Final Borneo

Our last three weeks were spent in Malaysia, specifically in Borneo. Our first stop was the Mulu National Park in the west of the island. Here you can find some of the largest caves in the world. On the day of our arrival, we went to Deer Cave in the afternoon, which, depending on the criteria used for measurement, is considered the second largest cave in the world. Our tour took us deep into this gigantic space inside the cave. It is over 2 km long, up to 300 meters high and at least 90 meters wide. When you look out from the inside of the cave, you can see spectacular rock formations such as the likeness of Abraham Lincoln. The play of light making the view even more fascinating. Over 3 million bats live in the cave, hanging from the ceiling during the day. As dusk falls, they go out to search for food and fly out of the cave. To protect themselves from predators, they fly out in groups and form unique formations. We were able to witness this spectacle in the evening in front of the cave. The next day, we visited the so-called Fast Lane Cave. It is not quite as large as Deer Cave, but it had its own charm. Many beautiful formations, beautifully illuminated, but also passages that were completely dark. It was very adventurous and impressive to walk through such a massive cave. It felt like being on an exploration tour. The last cave we visited was Clearwater Cave. This cave was also huge and impressed us with its stunning formations and even an underground river. If you believe the information from the tour guide, the river system in this park is the longest underground river system in the world, spanning over 200 km. With a heavy heart, we left Mulu the next day and headed to Kota Kinabalu. The city was not nice, and we were glad to leave after just one day. It stinks, there's a lot of garbage lying around, and it's noisy. Not a city where you want to stay long. From here, we went to the national park of the same name, about 2 hours away. Here, we hiked for several hours on some trekking trails through the jungle of the park. That was also very nice, but some of the paths to the caves in Mulu already led us through the rainforest, and we found them even more beautiful, so the trip to Kota Kinabalu was not necessarily necessary. So we went straight to Sandakan. Sandakan is located in the northeast of Borneo. From here, we went on a 2-day river safari through the jungle. Twice a day, we traveled by boat along the banks of the Kinabatangan. We were able to watch countless monkeys play, observe some orangutans from a distance, and admire some beautiful birds, such as the hornbill. After 2 days, the river safari was already over, and we headed to our final destination in Borneo, Mabul. Mabul is a diving island where we spent the last 5 days. We actually wanted to do a lot of diving here and relax on the beach in between. Unfortunately, Merle got sick right after the first day of diving, so I had to dive alone for the last few days. On a total of 9 dives, I saw some beautiful underwater creatures, including many beautiful turtles, moray eels, and a over 2-meter-long grouper. After leaving Mabul, we stayed overnight in Semporna before heading to the airport the next morning. Our return flight to Germany was from Bangkok, so we flew to Bangkok for 2 days. Unfortunately, it rained continuously here, so we mainly stayed in our hotel. Only once did we leave our room to treat ourselves to a final massage in Asia. On April 29th, we flew from Bangkok to Cologne for 12 hours, where our parents were eagerly waiting for us, and our journey of 8 months came to an end. My conclusion on Borneo is unfortunately a bit mixed. We did not experience the island as we had imagined. When I think of Borneo, I always imagined jungle, little infrastructure, and adventure. Instead, we found a perfect infrastructure, the jungle is 83% deforested to make way for palm oil plantations, and the attractions were rather unspectacular compared to other countries we visited. Only the Mulu National Park at the beginning of our Borneo trip blew us away. Despite the admittedly somewhat disappointing end to the trip, the last 8 months were an unforgettable time for me. I was able to visit so many places, have experiences, and meet people that I will never forget. What makes this trip special is also that I was able to share these experiences with Merle. It is always nice when someone is interested in my travels. But when you have someone who has experienced it all themselves, you can share the many beautiful moments even better. I am very happy that everything worked out as I imagined and that Merle and I are back in Germany healthy. After 8 months, you are glad to be able to meet your family and friends again. I was fortunate enough to find a new job right away and be able to start working again just 2 days after returning to Germany. Soon we will also move to Cologne, and I hope that we will quickly establish a regular daily routine so that we can settle into Germany again quickly. I am happy that you followed my journey through this blog. I am also happy to personally share some of the experiences 😉Until then, your Fabian