We’re Heading to Borneo! Jungle, Wildlife & Our One-Month Plan 🇲🇾🌴

We’re Heading to Borneo! Jungle, Wildlife & Our One-Month Plan 🇲🇾🌴

Day 26 of the travel, travel vlog. We’re flying away, aren’t we?
We are. So where’s the next stop then? So, day 26 of the vlog. We are talking 
about Borneo, because from Perth, after seeing your daughter, we are going to 
be going to Borneo. And we’ve done some research, as usual. Originally, we thought – we allowed 
a month for Borneo, because the whole idea of our travelling is slow travel so that 
we’re not packing and unpacking too much. Yeah. However, I think since we’ve done the 
research, we may possibly change that. To two weeks or something like that.
Yes we might lessen it a little bit, and we’ll explain why as we’re going along. 
It’s all based around the research that we’ve done. But that’s what I love about… that’s 
what the channel’s about: Freedom Lifestyle. It is about slow travel being part of Freedom 
Lifestyle. But obviously, if you’re in an area, you can pop in for a week or two if it’s somewhere 
you don’t want to stay for a long period of time. And it’s having the flexibility, 
having the freedom to do that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, one thing that I was first interested in, in what Debbie’s found out, is Borneo is shared 
by Malaysia—so Sabah and Sarawak—Indonesia (Kalimantan) and Brunei. So, although I 
thought they were all separate countries, they’re actually part of the continent of Malaysia. 
So they’re countries within a continent. Yes. But I understand most travellers 
just focus on the Malaysian Borneo, because it’s well set up for tourism 
and backpacking and that kind of thing. So I think that’s where we would focus 
most, all of our, probably, experiences. We will. We’ll probably be looking at 
Indonesia at a later time in the trip. But yeah, I was just surprised how many 
countries. So it’s not a… Malaysia I thought was a country, and it isn’t. So 
that is something I’ve learned today. Well, the main thing to do in Borneo, 
as you probably know, is go and see the orangutans. Because it is world-known 
for that, isn’t it? It is world-renowned for the orangutan experiences there. And 
that’s the main reason that I want to go. It’s what drew us there, wasn’t 
it? Whilst we were in the area, we thought we’ve got to go 
because of the orangutans. There wasn’t anything else 
that really drew me there. Although my daughter had been there on a school 
experience many moons ago, and she loved it. It was just to go and see the 
orangutans for me, really. Mainly that was my driving force for visiting 
Borneo. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for many, many years now, and I don’t know why.
Maybe because it’s so famous, and you hear about it, and it’s not very often 
that you can get up and close to orangutans. So I think it’s been on my wish list, 
shall we say, for quite a while. So I can’t really go to that area of the 
world and not go to see the orangutans. Our research is telling us that there’s 
a couple of places that you can go and have that kind of experience.
One is the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center.
I’m glad you said that. Well, I might have said it wrong, so bear with me.
That’s near Sandakan in Sabah. And the other place is Semenggoh Nature Reserve. Again, probably pronounced wrong.
That’s near Kuching in Sarawak. Not sure which one we’ll do, because we’ll do 
some more research on both of those reserves. Then we’ll make a decision from there and maybe 
ask when we arrive as well, for some guidance. If you’ve been to Borneo, we’d love to hear 
your comments—especially if we’re pronouncing things incorrectly, it would be quite funny.
But yeah, give us any ideas if you’ve ever been to Borneo or you’re from Borneo.
Yeah. Yeah. I’d love to hear from you. So the second thing, apart 
from the obvious orangutans, was… Jungle and river safaris. 
Jungle and river safaris. Now, when I think of a river safari, I think 
about crocodiles, and I don’t know why. Well, that’s what they’re saying in the notes.
Oh, they are saying in the notes. Is that the Kinabatangan River?
I’m sure you watch just to see us struggle with the pronunciation!
Sabah. So that says, “See wild orangutans…”
I don’t know what that is—Proboscis monkeys. Type of monkey.
And pygmy elephants, which is—
Yes! Didn’t expect that.
And crocodiles. What is a pygmy elephant? Small? A small elephant?
