Borneo, the Beautiful

Last week,we returned from our adventures in Malaysian Borneo.  Oh man, Borneo rocked!  This was definitely one of our best trips and it has left us both wanting more.  

We had an 8pm flight out of Hong Kong.  Just as we arrived at the airport, one of the most crazy storms I’ve ever seen started.  Lightning hates me.  It’s out to ruin my life.  Lightning thought to itself, “Hmmm… she’s safely inside the airport so I can’t get her directly… I’ll just have to flash around nonstop all night long so her plane can’t leave.”  Lightning, seriously, I hate you too.  I wish I knew your kryptonite.  Our plane (and every other plane) was still full of inbound passengers circling the airport, not cleared to land.  I am SO glad we were safe inside and not on that plane.  Anyway, Lightning was being a total bully outside while our flight kept getting pushed back later and later.  Eventually, the inbound plane was low enough on fuel that it had to land in nearby Macau.  We were told to get our bags, go home and come back the next morning for an 11am flight.  

Unfortunately, we had a 7:30am transfer to make by boat and due to the delay we were still at home in bed at this point.  It was a public holiday in Malaysia so we had no way of contacting them to get a later boat or even to get picked up the next day (we were supposed to have been there 3 days and 2 nights).  Where was “there”?  Pulau Tiga: the island where the first season of Survivor was filmed.  I’m a huge fan of the show.  I even tried to audition once but, despite the fact that the auditions were being held IN CANADA, it was for Americans only.  Grrr!  So staying on this island was going to be a dream come true.  Unfortunately, the tribe had spoken, my torch was snuffed, and I was definitely the first one voted off the island.  Now I know how it feels.  

Before you start to feel too sorry for me, let me tell you how awesomely things turned out.  After Survivor Island, we were supposed to spend 1 night in a resort called Pacific Sutera in Kota Kinabalu.  Since we had nowhere to go, we hopped on WiFi and booked the first few nights there as well.  When we arrived with our last minute reservations, the check-in desk supervisor took pity on us.  He said we looked sad and tired so he gave us the ultimate upgrade to the $900CDN dollar per night executive suite and free breakfast!  It was sooooo amazing.  Two bathrooms, a huge separate bedroom, full living room and a gorgeous view of the entire resort grounds and the ocean.  The resort was huge and there were many pools but we spent most of our time in the one closest to our building because it had a swim-up bar.  The grounds were sprawling and beautiful, and the entire staff was so friendly and welcoming.  This is the first time I’ve ever stayed in a resort.  Maybe it was the knowledge that we were in a completely unplanned spot at an unplanned time and that I was ok with it or maybe it was just the tropical cocktails at that swim-up bar, but I’m also pretty sure this is the first time in my life I’ve ever just truly relaxed.  This is the girl who makes detailed vacation spreadsheets and organizes everything 8 months in advance.  But things don’t always work out.  I really learned a lesson about rolling with the punches, being spontaneous and enjoying the moment.   After a few swim-up Pina Coladas, I even let my husband talk me into spending a week of our time in Ireland this summer with no pre-booked hotels.  Eeeek!  

The Pacific Sutera pool bar.  If you look closely, you can see me in my pink bathing suit, ordering a drink. (photo credit to the husband)

Pacific Sutera sunset (photo credit to the husband)

   

After Pacific Sutera, we hopped on another plane (where we got a seat upgrade) and headed east to spend one night at the Sheraton in Sandakan, before the adventures began.

The next morning, we spent two hours heading straight out to sea in a small, very fast speedboat.  It was a weird feeling to watch the land slowly slip away into nothingness and be completely surrounded by endless blue.  Finally, after an hour or so, a little dot appeared.  As we got closer, it got bigger.  The white sand, the clear turquoise water…. It was the kind of thing you only see in National Geographic magazines, but there it was, an island oasis stretching out in front of me.  We pulled up to the jetty, which was attached to the island by a long wooden walkway over the water.  The restaurant was down another over-water walkway in the other direction.  The circumference of the island was home to beautiful cottages.  The front door was on land and the back door opened up onto a private balcony over the water.  But we weren’t there to look at cottages.  We were there to dive!

Lankayan Island Dive Resort (photo credit to the husband)

I learned to dive a year and a half ago in Hong Kong.  Hong Kong’s waters are so barren and dirty that I found diving to be quite scary.  Going 18 metres deep when I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face caused me so much anxiety.  There were a few times when I couldn’t see the surface of the water or the ocean floor.  Suspended in the middle, I lost all orientation and sense of direction.  It was a terrifying feeling.  Hong Kongers overfish their part of the ocean.  Also, the pollution is so bad I’m not sure anyone would want to live in the ocean here anyway.  When I finally reached the ocean floor and could see about 2 feet at a time, it was like looking at a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Last year, we dove in the Capetown Aquarium predator tank and that was significantly better because there were fish (including sharks!) and clear water.  But I wasn’t weighted properly (hadn’t been in Hong Kong either) and had a lot of trouble controlling my buoyancy.

   

I was nervous for my first real ocean dive.  It turns out there was nothing to fear.  When you are diving in waters with good visibility and signs of abundant life, all the anxiety just melts away.  I still had a few issues with buoyancy control which caused me to stick my knee directly on an anemone and get a massive sting, but I had it all figured out by the end.  We saw a shark (happy day!), lots of stingrays, 2 sea turtles and tonnes of fish.  It was so beautiful.  I felt like an explorer in a new world down there.  And I loved looking 20 metres above me to see the surface of the water, with the sun shining through.  It was an amazing experience and I can’t wait for our next dive trip.  

Me diving (and loving it) (photo credit to the husband)

After 4 days on the dive island, it was jungle time!  Back on land, we drove to a nearby orangutan reserve to watch them have their breakfast.  Then we were off on a 3 hour roadtrip deep into the Sukau jungle.  The jungle was amazing.  It look wild and untouched.  We spent three days living on the banks of the Kinabatangan River and doing riverboat cruises to see a billion monkeys and birds.  We did some jungle trekking but that was not the greatest time.  We learned a little too late that leeches in Borneo not just in the swampy ground, but also in trees!  My poor husband had 3 leech encounters as these heat-seeking monsters jumped from trees and attached themselves to his arm and head.  My favourite part of our jungle stay was the night cruising.  We got to watch so many sleeping birds and see swallows flitting about in a cave.  The only downfall was the lightning on the second night.  The lightning was pretty far away, but the sky was big and it looked closer.  At one point, I may or may not have been curled up in fetal position, half on the floor of the boat, half on my husband’s lap, shaking and asking for my last rites.

Morning mist on the Kinabatangan River (photo credit to the husband)

Monkey!!!!! (photo credit to the husband)

Night cave swallows

 The next afternoon, we hopped on a plane back to Kota Kinabalu, where we began.  After all the outdoors adventure, we figured we deserved a break so we stayed in the lovely, 5-star Shangri-la Tanjung Aru.  It was beautiful, right on the water with a massive infinity pool.  Just what we needed for our last 2 days in Borneo.

Infinity pool at the Shangri-la

Now we’re back in Hong Kong and looking forward to our next adventure (our summer Euro-trip).  But we’ll definitely be back in Borneo at some point.  Pulau Tiga has kindly offered to credit our Survivor stay so we can come back anytime in the next year.  I consider this my version of “redemption island” (Sorry, for all the Survivor jokes in this post, non-Survivor fans.)  And we definitely want to explore other areas of Malaysia in the future. Malaysia, we are not done with you!