk kamikaze pilots), we managed to scurry to dinner without letting more inside, then laughing with empathetic delight as each other person in our tour group shrieked in terror when they were swarmed by cicadas upon opening their bungalow doors. This wasn’t our last issue with the beasts, however, as we thought they were going to break down our door (they slammed off of it loudly and repeatedly!) the next night when we left our porch light on for a few minutes so Jess’s mom could safely make it back to her bungalow in the dark. Now I see why people live in cities. [Editor’s note: These guys were enormous – they felt like paintball pellets hitting you in the chest and back when we tried to escape our doorway, and the ones that got inside really did make a huge racket bouncing around off every wall, ceiling, and exposed surface. Welcome to the jungle, indeed.]
In the upper left is a huge butterfly the size of a bird, and the big green things all over the light and sign are the horrible cicadas. This is the top of the doorway into our cabin.
Not the hellacious cicadas that kamikazed our door at night, but an example of some of the other “fun” insects we met.
Not an insect, but you get the point – lots of fun friends in the jungle, like this lizard.
Anyway, the idea with our first lodge, aside from the insect escapades, was to take boat rides up and down the Kinabatangan River to try to spot wildlife along the banks. Frankly, I had low expectations for how this would work out – I figured the animals would be deeper in the jungle (where we weren’t) and we wouldn’t see anything. Fortunately, I couldn’t have been more wrong! The four of us split off into our own boat and, with the help of our awesome boat operator, we’d each peer off into the distance before shouting out a new animal we thought we saw. We ended up spotting some really cool birds (hornbills are my favorite, mainly because it looks like they have pompadours), lots of wild proboscis and macaque monkeys, an orangutan, and a super poisonous snake (don’t worry, we only pushed our boat directly under the tree so it could easily fall in and kill us all if it wanted).
Another group intently searching for wildlife on the river. I assume this is what we also looked like.
Baby macaque monkey in a tree.
Another macaque monkey – so active and energetic in the trees!
The wild orangutan in a fig tree.
While not common, we did see the occasional baby crocodile in the water.
Flying squirrel we somehow managed to spot in the trees!
Most awesomely, we saw an extremely rare batch of pygmy elephants (they are only spotted 2-3 times per year). It was a really fun cornucopia of wildlife sightings during our few days at the lodge. [Editor’s note: The boat safaris were really fun! It was beautiful scenery even when there weren’t any animals, and we quickly became good enough at spotting macaques (the most common sighting by far) that it almost became routine: “Oh, there are some more monkeys! No, don’t bother stopping, it’s fine.” The elephants were especially exciting because we were headed back to the lodge one evening when some other boat operators passed by and gave our driver a signal. He immediately turned around and took us way farther back up the river where we saw the whole group of elephants eating grass by the riverside! We were so excited (I hadn’t expected to see any pygmy elephants the whole trip since I know they’re rare), and our feeling was reinforced by the fact that our guide was also excited, standing up and taking photos with his iPhone from the back of the boat. We ended up riding back in the pitch dark with no lights because we were so behind schedule, but it was absolutely worth it!]
Pygmy elephants are tiny (relatively speaking). Grass is tall. It’s a tough combo.
Group selfie in a boat with the parents!
When we left the river lodge, we first took a detour to a massive cave unlike any other that we had visited in our travels. Rather than for its beauty, the Gomantong Cave is unique (and popular) for the fact that there is an extremely lucrative industry built around harvesting the nests of the thousands of swifts (small birds) living in the cave and selling them to be used in birds-nest soups. The Chinese and people of other Asian countries pay large sums of money for these nests, thinking that eating them has special health benefits (spoiler alert: they don’t). As we approached the entrance to the cave, we were spoiled when we saw an adolescent orangutan just hanging out in the trees nearby. It was amazing to be so close to one of them, particularly during such a fluke encounter!
Orangutan hiding in the trees near the cave.
The cave itself wasn’t exactly picturesque, but it was very interesting. It was not a prime time for workers to be harvesting the nests, so we missed out on that experience (it’s supposed to be notable because they make really interesting bamboo platforms to get high enough to do so). Another unique feature of the cave that we didn’t miss, however, is the huge amount of bat poop that covers the foot trail and railings, making it pretty slippery and odious. [Editor’s note: Birds-nest soup was one of those things I’d always heard about generally, but hadn’t really put together that they are chipped from the huge ceiling of a cockroach- and bat poop-filled cave from bamboo ladders. I think I don’t need to try it after all.] All told, it wasn’t the most memorable experience ever, but I appreciated that it was unique relative to the many other caves we’ve seen during our travels.
A view inside the massive cave. People climb to the top just to get nests! Also, note the poop all along the floor.
A guard station and path within the cave.
Group instruction before entering the cave. (Mostly, “don’t touch anything because it’s covered in poop and cockroaches.”)
A fascination with caves is not unique to Jess – it’s a Nepom family trait.
The next lodge we visited in Lahad Datu – the Tabin Wildlife Resort – ended up inadvertently being the action and adventure portion of our nature tour. The lodge itself was really lovely, with awesome bungalows that stoked all of the tiny home dreams that Jess and I have long harbored. Our guides from the lodge were also super awesome – cracking jokes and making every outing really fun. The problem, however, was that we were there to see animals…and didn’t. Aside from copious amounts of Mountain Serpent-Eagles, each nature trek or drive ended up being a bust. [Editor’s note: I slightly disagree. While we didn’t really see many of the “big ticket” items – no orangutans, very few monkeys – we saw several palm civets and lots of birds. I also enjoyed driving through pristine rainforest in general, though I understand that the main point was to see the big animals.]
A fish-eating bird perched in a tree.
