"Borneo - an area of outstanding natural beauty" Top 5 Page for this destination Borneo by TonyBagnall

We spent 7 nights in Borneo and we visited Sepilok Orangutan Reserve, Turtle Island and Sipidan Island. We flew to Sandakan and went straight to Sepilok. We saw the orangutans on two seperate visits to the reserve and we saw something different each time. We also did a jungle trail. We did an afternoon trip to the proboscis monkey reserve which was also excellent. Observing the behaviour of the monkeys and their social structure was really interesting. There is an alpha male who has a hareem of females, he has to spend most of his time watching out for other opportunist males who might want to muscle in on the good thing he has going!

Turtle egg

This is a trip which should not be missed. Book in advance to make sure you get a place. The island itself is beautiful and has some good snorkelling. The real attraction though is meeting a real live turtle - up close and personal! We saw a beautiful female laying her eggs on the beach. We were only a few inches away. The park warden collects the eggs and you go off to the hatchery to bury them underground where they take 60 days to hatch. The highlight of highlights on this unforgettable trip is when you get to hold a tiny baby turtle hatchling and see it be released into the sea. Indescribable!

Sipidan joy!

We don't dive but we do snorkel. We were a bit apprehensive about Sipidan because it is known as a divers place. However if like us you only snorkel it is still well worth visiting Sipidan. It is the best snorkelling we've ever done. Oh to have an underwater camera! Maybe one day we'll return and dive.

There is snokelling and diving only a few meters away from the shore. It's literally beach - reef - drop off of 600m to the bottom of the sea!

Lots of turtles here too and this time you can swim with them. Each time we went into the water we saw somthing new. It's an underwater wonderland.

• Pros:You can experience so much wildlife in so little time
• Cons:None really. If I have to say one it would be that the accommodation option in some areas are sub-optimal
• In a nutshell:Borneo is an unspolit nature-lovers dream