Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu and Hong Kong trip help please!

[hugog]

The rainforest discovery centre is absolutely brilliant and I strongly reccomend you visit.

[Cat]

Hi, I’m adding a +1 for a few nights on the Kinabatangan river – seeing orangutans, proboscis monkeys, hornbills, anahingas and pygmy elephants in the wild is just amazing. It’s an incredible adventure, and I would highly recommend it (but definitely not for a 2 year old!).

Climbing mount Kinabalu was also amazing, but definitely only for teenagers that love hiking.

Bring insect repellant.

[S879]

Thank you for the great tips. We decided to drop HK!

[S879]

Seagull wrote:

+1 for going across to Sandakan (easy AirAsia flights from KK) and up the Kinbatangan river. We did this on one of our trips and had an amazing safari seeing orang-utans in the wild and whole host of other wildlife. We stayed at Suku Rainforest Lodge who also arranged all transfers and a stop off at Sepilok sanctuary on the way to the lodge.

https://www.sukau.com/

Can anyone recommend a provider or particular 3D2N tour? We want good accomodation but the website recommended above (they are basically the same as Borneo Eco Tours), have really hiked theie prices from April 2024 and the total for 4 people is GBP1,750. Anyone used Borneo Adventure and stayed at Kinabantan Riverside Lodge?

[S879]

Are these okay or missing something that’s a must see:
https://borneoadventure.com/tours/sabah/kinabatangan-river-tour-3d2n/
or
https://borneoadventure.com/tours/sabah/sepilok-kinabatangan-abai-sukau/

[Aston100]

Mate, that first one you linked is about £330 per person.
I paid just over £90 pp to Sukau Greenview and had a fantastic time.
Don’t be fooled by tour companies that look to charge western prices.

Have a chat with Emelyn on WhatsApp: +60 13-869 6922

[S879]

Thank you, will send her a message. I’d been researching for days and was getting really mixed up with what everyone was providing so wanted firsthand experiences. Also, since most tour companies collect from the airport before 8am, we will need to arrive into Sandakan the day before from Kota Kinabalu so looking at decent hotel recommendations too.

[Aston100]

S879 wrote:

Thank you, will send her a message. I’d been researching for days and was getting really mixed up with what everyone was providing so wanted firsthand experiences.

Understandable.
When I first started checking for prices, I was coming across similar to what you linked.
After some digging around, I found that many of the lodges on the river are running their own packages, including airport pickup (from SDK).
My £93 pp included airport pickup and 2 hour transfer; 2 nights in their best accommodation (the green room); 4 boat cruises of 1 – 1.5 hours duration each; a night time walk; 5 meals (2 * breakfast; 2 * evening; 1 * lunch) and drop off anywhere up as far as Sandakan town itself (about 3 hour drive).
Yes, about £93 per person at todays exchange rate. Incredible value.
We opted to pay for an additional cruise and a daytime jungle walk – think they were like 60 MYR each (about £11pp at the time).
You can add on additional days or get them to take you to places in Sepilok before/after at additional cost.

Other lodges do similar packages.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking if something is too cheap… (on this occasion anyway).

[Aston100]

S879 wrote:

we will need to arrive into Sandakan the day before from Kota Kinabalu so looking at decent hotel recommendations too.

We took an 11:40 air asia flight from KK to Sandakan, which landed at 12:25 (actually about 25 minutes in the air). We were outside in about 10 minutes from landing (including collecting our checked luggage). They picked us up at about 13:00 from the airport.

We opted to spend a number of days at Sepilok, hence did that after we were dropped at our hotel in Sepilok on the last morning of our Kinabatangan package.
I can see why you’d need to come the night before if you wanted to do a tickbox exercise of touring the Orangutan sanctuary at lightning speed on your arrival day.
I strongly suggest you don’t do that, as that place and the rest of the Sepilok area deserves at least 2 full days.

[Aston100]

S879 wrote:

Are these okay or missing something that’s a must see:
https://borneoadventure.com/tours/sabah/kinabatangan-river-tour-3d2n/
or
https://borneoadventure.com/tours/sabah/sepilok-kinabatangan-abai-sukau/

Mate, that first one is like £330 per person.
I paid just over £90 pp to Sukau Greenview and had a fantastic time.
Don’t be fooled by tour companies that look to charge western prices.

Have a chat with Emelyn on WhatsApp: +60 13-869 6922

[The real Swiss Tony]

Just to add, our 3D2N with Mr Aji was MYR600 per person. That included round trip transfers from SDK, 3 meals a day (it was basic stuff but freshly cooked) 4 boat tours, one night jungle walk, basic rooms with a/c and en-suite. He only takes a party up to 6 so the 5 of us had a private tour, boat to ourselves etc.

The only extra was soft drinks (no alcohol on offer) and that just cost pennies.