Corpse Flowers and Wasted Hours

Five days in Kota Kinabalu, visiting the national park in search of Malaysia’s National flower, seeing the sights in the city and booking the worst snorkel tour known to man.

Kota Kinabalu, known as KK for short, is the capital city of Sabah, and it was also the last stop in Anthony’s (my current travel bud) and my Borneo adventure. After being on so many package tour type things, we were looking forward to having a bit of freedom in terms of food variety and activities.

The days here have, admittedly all blurred together for me a bit (I actually think IT 2 was here and not Sandakan now thinking about it) so this one might be a bit hazy. I know that on one of the days we took ourselves to the National Park located nearby. A lot of people go there to climb the mountain but that sounded like a lot of effort, so we just went to walk around and try and hunt down a rafflesia and just have a nice mountainy walk around. After a bit of research, we went and got a shared minivan from the long distance bus station next to the night market, the cost was about RM 25 each with no movement, although we managed to only pay 20 on the way back. We were the last two in so we didn’t have to wait long before we set off on the two hour journey to the park.

Since we’d left so early, we arrived with more or less the full day to go, but first order or business was to find some coffee. There aren’t actually many catering options there and especially not first thing in the morning. There is a really nice place a little walk in, which I think was called Ligawu restaurant. It was too early for food so we sat in their beautiful conservatory area and had giant cups of tea. Honestly, these things gave Sports Direct mugs a run for their money. We hung out here for a while before walking across to the Botanical Garden. There was a small entry fee and it was actually quite small. We asked afterwards too and it turns out that they don’t have any of the giant corpse flowers there either – probably should have done better research on that one! Still, I found a giant sculpture of one in the park and that entertained me enough to make up for the lack of real one.

We’d noticed that the food places all seemed to be really rather expensive buffets featuring, you guessed it, more stuff on rice. We were almost resigned to having to pay extortionately for food we really didn’t want but did need when we stumbled across the one mini shop n that first area of the park. Turns out they do super cheap noodle and rice dishes. After all of my complaining about rice, I think I actually ordered some chicken fried rice. I love fried rice though- it’s just the random ‘stuff’ on plain rice that I’ve had too much of lately. In teh afternoon we embarked upon of the (admittedly shorter) walks marked on our map before heading back and catching another shared minivan back to the city.

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On another evening we trundled across to the beautiful Sabah State Mosque a short drive out of central KK. We paid 5RM to some locals on plastic stools for entry purely onto some grassy grounds providing a nice view, before later realising there’s another entrance and this probably wasn’t an official fee and could have been easily avoided. The view was nice though. We tried to flag a taxi to take us back as we had no data, but they wanted to charge twice what we’d paid a Grab to get there. Yes, it’s not crazy expensive, but it is the principle of the thing. Being stubborn, we walked to a nearby 7-eleven and used their internet to book our return journey.

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The final excursion worth mentioning was our entirely unsuccessful island and snorkel trip. Since Anthony and I had been unable to snorkel or dive together up until this point (in Mabul we were separate as I was diving and he was snorkelling) we really wanted to go together. I’d heard the islands near KK were utterly lovely and a great place for marine life so we tried to arrange a snorkelling trip for this. Unfortunately they were all on the expensive side (think more than dive prices in other parts of Asia). We had, however, both already committed to Borneo biting heavily into our budgets before we came out, so we were willing to do this trip, even given that the cheapest were coming up at about $50. It became clear why the extra expense was there when we found one we really liked the sound of. It was a dive shop and they took you on the dive boat to really beautiful dive sites that you could also snorkel in the shallows and you got lunch on one of the pretty islands. Unfortunately because everything we were planning was so last minute, we were too late to book this one. Luckily we found another one for only slightly more that sounded, at a ver quick read of the description, like the first one.

It was not.

In fact it was awful. You didn’t even get fins – you had to pay extra for them. And of course you would because all good snorkelling from a boat is fun to practice freediving in and you want fins for that if you’re anywhere near as ungainly as I am. The only other people on the tour with us were a family of four from Australia with a newly teenage girl and a younger boy. The girl could wear an adult snorkel mask and fins but the boy was too small for them. Although the website says the trip is suitable for 4+, the company was actually not equipped for this. They didn’t have a life jacket that fit him either. Hilariously, there were stalls everywhere selling snorkel masks in all sizes and the obvious solution would have been for the company to purchase one in order to provide what they promised for all customers. They didn’t and the poor boy was told he wasn’t able to snorkel, which he’d clearly been extremely excited about and he spent the entire (public btw) boat ride over in tears.

