Borneo 

Deep with­in the Jun­gles, the mag­ic of the wild and mys­te­ri­ous jun­gles of Bor­neo are tru­ly the stuff of both leg­end and adven­ture, with this idyl­lic island – famed for its roam­ing habi­tat of native orang­utans – being home to more than 1,000 ani­mal species – 100 of whom are classed as endem­ic, and more than 15,000 plant species all of whom lie deep with­in the world’s old­est rain for­est with­in Bor­neo. Along­side the stun­ning wildlife, you’ll also find sparkling white sandy beach­es, world class scu­ba div­ing, tow­er­ing moun­tains, scrump­tious street food, the famed Iban head­hunt­ing tribe and some of the most incred­i­ble nature and scenery on the plan­et, all of which com­bine to Bor­neo not just a pho­tog­ra­phers and adven­tur­ous par­adise, but one of the most strik­ing­ly beau­ti­ful places on the plan­et and a true won­der of the world.  

Split across three coun­tries – Brunei, Indone­sia and Malaysia, Bor­neo clocks in at 287,000 square miles – mak­ing it the third biggest island on the plan­et, and despite its size, ease of access and grow­ing rep­u­ta­tion as an island and adren­a­line par­adise – which has seen Bor­neo open up to explor­ers – the roads through Bor­neo and our under­stand­ing of the 130-Mil­lion-year-old rain for­est that lies through­out the island remain under­de­vel­oped, with new species of life and ani­mals still being dis­cov­ered on a month­ly basis – and for those who want to ven­ture deep into the jun­gles of Bor­neo – includ­ing the strik­ing Kali­man­tan jun­gle – required to under­take mul­ti-day cross­ing and riv­er pass­ing’s along their jour­ney.  

Yet this mys­te­ri­ous­ness only fur­ther adds to the mag­ic of Bor­neo, and for those trav­el­ers who head to the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak you’ll find not only access to the best of Bor­neo, but one of the great places in the world to under­take the jew­el of a Bor­neo adven­ture – a chance to view orang­utans in the wild, with only 100,000 of these pre­cious ani­mals cur­rent­ly believed to roam across this island state.  

A true priv­i­lege and thrill to see them in their nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment, the best chance of spot­ting these gen­tle giants in the wild now lie on the plan­ta­tion found along­side the Kin­abatan­gan Riv­er at dusk, where orang­utans are known to both bathe and bat­tle, with there also being mul­ti­ple reha­bil­i­tate cen­tres across Bor­neo that care and nur­ture for orphaned orang­utans, who have found their homes and fam­i­lies destroyed as a con­se­quence of human envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion.  

Along­side the orang­utans, the beau­ti­ful roam­ing forestry, jun­gle and bio­di­ver­si­ty hotspots of the Danum val­ley and Bako nation­al Parks are home not only to immense flo­ra – includ­ing the largest flower in the world – the rot­ting corpse smelling flower of Raf­fle­sia Arnoldii – but rare species of wildlife, that makes a trip through these beau­ti­ful jun­gles and forests a tru­ly awe-inspir­ing expe­ri­ence. With the jun­gle alive with the sounds of the hook nosed and curi­ous pro­boscis mon­keys, pigmy ele­phants, slow mov­ing pan­golins, fly­ing lemurs, wild bears and – if you’re incred­i­bly lucky – cloud­ed leop­ards who are known to roam the Jun­gle floors in search of mates and food.  

Yet along­side Borneo’s well-earned rep­u­ta­tion for being a jun­gle and ani­mal par­adise, the islands offers more than its jun­gle par­adise and inhab­i­tants for explor­ers, with the island of Sapin­da being one of the most pre­mier dive spots on the plan­et, with the colonies of sar­dines, great whale sharks and peace­ful tur­tles mak­ing for an under­wa­ter world like no oth­er. You’ll also find gor­geous white sparkling sand beach­es across the Der­awan Arch­i­pel­ago, deep impos­ing caves at Niah and one of the worlds most stun­ning sun­ris­es at the peak of the mighty Mount Kin­a­balu – whose tough ear­ly morn­ing ascent is reward­ed with an incred­i­ble daz­zling dis­play as the sun ris­es over this beau­ti­ful island.  

A true adven­tur­ers par­adise, and one gleam­ing with won­der after won­der, the diver­si­ty and fragili­ty of Bor­neo fur­ther adds to both its leg­end and mag­ic, with the island being the home of the elu­sive and jun­gle liv­ing Iban head­hunt­ing tribe, who are one of over 50 eth­nic diverse human groups that call the island home. Yet despite this diver­si­ty, Bor­neo remains sig­nif­i­cant­ly threat­ened as well as unex­plored, with the island – and its res­i­dents con­tin­u­al­ly threat­ened by log­ging, min­ing, farm­ing and poach­ers, which makes the need to both vis­it, explore and pro­tect this stun­ning island one of glob­al­ly urgency.  

It is for this rea­son that we’d encour­age Bor­neo to be at the top of any trav­ellers list for explor­ing, so that you not only get the chance to glimpse the elu­sive orang­utans in their nat­ur­al habi­tat and walk and explore the worlds cur­rent old­est rain­for­est, but along­side sum­mit­ing Mount Kin­a­balu for a glo­ri­ous sun­rise, div­ing in under­wa­ter par­adise and relax­ing on emer­ald beach­es, you get the chance to vis­it and explore the fragili­ty and untamed wilder­ness of Bor­neo, so that you can tru­ly under­stand both the beau­ty and threats fac­ing this island par­adise, and ensure that future gen­er­a­tions get the chance to mar­vel at the true won­der of the world that is the island of Bor­neo.  

