A wonderful adventure.
I want to start by saying that our guide, Adrian Migiu was brilliant. He was informative without being boring, friendly while still giving us our space and a fun travel companion. Adrian offered information about the country, its people and wildlife and was able to answer our many questions. There was only myself and my mum in our "group" and Adrian made a welcome third member. We did have a few problems at the start of our journey. When I booked, I presumed that we would be travelling solely with Rustic Borneo, one week before our trip, I received our updated itinerary and I noticed that there were other tour companies involved. This itself was not a problem but the co-ordination between the companies was. Our first pick up was to go to Selingan Island with Seplilok Tropical Wildlife Adventure (STWA)- Our pick up did not arrive, the hotel staff enquired on our behalf and we discovered that they had gone to the wrong hotel, and yes, I had provided the correct information. That got sorted, but when our driver arrived we were told that we could not take our suitcases, only overnight bags. We frantically unpacked in the hotel lobby, so that we only had overnight bags, in the rush forgot a few things, but in the end, off we went. On returning from Selingan Island we were to be transferred to Sepilok Nature Reserve by Rustic Borneo. They did not show and STWA kept trying to takes on a tour of Sandakan. Again we got it sorted and were transferred to Sepilok. We arrived there at 8:30am, our rooms were not to be ready until 2pm (the staff at SNR were great and got us into our rooms by 10:00) We had the day to ourselves so organised a tour to Labuk Bay for that afternoon. The next day Adrian arrived and we had no more problems. On Day 6 of our 8day tour, Adrian left us in the care of Borneo Nature Tours who took us to Danum Valley. That transfer, at least, went smoothly, though we were sad to say goodbye to Adrian. The last two days went smoothly and we had no trouble with our transfer out to Lahad Datu airport. We did have a few hiccups at the beginning or our trip causing us a bit of concern, but they were corrected and did not spoil our holiday. These problems could easily be fixed through better communication between the companies. Overall we had a great time, nothing was missed off the itinerary, the staff at all locations were friendly and helpful, the accommodation clean and comfortable and the wildlife amazing! I would recommend Rustic Borneo, and I would highly recommend Adrian as a guide. Thank you for making our adventure so much fun. Joanne & Jean