KINABATANGAN RIVER!

After two adventurous jungle adventures at Bako and Mulu National parks, it was time for a change of scenery: the river. After a brief layover in Kota Kinabalu (large metropolitan city in Sabah with huge malls and a moderate expat community), where Egon reunited with the man who hosted his visit at Oberlin College back in the day (hey, Jesse!), we flew off to Sandakan. Sandakan is a small coastal city in Sabah and the closest route to the Kinabatangan River.

ORIENTATION:

We were welcomed to Sandakan by a super friendly young woman who escorted us to the Hyatt Regency to wait until our boat was ready to take us to the Kinabatangan Wetlands Resort. Two tasty coffee drinks, What’s App calls to mom, and Warriors news updates later, it was time to hop on the boat. The boat ride was absolutely gorgeous; there were incredible rocky cliffs and sand bars surrounded by ocean, then suddenly we were flanked between mangrove and native* palm forests on a wide river. It was hard to discern where the ocean ended and the river began, but as things began to narrow up on either side we knew had entered the Kinabatangan.

*I emphasized native palm trees because over the last several decades the jungle has been cut down and replaced by palm oil plantations (Borneo’s top export), forcing the wildlife to migrate the last remaining native jungle along the riverbank. While flying into Sandakan, we couldn’t ignore how green, vast, and symmetrical the palm forest was. The issue is serious. So, while we were super juiced about essentially being guaranteed to spot animals, our excitement also was dampened with a slight bit of guilt.

After about 90 minutes we hooked a left down a super narrow, palm-draped tributary and pulled up to a remote dock where we our driver promptly said, “Welcome to the middle of nowhere.” Juxtaposed to its remote setting the greeting we were afforded was extremely civilized; resort attendants refused to let us carry our bags, moist towels and glasses of orange juice were presented by our personal orienteer, and JR, the manager of the Kinabatangan Wetland Resort—the place we would call home for the next four days. Before I go into details about this amazing sanctuary, I’ll explain how we decided upon this place.

The Kinabatangan River attracts tourists for a few reasons: Orangutans, Pygmy Elephants, and bird watching. There are about 12 different homestays/resorts are along the river, 10 of which are along an Western stretch of the river near the village of Billit, the other two are on the Eastern stretch feeding into the Indo-Pacific Ocean near the village of Abai. Considering we were going wildlife watching and being the anti-tourist he, is Egon wanted to be as far away from everyone else we could, hence settling upon the Kinabatangan Wetlands Resort. This decision was a GREAT decision.

Back to our arrival at the KWR. JR walked us down a long boardwalk that opened up into one of the most beautiful resorts I have ever seen. The level of detail put into this place is incredible: the woodwork is on point (come to find out JR’s family is in the lumber industry). JR showed us to our villa and Egon and I could not contain our awe. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. At the time, this was the nicest place I have ever stayed and could not be more different than the lodging at Bako or Mulu. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

To be clear, this was not an effort on Egon’s part to wine and dine me at some fancy resort. Granted, it was a pseudo-compromise because I refused stay in windowless/doorless hut in a jungle (and this was before my horrific encounters with ginormous spiders at Bako and Mulu). Basically, we got a great deal because KWR opened in February of 2015, so they are still a new company on a part of the river not fully taken over by homestays, so they are certainly not yet in the latest Lonely Planet or Fodor’s travel guides. JR claimed they still had some work to do (i.e. adding a pool, better lighting along the boardwalk, etc.), but I would not have noticed had he not mentioned it. When we arrived there was one other family of six there, but they were leaving the following day which meant we got the entire resort to ourselves for three days. Let’s just say we got lucky and cannot afford to return once people get wind of this place.

An hour after we arrived, we were invited into the dining room/common area where we indulged on sweets and coffee before we went on our first river safari. There we met our safari guide, Dean (short for an extremely long Islamic name with far more obvious nicknames, but Dean was what he chose). Dean had an eye for wildlife, a decent sense of humor, and most importantly: patience. We were extremely lucky to have him to ourselves for a few days because he was able to cater to Evan’s specific photographic needs. Over the next three days, Dean and our boat driver (I can’t remember his name, but he was great) guided us on sunrise and sunset wildlife tours were we saw over 15 orangutans, proboscis monkeys, macaques, various hornbills, hawks, and a couple of hungry crocodiles. I should note, that the entire time we only saw about two other tour boats. Had we stayed on the Billit side of the river we would have seen 15x that amount. Most importantly, we met Lulu: the young orangutan who stole our hearts. We decided to call her Lulu for the sake of referencing her easily, and Lulu really did seem fitting for her (Egon: Plus it rhymes with Mulu).

Before gushing about Lulu, I must put into context our expectations of seeing orangutans versus the reality. In Egon’s intensive, obsessive and consistently late night research about wildlife and specifically orangutan sightings in Borneo/Sumatra/the universe one must either plan on travelling really far in uncomfortable conditions to see a silhouette of a single orangutan 500 feet away for 15 seconds before it disappears forever, or go to an Orangutan rehabilitation center with 50 other tourists. We also did option two at the Semingoh Orangutan Rehabilitation center in Kuching, where we saw zero orangutan because it was fruiting season and the orangutans found no need to go to the feeding sites for nourishment.

Back to Lulu: On our first morning safari we stumbled upon an adolescent orangutan on the riverbank. She was alone and in the trees primarily occupied only by macaques, as orangutans primarily inhabit the taller trees off of, but still visible from, the river. We parked our boat less than 15 feet from her and she peaked her head through the trees and threw a cute tree-shaking hissy fit. Dean determined she was approximately nine years-old and recently separated from her mother (Baby orangutans stick beside their mother’s for about eight years to learn survival techniques before going out on their own). Clearly, Lulu missed the lesson about building nests high up in the treetops far from the riverbank because she kicked it with us for a good hour. Over the next two days, we applied our observation that she likes to make and hear kissy sounds to lure her out to hang out with us every time we passed through on safari. On our last day, she came down to hang out (albeit from a slightly different nesting spot) and was brutally harassed by a gang of territorial macaques. It was very hard to watch our precious girl get bullied, but I suppose it was important for her to understand that she was not meant to nest in that area…Let’s just call it my first taste of parenthood.

Dean may have just been blowing smoke up our asses, but he said that he has never encountered such an interactive orangutan is all of his years as a guide. True or not, it made us feel special and I felt like the Jane Goodall of orangutan. Though we did not see Pygmy Elephants (apparently they reside on the “other” side of the river), both Egon and I realize how special our experience was with KWR. We have met numerous other tourists who did Kinabatangan River safari’s and did not see one orangutan. Aside from Lulu, the landscape was gorgeous and the other wildlife watching did not disappoint.

After 1500 words, I still haven’t even touched upon the food situation at KWR. My god. We were fed too well. We were presented with huge platters of delicious food with every meal and treated like royalty (I hate to use clichés, but I can’t really draw a closer comparison other than like Beyoncé and Jay). I am pretty sure any weight we may have lost on our previous jungle treks we gained back threefold.

Bottom line: I can’t recommend KWR any more. Go before you won’t be able to afford it (no offense to our readers). Check out our FULL KINABATANGAN GALLERY.

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