Best of Borneo - Top 10 Places You Can’t Miss in 2024!

Of all the places we have traveled to, the mysterious island of Borneo holds an extraordinarily special place in our hearts. With its diverse blend of cultures, and incredible array of natural landscapes filled with unique wildlife, we couldn’t be more excited to share with you our top 10 places to visit on this breathtaking island - The Best of Borneo!

Check out our Borneo Motorcycle Tour link! ➜
https://www.2upandoverloaded.com/borneotour.html

Transcript

Marisa: Borneo - It's the third largest island on earth, and yet most people know almost nothing about it. It is one of the last places in the world where you can find Asia's only great ape in the wild, the orangutan. 

Tim: A single generation ago, most towns were not connected by roads, and the only way to truly navigate these dense, untamed jungles of the island was either by air, boat, or by foot. Though much has changed since then, even today this place is a hidden gem that feels untouched, unpolluted, raw, authentic, and even mystical. 

My wife and I rode a motorcycle from the southern tip of Borneo all the way around to the northern tip and back again. We spent months traversing its incredible landscapes, delving into its diverse cultures, and diving into its pristine waters. And today, we're going to take you on a journey through our top ten places that we visited in Borneo. 

Marisa: Experiences that struck us straight to our souls and are sure to leave you equally breathless, inspired, and humbled.

Intro: Hey everyone! Nice to have you here. We are Tim and Marisa Notier. I ride in the front. And I’m in the rear. We travel the world and we pack too much gear. Oh, all the places we’ll go! Through rain and through sleet and through mud and through snow. Oh, all the things we’ll see! We’ve been to a country or two. Or three! Oh, all the fun we’ve had! To have you along, would make us real glad. So give us a like, and hit subscribe to join us along our epic ride.

[This episode is dedicated to our Fuel the Dream Patrons.]

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Tim: In no particular order, or are they in a particular order? 

Marisa: They're in a particular order.

Tim: In a very particular order... 

Marisa: We're going to start with number ten. 

Tim: Number ten. 

Marisa: And that is Mahua Falls.

[#10 Mahua Falls]

Tim: There are many waterfalls on Borneo, and they are all beautiful. This one was just particularly beautiful because it started with a beautiful hike through the jungle, and we had it all to ourselves. There was nobody else on this beautiful day. It had just rained, and then the sun had come back out, and so it was like thick air with sun rays penetrating through the leaves. The animals were starting to come back out now that the rain had dispensed, and here were two large apes walking through the jungle on our way to this beautiful waterfall that we had all to ourselves.

Marisa: Yes, some of the other waterfalls that you'll find on Borneo are a bit more centralized or places that a lot more people will visit, but Mahua Falls did feel like that secluded paradise that you only think exists in your dreams or in a commercial. But actually, it does exist, and it was here on Borneo. 

Tim: We swam underneath it, and it has a lot of water pressure going on. 

Marisa: It does! 

Tim: And I'm always scared that like a log or a branch, like there's no grate at the top stopping anything from tumbling down onto my head. 

Marisa: You know what? I never thought of that. 

Tim: I always do when I'm under those. I'm like, "it could be a..." Yeah, thankfully that didn't happen here. That's why it's number ten, because it could have killed us.

Marisa: So all of the places that we are going to mention in this video, we've done longer videos about each one of these locations, and we will put links to those videos in the description below. So if anything piques your interest and you're like, oh, I want to learn more about that place and see what it's like a little bit more, you can just check out those links in the description below.

Number nine is the great bridge that connects the two sides of the country of Brunei.

[#9 Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien Bridge]

It is called the Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien Bridge. 

Tim: It's 19 miles, which is around 30 kilometers.

Marisa: Yes! 

Tim: And it's absolutely beautiful. 

Marisa: It is the longest bridge in Southeast Asia.

Tim: And it is incredibly long. It was also very, very beautiful, stunning architecture. 

