Borneo Beaches and Jungles
September 2025
Sheila and I traveled to Borneo to scuba dive, snorkel around Sipaden and explore rivers and jungles in Sabah.
How it happened
Sheila and I were chatting with a fellow traveler in a bar in Madagascar (in 2016), and she told us about Borneo, with wildlife including pygmy elephants and orangutans, so it had been on our radar for awhile. Sheila recently started scuba diving and heard about the incredible diving at Sipadan, off the coast of Borneo. It all came together this year, and off we went.
The travel company Scuba Junkie had been recommended to her, so we went with them. They had a “sister company” River Junkie that organized trips to the jungle, and we used them for the second part of our trip.
Borneo is the third largest island in the world, located near southeast Asia. It has three countries on it: Indonesia, Malaysia, or Brunei. We stayed in Malaysia for this trip.
Best of
If you look at all these pages, and think – gosh, that’s a lot to go through, even though I’m sure they are all great photos – Here’s some of my favorite photos.
Pages
Sorry, but nothing was found. Please try a search with different keywords.
Locations
I had terrible keeping all these places beginning with ‘S’ separate, so here they are in order of our trip:
Sabah: The state we spent most of our time. It’s northwest in Borneo.
Semporna: A not-terribly-impressive seaside city in Sabah where Scuba Junkie departs for Mabul island, where their diving resort is located.
Sipadan: An island with one of the richest marine habitats in the world. It is a marine park, so access is strictly limited. Mabul Island is nearby.
Sepilok: A small town in the state of Sabah. It’s home to two wildlife sanctuaries (Orangutans and Sun Bears) and the Rain forest Discovery Center.
Sandakan: large city in Sabah near Sepilok
We bounced all over Sabah:
