Beautiful Borneo!

Ok, this is gonna be a long update guys, so get your mugs of teas/coffees ready...I'm gonna tell you all about my amazing adventure in Borneo!

We visited the North-east of Borneo - Sabah - a region richn in it's wildlife.

We arrived on 9th October and decided to stay 8 days here, which I now kinda regret because its such an amazing country - but due to budget restrictions we decided to keep it short.

There is so much to do here, however its a pretty expensive place for travellers...

But anyway, in just 1 week I managed to fufill 3 of my all-time ambitions (I've actually got quite a few, but these were my top ones)....

12th and 13th Oct - we made the arduous, but very rewarding climb up Mount Kinabalu, SE Asia's tallest mountain (over 4000m high). It was a 2-day climb, starting with a 6km trek up to the lodge, then early next morning - a 2.7km up to the summit.

I really couldn't believe that I managed to make it to the top as there was one point when I felt so low on energy, and desperately needing food, I was ready to give up. This was 2.30am morning climb - after having an hour's sleep (being kept awake by the cockroaches crawling around my bed) and only 1 slice of toast for brekkie - it was long hard climb up to the top. We reached the summit at about 5.45 am, it felt totally amazing and pretty emotional. It was also terribly cold and I definitely wasn't dressed or prepared for the weather conditions up there! I felt like I was going to freeze to death, but we were there to watch the sunrise... but I just couldn't bare it any longer and just had to go ahead and make the decent. So, after that looong climb up, and staying there for like 5 mins, we had to face the decent - this was the difficult part! All in all, the whole decent took us 6 hours, with a break in between for breakfast.

Its 3 days since I made the climb, and I'm still walking like an 80-year old lady!!

14th Oct - went to visit Pulau Tiga. This is where the series Survivor was filmed. It wasn't as idyllic as I thought it would be. Its on the South China sea so the beach was pretty much washed up with big logs and stones, making it impossible to swim. But our main reason for visiting this island was for the volcanic mud pools! Silly me, as we got to the pools, I didn't realise that it was right in front of me and I stepped in with my lovely sandals and all my clothes on and got stuck straight away!!! It took both me and Kee to save my sanadals from the deep pool of volcanic mud! After that, I thought, f*ck it... off came the clothes and I dipped myself in the thick grey mud! It was totally liberating and great fun!! Got some cool pix too!

15th Oct - Seligan Island (aka Turtle Island). Turtle island is a protected island, which runs a rehabilitation scheme for the turtles - helping to increase their chances of survival.

I remember the days sitting in front of the TV watching doumentaries about beautiful sea turtles, how they lay their eggs, then the baby turtles crack out and swim off to sea... And here I was today, on Turtle Island, watching that very process in real life!!

First, we spent the morning and afternoon on the Island's beaches snorkelling and soaking up the sun. Then in the evening, after dinner, we sat there and waited for turtle to land. We were lucky in that, on this particular island, September thru to October is peak season for the Green Turtle's nesting. So we were assured that there would definitely be a sighting.

When the ranger ran in to the cafeteria, shouting "Turtle! Turtle!", there was a mad rush to the beach. When we got there and saw the turtle laying its eggs, it was just an indescribeable feeling! I just couldn't believe that this was happening before my very eyes! It was about 98cm diameter, and looked so cute - massive eyes and smiley face! It layed about 89 eggs in total! After it layed it's eggs we left it to rest and make its way back to the sea...

I though that was the end of it, then the ranger said that we could be a part of the next process which was to set the hatchlings (from a previous nesting) free into the ocean! He brought out basket full of baby turtles, and we each had the chance to hold one, which so cool! It was really funny watching it, held between my fingers, frantically flapping away like it was about to fly off. Totally cute! Finally we brought the hatchlings to the beach and set them off into the ocean - a truly awesome end to the night!

Ok, now i'm running out of credit so I'll write about my encounter with the orangutans tomorrow - i'm sure you've had enough to read now!