Royal tour of Borneo

They were only there for one day but in that time they managed to take in some of Sabah’s finest tourist delights. We’re not talking about your average travellers, either. This was the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, better known as Kate and Wills.

Sabah, a state in Malaysian Borneo, welcomed the royal couple last September. They departed the capital Kota Kinabalu via helicopter, squeezing in as much scenery as possible with a flight over the Maliau Basin, which has a seven-level waterfall.

They were on their way to the jungles of Borneo at the Danum Valley research centre, where they got intimate with the giants of its magnificent rainforest. Hoisted up into the rainforest canopy by ropes, the couple were all smiles and no acrophobia. “I’m going to go 'whee’ and fly all the way up,” Kate told reporters. Connected to an ancient parashorea tomentella tree they were then pulled 42 metres skyward.

“What they are seeing is exactly what it would have looked like 150 million years ago as there has never been an ice age here. It is as if time stood still,” rope access technician Simon Amos said.

In the rainforest canopy, the couple were treated to the bird, monkey and insect life on high for ten minutes. Despite armies of ants, Kate said they could have stayed up there for hours.

One opportunistic leech saw its chance to sup on royal blood and attached itself to Kate’s ankle, an inconvenience she proceeded to daintily pick off.

Leeches are par for the course on a visit to the Borneo forest and if you choose to stay where Kate and Wills spent the afternoon – the Borneo Rainforest Lodge – staff will provide you with special leech socks.

The couple then took a helicopter to lunch at the Lodge and were served eight courses of local specialty food, including a fern salad with coconut and chicken soup cooked in rice wine.

Not even a royal hairdresser could control the Kate’s frizz, a consequence of rainforest humidity, which tracks at about 100 per cent in Borneo. It is that lush environment that breeds species you can encounter nowhere else – orang-utans, bearded pigs, pygmy elephants and stinking rafflesia flowers.

After lunch, they saw what they had both vocalised hope for – not just one orang-utan, but parents and baby – while on a tour with a guide from the Lodge.

Access to the Lodge is via a jungle canopy walkway suspended high above ground. The Lodge has 31 chalets on stilts that overlook a nearby river. For the Duke and Duchess however, it was the royal chalet, which comes complete with a sunken bath and staff quarters. This was built by the Sultan of Brunei, who never ended up visiting, warned off by a psychic aide.

That evening, William and Kate flew back to the capital of Sabah, Kota Kinabalu. They spent the night at the luxurious Shangri-La Tanjung beach resort. One imagines they would have taken a swim in the infinity edged pool if they were anonymous. Instead they chose to spend some quality time together and dine in their room privately.

It is said that of their nine-day Far East tour as representatives of the Queen in her Jubilee year, the happy couple were most excited about their time in the exotic wilds of Borneo. Best of all, you can take your own copy-cat tour of Sabah, minus the entourage, paparazzi and royal baggage, of course.

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