Borneo is a challenge for us

A crazy nature with a wealth of species that starts with the sea eagle in the morning, is accompanied on the way to the monkeys by Chinese little egrets, monitor lizards, mudskippers and many other things that can fly around you and at the same time the island is a tough nut to crack as an individual traveler. Cities have no inner city, lovely places are usually completely missing, you have to look hard for a good place to sleep and the encounters with people are friendly but distant. Even after a few weeks in the country, we ask ourselves where community and life takes place.

In the animal kingdom this is much easier, because where life is given a living space, things go wrong. After our jungle days, we looked for a few environmental education and species protection projects. What really impressed us was the orangutan rescue station, where breeding, release and tourist-prepared feeding are in good harmony.

If the palm oil plantation owner a few kilometers away has been letting a few proboscis monkeys live in a small remaining strip of forest for 20 years by feeding them regularly and you support this with an entry ticket, then the question arises as to whether more sensible species protection isn't starting to happen here were. But then no more monkeys would come to be fed and no more tourists would come to watch...

The days in and around the national park were very special for us because we were able to travel with our older daughter. Her love of nature, her curious look at everything that grows and lives and her knowledge of this green world immersed us deeply. It was a wonderful time together that we miss very much.

For us it now goes back almost 1000 km in a wide arc. We will travel in small stages and look at the world in Borneo with alert eyes. The perception that the neighboring countries here in Asia also differ greatly in their way of life is important.

Really nice: Ramandan markets with a wide variety of goodies

Really unsightly: lots of palm oil plantations that displace habitats

It's really understandable: Not everyone is in a good mood during the day during Ramadan

Kathleen