The ‘wild’ island

SABAH, Malaysia — Soaking with sweat from the short walk along the jungle path, Cathy McGuiness, a red-haired medical technician from Ireland, is excited. Like a groupie with the opportunity to met her favorite rock star, she can’t stop smiling.

She has been dreaming of this day for more than a decade: finally, to be face-to-face with an orangutan, the original red-haired “wild man” of Borneo.

“This is what I came out to see. It’s a dream come true,” she says.

Years ago, while she was sitting in front of a grainy television screen on a cold and rainy Irish afternoon, a documentary about the orangutan sanctuary of Sepilok, Borneo, came on the air.

“I was hooked. The red hair. They seemed so human. I just had to get out here,” she says while walking to Sepilok’s jungle feeding station.

The day before, Miss McGuiness, 26, and her traveling companion, Joe Lawson, 28, a British medical technician, played golf along the South China Sea. A more conventional traveler who usually chooses New York; Paris; Venice; or Florence, Italy, for vacation, Mr. Lawson had been skeptical about coming to Malaysia to see “monkeys,” but after 18 holes along the South China Sea, he has been converted by Borneo.

“The rough was a little rougher than I am used to,” he says. “There was a 4-foot lizard lying in the sun next to my ball, but the golf was great. I think we were the only ones on the course, and the people treated us like royalty. The food is great. I’d come back.”

In addition to miles of white-sand beach that the couple had to themselves, there was snorkeling on coral reefs; looking at Borneo’s birds, butterflies, tropical fish and wild orchids; a natural turtle hatchery; and the diverse Malaysian culture. It was all a bit of a sensory overload.

“Every day about 3 p.m., the birds would start singing suddenly. It was a cacophony of sound out of the jungle that was just amazing. We never got over that,” Miss McGuiness says. She later talks about “recommending Borneo to everyone” after returning to London.

With a short stop in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, it takes almost 24 hours of flying to reach Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from the East Coast of the United States. From “KL,” as Kuala Lumpur is known in this area, to Borneo is another two-hour flight, and from Koto Kinabalu to Sandakan is another hourlong flight.

Nothing this exotic comes easily.

Sepilok is a 4,000-acre orangutan sanctuary for the remarkably humanlike primates, which are being rehabilitated for return to the wild. Orangutan babies often are adopted illegally as pets after their mothers are killed in the Malaysian date-palm plantations, which are chewing up the orangutans’ jungle habitat. When the babies grow, they become a problem and often are abandoned, but they do not have the skills to survive in the jungle.

At Sepilok and at the five-star Shangri-La Rasa Ria Resort, Malaysian wildlife rangers spend years teaching tame orangutans, which means “forest people,” to forage for food and to swing through the Borneo jungle canopy before they can be returned to the wild.

Every morning, tourists gather at Sepilok headquarters to walk about a half-mile into the jungle and watch the orangutan feeding. There is no guarantee the red-haired “wild men” will show up, but on this day, the canopy overhead begins to crash, quiver and shake, and four orangutans come in swinging from the trees. According to the rangers, the young ones come for food. The older ones, he says, come “for the ladies.”

Asked if the walk through the unbearably hot, humid, leech-infested tropical jungle to see the orangutans in the wild has fulfilled her expectations, Miss McGuiness is thoughtful.

“I was very aware that these animals were wild and how strong they are, and yet I had no fear, even when I was standing right next to an 8-year-old,” she says. “Walking among the gigantic trees in the intense humidity, even though there was noise all around, there was something extremely peaceful about being there.”

On the return walk, our guide, John Nair, suddenly stops and points into a tree just off the path. Almost perfectly camouflaged in the leaves of the tree, coiled and sleeping, is a brilliant emerald-green and black-striped pit viper, one of Borneo’s most poisonous snakes.

There is no attempt to get any closer to that deadly beauty.

Although our accommodations in Shangri-La’s Tanjung Aru Resort in Koto Kinabalu, as well as Rasa Ria, overlooking the clear, sparkling blue sea, have every luxury — from dozens of Western and Asian gourmet restaurants to orchids on the pillows — you don’t have to go far in Borneo to find wild.