Where:

The world’s third largest island – Bor­neo is made up of beau­ti­ful land, reefs, sparkling sea and wild jun­gles and cities spread across three coun­tries – Brunei, Indone­sia and Malaysia, with the island – which offi­cial­ly clocks in at almost 290,000 square miles being con­sid­ered divid­ed into two half’s – the east side which is gov­erned by Malaysia and makes up 26 % of the island and the west side that is gov­erned by Indone­sia which makes up 73% — with the king­dom of Brunei account­ing for the last 1%.  

A tru­ly unique place – with world class reefs, the worlds old­est rain­for­est and one of the last fron­tiers for the beau­ti­ful orang­utans, the Indone­sian side of Bor­neo Kali­man­tan is famed for its wild jun­gles and beau­ti­ful island beach­es, where as the Malaysia side which con­sists of the great states of Sabah – where you’ll find the town of Kota Kin­a­balu and its mighty moun­tain, glo­ri­ous beach­es and great wildlife – and the state of Sarawak here the off the beat­en track jun­gle and wildlife reside along with the famed Iban peo­ple.  

A tru­ly glo­ri­ous place – that will leave you breath­less with its beau­ty and inspired by its fragili­ty, owing to the three coun­tries that this island par­adise stretch­es across you’ll find a range of options when it comes to get­ting there and begin­ning your adven­ture.  

Getting There: 

One of the worlds most beau­ti­ful islands – access into one of the main cities of Bor­neo – from where you can begin both explor­ing this incred­i­ble island and begin your jun­gle adven­ture – is rel­a­tive­ly straight­for­ward, with there being direct flights into the major cities of Brunei, Indone­sia and Malaysia that make up the island of Bor­neo from Kuala Lumpur, Sin­ga­pore, Jakar­ta and Hong Kong.  

So hav­ing got your­self into one of these three major trans­port hubs, you then have a choice as to which part of Bor­neo you fly direct­ly into to – with the pop­u­lar and rec­om­mend­ed spots being San­dakan in East Sabah for a fast track to the Orang­utang expe­ri­ence, Kota Kin­a­balu in Malya­sia – which is one of the busiest air­ports across Bor­neo and pro­vides a gate­way to both the Kin­a­balu moun­tain and the island par­adise of Tunku Abdul Rah­man Park, the Kuch­ing air­port for those head­ing to Sarawak and final­ly for those start­ing their Bor­neo adven­ture in Brunei where you can explore the man­grove swamps of Ban­dar Seri Begawan and spot pro­boscis mon­keys you can fly direct­ly into the Begawan air­port.  

Hav­ing arrived in one of Borneo’s major cities – the next step will be to nav­i­gate your way around the island – in search of wildlife, flo­ra, island par­adis­es and adven­ture, with the eas­i­est, and safest, way to do this to be to arrange to under­take tours to the part of Bor­neo you wish to see – espe­cial­ly when it comes to climb­ing Mount Kin­a­balu and under­tak­ing rain­for­est treks in search of wildlife.  

For this you will find a range of friend­ly tour oper­a­tors both online and across the island, that will see you under­take coach jour­neys, riv­er cross­ings and hik­ing to explore this incred­i­ble island.  

Yet when it comes to get­ting across the island itself to reach the var­i­ous cities that act as gate­ways to explore the island you’ll need to get around your­self, and you’ll find again find a range of options to accom­mo­date every bud­get, with Bor­neo hav­ing fan­tas­tic Bus, Boats, Planes and pri­vate taxi options. For those under­tak­ing the bus you’ll find the expe­ri­ence both com­fort­able and enjoy­able, if a lit­tle bumpy, with the bus­es hav­ing full air-con­di­tion­ing, being high­ly afford­able and reg­u­lar­ly leav­ing across the island. Fur­ther with the bus­es able to  be booked a day or so in advance – it makes them a great option for both the bud­get con­scious or flex­i­ble explor­er.  

You’ll also find a num­ber of short haul flights across Bor­neo – that make for a great option when cross­ing the bor­der into one of Borneo’s oth­er two coun­tries – with the flights which can make for an easy pas­sage across the wild jun­gle being book­able on either short or advanced notice and hav­ing a rep­u­ta­tion as being very afford­able mak­ing for a great option for those short on time and who want a direct route to their next stop on their adven­ture.  

For a tru­ly mem­o­rable – and cheap option – you’ll also want to check out a boat when mov­ing across Bor­neo. As well as being a must do expe­ri­ence on the low­er Kin­abatan­gan Riv­er to spot for Orang­utangs in Sabah, boats reg­u­lar­ly run across Bor­neo and can me a great way to get from gate­way city to gate­way city – with there being round trip boats run­ning from Sarawak to Sibu to Kuch­ing, Bagawan to Labuan to Kota Kin­a­balu, and for a more adven­tur­ous jour­ney con­sid­er tak­ing the boat from Samarin­da up the Mahaakam Riv­er across the jun­gle to the remote areas of Bor­neo – with this riv­er jour­ney being one of the most extreme and adren­a­line pump­ing – and health and safe­ty absence – boat rides on the plan­et.  

Along­side hir­ing a taxi and a pri­vate guide, you’ll also find – for the more adven­tur­ous and those on a bud­get – you can try your way hitch­hik­ing across Bor­neo, but do be warned to stay only with­in the citi­ies and major areas – as out­side the cities of Bor­neo you should not – owing to the cul­tur­al sen­si­tiv­i­ty and sig­nif­i­cant dan­gers of explor­ing a rain­gofrest and untamed jun­gle by your­self attempt to ven­ture by your­self with­out a guide across the rain­forests of Bor­neo. Because of this when it comes to get­ting around Bor­neo we’d encour­age you to hop from gate­way city to gate­way city and under­take guid­ed tours with peo­ple who under­stand and know the island to get the best pos­si­ble expe­ri­ence across this incred­i­ble island.  

