Malaysian Borneo

Richard Parker traveled to East Malaysia at the end of January 2014. A beautiful country with many rain forests

which reminded him of his natural habitat.

The island of Borneo is divided among three countries: Brunei and Malaysia in the north, and Indonesia to the south. Almost ¾ of the island is Indonesian territory. Brunei comprises about 1% of Borneo's land area. Malaysian Borneo, or Eastern Malaysia consists of the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, and the Federal Territory of Labuan. Borneo is the third-largest island in the world and the largest island of Asia. At 130 million years old, Borneo is home to one of the oldest rainforests in the world.

Mount Kinabalu is protected as part of Kinabalu Park, a World 
Heritage Site. Kinabalu is the highest mountain in the Malaysia.

Trading ports have been located on the island since the first millennium. By the 14th century, Borneo was under the control of the Majapahit kingdom based in present-day Indonesia. Muslims entered the island and converted many of the indigenous peoples to Islam.
In the late 1800s, the British North Borneo Company began to establish colonies throughout North Borneo. North Borneo became a protectorate of the United Kingdom in 1888.

We stayed at the Rasa Ria Resort - a little up the east coast from Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah Province.

Paul at the beginning of our jungle trek and canopy walk.

An intriguing part of the history of Malaysian Borneo is the reign of the white Rajahs. In 1842, the Sultanate of Brunei had granted land in Sarawak (province of Malaysian Borneo) to an English adventurer James Brooke, as reward for his help in quelling a local rebellion. Brooke established the Kingdom of Sarawak and was recognized as its rajah after paying a fee to the Sultanate. He established a monarchy, and the Brooke dynasty (through his nephew and great-nephew) ruled Sarawak for 100 years!

The rainforest ecosystem supports a vast, interdependent web of life. At the current rate 

of depletion, some experts predict that most of S. E. Asia’s rainforests will be destroyed by 

2020, leading to the permanent loss of countless species of animals and plants.

The Rasa Ria Nature Reserve (64 acres) and Nature Interpretation Centre was set up in 1996 in collaboration with the Sabah Wildlife Department. The reserve provides a protected ecological area for endangered species where they can be rehabilitated and reintroduced to their natural habitat.

Bee swarm in Nature Reserve.

The Reserve’s purpose is primarily nature conservation and orang-utan rehabilitation, however, research, study and education activities are carried out as well.




The Rehabilitation Program for Orang-utans is the only one of its kind on the west coast of Sabah. The Reserve is also home to a wide variety of Sabah animals and plants including deer, long-tailed macaques, pheasants, civets, bear cats, monitor lizards, water hens, porcupines, slow lorises, pitcher plants, fruit bats and 63 species of birds.

Oolong, age 6. She will soon be ready to be sent to the Sepilok 

Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre, also in Sabah, where she 
will be prepared for release into the wild.

Ten Ten, age 3.

Orang-utans (from the Malay phrase Orang Hutan, “man of the forest”) live only on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Ten thousand years ago, orangutans ranged as far north as China, and as far south as Java in Indonesia. 















The Orang-utan is the largest tree-climbing animal in the world. Both its hands and feet are adapted for gripping branches. Unlike chimpanzees and gorillas, orangutans do not live in large social or family groups.

The greatest threat to orang-utans is habitat loss, which is forcing orang-utan populations into smaller spaces that cannot support the orang-utan’s wide ranging foraging behaviour. 

Adult males grow to 5 feet in height and average 120 kilos in weight. Females, on the other hand, only grow to about 4 feet in height and 45 kilos in weight.

We were lucky to see two orang-utans on our trek. They are very shy and don't always show up at the feeding station.  Ten Ten, above, grabbed a leaf branch and kept putting it on her head like a hat.

Ten Ten, female

Female orang-utans have only one baby every 7 to 8 years.  Pregnancies last for about eight and a half months. Infants stay with their mothers until they are about 7 or 8 years old. 


Young orang-utans are threatened by poachers who shoot the mother and capture the baby to be sold as pets. 

The young orang-utans come to Rasa Ria as rescued orphans or pets. They are taught to live in the forest with little human contact. Once they are able to live primarily in the canopy, build nests in the trees and forage for themselves, they are sent to the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre and are reintroduced to the wild. 

Orangutans eat leaves, barks, buds, stems, and will occasionally eat insects, although they are mainly fruit eaters. 

During World War II, Japanese forces gained control and occupied Borneo. They murdered local populations and killed Malay intellectuals. After the fall of Singapore, the Japanese sent several thousand British and Australian prisoners of war to camps in Borneo. At one of the worst sites, around Sandakan, only six of some 2,500 prisoners survived.

Our hotel had lots of wildlife and a great water slide!

We spent an entire day boogie-boarding. The waves 

were perfect.

After the war the British North Borneo Company gave control of North Borneo to the British Crown on 15 July 1946. The new colonial government elected to rebuild Jesselton (Kota Kinabalu) as the capital of North Borneo instead of Sandakan, which had also been destroyed by the war. When North Borneo, together with Sarawak, Singapore and the Federation of Malaya formed the Federation of Malaysia in 1963, North Borneo became known as Sabah, and Jesselton remained its capital. On 22 December 1967, the State Legislative Assembly passed a bill renaming Jesselton to Kota Kinabalu. 

Looking towards the beach on our jungle canopy trek.

Sabah is one of the 13 member states of Malaysia, and is its easternmost state. Islam is the official religion of State of Sabah, although the people of Sabah are divided into 32 officially recognized ethnic groups. In Kota Kinabalu, almost 50% of residents are of Chinese descent.

The resort provided free bicycle use.

Sabah’s capital, Kota Kinabalu, (Jesselton) is a major fishing destination and a popular starting point for travellers visiting Sabah and the rest of Borneo. Kota Kinabalu is also one of the major industrial and commercial centres of Malaysian Borneo. The city began as a simple fishing village, but became in 1899, an administrative centre for the region, due to its proximity to the North Borneo Railway and its natural port.

We were in Borneo for the Lunar New Year. The Resort celebrated with traditional 

dances.

The Lion Dance is a traditional dance in Asian culture in which performers mimic a lion's movements. The lion dance is usually performed during the Lunar New Year and during other cultural and religious festivals. A lion is normally operated by two dancers.

The dancers were very skilled and jumped from platform to platform, sometimes on one another's shoulders.

The Dragon Dance team mimics the movements of the dragon river spirit in a sinuous, undulating manner. Dragons are believed to bring good luck to people, therefore the longer the dragon in the dance, the more luck it will bring.

 

At left, a Borneo headhunter.

Traditional bamboo pole dance performed by a Borneo headhunter! This guy was an amazing athlete, the way he dodged the poles as they banged together with increasing speed.

Beautiful Borneo! We had a wonderful holiday there.