The next morning we all made our way to a tribal village where we were shown the skulls which are still hanging in one of the long houses. These skulls were 'collected' by the last head hunter of that tribe. They told us that when you wanted to ask a girl to marry you, you first needed to go into the jungle, find a rival tribesman, cut of his head, and then present it to the parents of the girl to show that you were capable of looking after her.
We all got to try using a blow dart, I was even allowed to shoot it at a balloon which the guy was holding between his legs. Luckily for him, I didn't miss. We got a musical show and were invited up to play with them. They also taught us how to make fire before we headed back to town. The guys had to head back to KL and so after dinner they headed to the airport while myself and Kay went back to our hostel to try and make some plans for our short time in Borneo.
We decided that we wanted to go to turtle island and stay the night at a turtle conservation but the next day we couldn't find any agencies that could offer us the trip. We booked a bus over to Sandakan, which is close to turtle island, in the hopes that we could book something over there. There was plenty to do in Sandakan and around so even if we couldn't we would still have plenty to do. We arrived in Sandakan pretty late and checked into our accommodation, lucky for us, we had a whole 8 bed dorm to ourselves. We must be the only lunatics that opt for a fan only room in that heat.
The next morning we went in search of somewhere to book the turtle conservation. The first place we went to were looking for over RM700 (£140) each to spend one night there. We were a bit hesitant and told the lady that it was a bit much and we would need to have a think about it. She, very kindly, told us that if we went to the pier we would be able to book the trip directly with Crystal Quest, who run the conservation, and we would be able to get it for much cheaper. She was not wrong, we managed to get both of us staying for one night for about half of what the agency wanted.
We went to a nice Chinese place on the waterfront for dinner and spoke to a lady who had been travelling for 18 years (jealous!) and she gave us loads of tips about booking cheap hotels and flights.
We made our way the next day to the orangutan sanctuary which is just a short bus ride outside Sandakan. Twice a day they leave food on platforms for them and if you are there during these times you'll get to see loads of oranguatans. After we'd had our fill of the amazing creatures, we went across the road to the Sun Bear sanctuary. It wasn't so easy to spot these tiny bears, but a nice lady that worked there pointed some out to us and also showed us some on a telescope.
We went for a walk along a canopy walk way in a huge big forest close by after lunch and then caught the last bus back to Sandakan.
There were only 12 of us taken to turtle island the following morning, they only allow a small number of people of the island at any one time, which is nice. The island was like paradise, the sand was soft and white and the water crystal clear. We had some free time after lunch to lie on the beach or go swimming, so we rented some gear and went snorkelling. After dinner we were shown a video about the conservation centre and what they do which was really interesting. Then we played a game...the waiting game. We were called a little after nine to go down to the beach so that we could watch one of the turtles laying their eggs, they only disturb one turtle each night. The ranger takes the eggs away straight away, but the turtle isn't aware that this is happening and still tries to cover them over once she is done. After this we were taken down to the water to release the baby turtle that had hatched at the centre that morning. What an amazing experience that was!
We woke up early the next morning to have breakfast and then we were ferried off the island and back to Sandakan. We caught a bus back to Kota Kinabalu that morning and from there a flight down to Kuching which is in the state of Sarawak.
When we booked our flights to Borneo, we booked one flight into Kota Kinabalu in Sabah and the next flight out of Kuching, Sarawak. What we didn't know at the time is that there is no way to get from Sabah to Sarawak overland without going through Brunei.
Thankfully, the flights in Malaysia are super cheap!
Our first day in Kuching was spent walking around the town and doing some shopping. Even when my bag is bursting at the seams, I still always manage to find room to squeeze one more thing (or two) in.
We took a local bus the next day to a place called Bau, from here we were planning to catch another bus to the fairy caves but when we got there the next bus wasn't leaving for another two hours. This wouldn't give us much time at the caves if we wanted to catch the last bus back to Kuching so we opted for a taxi instead. It didn't really cost much, about £8 for him to drive us to the caves which we twenty minutes or so away, and then wait an hour for us to explore the caves and then take us back again. The caves were so pretty, well worth the million steps up to it!
We caught a boat ride down the river at sunset which was also very pretty. A stunning orange and red sunset was a fantastic backdrop for all the unusual buildings in Kuching.
We took a bus and then a boat to get to Bako National Park. The boat ride there was very good, the guy driving the boat pointed out a proboscis monkey sitting in the trees and also a crocodile. I was glad we saw those things because we didn't see anything on our trek. It was a lovely, albeit tiring, trek through the rain forest.
On our return, we showered and packed our bags ready for our flight to Singapore the next morning which will be our last country in South East Asia. These last 5 months have a flown in. I know time flies when you're having fun but I just wish I wouldn't go quite so fast.
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