When most people think of seeing headhunters, they probably associate that with finding a job. However, the headhunters we went to see today didn’t dress in flash suits and go over our CVs . We went to see the tribal village Kuai that had once been the home of the fearsome headhunter named Monsopiad, and is now conserved by his descendants.

This village is called the “Monsopiad Cultural Village” and it is built on the lands where the Kadazan tribes lived. The Kadazan are the biggest ethnic group in Sabah, and their origin seems to be Chinese, although their language and culture is very different from that of the Chinese.

Monsopiad was a fearsome and respected warrior chief who ruled this village around 300 years ago. And while his headhunting days are over, over 42 trophy skulls remain for all to see. We don’t have photos of them, but we will show them in the video we’ll post when we have a bit more time to edit our video footage.

As a sign of respect for the warrior chief Monsopiad, another tribe gave him a carved Orangutan skull (above photo) as a gift. But it also had an ulterior motive - they were showing him that they were skilled since they could not only carve wood, but also bone.

One of the highlights of our visit was a performance done by a traditional dance troupe. Here you can see Grace learning some of the dance steps . This dance was a relatively easy slow number. Then when my turn came, I had to try to dance a headhunter dance and weave my feet between moving bamboo poles! If my life depended on the results of that dance, I wouldn’t be writing this post, as I was not as fast-footed as the experienced dancers

Many of these dancers, and our guide are descendants of the Kadazan ethnic group, and in some houses near the village live the direct descendants of Monsopiad.

So was Monsopiad a hero or villain? To his people, he was a hero who defended them from pirates and other robbing parties, however to others (including some westerners), he is seen as a savage because of the heads he kept as trophies.

And while headhunting is a long dead tradition, people live in similar houses all over Borneo, and many still practice some of their cultural traditions.

As for us, we had a great time, tried some traditional rice wine (which actually tastes a bit like sweet white wine), tried the dance, and saw a way of life that seems to be long gone.

G: I like weekends! The markets are closed and I don’t have to do any trading

Our brand new water-proof camera case has been sitting in the suitcase collecting dust since we’ve arrived in Borneo, so today we took it for a test run . We went to the nearby Mamutik and Manukan islands for some snorkeling action, so the case came in very handy!

First of all, I’ll say I had great fun filming underwater! More because it was so beautiful underwater than because it was easy to film

The people who designed the underwater case seem to have never tried it when snorkeling under normal conditions! (It’s a Sony case by the way).

The main problem with the case is that when swimming, the glare from the light over the mirror in the visor of the case makes it nearly impossible to see what you are filming! So about 99% of the time I was filming blind, without being able to see what I was filming and just trying to point it in the right direction. And while I was still able to get some good footage and photos, it would have been a lot better if I could have seen what I was shooting! I also have some issues with the auto-focus of this camera, but I’ll cover that in a review about the cam in the future.

Here’s one good picture I got of a clown fish, although a lot of the pictures didn’t come out as good. To help attract fish, I brought a plastic bag full of bread into the water, even without actually taking the bread out as long as I let some water out of the bag, the fish would horde around me trying to feed on it. When I saw this clown fish, I followed it and it led me to the sea anemone that it lives next to. It was a fairly big clown fish, and most of the others in the anemone were much smaller.

While swimming in the coral with the beautiful fish swirling around, I couldn’t help thinking I was in paradise! And the best part is that I truly am!

G: There are a lot of corals (both dead and living) and a wide variety of fishes even in the shallow waters. Understandably, most of the corals that are very close to the shore are already dead due to human trauma (humans stepping on them and more disturbance), but as we snorkeled slightly further, there were beautiful living hard and soft corals. Marine fishes are aplenty. It was a great pleasure to get close to them!

While on this snorkeling trip, I reminisced about my marine biology days, about how I used to track seahorses and how I wanted to be the voice of marine conservation. Biodiversity conservation is my passion, in addition to trading.

