Went back to the same hostel as before, where I was also able to leave my big backpack and that's why all I needed to bring was a carry on bag. That was soooo nice! And also to travel in flipflops :)!! I was welcomed back at the hostel by familiar faces and also one girl that said one of her roommates told her about me before she left haha. It was one of the people I hung out with before I left for Langkawi. I came in around 730pm and had another two nights in KK. So the next full day, I didn't do much...sleep in, go to the pool, chill, repacked my big backpack to leave behind again and a smaller one to take with me to Sandakan, where I was flying to the next afternoon.
And so another flight with just a carry on bag and wearing flipflops! I did bring my sarong this time because I was freezing on the airplane last time. And again, little legroom and a terrible powernap but the flight was only about half an hour! Got to the hostel in Sandakan, where I had booked a double room with seaview and it did not disappoint! It's the first time in...I kind of want to say all of my trip, that I have a window! Which is not entirely true, but this is the first private room with window and shower, still shared restrooms. The view was sooo nice and I even opened the windows a few times.
Sandakan itself was okay. A lot of males on the street (young and old) and a lot of stares (also by females) and 'hello, hello, hello' and 'wow, you're beautiful'. Sigh, yeah 'hello and goodbye' haha. My hostel was at a waterfront which was nice for walks and other than that I didn't see much, local shops, a supermarket and a mall.
I was picked up the next day to go on my 2night Kinabatangan river tour (which included 2 afternoon and one morning rivercruises, a night jungle walk and a morning jungle walk)! I was with 3 other people from the hostel and after lunch a 4th person joined us. The bus ride to Kinabatangan river was very bumpy and took about 2 hours, 3 of us shared travel stories on the bus and so time went by a bit faster. We then took a boat to our lodge for about 5-10min. 3 of our group only had a daytour which was lunch, an afternoon cruise and the 2hours back to Sandakan and 2 of us stayed overnight. We checked in and I was in a fan dorm, which was the cheapest option, and I was the only one there and so I had 6 beds to choose from! There was a boardwalk in between the dorm, chalets and reception/restaurant and everything was high of the ground, safe from snakes and such. We saw a huge lizard and a few monkeys at which point I said monjet, which means monkey when the staff asked what I saw. They started laughing.
At 330pm they hit a drum, letting everyone know it was tea time. Very funny and reminded me of when I was on one of the islands of Fiji as the only guest there and I slept on a hill. And everytime a meal was being served, they did the same. Anyways, we had our tea plus snack and listened to our guide who gave us some information on the area, the wildlife, our activities and explained what the rules were.
We left with the 5 of us and another group of 5 including 2 tourguides which completely filled the boat. The water is brown (or looks brown because of the mud underneath). The cruise was about two hours and I was hoping to see orang utans (which means man if the forest) and pygmea elephants, but when I heard the last sightings were months ago, I settled on seeing crocs and monkeys. Everytime we saw a log, it looked like a crocodile and so everytime we saw a log, one of us went; crocodile. We did see a few actual crocodile heads in the water, some birds (like hornsbills, eagles and kingfishers) and a lot of monkeys, macaques and proboscis monkeys (nose monkeys).
The two of us that stayed overnight went on the night trek with one guide/spotter in front and one behind us. We had to rent boots because it was very muddy and also wear long socks or rent leech socks. The night walk was nice and exciting and I hoped to see more than big bugs (that's what I mostly saw in Bako, Sarawak). And we did, birds (kingfishers!!!), a small snake and civet cats!! After that we walked to the river to check out the stars, you could see so many of them!! And then went to our rooms. I heard animals on the roof before going to sleep, which was probably civet cats chasing jungle mice according to one of the guides.
I had set my alarm for 530am, because of our schedule 550am tea/coffee, 6am morning river cruise! I somehow always wake up before my alarm clock though and this time it was also still dark outside. But I got up, had tea and we then went on the morning cruise, just the two of us again plus guide and the driver. It was nice, we again saw more monkeys, birds, but this time I also spotted an owl which was new! And knowing it's wildlife, I sometimes still felt a bit as I did when I was in Bako, Sarawak, like it was a tourist attraction (which it kind of is but still it's not a zoo or anything), kind of like I was on a Jurassic Park ride minus the dinosaurs of course haha.
After the cruise we had breakfast and everybody left after that, but more people were to join me at lunch time. I also did a morning trek, but mostly saw trees...and heard a lot of birds, boars, etc. Another drum around noon meant another meal and they gave me so much food. If there's a lot of people there's a buffet, but if not, you get the food per group and my group was just me. After lunch I layed by the river and finished my book and waited for the next activity, a village visit. This was however just going to a homestay next door where I had my teabreak, still by myself (and the guide), it felt a bit awkward..This was followed by my 3rd and final rivercruise.
I didn't expect much of it, or nothing new anyway and figured I would just relax. It started out very quiet, not a lot of monkeys nor birds and I wondered if it was too hot (the day before was very cloudy). But then it ended up to be the best out of 3!! There were a lot of boats out today and usually when a boat stops to look at something, others followed. And we saw 3 boats in one spot so it had to be special and it was, in the distance but still recognizable, two orang utans! The guide said, every time we saw a monkey, Talitha, monjet haha. We stayed and looked at them for a little while. We continued our cruise after more and more boats came to check it out and went on a different route than before. I don't know why they don't always take this route! We saw a lot more monkeys there, macaques and proboscis monkeys again and also....a huge crocodile!!! Happy days!!!
We all came back very happy and waited for the drum to tell us dinner was ready and again, they gave me so much food. I was still kind of full from lunch but decided to eat so I wouldn't be hungry later. It's weird to go from eating small portions twice a day to 3 somewhat large meals. And so after dinner, I did not do another night trek but went back to the room, worked on this post, went through my pictures and called it a night.
Woke up early the next morning, had breakfast and went back to Sandakan. Because we didn't have lunch on the way back, it took 2,5 hours. I checked in to the same hostel again, seaview room of course! I stayed inside to watch a movie (The fault in our stars, which was also the book I had just finished). I then had noodlesoup and apples for lunch and a pedicure and footscrub for dinner haha.
Cheers,
T.
Ps; there was no signal whatsoever at Kinabatangan except for once during one of the rivercruises. When I was taking pictures, an email from my mom came through. But as we were moving, I lost the signal again. Which was fine to be off the grid for 2 days! Except for this one lady that was there who lost her phone in the river and with that alsp her pictures but sh.e was also fine, there's nothing you can do about it she said. She joined her friend, who had traveled for months, for her last 10 days.
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