Final­ly, for the keen scu­ba divers set on vis­it­ing the marine par­adise of Sip­i­dan – you’ll want to head to the remote air­port of Tawau – which can be reached from Kota Kin­a­balu, Kuala Lumpur or Sin­ga­pore – and from there you should be greet­ed by whichev­er dive cen­tre or live-aboard com­pa­ny you are explor­ing Sip­i­dan with. Once at Tawau brace your­self for a trans­fer to Sem­por­na and then a bumpy 90 minute boat ride to Mab­ul Island – which will either serve as a base for your div­ing expe­di­tions or be the port to under­take your live-aboard.  

Best time to Visit: 

While Bor­neo is open year-round – and can be vis­it­ed as such – humid and hot nature and then the intense rain­fall sea­sons of the three coun­tries that make up the island means that you need to be selec­tive as to when you vis­it – in order to make sure that your vis­it to the island is as enjoy­able as pos­si­ble.  

Con­sid­er­ing the rain­fall sea­son first – you’ll find the wet­ter months between Novem­ber and Feb­ru­ary – where rain­storms in the areas of Sabah and Sarawak known to be par­tic­u­lar­ly force­ful – poten­tial­ly reduc­ing your chances of spot­ting orang­utangs – espe­cial­ly if you’re on a tight sched­ule, although as with most of South­east Asia the rain­storms may be force­ful but are known to clear up after a few hours.  

While we’d advise not let­ting the wet sea­son deter you from vis­it­ing – we would advise for those who trav­el dur­ing this peri­od to bud­get a few extra days, as flights, boat tours and even land activ­i­ties have been known to be can­celled at short notice – so it’s always good to fac­tor this into your trav­el plans or risk find­ing your­self stuck in the jun­gles of Bor­neo.  

For the dry sea­son it typ­i­cal­ly begins straight after the wet sea­son in March – and you’ll find tem­per­a­tures at their most extreme in the months of March and April, with the heat, humid­i­ty and dust being a test­ing expe­ri­ence for any­one not used to such cli­mates.  

For this rea­son, while Bor­neo can be vis­it­ed at any time of the year, if pos­si­ble we’d advise vis­it­ing in the high sea­son between May to Sep­tem­ber – when the weath­er is more man­age­able, the rain­storms are at a min­i­mum and best of all you’ve got the best chance to spot the wildlife, fau­na and enjoy the stun­ning scenery across the mag­i­cal won­der of the world that is the island of Bor­neo.  

How long to stay:

A par­adise island – owing to the size, trav­el time need­ed between gate­way cities and the incred­i­ble and mul­ti­ple expe­ri­ences that Bor­neo offers we’d advise set­ting aside at least 10 days to two weeks – if not longer to expe­ri­ence the mag­ic that Bor­neo has to offer.  

While it’s pos­si­ble to have one week of packed activ­i­ties if fly­ing from one of the neigh­bour­ing South­east Asian Coun­tries – which would include a quick trip up Mount Kin­a­balu, a trip to the Kin­abatan­gan riv­er to spot Orang­utans – and if you’re lucky a chance to spend a day relax­ing on one of Borneo’s stun­ning beach­es – a week in Bor­neo would undoubt­ed­ly be rushed and see you hav­ing to spend at least two days trav­el­ling to get between gate­way cities – which in our view would real­ly impact your enjoy­ment.  

So for this rea­son we rec­om­mend bud­get­ing at least two weeks for Bor­neo – which will give you enough time not only sum­mit Mount Kin­a­balu and explore pris­tine beach­es, but give you mul­ti­ple chances to spot Orang­utangs, explore the ancient rain­for­est and the Danum val­ley to search for the beau­ti­ful wildlife and flo­ra of Bor­neo and give you plen­ty of time to both account for trav­el­ling across the island and explor­ing the fas­ci­nat­ing cities and nature that make us this stun­ning island.  

For those for­tu­nate to have enough time – or for the keen divers – it’s also nec­es­sary to bud­get for at least 6 days if not longer if head­ing to Sip­i­dan Island to under­take the world class scu­ba div­ing.  

So while it is pos­si­ble to sam­ple the mag­ic of Bor­neo in a quick one week jour­ney, we’d strong­ly rec­om­mend set­ting aside at least 10 days to 2 weeks to tru­ly con­nect and expe­ri­ence all that the incred­i­ble won­der of the world of the island of Bor­neo has to offer. 

Top Tip:

A true island par­adise, owing to the wild and untamed (and dan­ger­ous!) jun­gle ter­rain that makes up Bor­neo, com­bined with what will like­ly be your lim­it­ed time and bud­get to explore this won­der – and the need to make sure you get the best chance of see­ing the incred­i­ble wildlife – includ­ing the Orang­utangs and pro­boscis mon­keys and deep and wild Flo­ra – a trip to Bor­neo requires not only a lot of plan­ning, but in order to make sure you stay safe and healthy and get to expe­ri­ence the true mag­ic of this island par­adise we’d strong­ly rec­om­mend fol­low­ing our top tips below: 

-  Orang­utang Spot­ting — Start­ing with the big one – Orang­utang spot­ting, while Bor­neo is a tru­ly majes­tic wildlife par­adise, thanks to the nat­ur­al cam­ou­flage of the jun­gle and the dwin­dling num­bers and elu­sive­ness of some of the ani­mals that call home – we’d encour­age any explor­er to bud­get at least a cou­ple of days when it comes to spot­ting Orang­utangs – and make sure that any trip to see them involves a trip to the Kin­abatan­gan Riv­er – where a riv­er cruise gives you the best chance to spot them – with sight­ings not guar­an­teed, but the longer you can spend and the habi­tats you vis­it real­ly giv­ing you the best chance to see these majes­tic ani­mals.  

