Earlier this year I did something I’ve never done before in my life.
I jumped on a plane and had no idea where I was going.
This well traveled Kiwi booked a flight from Kuala Lumpur, to a place called Kuching, except I didn’t look at a map.
So imagine my surprise when I checked the Air Asia inflight magazine, to see that, I was in fact heading to a completely different island – Malaysia’s Eastern Island of Borneo.
You may wonder how that happened, but that’s one thing about constantly traveling, you can sometimes get a little blase about details!
It made sense why I had to pass through immigration too, even though I was still in Malaysia. Borneo is a separate state.
You can read all about it on Wikipedia, but here’s the key facts:
Eleven states and two federal territories are located on the Malay Peninsula, collectively called Peninsular Malaysia (Semenanjung Malaysia) or West Malaysia. Two states are on the island of Borneo, and the remaining one federal territory consists of islands offshore of Borneo; they are collectively referred to as Sabah and Sarawak (Sabah dan Sarawak), East Malaysia or Malaysian Borneo.
Episode 10: Adventures of an Animal and Nature Lover on Borneo Island
When I’d originally asked my friendly hosts of the highly recommended Sarang Vacation Homes in Kuala Lumpur, where I could go to write my book in peace, they suggested The Kebun Homestay run by Adrian.
I read up all about this great organic farm on the website, including that along with accommodation in the longhouse and 3 organic meals a day, I would also get use of a car – a cool old Toyota I affectionately named Kermit.
What sold me the most was the location, right in amongst the National parks and an abundance of wildlife, caves, and hikes in the Sarawak region. But even having all this information to hand, I somehow missed a big piece of the puzzle, that it was located in Borneo.
Watch the video to get highlights from the entire adventure on Borneo Island.
WARNING cute kittens and amazing wildlife are contained in this video!
Can’t see the video? Watch it on YouTube and feel free to like and share.
As it happens, this particular adventure worked out perfectly well.
I got to be surrounded by dogs, geese, goats and turkeys every day, make progress on my book given that the Internet was all but non-existent out there, and make a new friend Mimy, who was staying in the Longhouse too.
A lawyer from Seattle, Mimy and I struck up a firm friendship over a full day boat trip and hike through Bako National Park, a long warm up many steps to a religious shrine and a hike to swim naked in the beautiful waterfalls. 
While there I also convinced her she should market her skills into online business so she could provide legal services from anywhere…
During my 10 day stay at the Kebun, I visited the city of Kuching to see many cat statues (the city’s name actually stands for cat), and experience Chinese New Year – something I highly recommend you do (always falls in January or February).
I was introduced to Laney, a web designer, through a Yongjue, a friend who’d bought my $100 Change program and showed me around Kuala Lumpur, when I arrived there, on New Year’s day. 
Laney was equally as generous, giving me a tour of the antiquated museum, a drive by viewing of the waving cat and various temples, as well as sampling delicious food – because Malaysians love their food as much as the people of Brunei.
She also took me caving with her Dad (who bought a full length neon light with him), to the beautiful fairy cave and the windcave complete with many bats.
Fairy cave and wind cave kuching
I also got to see the world’s largest flower, the Rafflesia, of which there happened to be four in bloom at one time.
This is so rare, the last time it happened was a decade ago (watch the video to witness one).
From here I flew to Kota Kinabalu, in the northern region of Borneo called Sabah. I spent close to two weeks here, aside from my side trip to check out the unexpected treasures of Brunei.
I think I had one of the most welcoming communities of people here on my travels so far. It helped that I had met a few in Chiang Mai when playing in a Frisbee tournament.
I was so well looked after in KK (as it’s affectionately termed) with special thanks to Dino and Julia (and Sam and Belinda, Ronnie and Rozy, Ian, Caleb.. oh the list goes on).
Sadly none of these people feature in this video, cos this is all about nature remember.
So from KK I flew to Sandakan, still in the Sabar region, to finally see some Orang Utans.
