Lombardo Posted May 20, 2014 Share Posted May 20, 2014 Anyone ever been to Borneo? Would you recommend it? Trying to pick honeymoon destinations and it jumps out. A bit cheaper but similar beaches to the Maldives, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted May 21, 2014 Share Posted May 21, 2014 Not been but check out Sabah on the Internet for the beaches , the word is they are pretty good Must people go to Borneo to see orangutan in the wild so maybe couple the beach with a few days in the forest ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardo Posted May 23, 2014 Author Share Posted May 23, 2014 Cheers Tony! Always reliable to provide some knowledgeable info! Have you been to the Maldives? Would you recommend? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattJ83 Posted May 24, 2014 Share Posted May 24, 2014 Hi, been to Borneo twice. Working all over the country. Sabah and Sarawak and Brunei. Great place with lovely people. Cheap, good beaches, great diving. There is one beach where they filmed the first season of survivor I think with hammocks along the beach and a mud pool 5min walk away. Lovely place. Tarp which is the islands around Kota Kinabalu (kk) are lovely as well. And the night markets! If your into diving I would recommend sipadan. Mount Kinabalu is good if your a walker or the Crocker range. Worth it just for the pitcher plants! You could try to get into imbak canyon which is where they filmed one of the bbc documenataries and is fairly untouched as far as tourists go. Brunei is expensive but a great contrast as well. Any specific info or photos let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted May 24, 2014 Share Posted May 24, 2014 Cheers Tony! Always reliable to provide some knowledgeable info! Have you been to the Maldives? Would you recommend? Another one I've not been to , i'm starting to look like a fraud My brother is a big diver and has been to the Maldives about 6 times and he loves it ... Depends which island but take into account you will land after a 10 hr flight and them have to catch another plane or boat to your hotel island ... Some times that involves an overnight in Male depending on connections Looks stunning as a whole though so I'd imagine you wouldn't be disappointed I'd also consider Mauritius as an option at least you can venture out a bit , they have a wildlife park where you can walk with lions (mrs h hasn't stopped smiling since she did it ) botanical gardens and its generally a friendly island Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardo Posted May 25, 2014 Author Share Posted May 25, 2014 Yeah we looked at Mauritius as well but just preferred the Maldives. Mauritius got a load of bad press over here when an irish girl got murdered over there a couple of years back so has probably (wrongly) tainted our opinion of it a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 (edited) I was in Borneo back in March. Amazing place, though not sure as i'd have it down as a Honeymoon destination. First things first, you need to go and have a look at the foreign office website. A large number of kidnappings have been occurring on the east coast of Sabah, particularly around Sipadan. This is where some of the world's best diving is to be found, but i'm not sure as i'd be comfortable going there at the moment. Basically the whole state of Sabah is disputed territory between Malaysia, Indonesia and more problematically, The Phillipines. If you do decide to go, then make sure you get your dive permits sorted before you do, i'd suggest speaking to someone like Bamboo travel. Hi, been to Borneo twice. Working all over the country. Sabah and Sarawak and Brunei. Great place with lovely people. Cheap, good beaches, great diving. There is one beach where they filmed the first season of survivor I think with hammocks along the beach and a mud pool 5min walk away. Lovely place. We went here, the island itself is pretty amazing, and very unspoilt. The sole resort on the island is very basic, and not in the charming wooden huts kind of way. It's fine, but not suitable for a honeymoon. The Island is called Pulau Tiga or something like that if you're interested in it. Beyond all this, places I would absolutely recommend in the country include Bako National Park, Gunung Mulu National Park, Mt Kinabalu and (though I didn't go) Dannum Valley if you can afford it. There's enough Orang-utan sanctuaries dotted around, but I think you'd have to go somewhere like Kinabatangan river to have a realistic chance of seeing them in the wild. Anyone ever been to Borneo? Would you recommend it? Trying to pick honeymoon destinations and it jumps out. A bit cheaper but similar beaches to the Maldives, right? Finally, in answer to this, it's not a scratch on the Maldives when comparing beaches (from my experience, though the eastern Sabah Islands could well be). I've been to both, and there's no way i'd fly over the Maldives to go to Borneo for the sake of a Honeymoon, though that very much depends on the kind of experience you're after. Edit: I should add some positivity. Borneo is indeed an incredible place, and well worth a visit. The rainforests, caves, scenery and wildlife are unique and it's disappearing fast, so fill 'yer boots while you can. Just be careful and don't go just because of the beaches, because there are better places closer to home where you don't have to sleep with a gun beneath your pillow. Edited May 27, 2014 by Shillzz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardo Posted June 16, 2014 Author Share Posted June 16, 2014 Went to properly look at destinations in travel agents on Saturday and think we've almost settled on Malaysia- Kuala Lumpur for a couple of nights, followed by a flight to Bali, do a 6 day trip there including a visit to Komodo Island. Once that's done were heading for a resort in Bali for 7 nights and then making our way home again through KL, stopping off in Penang on way back for a few days to chill before boarding flight home... Can't f##king wait!! ☺️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 (edited) did that last year .. posted the info in another thread about Komodo if you are looking for pointers , the boats are very rough and ready so don't expect any creature comforts whilst on them check the reviews on your resort in Bali , it is a bit of a party town and some resorts tend to have late night drinking and lost of noise going on ... saying that i never got back to the hotel before 5 am during my stay so I wouldn't have cared , but if you are looking for a quiet one double check on Bookings.com or tripadvisor etc I liked KL but I wouldn't spend too long there tbh , if you want to go up the Petronas towers you need to book in advance btw , it's unlikely you'd get a ticket on the same day , when i went on a Sat they