The capital of the region is Kota Kinabalu (KK). My flight landed around 9pm and I took a grab to my hostel in Gaya Street dubbed the Chinatown of Sabah due to the many Chinese businesses in the street.The mid autumn festival was still going on (I think it’s something to do with mooncakes but I’m not sure if I’m getting my wires crossed) so there was a street food market all the way down the street and different performances at each end including some fire breathing!!

As I’d already eaten as a way to make it through my spare hours in Singapore airport, I just had a wander and then headed to bed as I was meeting up with Sara again (we met in Cameron Highlands and then in KL) at stupid o’clock in the morning (7.30)!!OK, well I didn’t quite make 7.30 but I got to the bus station to meet Sara at 7.45 (not bad for me!) Our bus was meant to leave at 8 but didn’t actually leave until about half past!After a very bumpy two hour minibus ride, we arrived at our destination of Kinabalu National Park, home to Mount Kinabalu – the highest mountain in Malaysia.You can climb the mountain but it’s for proper mountaineers, so not for us! Instead, we settled for hiking one of the jungle treks and we only got the tiniest bit lost once!

Then we headed to the botanical gardens to learn about the flora and fauna that call the area their home.

Afterwards we headed back to the park entrance to find some lunch before waiting by the side of the road for our minibus to pick us back up on the way past!Once back in KK I bid Sara goodbye as she was off to Brunei the next morning and I went to see some of the local sights like the famous mosque on the seafront

I took a walk around KK and visited the Filipino market before coming back to Gaya Street for some street food, this time in the form of a fried bun which was delicious!

The next day it was time to head to Sepilok. You can fly to Sandaken and take a 45 minute transfer or you can take a 6 hour bus…I opted for the cheaper option of the bus! The roads were a bit bumpy and very windy but apart from that it was quite a good journey, they even had the new Aladdin film on, though every bump caused the DVD to jump so I gave up on watching that pretty quickly!The bus doesn’t technically stop in Sepilok, so they just drop you off on the side of the road at the junction that does go there. By this point it was 6.30 and dark… I got my trusty google maps out and saw it was a 45 minute walk 🙈 I’d read online that there would be people waiting where the bus drops you off so when a man approached me to ask where I yang staying I realised I was saved! A £2 taxi journey and 10 minutes later I arrived at my very swanky accommodation, a resort don’t you know!That evening I met a local guide who was staying at the resort as he was picking up a new tour group the next morning. It was fantastic to meet someone who knew so much about the area. He spoke to me about his village, his work and about Sabah and Borneo in general. He spoke about how the palm oil industry isn’t nearly as destructive as the West make out, in fact Malaysia have been working on cross breeding the trees so they get more oil from less land making palm oil less destructive than a lot of other natural oils, which I found very interesting.Most importantly he told me that DAME JUDY DENCH stayed in that very resort when she was filming her recent ITV documentary as he had met her there! As an aside, definitely worth a watch!The next morning, I woke up ridiculously excited for the day ahead. I was going to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre

There are around 60-80 orangutans living wild within the protected area. Most are orphans rescued from logging, deforestation and the pet trade.The centre is open from 9-11 and 2-4 with feeding times at 10 and 3. There is no guarantee of seeing the orangutans but they know they can go to the feeding platform for free food!I arrived at the feeding platform at 9.45 and the trees soon started to rustle with two orangutans who made their way to the platform before the food arrived!

It wasn’t just the orangutans, there were plenty of macaques who knew all about the free food! It was amazing to watch and be so close to the animals.Well if I thought that was close, I had no idea! After the feeding an orangutan decided to come and see what all the people were about. She climbed down a tree and onto the viewing platform. I have to praise the staff here as there were a lot of tourists that had to get back to a safe distance and they handled it perfectly.

After all that excitement, it was time to leave the park for their lunch break. Across the road is the Sun Bear Conservation Centre so I followed pretty much all the tourists there! The guides were amazing and could spot bears really far away and had some telescopes set up so you could see them. There were a few that were close to the viewing walkway too!

Then it was back to the Orangutan Sanctuary for the afternoon session. I started by going to visit the nursery. This is where the most recently rescued orangutans are looked after and they were just like children, playing with each other and play fighting! You watch from behind glass, which was actually quite nice because the room had aircon!

Then I thought I’d try my luck back at the main feeding platform again. For about half an hour there were only macaques taking advantage of the food but then a mother carrying her baby appeared!! Closely followed by a BIG male

I can’t express just how lucky I feel to have been able to see these beautiful animals so close up.The next day it was time to head to the jungle to a nature lodge on the Kinabatangan River.

Now it turns out neither my phone nor my crosstour (fake GoPro) are made for nature photography so what were clearly specific animals to the eye turn into blurry blobs on my photos!I was staying at the lodge for 2 nights and within that we got 4 river cruises, 2 night walks and a day walk through the jungle (as well as all of our meals!Over the course of the time we saw

• Orangutans
• Probiscus monkeys
• 
• Long and short tail macaques
• Gibbons (which are so rare that they’re only sighted two or three times a year)
• Crocodiles
• 
• Hornbills
• Snakes
• Tarsier
• 
• Lots of insects and creepy crawlies!

I also took part in a cooking class where we learnt to make Tuna salad (ceviche), Tuna soup and BBQ chickenThen it was time to go back to civilisation! I got dropped off at Sandakan bus station and then got the (7 hour) bus back to KK as I was heading to Brunei the next day.