Photo Angela Richardson
There's a long weekend ahead in October and you desperately try to book a villa in Bali, but it seems everywhere is fully booked. Belitung not available and you do not want to try to drive in Bandung or Pelabuhan Ratu fear it will take hours and hours to get there. So where do you go?
My answer is Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Direct Flights from Jakarta to Kota Kinabalu (also known as K. K.) are available and are cheaper than flights to Bali. In two and a half hours you are in another country and a different world and you can enjoy a pedestrian city with a traffic light and fresh air. The KK attractions are limited to shopping, walking and food, but it's what's just outside of the city that made the trip to this side of Borneo all the trouble.
Our trip was a little adventurous, starting with a two-day hike up and down Mount Kinabalu, located in Kinabalu National Park, two hours drive from KK Peaking at 400.2 meters this is the one of the mountains of this magnitude easier to conquer and much effort has been put into this path. Starting the climb at 9am, we hiked through the lush tropical forest, admiring several miniature waterfalls during the trip, and enjoy the rest stations equipped with toilets and untreated spring water.
Photo by Angela Richardson
the path of Labuan Rata, the lodge where hikers rest overnight before ascending to the top, is six kilometers and we were four clicks before the inevitable happened to slow us - the open tropical skies and it was a downpour. One thing to each tour operator and the website will tell you is to make sure to bring waterproofs and how right they were. Waterproof trousers is the only thing you need most after a rain poncho with water.
Spotting Labuan Rata was a glorious moment, which means shelter and rest. The lodge consists of several dormitory-style rooms unheated different sizes, equipped with bunk beds and showers. Downstairs a large canteen serves meals as a decent buffet for hungry trekker. After cleaning, decorating our ancestries and eat as much as we could, our tired bodies have tried to catch a few hours sleep before waking up again at 01:30 for the final push to Low Peak to watch the sunrise.
Photo by Angela Richardson
Now this is where walking becomes difficult. Starting at 2:30 am after a light breakfast, headlamps illuminate the rock face steep and there are actually three segments where you have to shoot you up the rope - gloves with grip are very practical. It is a climb of three hours in the bitter cold when the sun came to wake welcomes you with open arms and incredible view opens up to you (if not below zero, I would have stayed much longer admire) .
Two hours later and return to the lodge, a large breakfast was really appreciated, followed by the rest of an hour before a four-hour hike down the mountain in the same way we arrived. In true fashion of the rainforest, the skies opened again halfway, but we smiled and enjoyed knowing we were on our way back to a hot shower in a warm hotel room and that our feet may soon get some well deserved rest.
The next day we organized a day trip to visit a little orangutan sanctuary where young rescued orphans have been rehabilitated. A 130 Ringgit each it was a great morning out and meant we were free to walk, yes again, around the city in the afternoon. There are many day trips available, you can book through a tour operator or through your hotel. Orangutan sanctuary travel book quickly so be sure to book in advance during high season.
Photo by Angela Richardson
Next on our itinerary was diving to the famous island of Sipadan, one of ten the word diving destinations. Sipadan, in the Celebes Sea, is only half a kilometer long and 0 meters wide, and was once the center of a territorial dispute between Indonesia and Malaysia, with Malaysia being awarded the island the international Court of Justice on the basis of "effective occupation" in 02. Jacques Cousteau said in his Borneo movie: the ghost of the sea turtle, "I have seen other places like Sipadan, there 45 years, but not anymore. now we found an untouched piece of art. "
Untouched it may have been, but today many boats from neighboring islands will take you to Sipadan divers and0 per day are allowed to dive in its surrounding waters with a license fee of 40 ringgit per person per day. We enjoyed three dives a day and were fortunate to have access to Sipadan for two whole days, enjoying an abundance of sharks - black tip and white tip - HAWKBILL turtles, barracudas, jack fish schools, schools of parrotfish bumphead and an array of other species of fish and macro marine life, including a rare spotting of a dragon Seamoth which was one of the sweetest creatures ever!
With such a profusion of divers, it is so important to dive responsible in these waters to minimize the degradation of the dive effect tourism has had on its formerly pristine reefs. We attended a diver diving carelessly along the bottom of the ocean, dragging her second controller through the reef, breaking pieces of coral on its way. As much as we all tried to pull it up and say out of sign language, he continued, which brings me to an important point; learn to dive properly before attempting underwater photography.
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