Borneo: intro and logistics

Behold the pygmy elephant.

Now, for scale, behold a family of pygmy elephants foraging underneath someone’s house.


The (critically endangered) pygmy elephant is found only in Borneo, as is the proboscis monkey (well, there and in the Singapore zoo).

You can find orangutans (‘man of the forest,’ in Malay) only on Sumatra and Borneo.

Borneo is the third-largest non-continent island on the planet, after Greenland and Papua New Guinea. Indonesia has turned much of its portion over to logging and palm-oil plantations; Brunei takes up a small speck surrounded by Malaysian territory. Malaysia hasn’t eschewed palm oil entirely (or nearly enough), but it has managed to preserve a fair amount of wilderness.

I tell you this because it’s the only trip I can recall where, when I told where I was going, most responses were along the lines of, “what’s that” and “what does one do in Borneo?” And “how does one decide to go to Borneo?” The answer is, the same way you decide to go anywhere else: you see pictures or hear it’s amazing from someone who went, and you add it to your list. Then, the next time you and your friends are sitting around (or texting) about where to go, it comes up in the brainstorm. So it was a few months ago, at brunch with a couple of friends—with whom I went to South Africa, and one of whom floated the idea of another trip to Africa. They’d both already safaried in Kenya—one in Tanzania as well, lucky ducks. I said, if it’s wildlife we’re after, let’s go to Borneo. To blank stares. Afterward, I sent around a sample itinerary, and that changed things. “Who knew there was even such a thing as Turtle Island!” said one friend. As it were, this friend didn’t end up going, as December wasn’t a good time for her and it was the best time for the other friend and for me. So off we went.

Should you go, I recommend that you, too, go in December. Sure, it’s monsoon season—and my biggest concern is that it would rain the whole time. Though we did get caught in a few torrential downpours—one or two of them very ill-timed—we had plenty of sunny, beautiful days. It can rain any time of year, but during dry season you’re guaranteed scorching heat. I wouldn’t want to be there when it’s any hotter than it was.

We sandwiched our Borneo adventure with a couple of days in the city—Singapore on the way in and Kuala Lumpur on the way back. Both were more fascinating than beautiful, but they had their charms. Really, though, the trip was all about Borneo. And Borneo, though not as wild as most people think, is still not really for the faint of heart:

Alex: The hotel [near KL airport] wasn’t bad.

A.: It’s better than I expected. The hallway was a bit smoky.

Alex, who had a cold: I couldn’t smell it.

A.: Well, you couldn’t smell the monkey pee.

Alex: I could smell the cave.

A.: Anyone could smell the cave!

The cave had, as its centerpiece, a massive mound of bat-shit. With cockroaches living in it.

More thoughts before you go: be skeptical of Lonely Planet's must-sees. You can afford to miss Gardens by the Bay in Singapore and the EcoForest Park with its pathetic canopy in Kuala Lumpur. LP also hyped up the aviary, which was exorbitant, but would have been worth it if it had been more open. Though most birds were free (under a high ceiling of netting), some were in cages, and I hated being tricked into supporting anything that keeps animals in captivity. That said, the hypocrite in me appreciated seeing the hornbills close up, having seen them soaring far overhead in the rainforest,

What else can you skip? I had mixed feelings about the Sarawak Cultural Center; it was Plymouth Plantation for the indigenous people of Sarawak, but it was a good way to learn about those cultures without gawking at people just going about their lives.

But there were plenty of real must-sees. Our vacation had everything: city, beach, wildlife, mountains, markets, and culture. To balance out the staged culture on display at the cultural village, we went on a bananas "sunset" cruise that was a real cultural experience. 
***
So how does one pull off a trip to Borneo?

You could go on a tour, and I looked at a few but didn't see any overall tours that fit what we wanted for the price or for the times we were available to travel. When assessing a tour, always read the fine print. I found that a lot of stuff--including big stuff, like internal flights (not to mention external ones, but that was more overt) were not included. We did want something quasi-organized; neither of us had a tone of time to plan. We opted to combine two smaller, locally-operated tours. A lot of the stuff we would do would require hiring drivers, if not guides, so we packaged that stuff into two tours. It worked out well.

We confirmed the tours and bought the long-haul tickets. We got a very decent deal ($1,200 per person) on ANA, which is a very decent airline. And when you're flying for twenty-four hours or so each way, you want a very decent airline. We agreed not to skimp on sanity; we could've saved a few hundred dollars with more brutal flights (longer flight times, longer layovers) but we decided not to make the already long transit to and from Southeast Asia any longer than it had to be.

We were less fussy with the regional flights; we flew AirAsia from Singapore to Kuching, Kuching to Kota Kinabalu (this was chosen and paid for by the tour), Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan, and Sandakan to Kuala Lumpur. Including checked baggage, the regional airfare came to $250 each. I got us rooms on Hilton points in Singapore and KL, though our last night in KL we stayed in an airport hotel as we had an early flight. The only nice airport hotel--and the only one truly near the airport--is expensive, but there are a bunch of three-star hotels about 20 minutes away. In retrospect, I would've done this differently: I would've paid a bit more to stay by the KL Sentral Station, and gone straight from there on the express train (which is independent of rush hour road traffic). We stayed in a nice place in a good location not far from the city center, but far enough to complicate an early-morning departure.

