Borneo 2015 – day 08

Monday 6th July

We awoke at 07:00, headed up to the restaurant for breakfast and a re-shoot of the family portrait we shot last time we were here, then it was back on the road east.
Unfortunately, the area we had to pass through from the middle of the island to the east coast is one that is heavily under the thumb of the palm oil industry. Sadly, we spent many a mile stuck behind slow-moving trucks, many of which were carrying palm pods to the mills for processing…
This severely hampered our progress, and the 220km from Ranau to Sandakan (the same distance of the Sandakan Death Marches during World War 2, only in the reverse direction) took us almost 4 hours. It was very “in your face” just how much damage the palm oil industry is doing to this country. Sure, the locals are probably making better money than they have ever been able to make in the past, but at what cost? Where there used to be thousands upon thousands of hectares of native rainforest, now there is either a lunar landscape of hills that have been cleared ready to have palms planted, or there are hills covered in fully grown palms. For the uninitiated, the problem with this is that the destruction of the rainforest is removing the habitat for Borneo’s most famous natives, the orang-utans, plus a multitude of other forest-dwelling animals.
We arrived in Sandakan just after lunch, and found ourselves a great feed down at the waterfront at one of the many street food vendors. Typical of this country, we had two typical dishes (for Cath and I) while Max settled for a plate of fried rice, plus 4 glasses of freshly-squeezed fruit juice and the whole lot cost just under RM40 (about AUD$13). Eating like kings!
A quick browse on Trip Advisor found us the Sabah Hotel, a gorgeous building whose architecture reminds me of British Colonialism in India. We spent an hour or so lazing in the hotel pool, before heading off in search of some shops and eventually dinner.
Tomorrow, we drive out to Sepilok to see more orang-utans and the Borneo sun bears, before heading off in search of a jetty somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Should we find said jetty, there will be a guy waiting to transport us up river to a small village where we will be spending two nights living with a local family… sharing their house, their food, their customs. Should be quite the eye-opening experience, I would imagine. Along with that experience, they will also take us on boat cruises up and down the river in search of wildlife. Can’t wait!