From beach to rainforest

I spent one day in Kudat, in the north of Borneo. I landed in the small town with a tiny plane, 6 seating rows. Which explained why I was asked to step to the weight belt together with my luggage at check-in. “Every kilo counts”. 

After landing there were no taxis in the airport so I hitched a ride with a local family who also flew in from Sandakan. So nice people (again), the dad dropped off the family at their house and wanted to bring me to the tip of Borneo as I told him I'll be leaving town already the next day. Quite an impressive place, roaring waves hitting the colorful rock formations. And we just arrived in time to see the sunset.

Mantanani at 6 AM.

The next morning I took a shared jeep to Kota Belud which is the nearest town to go to Mantanani Island. On the pier I met a swiss girl, Nora, who I ended up traveling together for almost a week. 

Mantanani is a fantastic small island with white sandy beaches and 2 friendly villages. But the place we stayed at, Mari-Mari "backpackers" was quite a rip off. Internet per device 15 ringits, no possibility to fill up water bottles, and they also told us in the briefing not to go near the local police station - “its not for tourists”. Well, nobody told it to the police men, who were hanging out with tourists all the time. Borrowing kayaks for free, bringing them fishing & snorkeling and giving out rice wine. 

I also did one dive, a really expensive one (of course, it was Mari-Mari...). 180 ringits for the most boring dive I've had so far. So two days in this island was enough and I decided to go and meet up with Devin & Falco again at Mulu. Nora also changed her plans short planned and came along.

Deer cave.

So. Back to Mulu :) I'm backtracking again. But I really liked it there last year, so why not. I went to Camp 5 again where's the climb to the pinnacles. But as I already tortured myself through that one last year I decided just to stay in the camp in the middle of the rainforest and to hike alone to the near by gorge. Well, it's rainy season so that was not possible. I got stuck half way as the patch was washed away and crossing the river was also not an option. 

After coming back to the park headquarters I met a friend from last year and we went to Camp 1 for one night. Another amazing place in the rainforest. Nobody had been there for quite a while and also now we got the place just for ourselves. 

That's where I also broke my record of collecting leeches. They really like my feet. But it's not a rainforest without all the insects. 

Afterwards I spent a one more night in Mulu and then it was time to head to Kuching for the last 2 nights. byäääää... Holiday over. Pia is not happy. Luckily the next trips are already planned & booked. Ireland, Sri Lanka, Maldives & Nepal! Soon!

Mulu!!!! Limestone walls&rainforest.

Coming back from camp 1.

It's not a chimney, it's a cloud of bats leaving Deer Cave.

Bears, monkeys & montoku

After 4 days diving we took a bus from Semporna to Sandakan/Sepilok. Or actually we took a night bus from Semporna to KK which left us off the bus at midnight about 50 km from Sandakan. Some old dude told us in Semporna that there will be taxis and minivans waiting for ppl getting off the bus. Oh really? Probably nobody had told the drivers they should be there... After quite a while of waiting we started walking... Stupid idea... Luckily quite soon a bus stopped next to us and we got a ride to Sepilok. We had called Sepilok B&B in advance so they had rooms ready for us. My original plan was to stay in Sandakan but well, I got a really cool room for ok price and Sepilok is for sure also nicer. 

And of course I wanted to see my bears at the BSBCC. Mamatai!!! She just had had a medical check and she's doing very well! As well as the other ones. After the bears Devin & Falco went to see the orang utans and I headed to the shop on the Sepilok road to meet up with Daniel for some beers & good old montoku. Good to meet old friends. 

The next day I departed with Devin & Falco, snif :( They went to Kinabatangan for 3 days and I decided to check out how the proboscis monkeys at Labuan bay are doing. I hanged out with then the whole day, doing also some photo sessions :) Cool dudes! I was quite tired after the beers the day before so it was time to take it easy, go to sleep early and to get ready to move on again the next day. 

New year under the surface

After Philippines I met up with Devin & Falco in KK a few days before new year. Good to see old friends and they also turned out to be fantastic travel buddies. Well honestly I didn't expect anything else. One night in KK, some beers & loads of sea food and back to the airport the next day. It was time to head to Mabul!

We had booked everything in advance with Billabong Scuba, which turned out to be an excellent choice. They have a cool small backpacker style resort over the water on the shores of Mabul. I had the cheapest room option, and I was also warned, that if the place gets full, I have to share my room with another female. Luckily that didn't happen. Room was okay, location not really. I had a rooster as a neighbor who I wanted to shoot every morning at 4 am. My room was also next to the toilets which were used by the guests and the staff so there was quite a lot of running in the mornings. But well, you get what you pay for.

The reason to head to Mabul was of course to dive at Sipadan. The permits are limited to 120 a day so we had booked 2 days well in time in advance and also some dives in Mabul & Kapalai. Directly after arrival in Mabul we headed out to the first dives. The dive in Mabul was just okay, nothing special and quite poor visibility. But the Kapalai house reef in the other hand was great! There are constructions like small houses under water and a few wrecks which are full of fish of different shapes & colors. Just beautiful! 

So this was new years eve & the pre-planned party day. Well, Mabul is for sure not a party island but we still found some action on the beach. Luckily we brought some brews from Semporna with us as the island was running out of liquids. 

Jan 1st=traditional hang over day. Reading&eating. And then it was time to dive at Sipadan!!! What a place. Barracuda point!!! What to say. I knew that diving in Sipadan would be fantastic, but c'mon seriously, that was just ridiculous. Tornados of huge barracudas, sharks everywhere, turtles, lion fish tornados, octopus etc etc etc. That was a zoo! Amazing! I need to go back there, rather sooner than later. Words can't describe so I'll let the photos do the work! Thanks to Allen Chan for the shots!