When you think of Borneo what do you imagine…? Dense jungle, green foliage as far as the eye can see, tree top canopies, an abundance of wild life?
Well, you’d be correct, that’s exactly what it’s like. Once you take yourself out of the cities you soon discover real, raw Borneo.
The country is incredibly beautiful and we felt fortunate enough to be able to visit while a decent proportion of the natural habitats have avoided the impact of palm oil plantations.
We had 10 days to play with and divided our time between Sabah and Sarawak, the two states that comprise Malaysian Borneo (Borneo is made up of three nations – Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei).
Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the Sabah state, was more developed then we’d imagined and we felt that Kota Kinabalu was definitely more of a hub for exploring the many attractions within the region.
Other then the fresh fish market, where you can select one of your choosing to be barbecued for dinner with accompanying sides, there isn’t a huge amount to do in Kota Kinabalu city.
Hiring a car seemed like the most convenient way to get around and out, so we picked up a little motor for 4 days enabling us to start our tour up to Kudat and the most northerly point in Borneo, known as the tip of Borneo.
Kudat town itself has little to offer other then a few convenience shops. It’s definitely not an overnight holiday retreat.
We followed signs for the ‘Northern tip of Borneo’ which takes you the the coast. Here you’ll find untouched, deserted beaches stretching for miles and incredible spots for sunset.
‘Howards Place’, literally on the beach, offers cheap accommodation for backpackers, so we stayed in a traditional Long House for the night. Our first nights sleep in the jungle region was a noisy and bug chirpingly busy one, something we soon realised that went with the Borneo territory.
We were advised to think of natures noises as a lullaby, although there were a few dubious noises we could no put our finger on.
The beaches did not disappoint. One of them had a sand bank you could walk along taking you out to an island, others were just stretches of beach.
We had these to ourselves apart from a small family who were fishing at the end of one of them.
Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Sabah – Borneo
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