Name: Sabah, Borneo + Sarawak extension
Brand: Birdtour Asia
SKU: N/A
Price: 5586 USD
Availability: InStock

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Southeast Asia Budget Bird Watching Trips & Packages

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Southeast Asia Budget Bird Watching Trips & Packages Tour...

Jasmine arranged my husband and I on a wonderful journey through Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore. Our itinerary was tailor-made so we had several days to really see cities and rural areas and experience life as a local. Our tour guides in the whole were extremely knowledgeable and educated on the history of their own areas which they find great joy in telling the story of. There was never any pressure to buy things as guides tend to take you to their own overpriced vendors. We left feeling like we were with friends the whole time. We would love to return one day to visit other countries of Asia, and again with Bravo Asia Tours.

Bravo Asia Tours

We left feeling like we were with friends the whole time. We would love to return one day to visit other countries of Asia

Southeast Asia at A Glance

Exodus Adventure Travels

Exo Travel

Adventoro Travel

Buffalo Tours

The Family Adventure Company

Best Single Travel

Limosa Holidays

Birdtour Asia

If you want to see the best of Borneo this trip's for you. Beautiful country, 
great food, lovely friendly people and oh boy did we see wildlife! So many 
highlights. The incredible proboscis monkeys were hilarious and so much fun 
to watch, silver leaf langurs including a mum and baby, red leaf langurs, 
long tailed and pig tailed macaques, pit vipers, monitor lizards, orang utans 
(of course) in Sepilok and also in the wild (very special moments), Bornean 
sun bears at their rescue centre (definitely worth a visit), mouse deer, 
Northern Bornean gibbon family in the wild (utterly brilliant to watch), 
Bornean colugo (flying lemur - which isn't a lemur), red giant flying 
squirrel which we watched flying with a beautiful sunset backdrop - really 
special, slow loris, leopard cat - what a find! - sambar deer, loads of 
frogs, lizards, the most amazing insects ever, a huge 3m long salt water 
crocodile, baby salt water crocodile, flying lizard, bats galore in the most 
amazing caves at Mulu and Gomantong which also has the swiftlet nests and of 
course the bat exodus from Deer cave at sundown, had the most amazing 
experience watching Borneo pygmy elephants swimming in convoy across a river, 
young ones too with trunks up, heard them trumpeting and watched two mums 
with young ones feeding right at the water's edge - so special. Then there's 
the birds! Hornbills galore, eagles, hawks, Buffy fish owls, sunbirds, 
kingfishers, broadbills, storks, egrets, flycatchers, bee eaters, 
flowerpeckers, bulbuls, kites, sandpipers, herons, doves, mynas and more. The 
bird watchers were very happy. Night walks and the night drive were a 
revelation, so much comes out at night from scorpions to stick insects. Not 
scary at all just fascinating. Boat trips were excellent, saw so many birds 
and monkeys in the trees.
Loved staying in the longhouse, an experience not to be missed. The Borneo 
Rainforest Lodge in the Danum Valley was exquisite, 5* in every way; the 
rooms, the food, the attentive staff, the massage, the local guides, the 
drivers who also spotted wildlife and the red leaf monkeys in the forest 
having their breakfast at the same time as us.
Watching the wild gibbon family and orang utans in the Danum Valley was 
pretty special. It was a hike to get there but the guides pace the walks so 
well pointing out all the wildlife, birds and important trees/foliage used in 
cooking and medicine so always interesting, worth every step.

Watching the pygmy elephants swimming across the river in convoy, trunks up, 
babies in tow and feeding at the water's edge while others were trumpeting 
was an extraordinary experience.

Bat exodus from the Deer Cave in Mulu was pretty special, waves of bats that 
went on for ages.

Watching the flying squirrel. An experience I'll probably not repeat.


Superb trip and we were very fortunate to be in the hands of a truly 
exceptional trip leader in Rony. He went the extra mile every hour of every 
day to make sure we had the trip of a lifetime and he succeeded. We all 
trusted Rony completely, he earned that trust daily.


Do everything! Even if you don't particularly like insects or bats by a few 
days in you'll love them, they're so incredible.

Drink loads of water! Makes all the difference in the heat and humidity. I 
was a bit worried about that before I went but it's fine, doesn't stop you 
walking up hill just take your time, everyone did. There's plenty of air-con 
or fans to give you a break from it.

