Tailormade Holidays to Borneo
Imagine waking at dawn in a luxurious lodge deep in primary rainforest to the wild ‘singing’ of Bornean Gibbons from high in the trees across the river. Then plunging with your expert private guide along a partially cleared track, trip-wired by a maze of shallow roots in pursuit of a huge adult male orangutan too heavy to cross from tree to tree; a slow walk in pitch darkness scanning the slender trunks of young saplings for the soft gleam from the huge non-reflective eyes of a Western Tarsier – the tiny orange-furred primate that inspired ET. And then returning to a sumptuous meal before retiring to your rainforest bungalow and plunging into a huge stone bath on the verandah listening to the orchestra of the rain forest. Of watching little black-tipped sharks swim in the shallows of a genuinely azure sea and snorkel over reefs ablaze with multi-coloured fish chased by barracudas. Waking at night to creep towards a huge marine turtle laying eggs. Or cruising along the Kinabatangan River watching the strangely beautiful proboscis monkeys and huge saltwater crocodiles and suddenly finding a hundred elephants crossing the silt-heavy waters accompanied by much roaring and trumpeting. Borneo is truly a natural Paradise. No matter what your interests in the natural world Borneo has a delightful surprise in store for you! And it isn’t just nature for there is a surprising amount of history and intriguing tales of trade and piracy and one of the most interesting and colourful food markets anywhere.
Bornean Highlights:
- Sunrise from Mount Kinabalu
- Finding a giant Rafflesia in bloom.
- Watching an adult male orangutan at close quarters and babies playing high in the canopy
- Drifting in a boat close to the remarkably placid Borneon ‘pygmy’ elephants.
- Snorkelling from a tiny atoll in the middle of the Sulu Sea with hardly anyone else around.
- A long night walk through the rainforest with a private guide and finding rarely seen nocturnal species like Western tarsiers, Malay Civets, slender loris, leopard cats, owls and a host of tree and flying frogs, insects and an amazing spider that mimics a dead leaf.
- Trekking in the incredible “Lost World” of the Maliau Basin.
- The vivid colours of the many species of trogons and other colourful birds the light up the gloom in the forest.
- Driving and walking through the rainforest and absorbing the sheer spectacular scale of this million year-old ecosystem.
- Watching 4 species of squirrels mopping up the remains of breakfast in the lowland wet forests – including the strange shrew-faced squirrel.
- Spending a morning in the community centre of a village just absorbing the calm pace of life at the edge of the jungle
- Eating delicious local Chinese, Malay and Sabahan food – especially sea-food in small local restaurants.
- The Filipino night market and Central Food Market in Kota Kinabalu.
Borneo – the very name evokes images of great primeval rain forests and giant trees emerging above mist-laden canopies full of hornbills and singing gibbons. This is the home of one of man’s closest cousins – the Orangutan and the best place to see them in the wild. It is the Mecca of bio-diversity where one hundred hectares of primary rain-forest can contain a greater wealth of plant life than all of North America and incredible treasures like the mysterious giant Rafflesia flowers and enormous pitcher plants that can drown even small rodents. Here there are still primordial wildernesses like the Maliau Basin unknown to humans until only recently and still only peripherally explored. Surrounded by Borneo’s incredible natural wealth, Alfred Russell Wallace honed his own ideas on evolution and natural selection. Borneo also offers an incredible marine experience. The bright turquoise waters that ring the island teem with life with a huge swathe of the Sulu Sea protected from fishing and safe for turtles and sharks.
