When you’re lost in the jungles of Borneo you need to have a beer and read the guidebook

Standing guard over all of us was Mt Kinabalu

Our remote rainforest walk before it really lived up to its name

We opted for the 1.3 km Silom Silom trail following a little creek deep in the jungle.  The national park is famous for its flora and fauna, much of which is only found above 900 metres.  The sounds of birds and other such things are said to be all around you in the park and it’s common to see different wildlife.  Unfortunately the rain came down progressively harder, and then harder again, absolutely no chance of enjoying any of the alleged

flora or fauna (except keeping an eye out for leeches which we also didn’t see).  Eventually we were totally soaked, muddy, cold and pretty much over Mt Kinabalu National Park.  Maybe we need to come back another time and try it again.      

The local markets all seemed to specialise in the same thing

Our hotel for the evening was perched on a knoll with each room sporting a big balcony.  Dinner that night was whatever they served us – there were no menus – but we did have a side order of beer which was moderately scandalous; we were the only foreigners and most of the families were dressed in a casual muslin-conservative style.        

Its hard to go anywhere without bumping into the wildlife

The next morning flashed crystal clear blue skies and we saw the value of the huge balconies.  Stretched in front of us surprisingly close was a beautiful view of Mt Kinabalu itself, with its jagged ridge and granite peak reaching 4,100 metres.  We could even see the white huts where the people trekking to the top stay overnight.  Absolutely spectacular views, a stunning scene which would not have been out of place in Yosemite Valley or Yellowstone.     

Just hanging around at lunch time

The road was in poor nick with numerous smaller mudslides and many uneven surfaces where previous slides had caused damage which had been poorly repaired.  But the wild road also had some beautiful scenery, high mountains, deep valleys, heavy green foliage everywhere, some small settlements and very little traffic to distract us.        

When the road popped out onto the flat land on the other side of the mountains the whole scene changed.  Almost immediately we started driving through unending fields of oil palm, the massive huge palm tree from which they harvest palm oil.  We’ve all heard about how the Malaysians (and Indonesians) are bull dozing their virgin rainforests to meet the ravenous needs of modern society and all the products that use palm oil.  This was first class evidence of same, miles and miles of oil palm plantations, rolling over the countryside like a thick green blanket.        

They're cute but they're a bit funny looking too

Occasionally we would pass through small villages with their wooden homes up on stilts, their colourful washing out, their family dogs and chickens doing all they can to stay out of the hot sun.  More often we would be confronted with a huge oil palm truck, transporting their precious goods to the local refinery, lumbering along the road, dangerously being passed by other cars without regard to bends in the road or our little Proton coming the other way.        

Monkey hunters snapped on location

We eventually made it to the town of Sepilok and the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre (SORC).  The SORC is one of only four such sanctuaries in the world where injured and orphaned orangutans are brought for healing and learning before being reintroduced to the wild.        

We walked out on the boardwalk to the feeding platform (with many other tourists) to see half a dozen of the big hairy orange apes get their free servings of bananas and other fruit.  These animals live wild in the 40 acre centre but learn quickly to be nearby at feeding time.        

What a big nose you have!

Now here’s some valuable trivia for you – orangutans are the only ape outside of Africa and the only primate to make a nest.  The word orang-utan means Jungle Man in the local lingo and you can see why.  They have so many features of humans (said to be a 96.4% match in genes) but are also unmistakably apes (the last 3.6% must be very important!).  Males are said to have a reach of over 2 metres and are four times stronger than a human male.  They travel along the vines and lines with a swinging ease usually seen in cartoons but I particularly liked how they would hang by their feet with their upper body sitting upright, sort of like sitting on a chair but suspended from the ceiling (if you know what I mean).       

Man vs Wild - I'm the one on the left

After dining out on these orange guys for the longest time we headed down the road to the Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary, set in the middle of a big intimidating oil palm plantation.  These colourful monkeys are the ones with the huge noses, I mean huge noses, making them both ugly and strangely cute.        

The adolescents and females have a little upturned nose but the males, especially the older ones, have massive honkers (and also strangely, were almost continuously aroused).  I have never taken so many photos of noses but it was worth it, quite a scene as they ate the provided food on the nearby perches while the sun set behind the oil palms.  Very cool.       

A typical home amongst the Oil Palms

We drove down to the coastal town of Sandakan, made famous by the Japanese in World War II, for a peaceful evening of drinks and dining on the shores of the South China Sea.