I had been planning a holiday trip with my sons (age 13 & 8) for a few months, but, I wasn’t looking for a run-of the mill kind holiday, and when Apricous suggested a holiday in Malaysia. The first though was “absolute NO”, as the flashes of Petronas Towers, Malls, Genting came to my mind.
But it wasn’t any of this. Borneo island (Sabah – state) with my sons was a complete adventure and we enjoyed doing a lot together as a parent-child team. Being an equatorial island, it has some of the most unique Flora & Fauna.
After the initial day’s rest at this very lovely beach side resort having pristine beach & clear blue water there after we visited the local market at Kota Kinabalu to try local delicacies. This was really fun for the 3 of us especially my elder son who is a complete foodie. He didn’t shy away from eating the insects either. The next few days we visited the Kinabalu Geopark, trekked into the rainforest to see the ‘largest flower in the world’ – Rafflesia. On the way we saw numerous varieties of pitcher plants, Orchids & birds. Orangutans, the closest primates to humans are native only to Borneo and so are the Pygmy Elephants. The jungle camp survival regime was a very new thing and we loved it !
Just being there and doing so many things together, have created these wonderful moments for us. But I believe that we should have had more time to explore this beautiful island. We are certainly planning to go there in a couple of years to climb up to the highest peak (Mt. Kinabalu – 4000mts) & camp at the base.
Like my elder son described this holiday as a fun classroom in the wild.
Jaswinder Singh , Mumbai