Planning trips is something that I do enjoy, and to be fair I often pack the schedule with way too many things. By contrast, this four day holiday to Malaysian Borneo was quite flexible and open either side of my scheduled 48 hours in the jungle. Typically though this was the one time when it really did not all go to plan!

My previous two trips in 2008 to the Philippines and Thailand had been fairly beach oriented so I was looking for something a bit different which is why I decided to go to the jungles of Borneo. After a long transit flight via Kuala Lumpur I arrived in Kota Kinabalu hoping to check in to a so-called 24 hour hostel but that wasn’t open! The nearby Lucy Backpackers also seemed closed but having woken the owner up at 1:00 am I eventually managed to get a dormitory bed for just £3 a night!

On my first full day as I took a short speed boat ride to Mamutik Island which is part of the Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park.

I met a guy called Yoni at the jetty and ended up hanging out with him at the nice pleasant beach which had crystal clear waters and was quite good for snorkelling. So much for getting away from beach life!!

We later went out for some local food and a few beers but, with a very early start the following day, I wisely didn’t stay out late!

I went to Borneo to see Orang-Utans and to experience the jungle along the 560 kilometre  long Kinabatangan river which I did via a shoestring safari three-days-two-night tour. A six hour bus journey to Kota Kinabatangan, and a further bumpy ride to our lodge saw me and my fellow travellers get started late afternoon on a two hour river cruise. We saw proboscis monkeys, macaques, crocodiles and most importantly a few Orang-Utans.

A night trek in the wilderness of the jungle to spot nocturnal animals was on the agenda in the evenings. The first night yielded very little but that may have been because I just couldn’t see much as my torch ran out of batteries early on! It really was complete darkness when all the flashlights were switched off. The second night’s trek was better and I even got to hold a scorpion (the picture below is not my arm!) and following that I was attacked by a leech or two!

I got up at 5:30 am on both mornings to do a river cruise which was also better on the second day when we saw a huge crocodile, and the usual hordes of long tailed and proboscis monkeys. That day also involved a three hour return walk through the muddy jungle to Oxbow Lake, kayaking on the river and getting up close with a kingfisher or two (as well as the ubiquitous monkeys of course!) on the afternoon cruise.

As much as I enjoyed the tour and the people on it, I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed that I didn’t see more wildlife. I left the lodge at 8:30 am to get a bus back to Kota Kinabalu for my evening flight back to Tokyo and that “should” have been the end of my short trip……but it inadvertantly got extended!

A couple of other guys and I were waiting to get a bus at about 10:30 am from the roadside cafe in Kota Kinabatanagan. No buses appeared though so we were taken further down the road to a busy turn-off point but when the buses did come they were all completely full. I had told the owner of the lodge that it was essential that I was booked on to a bus which she said had been sorted but what that obviously meant was “we will send you on your way and hope that one of the buses has vacancies!”

We were then transported to another roadside cafe where we were told a bus was coming at noon but then inside they said it was coming at 12:30. Time was well and truly ticking! At 1:00 pm it finally turned up and left about half an hour later, and it was then basically a race against time where I really was living and breathing every acceleration and deceleration and getting agitated by each red light and people taking too long to get off the bus!

At the start of the journey I had basically given up but as we journeyed on I did think that we would make it back in time for me to check in at the last possible moment. That may have been the case when I arrived back in KK at 6:30 pm and rushed for a taxi which took me to the airport. Unfortunately, it was the wrong airport which surprised me as I didn’t know there were two airports, and also because I told the driver twice that I was flying on Malaysia Air and not Air Asia which were at different airports!!

Another taxi then took me on to the correct place but with my plane only 20 minutes away from take off they wouldn’t let me through. Rules are rules of course but it ain’t half infuriating when it happens to yourself! I then went to the Malaysia Air office which was just about to close. The guy in there said there was no flight till the following day and that I should phone their office the following day to see if the Tokyo office would let me transfer my ticket or whether I’d have to buy a new one.

I dejectedly left the Airport and checked into an air-con room at Akinabalu Hostel where I was suprised to bump into Yoni again who had just returned from his ascend of Mount Kinabalu. We went out for dinner at the Central Market and later had the satisfaction of seeing the Germans lose the Euro 2008 final to Spain but it was small consolation for me when I knew I’d be absent from work that day thereby losing a days pay on top of whatever I would be charged for inadvertantly changing my flight schedule.

Earlier on the Sunday night I had had to buy a phonecard to call work but there was no  answer machine at head office, and for some reason the phone just wouldn’t connect with my school manager’s mobile. On top of all this, the internet service was lousy and kept logging me out! I eventually mailed my then-girlfriend asking her if she could  phone my manager to say I’d be absent the following day, and after that I was left wondering whether all would go well in my absence. These were slightly different times before smartphones had become common place.

So there I was in Kota Kinabalu with many hours to kill in a place that I didn’t really want to be. I chose to take a minivan to Likas Mosque and then walked on to Menara Tun Mustapha which had a revolving restaurant high up offering good views of the city.

State Mosque completed my short itinerary and then I went to the Airport three hours before my flight!

I still only just made it in time as I had to wait 45 minutes to be served in the Malaysia Airlines office where an employee wanted me to pay a whopping 140,000 yen (£700) for a fresh ticket which I obviously complained about whole heartedly as the original return ticket was only about half that.

After kicking up a bit of a fuss and twisting the truth about what the Tokyo office had said, I got a new ticket for about 38,000 yen (just under £200) which, though still expensive, was quite a relief given the original asking price! Desite being given a pass to push through the waiting crowds, I still only just managed to check in with little time to spare. I finally arrived back on Japanese soil at 8:00 am, and after the train ride home, I had to pretty much go straight to work. Not ideal of course but it certainly gave me something to talk about both then in the ensuing years everytime the topic of bad holiday experiences came up!

Click here to read ‘SE Asia 2013/14 Pt I: Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)’

Click here to read ‘Malaysia 2010: Penang Pt I – Parasailing and Dr Fish!’

Click here to read ‘Malaysia 2010: Penang Pt II – Temples’

Click here to read ‘TF Top 5……Movies Made In Malaysia’