The Best Way to See Wildlife in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

The city of Kota Kinabalu may not be the first thing you think of when you think of Malaysia. It’s a coastal city on the island of Borneo with a population of less than 245,000 residents. It also happens to be a short 2-hour flight from Manila, Philippines, so I planned a 3-day excursion to Kota Kinabalu from Manila for its close proximity to rainforests and jungles to see some wildlife.

For tours in Asia, I find that it’s easier and cheaper to book them once I get to my destination. Our hotel, Dreamtel Kota Kinabalu, was very helpful and was able to arrange the tour for us. Front desk gave us a few options, but what stood out to me was the proboscis monkey and fireflies full day river cruise in the Garama wetlands. It cost RM185 per person (CAD$55 per person) and came with hotel pick-up and drop-off, dinner and snacks, and two river cruises.

This was booked on our last day in Kota Kinabalu, with our flight back to Manila at midnight. We checked out of our hotel and had our full backpacks with us when we were picked up by our shared minivan.

Upon arrival, we were greeted with local coconut snacks and received lifejackets. Now would also be a good time to apply sunscreen and insect repellant. You won’t get wet on the boat, and we has room to store our backpacks under our seats.

The first river cruise took us to through the jungle until we reached an open South China Sea for sunset. Throughout our cruise, we saw a few herds of wild water buffalo, swimming monitor lizards, and a lot of proboscis monkeys playing, eating, and mating. Our tour guide said it was very rare to see them (so clearly) mating. You also see a few homes right on the shores with people washing clothes in the water and kids swimming. We never actually got close enough to intrude on the animals’ natural behavior and our boat was very quiet to not disturb them.

We docked back on land to eat dinner and freshly made rice and coconut desserts.

Once it got dark, we returned back to our boat to watch the fireflies. This was extremely relaxing as you saw hundreds to thousands of fireflies glowing along the boat and nearby, and it was basically impossible to get pictures in the dark so you weren’t blinded by people’s camera flashes. Our tour guide had an instrument that made a low noise which caused the fireflies to glow brighter. It was an amazing time to just enjoy the sounds of the jungle and wildlife.

Our hotel was very close to the airport (10-minute drive), so I asked if our driver could possibly drop us off at the airport instead of our hotel. They were so kind and made sure we were at our correct terminal on time for our flight. We tipped our driver and tour guide the same amount it would have cost us to take a taxi to the airport, plus a little extra for the actual tour.

If you’re thinking of going on a short trip to Kota Kinabalu, I would highly recommend this ethical and nonintrusive way of seeing rainforest wildlife for a day.