Borneo is an island that not many travelers visit. This is mostly due to the high cost of activities and the long distances between destinations. Fortunately, there are good bus connections between major cities making it easy to travel by public transportation in Borneo.
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Bus in Borneo
The most common way of transportation is the bus. There are good bus connections between big cities. Consider the bus from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan, which is the base for the Kinabatangan River. All bus connections, times and tickets can be found on 12GO.Asia. It is recommended that you buy your tickets in advance. The buses fill up quickly and only a few go each day. You can do this easily and inexpensively through 12GO.Asia. Want tips or more help with 12GO.Asia? Let us know below or schedule a travel coach consultation!
The buses are large touring buses. You have reasonable legroom and the rides are comfortable. In some buses, the air conditioning is on turbo mode. Therefore, it is always smart to bring a sweater just to be sure. You will also need to bring plenty of water and food on longer trips. During lunch (between 12:00 and 14:00) and dinner (between 18:00 and 20:00), the driver will stop at a roadside restaurant. You then have about half an hour to eat something and make a toilet stop. These toilets are often very dirty, as everywhere in Asia. Also bring your own tissues or toilet paper because they often don’t have them here.
During your bus trip, you can dream away while looking out the window. You can drive right past Mount Kinabalu or past any of the other jungle areas in Borneo. Furthermore, you will see many palm tree plantations. Lots of palm tree plantations. Palm oil production in Borneo has exploded in the past 20 years. This has meant that there is very little jungle left and wildlife habitats are getting smaller and smaller. A worrisome development that fortunately many organizations are working on. At Deramakot Forest Reserve, rangers are planting back more and more fruit trees and numbers are slowly stabilizing.
Grab in Borneo
When you need to get around town, the Grab is the ideal solution. Grab is the Asian version of Uber and works the same way. You can use the app to determine where you want to be picked up and dropped off, the app tells you how much this ride will cost and looks for the nearest driver. You can pay automatically via your credit or debit card or choose to pay in cash.
Aircraft in Borneo
The northern part of Borneo, the province of Sabah, is where many travelers go. This is also where most of the airports are located. For little money, you can fly from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan and Tawau (Semporna). The annoying thing about flying is that it takes a relatively long time, you have to be at the airport 2 hours in advance and it can take longer to get your luggage. It is also unfortunate that you cannot see anything of the beautiful nature of Borneo and it is very harmful to the environment, especially these short distances.
There is a good bus network in Borneo that makes it easy to get from one place to another, especially with the help of 12GO.Asia. For the smaller pieces, the Grab is a very good and inexpensive solution. So be sure to visit this beautiful island and tour by bus all the beautiful places!
