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Borneo Trip Report

March 2013



After departing from LAX our first stop was Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur. We stayed in Kuala Lumpur for a day, did a City tour and had a GREAT Malay buffet dinner with entertainment which was less than a block from our hotel.

The next day we headed to the airport to catch an Air Asia flight to Kuching, our first stop on the island of Boreno. The accommodations in Kuching were fabulous, 7th floor overlooking the Kuching River. Our first full day in Kuching we went to visit a Orangutan Reserve, then did a city tour; VERY full day. The next day we went to the Bako National Park home to the Probosis monkeys and much, much more; have to see to believe!!

The next day we took a long bus ride to Batang Ai, (the Hilton) on Hydro Lake. Our first day at Batang Ai we got in long boats, 4 to a boat and traveled across the lake to a long-house. While at the Long-House we were welcomed by the chief and everyone in the long-house. The residents and our guide made a big typical lunch feast before returning to our accommodations for another night of fabulous out side dinning. The next day we returned to Kuching where we arrived in time to do a cruise on the river and end the day with a great outdoor pick-it/cook while you wait seafood dinner -- FRESH/GREAT!!!!

It was then time to leave Kuching and fly to our next Boreno destination, Miri. This is an upscale part of the country as they recently found oil. We were only in Miri a short time. The lodging was excellent, it had the largest pool in Miri and was right on the ocean. While there we took an excursion to Niah National Parks and explored the Niah Caves. To get to the caves it is a rather long walk on a raised walk way through REAL JUNGLE. We were in Miri during St Patrick's day so went into town and celebrated with locals, great food and cold beer.

Our time in Miri was over very quickly and then we were off to our last Borneo location, Kota Kinabalu. The highlight in Kota Kinabalu was our excursion to Mt Kinabalu which was made even better when we learned our tour company decided to provide this tour free of charge. They had advertised this tour as a pay for tour. The night market in Kota Kinabalu were a lot of fun, great food, great people, definitely a do over location/island. We also did a special excursion to a Orangutan reserve for the young. At age 4 the Orangutans were sent to a different reserve that was better prepared to handle the older age group. So this reserve was a great opportunity to just see the kids!!!

Our time in Kota Kinabalu and Boreno were too short, a do over part of the world, although we would do some things a little different next time. Our last stop on this tour was the island of Penang off the coast of Malaysia. This was a special stop for us as we had visited this island twice before, in 1978 and in 1985. We were very curious to see the changes. While in Penang we had a nice city tour, but mainly our time here was R&R. Penang also has a great night market located just outside our resort and many, many dinner choices; loved the Mayal food.