The west of Borneo feels a little more “civilized” than the east, and in Kuching you notice that immediately. There are nicer hostels, the people are more open and there is noticeably more life in the city. The pretty promenade along the river through the city becomes a meeting point for the city (and the actually quite a few tourists) in the evenings. There are stalls, street performances and even a – somewhat amateurish – water and laser show in front of the recently opened new and beautifully lit parliament building (unfortunately it looks really horrible during the day)

That alone makes us want to stay here a few days longer, but there are also a few national parks around the city and another sanctuary for orangutans. Unfortunately, Tobi’s knee isn’t getting any better and walking is becoming a bit difficult. That’s why we start our first day in Kuching with a vegan cooking class including a trip to a local market. The cooking class itself is then in a small, nice café and we get to know some Bornese recipes and ingredients that are either inherently vegan or have been redesigned. Unfortunately, Borneo itself is not a particularly good place for vegans, most dishes come with shrimp paste and we usually eat (tasty) jungle ferns and vegetables with rice And so it’s nice to get to know more varied dishes, in particular there is a delicious dessert made from tempeh

After the cooking class, Tobi softens up and we spend the afternoon in the Kuching hospital waiting for an appointment with the orthopedist. Despite the short-term visit, this is pleasantly quick and the doctor sends us straight to the MRI. We’re a little worried that we’re just being ripped off, but after a little discussion we accept it because we get an appointment for the MRI that same afternoon.

In order to be a little more flexible and not have to sit on buses all the time, we rent a car for three days in the evening and drive to the orangutan sanctuary the following morning. It’s completely different than in Sepilok, here there are only short visiting and feeding times, but there are significantly more orangutans, some of them even sit on the street or relax on a park bench. Of course, the animals are still wild and rules must be adhered to, especially no feeding and you are not allowed to approach the animals! Here too, the park covers a huge area of several dozen square kilometers and the rescue center is only a small area where the animals are slowly released into the wild and given food if they cannot find enough in the park. We see 5 orangutans and since we are not pressed for time we can simply enjoy the experience undisturbed.

Then we go back to the hospital to see the orthopedic surgeon and again our turn comes very quickly. The appointment doesn’t take long; after a quick look at the MRI images, the doctor diagnoses a torn meniscus and immediately recommends surgery. But he reassures us that we could continue the remaining days of vacation and have the operation in Germany, but we shouldn’t do any more long hikes or anything that puts a strain on our knees.

Well, we still had a few small ones Hikes are on the radar, but it’s not bad and we decide to spend a few days on the beach in the far west of Borneo before we fly to Singapore. And that’s what we do, we spend the next two days in two small places in two nice holiday resorts near the border with Indonesia and on a small headland. Unfortunately there isn’t much going on, the holiday season is still to come, but we have peace and quiet, can lie on the beach and enjoy the sea for a bit.

On the way back to Kuching we stop again at the orangutans and see 8 other animals – the ranger said we were really lucky, often only 1-2 animals come, or even none at all… Back in Kuching we also meet the couple from the Mulu National Park and have a beer with them in the evening. He hasn’t gotten over his knee problems yet, so he’s asking for a bit of advice and we’re excited to see what happens next for him…

We’ll also take a short evening boat trip on the river through Kuching and explore the city center some more little looking for a few souvenirs. Of all the places in Borneo, we’re happy that the injury happened here because you can endure it here In addition, Tobi is constantly asked about his knee bandage and some people are really nice about it!

And with that we say goodbye again from Borneo towards Singapore, but there is still a lot to discover here, 2 1/2 weeks were a bit too short

Unser Hostelmitbewohner in Kuching

Wir machen einen veganen Kochkurs

 

Das Parlamentsgebäude Kuchings bei Nacht

die "Fähre" über den Fluss

Die Moschee

und viel schöne Streetart

ein buddhistischer Tempel

Ausflug zur "Mile 0" der Straße durch Borneo

The next stop after Sandakan was actually supposed to be the small Sultanate of Brunei in the north of Borneo, but here we give up on the complicated travel planning in Borneo. Flying is not only expensive, but you also have to fly out of Borneo and back to Kuala Lumpur. There are no buses from Kota Kinabalu and the ferry service, which actually sounds good, was stopped during Corona. The “easiest” option is to fly from Kota Kinabalu to Miri, 150km away, and then take a shuttle for 100 USD half the way back to Brunei. That’s too stupid for us and we’d rather fly to the Gunung Mulu National Park in the middle of the jungle of Borneo (it can only be reached by flight )

The park entrance is in the town of the same name, Mulu, but “place” is almost too much of a good thing. In fact, it consists of a few handful of homestays, a large hotel chain and a resort in the park. We chose a cheap homestay a little outside, but right on the river, and the owner James picked us up at the airport together with another couple who were on the plane with us. And James will often drive us around town for the rest of the days

