Leaving Borneo

Our visit to to the  east of  Sabah  has come to an end; and with some regret, we leave the jungle  for  a look at a cave that houses thousands  of black and white swiftlets and even more bats.  The first indication we were near the cave was the smell of rotting guano. For an indication of how long this cave  has been in use, you have only to see the hill of rotting guano that has built up under the bats roost. The  cave is farmed for its birds' nests. Each year the lease is up for bids to harvest the nests for bird's nest soup. Using tons of rope and lengths of ladders they scour the sides of the cave in a venture that brings in millions of dollars. It is so lucrative they now build artificial caves to take advantage of the high price of birds nests. The guano is a living mass of cockroaches; and when we were asked to spit on the guano, it suddenly came alive as a moving mass of insects. The walkways were a slippery squishy mess of fresh droppings with cockroaches skittering across your path. The handrails were such you could not touch them. You had to move carefully on any incline for fear of sliding into the hill of guano. The nest is built from saliva of the swiftlets.  It feels like soft rubber in your hand and contains feathers and other debris, and is cleaned before being used to make soup. The claims of its health benefits vary from curing skin disorders to making you more virile. The Chinese pay great prices for this delicacy, and after experiencing the cave I would suggest they would eat almost anything.

After visiting the Sandakan death march memorial, we must correct some of what we have said about it previously. The prisonor of war camps housed 2400 prisoners of which approximately 1200 were made to march to their death to the west side of Borneo. Only six survived by escaping during the death march or shortly after reaching the west camp. The rest died from torture, hunger, disease, or hopelessness.

We also visited a legal stilt housing complex that sits on a tidal flat. The maintenance of these homes is one disadvantage to building over water as the salt water and living creatures eat away at the stilt wooden footings. All body wastes  drop directly into the sea. Talk about flush toilets.

What is a trip without some beach time?  Sapi Island is a half hour trip by boat just off the coast of Borneo.  We spent a day exploring part of the island and snorkelling.  The water was great.

We leave for Bali, Indonesia, tomorrow.