Marisa: Brunei is a really interesting country. It's very, very small, very rich due to its oil reserves, and it has this strange kind of shape to it, so this bridge connects the two sides of it. It's a new bridge, really only opened during the pandemic. Otherwise, you would have to go through the country of Malaysia in order to get from one side of Brunei to the other. But now that they've built this bridge, it is not just the easiest way to get across the country, but it is the most beautiful way to get across the country. You see these archways, and it is just like you are going into a magical world of a culture that can create these beautiful structures.

Tim: Number eight is the city of Kuching.

[#8 Kuching]

First off, I think it should be number one because Kuching stands for cat. It translates to the cat. It's not the biggest city on Borneo, but it is one of the most beautiful. There are cat museums that are quite quirky to see, but the best was the nightlife. It was where the city literally shone.

Marisa: There's a river that cuts right through the center of the city, and it has this gorgeous building to one side that is the Parliament building with a golden roof. It was built in the architectural style that has taken a lot of influence from the indigenous Dayak people and their buildings, their longhouses.

There is also this incredible new museum there that focuses on the natural history and the cultures of Borneo and of Sarawak. It is a gorgeous building in and of itself, not to mention the museum inside is great. The whole city is just green and lush and walkable and friendly. Cat statues, they had... 

Tim: Cat garbage cans. 

Marisa: It was beautiful. 

Tim: It was really, really nice, and it felt like a good home away from home. Kuching will forever be a part of our hearts. 

Marisa: And there were also cats all over the place. 

Tim: This is true, knobby-tailed cats. 

Marisa: Yes!

Number seven on the list is the Tip of Borneo.

[#7 Tip of Borneo]

This is the most northern point that you can go to on the mainland island of Borneo. It is a gorgeous point too, because it's the confluence of two giant seas, the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea.

They built a monument there that is like this globe. It shows where you are, and it shows where the tip of Borneo is in comparison to the rest of the island of Borneo. Then from there, you're on this cliff where these giant rocks cascade down into the ocean. It is stunning.

Tim: Bulu Dul-lang!

Marisa: Number six is the island of Bohey Dulang.

[#6 Bohey Dulang]

This is obviously an island that you have to take a boat to. It is off of the coast of Semporna, which is a city on the southern side of Sabah. This island is stunning. It is part of a national marine park system, so there's no development on it. It is kept as natural and as pristine as possible. It's not just the jungle on the island and the cliffs and the big mountains that are incredible, but the waters around it. I have never seen waters that color in my life. It was beautiful.

Tim: It was really a difficult hike to get up. 

Marisa: Yeah. 

Tim: And it was a hot day. After this strenuous hike, you get up to this beautiful lookout, and it's on a bunch of their postcards. And to our patrons, we actually just sent out a postcard that looks just like this, and that was the same beautiful view that we had on this beautiful island, which I'm going to butcher...

Booloo Doo-long is my guess. I'm trying to look for the name, and it's not right in front of me. 

Marisa: Bohey Dulang. 

Tim: I was so close, so close.

Marisa: The waters all around are that amazing aquamarine turquoise, and speaking of waters, that leads into number five, which is snorkeling in Semporna.

[#5 Semporna Snorkeling]

Semporna is a city in Sabah, but all around it are these little islands, including Bohey Dulang. If you can go snorkeling or scuba diving on any of these islands, you will immediately realize that it was worth the journey out here, because this is some of the best underwater marine landscapes that you will find on earth. 

Tim: One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. There were the clownfish sneaking in and out of the reef. In past videos, we've discussed my bouncy, and we've also discussed sometimes I have a difficult time scuba diving. 

Marisa: Snorkeling. 

Tim: Snorkeling. But it's absolutely wonderful and beautiful just to be able to kind of bob there like an apple in a bucket on Halloween and be able to see all the beautiful seascapes, if you will, beneath the waves. 

Marisa: The biodiversity out there is unparalleled. This region of the world is part of the Coral Triangle. It's known to be some of the best coral and fish that you will ever find in tropical waters. I mean, you just have to look anywhere. There was an area where it was only one foot deep on this island that we went to, and there was coral living in there with fish darting all over the place. Absolutely amazing. 

