Kuala Lumpur

In between our Sabah adventure and Nepal trekking, we spent a few days in Kuala Lumpur. We stayed in a hostel I have stayed at before called Rainforest Bed and Breakfast in Bukit Bintang. It is a good location and our room was really quite luxurious. Whilst in KL we spent a fair bit of time relaxing, doing yoga on the balcony, blogging, Skyping and journaling.

On our first night we attempted to use the Internet to locate a top sunset spot for a drink and perhaps dinner. The problem with this turned out to be that although Internet has the potential be a magical up-to-the-minute point of reference, it often is not. Our recommended sunset vantage point had an excellent view of a new high rise that blocked both the city and the setting sun. What was a bit frustrating for us will potentially be devastating for the restaurant’s business. Our over-eager waitress was thrilled that I had picked her favourite cocktail off the menu and once she stopped watching me drink, we had a great time! Afterwards we went down a few floors for a lovely dinner in a large empty hotel restaurant. A highlight was the amusing art created by a man photo shopping himself (in colour) into important events in Malaysian history that were previously captured in black and white. Often he held items not yet invented like a laptop or otherwise out-of-place objects like a doughnut.

Two of the amusing pieces at our dinner location (G-tower)

Dragon kisses during a Chinese New
Year celebratory dance

As with my past trips to KL, we spent some time looking at one thing Malaysia reportedly does best: mega shopping malls. Our browsing time spanned as long as we could both hack it, which was probably longer than usual due to some unique shops, cafes and the upcoming Chinese New Year festive displays. We caught an impressive dragon dance in one of the malls and spent a fair chunk of time being hounded by retailers at Low Yat, a constantly hectic electronics mall. Not especially needing or wanting many things, our main purchases at most malls were food related! I was especially keen to buy anything wrapped in a banana leaf (always rewarding food!) and one of my favourite treats, pandan and coconut agar.

Jalan Alor on a rainy night

Our Australia Day dinner took place at Jalan Alor in the rain and was a highlight of our stay. It is a good place to people watch, grab some street food and is rather pretty come night time. A lot of the waiters wore comedic umbrella hats and it was one of those places were you can observe the huge range of tourists. You know, tourists that get amongst it with newspapers over their heads to protect from the rain compared to those that drive by in a tinted window car catching glimpses of the outside world, shielding themselves from any actual experiences. We, of course, like to think we are in the first category. Mind you, I was not at all keen to try Durian for a second time and I ran from the smell whenever I caught a whiff of it!

On our final day in KL, Rob’s friend, Sa’adah, kindly shouted us a delicious lunch in Central KL. Sa’adah had worked in Melbourne for 9 months with Rob and they caught each other up on the happenings of the company. After lunch we headed to Merdeka Square, the site of Malaysian independence from the British. (The square was originally built by the British for social activity and contains a cricket pitch in the centre.) Surrounding the square are a collection of buildings, each with different architecture from the others. There is also a display on a Malaysia’s past and present Prime Ministers. We discussed how it will be interesting to see how the blurbs for the more recent presidents change over time. I hate to think what a rundown on Australia’s recent PM’s would look like (and may change again before we know it).

Rob at the base of the Petronas towers

Checking out Malaysia's Prime Ministers

Later that afternoon we walked to the Petronas towers and the mall within them. There we had a food court dinner and visited the typically freezing cinema for a viewing of Into the Woods. The movie was enjoyable and it was amusing to see what got laughs and what didn't with the local audience.

At night we took in a view of the city that included the Petronas towers from KL Central tower. It was not the clearest of nights but we could see enough to make it worthwhile. In my opinion the tacky souvenirs that you expect to find in such places are really overdone here. I am glad we went up to the top open deck (for an extra fee) because the indoor glass has reflections of the souvenir shops that circle the entire floor, not really the view anyone is after. Unexpectedly, the open deck also has some beautiful murals to enjoy.

A foggy KL city view

Turtle coming at you!

Breaking free

Sabah's Sanctuaries and Sandakan

From Sandakan we visited two sanctuaries: the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre in the Kabil-Sepilok Forest Reserve on January 19 and the Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary on January 23. 

Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre
I felt like we could have watched these guys forever: swinging this way and that, eating, and holding their babies as they go. Feeding time went for around 30 minutes and was as you would expect: a bit of a show and spectacle. It seems like the centre is doing important work rehabilitating orphaned and injured orang utan's before returning them to the wild.

Swinging along

Orang Utan mother and baby

As well as seeing the feeding, make sure you look around the nursery where the baby orang utan's are trained to climb. The forest walk is also great for insect, bird spotting and being amongst nature.

Little rolly bug

Spotted before we learnt from Teo the master jungle spotter

Worth the walk

Tips for visiting:

• If you want to see the next-door Sun Bears, do it on the same day as if you do your ticket will get you into both
• Bring shoes and do the walk (Muddy but rewarding!)
• There are free lockers to leave bags (most items not allowed in)
• Get there before feeding time to watch the Orang Utan's arrive
• To get there from Sandakan you can take a mini bus that takes one hour (RM5), a taxi is half the time but much more expensive
• Consider staying at Sepilok as depending on what you are planning, it could be a great base
• Other fees: camera RM10

Potentially useful bus timetable SANDAKAN to SEPILOK

Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary.
The proboscis monkey can only be found in Borneo and I was especially keen to see these guys during our time in Sabah. Though we wanted some more time with these guys post-jungle trip, we were glad that we visited these very tame sanctuary monkeys second because spotting them along the river was much more exciting. Though I was alarmed at how close the monkeys were used to humans getting (and that this was encouraged), I did enjoy seeing the proboscis monkeys various expressions up close. 

I have a big nose

Mother (smaller nose) with baby

Always on show!

Guess who is boss?

Munch munch

Baby

Sleepy time

I did wonder if the sanctuary (interestingly created by a local palm-plantation owner) was perhaps more about profiting from tourists and less about providing a sanctuary for the proboscis monkey's. Apparently the plan is to grow regrow the mangroves (taken for palm plantations). It is hard to say how these tame creatures could then fend for themselves. 

There are three feeding times: 11:40am, 2:30pm, (platform A) 4:30pm (deeper into jungle platform B). We went to the afternoon feeding times. The monkeys are given pancakes and cucumber. At platform B there were also tame silver leaf monkeys being fed.

Silver leaf monkey

Time to pee: he knew he was on camera!

Same same

There was not a whole lot to do in between them and our guide offered to take us somewhere else. Eager to spend less time in the car we said we were okay to hang out at platform B until it was time. However when we got there an informative and entertaining documentary ("Biggest Nose in Borneo") was quickly organised for us. It felt like a monkey drama that explored the devastation that human invasion can have on the creatures homes. I wonder if the sanctuary is a case of doing something is better than doing nothing. I think the verdict is out for me.

Tips for visiting:

• Only go if you are expecting tame monkey's and okay with that
• It is difficult to get to independently. We organised a half-day- tour from Sandakan (negotiated to RM160)

Sandakan 
We were in and out of Sandakan a fair bit using the Seaview Budget Backpackers as our base. It was a good hostel and the cafe upstairs with its pumpkin lemongrass curry is well worth a visit. Whilst in Sandakan we visited an English tea house, the market, followed a heritage trail and walked around town.

Caterpillar on Sandakan walk

A proper English gentleman...for a day

Welcome to "Dolphin Sands Road!"

There’s a stretch of road atop a sandbar that separates Moulting Lagoon from Great Oyster Bay.  This sandbar isn’t quite big enough to reach all the way across Great Oyster Bay, meaning that if you want to travel by road from Freycinet National Park to the tiny bayside town of Swansea you are forced to go around Moulting Lagoon.  In a car, this is probably not much trouble at all; carrying your tent and essential belongings on a bike riding around Tasmania, this is somewhat of an inconvenience. 

What could have been a 15 km ride along a beautifully named road on the beachside, becomes a torturous 48km ride backtracking on roads already travelled for the sake of an inlet 493m across.  To top it off, there used to be a bloke who operated a ferry service (AKA chuck your bike on the back of his tinny), but “he stopped that years ago”, according to one helpful local who also commented “you could probably chuck your bike over at low tide”.

It is really quite hard to understand the physical and emotional toll that Dolphin Sands Road has taken from Kat and myself.  As we completed the “detour” and passed Dolphin Sands Road (in January 2014) from the west, we raised our fists angrily and shouted “Dolphin Sands Road!” with menacing voices. 