Unlike some other places, it seems that here they want to preserve their marine environment and are taking steps towards conservation including heavily fining anyone who takes corals or any artifacts from the sea. If you have a marine aquarium at home or work, there is a very high chance that those pretty corals and marine creatures have been taken illegally from the sea, obtained using environmentally-damaging ways, such as using cyanide (a poison) to aid in capturing of marine life, which in turn harms the corals and the whole marine ecosystem.

That is the main reason why I don’t keep a marine aquarium anymore.

G: We ended up with bad sunburn (worse than a tan) and painful cuts from corals and rocks. But you know what, we aren’t really complaining

At 9:20am this morning our flight touched down in Kota Kinabalu. It was a very short flight (40 min) from Sandakan, but as soon as we got into the city, it seemed a world apart. While Sandakan really felt rural and remote, Kota Kinabalu is bustling with tourists and full of new shopping malls and apartment buildings. But there is still that contrast, for as soon as we got out of the city, we could see fishing villages that looked as if they were built the same way they had been for generations!

After having a look around town, we headed down to the mangroves to see what type of wildlife we could see here. On the way, we stopped at a fruit stall and Grace was busy as always, checking currency prices and on the phone with people . We did notice that the reception wasn’t too good as we got onto the river, but it is pretty amazing that we could be in the middle of the jungle, on a boat, and getting work done!

Most of the wildlife is similar to what we’d seen in Sandakan, although we saw a lot more wildlife there as there were less tourists and the wildlife got closer to the river. What we did see though were some interesting fishing villages built on stilts in the river, and as the sun set, we saw a host of fireflies converge in the trees, lighting their sparks to attract mates

For a good part of the boat ride, it was pouring. The little disposable rain coats we were wearing did little to shield us from the rain. So by the time we were done, we were soaked!

Today we needed to do some work in the morning and so we could only go out to see wildlife a bit later on. The downside of being in the jungle is that you can’t really connect to the internet wherever you are as most places don’t have GPRS, much less 3G. To get around this, we have to do all our work in the hotel room where they have a high-speed internet connection.

This leads to certain “problems”. For example, we wanted to stay in a lodge in the middle of the jungle to observe wildlife day and night for a few days, but since we need internet access to keep up with our work, we had to book a hotel that has a fast connection, and the ones that do are a few hours drive from the heart of the jungle. I guess we’ll have to get used to this as we travel the world balancing our work with our blog.

Anyway, after we finished the things we had to do, we set off to the Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Reserve. This reserve is really part of a palm-oil plantation. Around 7 years ago, it seems the owner decided to do something about the proboscis monkeys on the mangrove swamp he owned, and turned it into a wildlife sanctuary for them.

At first I was a bit disillusioned with this reserve, it seemed a lot smaller than the Sepilok orangutan sanctuary, and more intent on taking tourists’ money than it did on helping wildlife. First of all, foreigners have to pay 3 times more than locals to get in, then if you bring a camera, you have to pay and if you bring a video camera you have to pay more. These camera charges have nothing to do with helping wildlife as a non-flash camera doesn’t harm them at all! But everyone here makes tourists pay to bring cameras in, and they figure if tourists have come so far, they won’t want to leave without a photo!

However, after talking to the people who work in this reserve, I think it’s actually a positive thing for the wildlife. Sure, they’ve lost most of their habitat to the plantation, but at least the plantation is now taking care of them. And even though it may only be doing so to get tourist dollars, at least that is motivating them to do something for the wildlife.

Apart from the proboscis monkeys, we also saw two species of horn bills (Grace got her wish! ), macaques and the silver leaf monkey (languor). On our way out we had another funny encounter with nature as an otter had gotten into our car and seemed to be enjoying it too much to leave!

Tomorrow we’ll be flying to Kota Kinabalu and off to see new wildlife and places in nature!

If any of you are considering Sandakan, here are some tips. Tours are generally overpriced, way above what you would expect in a place like this, but there is almost no way to visit the places on your own, so you have to go with a guide. And if you don’t need internet, you’re probably better off getting a package that includes all tours and accommodation in a rain forest lodge!