• Highlights of Malaysia (12 days)

• Cameron Highlands and Berinchang Explorer (3 Days)

• Malaysian Bliss (9 days)

• Classic Malaysia (10 Days)

• Essential Borneo ex Kota Kinabalu (9 Days)

• Essential Borneo ex Kuching (9 days)

• Malaysia & Brunei Tour (14 days)

• Malaysia Journey Group Tour (7 days)

• Malaysia & Indonesia (27 days)

• Malaysia Explorer Tour (12 days)

• The Far East Tour (20 days)

• Essential Malaysia (7 days)

• Asia Cruise with Thailand, Malaysia and Bali (14 days)

• Gourmet Malaysia (7 days)

• Splendors of Borneo

• Splendors of Borneo (7 days)

• Singapore to Penang

• Malaysia: Borneo Adventure (11 days)
  

• Sipadan Mabul Resort Malaysia

• Colors of Asia- (14 days)

• Roam Bangkok to Bali (28 days)

• West Malaysia & Singapore (9 days)

• Borneo- Sabah Adventure (10 days)

• Malaysia Longstay Kuala Lumpur (22 days)

• Roam South East Asia (21 days)

• Malaysia - Three Faces of Borneo (7 Days)

• Classic Best of Borneo (14 Days)

• Gems of the Orient (16 days)

• 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix

• The Jungles of Borneo (12 days)

• Mostly Malaysia (13 days)

• Brunei &Borneo Escapade (11 days)

• Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand (13 days)

• Magnificent Malay Escapade (9 days)

• Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur Stopover (3 Days)

• MalayRibbean (5 days)

• Malaysia - An Unforgettable Trio (9 Days)

• Best of Malaysia (13 days)

• Malaysia Cityscapes Stopover (4 days)

• Natural Borneo

• Malaysia Panoramic Grand Tour (20 days)

• Borneo and Bintan Golf

• Malaysia & Singapore (12 days)

• West Malaysia Overland Tour (7 Days)

• West Malaysia Tranquil East Coast (7 Days)

• Malaysia Getaway (9 days)

• Best of Sabah (6 Days)

• Malaysia & Singapore Getaway (7 Days)

• Untamed Borneo (11 Days)

• Taste of Southeast Asia (10 days)

• 12 days/10 nights Malaysia and Singapore

• Adventure in Malaysia & Borneo (14 days)

• Sabah Experience (7days)

• Sarawak & Sabah Experience (10 days)

• Sarawak Experience (7 days)

• Kuala Lumpur (3 days)

• Penang (3 days)

Malaysia: Wild, welcoming…and mysterious By: Ursula Maxwell-Lewis

It was the hornbills that did it.

Sleepily I open the casement window of my Sepilok Jungle Resort ground-floor room.

It’s 6.00 am. Only the sun, residents of the neighbouring dense foliage, and I, are stirring.

Suddenly, soundlessly and without warning, I’m virtually eye-to-eye with a pair of unscheduled visitors.

Cruising past my window, only feet away, are two stunning - and obviously curious - hornbills.

Unblinking, we momentarily stare at each other. Their unmistakable, ungainly, bright yellow and black bills transported by pairs of massive snowy-tipped black wings glide languidly past.

Rooted to the spot in amazement, I’m suddenly alert- and itching for the Nikon on my dresser.

Gracefully wheeling around, the pair returns for another brief peek at me - and vanish. Their images, however, remain secure in my mental traveling filing cabinet.

The Sepilok Orang Utang Sanctuary residents are more accommodating.

Merrily swinging from branch to branch, munching breakfast bananas and bamboo, my muscular, gangly, ginger-haired ancestors (if I’m to believe Charles Darwin), and I inspect each other.

Drenched by a sudden steamy tropical downpour, I huddle under a tree resplendent in a blue dollar-store plastic poncho clutching camera gear. I feel inordinately foolish.

The orang utans, raindrops glistening on their waterproof moth-eaten fur coats, view me rather morbidly. Presumably they wonder who let in the ugly interloper. My impression is they definitely think the neighbourhood is going downhill.

Sturdy wooden catwalks through the lush jungle provide secure footings for photographers and tourists. Carefully designed to protect and prepare the orang utans for their impending return to the wild, the stars of natures show frolic unselfconsciously. Sinewy arms and legs propel the orang utans overhead and around us. We are on show. It’s their turf. Fascinated, and humbled by nature, I watch the ape families casually swing, sway and play.

I travel deeper along my river route to Abai Jungle Lodge. We’re searching for the shy, illusive, treetop proboscis monkey clans. Instead we find a mating ritual. Where else, I wonder, can one witness nature’s living Christmas trees on a warm silent night? Here I sit in a river boat on a muddy North Borneo river mesmerized by thousands of twinkling fireflies decorate waterside bushes in secret mating dances. The lights are on in nature’s living room, I think.

Like peeping toms we rock silently on the river …solemnly watching. If there isn’t a God, there should be. Man hasn’t created these Malaysian miracles.

And…this is just the beginning….

Am I passionate about Malaysia? In a word: yes.

It is accessible by highway and takes about 1 hour 30 minutes to get there. You can see an abundance of mangrove tress are found in the Klias Wetland Peninsula. This wetland forest is enriched with vegetation and wildlife such as the Proboscis Monkeys, Long Tail Macaques, Crocodile, Fireflies and many species of Birds.

It also has a 30 feet observation tower that enables you to enjoy the sighting of tropical wetland and its rich wildlife across the river banks. The complex has a 500-feet boardwalk with Nipah Atap roofing and a river jetty providing a comfortable river cruise.

Back to Sabah

Kinabalu Park

Kundasang War Memorial

Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary

Monkey Tops Safari

Sipadan Island

Tunku Abdul Rahman
Marine Park

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