Trip notes advise cash to take. I adopted an orang utan at Sepilok, had a 
fantastic massage in the Danum Valley, went snorkelling, bought a few 
souvenirs and still came home with  £120. Rony found us great food and beer 
at local prices so it's very cheap to eat. He also told us the best 
snorkelling trip for value for money.

Take videos on your phone and camera. They are so good to watch when home and 
convey behaviour that a photo doesn't.

Get your laundry done it's so cheap. Got all mine done before I came home for 
£4 and that was with a tip! (Not at the Sheraton!)


Go! So many species endemic to Borneo, you won't find them anywhere else so 
you need to go. You'll be glad you did.

Borneo Wildlife Discoverer

I've been on plenty of Exodus hiking holidays, but this was my first wildlife 
trip.  I was a bit nervous in case my fellow travellers were a bit serious 
about both wildlife and cameras, but they weren't at all.  I bought a new 
bridge camera for the trip, but found some people just had compacts and I 
needn't have worried.
We were lucky and had great weather throughout apart from one of two quick 
downpours. We saw loads of orang-utans, proboscis monkeys, various langurs 
and macaques, pygmy elephants, squirrels - flying and otherwise, a crocodile, 
4 types of snake, monitor lizards, and loads of birds, bats and insects.  All 
the destinations were great - Bako, Mulu, Sepilok, Danum Valley, 
Kinanbatangan River.  We did definitely see the highlights.  We spent more 
time in Sabah than in Sarawak, but I guess that's the most dramatic bit.
All the accommodation was excellent - Danum Valley reminded me of a game 
lodge in Kenya.  Got to admit I skived watching the second orang-utan feeding 
session at Sepilok and spent a couple of hours by the pool instead.  The food 
was very good throughout, and I probably put on half a stone.
Rushing through a villager's house to catch sight of pygmy elephants in the 
back garden.
Or, seeing a flying squirrel glide from one tree to another (at Sepilok).


Our leader Beverley Chin was great.  She knows the country inside out, is 
unflappable, and a great organiser.  She's travelled a lot herself, and 
thoroughly understands what westerners need.


I took football socks to act as leech socks, but we were lucky and didn't 
really see leeches because it had been dry.  The shop at Danum Valley does 
sell leech socks.
Ponchos seemed to be the thing for keeping the rain off.
You definitely need a sun hat for the river cruises at least.
I'd agonised about taking trainers or hiking boots, but was glad I decided on 
hiking boots.
Take your swimming costume - I swam 4 times in various places.
The Deet was disgusting, so most of us gave up trying to use it after a few 
days.  We only got a few bites, again maybe because it was dry weather.


I stayed on for an extra week after the holiday ended and climbed Mount 
Kinabalu with a local agency (Amazing Borneo).  It was very good, but very 
steep - wish I'd trained more beforehand!

A fantastic trip to a beautiful country.  My main purpose was to see orang 
utans in the wild, although I was prepared to be disappointed.  However 
expectations were exceeded and we saw several in the Danum Valley and at 
Kinatabangan.   Also many monkeys, birds, amazing insects and reptiles.  
Seeing the pygmy elephants was the icing on the cake, although it was a it 
disturbing to see how close all the boats got to the elephant that was in the 
river - I think they stopped her going where she wanted to go.
Hard to pick one as always, but watching a couple of orang utans making their 
nests for the night and the next day watching a mother orang help her baby by 
holding onto tree branches so you could get from one tree to the next are 
both special memories


Beverley was very good, extensive knowledge of Borneo culture and history 
that she shared with us.  She went out of her way to organise extra 
activities for us to increase our wildlife spotting.  She took us to some 
excellent and very cheap restaurants that the locals frequent, which is 
actually what we want as tourists.


July is the dry season so our trip was not affected by the few torrential 
downpours that we had, most of which happened during the evening/night.  
Maybe that's a good time to go.  Even so, a poncho is a must.  When it rains, 
it rains!   I was glad I took my walking boots, though I had thought long and 
hard about it.  Prepare to be hot and very sweaty a lot of the time!
I'm not a mad-keen photographer myself, I think you can spend so much time 
and effort trying to get a photo that you don't actually watch.  However, if 
you are a photographer, remember the light is low in the forest and also a 
lot of the wildlife is high up so a good zoom is needed for good photos!