When choosing a blog name we considered many names but none felt quite right. Kat got frustrated that some of our preferred names were already taken and exclaimed "Dolphin Sands Road!" whilst shaking her fist. Then she realised what the potential of what had become one of our everyday expressions.

And that is why our blog is named “Dolphin Sands Road!”, because sometimes you need to go the long way to get anywhere in this world, something we like to keep in mind when “no tent” incidents occur, or anything else that disrupts your plans.  Sometimes you also end up with a funny story to tell. Other times you realise later, it was the journey and not the destination you were after all along.

Pulau Selingan (Turtle Island)

Standing in the dark near the Malaysia/Philippines border, we watched as one, two, three…seventy little eggs and their embryos plopped from a mother turtle into a hole. Well, we didn’t quite watch all seventy but that was the total she deposited in the chamber that were later transferred to the island’s hatchery. Watching the turtle lay eggs was an incredible experience that I would recommend. She is said to be in a trance but I wondered if she knew we were there nonetheless.

 

Pulau Selingan

Island turtle hatchery

Pulau Selingan, once owned by the Philippines, hosts many mother turtles a year that come to nest. In 2014 there were 3,400 nestings. The eggs are transferred from the chamber created by the mother to the hatchery. This protects them from predators giving the Green turtles and Hawksbill turtles a greater chance of survival.

Island paradise

We arrived at the island early afternoon to some great weather. Our helpful (but somewhat superfluous) tour guide showed us around the small island. The police base next to our chalet seemed peculiar to us and our guide told us later they attended the egg layings to control the crowd. Following a short walk, lunch and a nap we went for a swim in the beautiful clear waters. The program for the day was free time! 

The island provided a great opportunity to simultaneously see a sunset in the west, a rainbow east and a brewing storm to the north. Our other entertainment was provided by Rob's attempts to open a coconut for about half an hour. He was successful just in time for us to munch as we waved a final goodbye to the sun. (Though we had oranges in our bag within easy reach, the coconut was much tastier.) 

 



Post-coconut antics success!

I, meanwhile, had spent some time running around in a circle near the waters edge.

Kat's beach run

After dinner we sat in suspense waiting to be told when a turtle had begun to lay. When a mother turtle lands she takes an hour or so to find a place and dig a chamber. The night before it hadn't been until midnight so we prepared for a long wait with cards and journals. The prospect of ice-cream soon became too much for us. I knew as soon as we bought them a turtle would start laying eggs. I was pretty spot on; just as we gobbled down the last bit of our sundae it was “turtle time”.

Turtle eggs

Mother turtle, recuperating after laying 70 eggs

We were lucky that we were part of a small group of ten on the island which meant a good view. One staff member carefully took the eggs from the turtle into a bucket. After she had finished laying the eggs, she filled in the hole whilst the staff checked her for a tag, measured her and wrote down any marks on her shell. Incredibly, mothers return to the island were they themselves hatched as babies many years ago. An informative video presentation and museum exhibition earlier in the night had taught us that after a baby turtle is strong enough to go into the sea, there are “lost years” where no one knows what happens to them. The female turtles then go 100’s of kilometres away from where they were born and use the earth’s magnetic fields to find their way back when it is time to lay their eggs.

After the mother laid her eggs we were shown the process of depositing the eggs in a hole in the hatchery. The eggs hatch after around 2 months. Since the temperature around the eggs influences whether they are male or female the hatchery is broken into two sections, one exposed to the sun (more likely to produce females) and one in shade (more likely to produce males). After the 2 months, the baby turtles tunnel up out of the hole and make their way to the surface.

Several baby turtles hatched that night and we released one group into the sea. They have a natural instinct to go to the sea and most were raring to go. We were encouraged to help the stragglers find the right direction. It wasn’t long before they had set out into the sea. It was a bit sad to know that some would not survive the open water.

Hatchlings rushing off to sea

Rob has previously been to the Solomon Islands and seen a similar process. It was interesting to compare the different practices. In the Sols there was no hatchery due to space and resource limitations.  Nests were left in place, but still protected from predators.  Perhaps this is an extension of the number of landings.  In the peak season Palau Selingan in Malaysia can have 85 nestings in a single night. 

