Sabah, Malaysia: Kinabatangan River Wildlife Refuge

From Kundasang, we headed for a 3-DAY/2-NIGHT river tour in Kinabatangan River wildlife Refuge, not something we normally do. Besides, we had already concluded from our previous visit to Peninsular Malaysia that the whole country is covered in oil palm plantations. How much wildlife habitat could there still be?! Yet having failed to identify other more interesting destinations, we headed for our river tour with much trepidation.

Sure enough, along the way we passed palm plantation after plantation. After some looking around on the web, I'm now convinced half of the world's palm oil comes from the island of Borneo (including Kalimantan, Indonesia).

A few days before our tour, I noticed Google Maps warning of road closures due to flooding in Eastern Borneo. Once again it's never what we worry aboutthat gets us - we had no trouble getting to the river, but the river is at a 10-year high, which means

• The Reserve has around 200 pygmy elephants. They are all huddled at some high grounds in a plantation, not along the river. We won't be seeing any elephants.
• There won't be any walks in the jungle. There would be more river cruises in their place

Much to our surprise, we both enjoyed our time on the river. For the 3D/2N tour, we had a total of 5 river cruises and 1 half kilometer jungle walk. Our more than amazing guide, Braun, who I'm convinced had been an eagle by day and owl by night in his previous life, spotted so many animals. The wildlife photos below were taken with our mobile phones, so the quality is low, but our excitement was off the charts.

• Orangutans - they are nothing like their sedentary relatives in the zoo.
  
  
• Proboscis monkeys with their large noses and long tails
• Crocodiles - I was surprised to be excited to see them after seeing thousands of alligators in Florida. LOL
• Rhino hornbills - I didn't even realize until later what a revered bird it was
  
  
• Sleeping Kingfishers - the only kingfishers I was able to gaze at for more than a fraction of a second.
• Several other species of monkeys, a mouse deer, other hornbills, eagles, the very rare Storm's Storks.

It was true, the reserve was only a sliver of land right along the river, in the midst of vast palm plantations. I feel it's all the more important for us to support the lodges which in turn provide habitat for wildlife, so there is a viable alternative to turning every inch of land to palm plantation.

Note to fellow travelers: we highly recommend the Greenview Lodge https://sukaugreenview.net/, we signed up for the tour directly with them. While the loddge is not luxurious, it is clean and comfortable (AC), and the included meals are simple, tasty, and filling (with vegan and vegetarian options). Free coffee, tea, and H2O 24hrs. And everything was super organized.

We rode the bus from the so-called Cabbage Roundabout Bus Stop in Kundasang, to the KFC in Kinabatangan where the Greenview Lodge picked us up.






The Schedule.


High water at the jetty.


The modest dining area.




We arrived at the Greenview at 3pm. The first cruise on the Kinabatangan was at 4pm. The first wildlife spotted were a group of White-Bellied Sea Eagles, a small female monkey with a baby clinging to her breast, and a pair of hornbills. Then back to the lodge at sunset for dinner.








The night river cruises were very cool, even though the wildlife spotting was sparse.




The next morning on the sunrise cruise, the first orangutans were spotted (3rd below) in a gi-normus tree in which there was also a whole troop of smaller monkeys (4th below).








After breakfast, we put on rubber boots for the shortened jungle walk. Oh, our "tour" consisted of 11 people.




The Pill Millipede can roll itself into a ball when disturbed.


Our Guide Demos Makes a Sticky Goo to Trap Small Birds


Sunset/Afternoon Cruise




Tofu Curry as an extra main for us vegetarians and vegans.


Pulling away from the Greenview Jetty for our last Night Cruise.






Video - Orangutan Mother(R) and Child (L)


Video - Orangutan Swinging Through the Trees from Right to Left


Video - Crocodile at Night along the river bank.


Video - Orangutans (one at upper right, the other at lower left) Settling Into Their Nests.

Malaysia: Kota Kinabalu

From Baguio we took a 5-hour direct bus (video below - lots of agriculture) to Manila airport for our flight to Kota Kinabalu (KK) in Sabah, Malaysia on the island of Borneo, third largest in the world after Greenland and New Guinea.



We immediately liked KK. It's lively but not crowded. It was super easy to find vegetarian food. Were we wasting our time in the Philippines? We could have been hanging out here... apparently that was the idea of many fellow Chinese. Being the tail end of Chinese New Year, there were tons of Chinese tourists in town. Later I learned that there are direct flights between KK and several major cities in China.

There is actually little to interest a tourist in KK. Originally a fishing village, KK was first established by the British as the seat of what is Sabah today; then leveled by WWII and rebuilt on reclaimed land along the South China Sea. For some inexplicable reason we liked KK.

We arrived in KK right after sunset and immediately headed to the night market at the waterfront - lively - and ate some very tasty fried noodles.





Many eateries in KK!




The Clock Tower, Jesselton Hotel, and the Old Post Office (now the Tourist Office) are the sole remnants of the Colonial town. Due to post-WWII land reclamation, they are no longer on the waterfront.








Mural.


We walked up to the Signal Hill viewpoint.






That's our hotel room on the left.


We ate at Liew Chai Vegetarian twice; once for dinner, once for breakfast.






Our electric kettle died so we headed over to the mall to buy a new one.




At sunset, the waterfront was busy quiet with water birds, fishing boats, and dining tourists.








We also ate at the CFC next door to our hotel. They served the best fried noodles so far on this trip. We also treated ourselves to some cold icy refreshments.






The Iceman.


There was a Lion Dance in progress across the street from our hotel as we were leaving to catch a shared taxi/van to Kundasang. Watch the video (2nd below) for some Lion Dance moves you've never seen before. Or click here.