Make the most of it and join in with everything on offer!  This is a very 
enjoyable trip

We knew December was the wettest month, but hearts sank when our first 
wildlife trip had to be abandoned as the river was too high for safety to 
take us there.  However, our guides had a good backup plan and took us to the 
Sarawak Cultural Village where we were able to see some traditional 
longhouses and experience a display of spectacular tribal dances - including 
one of the group having a go with a blow pipe.  We were lucky enough to see 
the bat exodus from Deer Cave at Mulu before the rain started again and 
forgot to stop.  We were evacuated from our comfortable lodges while it was 
still daylight, wading through above-the-knee water to the restaurant.  As it 
got darker, and the water deeper we expected to spend the night  elsewhere 
than our comfortable beds.  However, the rain did stop and the river 
stabilised so we were eventually boated back.  The poor villagers further up 
the river didn't come off so easily in the worst floods for 14 years.  All 
praise to the Garden Park staff and our guides for their excellent control of 
the situation, and their help to their neighbours as well as us.  Don't 
forget your PONCHO!  Preferably a discreet colour.  A wading nature walk next 
day turned up a scorpion, various lizards and skinks as well as a Paradise 
Flycatcher and the sunshine brought back the butterflies.  From the Labuk Bay 
Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary on, the mammals were amazing.  The monkeys are 
real characters with such expressive faces and it was good to see so many 
mums and babies.  Great photo opportunities.  Sepilok was a mixed experience. 
  The youngsters are kept the other side of a glass wall and they didn't care 
for the pouring rain much either - rolling around trying to don sacks and 
holding leaves over their heads in attempts to keep dry.  Although it was 
disappointing to only see one adult orangutan, it demonstrated how successful 
the rehab programme has been as far fewer babies and adults are coming in for 
care.  However, moving on to Danum Valley, our outing turned up a mother and 
youngster orangutan yards from the centre.  And they didn't stop coming.  
Five in a couple of hours.  Even the guides were amazed.  In all we saw ten 
or eleven over the whole of the trip, just doing their own thing in the 
trees.  We were lucky enough to see a herd of pygmy elephants on our 
Kinabatangan river cruises.  Again, loads of babies.  There were a lot of 
boats vying for the best position so unfortunately the disturbance to the 
animals from noise and diesel was to be regretted.  The birds were 
spectacular here too, hornbills, hawks, eagles and little flowerpeckers in 
the garden as well as more butterflies.  Take binoculars and a camera with a 
good zoom if you want to get any animal shots.  You don't need huge lenses - 
I got some great shots with a compact.  And discreet colour clothing.  Pack 
light.  It really is 'deal with your own luggage' on this one and there 
aren't big retail opportunities so small is beautiful.
Watching the interactions of the proboscis monkeys
Seeing the orangutans wild in the trees
Fabulous birds - amazing hornbills and bulbuls
Pygmy elephants - adults barely taller than the tall grasses they were eating


He organised things well and was a good birder which suited myself and my 
friend.  He seemed to lack confidence in dealing with a group and found it 
difficult to address us all in one go.  He really wanted us to see everything 
we came for but  when things went against us weather wise, he found it hard 
to deal with.  Unfortunately he did lose it with one of the group after a 
long day when it looked as though a river trip wouldn't be on because of 
continuing rain and went on a rant 'why don't you like me', 'I'm trying to do 
my best' and such like which was well out of order and had nothing to do at 
all with the group member.


Poncho! Umbrella.
Waterproof shoes/boots (jungle walks need more than walking sandals).  I 
dubbined a pair of cheap, microfibre lightweight, non waterproof boots and 
that really did do the business as I didn't want to take heavy leather boots. 
  So can recommend that as a solution.
Plenty of good mossie repellent as it gets washed off in the rain. Incognito 
is a good natural (non Deet)
one.
Discreet colour clothing
Long walking socks and spray them with anti mossie to deter the leeches.  I 
took gaiters and some managed to creep under so wouldn't recommend.
Something simple to change into for dinner.  Nowhere's 'dressie'.


Can thoroughly recommend this trip but possibly not in December.  It is so 
different and truly exciting.  All the variety of creatures and plants are 
wonderful. I thought ginger was just 'ginger' but not in Borneo - there are 
tomes on the different varieties.  And so it goes on - 4 or more huge volumes 
on orchids - and that's only the ones that have been discovered.  It was such 
a pleasure to see orchids and other colourful, unusual to us, plants growing 
in the gardens.  I loved it all, despite the rain!

Very enjoyable well organised trip to a fabulous country.
Orang-utans and proboscis monkeys.


Ronnie was super.


Be prepared to experience high humidity - book extra days before and after if 
you can.


The only small problem was that certain travelers we very selfish in take the 
best coach/boat seats repeatedly without considering treating others fairly.
Stay at Myan 'Resort' was disappointing (poor food and no room servicing).

