When Travel is Hard, Malaysians Come to the Rescue
The most helpful award goes to… Borneo, Malaysia
This month’s globetrotter topic of hospitality leaves me with no choice but to submit more than once. Having travelled a lot solo, you sometimes get into a pickle. Often a precious local appears and helps you out.
This happened on numerous occasions while in Borneo, the third-largest island in the world, divided among three countries, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.
It was 2008 — the olden days. Only a year after the first iPhone release, data was expensive, wifi was rare. There were no apps on your phone, a series of printed emails were the skeleton of our trip.
‘I’m going to Borneo for 5 weeks,’ my friend Lisa told me. ‘I’m going to climb a mountain and see orangutans. I’ve got the whole itinerary planned. Want to come?’
I had no idea where Borneo was or what was there, a quick google told me there were big orange monkeys, big nose monkeys and some good diving. I negotiated with Lisa to include a day diving at Sipadan into the itinerary and I was in.
Our first experience with the outstanding hospitality of the locals was after our Mt Kinabalu hike. The hike itself was a bit of a nightmare — but that’s another story.