- Respect the Island — As well as bud­get­ing time to see them – and the oth­er fas­ci­nat­ing ani­mals across Bor­neo – do of course make sure you respect the ani­mals and plant life as you trek across Bor­neo, with the del­i­cate flo­ra – and espe­cial­ly the Raf­fle­sia Arnoldii plant – and the ani­mals all being pro­tect­ed and strict pro­tec­tions in place to main­tain their habi­tats – with jail sen­tences in place for any­one that dis­turbs the nat­ur­al beau­ty of Bor­neo.  

- Plan well in Advance — It’s also incred­i­bly impor­tant to plan well in advance when vis­it­ing Bor­neo – as not only will you find flights at a dis­count­ed rate ahead of time, but giv­en the large nature of the island, the need for visas, the lengthy trav­el times between gate­way cities and the lim­it­ed places avail­able across tours (aimed at help­ing the con­ser­va­tion efforts) it’s entire­ly pos­si­ble to vis­it Bor­neo and miss out on tru­ly mag­i­cal expe­ri­ences if you’ve not planned ahead.  

- On top of this – while we’d real­ly encour­age you to vis­it Sip­i­dan Island to go scu­ba div­ing at one of the best Marine life sanctuary’s on the plan­et – it’s absolute­ly essen­tial that any­one head­ing to Sip­i­dan books well in advance – as entry to this incred­i­ble nation­al park is lim­it­ed to 176 peo­ple a day and a string of per­mits – often tak­en care of by a tour com­pa­ny are required to dive at the marine park. While you’ll of course also need your div­ing licence – do also be sure to set aside at least 6 days when head­ing to Sip­i­dan as accom­mo­da­tion, dive tours or live­aboards only account for an extend­ed stay.  

- Use a tour guide — While we’d also encour­age any explor­er to indulge their adven­tur­ous side – includ­ing trekking through the jun­gles, div­ing into the emer­ald waters and sum­mit­ing moun­tain peaks – do also bear in mind that parts of Bor­neo remain wild and untamed, and this is not a des­ti­na­tion where head­ing into the wilder­ness is an option – owing to the dan­ger­ous ter­rain and jun­gle, the threat posed be preda­tors and the jun­gle tribes that do not take kind­ly to for­eign inter­fer­ence. For this rea­son, it’s absolute­ly essen­tial that when explor­ing out­side of Borneo’s great cities any explo­ration is done so with a guid­ed tour ran by a local tour oper­a­tor.  

- Health – For those head­ing into the jun­gle in Bor­neo – both to seek Orang­utangs and the wildlife and flo­ra and explore the ancient rain­for­est of this incred­i­ble island, do also make sure that you take the nec­es­sary pre­cau­tions against Dengue fever – a dis­ease which is dead­ly and for which there are cur­rent­ly no vac­ci­na­tions. While symp­toms are often mild, it’s essen­tial when vis­it­ing Bor­neo to prac­tice good hygiene – wash­ing your hands fre­quent­ly and mak­ing sure that you con­sult a doc­tor if feel­ing ill.  

- Weath­er – For those not liv­ing in South East Asia – you’ll also need to be wary of the weath­er, with tem­per­a­tures at Bor­neo con­sis­tent­ly in the 30 degree Cel­sius range – and owing to the rain­for­est – being pre­pared for rain­storms, which are fre­quent, pow­er­ful and can start at any moment – even in the dry sea­son. For this rea­son it’s impor­tant that you come pre­pared with a chance of clothes, a good rain coat, mul­ti­ple pairs of socks, some stur­dy water­proof shoes – and clothes for the warm weath­er, includ­ing a good t‑shirt, sun­glass­es and a good hat.  

- Trav­el time – Final­ly while Bor­neo is a true dream des­ti­na­tion, do be warned that get­ting around and into the island can be time con­sum­ing – espe­cial­ly for those trav­el­ling by coach or boat to get from gate­way city to gate­way city. As the island stretch­es across three coun­tries it’s essen­tial that you not only plan well in advance for visas and trav­el times – but you can also expect any jun­gle, scu­ba div­ing or orang­utang excur­sion to involve a com­bi­na­tion of flight, bus and riv­er cross­ings. For this rea­son we’d strong­ly advise that you bud­get an extra cou­ple of days into your sched­ule at Bor­neo to account for the time it takes to both get around and into this incred­i­ble island – and thus give you the best pos­si­ble expe­ri­ence on this true won­der of the world.  

Cost:  

A tru­ly mag­i­cal won­der, a trip to Bor­neo and the chance to explore all of the mag­ic that this incred­i­ble island has to offer will require a bit of a bud­get – yet along­side the expens­es of div­ing at Sip­i­dan, going Orang­utang view­ing and sum­mit­ing the mighty moun­tain of Kin­a­balu – Bor­neo lends itself as a favoured and wel­com­ing des­ti­na­tion for back­pack­ers, so regard­less of your bud­get this stun­ning island can be expe­ri­enced and enjoyed by all. 

Start­ing with get­ting there – and hav­ing got your­self to one of Kuala Lumpur, Sin­ga­pore, Jakar­ta or Hong Kong, you’ll find flights to one of the gate­way cities of Bor­neo very afford­able – with one way tick­ets usu­al­ly cost­ing no more than a $100 Usd to arrive at Bor­neo.  

Once at Bor­neo you can then bud­get for accom­mo­da­tion, and regard­less of the cities you make as your base for explo­ration you can find a range of accom­mo­da­tion options – with back­pack­er forms typ­i­cal­ly start­ing from $5 usd a night – and high end hotels start­ing from $75 Usd a night – with there also being a range of accom­mo­da­tion options in between – mak­ing the accom­mo­da­tion in Bor­neo afford­able for every bud­get.  

Next up – and an expense that all will have to endure is the trips into the Jun­gle, moun­tains and waters of Bor­neo,  first­ly for those set on sum­mit­ing Mount Kin­a­balu we’d advise to put aside at least $150 Usd for a 2 day tour to the top, with this price being well worth it to glimpse the stun­ning sun­rise over the moun­tain and Bor­neo. For an Orang­utang view­ing expe­di­tion at the absolute min­i­mum (2 days / 1 night) you’ll need to set aside $400 Usd – but we’d advise to bud­get at least $600 Usd for a view­ing and make sure that any tour includes a jour­ney along the Kin­abatan­gan riv­er – to increase your chances of see­ing these incred­i­ble ani­mals.  

Fur­ther you should set aside at least anoth­er $600 Usd for a jour­ney through the Danum val­ley and expect to bud­get $300 Usd for any­one set on dis­cov­er­ing the Bako Nation­al Park – with the cost of vis­it­ing the Der­awan Arch­i­pel­ago also like­ly to set you back anoth­er $200 Usd.  

For the keen scu­ba divers amongst you, you’ll need to bud­get $1000 Usd for a 3 day 2 night stay at Mab­ul island to dive Sip­i­dan – with live­aboards and night dives also known to add extra expense to any trip to Bor­neo.  

While there’s no doubt the excur­sions can by pri­cy – and may result in a sit­u­a­tion where you have to pick and choose which activ­i­ties you under­take – par­tic­u­lar­ly for the back­pack­ers – oth­er ele­ments of Bor­neo are much more finan­cial­ly agree­able, with a trip to the Sepi­lok Orang­utan Sanc­tu­ary cost­ing a lit­tle over $5usd, food cost­ing no more than $5 a meal (even cheap­er if you eat street food) and taxi’s and bus­es cost­ing rough­ly $2 a ride. 

You can also save a lit­tle bit of mon­ey when it comes to get­ting across the island – while flights which cost rough­ly $100 Usd between the var­i­ous cities – although you can get flights as low as $25 Usd if you book in advance and set-up flight alerts – boat trips across the island from city to city can cost as lit­tle as $2, with long haul bus jour­neys also known to be pur­chasable for $3 Usd – mean­ing that for those back­pack­ing Bor­neo or who are on some­thing of a bud­get, you have the option to save on trav­el, food and accom­mo­da­tion and give your­self a lit­tle more mon­ey to put towards the incred­i­ble expe­ri­ences found on the stun­ning island of Bor­neo.  

Mak­ing sure also you avoid trav­el­ling on or around nation­al hol­i­days – when flights will soar in price – and that you hag­gle in mar­ket places where appro­pri­ate, we’d advise putting aside $1500 Usd as a basis to dis­cov­er Bor­neo over two weeks (not includ­ing inbound and out­bound flights) and then, if you’re lucky and mon­ey allows, upping your bud­get to allow you to under­take more incred­i­ble expe­ri­ences across this stun­ning won­der of world. 

Fun Fact: 

Home to the world’s old­est rain­for­est – at a youth­ful 140 mil­lion years old – the island of Bor­neo is not only unique in that it cross­es the three beau­ti­ful coun­tries of Brunei, Indone­sia and Malaysia – but as the third largest island on the plan­et and thanks to the divi­sion across three coun­tries and its states, Bor­neo arguably has a whop­ping sev­en cap­i­tals – with the Brunei cap­i­tal Ban­dar Seri Begawan, the Indone­sian part of Bor­neo Kali­man­tan hav­ing the cap­i­tals of Ban­jar­masin (South), Palang­ka Raya (Cen­tral), Samarin­da (East) and Pon­tianak (West), and the Malaysian sides of Sabah – whose cap­i­tal is Kota Kin­a­balu and Sarawak whose cap­i­tal is Kuch­ing. 

Along­side this Bor­neo is one of the rare places in the wild where you’ll find not only the charm­ing Orang­utang but also jun­gle trib­al life – with the Run­gus peo­ple in Kudat and the Iban tribe in Batang Ai being some of the last remain­ing human jun­gle tribes on the plan­et – and for those for­tu­nate enough it’s even pos­si­ble to stay with these tribes to con­nect not only to their way of life, but also the heart and essence of Bor­neo.  

Yet chief amongst the Bor­neo fun facts has to be the incred­i­ble wildlife – with their being more than 15,000 plant species includ­ing the Raf­fle­sia Arnoldii flower and hun­dreds of ani­mal species – includ­ing the endem­ic pro­boscis mon­key, and the small­est ele­phant and bear species on the plan­et in the Bornean pygmy ele­phant – in fact so diverse and unique is the wildlife upon Bor­neo that the full extent of its res­i­dents has yet to be dis­cov­ered – with researchers and explor­ers still dis­cov­er­ing new species on expe­di­tions – with more than 350 species hav­ing been dis­cov­ered over the last decade alone across the incred­i­ble island par­adise that is Bor­neo.  

