Stopover at Aloft

Our return to Kuala Lumpur was brief, a one night stay at the funky and swanky Aloft Hotel. We split up the flights and road travel from Borneo with our international flights to give us a chance to recover. Of course, we chose somewhere with a gorgeous rooftop infinity pool and for our six waking hours in KL we spent most of it by the pool drinking caipirinhas and mojitos. At the hotel’s Nook restaurant we had our last taste of Malaysia; it was suitably decked out in lime green to fit in with our holiday theme.

Getting to the airport from Aloft is effortless, at KL Sentral there’s an express train direct to the terminal. Ingeniously it has a desk for you to check-in your bags and get your boarding tickets, right from the train station. Our heavy rucksacks were whisked away out of sight, presumably packed onto the train, and delivered straight to our flight. Amazing.

Goodbye Malaysia

From KL we flew to Dubai in an Airbus A380 — the double-decker plane. Then on to Gatwick and Brighton. 24 hours later we were in bed, sleeping off our jet lag, our incredible Borneo adventure was over. From the dizzying heights of the Petronas Towers, to the humid Sarawakan rainforests, to the decadent luxury of a Shangri-la, and finally to Danum valley’s incredible jungle wilderness; Malaysia, Borneo — you are sublime.