'No have' Borneo

Arriving in Borneo we had high expectations of a thriving first world Asian country. We started off in Kota Kinabalu where we went on a snorkeling trip on a small island just off the mainland. We realised we were in a developed country as until now we have been using boats that are continuously taking on water and ridiculously overloaded and in contrast, in Malaysia they were powerboat racer style with about 500hp. The islands had white sand and clear waters, but a current had swept a large amount of jelly fish and we all got stung a little.

Next we hired a car with our new friends (Tim & Lisa) and headed to the famous Kinabalu mountain which we were keen to climb. Unfortunately we only ended up doing a day walk as we were priced out of climbing the mountain (the pass for two days was more expensive than the pass for two weeks of climbing in Nepal). This was one of our first tastes of over-charging for tourist attractions on Sabah, which is a real shame as they have a lot to offer visitors, but our pockets were not deep enough for the $250 asking price for two days of walking. We were starting to realise that Borneo was set up for packages and did not make being a backpacker very easy at all.


Next was a trip to the Orang Utan Sanctuary in Sepilok which we really enjoyed. It appears that the wildlife is being wiped out because of all of the deforestation of the rain forests to make way for palm oil plantations. Whilst there we were lucky enough (when most of the other visitors had disappeared with their noisy children) to see a mother and her four month old baby; they were absolutely adorable. We decided to skip the Probiscus monkey sanctuary the next day as it was privately owned by Palm Oil landowners and wanted a considerable fee to enter their park. We were not so keen on funding these Palm oil companies who were clearly trying to promote themselves as keen sponsors of sustainability and wildlife sanctuaries, yet they are the main cause for all the environmental issues the animals are actually facing.

 

A mother-to-be; check out her very pregnant tummy!

 

The adorable mother and baby

Getting talking to the local people we have some to realise that Malaysia appears to suffer from the same kind of corruption as most of SE Asia. The business and land owners rule the land, make all the money and don't appear to give anything back to the people who are still extremely poor in some areas and lack basic amenities; in a country as rich in natural resources as Malaysia it is hard to accept.

We headed to Semporna from where we would dive 12 times each over 4 days. Semporna itself was pretty grotty with open sewage smells comparable to that of India. The diving however was absolutely stunning and we were so pleased to have got to be able to dive the famous Sipadan Island because they are limited to 120 visitors per day and the demand is very high. So, we saw a lot of turtles, some of which were HUGE. Sharks (grey and white tipped reef variety), huge schools of 1 metre long bumphead parrot fish, thousands of barracuda, jack fish, amazing corals, eagle rays, the list goes on. We were hoping to see hammerhead sharks, but we couldn't complain after having four of the best days of diving we've ever had.

 

The local people really do live on a paradise island......

The childrens playground

After the fun of diving we headed back to KK for an evening of pizza and red wine before flying to KL on Peninsular Malaysia. We are currently on Pualu Pangkor, which is a little island just off the West coast of Malaysia where we are hanging out with Cea and Nina on the beach!