Is that what it’s called, like a little mini elephant? Well, I assume so. Oh I’d love to see one of those. Pygmy—Pygmy is a small animal of some form.
Yes, because you have pygmy pigs, don’t you? So I’d love to see one of them—or a few of them! So we probably would do some kind of river safari.
Oh, I would definitely do a river safari, even though there might be crocodiles there.
But when we were in Costa Rica and we did the river safari, that was cool.
It was, actually. And we only saw one tiny baby 
croc and he was fast asleep. But it was a lovely experience. And again, 
we saw lots of monkeys there as well. And it’s so nice to see them in their natural 
habitat, isn’t it? I really like that. So yeah, I think we’ll probably 
go there and share it with you. And I think it’s getting harder and harder 
to see the crocs and that now on these river safaris because everyone’s trying to be more 
environmental, which is cool. It’s really good. And so the guides are told not to wake the 
crocodiles up just to show themselves off to us. So they’re not hitting the river or anything to— Well, they’re not interfering with their everyday 
life, which is—that’s what conservation is. So hence why there were crocodiles there but we couldn’t see what we wanted to see 
because it was the wrong time of day. And apparently, you can stay in a riverside lodge 
as well for a couple of nights if you wanted to. Now, I don’t know if that’s 
something that we would want to do. I would say it’d be quite noisy because 
of the monkeys and all the rest of it. Whether you could sleep—
When you’re not used to it. Again, if anyone’s ever done that, 
we’d love to hear your comments. Another biggie for us, I think—more for 
you than me—is being around water and the mosquitoes.
The mosquitoes. So that’s why I’m not sure a two-night stay for 
us somewhere on the water would be a good idea. Because we did have a room when 
we went to Mexico, didn’t we? That’s correct.
And it was beautiful. It was overlooking the mangroves, and it was 
overlooking the river and the mangroves. The river. And as beautiful as it was, we couldn’t open our balcony doors or go out on the 
balcony—because of the mosquitoes – you just got bitten. I was destroyed on that holiday for bites.
And the thing is, it ruins your holiday, doesn’t it?
Really. So that’s something for us to 
consider as well about, obviously, Borneo as a destination, because 
it sounds like it’s very jungle. It does say in the notes to be really aware 
of it and to make sure you’ve got repellent, because it is pretty bad for mosquitoes. So that’s another sort of 
big consideration for us. After the jungle and river 
safaris, we come on to climbing. Again, not something that I’m into.
Well, I don’t think it’s climbing in the sense of climbing like that.
I think it’s a trek that you climb. You climb up the mountain.
It’s Mount Kinabalu. It’s quite iconic, and it’s the 
highest peak in the whole of Southeast Asia.
Yeah. So that tells me if there isn’t 
a cable car to get to the top, I’m very unlikely to be going up there.
Well, it does say it’s tough, but it’s a two-day hike.
Two days? Two days! Definitely not going. Yes, and it says it’s tough. And when 
they say it’s tough, they mean that, don’t they?
Yes. And you would need a guide and a permit 
before you do anything like that. So that’s something that 
obviously we won’t be doing. I think that’s for the younger 
generation—or the fit guys. If you are a trekker and it’s something you would 
like to do, we’d love to hear about your trekking experiences and how you’ve been able to do 
these treks, because it kind of scares us a bit. Just not fit enough, sadly.
Just not. Especially in those temperatures. You know, we’re more into comfort, aren’t we?
Yeah. Especially in those temperatures 
as well. You have to be realistic. And as I’ve mentioned a few 
times, I’m asthmatic as well. So I have my own challenges just 
walking up a hill, shall we say. So anyway, moving on from that—what’s next? Island hopping and diving. This is where I think you would love 
it. Again, I love island hopping. Sipadan Island.
World-class scuba diving. Now, I’ve never done scuba diving—apart 
from in a swimming pool on holiday—and the instructor did tell me that I was an absolute 
natural for it because I can stay very calm. It’s all about your breathing, I think. A lot of it is to do with your 
breathing, my understanding. And he said I was very calm, and I was 
probably a very good candidate to do it. I just never, I suppose, explored it 
enough to actually go in the ocean. Also, I’m a big snorkeller, and I’m 
actually quite happy on the surface. I don’t feel a need to go to depths.
