Therefore, we thought that we’d love to go back to Borneo again and we persuaded our friends, Curtis's family from Maine (unfortunately Maya and Martha were very busy so they couldn't join us), Paul from Switzerland (now he lives in Bangkok with his family), and Thai friends, namely Ann (running computer and internet shops in Narathiwat), Lah (a birder who lives in Bangkok), Pla and Love (researchers at Klong Saeng and Hala Bala Wildlife Sanctuary and now studying in Had Yai).

Just before we're leaving to Borneo, there were two new guide books of Birds of Borneo coming out:
1. Phillipps' Field Guide of the Birds of Borneo: by Quentin Phillipps and Karen Phillipps.
2. A Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo: by Susan Myers and published by New Holland.

Thanks to Lah to let us know and she bought one for our group to use during the trip. We were looking forward for more new information.  She also helped us to reserve the accommodation and package tour in Kinabatangan River.

Tu and I had one more friend to travel along with us. It's a rabbit doll called is "Ma-Prow", which means "Coconut". Ma-Prow had one friend; her name was "Me Too", belonging to Sojourn.

Our itinerary:
Sep 30 To Kota Kinabalu
- Curtis and Sojourn flied from Maine to Kota Kinabalu.
- Ann, Pla and Love took a bus from Had Yai to Kuala Lumpur.
- Paul, Lah, Tu and I flied from Bangkok and met with Ann, Pla and Love at Kuala Lumpur airport and we took the same flight to Kota Kinabalu. Only Lah who booked the last flight of the day, followed us later.

Today, we were very happy to meet each other because it was so long time that we had no time to travel and birdwatch together. Tonight we stayed at Borneobackpacker in Kota Kinabalu town.  It was a good place, clean, near shopping center, having free internet and simple breakfast.  They also had airport pick up service if not later than 23.00 pm with minimum two nights stay. Lah arrived quite late so she had to stay at a guesthouse near the airport because the next day we planned to take a flight to Sandakan early in the morning. It was the first place that we started birding.

 

One morning, we met some birders from England; they came with our friend, CK Leong (a professional bird guide in Borneo). They were also waiting for the Bristlehead at the canopy walkway. CK said "It always come in this area around 7.30 - 8.00" but unfortunately not the day we were there ;-(

Finally everyone got a chance to see this famous bird from different places in the trails, except Tu and I!!!. That's a pity. Maybe this would be one reason we have to come back here again next time.

Another target was Urang Utan in the wild. The second afternoon whilst we were walking to RDC after having lunch at the guesthouse. Love, Pla, Lah and Ann started walking 5 minutes before us and were ahead of us, but then suddenly Love shouted to us because they found something special. Everyone ran...

 

We did the same program everyday and always had time to take rest in the afternoon before boat trip. The resting time is a good time for us to do something different i.e. Sojourn taught us to play cards called "Dynamite and Boom!!" It's really fun!, we washed our cloths, read books, played magic with Sojourn and played Frisbee.

For playing Frisbee, we separated into two teams, one was Vietnam team because we were on Vietnam T-shirts which were souvenirs from Off and the other team was international team wearing T-shirts in different colors. It was very very fun! We played until we had to go for the boat trip in the afternoon. And after that if we had free time, Sojourn always liked to play Dynamite with some of us.

 

Oct 7-11 Mount Kinabalu
At the beginning, we planned to visit Mount Kinabalu first before we went to Sandakan. But since we would like to trek to the summit, we had to book accommodations at Laban Rata in advanced and they were available only on Oct 8.  Therefore, we had to change our plan to visit Sandakan and Kinabatangun before Mount Kinabalu. Only six of us walked to the summit this time and it was the first time for Paul, Ann, Pla and Love but second time for Tu and me. Lah (who went up there before and said only one time was enough for her), Sojourn and Curtis birdwatched and traveled around the park. From last time (two years ago) Tu and I knew how difficult and hard to walk up the summit so we told everyone "you have to practice and exercise your body to prepare for walking up the highest mountain of Southeast Asia.” (Low’s Peak 4,095 meters from sea level). Actually Lah commented that it was the highest peak in S/E Asia that ordinary people could access to, but the highest one was actually in remote Myanmar northern mountains.  Tu and I had our own target; we must spend less time to walk up and down compared to the last time (came down before 6.00 pm) and did not stay that long along the way.

Thank a lot to CK who reserved the room at Rose Cabin (about 2 kilometers outside the national park) for us and organized the transport from Kota Kinabalu to Mount Kinabalu. We stayed together in the big room for ten persons. When we arrived it was very cold and windy. We saw the summit covered with cloud, we hoped the day when we walked up to the summit it would be better and clearer sky.

Click for large map.

9.00 am            We started walking with our guide. His name is Johan and we hired one porter named Pitta, to carry our stuff (sleeping bags, sweaters and some foods) about 10 kilograms.
12.40 pm           We arrived Pondok Layang Layang, had a pack lunch from Sutera Sanctuary Lodges who organized the climb up to the summit trip for everyone. Paul found a pitcher plants having the same size as his hand. Beautiful one! We took some photos and continued walking.

 

Then we walked back down to Laban Rata to have full breakfast and continue walked down the mountain.  It was more difficult than walking up. ;-) Who was the first one who arrived at the Timpohon Gate?...Sure it’s Paul. And he was really kind because he ran down the hill and hurried back to the HQ restaurant to reserve (late) lunch for us. (Sutera Sanctuary Lodge had one more meal for us in the climb-up package but the restaurant served lunch only to 2:30 p.m.). He had stood by the restaurant about 2.30 hours waiting for us. Tu and I arrived at the Timpohon gate at 3.45 p.m., ten minutes later Pla and Love arrived and the last of our group and the person for today was Ann ten minutes later. Then we went to see Paul directly and met Lah near the restaurant. We had a lot of stories from the mountain to tell Lah, Sojourn and Curtis.

During our walk up and down the summit, Lah went birding in several trails in the park.  She saw a lot of mountain birds including a family of Red-breasted Partridges, Maroon Woodpecker, baby Snowy-browed Flycatcher Crimson-headed Partridges twice on different trails, and a pair of Bornean Stubtails.

The next day after coming down from the top Love and Pla said goodbye.  They went back to Thailand today.  The rest of us did bird-watching around the national park. We found many good birds such as Bornean Forktail, Eyebrowed Jungle Flycatcher, Ruddy Cuckoo Dove, Bornean Whistler, Mountain Wren Babbler, Short-tailed Green Magpie, Indigo Flycatcher, Whitehead’s Spiderhunter, Golden-naped Barbet, and many others. And we found another squirrel was Whitehead’s Squirrel, a tiny squirrel with white tuft ears.

Oct 12, Manukan Island
Early in the morning Sojourn and Curtis left very early to continue their diving trip at Sipadan Island area before flying back to Maine. And we had to say good-bye and we hope to see them again next trip. Thanks a lot to join our trip.

Daily, early in the morning, we had some breakfast and continued birding to and in Mud Volcano trail, came back to have lunch and then had free time to take a rest. We started again at 3.00 pm, jumped up the pick-up truck to birdwatch along the road from the resort to the entrance gate between oil palm plantations and forest. Before or after dinner (up to suitable time after sunset) we went on the truck for spot-lighting animals.