Day 1. Fri: USA / Hong Kong.

Today take your flight from USA to Hong Kong.

Overnight: En route.

Day 2. Sat.: Hong Kong / Kota Kina (Borneo)

After arrival to Hong Kong Check in and board our flight to Kota Kinabalu and on arrival clear immigration (visa required) and then we continue to the luggage carousel, clear customs and welcome to Sabah state on the island of Borneo. The city of Kota Kina Balu is named after the largest mountain in SE Asia – Mount Kina Balu.

On arrival early this afternoon we will collect our luggage and transfer by coach to our hostel.

This outreach program has a hard work project line up for physical labor in building in Sabah State. Please be prepared for this Borneo option to be very physical.

Lunch and afternoon activity if we have an early flight to Borneo. If we have later flight the itinerary will be as per this day with transfer and dinner.

Dinner is in a nearby restaurant this evening or at our hostel.

Overnight: Kota Kina Balu Hostel. (Dinner included this evening)

Day 3. Sun: Kota Kina Balu / Kiulu Borneo.

This morning we rise early and have breakfast around 07:00hrs. Then at around 08:00hrs, we gather our belongings and head to reception where we check out and meet our group in the lobby. Board our coach for a one hour drive to our project site in the town of Kiulu. This small town is just north and inland from Kota Kinabalu.

Kiulu is located alongside the river of its namesake – The Kiulu River. This borders the pristine and lush green jungle of northern Sabah. Today is going to be a full activity day of white water rafting, hiking in the jungle, cooking your own meals in the jungle, a typical survival day and get everyone ready for hard work starting the day after today.

Safety Briefing – We will participate in total safety briefing before we set out on the jungle hike. Next we will end at an area where we are all going to help and cook lunch together on an open fire. The guide has arranged for all the ingredients to be brought.

Everyone needs to learn to be a teammate and participate in the lunch preparation, cooking, cleaning and dining together.

No easy task, but the results are tasty!

After lunch, we will hike out of the jungle to the river for a refreshing white water Bamboo float trip down the Kiulu River back to the town.

Rafting Grade – II. Return to our base and have some free time to refresh before dinner.

Back at our Base is our hammock beds. 

Tonight you will have dinner at our accommodation base and after dinner we will enjoy a traditional bamboo dance performance.

Traditional Dance Performance: Members of a family in Sabah, Malaysia perform a “bamboo dance” as traditionally practiced by their tribal ancestors.

Using lengths of bamboo the performers create a beat while synchronized dancers negotiate the moving bamboo sticks.

Enjoy the performance and try it yourself before camp calls lights out for a good nights sleep.

Overnight: Kiulu Camp Hammocks (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner included –BLD)

Day 4 & 5. Mon/Tue: Kiulu

Rise and shine and have breakfast and be ready by 08:30hrs this morning to begin two full days of hard labor building rooms.

For two days, we intend to get a lot accomplished as we are enough of us to make a difference in the villager’s lives by using our skills to build a building. Together with our teachers, guide and local villagers we will be erecting a solid building or small hut and a path for a needy community.

Walk to the project site and meet the project Manager who will explain everything.Introduction to the tools that we will use and their safe use throughout the days.

All morning we are placed into teams and perform the project. We will break for lunch which is prepared for us today at the job site.

This afternoon we continue until 16:30hrs, where we then pick up everything, clean up the job site, put the tools away and walk about 10 minutes back to our camp.

At 17:00hrs – we have some free time until it is time to freshen up and then we all join together for dinner.

Overnight: Kiulu Camp Hammocks (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner included –BLD)

Day 6. Wed: Kiulu.

This day after breakfast we will have outdoor activities.  What about to travel to the zip line challenges in the morning and  White water rafting in the afternoon? It takes skills to paddle the rafts exactly how the guide wants us to, so that we avoid rapids and other nuisances along the way.

Dinner together and spend the evening at our camp and our hammocks.

Overnight: Kiulu Camp Hammocks (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner included –BLD)

Day 7. Thu.: Kiulu / Kota Kina Balu / Mari Mari Village.

This morning rise at camp, freshen up and have breakfast together. Then we proceed to our coach which has arrived to collect us. Drive to nearby chef’s house.