I’m comfortable on the surface. So I think obviously we won’t be going 
there for diving, but a little bit of snorkelling—I’d be up for that.
So again, if you like scuba diving, it’s an ideal place for you.
It sounds like it’s world-class scuba diving. And then we’ve got—is that Mabul and Kapalai?
Kapalai maybe? And that’s great snorkelling.
Oh, so maybe we’ll go there then. Yeah.
And there’s dive lodges. I wonder what dive lodge is… I presume it’s just lodges where 
you stay and you go diving. Just go straight diving.
Yeah. Cool. There’s one more—Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine 
Park—and you get there from Kota Kinabalu. And that’s just an easy beach getaway. So if you just want to see a 
beautiful beach setting, I suppose… I mean, from what my daughter said when she went, it’s a massive nature reserve.
So it’s all about nature out there. Moving on from that, we have: 
Visit Sarawak’s caves and tribes. Now that sounds interesting, doesn’t it?
Tribes. Yeah, as long as they’re not hungry that day. There’s Mulu National Park.
It’s got enormous caves. That’ll be quite good.
At dusk, the bats come out of the caves. There’s a mass exodus of bats that 
come out of the cave, apparently. That would be quite cool at dusk.
And then you can do a rainforest trek. I don’t fancy a dusk rainforest trek, to be fair. Again, you know, showing my age, 
my ill health, my unfitness. But I think that would be a sight 
to see—all the bats coming out. But I doubt I’d be able to just go home after 
that.hey would be part of a tour. Again we’ll have to have a look, won’t we, and you’d 
probably have to do the whole thing. Yeah. So subscribe and follow along with us and 
see if these are the things that we are going to do or we’re not going to do, and 
the reasons behind it. And if we do do them, see if I get a bat stuck in my hair. That would 
be funny on camera. That would be quite scary, I would have thought. It’d 
be very scary. Yeah. Yeah. Also, there’s a Bako National Park and again 
they’ve got lots of the probosus proboscus monkeys, beach trails, and that’s near Kuching. 
Or you could visit a long house to experience traditional Iban culture. I’d like that because 
I like to find out about the culture where we go and stuff. And I wonder what a long house 
looks like. Yeah. Is it the same as the UK, a long house in the UK? Who knows. So we shall 
again—it’s another experience we’re really looking forward to having a look at. Yeah. 
That could be something quite interesting, I would have thought. And different. So 
we like different, don’t we? Yes. Well, that’s the only reason she liked 
me—because I was different. Likewise. But even though we’ve said it’s mostly 
jungle, there is a mention of cities here and the culture of Borneo. So there 
obviously are cities there. Yeah. It says Kota Kinabalu. It’s a laid-back 
coastal city, so it’s got street food, local vibes. So that might—that might go there. I 
would really like to go there because I like the sound of that. A laid-back coastal city. Yeah. I 
do. Yeah. I think that’s more up our street. Yes, I would say. Yes. Rather than hiking 
around the jungle. Yeah, sadly. There’s another place called Kuching 
and that is apparently got quirky charm. Colonial—so be colonial buildings there 
and a lot of street art and it’s a food heaven. Oh food again. Everyone keeps 
mentioning food at the moment. I’m in the fourth day of my water fast. So my mouth 
is watering whenever food is mentioned. Oh, it must be so hard. I know. So should we get 
through the food bit really, really quickly? Because there are some must-try food dishes 
here. And one of them is a Sarawak Laksa, and that’s a spicy noodle dish often enjoyed 
with rice. Oh nice. Shredded chicken, prawns, and omelette strips. Oh, see I could eat 
that. That sounds lovely, doesn’t it? Sadly, it’s not gluten free, so I won’t be 
able to partake. But there is another one called Kolo Mee. Yeah. And that’s 
a savoury noodle dish, often with pork and shallots. Oh again. Topped with fried 
onions and barbecue pork. Sounds lovely. Now I think that can be made gluten-free, 
but obviously I’ll just need to check. And the last one is an Umai. Now this is 
definitely not one for me. This is sliced raw fish. I like sushi—with onions, chillies, 
vinegar, salt, and lime juice. I bet they’d be quite refreshing. Yeah. I’d like to try that. 
