Highlights of Malaysia
From southern Thailand and the town of Trang I took a bus to Satun and a truck taxi out to the ferry dock on my way to Langkawi, Malaysia. There are a lot of ways to get into Malaysia but Hat Yai was having some terrorists with homemade bomb issues so it was better to go by water and avoid unwanted drama that has nothing to do with me. Remember, Thailand was under Marshall Law and still is until they hold fair elections.
My visa was one day over the limit so I had to pay for the extra day and the immigration officer said it was okay for me to come back in when I’m ready. It’s a nice thing to know as the officer put the 500 baht in his pocket with a smile.
Langkawi is a big island and the ferry dock is on the southeast side so a taxi or rent a motorbike to get around to the east side where most of the beaches are lined up. The weather had changed to mostly rain so I didn’t stay too long. My next stop was Cameron Highlands where I’ve been many times and still enjoy it every time.
Cameron Highlands is a hop from Langkawi and a bus ride to Ipoh and another bus ride up the 60 kilometers of winding hills and deep river gorges. Cameron Highlands is one of five hill stations in Malaysia. Cameron Highlands is now mainly made up of a massive Boh Tea Plantation, Strawberry growers, and most recently a power station with the building of a dam for a turbine reservoir. The hiking in the area is incredible and the ancient forests in the mountains are worth the time it takes to find them.
All this is just warming up for my time in Borneo. I needed to get to Kuala Lumpur and fly from there to Borneo but I caught a bug on the bus that knocked me out for two days.
There are a few airports in the Borneo area and I chose the east coast to Sandakan where I was closest to the national parks and diving locations that others had recommended. From here south everywhere I went nature and rare flora and fauna surrounded me. The rivers and forests teamed with wildlife in the sky, in the water, the trees. I saw animals that you can’t see anywhere else in the world.
Danum Valley was a great place to hike and listen to the scientists and volunteers working the naturalists. A wild Rhino was caught prior to me getting there and a 4 kilometer fence has been erected to pen in the Rhino and a female hopefully to teach her the ways of the wild and if luck has it make a baby Rhino to begin a new age for the Borneo Rhinos. Cross your fingers.
A few years ago I was in Sumatra following the Orangutans in the jungle but there is a difference between the Orangutans in Sumatra and here in Borneo, the Orangutans are for the most part still wild where as in Sumatra they have been orphaned by depletion of forest for palm trees that produce palm oil. Deforestation and palm oil are unfortunately big business in both Sumatra and Borneo. Rubber plantations seem to be on the decline.
I took a van to Samporna where tourists are being kidnapped and held for ransom from Philippine pirates from the southern islands. It’s not a far distance from the Philippines to Borneo. Of course the pirates have on land help that facilitate the abduction coordinates. From Samporna I took a boat out to Mabul Island where I dove for a few days at different spots. The water was clear even though a storm had just passed the day before.
We dove twice a day, one in the morning and one dive after lunch and we could adjust our spots due to the weather. Mabul is a small island with approximately seven good dive sights and a few moderate ones.
There are a lot of photo ops and it’s worth the value of an underwater camera. I’m not sold on the GoPro except for size but for more clarity you have to bite the bullet and get a bigger camera with a pressure shell that you clean with fresh water after every day and dry it out completely.
The best diving I had was in Northern Sulawesi coming up next.
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