The not so wild men of Borneo

Trip Start Jul 13, 2006
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Trip End Jul 06, 2007


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Flag of Malaysia  ,
Thursday, April 12, 2007

As we landed on the island of Borneo (more specifically - Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia)I was thinking we might see just outside the airport some head hunters standing by their mud huts, spears in hand with a few orang utans on the roof... Nothing like that. This is a very modern city and especially because India was the last place we traveled, incredibly clean and quiet. Not a bicycle rickshaw or cow to be seen and not a horn to be heard. Hard to imagine but this island that once conjured up images for me of the wild man of Borneo (no doubt an orang utan) now has more SUV's in the streets than Calgary (and that says quite a bit).
We were underwhelmed by Borneo on the whole, but we had two great experiences. We climbed Mt. Kinabalu, at 4,095 metres (the highest mountain in SE Asia with some small print exceptions). We did the 10,000 feet ascent over 2 days, we left for the summit at 3 am in the morning so that we could watch the sun come up from the summit 01 It was there a second ago - macaques
01 It was there a second ago - macaques
 . Just one hundred metres from our cabin Chevy struggled with altitude sickness, but after popping an altitude pill she bounded for the top. Quinn struggled at one of the steep sections as it was spooky climbing in the darkness with just a headlight. We had a very nice Ward Cleaver to Beaver moment (kids ask your parents) where I talked about courage being when you push through fear and we carried on. Chevy heard one woman climber say that this was the hardest thing she had ever done and by the time we approached the bottom we were hard pressed to think otherwise. It was hilarious watching us for a few days as we negotiated stairs wincing with every step.
The other hilight (Deb described it as one of the best days of her adventure filled life) was snorkeling around Sipadan Island. Quinn ever on the lookout for animals counted 42 enormous turtles that swam around us by the 600 metre wall.
Borneo appears to be racing to wipe out their rain forest so they can plant more and more Palm Oil for cooking oil.
We connected again with Myrt and Kevin's family for a few days on the Perhenthian Islands and enjoyed some great seafood and beach time.
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