That’s like—a fish salad. I would go for the other two as my first choice, but yes, I would 
definitely give that a go. Yeah. Especially at the moment—you’d probably love to have any 
of those at the moment, even the raw fish. And then it just mentions another area called 
Sandakan, which apparently is the main gateway to all of your wildlife experiences. So possibly 
that might be where we’ll stay once we go a bit deeper into our research. But yeah, we’ll have 
to wait and see with that. Yes, definitely. So there’s travel considerations for 
one month from Borneo. Whether it is a month or whether it’s a couple 
of weeks, we don’t know yet. Mhm. Visas—so Malaysia is a 30 to 90-day visa-free 
for many passports, and that’s the UK included, and that’s going in and out of—as we’ve said, 
Malaysia is quite a big area, the continent really, with lots of different countries. Yes. 
So Indonesia, which is part of Malaysia—visa on arrival 30 days or e-visa. They’re 
getting a lot into digital visas over there, so we’ve really got to look into 
that. And I believe there’s a lot on—a lot of these countries where, because it is 
digital, you’ve got to make sure you’ve got a visa before you turn up. Yes. I think 
you can get in a bit of trouble now. Yes. I think they’re super strict on it. So we’ll 
have to be definitely on that. Yes. So the weather—that’s the biggie, isn’t 
it? That’s what we’re going for. Tropical climate. So it’ll be hot, humid and rain. It’s 
rainy all year round, which surprised me. Yes. But then obviously that’s good for the—you 
know, for the forest, tropical forest. Yeah. So the drier months are March to September. 
Varies by region though. Yeah. So you know, you’ve got to check that one out. Bright light 
moisture-wicking—is it wicking? Moisture-wicking clothes. Bring light moisture-wicking clothes. 
So that’s something that can dry quickly, I suppose, if you do get caught in 
a downpour. Yeah. Rain jacket and insect repellent. It keeps screaming 
insect repellent to me. Yes. Yes. And the packing essentials that it’s given 
us to help us along is good walking or hiking shoes. Now, as we’ve said, we’re not hikers. And I don’t intend to buy any hiking shoes. Probably be trainers for us. Yeah. But they will be good 
quality trainers. Because they’re sensible, aren’t they? Yeah. For the whole trip really. 
Again, it mentions quick-drying clothes and swimsuits. A dry bag for your river and boat trips—we
have one of them, and that is really handy to have. Because I remember I went on holiday 
once with somebody many, many years ago, and back in the days where you could get these 
digital cameras, you know when they were first new—nothing like the technology we’ve got 
today—and he was so proud of his camera. And he was videoing everything and everywhere we went. And we went on a river cruise, and getting on the boat, he dropped his 
video—his equipment actually—into the river. Oh dear. Never worked
again. So a dry bag is really sensible. Well, I’ve got a sailing one. It’s a 
proper dry bag for sailing. And the great thing about that is that you 
can anchor out offshore, you know, and you can literally put your dry clothes into 
the bag, put it on your back, swim to shore, and put your dry clothes on. Ideal. So we’ve got one 
of those. We’ve got one of those. So that’s something I would definitely recommend for 
anywhere near water. And you can get—I think it’s from the Chandras, you know, the 
sailing places that you can usually buy them. You probably get it on Amazon now, 
easy. Mhm. Yeah. Yes, you probably could. And then it does recommend a headlamp for 
the caves. For the caves and for your night trekking. Yes. And then a reusable 
water bottle. And it does actually advise here to avoid plastic, which I think 
is really good. I do. I think it’s really nice because, you know, the environment 
is so important and the fact that places like this now are really trying to 
do something about it is brilliant. One thing I would say though, what I would 
prefer myself if you’re going to get these water bottles that aren’t plastic, you 
know, a decent one like a flask I suppose. Yeah.
