Nestling just east of Singapore and Malaysia, south-west of the Philippines, a little north-west of the Indonesian archipelago (island of Java) and on the edge of Pacific Ocean surrounded by the South China, Java and Sulu Seas lies this year's destination. At over 743,000 sq. km, Borneo is the third-largest island in the world (fourth-largest if you count Australia) and the largest in Asia.
Bisected by the equator, the island is politically divided into three countries; the northern region comprises Malaysian Borneo (about 1/4, states of Sabah and Sarawak) with the Sultanate of Brunei smack in the middle and the southern region is Indonesian Borneo (about 3/4, province of Kalimantan). Our destination: Sabah, a relatively small chunk of this island but teeming with wildlife. Its highest point and also the highest mountain in south-east Asia is Mount Kinabalu (@ 4,095m / 13,435 ft. almost 4 times the height of Snowdon), Malaysia's 1st UNESCO World Heritage Site and designated a Centre of Plant Diversity; a point I will come back to later in the trip.
It sounds like a cliché, but Borneo (like many other places we have visited) is one of the incredibly biologically diverse places on the planet. Sadly, however, it is also one of the most critically endangered. If managed to maintain a renewable resource rather than the resource depletion that is currently happening, its ancient forests could provide valuable natural capital indefinitely http://www.sustainabilitystore.com/sustainable/. These vast areas along with the mountain habitats house an astonishingly impressive array of life ranging from mega fauna, such as the famous 'Wild Man of Borneo' orangutan, to bizarre bugs, such as a 57cm-long stick insect. It also has about 15,000 species of flowering plant (by comparison all of North America from the Arctic to Panama only has about 20,000 apparently). Diametrically opposite to the Amazon Rain forest, the Borneo Rain forest is estimated to be around 140 million years old, one of the oldest in the world.
The problem is that Borneo's forests are being destroyed and twice as fast as the rest of the world's rain forests; the two greatest threats to Borneo's biodiversity comes from logging and the ever-expanding palm oil plantations. Palm oil is in almost everything (sometimes, I am led to believe, under a pseudonym such as vegetable oil, palmate, sodium lauryl sulphate, vegetable fat and stearic acid): take a look next time you shop!
But why should we protect it? Aside from mitigating the effects of climate change and protecting the livelihoods of locals etc., there are two good reasons. Firstly, since the Heart of Borneo Declaration was signed in 2007 by Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei (protects 220000 sq. km of forest) over 600 new species have been discovered including the aforementioned stick insect, the world’s longest. Secondly, the number of species is something like 220 mammal (including a dozen primates), 420 birds, 166 snakes, 100 amphibians, 3000 arthropod and 1000 ant, so the diversity of life is astounding. This diversity includes Orangutan, Proboscis Monkey, Bornean Gibbon, Long-tailed and Short-tailed Macaques, three kinds of Leaf Monkey, Western Tarsier, Slow Loris, Pygmy Elephant (subspecies of Asian Elephant), Sumatran Rhino (elusive, critically endangered and possibly already extinct in Borneo), Bearded Pig, Wild Boar, Mouse Deer, Civet Cats, Clouded Leopard, Flat-headed Cat, Sun Bears (world's smallest bear), 8 kinds of Hornbill, Kingfishers, Hawks, Buffyfish Owls and White Swiftlets (bird's-nest sup is made from dried Swiftlet spit; a kg of White Swiftlet spit can bring in over US$4K! I wouldn't mind spitting for that sort of money!).
But before we even get to the wildlife, there's also the cultural diversity. Kota Kinabalu, known as KK to the locals, was the hot and humid start to our trip. A city is a city is a city and KK was no exception. After a quick nap (we had been up for over 24 hours at this point), we had a wander round town to absorb the atmosphere and settle in. We visited the local fish market where you could either purchase fish to take home or sit in the restaurant and have a meal. Surrounding the market hall were tanks and tanks of live fish and shellfish such as prawns, huge horseshoe crabs, ordinary crabs, lobsters, fish etc. to pick your own.