This boat ride stopped at an island. I thought it would stop in the sea but apparently this was more of a two-island hop with lunch and snorkelling, rather than the dedicated snorkel trip we’d wanted that the description had sounded so similar to. We were dropped off and sent off the beach to snorkel. I’m a diver and was not even slightly excited by the concept of seeing one of two buttery fish against a sandy floor in murky water. Hilariously, this turned out to not actually be an option either as our masks and breathing apparatus flooded immediately upon entering the water. Snorkelling was just not going to be an option.

This was actually Anthony’s last day before his flight home and we did not want to waste it on the most poorly organised snorkel trip known to man. It was at this point that I decided I’d rather just have my day back. We asked for a refund because the trip could not provide what it promised and they told us we’d have to go through our booking company. We asked to leave and they told us there wasn’t another boat until later in the day. Eventually we managed to manoeuvre our way onto a boat in an hours time, and get back a few hours earlier than we would have otherwise, but it was an utterly awful experience. One I’m still hoping we can get a refund for.

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The highlight of KK, however, was the roti canai at a place near the night market that I can only refer to by the ’24 jam’ sign outside the door, and the aptly named ‘Soon Fatt’ restaurant across the street. I think it was 1.2 RMY per roti, and you got daal, a curry and condensed milk (depending on the server) with it. It was cooked so perfectly the first time that it just flaked everywhere. I think Roti Canai is traditionally a breakfast or a snack but we had it for dinner several nights in a row. Yum.

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The other main thing to be mentioned about KK was that this was where Anthony and I finally separated after a two-month strong adventure across three countries. As I mentioned before, he’d booked his flight home a few weeks ago and so, he got into a Grab airport bound, whilst I had one final night alone in KK before taking the ferry across to Brunei first thing the next morning.

Karma on the Kinabatangan

Three days and two nights on a Kinabatangan River cruise, and then a day in Sandakan.

Our trip to the Kinabatangan river was basically a packaged tour, which included accomodation, all meals, and several river safaris/walks. Retrospectively, I think there probably are better companies to go with, but ours was fine and not crazy expensive.

We had our first river safari soon after arriving, and it was really exciting as the first one. About eight of us, clad in orange life jackets, tumbled into a small boat, sitting two abreast on painfully hard seats. We spent about two hours on the river, squinting through the sunset at lots of interesting birds, including several hornbills, which we stopped and ‘oohed’ over, as well as tons of short tailed macaques. We also heard a pygmy elephant and saw the trees shaking in the distance, but unfortunately it never emerged from it’s cover so we didn’t get to actually see it, even though it was definitely nearby. The highlight was spotting some of the famed proboscis monkeys clambering on a nearby tree. With numb bums and the beginnings of a headache we arrived back at the base in time for the first of many buffet meals consisting of – you guessed it: stuff on rice. It didn’t taste terrible but over the next few days I would become thoroughly bored with ‘stuff on rice’.

After dinner was the first night safari river cruise. Anthony and I boarded the boat first, giving us first dibs on seats. Naturally, I figured that the front is the best spot as your view isn’t hindered by anyone in front of you, but I am far too British to just waltz on and claim that seat. My New Yorker companion, however, does not have that issue, and so we semi-obnoxiously, semi-awkwardly plonked ourselves down in this favoured position. Don’t worry though: karma will get me. This evening was a crocodile hunt and it was super exciting. I’d lost the numbness caused by sitting and had taken a painkiller for my headache so was feeling excited about what else we might get to see. My hopes were set on the ultimate bucketlist prize on this kind of trip: a sighting of wild orangutans and maybe a pygmy elephant thrown in for good measure. These aren’t really nighttime sightings though so this evening my hopes were set on crocodiles.

