Kota Kinabalu really couldn’t be further from the image we all had in our minds of what Borneo would be like. A modern Asian city, full of bright lights & air conditioned shopping malls that is clearly developing at a fast pace. Situated right on the Northern coastline of Borneo, it is perfectly located for a short boat ride out to a cluster of islands that form one of Sabah’s National Parks. Equipped with snorkelling gear we made our way across the crystal clear waters out to the island of Safi, a beautifully under-developed island where the only way to spend the night is by camping, there refreshingly not being a single hotel or guesthouse, just a simple restaurant and a couple of shacks providing dive & snorkelling gear.
A white sand beach surrounded by coral reef & perfect turquoise waters with an abundance of tropical fish swimming right up to the shoreline, making great snorkelling very easy & accessible. The weather here was great, about 35 degrees with a cool sea breeze taking the sting out of the humidity on the mainland. The idyllic setting had also proved attractive to a host of
large monitor lizards, averaging around 1-1.5metres, they bore more than a passing resemblance to the Komodo Dragons we visited in Indonesia not so long ago. Drawn in by the smell of the BBQ’d meat that was being prepared, they patiently sat around a few metres away from where we were sunbathing, being kept placid by the odd chunk of BBQ’d chicken being thrown their way by the guy doing the cooking.
Jonny’s shoulder injury had now unfortunately got to such a bad state that he was unable to travel the long & bumpy mountainous bus journey over to the east of Borneo to visit the jungle rain forest reserves, home to the wild man of Borneo (and no Mother, that isn’t me what with my unruly hair & beard these days!), the Orang-utan. So Jonny spent a few more days in Kota Kinabalu while Claire & I made our way across to Sandakan & the Kintamani Rainforest Reserve.
They call these reserves ‘pockets of jungle’ and they are really are now just relatively small pockets of rainforest that have been saved from deforestation in place of enormous palm tree plantations to feed the ever hungry palm oil industry. The palm plantations are on such a huge scale, that for the most part as far as the eye can see in all directions are just palm trees on land that was once rainforest. The palm trees do not offer an environment in which many of the native jungle creatures, including the Orang-utan, can actually survive in and there are also a huge amount of Orang-utans & other wildlife that are killed during the de-forestation process. The palm oil business, whilst being good for the economy of Malaysia, has unnecessarily made a near endangered species out of the Orang-utan, one of the few remaining species of great apes that share 96% of the same DNA as humans – apparently our 3rd closest living ancestor.
So we booked ourselves into ‘Uncle Tans Wildlife Adventures’ for our trip out to a one of the pockets of jungle. Due to the amount of time we had to cut our Borneo visit short by as a result of the Indian visa nonsense we only had 2 nights to spend over this side of the island. So we stayed at Uncle Tan’s B&B for a night & took the early morning journey into the jungle camp for a one day tour, before returning to the comforts of the B&B again for another night. A pretty good decision as it turned out, as we managed to take a trek through the jungle, go fishing for Cat-fish, 
take a river cruise & eat three meals without actually having to spend a night in the ultra basic jungle camp accommodation. The sleeping huts had no windows or doors at all, & just an inch thick mattress placed directly on the wooden floor with a mosquito net hanging above. We thought our jungle accommodation in Ecuador was basic enough – but this was something else.
Anyway, during our jungle trip we didn’t actually catch a glimpse of any wild Orang-utans, but did however spot a few of the rare Probiscus Monkeys – their defining features being pot bellies & huge noses. Not dissimilar to your average ageing alcoholic really...
The following morning we made our way down to the ‘Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre’, a rainforest area of 40 square kilometres that has been completely set aside for breeding, rehabilitation & freedom for Orang-utans who have been rescued from wild when they were displaced by the deforestation. There are several points within this reserve where the wardens provide regular food for Orang-utans who are still finding their feet as wild & self sufficient creatures, though only one of these feeding stations is visible to the public for viewing. Twice daily the wardens bring out the food & very quickly several Orang-utans come swinging into the area to take advantage of it. Fantastic to see in such close proximity, & whilst this area of the reserve may seem a little zoo-like, the reserve is run in such a way that only Orang-utans at a certain stage of their rehabilitation come into this area & are exposed to humans. 
The Centre is actually run with the needs & considerations of the Orang-utans placed firmly as their key objective, rather than the need to be able to show off these creatures to camera wielding tourists. A great job is being done in the preservation & conservation of the Orang-utan in one of their last natural habitats left on earth, where the alternative for them is pretty much certain extinction as a result of the amount of money available associated with the Palm Oil industry.
A beautiful island with much more to offer than we had time to experience this time around, it is a place that we’re sure will open up as a much more accessible tourist destination over the coming years due to the relatively cheap flights Air Asia offer in & out of Kuala Lumpur, & certainly somewhere we hope to return to one day & spend a little more time.
After meeting up with a still somewhat crippled Jonny in Kota Kinabalu, we all flew back to Kuala Lumpur for the third time – where unfortunately our trip with Jonny would come to an end, three months that had passed way too quickly but which had been a real adventure & a great laugh. However, quite when Jonny would actually get home was hanging in the balance somewhat as a result of the Icelandic volcanic eruption which had put a hold on all flights back to Europe. So having finally got our Indian visas finalised Claire & I took our flight to Delhi, leaving a stranded & slightly crippled Jonny to wait it out in Kuala Lumpur for an undefined period. Thankfully this time we had upgraded to a guesthouse that was a significant upgrade from The Paradiso, called The Rainforest Inn, meaning Jonny had somewhere more comfortable to wait it out...In true Jonny style however, having been convinced by the Emirates office that his original flight time would go ahead, he had thrown his only remaining pair of shorts in the bin & given his guitar away to one of the girls in the hostel...
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