Then, we tour shopped. We knew what we wanted--Sarawak as well as Sabah; Turtle Island for sure. In my head I would've liked to climb Mt. Kinabalu, but in reality I didn't mind being overruled on that one because I wouldn't have wanted to deal with it. Which isn't to say that I wouldn't want to go back and do it, or at least spend more time in Kinabalu Park. So we picked two tours that included what we wanted to do. Each had a trip to an orangutan sanctuary/rehab center, and we asked ourselves whether that would be too much, but really there's no such thing as too much orangutan, and we ended up seeing very different things in each. They came to just over $1,000 per person.

***
Before I tell you what we did, I have to tell you something hilarious: Alex's friend's mom asked her (the friend) why he was traveling with me--specifically, whether he was assessing me as a candidate for surrogacy. This baffled and amused us all. It's like she couldn't comprehend that we were just friends going on a trip.

With that out of the way, here's where we went:

(1) Singapore
(2) Sarawak
(3) Kota Kinabalu, Kinabalu Park, and Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park
(4) Sandakan, as a gateway to (5) Turtle Island, (see 4) Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary and a sun bear sanctuary, (6) Kinabatangan River, and Komantong Cave (between 4 and 6 geographically).
(7) Kuala Lumpur

***
What does one bring to Borneo?

• ATM and cards with no foreign transaction fees. Look for ATMs that don't charge fees, and decline the option to let them pick the exchange rate.
• Deet (even our 98% "jungle juice" wasn't enough to keep every mosquito away)
• Sunblock! I used ThinkSport 50, waterproof. It worked better than any other animal-friendly sunblock I'd ever used. I managed to tan some over it (I guess I could've gone with a higher SPF), but I didn't burn. I appreciate just how much I didn't burn overall because there was a thin line or two where my swimsuit shifted, that did burn. I mean, I was snorkeling for hours and hours.
• Hand sanitizer and wet wipes--yes, both. And/or tissues. Many a public restroom didn't come with toilet paper, and many of the restaurants didn't bother with napkins.
• A headlamp! I forgot mine and ended up buying one at a market for not too much. I probably could've done without as our first guide brought some for us to borrow for the caves, but it was handy to have anyway for getting around Turtle Island. I generally recommend traveling with a headlamp. 
• At least two swimsuits! One was always drying while the other was put to use. 
• A quick-dry towel. 
• Maybe snorkeling gear, if yours is good? I saved some money by bringing my own, and it didn't take up much space but it wasn't very good compared to what we were issued by SeaTango for the organized snorkeling excursion (we were on our own on Turtle Island, which is where I ended up using mine and just renting fins). Outside Kota Kinabalu, I never had to come up for air and get the water out; on Turtle Island, I never didn't have water inside my equipment. I'll probably end up just renting it in the future. [That said, Alex said he's rented snorkeling gear in the past on cruises and such that ended up not being very good.]
• A sun hat, which doubles as a barrier between you and bat shit.
• Sandals; even if you're not on the beach or river, your feet will always end up getting wet.
• Closed-toed shoes (see: caves; bat shit). 
• Long pants--for the caves (see: bat shit and cockroaches) but also, if you're a woman, for religious sites that require you to cover your knees. For the temple in KL, they loan you a sarong when you check your shoes for pennies; at Batu caves, they charge a bit more--still less than a dollar--but sarongs aren't ideal. I brought a pair of super-light pants to throw on under my dress as needed. I wore dresses with pockets the rest of the time.
• Raingear! I brought rainpants, a new waterproof jacket, and an old, ultralight waterproof jacket that had failed on me before but that I'd rewaterproofed. It held for light rain but failed again in a torrential downpour. I hated to carry to bigger one, much less wear it (or the lighter one for that matter) in the heat. But they also did serve as a handbag as they had pockets.
• An underwater camera (Cambodia was the last straw for me; I would thereafter want a camera to snorkel with) and a phone that does live/motion photos. This is great for wildlife.
• Good noise-blockers. I just upgraded to QC-25s, which are amazing. When the battery died, for the few seconds before I changed it, there was a din I'd been shutting out for hours. 
• Optional but handy: a tablet. If you're making plans or reservations on the go, or even just looking things up, it's nice to have something larger than a phone. I wasn't ready to bring my iPad to the Balkans, so I bought a Kindle to have something light and cheap but bigger than a phone, and I hated it. I brought my old iPad--soon to be my dad's iPad--on this trip, and it was nice to have. I will say that the more devices, the more chargers you have to bring, which adds to the overall electronics load. Which brings me too...
• ...adapters. Mine didn't work at all because I'd neglected to learn that Malaysia uses UK, not European, outlets. Often I could plug my devices directly into their outlets, but if not I used Alex's universal adapter. I'm thinking of getting my own before my next trip to take the guesswork out of it. 
• Cold meds, because you never know. I ended up not needing mine on this trip (I did in the Balkans) but Alex made good use of them.
• A packable (or other very light) backpack. I brought one, which Alex ended up carrying around and also using as a carry-on between cities. It's super-light and doesn't take up much space but spares you from having to lug a bag that's not worth it's own weight.

That's all for now. I'm losing the fight with my body's internal clock, which thinks it's the middle of the night. More later.