It was a fantastic experience seeing both a mother turtle give birth and baby turtles take their first steps into the water. We had wondered if the practices would be humane prior to and during our visit. Though we are no experts, it seemed like the place is well run and with conservation purposes taking precedent over tourist ventures. 

Tips for getting there

The island is a one-hour boat trip from Sandakan jetty. Tours can be arranged in town and there are a limited number of people allowed to stay on the island overnight (25 rooms). As far as we could tell independent travel to the island is discouraged or perhaps not possible. Tours like this do not come cheap. This was something we really wanted to do and, courtesy of a generous Christmas present, we booked our tour with Sandakan Hotspot.

Costs (per person):

Return transfer, accommodation and all meals - RM650 per person

Camera fee - RM10

Snorkel/mask/fin hire – RM25

The Sandakan Death Marches

While we joked about "surviving" the jungle for 2 nights, intentionally trying to find crocodiles, and persisting against the "onslaught" of mosquitoes, there's a serious side to being in North Borneo.  A side we were to see more of as we returned to Sandakan.

During the Japanese occupation of North Borneo from 1942-1945, almost 2500 Australian and British prisoners of war were incarcerated at Sandakan and forced to work on the construction of an airfield (which Wikipedia suggests is at the site of the current Sandakan airport). Most of these prisoners were captured after the fall of Singapore.  Towards the end of the war as the Allies were getting closer, some (many had already died due to brutality and starvation) were forced to walk from Sandakan inland to Ranau in a series of 3 marches.  A distance of more than 260km through swamps, hills and jungle.  In the end, only 6 Australians survived, and only because they were able to escape during the marches with the aid of locals.

Map from Sandakan to Ranau - thanks to borneotourstravel.com

I won't go into all of the details, it is covered much better elsewhere, (Wikipedia does a great job, as does the site "Australia's War" and "POW's of Japan", another special mention to Lynette Silver who was involved in bringing everything together from an historical perspective) a visit to the site of the actual camp at the Sandakan Memorial Park is certainly something I think worth doing, whatever your nationality.  The State of Sabah, the City Council of Sandakan and the Office of Australian War Graves have done an incredible job of making the Memorial Park a peaceful sanctuary, where people can learn from our shared past, and they ensure that the suffering of the local people at the hands of the Japanese occupiers is not lost either.

Something new I learned, was that regularly the guards responsible for the direct oversight of Australian prisoners were themselves Taiwanese conscripts of the Japanese Army, unleashing what little power they had over weaker and "lower" men than themselves. Kat was most impressed with the level of research that was done to capture what was life in the POW camp and on the death marches.

Just putting Sandakan to Ranau into Google Maps now tells you that even with modern roads it would be a tortuous 222km that would take 47h to cover without stopping.

This visit really put our jungle "adventure" in perspective, it is sobering to think what those men and local people must have suffered through.

Remains of a boiler used for electricity generation

The now serene gardens

3 flowers for 3 nations suffering

The remains of an excavator used on the airstrip

 

Kinabatangan River and Jungle Trip

The "jungle mafia" were everywhere but others characters were more elusive and sightings of them were perhaps more rewarding. Journeying along the Kinabatangan River, we thoroughly enjoyed spotting a range of wildlife. We were informed early that we would not be stopping the boat for the common maquaque monkeys (referred to as jungle mafia) or the Egret (white birds) that were interesting to watch but ever present.

"Jungle Mafia"

Gibbon's were not easy to capture on film

Our group was privileged to have had fleeting visits with gibbons, orang utans (especially Gary the first orang utan named by Kat), and even crocodiles. Our excellent guide Teo was very knowledgeable and managed to steer the boat to optimum position whilst providing information on scientific classifications, interesting facts and, at night, shedding some light on the situation while simultaneously looking up birds in his book.

Stork-billed Kingfisher

Gary the Orang Utan

Oriental Pied Hornbill

Male proboscis monkeys prefer to hide 

As we set out on Uncle Tan's 3-day, 2-night itinerary, Kat was most excited about seeing the proboscis monkeys and Rob was keen to view an orang utan (outside the sanctuary). We were both surprised how much we enjoyed spotting a range of native birds. This was especially amazing during our pitch-black night trek through mangroves when we got up close with sleeping birds that didn't bat an eyelid. Rob also found a partridge everyone else had missed (no sign of a pear tree) over his head at one point.

