Plan A Trip - Borneo

As I said in my earlier post, a good life for me is being able to Plan a Trip, Take a Trip and then Plan the Next Trip.  I find that travel planning is almost as fun as taking the trip and it always lasts longer.

What I have really enjoyed most about planning this trip is discovering You Tube travel videos and shopping.  Let me share with you some of my favorites in each of these two travel planning activities.

There are tons of videos about Borneo travel and I have enjoyed discovering the many by professional travel bloggers who visited many of the sites we are planning to go to.  Here are links to just a few of the good ones.

Borneo Rainforest Lodge

Sakau Rainforest Lodge

 Danum Valley

Mulu Marriott

Shopping For Borneo

Finally, trip planning is never complete without pre-trip shopping.  For this trip there were several things that we needed and travel shopping is always fun.  Here is part of our our shopping list for a nature oriented trip to the hot tropics.

Camera Options

I think that this will be a trip where my iPhone photography won't be enough to capture the wildlife shots I want.  But, I hate the weight and bulk of SLR cameras and long lenses, so what options do I have.  I decided on getting a new very small, fit in my pocket, camera with a 30x zoom.  With the Sony DXC WX500, I hope I can capture shots of Orangutan in the trees, animals on the shore on our river boat rides and many bird shots.  It takes high quality photos and has many options for settings.  I also like that it connect wirelessly with my iPhone to quickly transfer photos.

This camera is an experiment so I'll let you know how it works out.  I also got it because I can also shoot video with it.  But as another video option, I have borrowed a friends GoPro 5 to experiment making GoPro videos.

Binoculars

For a wildlife tour and birdwatching, good binoculars are a must have.  I already have a pair of Eagle Optics 8x40 which I have loved.  But for this trip we are done sharing one pair of binoculars so we have added a new Nikon Monarch 7 10x 42.  After a good deal of research I chose the Nikon Monarch because of the quality at a good price point.  I am excited to see how they work in the wild.

Water Shoes
We expect to be hiking on wet jungle paths and through rivers on the nature walks during our trip.  I am never comfortable walking in water over wet rocks so I decided to try water shoes this trip.  After a little research of many brands we each bought a pair of Aleader Slip-on Water Shoes.

 I’ve tried them on and wow are they comfortable.  The top is a porous mesh fabric and the soles have holes to allow water to completely drain through.  They should be perfect for hiking in along a river and just wearing around the hotel pool.

Borneo Bird Book
There are more than 600 species of birds in Borneo including several species of Hornbill and many others that are endangered and can only be seen on this island.  A Borneo specific field guide is essential if you are serious about birdwatching and want to come home with a long list of new birds on your life list as I do.

I selected Birds of Borneo by Susan Meyers.  There were several options but reviews tipped me to this book as the right size and ease of use.  It will be in my backpack for every hike!

Clothing for Hot Hikes.
As we read about the nature tours we will be taking, there were lots of warnings about the leeches in Borneo and to beware of getting a leech on your skin from walking in the rainforest.  They recommend hiking with long pants, long sleeves and wearing Leech Socks which cover your socks and the lower portion of your pants.  Those we will buy at our resort but I take this leech thing seriously so I wanted a cool, loose fitting, long sleeve shirt to hike in.

For that I turned to Patagonia where I got the RO Long Sleeved Sun Tee with 50 UPF and also a couple of other short sleeve shirts for the trip. I hope this will keep the leeches of my arms!!