It was 4 pm in Semporna. We arrived from a one-day tour to Bohey Dulang and the islands between Borneo and Philippines. We were tired and had salt in every pore of the skin. We walked the few metres between the Dragon Inn Hotel and the jetty were we expected to take the last boat to the paradise: Mabul archipelago.
5:30am – Mabul Island – Celebes Sea
The sun was rising behind the windows of our overwater chalet in Mabul. Under our feet, the glass floor allowed us to see some ray fishes. We got dressed, packed everything inside the suitcases and someone rang the bell of the main entrance. A golf car was waiting for us outside to take us through the wooden plaform first and under the palm trees later to the other side of the island for a quick breakfast. Our small boat to Semporna in the Borneo coast was going to depart in less than 30 minutes.
The boat ride took one hour. Then, a small tourist bus (Bas Persiaran) took us during one hour and a half to Tawau airport, where a private driver was waiting for us for a long 6h journey to the remotest and most inaccessible valley in the world, where every week new species are discovered: Maliau Basin, The Lost World.
Once in Borneo we took a short flight to Mulu. Only six people where in that flight that took us to one of the most pristine jungles in the world. Mulu, with more than 600 km of cave passages and all kind of forests is considered a World Heritage Site. Its remote place and protection makes it the best place for an adventure travel.
In our second day in Mulu we went to the Garden of Eden, a closed valley only reachable after hiking 2 km through the biggest underground passage in the world (The Deer Cave). You will find all the details of our adventure in the Garden of Eden in the following video. No music, just real sounds. Enjoy!
We slept in the Four Points by Sheraton in Sandakan after two short flights in the previous day: the first one from the remote jungle of Mulu to Kota Kinabalu, and the second one from KK to Sandakan. This is from west Borneo and Sarawak state to east Borneo and Sabah state of Malaysia. Sandakan is the base for tours going to Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, to Sukau Wildlife Sanctuary and to Turtle island.
There is a reason why we are not writing so often in the past months: our wedding. We are preparing everything and it takes so much time that we cannot find the moment to write in the blog. And the wedding has something associated which is the perfect gift for a traveling couple like us: the honeymoon. It’s been a long time since we decided to spend our honeymoon in Borneo but we have not written about it yet. We will depart in four weeks to the 3rd biggest and the wildest island in the world.
