After 10 days in Borneo, the oldest rainforests of the world, am back!

It was an out-of-the-world and overwhelming experience to say the least and I need to take time to allow things to sink-in. I am bewitched by S.E.Asia! Perhaps, this is just the beginning.

(Please visit my flickr stream to see  the large size version)

I intend to blog in detail about the trip (including how we planned, expenses, cheap travel options, etc). For now, this post is just a sneak preview of what we did.

During these 10 days, Adarsh and I

1. scaled the highest 5th highest peak in S.E.Asia, Mt.Kinabalu
2. explored the biggest cave in the world, Deer cave and few more like the Langs cave, Clearwater cave and the Winds cave
3. walked on the longest canopy walkway in the world at Gunung Mulu national park
4. watched the exodus of 3 million bats at the Deer cave at 5pm
5. spent 3 rough days in the wilds of Kinabatangan valley at Uncle Tan wildlife adventures
6. backpacked on the streets of Kota Kinabalu, Miri, Sandakan, etc
7. visited the Iban tribal market
8. took the shortest flight of my life (40 mins from Miri to Mulu)
9. took 8 flights in 10 days
10. did numerous boat safari’s and jungle treks
11. spotted a ton of birds, mammals, reptiles and plants
12. travelled and interacted with people from Germany, Spain, France, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Netherlands, etc

Of course, in addition to the above, we had other memorable experiences like the Taxi scare where we thought we were being kidnapped. But that will be for another post.

For now, a few pictures below.

Given the sheer number of things we did, I probably will write multiple posts to cover them. Also, I would need some time to process the pictures. So, request you to please be patient and come back in a few days.

For now, “Kopiruba kawagu”

The entire Borneo backpacking series is listed below.

• Backpacking in Borneo-1: Prologue (includes itinerary)
• Backpacking in Borneo-2: A sneak preview
• Backpacking in Borneo-3: Wild Wild Southeast (Uncle Tan’s wildlife adventures)
• Backpacking in Borneo-4: The Teksi scare
• Backpacking in Borneo-5: Cave and canopy magic (Gunung Mulu National park)
• Backpacking in Borneo-6: Photography equipment to carry
• Backpacking in Borneo-7: Trip expenses and tips to keep it low
• Backpacking in Borneo-8: Climbing Mt Kinabalu
• Backpacking in Borneo-9: Malaysian food
• Backpacking in Borneo-10: List of sightings
• Backpacking in Borneo-11: Epilogue