A slow boat along Sabah's Kinabatangan River turns up more wild orangutans in an afternoon than most people see in a lifetime of nature documentaries.
The river cuts through one of the last stretches of lowland rainforest on Borneo, and its banks concentrate wildlife the way a waterhole does on the savanna. Twice a day, at dawn and again as the light goes gold before dusk, flat-bottomed boats nose along the water while guides scan the canopy for a telltale shiver of branches.
Orangutans move through the trees with a slow, deliberate grace, often a mother with an infant clinging to her flank, and it is common to drift beneath a fig tree and simply watch one feed for twenty unhurried minutes. Proboscis monkeys, hornbills and, if you are fortunate, a pygmy elephant herd wading through the shallows round out a single cruise.
Base yourself in Sukau or Bilit rather than day-tripping from Sandakan, since a lodge on the river gets you onto the water for both golden-hour cruises instead of just one. Bring a dry bag for anything electronic — afternoon squalls arrive fast and the boats have no real cover.
