Has anybody been to Borneo on here,if so what did you think of it and what would you be on your to do list?

I’ve spent a few days in Malaysian Borneo (on a little side-trip during a stopover at KL). A good decade ago mind you.

The touristy highlights for me were visiting the Orangutan Sanctuary at Sepilok:
http://www.orangutan-appeal.org.uk/about-us/sepilok-rehabilitation-centre

And the Turtle Sanctuary (this one I think, not sure) where watched a turtle come in from the sea and lay her eggs in the sand, then we got to hand-release some baby turtles back to the sea.

The Puu Jih Shih Buddhist Temple at Sandakan was also pretty impressive. (And, despite knowing the history, the extensive use of Buddhist swastikas is still oddly unsettling when viewed with European eyes).

And we visited a sea gypsy community, which was interesting.

Where is thekingisdead?
He’s just spent 2 weeks there… 8)

Excellent but expensive for what you get IMO.

Be prepared to sweat and be leeched in the jungle, but it is worth it!!

I did KK, Kinabalu, Kinabatagan River (great but v basic accommodation), Borneo forest lodge (awesome but at a price) and then the coast for R&R and golf!!!

Great experience and wildlife but with the big hole in the pocket 😉

Scary to see mans impact on the environment too 😀

We went about 5 years ago. We tend to travel very cheaply and tend to book things as we go along rather than planning everything in advance (ie flights only, local gueshouses, no resorts or chain hotels). The rainforest lodge trip was an exception but was a really amazing place to stay and well worth the money. Remember that the island is made up of 3 different countries which are quite different places. The Malaysian part is where you’re likely to spend most of your time and is easy travelling. Brunei sounds a hateful place. Indonesian Borneo is (was) little travelled and from what we heard had little tourist infrastructure, almost no tourists and not much to see or do.

Theres amazing wildlife to see and good diving. Not a lot of ‘history’ in terms of temples or historic towns.

Notes Katie wrote for someone else below –

We booked a 5 day trip while out there with Borneo Nature Tours. Two days in an eco lodge on the kinabatangan river, I think it was the Sakau lodge, then we went to the Gomantong caves where they collect bird nests for soup for a couple of hours before heading to the Danum valley for three nights at the Borneo Rain Forest Lodge.

Have a look at Borneo Eco Tours website too as they do similar trips. The Kinabatangan has lots of Probiscus monkeys living along it and you will get to do a few boats trips up it.

We climbed mount Kinabalu which I think we got our guest house in Kota to organise. You need to book as they only allow a certain number of people up each day and you have to go with local guide. Take a rain cape and a fleece. It’s cold at the top! It’s steps all the way to the lodge where you stay the night , you then get up to climb the last bit in the dark and wait for dawn at the top. The view is apparently amazing but the day we went it rained all the time so we saw nothing!
After walking down we went to the Poring hot springs to soothe our legs! It’s pretty concrete tubs, a bit basic but full of locals so quite fun.

Getting around there are very internal flights with air Asia. Cheap and easy to do on line. We crossed from Kota to sandakan and back.

The Sepilok orang utan sanctuary is a good place to see them but if you go to the Danum valley you should see them in the wild.

Leech socks are a good idea if you go into the jungle. The leeches aren’t big but can wiggle up trouser legs!

You should got to the Filipino night market in Kota which was great for fresh BBQ fish and ABC! There was a good big Chinese restaurant near by on the water front too.

We did our beach bit off Indonesian Borneo on an island called Sangalaki. It was a dive lodge on a tiny island and was amazing but quite tricky to get to and is now closed, so I have no idea about beach places.

All sounds good,a lot of the above is included in the holiday we have booked,the caves,orangutan sanctuary and boat trips,not going until the end of July so ages to go yet.

A long time ago with HM Airways 😆
Got to see the beach for about 3hrs once other than that it was all jungle.
Stunning place mind!
Was before a lot of the deforestation so can’t comment on the damage done now but heard from old friends its horrific.

Whatever you do try not venture too far from the East or North East Cost of North Borneo as I don’t want to see you in the headline news.

The current trend is surprise raid to kidnap valuable as they come in several speed boats, kidnap, then return back to their territory.

Other than that enjoy the humid hot weather and the food.

We went about 20yrs ago – the Malaysian bits

Did the stuff that folk have mentioned above (apart from the kidnapping 😉 )

We went with one of those “put something back” companies, so spent a couple of days teaching kids in a village somewhere – that was good fun, especially the insect life in the village hall shed where we slept. Accommodation was basic, with a capital F, in many of the places we stayed but that may have been budget-related

Lots of leeches, as mentioned

We spent an evening in a town which remains the only place I’ve been that had a multi-use Macdonalds/cinema/brothel/pub !

Stay on Mabul and go snorkeling or diving. Sipadan is said so be the best diving in the world and I think you will pay quite a bit to go there but the diving around Mabul is amazing. I’ve been to the Great Barrier reef which is dead by comparison. diving

Mulu national park is another interesting place. You pretty much have to fly in and out as there’s no good roads or river access. Deer Cave and Mulu

It was generally safe when I was there 4 years ago but you definitely have to watch for con artists, pick pockets, oh and being hijacked lol

There was a similar thread on this a while ago which had some good advice.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/borneo-anyone-been

Tiger leech will always welcome you to the jungle tracking …