The Jungles of Borneo

Steamy and old and mysterious, full of unknown flora and fauna (“Don’t touch anything,” cautioned our night hike guide. “It’s probably toxic”), and located on the complete opposite side of the world from most of our friends and family. The jungles of Borneo sound The Most Exotic, right???

Some Borneo Facts* 

• Borneo is the third largest island in the world, located east of Singapore off the tip of the Malaysian Peninsula. The land mass—comparable in size to Texas + New Jersey + Vermont (or three times the size of the UK)—is divided between Indonesia in the southeast, Malaysia in the northwest, and the tiny but infamous sultanate of Brunei on the northern coast. 

• Borneo is home to the second-oldest rainforest in the world— at 140 million years old it’s twice the age of the Amazon—and over 100 endemic species, meaning they cannot be found anywhere else.**

• The Malaysian states, Sabah and Sarawak, are semiautonomous (the details of how that all works get really legal really quickly so I’ll leave it at that), meaning that traveling between them is basically international — you fly through a separate terminal and need stamps on the way in and out, even though it’s all Malaysia. 

• The Philippines maintains a territorial claim to Sabah because in 1658 the Sultan of Brunei allegedly gave Sabah to the Sultan of Sulu (who at that point controlled the Philippines).

• The other state, Sarawak (pronounced Sa-RAH-wak not sara-WAK, as we learned embarrassingly late into this journey) was run as the personal raj (kingdom) of a British family from 1841-1946—unfortunately I think we can all imagine how that went for everyone. 

We stuck to Malaysian Borneo (both Sabah and Sarawak), and really went all in on jungle experiences, covering five areas—including two national parks—in two weeks. 

In Sepilok, we spent a day visiting two amazing animal sanctuaries, seeing orangutans and sun bears who have been rescued (often from the exotic animal trade or from jungles that have been clear cut) and are being rehabilitated. 

The orangutans at the sanctuary are free, the bars are to keep the humans away from them in some areas (the nursery).

From Sepilok we went to the Kinabatangan River, a forest reserve and one of only two known places in the world where 10 species of primates can be found. Malaysian Borneo (much like Egypt) is very committed to package tourism, so we booked a 3-day/2-night all inclusive stay at a riverside nature lodge. Our time there included four boat rides to scan the riverbanks, two night hikes slowly creeping through the forest, and one daytime jungle trek, all with the goal of seeing as many animals as possible. 

A WILD ELEPHANT! Don’t be fooled by the “pygmy” in its name — this guy is ~10 feet tall.

I’m happy to report that we did well! We saw many saltwater crocodiles (the largest reptile in the world), proboscis monkeys with crazy noses, tons of macaques gamboling amongst the branches, a western tarsier with its big eyes gazing into our flashlight, three kinds of hornbills, other birds I’ve already forgotten (sorry), and a wild pygmy elephant making his way out of the river!  

I love seeing animals in the wild, but jungle trekking is No Joke and certainly not for the faint of heart. It involves extreme heat and humidity, giant spiders, and infinity mosquitos — basically the trifecta of Things Mollie Does Not Appreciate. (Despite my best efforts, I am truly covered in bug bites.) In the Kinabatangan we night-trekked in full rain gear, tall “gum boots” (adorable Australian for rain boots) with everything carefully tucked in to (somewhat but not entirely successfully) prevent leeches from attaching to our ankles (harmless but yuuuuuck), and all thoroughly spritzed in bug repellant. Have you ever put Deet on your face? I have. Was it worth it to see the rare western tarsier up close and personal in the wild? Yes. 

Chris, ready for whatever the rainforest has in store for him.

Our first national park was Gunung Mulu, located in inland Sarawak and only accessible by airplane. 

Rainforest Preservation in Borneo

Mulu was the center of some controversy a few years ago that’s worth mentioning because it’s part of a much bigger issue in Malaysian Borneo. The state government granted two oil palm concessions (aka areas where a company is allowed to clear the rainforest and plant oil palms, big $$ in Malaysia) bordering the western edge of the park. Concerned about risks to forest biodiversity and preservation of their traditional land, local Penan and Berawan communities staged a blockade protesting the secretiveness of this deal and lack of consultation with resident communities in 2019, ultimately causing so much outrage that the companies withdrew. Remember how I said that Sabah and Sarawak are autonomous? This also applies to their forest management, meaning that they do not have to follow national-level environmental protection regulations. Thanks to logging and later palm oil plantations, Sabah lost 40% and Sarawak 23% of its forest from 1973-2010. As we drove and flew across the country, we looked out at the brightest green palms lined up to the horizon — it’s really pretty if you don’t think about it.

Anyway, back to Mulu. The park is extremely well-run and convenient (once you get there). You can book everything at the main office, the guides all speak excellent English, and the trails are accessible (many of them you can do on your own). Mulu’s claims to fame are its caves—Deer Cave is the world’s largest cave passage—and its bat exodus. Every night (when it’s not raining) 2.5-3.5 million bats fly out of Deer Cave in a giant cloud to hunt, ultimately taking 11 tons of bugs out of the air every night. Thanks to the bats, the mosquito situation in Mulu is not bad at all! (I’m very sorry to report that both times we tried to see the bat exodus it rained…siiiigh so goes attempting to see animals in the wild.) 

Langs Cave entrance in Mulu during a major afternoon rainstorm.

In addition to touring the caves, we did a 3-day jungle trek to see The Pinnacles, a hillside of 45-meter-high sharp karst formations, with a 13-person group organized through the park office. The hike up to the pinnacles viewpoint was truly insane. It’s only 2.4 kilometers and to be honest I did not believe that it would take the promised three-plus hours. Seventeen ladders and many moss-covered ropes later, I got it. This hike is literally straight up a permanently slippery rocky hillside through dense jungle. 

The Pinnacles

The night before and after the Pinnacle day you sleep at Camp 5, a traditional Malaysian long house with platforms and sleeping mats, It’s definitely a step above camping—there’s a roof, a shower, a kitchen, and sometimes electricity—but certainly not luxury. The cheapest option includes guides and accommodation but you bring your own food. Unsurprisingly there aren’t a whole lot of grocery options on the edge of a remote national park, so packaged cookies and ramen really made a resurgence in our lives (something rarely said by reasonably successful 30-somethings).

Our final jungle experience was Bako National Park, outside of the southern city of Kuching (literally translated as “Cat” — it’s the cat city!). Bako is only accessible by boat, so we spent a day boating around its rock formations (“sea stacks”) and hiking to beach views. You can’t swim though — salt water crocodiles! Bako is famous as the best place in Borneo to see proboscis monkeys, and we did! Up close and personal! 

Boating to the sea stacks in Boku National Park

And with that our jungle time came to an end (for now). We rounded out our Bornean experience by attending the 25th Annual Rainforest Music Festival, which we learned about because just about every traveler we met throughout Borneo mentioned it. I highly recommend this! It was a very beautiful, interesting, and fun musical experience! 

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* Question for my readers: Do you like the country facts? In this newsletter I’m experimenting with separating my exposition so you can easily skip it if Mollie-splaining isn’t your jam…do we like that approach? Or would you rather I stick to stories and describing our experience and leave you to Wikipedia your own interests? #Ilovefeedback

** “Borneo is estimated to be home to around 222 mammals (including 44 endemic – meaning they are not found anywhere else in the world), 420 birds (37 endemic), 100 amphibians and 394 fish (19 endemic).” (WWF)