My Malaysian Borneo Impression

Borneo lived up to my expectation and beyond.
I expected the land of the wild with man made destructions, but I did not expect the hospitality of the local people and extend of Chinese business influence in parts of the area.

Deforestation is pretty much the name of the game here. Old forests are being replaced with massive oil palm plantations. Despite this continue threat and pressure, what little remained still invoked the lush jungle wildiness teeming with life that one imagine of Borneo of long ago. Although the biodiversity here isn't as great as one in the Amazon. But it is much more than jungle of the mainland Southeat Asia, where in places like Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia (may be Thailand as well), people not only cut down the forest for farming, they also eat every living things in sight: birds, insects, mammals, fish! So the jungle felt silent when I visited.

The Malaysian Borneo is relative accessible for people looking for short jungle stay/trekking. Cheap and reliable hopper flights and bus transport make it all possible. But the park system is pretty disorganized and expensive for single budget travelers. Fees for some hike are in the range of $100 regardless how many people. Also the food in most of the park are very expensive and accomandation in some are monopolized so one pays premium for cheap accomandation.

As for cavers, there are many caves to explore in Borneo: from the largest cave in the world Sarawak cave to the source of Chinese birdnest soup Niah caves.

Even though most of the indigenous people have integrated into the modern world, they still remain pretty friendly. Also there are many cute girls here with great looking eyes.

Most other people here are pretty friedly as well.

English and Chinese will get you almost anywhere in Malaysian Borneo.
Chinese population is big here. They own many business, but get shut out of political process and discriminated in everyday Malay society. The native poupulation fairs even worst.

The accomandation here is pretty expensive compare to other near by countries (see my Kuching blog for accomandation nightmare), few internet and laundry places, little or no fresh juices (coming in cans yes). This is all part of modernization process I guess.

One good thing is that they have very good bakeries (thanks to the large Chinese population), almost rival that of Taiwan.

I consider my Borneo experience as a highlight, and definitely recommend it to other people even one that does not fancy wild jungle experience because many people come here to visit the jungle/caves/mountains without doing the trekking (hard work).