As we meet the chef, we also head to market with him and buy the ingredients needed to cook today. The guide has the money for our veggies, chicken and spices etc. Learn how to pick out these items on your own. Then we return to the home, clean and chop and get ready for instructions to follow to make a team lunch today.  Lunch together from our efforts at cooking up a traditional Borneo lunch.

13:00hrs – 14:00hrs – We will drive to the Mari Mari Longhouse Village.

Mari Mari Village visit – On arrival at the village entrance, we get a briefing on the strict rules for visitors and then we walk across the suspension bridge to the Mari Mari tribal house. Our guide will guide us through the tribes longhouses, some a little bit similar to the first tribe we visited in Sarawak state. Except that this village is a collection of multiple longhouses and multiple tribes. We will also take part in a couple of hours of service at the Mari Mari village. Project to be determined later in 2018.

Visit each tribe’s traditional house and do some in house activities. When you hear the gong beatings, which is the signal to move on to the stage for the cultural performance by the villagers which lasts about 20-30 minutes.

Enjoy a traditional buffet dinner at the Mari Mari Village before we say goodbyes and thank you. We cross back over the suspension bridge and to our waiting coach for the transfer back to our hotel. Drive back to our accommodations.

Overnight: Kota Kina Balu Hostel. (Breakfast, lunch and dinner included).

Day 8.  Fri: Kota Kina Balu / Sundakan / Turtle Island.

Rise early. as we have a boxed breakfast to go and then ride our coach to the airport where we board a short one hour flight to Sandakan.

We travel by our coach to the city center and directly to the Ocean pier where we board a boat to Seligan Turtle Island. After all our hard work on the main island of Borneo, this will be a wonderful break for all of us to relax for a day.

Afternoon: We will be walking around this small island and enjoying swimming and carefully guided naturalist course on the Turtles of Borneo.

Turtle Island Park lies 40km north of Sandakan in the Sulu Sea and consists of three islands – Selingan, Bakungan Kecil and Gulisan islands. Turtle Island Park is famous for its green turtles and hawksbill turtles which lay their eggs on the beaches of the islands. Turtle Island Park is a safe haven in Sabah for the endangered green and hawksbill turtles. The largest of the three islands, Selingan Island, is open to Tourists to visit. Selingan Island, often referred to as ‘Turtle Island’, has Turtles visiting throughout the year to nest and lay eggs. A Turtle Hatchery is established on Selingan Island, part of the turtle conservation efforts in Turtle Island Park.

In 1966 the first turtle hatchery in Malaysia was established on Selingan Island. In 1977 Selingan, Bakkungan Kechil and Gulisan islands were designated as a Marine Park – known as Turtle Island Park. The Marine Park is managed by Sabah Parks with full time Wardens located on the islands to monitor the turtles, protect the turtle hatcheries and tag the turtles for research purposes. The turtle conservation program in Sabah is the oldest in the world and with the most detailed statistics and research. For good reason, strict conservation practices are in place in Turtle Island Park so to not disturb the Turtles and to protect them.

Only on Selingan are there chalets for overnight visitors, and those who wish to see the turtles laying eggs must stay overnight. A curious fact of the three islands is that turtles come ashore nightly, not only during certain seasons and thus one is virtually guaranteed to see them. During the peak season (October) up to 50 turtles come ashore to lay eggs.

However, park rules and regulations are strictly enforced and visitors are not allowed on the beach from sunset to sunrise so as not to disturb the turtles. A ranger will call all visitors to observe only one turtle laying eggs per night. The eggs are collected and the visitors vacate the beach immediately so as not to scare away other turtles, which are very sensitive to movement on the beach. After the laying and collection of eggs, and eventual tagging of the turtle if it is a first-time visitor, tourists are allowed into the hatchery to observe the further work of the rangers: the transplantation of the freshly laid eggs into a man-made incubation chamber. The chamber is no different from that of the turtle: between 60–75 cm deep, in the sand, but within a protected hatchery to make it impossible for natural predators to dig the nests open. Since temperature determines the sex of the turtles part of the hatchery is shaded, while the rest remains under the open sun.

The ranger will escort us at night to see one of the Turtles laying eggs.

