With the hardest part of our trip completed (the climb up Mount Kinabalu), the holiday element was officially about to start, and the bit I had most been looking forward to – a visit to the Orang-Utans!
As we had decided to base ourselves in the major city of Kota Kinabalu, we needed to take a flight to Sandakan to visit the famous Sepilok Sanctuary. This is the first Rehabilitation Centre of its kind founded in 1964. The site itself is 43sq km with circa 60-80 orang-utans living there free in the reserve.
We chose to book this via a tour from EcoTours Borneo, but I believe it is very do-able alone. Our guide for the day “call me Jumanji” collected us from the airport at 8am. They request that you arrive at Sandakan airport no later than 8am, to ensure we are at the sanctuary in time for the morning feed. About an hour away from the airport, we arrived at the sanctuary for 9am, and had time to watch a video on the work completed by the sanctuary, and it’s purpose. It was very informative, and I can honestly say, I was not aware that Orang-Utans were seriously endangered species until having seen it.
Essentially how it works is there is an indoor nursery, where orang-utans are first brought when found orphaned or abandoned. Here they learn some basic skills and how to interact with others, as they get older and develop more abilities, they are moved to the outdoor play area, where they learn to swing from one tree to another, build nests and forage for food. Finally, when deemed ready, they are released into the wild, but still with the support of daily feedings should they require it.
Our first stop was a morning feed. There are two a day, one at around 10am and the other at 3pm. There is no guarantee that any orang-utans will appear as they are living in the wild. In fact had we not seen any at the feeding platform, it was likely a positive thing, as it means they were able to find enough nutrition in the rainforest itself.
Luckily for us (not so much them), 5 minutes after the food being placed out, a few orang-utans swung their way across for their morning meal. It wasn’t until a little later, that we found out that the reason the sanctuary worker dropped the food and quickly walked away when they were approaching was because these, that turned up, were 100% wild and hadn’t been part of the rehabilitation process (which can be determined by whether or not they have a number tattooed on their arm, which actually is quite sad). But as they swung their way to the food, I was just in awe at how incredible these creatures were. They were just so humanlike! And whilst I find it hard to describe exactly why, hopefully the videos and photos help do it more justice.
After watching them for 20minutes or so, we moved over to their outdoor nursery. This for all intense purposes was more like a zoo, in that you were guaranteed a view of several orang-utans as they swung on the monkey bars, and waddled around from one area to another. It was so interesting to see how they differed in personalities. Some were hyperactive and loved playing on all the apparatus, others were super lazy and had to be dragged out to eat by volunteer workers (awesome job right?) and some were downright naughty and refused to do anything but steal food and hide away to eat it. Now you’re probably beginning to understand why I found them so humanlike, not to mention they share 96.4% of the same DNA with us!
After finishing up with the outdoor nursery, we head over to the sun bear conservation area. These are the worlds smallest bears, and they live in the same outdoor space as the orang-utans. The orang-utans are known to be scared of these bears, so tend to leave them be, which is great, because they basically do nothing apart from eat and sleep. They looked super cute, but it didn’t take long to realise that there wasn’t much to see here, and we decided to head back for food.
Whilst we had our average at best food, we were distracted by a little hubbub outside the canteen. An orang-utan had decided he wanted to come and see all the action, and was literally just chilling outside – again this was incredible!
I mean when ever in life would you ever get to be this close to such an endangered species. Thousands of photos later, we went back to our food.
We had booked the full day tour, which included a rainforest walk. Now this would have been way more enjoyable had we actually been able to walk. The muscle pain from the climb, had started to kick in, in full force. Whilst we did manage to hobble our way around the rainforest, we were unsuccessful taking any stairs for higher viewpoints. Regardless, we saw some stunning scenery and had a brilliant day!
Jumaji dropped us back to the airport for our 6pm flight – which we were excited to get on, as we had big plans for a massage that evening, which we though may remedy the pain in our legs. But of course our flight was delayed, and instead we ended up feeding the massage chairs at the airport all our loose change.
As we were pretty hungry when we landed (and we’d been eating pretty poorly up until this point) we decided to try a recommendation at a place called Mad Ben, in the city centre. Between us we ordered garlic bread, a pizza, a pasta, a lamb based dish and a bottle of wine (which was pretty funny, as I have never seen staff so excited to serve wine) and all the dishes were not only tasty, but really filling and great value for money.