This is a truly amazing holiday. If you have an interest in wildlife, then 
this is the trip for you, because the diversity of wildlife is bewildering. I 
went in early October, and on every walk we did we saw something. We saw 
Orang Utans almost every time we went out.
Be prepared for rain. When it starts, it can come down in biblical 
proportions, though it doesn’t usually last for very long.
Almost too many to mention.
As a keen photographer, I had to make myself put the camera down so I could 
take in what I was experiencing. Seeing Orang Utans, Broboscis Monkeys, Pygmy 
Elephants, Mouse Deer, Pit Vipers, Bearded Pigs, Hornbills, and various 
lizards and insects in the wild, is not something you should just view 
through a camera lens. The Bat Exodus from Deer cave in Mulu NP is a wonder 
of nature. The sanctuaries we visited offer a closer contact with some 
animals, which some people will probably prefer to the hit-and-miss nature of 
the jungle, but the necessary glass divide between you and the Orang Utans in 
Sepilok is undoubtedly a distraction. By contrast, in Labuk Bay where there 
is no divide, the Proboscis Monkeys charge around the decking area showing 
the visitors who’s boss. But for me, the sightings in the wild were the 
really special moments. Holding a huge male Rhinocerous beetle in your hand, 
with its fish-hook legs gripping on, is not something you experience every 
day. During a visit to Gomantong Caves which teemed with cockroaches, a Skink 
dropped onto my shoulder and hitched a ride with me out of the caves.


Nostalia (Talia), is without question, one of the best guides I have ever 
had. Extremely knowledgeable and articulate, she did not shy away from 
thornier topics such as Palm Oil cultivation and deforestation. Always 
smiling and cheerful, she bound the group together with assured ease. Our 
“Exodus Group” quickly became our “Exodus Tribe” much to Talias 
amusement and delight.
She consistently went the extra mile, in my case sitting with me on two 
occasions to go through my photographs so I could make accurate notes for a 
book I have planned.
She brought us to out of the way places to eat that we most likely would not 
have considered on our own. One such meal at a non-descript looking outdoor 
Chinese in Kuching, for me, was probably the best meal of the entire trip, 
and cost next to nothing.
A special mention must also go to our three guides in Danum Valley. Along 
with Talia, Aldrin, Syafiq and Helen were exceptional. We did several walks 
over two days and nights, and were amazed at what they spotted for us. They 
were all equally enthusiastic, and genuinely loved spotting wildlife and 
sharing stories with us.


Take a poncho, or buy a cheap one when you get there. It gives you much more 
freedom than a rain jacket.
Always carry a spare, medium sized dry bag. You’ll be surprised how much 
you use it.
Bring a day-bag with a waterproof covering. You will need it.
Drink as much water as you can, and top up at every opportunity. Free top-ups 
are available almost everywhere you stay. A reservoir for your day-bag is 
very useful.
Bring a hat with a brim. The sun can be unrelenting.
For photographers, only bring a tripod if you really need it. This is quite 
an active holiday, and you will be constantly on the move. Stopping to set up 
a tripod is not just impractical, it is unfair on your fellow group members 
and guides. (I brought a Gorilla tripod, and it never came out of my bag.)
Again for photographers, bring spare batteries for the camera and a charger. 
This may seem obvious, but remember you will be shooting a lot of wildlife 
and will probably be using multi shot mode, and that chews up your battery. 
The humidity also seems to drain the batteries more quickly.
Mosquitos were not as big an issue as I thought they would be. Normally I get 
eaten alive, but not in Borneo. But bring plenty of repellent.
Likewise, leeches were rare. Two people from the group did get bitten, but 
otherwise the leeches were hard to find. I had leech socks with me which 
certainly helped, but long tight socks will work just as well.
If travelling solo (With a single supplement), be prepared to have to share a 
room for maybe a couple of nights.
Travel light and do laundry when you can.
Try the Durian. Don’t let the smell put you off.


Something that is not mentioned are the suspension bridges. While the canopy 
walks are optional, some bridge crossings are not. If you have a problem with 
heights, you may want to take this into account. On the other hand, unless it 
is a serious problem for you, I wouldn’t let it put you off going.
Do everything on offer. You’ll regret it if you don’t.

Southeast Asia Budget Bird Watching Trips & Packages Tour & Trip Reviews

We left feeling like we were with friends the whole time. We would love to return one day to visit other countries of Asia