Malaysian Borneo

 Last Saturday we boarded a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo.  This was our 2nd trip to Borneo (the first was a volunteering stint at an orangutan sanctuary in Indonesian Borneo in 2023) - an amazing destination for those interested in real wilderness and unusual wildlife

[As some of you know, I am not a fan of AI - I think it will lead to the end of society as we know it, if not humanity altogether; that being said, in the time we have left on the planet, I guess it can be kinda fun].  Caption suggestions for the photo above are welcomed!  The more likely to go viral, the better.  It’ll be definitely be on my sign at the next No Kings Rally I attend in Boston….

Much of the wildlife here can only be found on Borneo, the 3rd largest island on the planet after Greenland (not part of the US yet as far as I know, though I have been trying NOT to follow the news while I’m away) and New Guinea.  For those of you who are geographically challenged, this is Borneo

The population of Borneo is about 24 million.  Due to a 19th century treaty between the Dutch and the British, nearly 3/4 of the island is now Indonesia (a former Dutch colonial holding), 1/4 is now Malaysian (a former British colonial holding), and about 1% is the Sultanate of Brunei (a former British protectorate that did not become part of Malaysia largely because they had discovered oil and could not agree on how to share oil revenue if they joined the Malaysian federation).

Malaysian Borneo is comprised of 2 states:  Sabah (which we visited) and Sarawak.  More than 50% of the population of Malaysian Borneo is comprised of dozens of indigenous groups, many of whom have adopted Christianity in place of their traditional pagan practices.  Traditionally, many indigenous groups practiced headhunting, with heads being displayed to warn away enemy tribes, or being presented as wedding gifts to demonstrate the bravery of the groom (wonder how that showed up on the couple’s bridal registry?).  Headhunting declined due to British colonial influence, but we visited the site of a bridge over a river where in the 1930s a local virgin was sacrificed to appease an angry river spirit that, according to the local shaman, was causing the bridge to collapse repeatedly.  According to local accounts, the sacrifice solved the problem!  Makes one think about new strategies to solve the problem of those falling roof tiles in Boston’s Ted Williams tunnel…..

As wild as much of Borneo still is, Kota Kinabalu is actually a pretty cool city.  The Gaya street market draws out large crowds of locals on Saturday nights for street food and music.  

Almost everyone seems to have a great time - except maybe this guy (who seems oblivious that his affections are not being returned)

On Sunday morning, the focus of the street market changes to merchandise (sorry we can’t bring any back for you due to tariffs) and animals (not sure if they are intended as pets or as lunch)

One of the philosophies of the adventure travel company we are travelling with (Intrepid) is to “spread the wealth”, meaning that we don’t stay at any Western hotels.  Rather, we stay at locally owned hotels or home stays.  In Sabah we spent 2 nights at a wonderful home stay with a family from the Dusun tribe (the home stay being at 1260 meters (4100 feet) also gave us a chance for a bit of altitude acclimatization).  The Dusun were formerly hunters, but now are mostly farmers. During our stay we got to try our hand at traditional punching and de-husking rice, beading, dancing and cooking.  Not surprisingly, Melanie was a natural!  And as they said in My Cousin Vinny, oh yeah, we definitely blended…..

The main focus of our trip to Sabah was climbing Mount Kinabalu - an iconic landmark, its silhouette appearing on the state flag

The indigenous view Mount Kinabalu as a sacred mountain.  Traditionally they have buried their loved ones facing the mountain when they die so their spirits can see the mountain as they begin their journey to the afterlife.  It is a popular climb for young, fit Malaysians - at our age, we were definitely on the far side of the bell curve of climbers!

It’s a safe mountain to climb (only 4 climber deaths - from heart failure and hypothermia - over the past couple of years, and several helipads along the trail for any life threatening injuries; less serious injuries are dealt with by piggyback ride descents from the mountain porters - no joke).  The biggest tragedy on the mountain occurred back in 2015 when an earthquake triggered a landslide that killed 18 climbers on the mountain.

It rained hard the day before our scheduled climb - our guide estimated only a 50/50 chance of being allowed to summit (the park rangers will not allow summit attempts in bad weather as parts of the trail can become rivers and its too dangerous).  Bad weather had prevented his last two groups from attempting to summit.

We started our climb from the entrance gate of Kinabalu National Park at 8:30 a.m. starting at an elevation of 1866m (6,122 ft).  The trail from there to our hostel at base camp was largely composed of steep and irregular stairs (either stone, or wood).  We covered a distance of 6 km with an elevation gain of just over 1400 meters (4600 feet) in 5 1/2 hours, arriving at base camp, sweaty and tired, just after 2 pm.  Given the steepness of the climb, and the consequent rapidity of our elevation gain, our trip leader repeatedly checked our oxygen saturation with a pulse oximeter to be sure none of us were developing serious altitude sickness. 

The hostel was basic, but adequate.  6 of us shared a small room with 3 bunk beds. None of us were brave enough to submit to the ice cold showers available (if you 

all smell equally bad, you don’t notice it quite as much…..).  

Dinner was at 4:30 pm, and we were in bed not long after 7 pm.  Our alarms were set for 1:30 am, giving us time for a quick snack before heading out for the summit at 2:30 am by the light of our headtorches.  Melanie opted out of the summit climb - I have no doubt that she was fit enough (and for those of you who know her well, tenacious enough) to make the ascent, the prospect of having to abseil (rappel) down fixed ropes on a 45 degree slope of a sheer granite face in parts of the descent was enough to dissuade her (go figure!).  Even our group guide almost didn’t make the summit attempt due to severe cramping on the hike to base camp.

