Borneo is the hidden gem that every traveler searches for. It is a place of natural beauty not yet overrun by pre-packaged tours and glossy brochures. It’s one of those places that remain a little bit inaccessible; making the tourist trail a dirt path rather than the expressways that cross into traditional coastal destinations.

The images I had of Borneo before landing there were of a dark and mysterious island home to head-hunters and nomadic tribes; snakes and lizards; jungles, caves and swamps. I had visions of Indiana Jones, moss covered tress and an island cloaked in eerie superstition, legend and folklore. In reality, I wasn’t far off. Borneo is the hidden gem that every traveler searches for. It is a place of natural beauty not yet overrun by pre-packaged tours and glossy brochures. It’s one of those places that remain a little bit inaccessible; making the tourist trail a dirt path rather than the expressways that cross into traditional coastal destinations.

Borneo is the world’s third largest island, geographically located East of Singapore and South of Hong Kong. The South China Sea, Java Sea, Sulu and Celebes Seas surround its shorelines.

Most of Borneo’s land mass is covered with lush green rainforest, which is home to the many species of flora and fauna that are native to the island. It is also home to the world's largest flower, the Rafflesia, the size of a coffee table; squirrels and snakes that fly; deer the size of cats; plants that eat insects (and small mammals); flying bats that could carry away an unattended child; and countless plant and insect species still waiting to be discovered. Borneo also contains a wide spectrum of culture, which not only holds some of the richest people in the world, but also some of the poorest, such as the thousands of indigenous tribes hidden safely within the shadowy jungles.

That being the National Geographic description of Borneo, I’ll give you the short version: Borneo is really cool. It’s an exotic island Hollywood makes movies about. Imagine King Kong, Tarzan, Fantasy Island, Rippley’s Believe it Or Not and The Blue Lagoon - or any number of movies where two lovers are stranded thousands of miles from civilization (there are many). We only spent a few days on Borneo, but enough to know we will go back in the near future … which should be quite easy after someone asks me to set up an office in Singapore.

While on Borneo we were somewhat limited to the activities we could perform because of a slight injury Susanne experienced while crumpled up in the back of an airplane for 24 hours. The airlines are secretly shredding documents as I write this which concludes: if you keep a normal sized human confined to a space no larger than the luggage she travels with, she will inevitably strain or pull some muscle in her body. Furthermore, that passenger will also contract every known ailment that other passengers also suffer from (colds, coughs, runny noses, ebola virus, black plague, etc.). In short, Susanne pulled a muscle in her right leg. Since Borneo’s primary attractions are jungle hikes, cave exploring and long distance trekking, we didn’t have much of a choice when it came time to decide what we needed to do next.

Never-the-less, we had a fantastic time. In the four days we spent on Borneo, we managed to take in quite a lot of activities. We wandered the early morning streets of Kuching, discovering a local market where ladies spread blankets on the street to display their hand-picked fruits, vegetables, spices and other exotic items. We ate breakfast at a hawker stand where 2 roles, 2 sweet breads, 2 deep fried bananas and an assortment of jellied creations cost us merely one ringget (it’s better when said with the local accent and with an appreciation of how cheap one ringget really is – about 26.3 cents $US).

We wove our way through the main bazaar and marveled at the vast array of wares on display. We soon realized, however, that we were more the feature curiosity to locals than they were to us. It was patently obvious that very few “white” people travel these streets, which perhaps drew upon the region’s memory of White Rajahs over a century ago. We then found ourselves drifting along the waterfront into the tourist/business district of town. Instead of hawker stands, high-rise hotels towered over the streets. Instead of one ringget breakfast feasts, Italian restaurants stood with open doors and western prices. It was two worlds divided by a hundred meters or less.

Tucked inside this maze of cultural clash were the Sarawak Tourism Office and Sarawak Museum, which both seemed to take us back to a better, more glorious, time of early exploration and discovery on Borneo. The tourism office provided more information than we could process about Sarawak, including history, culture and accommodations. The museum is said to be the finest in Southeast Asia. For over a century, a succession of conscientious curators have collected and catalogued the single most extensive archive and exhibit of Bornean history, art and ethnography anywhere in the world. On display were taxidermy specimens, ranging from full-sized Orang-Utans to tribal-painted elephant skulls and hand-carved protective Iban tribal idols.

After the museum, we drove to Damai Beach on the South China Sea. We stayed at Camp Permai in a traditional tree house (with minor amenities such as hot water, air-con, mini-fridge, full-sized bed and fresh linens). Our house was elevated three stories above the ground on wooden stilts, and nestled under the rainforest canopy at the foot of Mount Santubong. Each night we were tuned to the constant buzzing, chirping and humming of the rainforest creatures.

While Susanne recovered from her injury I set out on a torturous trek up the side of the mountain. This involved crossing fresh-water streams, navigating rope bridges, clambering across fallen trees, conquering two-story boulders, and wading under thrashing waterfalls. I was Indiana Jones … sans the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom and/or pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Instead, my only reward was a sweat-soaked shirt and muddy shoes. Susanne, on the other hand, was peacefully sunning herself on the deck when I returned.