Category: Blog

Sunday 12th July The lodge is absolutely beautiful. The chalets all face east, and we have an ocean-side view. There is a row of trees between our chalet and the beach, so that softens the sunrise a little bit as it hits your front door, but you can still see the ocean. The bathroom is…

Saturday 11th July After arriving back at the marina in Sandakan, we jumped back in the car and headed off to the Sandakan-Renau Death March Memorial. If you were following this blog two years ago, you may recall that we visited the memorial at Kundasang, a small village not far from Renau. Renau was where…

Friday 10th July This morning, we were up bright and early, breakfasted, bags packed, and out of the hotel by 08:30 ready to catch our island transfer at 09:00. Just off the east coast from Sandakan lays a group of three small islands (Pulau Selingaan, Pulau Gulisaan and Pulau Bakkungan Kechil), now referred to as…

Thursday 9th July This morning, it was up, have breakfast, pack our bags, and we were ferried back across the river to where we’d left our car. We got on the road, and were ecstatic at what we had experienced over the previous 36 hours, but there was more awesomeness to come. Our next planned…

Wednesday 8th July The next morning, we headed out in the boat again, nice and early at 06:30. I asked yesterday afternoon if it was safe to swim in the river. I was given a very definite no, there are crocodiles in the river. Right then! No swimming, it is. So, I was pretty keen…

Tuesday 7th July It’s now Thursday afternoon, and we have just arrived back in Sandakan after our 48 hour adventure to the little river village of Bilit. More on that in a sec. We left Sandakan around 08:00 Tuesday morning, heading for Sepilok, an outer suburb which is home to one of the largest orang-utan…

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…

Sunday 5th July Today, we left Gunung Mulu National Park, flying to Kota Kinabalu (Kota is the Malay word for ‘town’) where we picked up a hire car. After a brief stop at a shopping centre for some lunch, we hit the road for Sandakan. The trip is about 400km, which in Australia would be…

Saturday 4th July Today, we took a longboat up the river to see the Cave of the Winds and Clearwater Cave. Because this is the ‘dry’ season, the river has dropped in level somewhat, and there were sections where we were scraping the bottom of the boat against the smooth river stones on the bottom.…

Friday 3rd July This morning, we got our first sleep in on this trip. Our bungalow is nestled amongst the trees, so all night you can hear the sounds of the insects, bats and nocturnal birds. It’s really very peaceful. After breakfast, we decided to walk to the Marriott Resort (a silly idea in the…

Thursday 2nd July This morning, we checked out of our hotel in Kuching, caught a cab to the airport and took the flight to Gunung Mulu National Park. Our plane could have carried about 72 passengers, but was only burdened with about 10 of us. This meant that all 3 of us could have a…

Wednesday 1st July Today, we met our taxi downstairs at the pre-determined 08:00. Thankfully, Cath had had the presence of mind yesterday to ask James about the best way to get to Semenggoh. He had advised us NOT to go via bus, as the bus drops you at the ticket gate, a mere 1.8km down…

Tuesday 30th June This morning, we met our guide from Kuching Caving, James, in the hotel foyer at 08:15. He’s an Englishman who used to be in I.T. He was sent to Sarawak, the southernmost of the two Malaysian provinces on the island of Borneo, to work on an I.T. project 11 years ago. As…

Monday 29th June Monday morning, and we’re chomping at the bit to get out and start soaking in the sights, the sounds and the smells of Kuching. Breakfast in our hotel gave us the choice of local style or western style, and I have to confess, we opted for what we knew. A cuppa and…

Sunday 28th June We landed in Singapore around 14:00 Sunday afternoon with a 4 and a half hour stopover ahead of us. Max and Cath went off to browse, while I grabbed a few shots around the interior of Changi Airport, arguably one of the best international airports in the world. Having said that, I…

Well, it’s all over. We checked out of the Shangri-La and took a cab to the airport. And like most travellers, once you start your homeward journey, you just want it to be over. That was us, for sure. Didn’t want to leave, but sure as heck didn’t want to be in transit either.

Our last day began with a trip into town to pick up some souvenirs for family back home. After an hour or two of that, we returned to the resort. After lunch, I decided I was going to take that walk across to the fishing village on the other side of the bay. I grabbed…

We had our last breakfast together as a group, before heading back to our respective rooms to pack bags. The two other families were both leaving Sabah that day, while we were simply taking a cab to our next hotel, the Shangri-La Tanjung Aru. We arrived mid-morning, knowing that check in wasn’t until 14:00, but…

This was our last day as a tour group, but to be honest, the tour might have well have finished the night before. This was a “free day”, for those (unlike us) who don’t have spare days “in-country”. Trouble was, we were about 20km outside of KK, so you couldn’t really go anywhere. That left…

We awoke to find that the winds had shifted back to northerly, which meant that we would be able to take our (also-missed activity from yesterday) boat ride across to Pulau Ular (colloquial name “Snake Island”). It’s a tiny island. You could walk around it in about 2 minutes. But it is home, as the…