The first 1 km of the trail was mostly very steep wooden stairs, after which we hit the granite face of the mountain which was a bit less steep (though far from flat) for the last 2 km of the trail to the summit, and where fixed ropes were in place to aid climbers in pulling themselves up the steeper parts.  

We reached the summit at an elevation of 4095m (13,435 ft) at 5:30 am, in time to snap a few photos, and see a spectacular sunrise (by way of reference, the summit of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, which some of you may have climbed (or at least driven - is 1917m (6,288 ft)) before heading back down to base camp, arriving by 7:45 am

The hike from base camp back down to the park entrance was a slog - departing base camp at 9:30 am and arriving back at the Park entrance just after 1 pm.  The soreness in our calves (from the climb up) and our quads (from the descent) took nearly a week to resolve.

According to our guide, many people claim that Kinabalu is a tougher climb than Kilimanjaro, due to the steepness and rapid gain in elevation (2229m; 7313ft) in less than 24 hours.  Based on my huffing and puffing and elevated heart rate, it seemed harder to me than I remember Kili being, but in fairness we were 25 years younger when we climbed Kili, and our memories may have faded a bit….. While our guides insisted we had impressed them with the speed of our ascent and descent, we might need to get in a little bit better shape if we want to challenge the record for the mountain:  2 hrs 50 mins for the round trip! 

From Kinabalu we moved on to a jungle lodge on the banks of the Kinabatangan River, with our principle mission being to try and spot the Borneo Big 5.   The locals who worked at the lodge were from an indigenous tribe that until only about 15 years ago lived largely as hunters, fishermen, rice farmers and birds’ nest collectors.  [I could do a whole post just on these birds’ nests - made of solidified bird saliva - which are considered a delicacy and used to make soup in China - no comment….].  Today the locals work almost entirely in tourism-related jobs which, on the one hand, has improved their standard of living.  But as in many cultures, the cost has been a loss of a sense of community and tradition.

Our spotting efforts were quite successful (kudos, as always, to Melanie for the phenomenal photos)

The Rhinoceros Hornbill

The Proboscis Monkey

The Pygmy Asian Elephant

And the Bornean Orangutan

4 out of 5 ain’t bad (we didn’t see any crocodiles, as apparently the death of most wild boars from African Swine Flu several years ago resulted in most of the population moving away from the stretch of river we were on).  And in my book it was actually 5 out of 6, as we had also seen the Kinabalu Giant Red Leech, which can grow as large as 20 inches!  Thankfully we saw this one on the ground, not on any of our body parts

The one rare animal that continues to elude me is the Pangolin, which I’ve searched high and low for in Africa and Asia.  Maybe next time…..

After leaving the jungle, we headed for a night to Turtle Island,  40 km off the coast of Sandakan, where we were able to witness a pretty amazing sight - green sea turtles coming ashore to nest and lay their eggs.  In order to protect the turtle eggs from being eaten by birds and lizards, the rangers on the island collect the eggs once laid and allow them to gestate in a protected hatchery before releasing the hatchlings back into the sea.  The gender of the hatchlings is determined by the temperature of the sand that the mother’s nest in - as the rangers said, boys are cool and girls are hot!  Even with the protected hatcheries, only 1-3% of the hatchlings survive to adulthood.  Amazingly, after 20-30 years travelling great distances at sea, they ultimately return to the same spot where they were born to lay their own eggs.  It’s quite a sight to witness!  Conservation efforts in Malaysia have led to the release of 22 million turtle hatchlings since 1979, and as of October 2025 they are no longer classified as Endangered - a good news story when we really need one!  

Our last stop in Borneo was at the memorial to the soldiers and locals who perished in the Sandakan Death Marches.  In WWII, after the fall of Singapore, 2000 Aussie and British soldiers were taken as POWs by the Japanese.  Forced to march from Sandakan 600km to Kota Kinabalu, 80% of locals died, and of the 2000 POWs, only 6 survived!  A heartbreaking reminder of what humans are capable of….. The visit had special meaning for one of our Aussie tripmates, whose grandfather had spent 202 days in the jungles of Borneo fighting the Japanese.  

On that note, today we say farewell to Borneo and Malaysia as we set out for a week of diving and relaxation in Khao Lak, Thailand (about an hour’s drive north of Phuket).  We didn’t really know what to expect in Malaysia, so it’s hard to say that it exceeded our expectations.  But suffice it to say that we really, really enjoyed our stay.  And our Malay vocabulary increased tremendously to include most of the key words and phrases:  selamat pagi (good morning), terima kasih (thank you), sama sama (you’re welcome), tandas (bathroom), and Tiger (a locally brewed beer originally from Singapore).  The diversity of the country, its people, its landscapes and wildlife are quite striking.  We recommend it to any future travelers to Southeast Asia without hesitation!  

I recognize that I’ve broken my promise to make this post more concise than the last, but this leg of our trip was definitely the most adventurous part of our entire journey.  When we get home we’ll print this Travelogue out as a coffee table book so that as our memories fade with age we’ll be able to remind ourselves that once upon a time WE DID EPIC SHIT!