The Three B,s - Borneo - Brunei - Bali

Arrived in Kuching Borneo, and it feels like the first day of a new trip, on our own, and with nobody but ourselves to make decisions. We booked in at the Kuching Waterfront hotel which is very nice and first up is the Orang Utans at Semenggoh, so it was up early to catch the 7.15 bus - total cost of 3 ringits! We were the first to arrive at the reserve, paid our 3 ringit entry fee and walked the two km to the feeding area. This was a lot cheaper than taking a tour where fees start about 60 ringits . There are 27 apes in the reserve and we saw 8 different ones at various times, the rangers were very cautious as there had been a ape attack earlier in the week and a ranger had a finger bitten off and a leg broken. We took some terrific photos and thought it was a great value day out .
Next stop Baku National Park for three days staying in the lodges, you can only access the park by speedboat an exhilarating experience for the 45 minute journey, finally landing on a deserted beach and wading ashore. We hired a guide for the first day to show us the ropes and the best places to visit during our trip. It was evident that this was the place to come for Probiscus monkeys and we saw lots very close up which is unusual as they have a reputation for being shy. There were also the naughty Macacque monkeys and silver tail monkeys plus wild boar wandering about with their young in tow. On the way back from breakfast one morning Sandra was walking back to our room from the canteen when a group of Macacques attacked her for the cornflake packet tucked under her arm, one even jumped on her back so we had to beat them off and I guarded her back while we ran for it. There were also plenty of snakes, reptiles and insects which were pointed out to us on a night hike .
On the last day we decided to trek the Lintang trail with a side trip to Kesil beach a distance of about 8 kms, the heat and the humidity was very high plus it was raining heavily for a couple of hours and the terrain was very difficult and wet and although we took a litre of water each, I began to struggle towards the end and got back to the camp just in time where I quickly drank 3 cans of isotonic drink, 2 cans of orange juice and loads of water. I had cramp in both my legs and feet.
Caught the boat back to Kuching, then flew to Miri, and bused it to Brunei, crossing the zig zagging border 10 times in one day (not much more room in our passports). We were lucky to meet a local guide called Danny at the bus station and he showed us around the capital Bandar Seri Begawan and the Palace of the Sultan of Brunei, who believe it or not, personally owns over 3000 cars, 2 black hawk helicopters and a boeing 747 of which he is a qualified pilot . We went out on a speedboat for the afternoon for a wonderfull insight into life on the river. We have seen many floating villages on our travels but nothing on the scale of this. There were 3 large floating schools,3 fire stations, a midwife, hospita, in fact a whole infrastructure which was absolutely amazing.
Onwards to Kota Kinabalu where we were hoping to climb/trek up Mount Kinabalu but found the mountain closed as the annual climbathon was taking place at the weekend and all the park accommation had been fully booked for months so we decided to cut Borneo short and move on to Bali early. Two other factors in this decision was the amount of rainfall we have had since arriving, and we have both caught coughs and colds.
We stayed for two weeks in Sanur Bali in a very nice apartment, probably one of the best of the trip, called Amansari Villas. We hired a motorbike and while out biking, actually met up with Russell and Sylvia by chance on the road and spent some great time swopping stories,and experiences since the end of the trip. So it was another goodbye as our next destination is Perth to meet Darcie our new granddaughter for the first time, plus a reunion with Nick, Karen, Julian and later Sarah when she arrives from England on the 18th November.