TRAVEL FEATURE - BORNEO
MICHAEL SCHELLER
THE BEST SHOWER
I HAVE EVER HAD
W
hat comes to mind when you
hear about Borneo?
It might be rainforests,
big-scale palm-oil farming,
indigenous culture, snakes, Orang-
Utans, pirates.
Traversing Borneo on a motor-
cycle, you will come across most of
these; hopefully not the latter one.
Borneo sure has it all that you
would expect from a tropical island
which, on a side note is considered
the world’s third largest island after
Greenland and New Guinea (we won’t
go into the debate about Australia
being an island or not – Ed.).
Borneo is shared by three coun-
tries; Malaysia, the Sultanate of
Brunei Darussalam, and Indonesia.
Malaysia itself splits its region into
two states, that of Sabah in the North-
East and Sarawak in the South-West,
both with large port cities.
Out of Kuala Lumpur, Western Ma-
laysia, I had my motorcycle shipped
for Borneo’s Kota Kinabalu. The
TRAVERSE 101
process was rather easy and afford-
able as it essentially didn’t cross an
international border and went onto a
giant Ro-Ro ferry.
Kota Kinabalu features a beach
with a local fish market; apart from
that, the port town wasn‘t too excit-
ing.
I was lucky to meet a local ranger
and wildlife activist who took me on
a jungle safari. This gave me a notion
of what Borneo is best for; traditional
culture and places where time seems
to be standing still, untouched jun-
gles, and wildlife. I love the feeling
of travelling like this while getting off
the beaten track.
By flashlight, we spotted insects,
frogs and snakes I’d never seen be-
fore. I considered it rather bold of my
friend to go on this safari in thongs,
but I guess that just comes with the
experience of a ranger.
After a few days, the ferry from the
peninsula finally arrived. It seemed
to be something special for the