Borneo is such a large island we concentrated our traveling in the Malaysian state of Sabah in the north east of Borneo. Forests cover 60% of the Malaysian territory, however only 12% of these forests are considered pristine and unfortunately due to an increase in oil palm plantations (utilizing 15% of land area in Sabah) these rainforests are quickly disappearing, seeing this for ourselves whilst traveling between towns on long coach journeys. We loved seeing the orangutans "the wild man of Borneo" swinging through the trees in Sepilok rainforest where the rehabilitation project here has proven very successful.They made us laugh, we could have watched them all day with their human like traits. After much bartering in Semporna we got a local man to take us around the floating villages of the Bajau (sea gypsies). The early Bajau people lived their entire lives aboard their boats. Today, most live along the coasts perched on stilts over the shallow reefs where they continue their love affair with the ocean. A village with its feet in the sea.
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