The people of Malaysia, a majority-Muslim nation and an ally of the United States in the war on terrorism, are warm, friendly and, without exception during a 10-day visit, hospitable. Though the newspapers are filled with anti-U.S. letters to the editor and Muslims-against-Christians-and-Jews editorials, it is difficult to find Western visitors who can cite any firsthand experience of anti-Western discrimination.

In Sipadan in May 2001, Americans were kidnapped from a dive resort by Islamic fundamentalists from the Philippines. Several were killed, but since then, the area has beefed-up naval patrols, and divers are returning to the area, which many consider to be the top diving area in the world.

Clement Lee, who runs a dive operation there, says the problem no longer exists. “It is very safe now,” he says over a lunch of Malaysian seafood dipped in spicy ginger-soy-chili sauce.

While the State Department maintains a “travel warning” on the region, caution remains a byword for Western tourists here and in many places.

“People are very nice, and we have never felt any threat,” says a European who has lived in the area with his family for several years, “but we are cautious and try to keep a low profile.”

The next day, we drive to Mount Kinabalu — at 13,428 feet the highest point in Borneo — to visit the wild-orchid park. Unexpectedly, dozens of ultramarathoners from all over the world are running up and down the steep track in preparation for Borneo’s Kinabalu marathon, which is to take place in a few days.

Borneo, including Mount Kinabalu, is home to more than 1,000 species of wild orchids, and the park has many species, from a pinhead-size orchid to necklace orchids and larger specimens (locked behind security fences) worth hundreds of thousands of dollars on the illegal collectors market. The park also has dozens of species of carnivorous pitcher plants, large and small, whose flowers devour insects.

The park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has one of the most remarkable collections of plants in the world.

A day later, we are snorkeling on coral reefs by islands just off the Tanjung Aru Resort. We see dozens of tropical fish species — from moray eels to clown fish — and coral formations from fans to barrel and brain coral. I also see my first giant clam, about 4 feet across, with almost neon-brilliant purple, blue and red flesh.

On the way back to the United States, we spend a night in Kuala Lumpur, the capital. A stop by the Petronas Towers, the world’s second-tallest building; the king’s house; Hindu Batu caves; and a batik factory are almost required for first-time visitors. Our group finds the Jalan Petaling Chinese Market particularly rewarding.

Vendors set up on both sides and the middle of two blocks in the center of KL’s Chinatown. Knockoffs of name-brand watches, sunglasses, CDs, DVDs, cell phones, clothing, purses and other merchandise are sold cheaply and brazenly and are bought readily.

A “Rolex,” a “Tag Heuer” and two “Gucci” watches are bought for $35 — total. “That is not a good fake [Rolex],” one vendor says. “I have a better one for $15. If you don’t take it in the water, it should last a year.”

“Oakley” sunglasses, which look like the real thing a friend is wearing, cost $10, but the genuine Oakleys were bought for $100.

Not fake, and completely off the tourist track, are three attractions where Kuala Lumpur’s visitors are unlikely to run into other Western tourists: an orchid garden, one of Asia’s largest aviaries and a butterfly garden. I spend a magical morning touring these three attractions.

The aviary is home to some of the weirdest-looking birds, especially several species of hornbill, that I have ever seen. Think of the raptors’ eyes in “Jurassic Park.”

Across the way, it is unbelievably hot and humid and raining lightly, and I have the 1-acre butterfly garden — with thousands of large and small blue, green, red and yellow butterflies still flying — to myself. It is breathtaking and like walking in a real Magic Kingdom. There also is an amazing insect museum featuring some very odd armored and horned beetles that are said to be the inspiration for Japanese samurai helmets. At the gift shop, I buy several key chains with beetles encased in clear plastic for my daughter and her friends, a group whose tastes run to the weird and wonderful.

Plenty more wow is just down the street at the orchid garden, two acres of orchids in every color of the rainbow. All cultivated, the garden is a favorite stopping place for Malaysian bridal parties seeking an astonishing backdrop for photographs.

On my next trip to Malaysia — and there will be a return trip — I want to take the evening riverboat cruise to witness the millions of fireflies along the banks blinking simultaneously. There also is a very popular ghosts-of-Malaysia tour, in which guides are said to conjure real ghosts.

Businesspeople in the region for work would do well to add a couple of extra days to take in KL, do some diving or see the “wild men.” Malaysia is not easy to reach, but it is worth the effort.