Danum Valley

Danum Valley protects several hundred square kilometres of lowland dipterocarp forest that was never logged, which in Borneo is rare enough to matter. The trees are enormous, and the canopy walkway strung between them puts you level with fruiting figs where hornbills and gibbons feed at first light. Wild orangutans are seen regularly rather than reliably, along with red leaf monkeys, bearded pigs and, at night, flying squirrels and slow loris. There is no road you can simply drive up: everything runs through the lodge or the field centre, and the journey in is two to three hours of dust and logging trucks. That filter is why the forest is quiet and why the wildlife behaves normally.

What you actually see

• The canopy walkway - a suspension bridge at fig-tree height, best at dawn.
• Wild orangutans - unhabituated animals seen from the trails, never fed or handled.
• Night drives - spotlit flying squirrels, civets and roosting birds along the access road.
• The Segama river - swimming holes below the lodge and an old cliff burial site above the valley.

When to go

March to October is generally drier, though this is rainforest and rain falls in any month. Wildlife activity concentrates in the first two hours after dawn and the last hour before dark, so nights on site matter more than days. Both the lodge and the field centre take limited numbers and fill months ahead.

Honest expectations

It is expensive by Malaysian standards, and the price is not negotiable because there is no independent access. The road in is long and rough, and private cars are not allowed on it. Leeches are constant in wet weather, humidity is heavy, and sightings are luck: some groups see orangutans daily, others see none in three days.

Nearby

Lahad Datu is the gateway; Tabin Wildlife Reserve and the Kinabatangan lie to the north.