Our Borneo Expedition
Our tour guide Albert picked us up at 8 am. We had a good sleep that night with a warmer and quieter room. We put on our green Borneo Expedition t-shirts which we had received from our guide Albert the night before.
We were riding in a 1998 series 100 Toyota Land Cruiser, it was in mint condition, totally restored. Our second guide John was in the second vehicle ahead. We headed to a hill overlooking Kota Kinabalu where we took a few shots of the city far below.
We continued our trip into the local wilderness. A four wheel drive vehicle out on these roads is a good idea but we did see a few low riding cars, like a sporty Toyota that made us wonder how they navigate the gravel and potholes. We stopped by a rice paddy that had bird scare clappers throughout the field to keep the birds from eating the rice. The clappers were all connected by a string to a central location where someone was pulling the string when a bird arrived. Manual labour.
We stopped for a sampling of fruit in Kundasang at a local market. We tried Tarap a tropical fruit only found in Borneo, it was excellent. We also sampled the infamous Durian which Gary likes, but Linda not so much. We also tried the Lansat fruit, a small tan coloured ball smaller than a golf ball. Once you peel the Lansat skin there is a sweet juicy fruit inside. We were soon full of fruit so we went for a light lunch. We probable could have skipped lunch but we forced ourselves. We enjoyed the satay including chicken, chicken liver and lamb. As soon as we finished eating we went to the Kundasang War Memorial.
The Kundasang war memorial honours a total of 2428 POWs that did the the death march from Sandakan to Kundasang about 236 km through he Borneo jungle. There were 1787 Australians, 641 British, 1047 died on the march, 1381 died at Sandakan. There was a total of 2434 POWs that started in Sandakan and 2428 that perished at the hands of the Japanese. There was only 6 survivors. The Japanese soldiers didn’t fair really well either because of the lack of food and medical supplies. There were reports of starvation and even cannibalism.
The Kundasang war memorial honours a total of 2428 POWs that did the the death march from Sandakan to Kundasang about 236 km through he Borneo jungle. There were 1787 Australians, 641 British, 1047 died on the march, 1381 died at Sandakan. There was a total of 2434 POWs that started in Sandakan and 2428 that perished at the hands of the Japanese. There was only 6 survivors. The Japanese soldiers didn’t fair really well either because of the lack of food and medical supplies. There were reports of starvation and even cannibalism.
We got to our camp spot at Kisakot Campsite, Kota Belud, before sunset where we had the fortune of watching the sun light the clouds on fire over and around Mount Kinabalu.
We set up camp and prayed for the clouds to clear. As the sun set Mt Kinabalu really came shining through.
Albert and John treated to a gourmet meal of Angus steak, deep fried soft-shell crab, lettuce salad and all the fixings including mushrooms, beer and wine. Of course we were so hungry we didn’t get a single picture of the food in the dark.
John got us this amazing shot of Mount Kinabalu from on the river as the sun was setting.
