Top 10 over the past 10 years.... No 8 Borneo

This month we're celebrating our 10th birthday at Escape Worldwide, and looking back at 10 years of globetrotting in the name of bringing you great holidays - at least that's our excuse! We're having a look at our personal top 10 favourite travel experiences of the last 10 years.

James gets a little too close to a baby Orang Utan!

"On my first visit to Malaysia I went to Borneo, which has always been on my 'must see' list of places. I was lucky enough to visit the Sepilok Orang Utan rehab centre, but it was back at my hotel where I got a little too close to these incredible creatures!

Borneo is a really special place, and while it's not the easiest to get to it's well worth the effort. Having spent a few nights in the capital Kuala Lumpur (which I just loved - but that's a different story!) I flew over to Kota Kinabalu, the main town in Sabah - Borneo's geography is quite complicated, with the one island split between three countries, but while the Malaysia side of the island is far smaller than the Indonesian side (the third country, Brunei, has a really tiny area) far more visitors head to the Malaysian side, and the province of Sabah receives most of these.

Shangri La Rasa Ria

The town of Kota Kinabalu - or KK as it's often known (they seem to like shortening town names in Malaysia!) - is a fairly bustling place with plenty of interest, some great restaurants and a relaxed feel - it's certainly far less hectic than KL. There are some glorious beaches along the coastline either side of the town, and I started my trip at the lovely Shangri-La Tanjung Aru, set right on the beach but just on the edge of the town too, so it was easy to get out & about to explore a little.

The Orang Utan that liked James

I then flew over to Sandakan, on the east coast of Sabah, where the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre is located. The centre has been helping rescued Orang Utans back in to the wild since the 1960s, with many of their residents coming from areas of Borneo that have been cleared for logging, or from illegal hunting activities or from being kept as pets. Orang Utans are so rare, and so mesmerizing, that a centre such as this is such an important place - I was really moved to see some of the younger Orang Utans being hand reared by the staff, on their gradual way back in to the jungle. 

Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre

When I came back to Kota Kinabalu I changed hotels, to the equally as beautiful Shangri-La Rasa Ria, set on a stunning beach but further from the town itself - the whole area has a very relaxing feel, but the highlight to me was their very own Orang Utan centre, a 64-acre site that allows guests to see these amazing creatures up close. Here, you can actually get closer to the Orang Utans than you generally can at Sepilok (which is a good sign for Sepilok as it shows that their programme is working as the animals are gradually moving back in to the jungle areas of the centre). As I was walking through the centre one of the younger residents showed a particular interest in my camera, and made a bit of a lunge from his tree position towards me - he managed to swing on his rope to within a few inches of me, before one of the rangers intervened. I'm not sure who was most surprised, the Orang Utan or me!"

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