The park itself is known for its huge cave system (the largest of which can fit several Airbus A380s in a row) and the millions of bats that live there. Branda, the owner of our homestay and James’ wife, is also conveniently a licensed guide and takes the four of us in the afternoon directly into two of the most famous caves, the Lang and Deer Caves. The latter is not only huge, but is home to around 3 million bats and the cave is marked by their remains in some places After the tour, we stay in front of the entrance to the cave and wait for the evening spectacle of the bats, the so-called “Bad Exodus”. Around sunset they first gather in swarms in front of the entrance, then go looking for food together and leave the cave in the most bizarre formations. It is truly an incredible spectacle and we even spot an eagle that is probably expecting a feast…

The next day, after a river trip, Branda shows us two more no less impressive caves (Wind Cave and Clearwater Cave), before we go swimming in a small lake that extends from an underground exit of Clearwater Cave We’ll also be spending some time on the next few days beautiful hiking trails in the park and enjoy nature, the birds, insects and also discover the local mini squirrel, which is barely bigger than a mouse

On the last afternoon we go on a little adventure, so-called “caving” in the “Racer Cave” – it gets its name from the racer snake that lives here. Caving means a kind of via ferrata through the unlit cave, we are given a safety harness, helmet and lamp (although we only use the former once as an alibi, our guide seems to consider it quite useless ) And so we climb through the cave, up and down again and again, squeezing ourselves cracking through narrow spaces and crawling through waist-high holes past dozens of spiders, some of them the size of your hand – which our French colleague in particular doesn’t find funny at all. And we actually discover one of the racer snakes in one of the crevices, which is lurking here for bat prey

The last obstacle deep in the cave is that we have to squeeze another 80cm down through a crack. Our Belgian colleague begins and groans painfully because he twists his knee. Tobi then looks for a better descent, but gets stuck in the same place, just as consumed with pain, and so we both hobble in pain the whole way, up and down, crawling and squeezing… Well, we’ll get it right again and the experience was definitely great exciting

After a night walk in the evening and a canopy walk the next morning, our time in Mulu is over again and we fly to our last stop in Borneo, to Kuching…

Abfug nach Mulu

Der Eingang der Dear Cave

in der Höhle gibt es tolle Fotomotive

 

 

 

 

Wir warten auf den "Bat Exodus"

und los gehts 🙂

There is an incredible amount to see around Sandakan, and so we decide to book a tour – this is not easy either, as most of the tour operators are in Kota Kinabalu, where we have not found any offices, and so we book online and by phone… Sandakan in particular is surrounded by a multitude of pristine rainforests, here you can spend as long as you like in the jungle to see as many animals as possible (David Attenborough has also been here for several months for one of his films).

We limit ourselves to a 4-day tour, which should cover our highlights: Orangutans, Malayan bears, proboscis monkeys and baby turtles

It starts with a rescue and release station for orangutans and sun bears in Sepilok. We are picked up at the hostel by a nice older guide who will be a kind of private chauffeur for us for the next few days and has a lot of stories to tell. Among other things, he was a guide on David Attenborough’s expeditions! In Sepilok we first spend some time with the orangutans, who are gradually released here after their arrival (or birth) and at the end of the process they are taken to other parts of Borneo or Indonesia. At certain times there is food for the animals and as a tourist you are allowed to visit the park during these times. The animals come and go as they please, gradually receive less food and learn to fend for themselves in the forests. Among other things, there is also a “children’s area” for the little newcomers… Right next to the orangutans there is a small sanctuary for sun bears, which we also visit briefly. The bears are popular as good luck charms and are often kept in cages as pets. After official searches (or inspection by the “owners”), they are rehabilitated here and, if possible, released into the wild. Here too you can visit the cute, clumsy little bears during feeding times. Of course, neither is a wildlife experience and it’s a shame that such stations are even needed, but both stations seem extremely professional and concerned about animal welfare to us, and it’s a nice experience off the beaten track

This is where we go next. Our driver takes us to a small town, two hours away from most civilization, where we will stay for the next 2 nights. The “Kinabatangan” river is only a few hundred meters away from our lodge and so we spend the two days mainly on the river. But before we get started, we see a large male proboscis monkey during lunch. At first he sits in a tree across the street from the lodge, but then he takes a liking to a bush and poses for our photos for a while! We thought they would be harder to see On the first afternoon on the boat we see the resident elephants looking for reeds along the river, which they then eat en masse. Our captain also spots a hornbill and other proboscis monkeys – but nowhere near as close as the one at the lodge…

