Goodbye Borneo

Meanwhile, we're back from the various jungle expeditions and spending our last night in Borneo before heading to Singapore tomorrow.

The first jungle expedition took us to Bako National Park, which is about 1 hour away from Kuching directly on the sea. To our surprise, it was even hotter and more humid there than in Kuching itself, but there were many animals to see (fluid consumption per day and person was about 4 liters...and it all came out as sweat...).

We were particularly taken by the proboscis monkeys at breakfast in the early morning. The other monkeys annoyed us over time because they only wanted to steal our food and drinks!

After Bako National Park, we went straight to Kubah National Park, where a cooler 'mountain jungle climate' awaited us and many, many frogs (although the frogs in Kubah National Park didn't keep us awake at night...that only happened later in Mulu National Park...you wouldn't believe how loud and strange these frogs can be all night long!!!). In this pleasant climate (probably just above 30 degrees Celsius), we made our way to the waterfall, where we enjoyed a great swim and shower.

As the 3rd jungle station, we spent a whole 5 days in Mulu National Park. It can only be reached by plane somewhere in the middle of nowhere and is located on a former Penan territory. A local guide adopted us into the Penan family, thanks to Bruno Manser (whom he led through the jungle)! :-)

In Mulu National Park, we were amazed by the beautiful jungle landscape, the many interesting caves (including adventure caving), and the bats. And we could have easily stayed a few more days.

We spent the last two days in Kota Kinabalu (KK), mainly snorkeling at the many beautiful islands with reefs off the coast of KK (despite using SPF 50+ sunscreen, we still got sunburned).

In conclusion, it can definitely be said that Borneo alone is worth a trip...and it also has a lot to offer in terms of culinary delights.

Good night and see you in another country!