Tim: Yeah, definitely a beautiful part of the world to enjoy inland and on the coast and swimming in the ocean.

Number four is when it's kind of like a family reunion for me at Labuk Monkey Sanctuary, Labuk Bay. That's where the proboscis monkeys were.

[#4 Labuk Bay]

It was so good to kind of be able to walk amongst them while they're doing their little daily routines. 

Marisa: Yes, now these proboscis monkeys are endemic to Borneo. You cannot find them anywhere else on earth, and not only do they look weird because the males have these giant noses, but they act funny too. They're very passive, but they hang out in these groups. There will be a group of guys eating, and then a group of the females eating, and they slouch. They have these big bellies because they're fermenting all of this leaves and stuff that they eat, and they grunt as they eat.

[monkeys grunting]

Tim: And when they jump, they do like this big... It’s like Thriller but monkeys. It's definitely unique. There was a bunch of little mohawked macaque monkeys that were mischievous. They were kind of like the bad gremlins, you know? They'll steal your stuff and hiss at you.

Woman: He's undoing my shoelaces.

Tim: But yeah, the whole sanctuary was just a really nice environment to see the wildlife, to walk around, to breathe in the fresh air, and a really, really good experience. 

Marisa: And to giggle at these incredible creatures. 

Tim: This is true.

Marisa: Number three is Niah Caves.

[#3 Niah Caves]

Tim: And like the waterfalls, there's cave systems throughout Borneo, some easier to get to than others, but Niah Caves was the sweet spot of everything. It was easily accessible, it was cheap to enter, and there were some tours in the main mouth of the cave. But once you get past these dark curtains, it's not lit up with a bunch of lights, which adds to the natural environment of it. You can actually feel like you were a Neanderthal roaming through it. I mean, we were on a boardwalk, thank goodness, because without that it'd be a little too extreme. 

Marisa: We did go off of the boardwalk for a little bit, which you can also do. I mean, Niah Caves, they keep it such a raw experience. There's bats everywhere, they're pooping everywhere. There are other cave creatures, such as cave crickets and spiders, and we did even see a snake there.

But no matter what, it is an adventurous experience. And it's not just a cave. It's also an archaeological site because this is where they found a 40,000-year-old modern human skull. 

Tim: Deep Skull. 

Marisa: Yes, called Deep Skull, along with many, many other Neolithic burials. 

Tim: Yeah, and all these cave systems and archaeological dig sites are all tied together with these nice winding boardwalks that go over this marshy swamp land. Just an absolutely incredible experience.

If you haven't seen our two videos on it, please do hop back a couple to fully dive into those, because it was a magical experience.

Marisa: Number two is Mount Kinabalu.

[#2 Mount Kinabalu]

This is the tallest mountain on the island of Borneo. 

Tim: It's on the Sabah flag. 

Marisa: Yes, it is. It's not just a tall mountain. Lots of places have tall mountains, lots of places have mountains that are even taller than this. But it's the fact that you can go from sea level to this mountain, and there's no other giant mountains around it that makes it so special, because you get this view of Kinabalu that is massive.

It's enormous, in your face. It just reaches up to the sun right in front of you. Unbelievable. 

Tim: Yeah, it's really, really beautiful. All around it are foothills that kind of lead to it, but very abruptly. It's kind of like a rhino sleeping on the ground, right? Like it's kind of flat and then bam, it just does this rhino horn spike into the air. But we did not climb the 13,000 odd feet, but we did appreciate it from far away. Sometimes you can just absorb the whole landscape painting from afar rather than all the way up close.

Marisa: Yeah, I like that. 

Tim: Yeah, the lookout point all by itself was an adventure. 

Marisa: Oh, Sosodikon Hill! Yeah, that was really cool. Mount Kinabalu is 4,095 meters high, which is 13,435 feet, and it is the third highest mountain on an island on earth.

Tim: The number one location we've been to, drum roll please... The orangutan tour when we first landed in Kalimantan, in Kumai! 