I would. I wouldn’t want to carry a decent one around all the time because there’s a fair bit of 
weight. So I would probably want to look at buying one when I was in certain areas.
Oh yes. Yeah.
Oh me too. Instead of carrying it with us.
No, I don’t think we need to buy it. You know, no.
Yes, you’re right. I think we would just pick one up in that 
country where it’s needed, because most of the other things we’re probably likely to 
be doing, we wouldn’t necessarily need it. Yeah.
Again, with slow travel, you got to remember it’s okay getting these 
trinkets and getting all these things, but you’ve got to take it to your next destination.
Exactly. So the next thing: money, the big one.
And do you know, this surprised me a little bit about the money.
Has it? Yes. Yes, if we read through.
So basically it’s the Malaysian Ringgit that’s used.
ATMs are available in the cities, but ‘cash is king’.
I love that. Cash is king.
I haven’t heard that for years. That was my dad’s saying forever and a day, was cash is king. Cash is king. And the fact that our research has said that 
to us has really made me mindful now of—we have to make sure, even if we only go there 
for two weeks, we have to have enough cash. Because clearly you can’t, maybe in some of the areas – there’ll 
be ATMs in the big areas in the cities and stuff. No, but I mean you may not be 
able to use your digital currency. No, you might.
Yeah, there’s a possibility, especially with the more untouristy bits, that it will be cash.
Yeah. So I mean, I love that though.
Have to get out of the habit of just going bing bing bing.
I love that though. Yeah, because I get behind my dad 
with his famous saying: cash is king. Cash is king.
Get in there. And then it does talk about the budget, but I’ll 
be completely honest, I haven’t done my in-depth research to know what this is in British money.
Okay. But it does say for the Malaysian Ringgit to 
allow 100 to 200 a day, but lower for mid-range. Yeah.
Lower if you’re backpacking. But apologies, I don’t know 
what that equates to in the UK currency. I’m sure you can look it up on Google.
Yeah. Well, once we’re there we’ll obviously be 
able to explain all of that to you anyway. It briefly talks about accommodation.
Okay. So guest houses, eco lodges, 
and backpacker hosts are common. Yeah.
Book ahead for places like—what does that say again—Kinabatangan? Oh, you cracked that, didn’t you? Hopefully. Mulu? And, Sipadan… so they must 
be the more touristy areas. They’re probably the areas we’ll end up in. Probably.
Yeah. Transport. And now there are buses between the major towns. They’re very cheap, very slow.
But it says they’re very slow. And it also reminds—when I read that, 
I thought, remind me of—what’s… there was a film where she was a novelist and 
he was an adventure seeker—Michael Douglas. Oh! Romancing the Stone or something, when 
the bus stops in the middle of the jungle. Yeah.
And everybody just gets off and starts walking off because nobody’s coming to fix that. Oh, that’s the first thing that reminded me. Well, I remember a few years ago being in one 
of the Caribbean islands and we were on a bus going on a tour, and the bus stopped in the 
middle of the road and basically just—there were people rioting, like fighting each 
other on either side—and the bus just stopped and waited for them to stop fighting – 
and then got off – and then we just carried on the tour again.
It was a very bizarre situation. But let’s hope that’s not going to happen.
Yes. But yes, Yeah we don’t want to scare you off.
I think it’s very slow travel though, is what they’re saying.
Which will suit us. Yeah.
But it doesn’t say anything about air con. I’m wondering if these 
buses have even got air con. Maybe they won’t.
So they do recommend domestic flights. You know, if you’re going to be travelling.
Well, Malaysia is quite a large area actually. It’s lots of small islands, which 
is—like I said—it surprised me. It’s different countries.
So it actually makes sense that there’s domestic flights.
Yes. Yeah.
That’s only if you’re covering large areas though, which I doubt we would be.
We’d mainly be going to the area where the orangutans are.
So we’ll probably base ourselves there, I would have thought.
Yeah. And then it says about there’s boats and four-wheel drives used for 
the river and the jungles. So I guess that’s probably all 
we’ll need while we’re there. Yeah.
Well, well, yeah. We’ll, you know, obviously if you subscribe and 
come along on the journey with us, we shall see what happens at that stage of the journey.