Thankfully we also managed to find a massage place open until 11pm (this sounds like it’s going to be seedy doesn’t it) and who managed to fit all three of us in! The place was called Kama'A Rejuvenation & Wellbeing Spa, and was filled with professionals. The place was clean, relaxing and even offered a collection and drop off service. Genuinely, I think this may have been the best idea of the whole trip. That evening we went to bed a little soothed and very content.
The next day we treated ourselves to the first lie in of the holiday (although we still made breakfast for 9.30am) and then decided to check out the hotel facilities. We were staying at the Ming Garden Hotel, and whilst we had spent little time there, they were nothing but hospitable. Location wise, it was perfect, as it was close to the airport, and also had a huge shopping centre across the road, which had helped satisfy all our eating needs up until this point.
We discovered the spa here, and were so pleasantly surprised by how affordable the massages were here, that we opted to have one straight after check-out. Hotel guests are also entitled to 10% off the menu price, therefore making it half the price we had paid the previous day.
The spa itself wasn’t to the same standards as that of Karma’a, but given the price we paid, I feel like we got value for money. The massages were slightly different to the one the day before, and I guess the best way to describe it, would be a lot tougher. Neil even commented that he had Malaysia’s strongest woman massaging him. However, they were really good in focusing on our main pain areas, after we told them of the climb, and following this massage, I started to feel a little normal again.
After the second massage of our trip, we checked out and head over to our new hotel for the remainder of our stay - The Horizon Hotel. The location of this hotel was great to be able to venture around the main town of Kota Kinabalu, and we decided to drop our bags and check out the local area, as well as decide what to do with our remaining time in Borneo.
We came across a tour operator, who suggested we go to one of the islands the following day. He was so helpful, and even advised that we were better off making our own way there, rather than booking via a tour, so we decided to do that the next day.
That evening we went to check out the Sunset Bar at the Shangrila. There is a reason it is the number one place to visit in Kota Kinabalu, the view of the sun setting was second to none I had ever seen before. A chilled glass of wine and that view, was enough to make us romanticize about just how beautiful Borneo is. Our trio was becoming a quarto that evening, with the birthday boy arriving, so we decided to head back towards the hotel to find somewhere to dine.
We opted for a restaurant called Chilli Vanilla. The first thing I have to say about this place is that the cocktails are incredible, and is one of the few places that seem to have great cocktails! Secondly, the service was ace. We asked them to bring out a cake when the birthday boy arrived, and they were just fabulous about it. The place was definitely an all rounder, with some great dining choices (especially for the vegetarians) and meant we left very happy. Chilli Vanilla is more low key, than prestigious dining, which is probably why I liked it even better. You could tell the concentration was very much on the food and service, which is how it should be!
Having had a great meal, and kicked of the celebrations we decided to head to a club we had passed earlier in the evening. Clubs in Kota Kinabalu are like none I have ever been to before. It happened to be the Saturday before Halloween and everyone seemed to be going big for it!
The bar, 999 was all decked out in Halloween deco and everyone was in fancy dress! This one woman had even dressed up like Lord Vishnu, and painted herself blue and given herself extra arms. It was insane! There was a live band instead of a DJ, and people would walk up and down this runway to sing. It was more like a show than a club, but hugely entertaining! Our evening was very quickly spent there and before we knew it, it was time for bed, ready for our final full day in Kota Kinabalu.
We head down to Jesselton Point, where there is an array of motorboat service providers, and opted to go to Manukan Island for the day. The motorboat dropped us off there at 1pm and we had until 4pm to do as we pleased on the island.
Snorkelling was on the agenda. There were so many fish in the sea that we actually managed to see quite a lot despite the water being quite cloudy. We had been forewarned that the island was known to be quite dirty, but I can’t say I experienced that at all. We lay on the beach for a bit, grabbed some food and before we knew it, were on our way back to the mainland. It was short lived, but very enjoyable!
That day was Diwali, and in true Shah Diwali style, the evening was spent eating Indian food, having a few drinks and catching up on life with friends and family.
We opted to go to an Indian Restaurant called Kohinoor North Indian on the Waterfront, and indulged in a lovely meal. We wandered a few bars, and ended up at a Sheesha café (given it is no longer readily available in Singapore, we have become fiends for it elsewhere).
An evening of good food, wine, location and company meant that it was the perfect end to a very varied and interesting trip.
Despite all the strenuous activities that pushed me out of my comfort zone, this may have been one of my favourite trips from Singapore yet.
Borneo – you were amazing. Until we meet again.
