Travelling advice needed!!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I am going travelling around April 20th and would love some advice on my route I’m planning!

Just a bit of background info- I have done a lot of travelling. I have travelled all around India, a lot of Africa, Thailand, Laos, Sri Lanka, Europe and America. For the most part I will be on my own, and Im female and 24. Timewise I want to be away for about a month or less. I don’t like staying in places for very long at all, I like to be on the move all the time-I went around the majority of India in three weeks for example. I have about £3000 to spend but really would like to keep it to below £2000. I like being away from crowds and anywhere that is too westernised and full of drunk teenagers

Okay, so here is the plan so far. There are several options!

I have a friend who is a medic who is working in Malaysia in a hospital, somewhere between Kuala Lumpar and Singapore. I could go and visit her, so option 1 is to fly to Kuala Lumpar and travel down the coast to Singapore, stopping at places on the way, including where she is. I would then get a cheap flight from Singapore to Manila in the Philippines to explore the Philippines.

What I want to point out is that the Philippines is the main place I want to go. It has been my dream destination since I was little and so that is the main point of this trip. But there is a but! It is too expensive to fly in and out of it from the UK, hence why I will be going somewhere else before and after.

After the Philippines I then have the choice of going to Borneo, Bali or Java. Borneo appeals the most because I want to visit the Orangatan ophanage in the jungle. Bali appeals the least because it would be most commercialised and least interesting…or so I think.

I would then go back to KL, and fly home from there. The tricky bit is getting from the Philippines to the next place. Apart from KL and Hong Kong there aren’t many other flights out of Manilla.

So, option 2, is to fly in and out of Hong Kong instead of KL…and skip seeing my friend. From Hong Kong I can fly to Manilla, travel around the Philippines and then maybe get a boat from the philippines to Borneo, and then get back to HK to fly home.

It is a lot cheaper to fly in and out of HK than KL from the UK and I would only want to stay in HK for a few days before moving on, so I would have more time for everywhere else than if I flew into KL.

If any of you have been to any of these places what would you recommend? Is Hong Kong better than Kuala Lumpar? And do you have any recommendations about Indonesia or Borneo? And am I being realistic about getting between each place and the time Im hoping to do this all in?

Thank you :slight_smile:

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Sorry, can’t help with much about the Phillipines or KL, but I have been to Borneo and I visited an oragutan orphanage called Sepilok. It was really cool - the highlight is feeding time when you get to see the young orangutans take the “rope trail” out to the feeding station. We also did a night hike through the preserve. We could see the reflections of the eyes of some orangutans up in the trees, but the highlight was trying to find the amazing stick-like insects.

What I wanted to mention was that when we arrived at Sepilok, we were told of this Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary. It wasn’t included in our package, so it was an additional cost. After about an hour’s drive (if memory serves), we arrived at this place and it was way cool. Apparently this is one of the few places where they have been able to get the proboscis monkeys to visit on a regular basis. So at these set feeding times, these groups of monkeys “wander” (by way of the trees) to the place and you get to watch them and take pictures. There were also some other monkeys who try to snag the food as well.

So if you end up at Sepilok for the orangutan’s, I wanted to recommend this Labuk Bay place as something you might want to check out.