Few places in the world are as wild, remote and resource-rich as its third largest island, Borneo. Surrounded by the Java, Celebes, Sulu and South China seas, this eden-like environment combines some of the world's oldest rainforests and cloud-shrouded granite peaks with a biodiversity matched by very few places on earth.

Orangutans, proboscis monkeys and Sumatran rhinos are just some of the hundreds of different animal species that live on an island that also teems with countless birds, bats and insects.

Borneo is also a botanist's dream, with an incredible 15,000 species of flowering plants and 3,000 types of tree - so it's little wonder that it was here that the celebrated British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace undertook much of his research into evolutionary theory in the 19th century.

Logging and palm oil plantations have threatened large areas of the forest since then, but much remains untouched and other parts are now being given over to re-growth projects.

Borneo is divided between three countries, with two-thirds lying within the Indonesian state of Kalimantan and the tiny sultanate of Brunei nestling between the two Malaysian provinces of Sabah and Sarawak. The latter are easily reached on a two- to three-hour flight from the Malaysian Peninsula and, as such, are the most visited parts of Borneo.

Sarawak has associations with head hunters and tribal longhouses, and was ruled over for 100 years by a dynasty known as the White Rajahs. Sabah, meanwhile, is known for its world-class dive sites and the imposing Mount Kinabalu. Fabulous wildlife encounters can be enjoyed in both and these remain the focal point of a trip to Malaysian Borneo.