Malaysia Borneo Wildlife Discovery

After breakfast, let’s drive for 2 hours to the UNESCO-listed Kinabalu National Park, celebrated for Mount Kinabalu, Southeast Asia’s highest peak, for a fascinating full-day rainforest hiking trip. According to the opening status of the attractions in the park, your guide will walk you to Canopy Walkway or Mount Kinabalu Botanical Garden. While you venture deeper into the ancient tropical rainforest roughly 130 million years ago, feast your eyes on a myriad of indigenous tropical flora and fauna, such as pitcher plants resembling open shells, towering oak trees, red-furred orangutans, and Rafflesia, the largest on the planet. 
► Note:
1. When you capture wild animals, please keep a safe distance and avoid feeding or touching them, so as not to disrupt their natural behaviors. 
2. It’s best to bring garbage bags and take all your waste out of the rainforest, and use eco-friendly insect repellent that is harmless to you and the environment. 

In the end, your driver guide will escort you back to your hotel.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: Grandis Hotels and Resorts, Kota Kinabalu (4 stars)

This morning, your driver guide will accompany you to the airport for a 45-minute flight to Sandakan. The seaport, also Sabah’s second-largest city, features its rapport between humans and animals, cost-effective delicious seafood, and traditional British structures. Upon landing, your local driver guide will warmly greet you at the exit, and then escort you to your resort in Sepilok, the world’s largest orangutan rehabilitation and reserve.

★ A Rainforest-Embraced Stay with Smoothing Nature Sounds

Tucked away in one of the world’s oldest tropical rainforests, our handpicked hotel is close to the two destinations we’ll explore tomorrow. Lush and green vegetation stretches within sight from your semi-detached chalet, and if lucky, you may run into climbing endangered orangutans! What’s more, the 1,000-foot-long wooden trail behind the resort will allow you to get your nature fix, before falling asleep to the natural symphony of rainforest critters.

Meals: Breakfast, Dinner
Accommodation: My Nature Resort, Sepilok

Today, our journey will start from Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center, the largest of its kind in the world. From your driver guide, you’ll learn that homeless orangutans are sent here, as well as receiving treatment and studying outdoor survival skills with the help of the staff, until they’re capable of living independently and then return to the wild. At around 10:00 AM, let’s observe orangutans on the feeding platform up close, and watch some videos to get more details about the establishing process of the center and the “humans’ closest relative”. There are no fences here to restrict orangutans, so please keep quiet to avoid disturbing them.

Later, let’s hit Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Center to behold the smallest bears on the earth, which have been severely threaten by illegal hunting, habitat destruction, and illegal keeping as a pet. In addition to watching their natural behaviors on elevated walkways, focus on educational exhibitions to learn about sun bears and the unremitting efforts the center has made to protect them. After such a visit, we do hope everyone can take an active part in the activities of protecting endangered species.

★ Special Highlight: Multiple River Cruises to Discover Rare Wildlife

To enhance your travel experience, we’ve specially included multiple river cruises in the next half day and tomorrow to explore precious wild animals in Borneo. Now, we’ll hop on an hour-long boat trip to Lower Kinabatangan River Sanctuary. Kinabatangan River, Sabah’s longest river, is fringed by untouched tropical rainforests with rich biodiversity. Due to vast tracts of forest transformed into oil palm plantations, many creatures are forced to gather here, making it an ideal spot for wildlife watching. During the visit, almost all of 10 primates and 8 hornbills, especially proboscis monkeys, crocodiles, and endangered Bornean pygmy elephants, the smallest elephants worldwide, will await your discovery. 

Following a lunch break at Abai Jungle Restaurant, let’s sail again to Sukau Village, situated in the most biodiverse reserve in Sandakan. As the boat slowly glide through Menanggul River, why not spend some time with your observant guide finding out Borneo BIG 5 - orangutans, proboscis monkeys, pygmy elephants, saltwater crocodiles, and rhinoceros hornbills, Malaysia’s national bird - all at once? 

At the end of the tour, your driver guide will accompany you to your hotel.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation: Kinabatangan Riverside Lodge, Sukau Village

Early in the morning, let’s continue cruising up the Kinabatangan River, while admiring dense, mysterious freshwater swamp forests along the river. Then we’ll reach Oxbow Lake, where the rainforest, bathed in a soft warm glow, will come alive with the grand orchestra of wildlife. Apart from seeing familiar faces like orangutans, proboscis monkeys, and crocodiles, you may encounter various rare birds flying by, and macaques grooming each other.

We’ll then return to your hotel for breakfast, and the rest of the morning is yours to explore the surroundings at your own pace. 

After lunch, embark on another wildlife safari by boat with your local guide to mainly trace primates and birds. If lucky, you may spot pygmy elephants drinking or crossing the river with their babies. Pay more attention to the trees near the riverbanks, and you’ll often find foraging or frolicking proboscis monkeys, whose noses are enlarging with age. Owing to their extremely strong dependence on mangroves, they’ll become depressed if artificially kept in zoos. Thus, protecting these pristine rainforests is crucial to them. 