Marisa: Yes!

[#1 Tanjung Puting Cruise]

Tim: It's something that we really wanted to do and didn't know if we were going to be able to follow through on it, but bam, we found ourselves on a one night, two day cruise down this river to go see some of the cutest, most amazing wild orangutans. It was a very, very, very special opportunity. 

Marisa: This river cruise was in Tanjung Puting National Park. There is no way to get out there by road. This is the only way. You have to take these wooden boats that go along this very shallow river into the park where they have three research stations where they have been doing research on orangutans, and they have some feeding times.

Now these orangutans are completely wild. They will show up sometimes for the feeding, sometimes they won't. We were very fortunate when we were there, and we saw tons of orangutans. 

Tim: We did, we even saw Jacob, the king of the orangutans. 

Marisa: Yes, Jacob!

Tim: And when we say they do research on them, they're not putting like foundation and eyeliner on them. They're studying them. 

Marisa: Foundation and eyeliner...? You think that's what the makeup testing on animals is? 

Tim: They're orange naturally is all I'm saying.

But to be in an environment where they're literally swinging in from vines and crawling down trees to get to the platform, and we just get to view them and try to be as quiet as we can and just absorb nature, it's absolutely fantastic. 

Marisa: Also, there's other wildlife out there. We saw a gibbon, and then, of course, you're staying overnight on this boat in the jungle. All they do is they put out a bed on the boat and a mosquito net over the bed. You can listen to the rains if they come in the night. All the sounds of the jungle are incredible. The birds, the proboscis monkeys that would hang out by the riversides...

Tim: And a little bird made a little nest on a reed right in front of us. It was a really stunning experience that every moment was just something that we could absorb for a memory of a lifetime. The river turned to like black tea, like Earl Gray, if you will. I don't know my teas. 

Marisa: No, that was good. 

Tim: And then a magical sunset as we were on the river on the boats. It was just, we had our own little private boat with an amazing guide, and the cooks down below were really nice. It was just a really good feel-good opportunity.

Marisa: So that is our top ten incredible things to do on the island of Borneo. Of course, there is way more than that, but no matter what, just being on the island of Borneo and seeing some of these is an experience of a lifetime. 

Tim: Absolutely. 

Marisa: So if you are interested in any of these things and you want to see them yourself, why not check out our motorcycle tour through the island of Borneo?

We are going around to see several of these sites in the region of Sabah. It's going to be amazing. We're going to see Mount Kinabalu, we're going to go snorkeling, we're going to see orangutans, we're going to see proboscis monkeys. It will be the experience of a lifetime. We have already sold out two tours, but we have one that's left for March of 2025, so please check it out at 2upAndOverloaded.com. That’s 2upAndOverloaded.com/BorneoTour. And we hope to be seeing you there. 

Next time, we leave East Malaysia. But don't worry, we'll be back in Malaysia to explore the western side later, and we dive back into Indonesia, picking up our old motorcycle, the infamous Dorco, and riding back through the jungles of Indonesian Borneo in Kalimantan.

But that will all be in the next episode. So thank you so much for watching this video. I hope you liked it. If you did, please give us a big thumbs up and hit the subscribe button below. And we'll be seeing you next time. 

Tim: Stay safe, everybody. 

Marisa: Bye. 

Tim: Peace.

But the best was the nightlife. It's where the city literally shone. Shined? 

Marisa: You can say... 

Tim: I can say either? Shoned? 

Marisa: I don't know, I'm not sure.

This is some of the best underwater marine landscapes that you will find on Earth. Technically, it cannot be a landscape if it is underwater. 

Tim: Not on earth? Waterscape? 

Marisa: Waterscapes! There we go!

Together: Mount Kinabalu. 

Marisa: You want to? 

Tim: No, just wanted to match your tone. 

Marisa: We can say it together. 

Tim: Mount—

Marisa: Wait! 

Tim: And number one. Drum roll, please. The orangutan boat tour that we went on when we first landed in Kudat... 

Marisa: Kumai. 

Tim: Kumai.