Sabah – David and Karen Journey

Amazing Borneo

What were we thinking when we were planning the nearly 4 week trip to Malaysia’s Borneo? Borneo is the third largest island in the world. The island is politically divided among three countries: Malaysia and Brunei in the north, and Indonesia to the south. Approximately 73% of the island is Indonesian territory. In the north, the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak make up about 26% of the island.

We spent a one week in the state of Sabah, town of Sandakan and nearby rainforest and islands, and a week in the state of Sarawak, town of Kuching. Our flight connections were through the town of Kota Kinabalu (KK). We stayed in KK twice, each time for nearly a week, once in downtown KK and one stay at a beach resort. The first weekend at KK, we purchased VIP tickets for the Kota Kinabalu Jazz Festival (KKJF), an annual fund raising jazz extravaganza jointly organized by the Rotary Club of Kota Kinabalu (RCKK) and the Society of Performing Arts Kota Kinabalu Sabah. We enjoyed the amazing concert and wine. We will always remember KK and it’s refreshing, chilled wine!

In KK we ate at Welcome Seafood, you choose from fresh seafood from tanks, cooked to you specifications and delivered to your table with steamed rice and fresh vegetables. We visited a KK shopping mall where we viewed a tribal dance. During the stay at the beach resort enjoyed happy hour each evening with a few beers and great music and took a sunset cruise to view amazing sunset. We enjoyed beach time and snorkeling at close by islands.

The animal life is amazing, but don’t discount the plants on Borneo. The world’s largest flower, Rafflesia Arnoldo, is found exclusively on Sumatra and Borneo. It takes 6-8 YEARS for the transition from seed to a cabbage size bud. When it blooms, it has 5 days of perfect before it begins rotting. Weighing in at 11 kg, its known as the “corpse” flower after the distinctive aroma of rotting meat it emits to attract pollinating insects. The flower has no stems, leaves or roots. It is a parasite living on the host vine. The lifecycle of the flowers are identified by their “day”. We saw 3 flowers: in their day 5, 6, and 7. Perfect, starting to rot and in full decline.

At sunrise, we depart Kota Kinabalu for Kinabalu National Park and Poring Hot Springs, a 130 kilometer journey by car to explore the highland rainforests that nestled beneath Mt Kinabalu which tops out at 4,095 meters. By lunch time Karen was traipsing across a canopy walkway with colorful butterflies fluttering around her, some 30 meters above the forest floor. David opted to pass — he is afraid of heights. Karen paused to catch her breath – a very deep one at that, as she soaked in the magnificence of Kinabalu National Park, Malaysia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Another stop was at the Mount Kinabalu botanical garden. We saw the pitcher plant, it grows on the ground and is a carnivorous reptile living only in North Borneo. They trap insects in their pot to provide needed nitrogen back to the plant. The botanical garden is home to 1,200 types of orchids. Not that we are orchid-maniacs but it was fascinating how many are endemic to this locale. The Sexy Lady Orchid or Dancing Lady Orchid is obviously named, and we saw the smallest orchid in Borneo and perhaps the world. It is called the pinhead orchid and is 2mm across.

This trip was both easier than we thought logistically, and more interesting than we anticipated. From a logistical viewpoint, everyone spoke English (a former British Colony). Uber, soon to be Grab was plentiful, 8gb, 30day sim card of Internet was $10. Shuttle buses, and side tours were easy to get and a very good value for dollar. The food was great, the people were so gracious and friendly, it did not feel over touristic like Thailand does these days. The water is warm and turquoise, with great snorkeling and diving. Plus there were so many experiences you can only have in Borneo. This has moved in the top 2-3 places we have ever been.