Ultimately, enjoy dinner at your hotel and spend your last night in Sukau Village.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation: Kinabatangan Riverside Lodge, Sukau Village

Today, accompanied by your driver guide, after a 2-hour car ride to Lahad Datu, we’ll take a short break, and drive for another 2 hours to your rainforest hotel in Danum Valley, praised as “the world’s most biodiverse area”, with the wildest tropical flora and fauna. 

In the afternoon, let’s follow a seasoned local guide, also a leading natural observer, to plunge deep into a rainforest hike in Danum Valley. Hiking through the 360-meter-long (1,181-foot-long) Canopy Walkway encircled by giant dipterocarp trees, observe multiple tropical critters in each forest layer from different angles, and soak up a superb rainforest panorama at a height of 27 meters (88 feet). 
► Note: To avoid leech bites, be sure to wear leech socks and tighten your long-sleeved trouser legs. If you find a leech attached to your skin, it’s best to sprinkle salt, apply medical alcohol, or repeatedly press on the surrounding skin and let it fall off naturally, rather than pull it hard off your skin.

After dinner, we’ll take a pickup truck to explore nocturnal creatures, if the weather permits. At night, nothing will be heard in the entire forest except the sound of their footsteps and chattering. As you pass through dense jungles and gurgling streams, new faces, such as lizards, frogs, and snakes, will come into view. 

Eventually, your driver guide will accompany you back to your hotel. With its excellent location, our selected hotel here still provides the possibility of encountering clever orangutans. Without entering the forest, you can easily observe their natural habits including foraging, climbing trees, gnawing on tree bark, and even taking care of their babies. 

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation: Borneo Rainforest Lodge, Danum Valley

After breakfast, let’s continue further into Danum Valley to trace the long-standing history of the Kadazan-Dusun, Sabah’s largest ethnic group. Your local guide will tell you that it has been divided into different subgroups because of geographical limitation - “Kadazan” means “market”, indicating that they live in cities and towns, while the Dusun people live in the countryside. Head for the ancient Dusun Burial Site, where you can witness hanging coffins clinging to the high cliff and even moss-covered human bones. Surprisingly, due to high difficulty and expending of these coffins, this burial method is a privilege enjoyed only by the nobility.

Later, we’ll walk along the hiking trail, past a small hill, and then to the scenic viewpoint at an altitude of 300 meters (985 feet) for a bird’s-eye view of the verdant Danum Valley. With luck, you may catch a glimpse of Borneo gibbons looking for fruits amid trees. Renowned as “forest singers”, they are naturally shy and unwilling to approach humans. If their beautiful singing wafts into your ears from afar, perhaps you can track them in its direction.

Subsequently, return to your hotel and have dinner. The highlight of the night is to encounter nocturnal wildlife, especially the unique birds. Tawny frogmouths, the King of Darkness, are opening their big, frog-like mouth to prey on flying insects. During the search, you’ll get to know how your senior guide locates the trees they frequent and plays a recording of their calls to lure them. 

As the safari concludes, your guide will part with you at your hotel. 

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation: Borneo Rainforest Lodge, Danum Valley

This morning, your driver guide will pick you up at your hotel, and then accompany you on a 2-hour drive to Lahad Datu Airport, before an hour-long flight back to Kota Kinabalu. Once you arrive, your local driver guide will meet you at the exit, before a private car transfer to your hotel near the popular Dalit Beach in one hour.

► FYI: The hotel we’ve booked for you boasts a vast and tranquil private beach, allowing you to savor a breathtaking sunset, arguably the third-best one globally, without any disturbance. As the sun sinks below the horizon, the entire beach basks in a rosy shimmer, while the sea after the ebb tide is as crystal clear as a sky mirror.

Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: Shangri-La Rasa Ria, Kota Kinabalu (5 stars)

Today, you’ll have a whole free day to relax on Dalit Beach. Between 5:00 and 20:00, your hotel offers a wide array of optional activities including jungle hiking, water amusements, cultural experiences, and family entertainment. You can ask the hotel staff for more details about the activities you prefer ahead. 

► Free-time Recommendations (at your own expense):
At around 5:00, consider following your hotel guide through the suspension bridge in the forest to an observation desk for an unparalleled sunrise over Kota Kinabalu beaches. After returning to the hotel, experience water sports like banana boats, or participate in the crowd-beloved Nature’s Little Buzzers, where you can see stingless bees at the farm and sample local pure honey. Fishing lovers may attend the River Fishing Cruise to fish in the mangroves. Following an awe-inspiring sunset, appreciate twinkling fireflies at 19:00-20:00.

Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: Shangri-La Rasa Ria, Kota Kinabalu (5 stars)

On the final day, your driver guide will see you off to Kota Kinabalu International Airport for your onward flight. Hope our trip has given you an unforgettable experience! 

► More Inspiration: 
If you book a night flight, consider joining the hotel’s Laya-Laya Village Bicycle Tour in the early morning to savor the sunlight-draped village of Kota Kinabalu and the traditional stilt wooden houses built by the Bajau Samah people, local maritime nomads.