AOB - Trails of Borneo 7th August

Hello, Myself and a friend have booked to go on this trip to Borneo. We're both young women - I'm 24 and my friend is 27. When I booked I was told that the group is a real mix of ages and currently there are four groups of two booked - ages are two 20s, two 30s, one 40s, one 50s and two 60s. Are you coming on your own or with a friend?  I'm from Essex (though not the stereotype!) and my friend is from Dublin, but now living in Essex.

Myself and my partner are booked on this trip.

Im 25 going on my own which is scary, lol. Have any of you got facebook so we can get to know eachother a bit better beforehand?

Hi all,

 Looking forward to this trip. Been wanting to go on this trip for a year or two and finally got round to doing it. 

I do have a facebook account but only ever use it to post photos really :-)

Was watching the Planet Earth DVD Caves episode yesterday and was showing the Borneo caves. They look amazing.

 backpack_doug 

Hi, we're the '50s couple'! Joanne and Martyn Tate from Wetherby, Yorkshire. We did 'Discover Namibia' with Exodus last year and had the most amazing trip ever. That trip had singles, couples and older families and the mix was great. I think if you go on a trips such as these, everyone is like minded. So looking forward to meeting everyone in August.

Hi to the group,

I'm Jim, and Madeleine and I (both of us in the 50s category) will also be on this trip. We had originally booked a place on the Moon Mountains of Uganda trek, but it was cancelled early on. We have travelled with Exodus on quite a number of previous occasions and have always enjoyed what's been on offer.

Hi

We are the 60s couple, Malcolm and Jean. and we travel with his Nikon D80 camera and any other photography clutter he can sneak into the luggage. Fortunately with only 15kg allowed the tripod will have to stay at home this time.  This is our first Exodus trip but we have done a lot of group tours with Explore and some with JLA and other companies and always enjoy the mix of personalities, ages and, usually, the different nationalities on the trip (but don't know about this as yet) .  When not travelling, we are to be found on our allotment!

 

Hello everyone - it looks like we've got about 12 of the group of 16 going to Borneo already talking on this forum, which is pretty impressive. This is the first 'adventurous trip' I've done and also my first time to Asia outside of Singapore airport, so I'm really looking forward to it. It's come about quickly it's really starting to sink in that in less than 3 months we'll all be trekking through the oldest rainforest in the world. Oh and we're climbing a mountain! - I need to work on getting fit for that a bit more in the gym! It's great that we seem to have a real mix of ages going on this trip and I'm really looking forward to getting to know you all, while hopefully taking in some fantastic scenery!

Oops!!! Glad last post mentioned climbing a mountain as we are giving this a miss and actually depart 14 August on a different Borneo trip!  Need to pay more attention in future and find out just who we are travelling with. Enjoy yourselves. Jean

Hi Everyone, we are the second couple in their 60's. Alan and Jess Milligan from Cheshire. We have travelled many times with Exodus (trekking mostly) having started in our 40's and been to many parts of the globe but not to the Far East. We have enjoyed ourselves immensely on all our trips and we are very much looking forward to this one and to meeting you all.

We have conflicting advice about necessity for malaria tablets. Some web-sites suggest the areas we are in are minimal risk and not needed, others say the whole of Borneo is risk area. What are other people doing with regards taking ( or not) malaria tablets?

When I went to the travel clinic to have all my vaccinations I was told that the coastal areas of Borneo are minimal risk and they wouldn't necessarily advise malaria tablets for those parts. However, as soon as you leave the coastal tourist areas and start heading inland, they do recommend tablets. As we are trekking inland and especially in the jungle areas, I was advised to take them. I was told by a friend of a friend who is from Sabah and lives there now, that the part of our trip on the ox-bow river, I think on the kinabatangan river is where we'll have most problems with the mosquitos and he advised that I should get all the vaccinations recommended and take malaria tablets just to be sure. I've been prescribed malarone.

I have been told the same thing that Amberley had posted, that if going inland to jungle areas then the recommendation is to take malaria tablets. 

Thanks for the info re malaria (other half of Martyn Tate  - just remembered my login etc!!). It is as I suspected, that we would need them for the jungle bits. So Malarone it is.

We have finally got our malaria tablets sorted and are taking larium.