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Turtle Island

Selingan island, part of Turtle Island Park, is the only island in this region that tourists can visit. The tracks of a turtle are unmistakable. As the sea turtle crawls, it pushes back sand with each flipper stroke, creating a 25-inch wide double trail of sculpted sand. The sweeping limbs of the sea turtle, undulating from ocean to the dune and back, mark a distinctive path of a labor-intensive journey. She digs her nest and releases (in our case) 93 ping-pong ball-size eggs. These private, awkward moments are the moments in which scientists know sea turtles best. We watch her big ancient eyes, her bulky, ungrateful form, and we recognize the impossible hope that follows her flippered path.

The eggs are harvested immediately by the naturalist for placement in the hatchery where they are outside the reach of predators or poachers. Each nest within a fenced enclosure is marked with the date, and number of eggs placed, which will later be compared to the number of hatchlings that emerge.

The hatchlings that emerged from their nest today (from 60 days prior to our visit) were released on the beach where infant turtles rush to the waves. We feel the impossible hope of these tiny creatures pushing their bodies into the vast, deep ocean to the tangles of sea grass or the sharp teeth of propellers and predators. We understand it. We’re afraid for them, but we have hope too, that some will make it, some will come back just like their mothers did, chasing the same moonlight their grandfathers’ grandfathers chased, too, for millions of years before them, before we humans ever set foot on any shore to watch. Over the entire night the conservationists helped 14 turtles nest; with a total of 966 eggs transplanted and 179 hatchlings released to the sea.

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Amazing Sandakan

Its black fur is hard to spot from the high walkway, but when you see the shiny, golden, crescent-shaped fur collar around its neck, you realize you’ve spotted the tiniest bear in the world – a Bornean Sun Bear. Every individual bear has a unique fur collar like us humans have our fingerprints, and that’s how their keepers will know who’s who. The Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Center is in Spielok, where 44 rescued ex-captive or orphaned sun bears live.

Sun bears look incredibly cute and cuddly, especially because they have a tendency to hang their long, pink, and thin tongue out of their mouth most of the time. Sun bears are also known as a “honey bear” because of their particular appetite for honey or a “dog bear” because of their small size (smaller than a St Bernard). Sun bears are native to South-East Asia and are the smallest of the world’s eight bear species. They have black, shiny pelts and extremely long, slender claws. They are critically endangered, since so much of their habitat has been destroyed by the palm oil plantations. Plantation land clearing crews, find them and take them home, thinking they have a new pet — that is until the claws grow so sharp!

We had our last lunch at this lovely English Tea House, and realized that today would be the last time we would see our trusty guide, Mr. Man and our wonderful driver Mr. Moon. They have worked so hard to share a land they obviously love with us. And we are grateful to them. After lunch is the Sandakan town visit.

Just outside of town we find the Puu Jih Shih (Syh) Temple. Built in 1987, the beautifully ornate temple, immaculately cared for, has some wonderful views over the bay and fishing village below. We stepped into the temple – and enjoyed the extravagant decor with the blaze of red and gold, writhing dragons and golden Buddha statues. Puh Jih Shih Temple was featured on The Amazing Race 4 episode 10.

We stopped at a fishing village in outside Sandakan, houses here are mainly wooden and built on stilts in the sea, fronting the coastline. As we took a walk along the wooden boardwalk we see all the comforts of home, electricity, air conditioning and cable TV, we asked where the sewer lines were and learned that residents here basically dump their waste into the sea bed. There are many houses with well-tended verandas, the outdoor space for those living here. An interesting insight of the traditional way of life of the local people who have been living here for several generations.

People love markets for so many reasons — top reason is the experience: seeing people, opportunities for impromptu conversations, the unexpected sensory delights. This is what draws people back, again and again, to their favorite markets. This is real life. Where grocery shopping is done, where fresh fish are brought directly from the sea and clothing is bought, and families enjoy meals. It is the right place to see the real people of the place you are visiting, no matter where in the world you find yourself.

Sir David Attenborough aired his documentary series, “Conquest of the Skies”, featuring Borneo’s Gomantong cave, home to a variety of bat species. We went to see Gomantong cave and its batty inhabitants. I think we’re in deep guano!

