Amelia, Beth and I took an early afternoon flight from Kuala Lumpur and landed around mid-afternoon in Sandakan, Borneo. We'd read and heard that Sandakan isn't exactly a place you want to hang around in, but it was an unavoidable stop for us and the gateway to the 'Kinabatangan River' and 'Sepilok'.
When we arrived in the former capital of British North Borneo we immediately concurred with the general consensus. It was an ugly city with a littered harbour, large dirty blocks of flats and a foul sewage aroma lingering heavily in the air. Things weren't looking good inside either, we quickly escaped the first recommended 'hotel' called 'Sea View Sandakan' as the the rooms were horribly damp and the staff were far from friendly.
We moved swiftly on, but now didn't have a good vibe or much expectations for the next place called 'Harbourside Guesthouse'. However, we were happy to be proved wrong. We were welcomed into a pristine reception and social area by some very friendly staff. The place was relatively new so the rooms were pristine and reasonably priced, Beth even got a double bed to herself too. Our only gripe was the cost of laundry, but being desperate, we paid for a small amount of necessities to be washed.
For dinner we stumbled across a few locally run eateries by the waterfront. They served cheap average food, which was all we needed before heading back to the hostel and having an early night.

We awoke hoping to depart the uninspiring town, but unfortunately we had no such luck as the tour we were hoping to join to the Kinabatangan River was fully booked. Finding something to eat for breakfast during Ramadan proved very difficult, after a lap around the town we came to realise our only option was McDonalds, but not for a Mcmuffin. McDonalds in Malaysia offer 'local' breakfast of chicken rice porridge for less than a pound so we all had that instead.
Rather than moping around like others in our hostel, we decided to go out and explore. Sandakan is an important town to British and Australian WWII history with the infamous Death Marches commencing here in 1942 - a series of forced marches which resulted in the deaths of over 2,500 British and Australian servicemen, whom were held captive by the Japanese during WWII in the Sandakan POW camp.
Our initial plan was to visit the Australian owned memorial park just outside the city, but finding an economical way of getting there proved too troublesome. So instead we decided to walk up a hundred or so steps to a hill overlooking the city and to highly rated museum and 'English Tea House', which was owned by an American so although it had a nice setting we didn't bother sticking around for a bland cup of 'Lipton' English breakfast tea.
Lunch also proved difficult to find, but luckily we found the eatery by the waterfront was just opening, so ate there before going back to the room for a freshen up.
Later that day we caught a taxi to 'Sim Sim Fishing Village'. It's a renowned place to go for dinner, but before going to check out the restaurant, we decided to have a walk around the stilted village. During our walk along plank walkways we were greeted with some very enquiring but friendly faces, including some very curious kids wanting to have there pictures taken. Once we'd completed our stroll around the wooden houses, we found one of the village's restaurants just before sunset.
For dinner we chose half a kilo of sea bass and just over a quarter of a kilo of snapper to go with some vegetables and of course rice. It was a delicious meal, washed down with a cold fresh coconut, in a restaurant busy with what looked like locals.
Although some of the fishing village was plagued with litter, we were happy to escape the grubby and smelly town centre of Sandakan if only for a few hours. The rest of the evening was spent back at the hostel watching the Austrian GP.

We started the next day with the similar issues as the previous day, so rather than wasting time we headed back to McDonalds for breakfast before lazing around the hostel awaiting our saviour. Our saviour aka the tour bus picked us up just after midday and took us two and a half hours inland along with three others to a village called 'Billit' by the Kinabatangan River. We were dropped at a place called 'Borneo Natural Sakura Nature Resort'.
We were greeted by a smiley Malay lady issuing cold damp flannels - definitely not a welcome you get at your average hostel! The place was brand new, they took their first customers just a few weeks prior to our stay so they were clearly trying to make a name for themselves. The resort was still having its finishing touches, which was probably why the tour cost was such a bargain!
Whilst being shown to our rooms, yes rooms - the resort had Beth and I down as husband and wife (same surname) sharing a private room with Amelia in a dorm. However, we quickly put them on the right track and it was figured out that the three of us would stay in one of their comfortable six bed dorm rooms which we would have all to ourselves. The dorm was very nice and didn't look used, the other non-made up beds were even still in their packaging!
Once we'd dropped our bags off, put on the correct attire (hiding as much skin from the mozzies as possible) and grabbed our cameras, we went back to the reception and dining area for our introduction to the guide. His name was 'Joe' and he briefed us on our itinerary for the next three days. The other two in our group (from the bus) were on holiday from Kuala Lumpur - a generous father taking his daughter away for a break from her studies. Also joining us was a local freelance tour guide who seemed to be checking out the new resort. She never introduced herself, but she was kind natured and very knowledgable.
With our mandatory life jackets on, Joe led us to a small motorised wooden boat to start our first activity - a two hour river cruise in search of wildlife on the Kinabatangan River - the second longest river in Malaysia known for its remarkable wildlife including the orangutan, saltwater crocodile, proboscis monkey, Pygmy elephant, Sumatran rhinoceros and huge variety of bird life.
One of the first things we saw was a common bird called the 'intermediate egret'. We spent a few minutes observing the bird with our hired binoculars before carrying on the cruise. There were many other birds (most of which I don't know the names of) including a colourful 'kingfisher' and the unusual looking 'oriental pied hornbill'. As much as we enjoyed looking at the beautiful birds perched on the top of trees or gracefully gliding through the air, we wanted to see primates of some sort. We kept our eyes peeled and scanned every tree possible, so much so my mind played trick on me.... I saw something that looked very much like a monkey sat far away in the trees, we even stopped the boat and reversed to have a look - it wasn't until we had a closer inspection (with the binoculars) that it transpired to be broken branch that looked very much like a monkey! I like to think I wasn't the first and won't be the last tourist to make such a judgement.
Eventually after scanning dozens of trees we spotted a 'silvered leaf monkey' aka 'silvery lutung', and then just a little further down the river a family of 'proboscis monkeys' settling on a tree for the night - the proboscis monkey is only found in Borneo and easily recognisable with its large nose and pot bellies, the male nose can exceed 10cm in length and can even hang lower than the mouth! After watching the proboscis monkeys for a while it was time to turn back. On our way back we saw plenty of long tailed macaques (a common sight in SEA) and the rare 'rhinoceros hornbill'.
Just before we reached our resort's jetty our guide spotted a crocodile. We were all amazed at how easily the guides seem to spot the wildlife, to us it just looked like a log but as we got closer we could see its head and eyes peering out of the milky tea coloured water. But before we even got chance to grab our cameras, it had disappeared into the murky depths of the Kinabatangan river.
We enjoyed a buffet style dinner of rice, chicken curry, fish curry and vegetables. After dinner, with macaques, cats and bats for company, we waited for our next activity.
Torches in hand our guide Joe lead the way introducing us to our next activity. The activity was a walk into the surrounding forest looking for nocturnal animals and creepy crawlies.
It wasn't the most action packed walk - we saw a sleeping bird and a few bugs, that was about it. What made it a little more interesting though, was a guide (not Joe) at the back of the group helping Amelia, Beth and I search. He was a very funny guy with short one liners, which at some points had us in stitches of laughter.
The walk lasted about an hour, after which we were all pretty tired so headed back to the room for a good night sleep.

With the sounds of our alarms still ringing in our ears and eyes half open, we made our way to the reception area before sunrise, ready for our 'misty morning river cruise'. The wildlife congregates along the river during the cooler hours so we were hoping, as with the evening cruise, to spot lots of wildlife.
This time we went in the opposite direction and within a minute had spotted a huge crocodile happily cruising along right next to the river bank! This one was a lot easier to see as its entire body (rather than just its head) was floating on the surface. It let us stare from about five metres away for a good few minutes before we decided we didn't want to overstay our welcome. Another reptile later, a 'monitor lizard' perched in tree, and we were back peering through the binoculars hoping to see some wild orangutans. We did manage to spot some primates, but not of the ape variety, we saw some more silvered leaf monkeys and long tailed macaques frolicking around in the trees during first light.
As the heat intensified a lot of the wildlife seemed to disappear, seeking the cooler temperatures deeper in the forest. On our way back to the resort we saw plenty of birds, including hornbills of different varieties - 'bushy crested hornbills' and a pair of oriental pied hornbills sharing a morning kiss in the tree. During the cruise we also saw a 'black and red broadbill', a huge 'white bellied fish eagle', a 'crested serpent eagle', an 'oriental darter', a 'slender bill crow', a 'purple heron' and finally a 'stork billed kingfisher' which is the largest kingfisher in Borneo, a beautifully coloured bird, but very shy, so we struggled to get a good snap of that one!
By the time we returned the staff were awake and were preparing our breakfast. It was supposedly an 'American breakfast', it consisted of hotdogs, baked beans, scrambled eggs and toast. It was nice, but not being used to all this 'Western food' it sat heavy in our stomachs. However, we soon shrugged it off to get ready for our next activity.
We got back on the boat with Joe, the guide with no name and the father and daughter from KL. It was just a short boat journey up river to a popular hiking trail.
After disembarking the boat, with our tops tucked in and leech socks pulled up (an attempt to prevent the little critters latching on), we commenced the 'hike'.
The 'hike' was a fairly easy walk along a well trodden path, nonetheless it was an interesting walk through the dense forest to a perfectly still oxbow lake. We spent about half an hour having a rest and taking snaps, before retracing our steps through the forest and back to the boat.
With the temperature creeping up to the mid thirties and humidity at around eighty percent, we were happy to return to the resort and once again be greeted by the friendly staff with cold damp flannels.
After our lunch, we had some time to spare before our next activity. We decided to fill it with a visit to the local village.
The village was nearby - just a few hundred metres down an unsealed road. It was small and very quiet village, with only around two dozen homes and a shop. With most of the locals being Muslim, and fasting for Ramadan, there was no one around - we assumed that they'd sought the coolness of their stilted homes and were conserving their energy.
Later that day we embarked on our second river cruise of the day. It was again commenced just before sunset. This time though we had a different boatman/guide, much to the disapproval of the freelance guide and unlike Joe this boatman was speeding along the river on some sort of mission. His 'mission' became apparent when we arrived with a few other boats to a tributary off the Kinabatangan River, the tributary had 'primate crossings' - ropes tied high up in the trees from one side to the other. These have been put in place to try and increase the amount of space and routes the primates and other wildlife have. Unfortunately the forest around the Kinabatangan River have been largely cut down and replaced with palm trees for the worlds large demand for palm oil. The crossings have now attracted large amounts of wildlife and our guide was hoping we might be able to spot the illusive orangutan. Unfortunately luck wasn't on our side, we did however get to see lots of proboscis monkeys, long tailed macaques and pig tailed macaques, as well as the birds we were starting to become accustomed to seeing like the hornbill and different types of eagle.
Dinner was waiting for us upon our return so after indulging on more rice, curry and plenty of veg we were ready for our second and final night walk.
Joe led the way along the same track as the previous night. Again, we didn't see a great deal, just a few sleeping birds and a few unusual insects, but then that's the nature of nature I suppose, it's all luck.

The next morning we were up early again for our last activity of the trip - the misty morning river cruise. Keeping everything crossed we really hoped luck would be on our side.
We saw plenty of wildlife, all of which we'd seen during the previous cruises, but even with another six sets of eyes (another tour had now joined) we still failed to spot any orangutans.
As much as we'd loved to of seen orangutans in the wild it just wasn't meant to be. So after having our unusual 'local' breakfast of fried noodles with hotdogs we packed our belongings and boarded the minivan to take us to our next destination - Sepilok - in search of more Orangutans...