Overnight: Seligan Turtle Island chalets. (Box breakfast and then lunch and dinner on Turtle Island. (4 students per room & 2 teachers per chalet)

Day 9. Sat:  Turtle Island / Sandakan / Orangutan Center / Conservation Center and Probiscus Monkey visit.

Early morning we enjoy breakfast on the island and then we proceed by

boat back to Sandakan reaching around 11:00hrs. Here we meet our coach and drive a short distance where we can have lunch included.

Fully refreshed, now we proceed by coach to the Orangutan Center. The center attracts tourists and researches alike, giving them the opportunity to watch the orang utan up close in their natural habitat. A boardwalk which leads to a viewing gallery and feeding platform where the apes are fed milk and bananas twice a day at 10am and 3pm by rangers. Feeding time also attracts long-tailed macaques to the area. (We most likely will be at the 3pm feeding but may be early boats for 1000am)

Sabah State tourism will charge everyone Malaysia Ringgit 10 (RM) HKD 20 to use your camera in this center. Please prepare to buy your own ticket to take pictures. We have paid the entrance fees for our group to visit.

The Orangutan sanctuary:

The Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre main gateway. Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre is located about 25 kilometres west f Sandakan in the state of Sabah in Malaysia.

The centre opened in 1964 as the first official orangutan rehabilitation project for rescued orphaned baby orangutans from logging sites, plantations, illegal hunting or kept as pets. The orphaned orangutans are trained to survive again in the wild and are released as soon as they are ready. The sanctuary is located within the Kabili-Sepilok Forest Reserve which covers an area of 4,294 ha (10,610 acres), much of which is virgin rain forest. Today around 60 to 80 orangutans are living free in the reserve. It has become one of Sabah’s tourist attractions. In October 2014 the centre opened a new section where visitors can view the nursery area where the younger Orangutans first learn to be outside and play on a large climbing frame. This consists of 2 large indoor seating areas (one with air conditioning and one with fans only) with a large window that overlooks the play area. There is no additional charge to enter this part of the centre.

The Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre is neighbours to the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre and shares veterinary facilities, personnel, parking, access roads and ticket gates

Next we visit and learn about the Sun Bears of Borneo, smallest bears in the world.

The Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) is a sun bear rescue and rehabilitation facility being developed in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo.

Malayan sun bears are the smallest bears in the world and are only found in Southeast Asia. These bears continue to be threatened by forest degradation, illegal hunting for bear parts and poaching to obtain young cubs for pet trade. The results of these threats has caused young sun bears found to be living in unnatural captive conditions in Sabah, with no access to outdoor areas.

There are currently 42 rescued ex-captive sun bears residing at the BSBCC. The facility includes large forest enclosures to provide a natural environment suited to the needs and welfare of the sun bears and facilitate their rehabilitation back into the wild. ​In 2014, the Centre opens to the public. Visitors can learn about sun bears and observe them in their natural habitat.

Proceed late afternoon to our accommodation – the Orangutan Sanctuary Dormitory. Dinner included this evening. (Box breakfast, Lunch and dinner).

Day 10. Sun.  Sandakan / Kota kina Balu / Sandakan / Hong Kong / USA

This morning we rise early for typical dormitory forest breakfast and then we transfer to the Rain forest Discovery Center. This is nearby the Orangutan and Sun Bear centers.

The Rainforest Discovery Centre evolved from small, cozy environmental education (EE) centre in 1996 into one of Sabah’s most popular Educational centers. It is a within the famous Kabili-Sepilok Forest Reserve, home of the orangutans at the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre. The rainforest center is managed by the Sabah Forestry Department. Although the main purpose of the Rainforest center remains as an environmental education center for students and teachers, it has opened its doors to the public since August 2007. It is now opened daily from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm. Together with the nearby Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre, it is hoped that the Rainforest educational center will help boost the tourism industry in the Sandakan district.

We will be escorted on a rainforest walk and learn about the various habitat of the animals here including for you to keep your eyes peeled for the Orangutans in the trees.

We will transfer to the Sandakan airport and board our flight to Kota Kina Balu. Lunch is on your own today as we are in transit at the Kota Kina Balu airport. Then check in and fly to Hong Kong. Once arrived to Hong Kong take your connection flight to USA.

Overnight: En Route to USA.

CODE: VSABOR2019