But I got to experience so much more.
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Bella the feisty orang utan I sponsored at Sepilok
After a very early morning flight, I arrived well before the Sepilok Wildlife Sanctuary opened, so I sat writing more of my book.
More tourists arrived on buses all anticipating seeing the 10am feeding time.
First we were entertained by a lovely English lady who was stationed out there for 3 months on behalf of the Orang Utan Appeal UK and who gave us great information about these wonderful creatures and showed us an excellent video.
Naturally I signed up to sponsor a feisty baby Orang Utan named Bella who was leading the younger ones on adventure – kind of reminded me of me….
I didn’t get any decent photos as I only had my iPhone, and it was the first time that I felt like I wish I had a better camera with a zoom lens – and a waterproof case.
For no sooner than had we all stood on the viewing platform, did it start to bucket down. And I had no rain poncho, or umbrella.
So I did what the Orang Utan’s did, put leaves over my head (watch the video to see how cute they are doing this).
It was so wonderful and worth it to visit this sanctuary. Not only were there 9 Orang Utans feeding (you’re not always guaranteed to see them), there were a ton of cheeky monkeys stealing the various fruits too.
Quick facts on Orang Utans
- Orangutan means man of the forest
- 94% human make up- if only I could swing from trees as well as they do!
- Can take 6-10 years to rehabilitate and some never leave human contact
- Only primate to build nests – up to 4 a day.
From there I got picked up by a small bus to be taken to the 3 Day/ 2 Night jungle and wildlife adventure.
Except it was the wrong bus.
I had booked with one company recommended by a lady in KK, checked with another while at the airport, booked that, then cancelled it and stayed with the original one – and I’m so glad I did.
But the other one still had me down as going, so when the bus driver arrived 20 minutes early and said `Are you Natalie’, I naturally figured it was meant for me.
Luckily the lady had my phone number and on her fifth attempt at calling me (as I kept pushing end call thinking it was telemarketers who had my Malaysian number), she told me to get off the bus and wait at the market we had stopped at just 10 minutes down the road.
Once on the right bus, off we went again until we arrived at Sukau Greenview Bed & Breakfast for an experience that exceeded my expectations.
I had landed in amongst 26,000 hectares of jungle (which is sadly being depleted for palm oil plantations) but does mean that all the abundance of wildlife congregates in this area and along the river, including 1,000 Orangutans. 
Sugi – our guide led us on many adventures on the river – before sunrise, in the afternoon and even night cruises.
Aside from a Norwegian’s young baby almost being killed by a falling branch, when we were approaching the river bank to view a rare bird, and finding two leeches on me during a jungle walk, all went well….
I was beyond ecstatic to witness a herd of Pygmy elephants, a rare occurrence and normally only happens for a brief period during the year (you have to see the video to see how close we got!).
In fact I made a note on my iPhone of almost everything we saw, so here goes:
Afternoon Cruise: Orang Utans, Proboscis monkey, Crested serpent eagle, Hornbill, Rufus piculet, Grey headed fish eagle, Short tailed Macau, Long tailed monkey, Black and red rod bill, Pygmy Elephants, Long tailed Macau, Stork Kingfisher, Jerdon’s baza and the Crested Gos Hawk.
Night cruise: we saw as Civet cat, Baby crocodile and Blue earth Kingfisher.
Sunrise cruise: we saw Proboscis monkeys, Wallace’s Hawk Eagle, Oriental pied hornbill and the Oriental Data.
Jungle walk: we saw leeches (and felt them) and a flat backed millipede, and not much else…
The most beautiful thing in nature?
I decided, as we cruised along the water in our little river boat, listening to the sounds of nature, lost in our thoughts, that I’ve figured out what I think is the most beautiful thing in the world:
It’s the skies reflected in water- sunrise, sunset, blue sky, puffy clouds, dark stormy skies – there’s nothing more amazing in my mind.
In the comments below tell me what you love most about experiencing mother nature?