Borneo, Malaysia
We decided to go to Borneo (Malaysia part) for a long weekend in October as there was a public holiday in Singapore.
Friends of ours had gone there and told us about the Orangutan rehabilitation centre and turtle sanctuary so we decided to check it out.
Getting there
On the way there we flew Air Asia Singapore ? Kota Kinabalu ? Sandakan.
We took the last flight into Kota Kinabalu (2.5 hour flight) and the first flight from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan the next morning (50 min flight).
We would recommend avoiding this if possible, as there’s nothing to do for one night in Kota Kinabalu.
On the way back we flew Kota Kinabalu ? Kuala Lumpur ? Singapore with Malaysian Airlines and this was much better as the stopover in KL was just a couple of hours.
Sandakan
Upon landing in Sandakan we considered renting a motorbike to get to the hotel, to enable us to have freedom to drive around after but it turned out to be quite far away (about 45mins drive).
The bike rental place in the airport offered to rent us a car for a couple of dollars a day, even though we didn’t have our driver’s licenses on us (they really don’t care there), but we didn’t want to risk being caught without a license so we took a taxi.
We ended up getting taxis everywhere in Sandakan as they weren’t very expensive.
We stayed at Sepilok Nature Resort (~40 USD per night), which is right next door to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre and the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre.
The hotel was in the middle of the nature, with a restaurant and lounge bar/cafe overlooking a small lake (where snakes and water monitors reside) and gardens.
The rooms are in individual chalets with floor to ceiling windows that give you a view of the lake / vegetation.
The homemade pizzas (with interesting options, such as pumpkin crust pizza) were delicious and felt like a godsent after a long day.
Continue reading (Incl. Pics & Vid) at: Trav3lTheWorld: Borneo, Malaysia
..
