Borneo: First Impressions

Traveling and writing seem like activities that go hand-in-hand. Turns out, it's very difficult to keep up with posting these blogs! Every day, I think - I have so much to write about, I need to post a blog - and then I realize how much has happened that I haven't written about and feel like I need to catch up and get frustrated and end up not writing anything. Or - the battery is dead on the computer and we don't have the right adapter to plug it in. Or - I haven't checked email in so long that when I go online I spend the entire time sorting through my inbox. Or - there's so much happening I literally can't write for a while. All these 'excuses' - eh? Tonight, I've decided to skip the past six weeks or so that I haven't written about yet - trekking in Nepal, climbing and beaches in Indonesia, etc. - and share my first impressions of Borneo.

For those of you who only heard of Borneo when a season of 'Survivor' was filmed here - it's an island off of the SE Asian peninsula that is home to states of three countries. Kalimantan, Indonesia takes up most of the island - Brunei is one of the smallest countries in the world and occupies the space between two Malaysian states - Sarawak and Sabah are somewhat autonomous, but still part of the Malaysian Republic. We decided to fly to Kota Kinabalu and spend about 18 days in Sabah - climbing rocks and a volcano, snorkelling, maybe diving, and seeking out some of the rarest flora/fauna in one of the richest areas in the world in terms of biodiversity.

These activities - as well as the references you might have heard regarding Borneo as a place where undiscovered species of plants and animals are continually found - might lead you to believe that the island is exotic, uninhabited, and almost entirely wild. At least, that's what I expected when we booked the ticket.

My first impression: Borneo is more like the USA than any other place we've been in Asia. On our way out of Kota Kinabalu today, I saw more townhouse-style condominiums than the East side of Seattle! There are big trucks and SUVs everywhere - guzzling down Esso, Shell, Mobil, and a few other Asian brands of gasoline. We've seen Starbucks, Pizza Hut, 7-Eleven, Dunkin' Donuts, McDonalds, Burger King and about a dozen KFCs in the past two days. And tonight, we went looking for an adapter (we didn't know outlets are different here than in the rest of Asia) and found one in a store that very much reminded us of - dare I say - WalMart!? It wasn't quite as big - and thank god, WalMart hasn't actually tainted this 'exotic' island yet - but still, I have been not-so-pleasantly surprised by the degree to which this area has been developed.

That being said, we've only been here about 24 hours and stayed in cities both nights (there are 'cities' on Borneo!?!?). The bus ride across the island today was beautiful - Mount Kinabalu (the highest point between the Himalaya and Papua) and acre after acre of palm forest. Sometime in the next weeks, we'll visit orangutan and sea turtle sanctuaries, spend a few nights in the jungle looking for wildlife, and probably pay a visit to 30 newly-developed sport routes on an island just off the coast. We'll also be looking into a technical route up the massive chunk of granite that tops Mount Kinabalu.

So, I don't think we've even laid eyes on the surface of what Borneo truly has to offer. I'm really hoping we find a place that's 'away from it all' to spend some time here and experience the magic that 'Borneo' implies. But most of all, I hope we don't find that the magic is dissipating precisely because tourists like us keep coming to visit it!