Wildlife on land and in water
Sabah is known as ‘The Land Below the Wind’ but could easily instead be called ‘The Land Where You Have to Book Everything in Advance’, which might have been OK if we’d known that beforehand. We weren’t able to climb Mt. Kinabalu, the highest peak in Southeast Asia, because the accommodation part way up the mountain (it’s a two-day climb) was booked out for all this month. And we almost missed the underwater paradise of Sipadan too, but luckily managed to find spots on a boat in the end, so enough complaints for now.
Today, after three-and-a-half days waiting in Semporna, we went to Sipadan Island and had probably the best underwater experience of our lives. We spent the whole day snorkeling in three different spots off the island and saw 10+ turtles and 10+ sharks, as well as a school of jackfish that must have contained nearly 1000 fish, a school of enormous bumphead fish that are each about a metre long, and many other large, beautiful and colourful fish. The island itself is also gorgeous, and nearby Mabul Island with its stilt villages is picturesque too – so in all, it was a fabulous day and worth the long wait. Since we almost turned around and left Samporna as soon as we arrived, having found that most of the companies who do the Sipadan trip were booked out for many days, we’re very glad we stuck around, even if it was a bit boring until today.
Before coming to Semporna, we spent two nights in Sukao and took two boat trips up the Kinabatangan River and two of its tributaries. We saw one wild orang-utan on the bank of the river, and dozens of each of three different types of monkeys: long-tailed macaques, pig-tailed macaques, and the proboscis monkey, which lives only on Borneo and with its crazy nose is the most bizarre looking monkey you could ever see – it looks more like a cartoon than a real animal. We also saw hornbills, kingfishers, monitor lizards and got a distant glimpse at an elephant through the jungle foliage. In Sukao, we stayed with a local family as part of a homestay program instead of doing a tour like everybody else, and this was quite rewarding as the kids were adorable and it was nice to experience life in a rural Malaysian household.
We’re now finished with Sabah and are going back to Kota Kinabalu tonight and then onto Brunei, which sits between Sabah and Sarawak.
Tags: Asia, Kinabatangan, Malaysia, Sipadan, Southeast Asia
Nick