Gomantong Cave is home to over a million bats. These bats share the cave with birds called swiftlets, whose nests are prized as an ingredient in bird’s nest soup. The cave is also home to billions of cockroaches and beetles, who live in the massive piles of guano the bats produce. The entire cave is a massive ecosystem that relies on its populations of bats and birds.

Arriving at the cave entrance, I was instantly breath-taken by mysteriously beautiful view of the cave, a large shaft of light streaming down. Inside the cave, we discovered the base of a steep rock pile left by a collapse in the cave roof. Above the rocks, daylight streamed through a large hole some 200 feet above the floor – and at our feet, an enormous, chocolate-brown cone of guano rose. The mounds looked alive, the strange dank, ammonia smell in the air was laced with a faint familiar stench. As the beam of our torches picked up the movement, immediately the stench came to light (sic). It was a seething blanket of cockroaches! Cave cockroaches! The cave is alive! Cockroaches, cave centipedes, millipedes, beetles, worms, spiders – a variety of bugs and a closed ecosystem.

Native bats take shelter in the cave during the day, whereas the swiftlets rest in the night. This creates a 24-hour feeding ground for dung beetles and cockroaches, which the snakes subsequently feed on.

The edible-nest swiftlet, build nests on the cave walls that are purely from their saliva. The white nests are small but valuable. Per kg, of the quality found, here will cost approximately USD1,000 – USD2,000 in the open market. The swiftlets build their nest at night, after a day out searching for food. The new nest takes about 30 to 35 days to complete and once that’s done, and the mother lays a maximum of 2 eggs which she broods for 1 month. When the fledglings are old enough to leave the nest, the harvesting season begins. The harvesters must make sure that the nests are collected only after they are abandoned by the young swiftlets.

We emerged from the limestone cliff to a small cluster of timber long-houses used by those who collect the nests. Inside the cave, ladders of twined rattan vine and hardwood rungs hung from the ceiling at dizzying heights. The nest collectors will dangle from these ladders like flies in a spider web. Another type of ladder, made from a hardened bamboo poles, pivots around the cave to reach the highest nests.

The journey from the cave back to the entrance takes approximately 10 minutes. Along the boardwalk, surrounded by verdant foliage (elephant ears, the largest leaves I have ever seen) and cool FRESH air, we spotted the red leaf monkey! We hung around long enough to see them move from the sunny side of the boardwalk to the shaded side.

Sandakan is a magical place!

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Why male orangutans have such weird faces

Today we are in Sarawak in Borneo and finally found a mature male orangutan. WOW! It was easy to notice they have strange flappy face-pads called flanges, which females find attractive – yet males may wait 20 years before developing them.

Mature male orangutans have large flappy cheek-pads, known as flanges. As far as females are concerned, they prefer males with them, over those without. Fully mature males are also twice the size of females and grow large throat sacs, all of which are characteristics associated with dominance. The long vocalizations of the flanged males also set them apart from an unflanged male Bornean orangutan. The long vocalizations help males to attract females.

But these traits can take a while to show. Some wild male orangutans take 20 years to grow flanges. Fully mature males are also twice the size of females and grow large throat sacs, all of which are characteristics associated with dominance.

A new study tries to explain why males take so long to grow their flanges. To discover this, researchers collected poo from 17 wild Bornean orangutans. The researchers then analyzed the hormone levels in the orangutans’ poo.

As soon as males begin to develop bigger cheek pads, their testosterone levels peak. “The very high testosterone levels of the one developing male in the study was a bit surprising but indicates the need for high testosterone levels to develop secondary sexual characteristics [such as cheek-pads]”. When a male becomes “fully-flanged”, his testosterone levels out again. As well as an advantage when it comes to finding mates, studies show that those with larger cheek pads are also healthier. Weaker and older males have shrunken flanges.

Check out the the collage at the end of the post.

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