Category Archives: _Asia_

Sepilok Jungle Discovery

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We were scheduled to leave Sepilok in the late morning; enough time for a visit to the rainforest discovery center – and actually for me the last time getting close to the Borneo rainforest on this trip.

Sandakan

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Next destination was Sandakan – a coastal town at Borneo’s east coast. Activity-wise there was not too much to do here … also town is explored in about 1 to 2 hours.

Some of us decided to get a taxi up to the English tea house for some afternoon tea – also to celebrate Manne’s birthday. In the end the day turned as English as it could on Borneo – with scones, afternoon tea, G&Ts, Pimm’s No.1 and croquet.

We then had dinner in a restaurant at the sea. Food was good, bear cheap and we were still in birthday celebration mode. Manne even got half a birthday cake from the people sitting next to us … where – incidentailly – a guy also celebrated his birthday and shared the cake. After cake many of us fancied some stronger drinks, so we ended up in the tea house again … though the tea turned out according to a recipe from Long Island.

Fun at Night

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After we got back to the community center and after we got changed (we were drenched) – everything was already prepared for a cooking lesson.

We were now to prepare our own dinner. I joined the ‘pumpkin’ group. We prepared a simple (really simple!) pumpkin dish with just few ingredients: garlic (fry in palmoil), pumpkin (add to garlic in palmoil), add some water from time to time, when the pumpkin is good add small pieces of tomato and egg – and done. Simple, but mouth-watering and delicious.

After dinner we changed into traditional clothing (provided by our hosts) for another cultural performance with music, dancing and other performances. Again we were invited to join in.

Jungle Camp – a Hammock, the Jungle and me

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Today we left Poring by bus … and made our journey to Mengaris village, a small community at Kinabatangan river.

From here we started an overnight boat trip into the jungle including a night in a hammock in the jungle – the real Jungle Camp.

It took a short ride on a boat to reach the landing point for our jungle camp .. here we first had to set up camp, i.e. everyone (except for me) had to setup his/her hammock. Afterward we went for a sunset boat ride looking out for wildlife. After dinner we had the opportunity to go on a night walk through the jungle – to get a glimpse of the nocturnal jungle inhabitants.

The best moment was probably also the scariest … half the group was gathering around the snake shown in one of the photos below, then our guide realized what was happening … first sound was just ‘oh…oh’ surely no good sign … in the end it turned out it was a harmless … but better be safe than sorry.

Rafflesia

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The small village of Poring was our next destination. While it is known for its hot springs, we were lucky enough to see Rafflesia – the world’s biggest flower – in the surrounding jungle in full bloom.