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…