were telling people next available tickets were for Thursday edit : other thread is here Edited June 16, 2014 by tonyh29 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardo Posted June 16, 2014 Author Share Posted June 16, 2014 Cheers Tony... Will take a proper read of that thread later. We were looking at staying in Seminyak. Would like a few nights on the booze and were both up for the banter so don't want somewhere that's completely isolated... Not too sure if we're doing the boat trip you described... Travel agents didn't talk about that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 Cheers Tony... Will take a proper read of that thread later. We were looking at staying in Seminyak. Would like a few nights on the booze and were both up for the banter so don't want somewhere that's completely isolated... Not too sure if we're doing the boat trip you described... Travel agents didn't talk about that... Seminyak is the next town from Kuta i ended up there one morning when I got lost leaving a bar and wandered off in the wrong direction there isn't any other way to get to the islands so you'll def need a boat at some point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meath_Villan Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 I did the Dubai then on to Mauritius thing (stayed in the hotel yer one got murdered in) Found Mauritius a let down great scenery but nothing of not outside of the hotel just slums and poverty....the Mauritian airways plane on the way back didn't fill me with great confidence on the way back either Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 (edited) I did the Dubai then on to Mauritius thing (stayed in the hotel yer one got murdered in) Found Mauritius a let down great scenery but nothing of not outside of the hotel just slums and poverty....the Mauritian airways plane on the way back didn't fill me with great confidence on the way back either I took the kids to Casela where they have a few animals that you can feed and a safari park where you get to feed zebras and ostrich .. Mrs H went walking with Lions ( kids were too young) .. then we went to Pamplemousses botanical gardens and also did a sugar factory tour yeah it's not Disneyland but there is plenty to see and do on the island I went there in 1999 and it was a bit of a shanty town , but I was there last year and there are now proper motorways and decent apartment blocks and schools being built , the financial district wouldn't be out of place in a few European countries ... i don't doubt there are still slums but I've certainly been to worse slums in my time Edited June 17, 2014 by tonyh29 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meath_Villan Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 The botanical gardens and the fishing were the highlight .......sugar / glass factory tour wasn't great and that sand thing jeeezzz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meath_Villan Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 Im not saying don't go but I felt let down after hearing how great it was Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 tbf it is a beach holiday resort and it's beaches are pretty decent , better than the Caribbean for example ( i guess I should add IMO here to avoid the holiday Nazi's telling me I'm wrong ) ..I've not been to Seychelles or Maldives to compare it up against those 2 ... but as a beach resort Mauritius is inside a reef so no big beasties likely to swim up behind you going Duh-dum, Duh-dum, Duh-dum, Duh-dum, Duh-dum, Duh-dum loads of colourful fish for the kiddies to snorkel with , loads of decent fish to catch and Mauritius was where I saw my first sharks (bull and reef sharks) whilst diving (outisde the reef ) .. not to mention an encounter with 2 dolphins at 30 m whilst on scuba , it's quite rare for dolphins to interact with divers at that depth .. scared the living crap out of our guide who thought it was a shark attack and hid behind a rock !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardo Posted June 17, 2014 Author Share Posted June 17, 2014 (edited) How do the beaches in Bali compare to everywhere else you've been Tony? I've been in most places in Asia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam etc, would the beaches in Bali be on a par with those? I know there are pictures, but they never do them justice.... Edited June 17, 2014 by Lombardo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 Kuta is pretty windy with lots of swells so more for surfing than snorkelling ... It's quite crowded with people and makeshift bars ... but we stopped off at another beach on the way back from Komodo which was one of those idyllic coves with crystal clear water and more tropical fish than finding Nemo ... Caught 2 turtles shagging in the water at one point ... Would happily have got ship wrecked there and lived out my days there ..(on the proviso that the Olsen Twins were also ship wrecked there with me ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drat01 Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 How do the beaches in Bali compare to everywhere else you've been Tony? I've been in most places in Asia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam etc, would the beaches in Bali be on a par with those? I know there are pictures, but they never do them justice.... Hi the beaches on Bali are OK - there are some better in the world and some worse We stayed at Nusa Dua (in the Conrad) and the beach was sand with a few rocks. In terms of Kuta as Tony says its the most popular so will always be busy - we didn't find it windy but I suppose it's all about the weather when there. There are lots of other beaches that you can drop off at without many people If in Bali don't stop on the beaches, get up to Ubud - some awesome things to see and experience around there IMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 How do the beaches in Bali compare to everywhere else you've been Tony? I've been in most places in Asia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam etc, would the beaches in Bali be on a par with those? I know there are pictures, but they never do them justice.... Hi the beaches on Bali are OK - there are some better in the world and some worse We stayed at Nusa Dua (in the Conrad) and the beach was sand with a few rocks. In terms of Kuta as Tony says its the most popular so will always be busy - we didn't find it windy but I suppose it's all about the weather when there. There are lots of other beaches that you can drop off at without many people If in Bali don't stop on the beaches, get up to Ubud - some awesome things to see and experience around there IMO I heard Ubad was full of Irish ... least I read something about Paddy fields Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts