I can honestly recommend Sukau River Homestay and their Kinabatangan river tours. Price in 2024: MYR 100 per night with 3 meals per person, MYR 60 per trip per person. They do 3 trips a day. We thought we might do a few tours, but during our 3 night stay, we just took ALL the tours available because the tours were awesome. The guide Shah is super knowledgeable. Their boat isn't big. The homestay has a total of 2 rooms, so you may travel with people from the other room.
Homestay conditions: you live with the family and use the same bathroom. The standard of the rooms and bathrooms is very basic. There is no hot water in shower, there is one micro washbasin in common area. The food was nice, simple and homemade. The owner Maria likes to talk about local nature, as well as about her family, farm and life in Borneo. Staying here, you feel that the locals love the nature and even though crocodiles eat their ducks and hornbills steal their chickens, they talk about wild animals with passion and fascination, keep a diary of the species they encounter, etc.
I think that due to the quality of the trips, it is worth turning a blind eye to the basic standard of stay. We saw many proboscis monkeys, langurs, a gibbon, several species of macaques, an elephant crossing a river, 5 crocodiles, 2 snakes, several monitor lizards, a civet, a ruffed cat and a hyper-rare fish-hunting cat, flat-headed cat. Trips last 2-3 hours, but sometimes they last up to 4 hours if there are a lot of interesting things. It's not like the hour has struck and we're rushing back to the guesthouse.
About the birds:
We encountered 40-50 species of birds, including 5 species of hornbills. It might seem like not much, but we aren't 100% birdwatching crazies (YET), and we took the tours with a couple of other guests, so we didn't want to force looking for obscure species. Anyway, the guide Shah (Maria's brother) has knowledge of species, and is in Whatsapp/Facebook groups with other guides. So if you have target species, I think you can make special arrangements for special tours. From conversations with Shah I know that he worked with film crews on longer projects, he also helped some guests to find the infamous Bornean ground cuckoo. Shah's English isn't perfect, but after you get used to Malaysian pronunciation it gets easier to communicate. He also has an English field guide book with him, this helps a little.
Oh, and the Homestay has their own private nesting booth for hornbills, so even at home you have a constant show of male oriental pied hornbill coming to feed the female staying with two nestlings.
Contact the hostess Maria via Whatsapp: +60 13-870 0908 (+60138700908)
We arrived in a rented car from Kota Kinabalu, but they can also arrange a transfer from Sandakan.
