Sabah Sabah

The freak snowstorms that hit China left Macau a chilly 9 degrees and so it was with relief that we stepped out in the balmy warmth of Kota Kinabulu, just a couple of hours’ flight to the south. Not sure what I expected from Sabah, but Borneo always sounds so remote and exotic that I was surprised to see so much of the territory cleared for palm oil plantations. Whilst some species such as spitting cobras seem to thrive in their new environment, others such as orang-utans and proboscis monkeys find their habitats smaller day by day. This has led to conservation measures such as the rehabilitation centre at Sepilok where stranded, abandoned or domesticated orang-utans are reintroduced to their natural habitat and way of living. The drive from Sandakan to the centre gives nothing away and it all feels very urban until a few miles from the centre. But once there, the forest is wild and there is abundant wildlife all around, not least the troupe of orangs who force their way through the crowds of visitors, whilst others arrive swinging through the trees. The feeding ritual is important and ensures that those recently reintroduced to the forest get their five-a-day, but the end game is hopefully that they won’t come back and will fully reintegrate themselves to their natural surroundings. I saw a similar set-up at Bukit Lawang in Sumatra ten years ago, and whilst that felt a good deal rougher, readier and wilder, the pleasure of watching these super-human creatures, so alike us and so different, was every bit as memorable the second time round. The proboscis monkey reserve is a simple story of tourism winning out over agriculture to the benefit of wildlife. The land belongs to a Malaysian Chinese businessman who has decided to leave a mangrovey third of his property in its natural state rather than convert it to palm oil plantation. This offers a wonderful opportunity to see the bizarre proboscis monkeys in their natural habitat. The alpha male sported a huge nose and a big belly and watched over his harem while they ate. We also saw a host of other wildlife including hornbills, cheeky silver langurs and slithering spitting cobras.
But the place that will stay in my mind when I think of Sabah is Sipadan Island. The resort off Mabul was reason enough to visit, with decidedly classy huts a-la-Maldives standing free out over the ultra-blue waters, but it was life in the sea we’d come for. Having sampled the waters of Fiji, Oz, Bali, Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, the Red Sea, the Caribbean, I thought I’d seen the best of the big blue, but Sipadan was something else. Walking between the huts on paths elevated above the water revealed plenty of trumpet fish and giant lion fish, but once you actually got into the water it truly was another world. In a few short hours I swam with countless varieties of turtles, sharks and the biggest shoals of fish I’ve ever seen, most notably a giant school of circling barracuda, thousands strong. And this was all just snorkeling!