Sights & Best photo spot: 

A true pho­tog­ra­phers dream – the lush green ancient rain­forests of Bor­neo are stun­ning in their own right, but with the chance to cap­ture the thou­sands of colour­ful flo­ra – includ­ing the always pho­to­genic (if foul spelling) giant plant of Raf­fle­sia Arnoldii and cap­ture some endem­ic and unique ani­mals, includ­ing the charm­ing and rare orang­utans – then Bor­neo is a true par­adise for any pho­tog­ra­ph­er.  

Com­bine this nature and the stun­ning land­scapes with­in the forests, with hun­dreds of diverse cul­tures, pic­turesque vil­lages, sparkling beach­es, world class scu­ba div­ing and marine life and one of the most incred­i­ble sun­ris­es on the plan­et then it’s no under­state­ment to say Bor­neo is the most pho­to­genic island on the plan­et where you’ll be tru­ly spoilt for choice for the best pho­tos.  

Yet not­ing that any pho­to in Bor­neo – par­tic­u­lar­ly those of wildlife and orang­utans is very much depen­dent on nature and your luck in spot­ting the endem­ic and some­time elu­sive wildlife, we’ve round­ed out our picks for the top pho­to spots by includ­ing the guar­an­teed pho­to hot spots – to allow you to cap­ture the scenic and beau­ti­ful nature of Bor­neo – and the spots where you have the great­est chance of run­ning into some of the incred­i­ble wildlife that call the won­der of the world Bor­neo home: 

Sunrise from atop Mount Kinabalu 

The high­est moun­tain peak between New Guinea and the Himalayas, the mighty Mount Kin­a­balu is not only a glo­ri­ous­ly beau­ti­ful peak – but at a mighty 4,095 meters it dom­i­nates not only Sabah’s sky­line but pro­vides a per­fect view­point to stand above the clouds of Bor­neo and watch as the ris­ing sun illu­mi­nates the clouds, peaks, hills and rain­for­est before you into a warm orange, yel­low and pur­ple glow – for what is one of the great expe­ri­ences and tru­ly beau­ti­ful pho­tos across Bor­neo.  

A pho­to that you’ll have to earn – a jour­ney to the sum­mit of Mount Kin­a­balu will set you back a few hun­dred dol­lars and requires a two day under­tak­ing up the side of this gor­geous moun­tain, with the sec­ond day begin­ning at 2am to make sure you reach the sum­mit on time to watch the incred­i­ble sun­rise – which is tru­ly a sight to behold.  

For those want­i­ng to under­take this trek – and wit­ness what is one of the most glo­ri­ous sun­ris­es on the plan­et and a true dream of a pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty, you’ll need to make sure you plan a few months in advance, as owing to restric­tions which see a cap on the num­ber of peo­ple allowed to sum­mit the moun­tain, you’ll find places in high demand to make the climb and wit­ness the incred­i­ble sun­rise.  

Still for those for­tu­nate enough to make the climb be sure to bring your cam­eras (and strong cof­fee) and be ready to wit­ness a tru­ly awe-inspir­ing expe­ri­ence and one of the tru­ly great sun­rise pho­to spots on the plan­et.  

Sarawak’s Niah Caves

Oth­er­world­ly, awe-inspir­ing and a win­dow out over the ancient rain­for­est – the ancient and paint­ed caves of Niah are tru­ly a sight to behold, and when you catch them at the right moment, when the bright Bor­neo sun cre­ates a mirage of light shin­ing through the caves – they are undoubt­ed­ly one of the most mag­i­cal places across the whole of the island – and make for a tru­ly mag­nif­i­cent pho­to.  

Lead­ing to a win­dowed view out over the worlds old­est rain­for­est, the Niah cliffs have devel­oped a spe­cial place in the hearts of explor­ers – thanks in no small part to their ease of access and  the almost iden­ti­cal resem­blance to the deep jun­gle lime­stone cliffs that lie deep with­in the Bor­neo jun­gles – mean­ing that the Niah cliffs can give any explor­ers a true taste – and pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty of the true wild and off the beat­en track areas of Bor­neo.  

Best under­tak­en towards sun­rise or sun­set – to cap­ture that mag­i­cal pho­to of the light seep­ing through the caves, a trip to the Niah cliffs allows you not only to expe­ri­ence one of the most inter­est­ing and raw parts of Bor­neo but also cap­ture a tru­ly mag­i­cal pho­to at one a tru­ly stun­ning scenic spot.  

Borneo’s island paradise 

So often over­looked in favour of the gor­geous wildlife and forests that roam the island, the islands of Bor­neo are tru­ly stun­ning with the blue turquoise waters and glis­ten­ing gold­en of Borneo’s islands – par­tic­u­lar­ly those found off the Der­awan Arch­i­pel­ago off Indone­sia and the Tunku Abdul Rah­man Park off Malaysia  — being among some of the most scenic and pho­to­genic islands on the plan­et – and mak­ing for a great spot to kick back, enjoy glo­ri­ous sun­sets and cap­ture the absolute best of Borneo’s stun­ning island par­adise.  

For the Der­awan Arch­i­pel­ago you’ll find 31 stun­ning islands – with emer­ald waters, beach huts and daz­zling white sands off the cost of east Kali­man­tan, and the islands are sim­ply gor­geous and allow you to cap­ture not only an island par­adise the rep­re­sents the best of Bor­neo, but thanks to its pro­tect­ed sta­tus, the sway­ing palm trees and the thriv­ing eco-log­i­cal con­di­tions – you’ll also find a range of marine life off the islands shores, with 450 species of corals, curi­ous sea tur­tles and hun­dreds of fish species known to live off the islands coasts. Although a lit­tle hard to reach – we’d advise head­ing for the islands of Der­awan, Kak­a­ban or Marat­ua as a first point of call, the islands off the Der­awan Arch­i­pel­ago are sim­ply incred­i­ble and make for an amaz­ing pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty to cap­ture the stun­ning nat­ur­al beau­ty of Bor­neo.  