Whether we go “Ah!” or we go “Excellent, let’s get a 4 by 4 and get out there!”
We’ll see. And then the last bit is health and safety, 
which really shouted at me: malaria. Well, yeah. There’s a malaria and dengue risk.
So you must take mosquito precautions, which of course we will.
Of course we will. And we’re going to see our travel nurse tomorrow, actually, How exciting. Is it tomorrow or the next day?
Well, it’s this week anyway—for our jabs. Yes.
To see what vaccinations we’re going to need. So we will be taking all the 
precautions that we need. And it says that the tap 
water is not safe to drink. So do not consume—use bottled or filtered.
Yeah. Cultural tips: dress modestly 
outside of tourist areas. And I think that would be, without 
being funny, that would be jewellery. That would be all sorts of things.
Because when you’re outside of that area, maybe it’s a big thing.
Oh okay. It’s just—you know, my safety 
head came on when I saw that. I might be totally wrong.
What they might be meaning is cover up. Yeah.
And be respectful to the culture. Yeah, that’s probably what it is.
But the first thing I thought of—because in our travels we have met people, especially with nice watches and jewellery, ladies with jewellery—where people have snatched them off.
Sadly. Yeah.
So you have to be careful of that. Because there’s a lot of poverty in the world as 
well, sadly, and it pushes people to do desperate things, doesn’t it?
Yes. So yeah.
And then it says obviously again to be respectful. So it’s sounding to me like 
it’s a very respectful country. Especially when you go to villages, and 
to ask before you take any pictures. So clearly, that’s something we’re going to have to consider. So maybe I’m totally wrong with my fear of safety, because of the culture of the people.
Well, we’ll see. You know, that would be lovely if 
what they mean is just cover up. Yes.
Yes, which I think—reading more into it and thinking about it with you 
and with Debbie after what she said—I think it’s probably more modesty side, isn’t it?
I’d like to think that’s what it means. And obviously we are going to have to ask 
permission, you know, with our filming especially. And it says learn a few local phrases 
in Malay, but we’ve got an interpreter. We’ve got our little gadget, haven’t we?
We’ve covered in a different video, so if you haven’t seen it yet, go and take a look.
Yeah, check out our playlist. That is going to be with us 
everywhere, every step of the journey. So yeah, I mean that’s it for Borneo.
And do you agree with us that two weeks will be enough, especially considering we’re not trekkers? Yeah. And big jungle people.
You know, would you agree that that’s a wise decision, or would you play it another way?
Yeah, we’d love to hear your opinion. And, you know, do drop us something below 
so we can get to know you better and chat on these things.
Yeah. And any recommendations you can have 
for us for whilst we’re in Borneo. And again, like we said earlier in 
the video, we have total flexibility. So there’s no hard and fast rules about how 
long we’re going to stay anywhere at this stage. So yeah, open to hear from you—your thoughts. One thing I would like to do is thank 
everybody who has commented up to now. We really appreciate your comments, and it 
opens our eyes to things and makes us think. So we do appreciate it.
So don’t be shy. Do comment and do subscribe 
and come along on the journey. Yeah.
Can’t wait to actually get out there. I know.
It’s not long now, is it really? Not long.
A few weeks yet, but we’ve still got so much to do.
So I’m grateful that it’s not yet. So bye for now, and look 
forward to seeing you tomorrow. We’ll see you tomorrow.
Bye-bye.

🌏 DAY 26 Travel VLOG | One of the wildest places on Earth — Borneo🌏
Email us: freedomlifestyle0316@gmail.com

In this video, we share why we’re thinking of spending a full month in Malaysian Borneo, what’s on our bucket list, and what we’re most excited (and nervous) about.

From orangutans and jungle river safaris to island hopping and mountain treks, Borneo offers raw, untouched nature and deep cultural experiences. We’ll be heading to places like Sepilok, Kinabatangan, Mulu, and Sipadan — and we want your suggestions too!

💬 Drop your Borneo travel tips in the comments and follow along as our 12-month Southeast Asia journey continues.

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