The next day in the morning we discovered a huge 5m crocodile – which ran away too quickly to take a photo -, two groups of wild orangutans right by the river, and a large number of other groups of proboscis monkeys and macaques! Of course, a night hike shouldn’t be missed either. Our guide begins by showing us a small viper that lives in a tree trunk near the lodge. Unfortunately, we don’t see too many animals otherwise – our guide suspects it’s because of the elephants. Nevertheless, it is always an experience to walk through the jungle at night. There’s just something magical about all the noises, chirping and quacking We also hear a meow… Our guide thinks it could be a leopard cub calling for its mother – which is why he is acting incredibly cautiously – but we’re not entirely sure if it’s just him want to increase tension…

For the last stop, we go back to the city early in the morning and get on a boat for a one-hour trip to the island of “Selingan”. We spend the afternoon relaxing on the beach of the tiny island, but the real highlight awaits us in the evening. Turtles come here to lay their eggs and you can see that. After the turtle comes ashore and digs a hole for the eggs, the rangers allow the turtle to observe – it is in a deep trance while laying its eggs. Since there are only a few such islands left, the rangers collect the eggs and bury them in an enclosure to protect them from predators. At sunset you can watch the little turtles hatch. After hatching, they burrow their way up, are collected by the rangers and later carefully brought to the water. This is the last activity here, after the mother turtle has finished laying eggs (in our case 80 eggs), we can watch around 40 small turtles being released near the sea. An incredibly cute hustle and bustle of the little animals as they plunge into the surf. In fact, despite the protection on the island, only 1% of the animals will reach adulthood…

In the morning we take the boat back to the city and the bus back to Kota Kinabalu. Since we estimated the arrival time by boat very carefully, we have to wait almost two hours for the bus, but we have company. A young kitten wanders through the bus waiting hall and uses Tobi’s lap for a safe hour’s sleep With a heavy heart we leave them behind and take the bus to fly from Kota Kinabalu to the “Mulu” national park (which can only be reached by plane…., another Borneo one -Quality… )

Orang Utans im Sepilok Park

 

 

 

Sogar mit Babies 🙂

Nebenan ist eine Auffangstation für Malaienbären

 

Unser Führer am Kinabatangan Fluss

und direkt die ersten Nasenaffen 🙂

We somehow imagined it would be easier than it ended up being. Yes, Borneo is just a stone’s throw from Vietnam. Yes, the part of Borneo we are visiting is part of Malaysia with its good bus infrastructure. Yes, Borneo is an island, you can definitely take a short flight from one corner to the other. So all in all, we can simply travel as we are used to, from one place to the next and then travel on spontaneously… Jeez, Borneo is going to be more strenuous (and more exciting) than expected

Since we can’t find an (affordable) direct flight from Vietnam to any city on Borneo, we have to make do with a stopover in Kuala Lumpur. This turns a two-hour flight into a full day of travel. Because we first fly for a little over an hour to Kuala Lumpur, have a 2.5 hour layover there and then another two hours to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the Sabah region. Here we find a very nice and relaxed hostel where we first do a little planning. The first goals quickly become clear, we want to go to the mountain and national park Mt. Kinabalu, to Sepilok to an orangutan sanctuary and to the Kinabatangan River to see wild orangutans.

Once said is half done and after one night we have had enough of the city – due to the Chinese New Year there is not too much going on here either – and we set off for Mt. Kinabalu, which is only around 2 hours away by car. Unfortunately, there is no bus there, just something that reminds us of the matatus in Kenya. So we walk to a “bus stop”, pay and wait until the car is full. But no problem, we know the drill! After a little stroll through the city and along the harbor in the morning, we go to the bus stop at 11 a.m. and ask. A bus that is almost full is still there, we have a brief discussion with the driver and tell him we’ll be back with our luggage in half an hour. Back at the bus, we set off straight away

Once we arrive at the mountain, we unfortunately realize that the weather is not really suitable for an ascent. It kept raining briefly and the mountain was obscured by fog and clouds. So we make do with a short half-day hike along the hiking trails in the park. The landscape and the rainforest are simply beautiful despite (or perhaps because of) the rainy weather, and at the end we are even led to the exit by a couple of dogs

There’s not much going on in the town where we’re staying either, so we’re a little annoyed that we’re staying two nights, but it gives us time to organize our onward journey. Because even that is not as easy as it sounds. There is a bus, but you can’t book it on the website. After two phone calls to the operator, we book the bus for a different route, send the driver a picture of our ticket and where we want to be picked up and wait anxiously in the town square to see if it works. It does indeed work and we drive on to Sandakan for our next excursions…

Anflug auf Borneo

Gemüsemarkt in Kota Kinabalu

 

Wir erkennen den Berg Mt. Kinabalu unter den Wolken

Wanderung durch den Nationalpark

Die Wolken lichten sich nur sehr langsam

 

 

Endlich vietnamesischen Neujahr und wir können unser Geschenk öffnen 🙂