There was something very atmospheric about being in the dark, on a still and quiet river in the rainforest. The boat driver had a torch which he was shining at the edges of the river, and Anthony had told me to keep an eye out for reflective red eyes. Creepy! I didn’t really know what that would look like until we saw it: a pair of spooky red marbles, glowing in the shadows. We edged closer and closer to them. The thing is – the driver is steering from the back of the boat, trying to make sure everyone gets a good view, and we’re in the front of the boat, getting, one might say, too good a view. I am literally 1 metre away from a famously snappy reptile and still the boat is edging closer. We legit almost went over the top of this crocodile before, in a pulse of wild movement it turns and lunges underwater. I, of course, squeak in panic, genuinely thinking I’m about to have this scaly guy in my lap and be a least one limb down. The synchronised squeaks behind me and our speedy retreat make me think that I was not the only one with that thought. The guide then decided to tell us that these crocodiles are extra dangerous because they don’t release bubbles underwater so you can’t tell where they are most of the time. Fabulous.

This being at the front lark got me into trouble another time too. Later that cruise, we sailed close to the edge of the river to see a snake that was perched on some rocks, overhanging the water. Again, the boat driver, at the back, was trying to make sure everyone could see based on his own vantage point – which as much further away than ours. The front of the boat got so close to the edge of the river that it genuinely bumped the rock that the snake was on – which happened to be on side on which I was I was sat. I literally expected the snake to fall onto my face. It didn’t, thank frog, but a few minutes later what I can only pray was a leaf lands on my head. I, again, squeal, and a few of my comrades giggle in compassion. I think this is how friendships are formed.

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Day two was filled with more stuff on rice and more painful boat seats. The sunrise cruise was actually a little uninspiring: we spent a really long time looking at the same old hornbills again on the way to the part of the river that the orangutans hang out, and then we immediately had to head back. This, I think, is the main issue with the set up of this retreat. You’re not a single group that the guide gets to know, and therefore they know what you’ve seen and what you want to see so can work really hard on that particular aspect. The group changes every day with the influx of new people who’s days cross over with your days. For that reason there were multiple people who hadn’t been ‘ooohing’ at the birds yesterday but for those of us that had already done two cruises and were on a mission to see orangutans, it actually was really uninspiring.

We had an afternoon jungle walk where they told us upfront that we weren’t likely to see any animals. They’d talk to us about the plants but no animals would be around here, and if they were, it’d be dangerous and we’d have to immediately leave. That was kind of disappointing but the walk itself was interesting enough.

The afternoon cruise was exactly the same as the day before, but less exciting because we’d already done all of it. The one huge pro to going a second time was that we got to watch a group of monkeys crossing a rope bridge. It was super cute watching them all scamper across, especially the mothers with babies. But when the alpha started crossing there was a collective gasp from down where we were and a muttered ‘Look at the balls on that’. Honestly, they were like nunchucks.

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That evening, we opted to do the cruise again instead of a walk through the forest as we wanted the best chance of seeing more animals. I’d given up on orangutans and pygmy elephants by this point to be honest, but I wanted to see the crocodiles again. The highlight of the cruise, and probably the entire few days was that we saw something that I didn’t even realise was on the list of things we were looking out for, and only realised how exciting this was because the tour guide was damn near hysterical about the fact that we’d spotted a slow loris. The cute little thing was just slowly crawling through the branches above us, as 8 tourists and one shrieking tour guide tried to take photos in the dark.

It turns out that I’m way worse at spotting wildlife above land than I am in water. I love diving and being briefed before hand on what I might see, so I can enjoy looking for it. I’ve gotten pretty good at spotting things too and was starting to think I might have reasonably sharp eyes for this kind of thing. Above land though, I am blind AF apparently. I just could not see half the things they were pointing out until we’d been staring for ten minutes. I also think I would have enjoyed the safaris more if we had had a briefing on what type of things we could try looking for ourselves. I started to get massive neck ache from scanning the tallest trees every boat ride, without really even knowing if the orangutans were even likely to be awake.

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We left for Sandakan the next morning. I’m not proud of it but I’m so bored of not being excited by food lately – on package tours you get a lot of the same kind of thing, whereas the thing I’m really excited about in Malaysia (Peninsula and Borneo) is the Indian food. As such we immediately sourced an Indian restaurant pretty much straight after arriving. I was planning on ordering the banana leaf set anyhow, which was lucky as as soon as we sat down we were bombarded with quick-fire questions:

Banana Leaf? Rice? Meat? Which kind? Soup? Daal? Roti? Drinks?

Luckily I’ve ordered one of these before so knew vaguely what the questions were referring to, but it was definitely a bit full on. After we successfully ordered we got food within about 2 minutes as they built the banana leaf set in front of us. A german couple walked in and since there were no free tables, they sat them at ours (coincidentally the only other westerners in the place). They got the same kind of bombardment of questions but luckily we were there to explain, which was nice as it made us another set of ‘couple friends’.

The other exciting things that happened on our one day in Sandakan are that I bought new flipflops as my second pair of Havainas broke in exactly the same place as the first. I would have bought more Havainas (I still stand by them!) but they didn’t sell them in Sabah at all so I had to buy the Malaysian-favoured brand Fipper. They took more wearing in but are ultimately fine. We also continued our cinema trend by watching It: Chapter Two in 4D. Exciting – I’ve never done 4D before. It’s like 2D but with a slightly more active chair.

Relaxation and Rehabilitation

Three days in Sepilok, relaxing in a rain forest lodge, visiting the orangutans and arranging for our trip along the Kinabatangan river.

I’m not going to lie, it seemed crazy to plan something as delicate as Borneo the night before and I wished we’d had weeks to perfect the route, but it was this or nothing, so we muddled through. I’d had to run around Kuala Lumpur trying to replace my hiking boots (that fell apart on the Thakhet loop) before we came out, which was only semi-successful. I ended up getting non-waterproof trainers for now but at least I have some comfy walking shoes. We knew there were some amazing nature opportunities whilst we were here and whilst I’d have loved to have been fully prepared and equipped to deal with them, this is the price I’ve paid for the kind of flexibility I’ve favoured whilst backpacking so far. So, there we were, after three days diving around Semporna, we were back on the mainland, in our hostel, trying to plan how to do the next bit of our Borneo adventure and really struggling.

We wanted to go on a Kinabatangan River safari type thing, but this too seemed to be really hard to find affordably online. The Dutch couple we’d met diving were going with Uncle Tam’s, which I’ve heard is good for backpackers if you’re happy to rough it, but it was hard to find solid reviews and information on this. After the river, it was going to be Sepilok to see the Orangutans, but since it looked like we’d need to go to Sepilok or Sandakan in order to go on one of these river safari packages anyhow, we decided to do that full part of the trip first. We opted to just stay in Sepilok for a few days and explore everything there, and to take those extra few days to work out the best way in which to do the safari.

This meant that we got a very early bus out of Semporna the following morning. Since it was too early for us to find somewhere to sit and eat for breakfast, I grabbed some Roti Canai from the cafe by the Semporna Bus Station that I’d favoured when we were here before the dives. Anthony was adamant he wasn’t hungry but I got him one anyway to eat on the bus, and so began our love affair with Roti Canai. Roti is a type of Indian style flatbread that is kind of like a flakey pastry when done right. They usually serve it with daal as a minimum, but sometimes with other bits and pieces. I think it’s usually a snack or a breakfast dish, but we ate it all the time following this. It’s so incredibly inexpensive. One from this cafe costs the equivalent of 20pence. Daal included. One is a good snack, two will easily fill you for a meal. The ones here were quite sweet and buttery so felt very breakfasty – expect updates on the best places to get this dish as I write further posts on Borneo. If Indian food was my go-to on peninsula Malaysia (Tandoori sets in Penang, Chapati sets and Thali in Kuala Lumpur) then Roti Canai was definitely my Malaysian Borneo favourite.

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Since we were booking very last minute, we ended up getting a room at Sepilok B & B for a few days. It wasn’t the cheapest option as, again, last minute, although it wasn’t too bad, especially if there are two or more of you, but it was actually really lovely. More of a resort than a hotel, and set in a forested area on the edge of the rainforest, the setting was absolutely wonderful. Each room had an ensuite and a balcony area which was utterly perfect for watching some of the most incredibly tropical thunderstorms and it just felt so peaceful. It was a nice retreat for a few days although the food nearby wasn’t amazing or super cheap. We ate at the White House a lot because it was more affordable but nothing was as mind-blowing as the Roti Canai, sadly (and it was lierally 10 times the price to buy it in this area and only half as good).

The main thing that Sepilok is famous for is the Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre and, aside from a few relaxing days in a forest setting allowing us to plan a bit, this was the main reason we were here. We were hoping to catch a glimpse of these beautiful primates in the wild on our river safari, but knew this wasn’t 100% guaranteed and so also visited the rehabilitation centre here. You go early in the morning to witness feeding time with about 300 other tourists, but actually, it’s usually other types of monkey that come along for the free food. The Orangutans are bored of the diet apparently – it’s designed specifically this way to encourage them to find their own food and therefore rehabilitate them back into the wild. They’re not enclosed at all by the looks of things, which is nice. We didn’t spot any adults but luckily you can visit the nursery where the younger ones play. We spent ages watching them there: they’re kind of both majestic and goofy at the same time. They just flail their limbs swinging from tree to tree but somehow manage to latch on to something every time.

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We went into the nearby city of Sandakan at one point in order to do laundry (it was literally cheaper to pay the fare to the city and for laundry than it was to get it done at our accommodation) and to ask around about tours. The tour agencies all have much cheaper prices in person than you find online and I think it worked out in the end at about 100 pounds (500MR) for three days on the river. The tours are all very similar and include a private room for two nights, all meals, about 4 river cruises and a few forest walks. We also may have eaten an absolute ton of Mcdonalds whilst we were there. We’d just gotten so bored of stuff on rice in Semporna, and then the food in Sepilok wasn’t inspiring and we just wanted food we were vaguely excited by the taste of.

After going back to our accommodation in Sepilok, we booked a tour with Sakau Greenview B & B for the next day. They were happy to pick us up from Sepilok as it was on the way to the river so that made things nice and easy. I liked our stay in Sepilok a lot actually. It was nice just to relax a little in such a peaceful (if buggy) setting, even though the food was dull and expensive. Seeing the Orangutans, even just in a sanctuary, felt like one of those once in lifetime kind of things too, and I was excited and hopeful about the chance to see them in wild over the next part of our trip

Sealife in Sipadan

3 days scuba diving the islands around Semporna, including the famous Sipadan.

Researching Borneo was actually far more work than I’ve done in months! I never thought I’d end up there as my Asia plans were only meant to be three and a half countries, and Borneo isn’t exactly an obvious backpacker destination. Since making our last minute decision to go, however, I think I was pretty speedy in getting an itinerary together, even if it was a bit haphazard. I’d found a few blogs and traveller itineraries and realised there was a pretty obvious route through Sabah that excited both of us. It was, basically, flying into Kota Kinabalu (KK), the capital, and checking out the islands there, then heading over to Sandakan and Sepilok and seeing the Orangutans in the rehabilitation centre there. Following this, we’d attempt to see them, and a few other cool animals in the wild by doing a Kinabatangan River safari, ending the trip with a visit to the islands near Semporna to dive/snorkel one of the top sites in the world and then flying out of Tawau.

Now, I can’t remember exactly the reason for this, but we realised we’d be better off trying to do this route backwards. I think it was partly because the flights out of KK were better for Anthony getting back in time to make his international flight home from Kuala Lumpur, and also because the routes out of KK were better and far more flexible for me, who had not yet figured out where I’d go next when my 2 month strong travel bud finally left.

Flights from KL to Tawau were totally doable, what was complicated, though, was figuring out exactly how to arrange our trip around Semporna in a matter of days. People go here pretty much to scuba dive. The island of Sipadan is internationally renowned as a dive spot and since I was passing so close and likely would never be here again, it seemed important that I try and dive it. The issue is, I’m used to booking a random hostel I like the sounds of, and then finding the best dive centre separately. I never book them together but that is all it’s possible to find when trying to arrange to dive this island. You can only find packages. And they’re not cheap, at all. From my Sabah research I’d heard that Billabong was one of the cheaper options: their website has been updated a lot since I booked and I had to have several email back and forths with them to try and figure out a) what the options were, b) how much they were and c), whether they had availability and those all important Sipadan permits left for two days from then, when our tight itinerary demanded we arrive. Simply staying there as a non-diver was crazy expensive as they only offered us a snorkel package. Anthony doesn’t dive and I think it’s fair to say that most normal travel buddies would have split at this point and reunited in a mutually beneficial place for both of them – if their travel plans worked out that way that is. If it wasn’t obvious already then I think this makes it clear that Anthony and I were prioritising staying together for the last few weeks rather than our own individual travel ideals. As such, we both ended up staying at Billabong on Mabul island so I could dive and Anthony could snorkel and relax at an extravagant cost.