One of our more drizzly boat outings 

One of the sleeping birds 

Rob's partridge

Proboscis Group & Teo

It took us a little while before we really introduced ourselves to our co-travellers and guides on the jungle tour.  We were a motley group of Swedes, Chinese, Germans, English, Americans, a Canadian, Danes, Australians and a Malaysian.  Broken into two groups (the Proboscis Monkeys and the Crocodiles) we also took on this arrangement for meal times (which was totally un-necessary, but seemed to just develop on its own).  In our group (Proboscis), we had Gloria, May, Goodwin (from Qingdao, China), Anna & Simon (from Sweden).  `

TEAM PROBOSCIS!

Our wonderful guide Teo

We were lucky enough to have Teo as our guide for each of the trips river cruises and jungle treks, while the Crocodile group had Dis (AKA “Jungle Dis-co”) .  He was incredibly knowledgeable and never seemed to display a boredom of describing the same animals and plants over and over again, or searching for them on the banks of the Kinabatangan.  He could spot a tiny kingfisher from 200m away and knew the tree that the dollarbirds loved to frequent. Nothing better describes his sincerity for the subject matter than this photo of him as he tells us about a dead cotton spider.

Although he has a serious face in every photo we have, he was a very jolly bloke, easy to laugh, quick to make a joke and entertained us each night with endless rounds of karaoke as he played along on the guitar.

Program Activities

Kat spotted a few frogs

During our stay in the jungle we took part in two night boat safari’s, two morning boat safari’s, and afternoon jungle trek and a night trek. Each one was rewarding in different ways. The first night boat trip was easily the most exhilarating. We discussed how neither of us would ever feel that good about directing a speed boat on a river through pitch-blackness with only the aid of a torch. Once we decided it was unlikely we would end up on the river bank on our next turn since Teo had probably done this a million times, we quite enjoyed the ride. The stillness and serentiy of the morning boat trip contrasted with the excitement of a jungle coming alive after dark on our night trek. Initially Kat did not enjoy the night trek due to the abundance of mosquitos and spiders however she was soon absorbed in spotting an array of frogs, insect and birds.

Red jungle millipede on mossy log

The Accommodation

For 2 nights we lived on mattresses under mosquito nets in huts built on mangroves.  It was a little muggy but not without some luxuries, such as electricity from 7-midnight (from a generator), sit down toilets and if you wanted, you could have enjoyed a cold bucket shower (although as the water was quite brown on account of coming from the Kinabatangan, we opted to wait for our return to Sandakan).  Items such as wet ones, deodorant, and anything with a fruit smell had to be stored in sealed plastic tubs to protect them from ransacking by rats or maquaques.  If you are a 5-star hotel gold member (and live by that), you might not enjoy this experience but we really loved it. 

We shared our hut with Gloria, May and Goodwin – who were lovely company.  Gloria’s English was very good (so good in fact that she could translate our complex Uno rules for May) and made up for my lack of anything but “xie-xie” and Kat’s primary school-level Mandarin, it was also a pleasant surprise to find that they also were staying at the same hostel on our return to Sandakan.  Gloria generously extended an invite to stay with her should we pass through Qingdao when we get to China. Anna and Simon did the same for Sweden.
 

As the website says "It is a Wildlife Camp you are visiting
 - NOT A RESORT & SPA"

Sunset on the Kinabatangan River

Highly Recommended

We really enjoyed the secluded location of Uncle Tan’s and would highly recommend it as probably the best thing we have done in Sabah. (Thanks to Scott and Bianca for recommending it to us!) Within our whole trip it was just us 15 visitors, the staff and the wildlife. Very occasionally we also saw people from the local village but no other tour groups.

A great place to visit in Sabah

Booking and Prices

Uncle Tan’s can be booked online (no deposit required) and all the necessary information is on their website. Payment is cash only (don’t be the people who need to take a special additional taxi ride back to Sandakan for more cash) and RM420 per person plus a RM10 conservation fee. It includes accommodation, all meals, tea/coffee and activities. The staff operate a co-op that sells water, soft drink and beer, sometimes chocolate, at reasonable prices. (We spent RM15.)