A short two and a half hour hop from Singapore to Kota Kimabalu finds us in Borneo! Stop No.1 and as Jenn keeps reminding me (it will make sense in a minute) – this was my choice!
Gaya Island is a ten minute boat ride from Jesselton Point. The waters are that beautiful bluey-green colour that you only really get in the tropics and as we arrive at the jetty – it looks like the perfect place to spend a few days to relax before hitting the jungle! Well done me!
Gaya Island boasts 7 natural wonders from bearded pigs to proboscis monkeys – although we are not really here for the wildlife (hopefully we’ll get plenty of that in the jungle). The water is as warm as I can remember experiencing anywhere in the world and the snorkelling is pretty good too.
I take a few aimless walks around the resort with my camera – although the temperature discourages serious efforts to increase my library of wildlife near misses (it’s about 33 degrees and humid)! I did manage to spot an Oriental Pied Hornbill and White-bellied Sea Eagle though.
On Day 1 we decide to do a guided jungle trek – just an hour or so into the jungle. We are warned against going in on our own – apparently a couple got lost last week and had to be rescued. I metaphorically rolled my eyes at the time. Wandering into jungles is one of the things I love to do. Despite the warnings – I’m still tempted… for roughly the first ten minutes!
It’s unbelievably hot and sticky – incredibly dense and thick with bugs. I quickly decide that I will not be wandering in on my own! I also start to regret wearing shorts and t-shirt. I’m prone to be being bitten – seemingly mosquitos think that pasty white flesh is some kind of delicacy. Despite having coated myself in bug repellent and wearing two bracelets – I feel exposed!
One of our walking companions turns back after 15 minutes – suggesting that she’d not been warned about how ‘steep’ it was. The local guide later suggested that ‘it wasn’t ‘deep’ at all – you can go much deeper into the jungle’.
We see some interesting stuff but nothing mind-blowing. Nice, interesting walk though. Arriving back at the room I realise that I have 3 or 4 bites and make a mental note that shorts are not a good idea in the jungle – even if it is 40 degrees in there!
Itchier but wiser, we spend the rest of the day swimming and snorkelling. We decide on a beach barbecue later that evening with a bit of origami and local dancing chucked in for good measure. Cant be bad! When the time comes the food is pretty good, I make a half decent attempt at creating an origami fish and we retire for the evening grateful that we chose to acclimatise on Gaya Island.
As we get back that evening Jenn discovers that despite wearing a long dress and liberally applying the local bug repellent – she’s been feasted on by our winged friends. Whilst we were tucking into prawns, grouper and some delicious local salads – our friends were tucking into Jenn. I discover that I’ve been bitten through my t-shirt by some over zealous mozzi – but nothing too terrible. We’ve had worse and as Jenn applies gallons of local balm to her bites we reflect on lessons learned from Day 1. Mental note – no shorts in the jungle, no beach barbeques.
Day 2. Lovely breakfast overlooking the sea and a morning kayak through the mangroves to look forward to (the alarm bells should be ringing).
The resort is trying hard to restore the mangrove forests and have established nurseries to accelerate their efforts. I know a little about mangroves from ESG efforts in corporates – but hadn’t fully appreciated quite how important a role they play. They are outstanding ecosystems. They also – OBVIOUSLY – provide ideal conditions for our biting friends!
True to form – after an hour’s kayaking I discover that my arm has acted as a smorgasbord of delights! Conveniently they had bitten either side of my mosquito bracelet. The bracelets clearly work – one just has to wrap up like a mummy in them! Mental note – no shorts in the jungle, no beach barbecues and no t-shirts in the mangroves!
On a serious note it was a really nice trip and interesting to see a mangrove forest first-hand.
That evening Jenn returned from a relaxing massage at the spa. Seemed to really do the trick – 60 minutes of massaging away the flight and twenty years of corporate nonsense. However, the mosquitos had taken the opportunity to exploit Jenn’s prone body and make a meal of what was left of her. Result – a boatload of bites and an urgent request for antihistamines from the hotel!
Mental note – no shorts in jungle, no t-shirts in the mangrove, no barbeques on the beach and no massages in the spa. Oh – and always travel to the tropics with antihistamines.
It’s a tough one to call. Gaya Island is beautiful and very relaxing as you can see from the photos below. There’s plenty to do for a few days, food is great and the staff are lovely. But if you are prone to being bitten, and plenty of people here were (we were not alone), then it’s a trade-off. If there is a defence we didn’t find it!
Update: As we prepare to leave – Jenn thinks she’s finally nailed it… thank God we didn’t panic and overreact!
Be afraid, be very afraid…
Borneo is my part of the trip. Jenn was not so keen on adding it to the itinerary. It’s a pain to get to and we knew it would be leechy. As we stand – we are one day away from entering the jungle for 5 nights. Fully expecting a pretty amazing few days – but – a pretty unhappy wife if the antihistamines don’t work! Reckon I’ll be a gonna when the first leech attaches itself to Jenn…
If I don’t post again in a weeks time – please send help!
Sounds a good adventure. Your account made me laugh out loud although that sounds a bit sadistic given your suffering. Keep safe lots of love x
Wow, you are in so much trouble
Yep – was touch and go for a while! Although somehow managed to escape unscathed!