Kota Kinabalu, Semporna archipelago, Kinabangtan river and Sandakan

Hello. Last time we spoke I was in Mulu (Sarawak State), or at least had been to Mulu and was in KK (Sabah State). KK was an interesting place, a bit edgy but I liked it. Not sure I liked the old men taking photos of me on the beach but hey when you look this good.... yeah right.

Siamil island - macro heaven

Flew then down to Tawau (over the largest palm oil plantation I have ever seen, so very very sad) and on to Semporna for one night before heading out to the "number one dive spot in Asia" - the Semporna archipelago -  Mabul, Sipadan and Siamil. Semporna is a bit of scabby hole, even though lots of westerners have to stop off there to overnight for Mabul walking around feels like you're the only white female they have ever seen. A bit odd really. Got a boat out to Mabul island the next day and began diving. 4 days and 15 dives later it was my time to leave. Not sure what I made about it. As with all diving, it depends where and when you dive and each one is different to the last and the next. One day it can be awesome and the next pants. Well, there is no doubt the macro diving at Mabul and Siamil is really cracking - pygmy seahorses, pipe fish, orangutan crabs, ghost shrimp, snake eels, morays, leaf scorpion fish, stone fish, devil scorpion fish, flying gurnards, nudi brancs, frog fish, juvenile bat fish, juvenile harlequin sweetlips, flouders, eagle rays, blue spotted rays, mandarin fish, sea snakes and the list goes on. I need to get an underwater housing for my camera to show you how awesome it is. Sipadan (the number one spot) is an immense site with walls going down a mile. It attracts huge numbers of hawksbill turtles, green turtles, white tip and grey reef sharks, baracuda, rays - all the big stuff, but I wasn't overwhelmed with its awesomeness. Don't get me wrong, it was good but I've had just as good dives in the Philippines. Plus, and this is a big downer, the rubbish in this part of the sea is unbelievable. Plastic is everywhere, and this has a major effect on the wildlife - I saw a dead turtle with a plastic bag hanging out of it's mouth. So all the conservation efforts across the world for these turtles makes little difference when people (including us) are throwing plastic in to the sea. It's just so sad. It's a good reason to not take that plastic people!

Probiscus Monkey - little willy!

Kinbatangan

Long tailed Macaque

So feeling quite sad I left Semporna, having got very drunk the night before with some randoms I had met and sang some lovely karaoke in the seediest bar yet including Careless Whisper by Wham, and headed on the bus north to the Kinbatangan River. In this part of Borneo it's almost impossible to travel and see things  independently, so I had booked a 3day/2 night tour at a lodge near a place called Bilit on the river itself. Had to get up at 5:30 each day to do a river cruise and then trek all day, cruise again and then trek at night. All very tiring might I add but saw some amazing stuff, including wild orangutans which can't be beat (no photos though!). I think Mr Probiscus was my favourite though... he came down right to the river to feed and sat watching us for ages. Lovely. Although a close second was MicroFrog - only 10mm long! and then maybe the sleeping Kingfishers, or the Hornbills... too many to choose from! Unfortunately, as with the diving, seeing all these animals is tinged a bit with sadness. The palm oil plantations in this part of Borneo are so extensive (like hundreds and hundreds of miles) the poor animals have no where to go. It is shocking quite how bad it is here and I can't see it getting any better even though I wish it could.

 

 Today (25th November) I left Kinabatangan and got a bus to Sandakan, a city on the east coast of Borneo. It got flattened during WWII by the Japanese and was the site of the Sandakan Death Marches where at over 2000 British and Australian troops died in a horrendous march from Sandakan to Ranau. Very sad and quite brutal really. Only here for half a day really, I didn't have time to get to the site of the POW camp but maybe that's a good thing. I did go for a walk though and happened across this place - how civil darling! Apart from that, this place is quite quiet, a bit seedy but I actually quite like it. I'm staying in a hotel! would you believe it!? for ten of your English pounds, it has an amazing bathroom. The littlest things.

Not sure where I am headed next in Sabah but so far it's been up and down purely because it is so apparent that humans are impacting on the wildlife here so much, it's almost hopeless. It's not just the Malaysians either, we all eat palm oil and use plastic, I just wish there was an alternative.

It's taken me three hours to write this and I have had to endure the most miserable music ever.... urgh, get me out of here!



 

Mulu National Park - Caves and Bats

On 12th November I arrived in Mulu after a quick flight from Kuching on the beast below. Very exciting flight, and a hairy landing in the middle of nowhere! Now you may not have heard of Mulu but think BBC documentary, David Attenborough lying in a massive pile of bat shit, and lots of bats, snakes snatching bats from the air and so on.

The park is set up quite well and they have amazingly knowledgeable guides, who know everything about the park. The caves are so impressive, it's beyond words and the wildlife is immense and over whelming. Look it up on wikipedia, it explains a lot. I learnt quite a lot but won't bore you but the reason they are so big is because of the composition of the limestone and the extremely abundant rainfall that occurs in Mulu. A combination which leads to some of the biggest caves in the world and stalagmites and -tites that would impress any geologist :) Don't look up though, I managed to get a drip of water in the eye (from 150 metres above) - it's so acid i thought my eye was going to melt. I'm sure I've lost a layer of my cornea or something equally as bad.



First night after visiting the Deer Cave which is unbelievable, you sit and wait for the bats to come out (sometimes they do, sometimes they don't). I got very lucky. They come out in batches of about, oh half a million, so as to confuse the massive eagles that sit and wait for them to leave. Along with the eagles, there are also the snakes hanging in the entrance to the cave ready to eat them. So no wonder they are frightened.

 I visited all the caves in the park that I could, and have so many photos. Anyway, all a bit boring but if you are ever in Borneo it should be on the top of your list.

Along with the walking caves, I thought it would cool to go adventure caving, with a vague feeling that something happened to me in a cave somewhere else in the world that I didn't like but couldn't remember so brushed it under the mat. All very cool, lots of sweaty climbing, mud, water, more mud, bats, swiftlets (do you know they use high frequency sonar to traverse through the caves - very clever little birdies), blind crabs, crickets and even some of those bat eating snakes (Racer Snakes - hence the name of the cave is "Racer"). And oh yes, spiders. Now I remember. Not quite as big as Thailand though, so that was nice.

When I wasn't caving with the living dead, I was lounging, and watching the insects. Some really beautiful ones (incredible butterflies), I am a bit of a convert. Went on a night walk and saw some awesome frogs, stick insects (more like branch insects) and a spider that used a leaf as camouflage, ugly but cool. Worryingly, something ate my banana, that was in my closed bag..... little devil.

Attempted to leave Mulu on 15th November but flight got cancelled because of rain.....hmm. This turned out to be quite disastrous because even though they put me in a "luxury" resort that night, I spent the entire next day travelling on 3, get it, 3 flights to Kota Kinabalu. I originally booked 1 flight direct to KK. How did 1 turn to 3? It was the most illogical experience I have come across in quite a while. To top it off, the plane was the same plane for the entire journey, they wouldn't let me check my large bag into the hold, and at each stop I had to get off with my bag, go through immigration and get back on the plane. RETARDED. Suffice to say I lost the rag on the third flight when the stewardess told me I couldn't have my big bag on the plane! On the plus side I got a free lift from the airport to my hostel by some guy who had come all the way from Mulu with me (his name was Gladstone - why is it asians always choose such interesting western names?). So now I'm in KK until the 18th. Had some wonderful food tonight (Philippino BBQ no less) and can't wait to get to bed already.