Borneo

Orang Utans at the nature reserve

Waterrafting on the Kiulu River

Mt. Kinabalu
At the Kinabalu Park entrance. It was cold!

At the Canopy Walkway entrance

Natalie played a princess at a show one night at the hotel
A drink after the show

We spent a wonderful week in Sabah, Borneo for Spring break. The first couple of days we relaxed at the resort. The kids enjoyed the beach, the pool with the slide and playing with new friends. We met some great people from New Zealand, who lived in Holland for 4 years, and are now living in Hong Kong. They have an 8 and a 4 year old also. One fantastic sight in Sabah is Mt. Kinabalu at 4,095m (13,436ft). It is the highest mountain between the Himalayas and New Guinea. I had hired a driver to take us to Kinabalu Park (at the bottom of the mountain) for a hike and see the mountain up close. (After being at the foot of the mountain I have decided I really want to climb it sometime this year. I am recruiting a bunch of friends to go with me. It takes 2 days. First day climb to the half way point, and the second day you leave before the sun rises to summit and come back down! I can't wait!) Anyway.....

We did a hike in the park (a rainforest), went thru the botanical gardens and saw beautiful orchids. After that we drove to Poring Hotsprings. About 40 km away. The smelly sulfur hot springs were not our favorite, but right behind the hot springs is a forest. They built a Canopy Walkway. The walkway consists of four sections made of single planks laid on aluminum ladders with rope handrails and netting for safety. It is 157 meters / 515 feet long and 41 meters /125 feet high! We walked the whole route as there is no way back! The kids thought it was fantastic, I was more worried about the trees falling over. After the canopy walk we continued our hike to the Kipungit Waterfall. The kids played in the cool water and we relaxed a little bit. By the way.. we never ran into anybody. It was just the 4 of us in nature. Wonderful.

The next day we went to the Kiulu River for some water rafting. It was just the 4 of us and our river guide. We went for about 15km, stopping several times to let the kids swim or float down the river in their life vests. When we reached the ending point there was a delicious barbecue lunch prepared for us by the riverbank.

On our last day we visited the Orang Utans Nature Reserve next to the hotel. We did a short hike and got up close and personal with the free roaming Orang Utans. Very cute. We had a great trip!