We walked to the Atkinson Clock Tower, constructed 1903-1905 and named after the first District Officer of the town, F.G. Atkinson, who died aged 28 from Borneo Fever (Malaria). The 15.7m high wooden tower was one of only two structures to survive the allied bombing of Jesselton (what KK was formerly known as) in 1945. Signal Hill Observatory Tower, up on Signal Hill behind the clock tower, is a great vantage point to see the town. Unfortunately we could not stop until sunset although I imagine that it would have been fantastic from that vantage point.
Our next port of call was back at the hotel for a trip welcome meeting and to do introductions with the rest of the group. Good old Blighty is flying the frontrunner flag with 8 Brits (us 2 + Mark & Lisa, Amanda & Kat, Natasha, Julie), 4 Americans (Matt & Amy, Erin & Mary), 2 Aussies (Alex & Corinne) and 1 Fin (Heli), plus our local guide from one of the tribes of Sabah. The ladies (including the guide) outnumbered the men 3:1. We had dinner together at a restaurant along the Waterfront, quite plush and modern compared to some of the more rundown places we’d seen while wandering round the city. I had a beef noodle soup (with ginger and veg) whilst Andy had butter chicken.
Sabah is Malaysia’s most diverse state with a population of 3 million made up of 30 races and many spoken dialects. Each of these different ethnic communities still maintain their own distinct cultures and have lived harmoniously side by side for generations. Malays and Chinese add to this huge melting pot of culinary traditions, languages and civilizations that have been mixing for thousands of years. Modern day Borneo indigenous people are working to integrate traditional lifestyles of mutual responsibility and sustainability with the opportunities and demands of modern life
We visited the Tambatuon Homestay, a riverside village along the edge of the jungle and river where our money directly supported the village. We first had an early lunch composed of traditional foods – beef curry, rice, long bean, spinach and wild veg. Dessert was honey pineapple, a very sweet variety of pineapple that only grows in that area.
Then the afternoon first comprised of a 2-hour jungle trek where we saw Jackfruit (a type of round spiky fruit), some medicinal herbs and rubber trees (they capture and sell the sap to make extra income; rubber sap is currently very expensive at 17 MYR per kg (that’s about £3.50 in English money just to put it into perspective)), plus a viewpoint over the village to get an orientation on where we were. On the last leg of the walk, the heavens opened and we got a free jungle shower. In Borneo it is perpetually wet, either sweating from the humidity or drenched by the jungle showers. Given that we were already wet, a few of us decided to have a dip in the river. This, however, was short-lived as the rain turned into a thunderstorm. With thunder literally banging above our heads and sheet lightening illuminating the sky, we decided the best bet was to use the homestay rainwater shower and stay undercover.
Then it was a cooking demonstration to make “busou”, a concoction of banana stem and fig with a type of yeast that is matured for a week and then cooked up with ginger stem, root ginger, garlic, onions, spring onions and chilli. The dessert dish was a mashed pumpkin cake that was wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. By this point the sun had returned and we were baking ourselves, never mind the food! The humidity had dropped though so it was more pleasant.
As the village is on both sides of the river, they harvest fish from the river. The fish do get fed and you can stand in the water with fish food to find lots of wild fish are swimming around and over your feet; a very bizarre but rather nice sensation.
Dinner was more traditional food. Fried chicken pieces, battered fish pieces, chicken cooked in a curry sauce, eggplant, wild veg, Pak choi, busou and rice. Having already eaten the pumpkin cake earlier, dessert was a couple of fruit options.
Breakfast this morning was fries, noodles, eggs, baked beans, and honey pineapple. Then a long drive over to a river lodge in Bilit on the Sungai Kinabatangan, at 560km, Sabah’s longest river. Along the way we saw areas that had been cleared for the palm oil plantations and there were lots of palm oil plantations where the jungle used to be. Palm Oil is one of Malaysia’s main exports so the question is how can they continue to bring in revenue without destroying the forest? One option but not the only one, is the tourist dollar, but tourism itself will need to be sustainable so that it doesn’t cause more rainforest to be destroyed or create worse problems.
The next instalment will be the wildlife adventure of the trip.
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