Along­side the Der­awan Arch­i­pel­ago islands, the Malaysian side of Bor­neo also offers incred­i­ble islands – which are in our view a lit­tle bit more acces­si­ble – with the Tunku Abdul Rah­man Park which is found just 20 min­utes out­side Kota Kin­a­balu (the gate­way for mount Kin­a­balu) on the Sabah coast­line being not only a place to once against cap­ture majes­tic beach­es – but known for being a hotspot for tur­tle hatch­ing – which, if you’re lucky and sen­si­tive can make a tru­ly spe­cial pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty.  

Tru­ly spe­cial and beau­ti­ful, the beach­es of Bor­neo across the island are all unique­ly beau­ti­ful and encom­pass the true beau­ty of this stun­ning island – but for a tru­ly spe­cial shot we’d advise head­ing to either the Der­awan Arch­i­pel­ago or the Tunku Abdul Rah­man Park islands espe­cial­ly at sun­set to snap tru­ly mag­i­cal pho­tos that will undoubt­ed­ly be one of the most mem­o­rable high­lights of your pho­to jour­ney across Bor­neo.  

Sipidan Island 

One of the great­est dive spots on the plan­et – the island of Sip­i­dan is not only the stuff of leg­end amongst divers, but this true mag­i­cal marine par­adise offers arguably one of the most mag­i­cal places on the plan­et to cap­ture marine life in full flow, with the bast array of whale sharks, Man­ta rays, Black tip and ham­mer­head sharks, schools of bright­ly coloured nemo, par­rot and nee­dle fish bar­racu­d­as and of course pho­to­genic tur­tles – com­bin­ing to make this marine par­adise one of the must vis­it pho­to spots across all of Bor­neo.  

Thanks in no small part to the calm and clear waters – with vis­i­bil­i­ty rang­ing up to 200 hun­dred feet below the waters, the waters of Sip­i­dan are tru­ly mag­i­cal – with tur­tles and sharks known to be vis­i­ble and pho­tograph­able from the sur­face before Divers – armed with stur­dy cam­eras take the plunge. It is this com­bi­na­tion of immense vis­i­bil­i­ty and team­ing marine life that makes the chal­leng­ing jour­ney to Sip­i­dan worth­while – with explor­ers hav­ing to under­take flight, coach and then a speed boat to reach the near­by island of Mab­ul – from where dives or live­aboards can be under­tak­en.  

Unlike any­thing you’ll find else­where on the plan­et, the marine life and pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties at Sip­i­dan are undoubt­ed­ly the best of Bor­neo and for those for­tu­nate to take on both a day­time and night time dive there’s an almost guar­an­tee that you’ll leave with not only incred­i­ble mem­o­ries but also immense pho­tos – both of which will last you a life­time.  

Wildlife and Flora Spotting in the Borneo Jungles: 

Orangutans in Borneo: 

For the must have pho­to of any Bor­neo trip – the Orang­utans that call Bor­neo home are one of only two mag­nif­i­cent places on the plan­et (Suma­tra in Indone­sia being the oth­er) to see these curi­ous beau­ti­ful and endan­gered pri­mates, with the forests of Danum and the rivers of Kinata­ban­gan in Bor­neo, being in our view the most acces­si­ble and great­est spot on the plan­et to both wit­ness and pho­to­graph these huge­ly intel­li­gent and sad­ly endan­gered ani­mals.  

Found also in the var­i­ous refugee cen­tres across the island includ­ing the famed one on Sabak, a snap of an Orang­utan is undoubt­ed­ly the high­light of any wildlife and nature explo­ration of the 130-mil­lion-year-old jun­gles and forests of Bor­neo, but it is not the only one, with hun­dreds of flo­ra and ani­mals, includ­ing the adorable pro­boscis mon­keys, wild bears, howl­ing mon­keys, fly­ing lemurs and even leop­ards all poten­tial­ly pho­tograph­able on your jour­ney through the forests.  

While sight­ings and pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties of these ani­mals are down to chance, there’s no doubt that any pho­tog­ra­ph­er can improve their chances of snap­ping them by head­ing to the right – and beau­ti­ful and pho­to­genic loca­tions below: 

The Danum Valley Rainforest:

The heart of Borneo’s great jun­gle and for­est, the pro­tect­ed area of the Danum val­ley stretch­es across more that 400 square kilo­me­tres, and it’s here that you’ll be guar­an­teed incred­i­ble shots of the worlds old­est rain­for­est – which is both eas­i­ly explorable on a series of treks and can be stayed overnight in – with this beau­ti­ful and his­tor­i­cal val­ley being a tru­ly wor­thy shot of Bor­neo in it’s own right, but when com­bined with the thou­sands of Flo­ra and hun­dreds of ani­mal species you’ll find liv­ing with­in the rain­for­est – it makes the Danum val­ley one of the pre­mier spots to vis­it for tru­ly icon­ic pho­tos of Bor­neo.  

Chief among these flo­ra – and some­thing you’ll prob­a­bly smell before you see – is the famed Raf­fle­sia Arnoldii, which is the worlds biggest flower and makes for a great and colour pho­to. You’ll also – if you’re lucky find orang­utangs nes­tled across the val­leys trees – which again makes for a tru­ly mem­o­rable pho­to, as too do the fam­i­lies of mon­keys, pigmy ele­phants and leo­pords, who can all be seen on nature walks and riv­er rides across this tru­ly beau­ti­ful val­ley.  

