Kinabatangan River, Borneo, Malaysia

SO MUCH WILDLIFE! We stayed at the Nature Lodge Kinabatangan, which took care of everything including pickup in Sepilok and dropoff as well arranging for tickets to Kota Kinabalu. The Nature Lodge is run sort of like a summer camp; a loud bell is used to signify meals and activities. You can also rent most things that you need from them. Our itinerary on the Kinabatangan river basically consisted of doing everything possible to spot some wildlife.
We took early morning river cruises on a 10 person speedboat as well as late afternoon cruises. We also went on nightwalks around the lodge. All of these trips resulted in sightings of orangutans, proboscis monkeys, crocodiles, silver leaf monkeys, otters, monitor lizards, macaques, hornbills, a hawk eagle, a tarsier, and 2 very colorful sleeping birds. Our guide, Arshad, was really good at spotting orangutans; it was crazy, dude would look in a tree and there would be an orangutan just hanging out. We also almost went to see some pygmy elephants upriver but the Borneo wildlife conservation moved them away from the river in order to protect them from human contact. While it is an amazing experience to see these animals, it's necessary also to be mindful of the harm that we can cause.