First, allow me to acknowledge a miracle. Our five day spring break trip to Borneo, Malaysia, was in jeopardy due to the flu. My son had just finished two weeks with the flu, mostly fever. The day before we were to fly out, I had full blown flu symptoms. High fever and aches. The morning of the flight I was at 102 degrees. I loaded up on drugs and by noon which was go time I was at 99 degrees and the achiness had disappeared. We were off! While the flu didn't leave me altogether, I did have respite enough to enjoy the trip.
As for the trip itself - one word = amazing. We went to the area called Sabah to Borneo Beach Villas next to the Nexus Resort, where we were able to use their pool, restaurants and shops. Our suite was on the beach front and lovely.
During our five days we took two excursions. One excursion was to Shangri-la Resort to the orangutan reserve. According to the Sumantran Orangutan Society,
"100 years ago there were thought to be 315,000 orangutans in the wild. There are now less than 6,600 left in Sumatra, and less than 54,000 in Borneo. It is thought that Sumatran orangutans may be the first Great Apes to become extinct unless people help to protect them."
Where we were, they had just two five-year olds there. The rest were gone, adopted (not sure by whom). But it was a rare privilege spending an hour watching them (from a railed-in platform) in their habitat alone with the myriads of monkeys. We watched them swing in the trees, pull in a rope and use it as a swing, interact with each other and the pesky monkeys who wanted the food provided by the worker. It was blasted hot, though, so I was happy we each had our ice/water bottles along.
Our second excursion was to see the proboscis monkeys in the mangroves on the river about an hour away. We were with two other expat families. We saw those crabs that have the huge claw. Hundreds of them on a muddy shore. And more monkeys. And a king fisher bird, beautiful. But seeing the proboscis was more difficult. We did have a tiny spotting for a few minutes, but never a real good view. Then off to a buffet dinner by locals with about seven different Malaysian dishes and an amazing sunset. For some reason there was a heard of cows at the beach at sunset, too. Interesting. The highlight was going back to the river after dark to see the stars and the fireflies. I didn't know humans could communicate with them. But our guide was a firefly whisperer. He had a yellow flashlight that he used to speak to them. As he spoke, they would light up like crazy inthe trees along the shoreline. Then he would change to a beckoning motion and they would literally come to the boat and fly around and land on us. So super cool. There were hundreds of lightening bugs! (So, no pictures!)
Other highlights were swimming in the pool and in the ocean. We also just happened to be in the same place as the neighbors who live directly above us in Hong Kong! We spent a whole day in the resort pool and ocean with them and then another evening was a nice long dinner together at the Malaysian restaurant. Quite lovely.
Now for the things that we liked most. 1. The sunsets.
2. No solicitors. 3. The super warm ocean, and clean. 4. The warm pool. 5. Interesting finds like the brain seaweed and the giant beached jellyfish.
6. The Easter Buffet. 7. The fireflies. Okay, that might not be in the right order.
Altogether, one of the best locations we've traveled for beaching.
