Current plans for our next trip:
(Thanks to google for all these images)
We're looking at flying Singapore Airlines. Decent price, reasonable timing, and we get to use the perks of DH's gold status with Velocity. Our first destination is Mulu National Park, Malaysian Borneo. This is locked in, as we plan to start our trip with a 3 day trek here. There is no road access to Mulu - it can only be accessed by short flight from Kota Kinabalu, Kuching or Miri, or rather long boat ride from Miri.
For anyone who's interested, I found the trek by simply googling 'treks in south east Asia', and picking the most interesting looking one
Sunday: Fly Melbourne to Kota Kinabalu or Kuching via Singapore
Monday: Fly Kota Kinabalu or Kuching to Mulu
Mulu has a limited amount of very reasonable looking accommodation within the national park. We are hoping to snag one of the bungalows, but bookings don't open until 3 months out, so we'll have to make sure we're onto it around Christmas time.
Tuesday: Start our trek - the first day is a 2 hour boat ride followed by about a 9k trek through the jungle
Wednesday: This is the hard day of the trek - about 2.5km up to the lookout, the last 400m of which is ladders and rope assisted rock scrambling
Thursday: Finish the trek with the 9k return walk and 2 hour return boat ride
We'll fly out on Thursday afternoon after we return, to Sandakan via Kota Kinabalu. Sandakan is on the east coast of Borneo, which does have a current travel warning for Australians due to the threat of kidnapping. I have done my research, and found out that the kidnappers come from the Philippines by boat, grab someone close to the shore, and take off again quickly. The most recent incident (the only one in recent history targeting Sandakan) in May this year was at a famous restaurant on the beach. Both people kidnapped were actually locals. Since we are planning to stay half an hour or so inland near the wildlife sanctuaries, I don't think it will be a huge threat for us, but we'll certainly be vigilant.
We looked at quite a few options around Malaysia (and even as far as Indonesia and the Philippines), but ended up deciding that we would like to stick with Borneo. Kota Kinabalu was an option, but Sandakan has everything that we were looking for.
The big drawcards in Sandakan (well, out of town) are:
* Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary
* Sepilok Sun Bear Sanctuary
* Sepilok Rainforest Discovery Centre
* Labuk Bay Probiscus Monkey Sanctuary
We plan to stay at Sepilok Nature Resort - bungalow style accommodation surrounding a central lagoon. While it doesn't see overly luxurious, it does look like a great place to relax! And it's only a short walk from the wildlife sanctuaries too.
Sandakan city has lots of WWII history, involving a huge number of ANZAC soldiers. This is part of a nice looking heritage trail that takes in a few WWII sites, plus a bit of Malaysian culture as well. We really needed an extra day to spend in town doing this - I'm not sure we'll get the time on this trip.
Friday: Wildlife viewing and general relaxing
Saturday: Wildlife viewing and general relaxing
Sunday: Early flight home via Kota Kinabalu and Singapore
The flights DH is looking at have about a 7 hour layover in Singapore, which will give us time to do one of their free transit tours (or perhaps just make our way into the city on our own and have a fish pedicure and massage). We'll get into Melbourne first thing Monday morning, ready to hit the grind again on Tuesday
With the limited time we have available, it probably would have worked out better to fly out on Friday night, but my bestie will be having her 40th birthday party that Saturday night, so it will have to wait until Sunday!