Okay, birds are kinda cool. But still, not as awesome as the big animals.
We made up for it, however, with some interesting, rigorous hiking. Equipped with our knee-length, rubber Wellington boots (our “wellies”, as the Brits referred to them), we first did a hike through super thick mud to the aptly named Mud Volcano. The volcano was not active at the time, though it did afford us a surprisingly rigorous hike through calf-deep mud. The next day, we enjoyed what was supposed to be a pretty “light” hike to the Lipad Waterfall. The problem, which they hadn’t told us, was that the jungle boardwalk leading to the water had been washed out by a mudslide, so we had to scramble through the wrecked, muddy hillside and fallen trees to get passed the debacle. However, after overcoming those obstacles, we were rewarded by floating/swimming down the river to a large, beautiful waterfall where we were able to swim around for a bit and get great pictures. It worked out, even if it all ended up being way more ridiculous than we expected. [Editor’s note: The best part was when our guide’s boot got stuck in the mud so deep that he had to pull his foot out and, standing in the mud with just his sock, wrestle with his boot with both hands for a good five minutes while we all stood around laughing because he’s the one who is supposed to know how to deal with this kind of situation. He was a good sport about the whole thing!]
Jess trying to bypass the washed out path leading to the waterfall in her Wellies.
Group photo at the waterfall!
Our final jungle lodge in the Danum Valley – the Borneo Rainforest Lodge – ended up being the true showstopper in our travels. Fit for a king (errr… prince, since William & Kate actually stayed there years ago), it was luxurious and had phenomenal food that caused us all to gorge to uncomfortable levels. Beyond that, it was cool to do some actual nature trekking where we were able to see some legit animals – not so much in quantity, but definitely in quality. On our first hike our guide spotted a tree top swaying and took off into the distance, encouraging us to follow closely. When we got to the tree, we were able to see an adult, male orangutan! We spent 30 minutes tracking it in the forest as he methodically swung from tree to tree, at one point getting within 20-30 feet of us. [Editor’s note: it got to the point where the guides told us to actually back up because the orangutan was coming down the tree towards the path we were all standing on. It was so great to just hang out with wildlife like that and not have it run away from us.] It was phenomenal.
Hanging out in the trees.
On another trek, we had a similar experience with a couple of gibbon monkeys, which was our first and only time seeing them. This was particularly significant for me and Jess given that we didn’t end up seeing any gibbons while staying in treehouses (with ziplines) at the Gibbon Experience in Laos. These two sightings along made it all 100% worthwhile.
A gibbon looking down at us!
Adding to the joy, after a particularly long/rigorous hike we ended up at a beautiful waterfall which naturally contained the fish that nibble the dead skin off your feet – free fish massage! Hooray! All told, we collectively loved everything about this last lodge. It was absolutely the apex of our tour and made for a memorable experience. [Editor’s note: One activity that I did, but Rorie and my parents didn’t, was a few night hikes with our guides. On a couple of occasions it was just me and a guide, and maybe one other tour member. We’d walk quietly through the dark forest with only headlamps and look for insects, frogs, lizards, and anything else we could find. The highlight was a cool venomous snake and a moon rat, a huge bright white rat-like animal that hid under the pathway, inches below our feet.]
Action shot of western tourists trekking in the Borneo jungle.
A view of the jungle from the peak of one of our hikes.
Walking the road back to the hotel after one of our hikes.
Posing in the middle of a canopy bridge across the top of the jungle.
Each of these lodges in the Borneo rainforest were cool in its own way, but they generally involved “roughing it.” After taking into consideration the 80-90% humidity, every day was well over 100F and left us sweating through all of our clothes and panting miserably. Pretty much every day involved some sort of 6am hike or jungle drive and each night involved the same, leaving us always pretty fatigued. The hikes were muddy and dirty, while also posing the threat of flying leeches (seriously) that forced us to tuck our pants into our socks and do regular “leech checks” of each other’s bodies (fun fact #1: once on your body, they like to target armpits and belly buttons because the skin is softest). Finally, none of us brought enough clothes to make it through the whole tour, so we were forced to feebly wash our clothes in the sink to make it through the final days (fun fact #2: sink washing will get dirt out, but not smells). I mention all of this only to paint a picture of where we were at by the end of our time at the three Borneo jungle lodges – quite happy with the overall experience, but pretty worn and weary.
The Nepoms modeling the latest in leech-prevention tactics (long pants tucked into socks).
Group shot in the jungle, surely suffering from some form of dehydration and heat exhaustion.
After all of this, we deserved a couple of days of ease so as to end the trip on a high note. Fortunately, after our time at the Borneo Rainforest Lodge we flew to the city of Kota Kinabalu and took a speed boat to the Manukan Island Resort for some rest and relaxation. There, we largely spent two days alternating between relaxing by the ocean and by a swimming pool, reading our books and enjoying conversations that our hurried schedule didn’t allow while at the rainforest lodges. One activity we did undertake while on the island, however, was a comfortable 1.5 kilometer hike to the “sunset point” on our last night on the island. The four of us took some beers along, climbed down to sit on some rocks overlooking the ocean and enjoyed a truly stunning sunset. It was really the perfect way to spend our final evening with Jess’s parents after a whirlwind two weeks of touring through Borneo. [Editor’s note: It was a really nice way to slow down a bit and get to spend some quality time with my parents – the rest of the tour had felt very regimented and forced us to do everything with the larger group, but on the island we were able to do our own thing for a few days – much closer to how we’ve been used to traveling, and a great way to end our time together with my parents!]
Pensive poses of Nepoms watching a sunset.
A sunset worth hiking for, am I right?
Stunning.
Canopy selfie – bye, Borneo!