Our package required us getting to their office in Semporna in the early morning in order to register and take a boat to the island. As such, you need to stay in Semporna the night before. I think we took a bus direct from Tawau airport to Semporna for about 50RM each and then stayed about a 15 minute walk away from the Billabong office so we just walk the distance. They emailed us the night before saying that their card machine was broken so could we please bring cash. Of course, I didn’t see it until the morning so had nowhere near enough cash on me and so they said I could pay when we came back. Admittedly, it had crossed my mind that they might only accept cash but I’ve not been anywhere that does regular transactions of that cost and doesn’t have a card machine, even in Asia, so I assumed it would be okay. Additionally, when I questioned them more about the card machine it sounds like they never had one or it had been broken for months so they probably could have mentioned it earlier, but it didn’t cause a massive issue so it’s fine.

Upon arriving we were given a welcome drink, a wet towel, and keys to our rooms. Interestingly you get a room per person containing two beds, even if you want to share a room. We tried to see if we could cut the cost by sharing but they said it would still be the same price. That seems slightly strange to me but fair enough. We kept an extra room for our trinkets and what-not then. It also became apparent from our first ‘couple friends’ that not all rooms were created equal. Ruben and Anouk had one of the pretty little huts on stilts overlooking the water with a deck and outdoor seating area, whereas both of the rooms we were allocated were dark and dank and on land, not over the sea. We tried to swap for one of the nicer ones but they told us we hadn’t bought that package. We were literally only offered one package – with no flexibility to it whatsoever. Still, it’s fine, we probably wouldn’t have paid the extra and we’d have been doubly annoyed if we’d have paid it twice for an extra room that we didn’t need. Although I’m realising now that we might have been able to snab the extra room that Ruben and Anouk were entitled to but never took if we’d have thought of it at the time. Oh well.

The packages meant that you got all meals included, as well as unlimited hot drinks and peanut butter and jam sandwiches (well, okay, bread and spreads but I was with an American so of course that’s what it boiled down to). The food was good, especially when they had tuna (it was proper meat, not just the cheap cans which are all I can afford in the UK) but you do get pretty bored of ‘stuff’ on rice after a few days. The other people were nice too, and Ruben was a diver whereas Anouk was not, so Anthony and I both got a buddy for our activities.

In all honesty, the snorkelling sounded incredible. The dives were (mostly) cool but the visibility was apparently pretty bad for those locations but it sounds like they saw way way more just snorkelling than we did 20 metres down. Anouk reported rays and turtles and sharks. I didn’t see any rays when diving although we did see some other cool stuff, but nothing I’d not seen before. The visibility of Sipadan was about 8 metres, so I think it’s fair to say that I didn’t get to experience this dive site at it’s full potential. I think I’ve been utterly spoilt by diving in Asia though: 8m visibility with a school of baby sharks, green turtles and baracudas was still pretty awesome, even if it wasn’t the 20m of the Gilis.

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The one thing that really threw me off was how haphazard it all was. We were left unsupervised to set up our own equipment, which was scary. This was the first time no one had ever even checked to make sure I wasn’t accidentally killing myself and although retrospectively, I feel really confident about setting up now, I was seriously worried at the time. It was also a hassle and a half to fill out our log books. We had different instructors all the time and trying to track them down to get their dive computers and stamps was actually pretty stressful for me (who is a touch OCD about these things).

It was also my first experience of diving in a group. I’m used to being the only person at my level that day, so usually it’s just me and a guide, and, at the very most, one other person. Here it was one guide and four people and honestly, it gets horribly crowded when you’re all trying to look at a little shrimp. I was very happy just doing my on thing at the back.

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Overall they were a good few days, and the stress of diving was tempered by the ease of having all of our meals and activities sorted for a few days. You don’t realise how utterly exhausting that is until you get a break from it.

We were hoping to go down the Kinabatangan river next, but we had no internet on the island and hadnt worked out our plan exactly. For that reason, we headed back to Semporna for one more night to try and plan our next move.