For the best shots and expe­ri­ence, we’d real­ly encour­age you to spend at least one night in the Danum val­ley – with there being a range of accom­mo­da­tion options – from camp­ing to hos­tels — to suit all trav­ellers, with a night overnight in the Bor­neo jun­gle not only giv­ing you the chance to under­take a late night and sun­rise safari – where your chances of spot­ting ani­mals and cap­tur­ing great pho­tos are great­ly increased – but also giv­ing you the chance to wit­ness a stun­ning sun­rise and sun­set in the Danum Val­ley, which makes for a tru­ly incred­i­ble pho­to and fur­ther under­lines the beau­ti­ful and pho­to­genic par­adise of the Bor­neo jun­gle, which is in our view best cap­tured in the Danum Val­ley.  

Bako National Park:

A park for those who want to soak in the great jun­gle val­leys against the back­drop of stun­ning emer­ald waters and emp­ty beach­es of Bor­neo – and a park where you’ll find flocks of pro­boscis mon­keys (although no orang­utangs), the Bako Nation­al Park offers stun­ning and tree top pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties – where – and espe­cial­ly at sun­rise and sun­set – you can cap­ture far rang­ing views out over the ancient forests of Bor­neo to the hori­zon – for what is undoubt­ed­ly one of the great nature pho­tos both with­in Bor­neo and the plan­et.  

A tru­ly pho­to­genic park, the road through Bako is eas­i­ly found – with there being a series of trails and hikes to take you both through the ancient jun­gle, and up to the cliffs above the emer­ald waters and down to the beach­es below, with a panoram­ic pho­to from atop one of the cliffs – where you can cap­ture both the jun­gle on your left and the beach­es on your right being one of the must have and tru­ly great pho­tos across Bor­neo.  

Along­side this with­in Bako you’ll also have the option to take on riv­er rides and man­grove swamp tours, which make for a great way to get up close and per­son­al with­in the jun­gle – and expect to see the Bor­neo native pro­boscis mon­keys leap­ing along­side you in the man­groves – with these bright­ly coloured and pecu­liar mon­keys – when cap­tured against the back­drop of the deep Bako Nation­al park mak­ing for a tru­ly mag­i­cal shot that encom­pass­es the very best of Bor­neo.   

Sepilok’s Orang­utan Sanc­tu­ary:

Along with catch­ing a glimpse of Orang­utangs in the wild through­out Bor­neo, to tru­ly under­stand both these majes­tic ani­mals and the fragili­ty of their sur­vival – with only 100,000 left in the wild – and the impact that log­ging and defor­esta­tion are hav­ing on them, we’d encour­age every explor­er to vis­it the Sepi­lok reha­bil­i­ta­tion cen­tre in east Sabah – where you’ll find a num­ber of orphaned and in par­tic­u­lar­ly baby orang­utangs who are in need of care.  

Along­side help you to under­stand the beau­ty of these majes­tic ani­mals – the reha­bil­i­ta­tion also offers you a good chance chance to see semi-wild orang­utangs at feed­ing times – which com­bined with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to see baby orang­utangs can also make for a great expe­ri­ence of see­ing these endem­ic and endan­gered ani­mals  and grab pho­tos of them in a con­trolled and sup­port­ive envi­ron­ment – which can serve as a reminder as to their beau­ty and the con­tin­ued threat they face.  

While dif­fer­ent from the expe­ri­ence of see­ing orang­utangs in the wild – the care and preser­va­tion work going on at the Sepi­lok reha­bil­i­ta­tion cen­tre offers anoth­er side of Bor­neo and the stark and harsh real­i­ty fac­ing these beau­ti­ful crea­tures – and the chance to both expe­ri­ence and cap­ture this work – as well as snap baby and semi-wild Orang­utangs up close is as an essen­tial and beau­ti­ful pho­to as any that you’ll get the chance to take on your jour­ney through Bor­neo.  

The Low­er Kinata­ban­gan Riv­er:

Our pick for spot­ting Orang­utangs across Bor­neo – based both on your chances of see­ing them and the stun­ning scenery that sur­rounds them – the low­er Kin­abatan­gan region is a true wildlife hotspot in Malaysia and a boat ride along the Kin­abatan­gan riv­er, which is a mul­ti-day excur­sion and will require var­i­ous forms of trav­el – giv­ing you a fan­tas­tic chance to catch the true jew­el of a pho­to­graph in Bor­neo – the chance to see Orang­utangs fight­ing, bathing or relac­ing along the banks of these great riv­er.  

Best under­tak­en at dawn or dusk – where not only are the Orang­utangs at their most active – but you’ll also get the incred­i­ble sun­rise or sun­set Bor­neo colours adding a fan­tas­tic colour enhanced back­ground to your shot – a trip down the 560 kilo­me­tres of the Kin­abatan­gan rivers also gives you the chance to snap oth­er beau­ti­ful wildlife pho­tos of the natives of Bor­neo – includ­ing the pigmy ele­phant and the fly­ing lemur – with a jour­ney down this incred­i­ble riv­er offer­ing you some of the best, most elu­sive and beau­ti­ful shots across Bor­neo.  

While the jour­ney to the riv­er base may not be easy – and may be a lit­tle on the expen­sive side if you under­take it on a tour, a jour­ney along the Kin­abatan­gan Riv­er gives you the best chance to not only snap the man­groves and jun­gle of Bor­neo in its most rawest and beau­ti­ful form, but gives you the chance to pho­to­graph the true icon of Bor­neo in the Orang­utang in its nat­ur­al habi­tat, which is a priv­i­lege that future gen­er­a­tions may not enjoy and which under­lines the need to both explore and pro­tect the incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is the island of Bor­neo.