Borneo !!!! OMG

I am so sorry I have not written my blog, we have either been underwater, in the jungle, or on a deserted beach with no WIFI ... I have so much to write , so get a cup of tea, or a beer and prepare for our last week of amazing experiences....

Singapore rip off

So ... we arrived in Singapore, to our Hotel 81 , in Little India, It is just like being in India , especially at the weekend, hundreds and hundreds of Indians and Nepalese who head into town for the weekend , it was also Deepavali, , so a lot of locals on holiday shopping in the markets and buying gifts for their god... the food was divine , and we tried everything, the local ruby house will never seem the same again ... The smells of spices and the Bollywood music blaring out of shops made for a wonderful experience ....

A very rare flower !!

I was still feeling pretty awful, so most of Singapore was done in a pyrexic haze, we hopped on a open topped bus for a guided tour as I was as weak as a kitten and thought it would take out the leg work... we also got a boat cruise thrown in.. but by this time I was producing so much heat I could have run the electric boat we were travelling on ...  Singapore is a perfect city, clean , no traffic, organised, wealthy, punctual and efficient public services, but it has absolutely no soul .... except for little India. Lots of high rise buildings housing bankers who have made a hash of everybody's economy , who then party all night in the overly expensive , trendy , perfectly formed bars and clubs.... it is as if the skyscrapers are looking down on us laughing .. at us all trying to survive for the next 10 years... whilst the skyline is interspersed with cranes building more buildings forming an eyebrow making it look as if they are frowning !!!  ( you can tell I was pyrexic and hallucinating ) anyway we went to Raffles for  £15 Singapore sling which made me cross, as I was being made a monkey out of ... or felt like one as I skidded and crunched all the monkey nuts that had been thrown on the floor ..... We also went to the Botanical gardens which were beautiful, especially the Orchid gardens... We both agreed that Singapore was just a bit "too nice " , but underneath this squeaky clean city lies very high class sex trade !!!! an invisible trade for all those right bunch of bankers !!!!!

water bungalow 

The next day we flew to Borneo ...I was highly excited .... or was until my ears squeaked and crushed my head as we came into land ... from my cold ... thank the lord it was me and not Brian ...Dad always told us girls that he was bitten on the arm by a crazy man in Borneo during the war !!! ( cant think where I get my vivid imagination from ..) it was his BCG scar on his arm I was later to understand .. anyway I am going to find me that man and bite him back whilst in Borneo .....  We landed in Kota Kinabalu and booked our next weeks trips .... the following day we flew to Tawua aand got the bus passing palm oil plantations and cocoa farms to Semporna the diving resort which is supposed to be better than the barrier reef ...or as Jacques Cousteau put it " an untouched piece of art " ... our home for the next couple of nights was the Dragon Inn, built on stilts over water. our room was on planks of wood with the sea peeping between the cracks ... the bathroom had no drains, apart from the cracks between the planks.... you did not need a book in this loo !!! just watch the fish under you .... I am no longer a pescatarian , still pesky !!
The next day was an early start and a very fast exciting boat ride for an hour out to Mabul island.. a dive resort , Brian had a very sore throat ... well when I mean very , it was more like I had hidden crushed glass in his food, taken  a rusty saw and carved my way through his throat and then doused his neck in petrol and set fire to it ... lets just say he was suffering !!! ( nightmare !!)

Fatty boom boom

Brian laid on the beach whilst I was whisked off 30 minutes into the South China sea with my snorkelling guide Annie ( 60 year old yoga teacher !! Yikes ) I was not allowed to dive due to my cold .. nuts .. anyway we jumped in to the water and the boat zoomed off... Annie was dressed in a full wet suit ... I had my bikini on !!! felt a little under dressed to say the least ...It was an apprehensive hours snorkel, as I was stung by jellyfish, whilst Annie snorkelled ahead enjoying her hours snorkel ... we swam with the tide back to the boat, and I emptied my mask which was full ....... like having a salt water lavage .... we then headed to a lagoon which was much shallower, and I now had my urine soaked wetsuit on.... ( not mine ....) but hey it was still warm... it was like swimming in an aquarium, we saw so much, beautiful corals, swaying in the tide, huge starfish abandoned and being lifted and taken to a different site by the current, too many fish to name , razor fish, which swim vertically, parrotfish, trumpetfish, juvenile sweetlip fish ,Michael Fish,  huge shoals of fish who seem to swim by you doing the mexican wave in the most vivid electric blues and purples... I was finally rewarded with a pipefish , a lion fish which looked scary and a baby seahorse...  which sort of galloped by or trotted or what ever they do , which I had so been looking forward to , but no turtle ... we arrived back to the dive resort where I saw baby Brian getting out of the water .... before I could tell him what I had seen being dumped a mile away , he excitedly told me he had seen ... a lion fish, a Trumpet fish, a razor fish, a juvenile sweet lips, and shoals of tropical fish !! (no Michael Fish ) nuts man ... old  Neptune had seen the same as me off the end of the jetty... talk about piss on my fish and chips !!!! after lunch we decided to go snorkelling together, in my quest to find a turtle..... no sooner had Brian tripped and stumbled walking forwards in his flippers and gracefully plunging into the water,  a ruddy great big green turtle swam by ..... I kid you not !!! it was unbelievable , I swam with it for about 5 minutes and it brought tears to my eyes... (mainly salt water from my ill fitting mask and the ammonia from my urine drenched borrowed wet suit) , but certainly a very special moment.... we held hands snorkelling around for about an hour in awe at this underwater world, then headed back to our water bungalow for a well earned sleep ...

Pimms at Agnes Keiths

The next day we caught the bus to Sandakan, which took 6 hours, through many areas of deforestation and palm oil plantations.. Logging is a huge industry here, it started in 1920s when the T rans Siberian railway was being built and they needed the Borneo Iron wood for their railway sleepers,  many forests and jungles were cut down, and not replanted,  palm oil plantations have now replaced these forests , which is a very lucrative business , the oil is used as a bio fuel and in food stuffs, chocolate , bread and as an oil, I am sure we have all tried it or worst bought it.. well the orang utans are being forced out of their natural habitats and are dying out , very very sad.
We arrived in Sandakan and booked our trips , we also visited Agnes Keiths house !! as you are all aware a very famous author from the US. Her husband lived here and she wrote some book ... anyway during the Japanese occupation was taken as a POW for 3 years and wrote her novels and hid the pages in her childs soft toys.. she survived and published the books, all about Borneo and her experiences.. The death march was where Japanese soldiers made 2700 Australian and British soldiers walk 215 km through dense jungle ...  only 6 survived .... very upsetting... Agnes house was lovely,  teak floors and very colonial, croquet lawn and tea house, we had a Pimms and looked over the bay ,

Skyping Mum xx

back to the hotel to book flights and skype mum and Jo whilst watching the sun go down.

mother kissing her baby

Proboscis monkey

jungle lodge

mum and baby

We were picked up the next day by mini bus and taken to the Sepilok Orangutan sanctuary, this is a feeding centre for Orangutans that have been orphaned , stolen, or injured, they are taught how to fend for themselves and brought up in a nursery, they are then set free, they choose to come back at feeding times at their own free will, a wonderful centre... there was a lovely boardwalk and a feeding platform which rangers put milk and fruit on.. We got there at 0900 and waited until feeding time at 10 am .. the anticipation was so exciting, sometimes none come... eventually a mother came with her baby around her waist, it was amazing, they are so human like ( 94 % ) .. I know a lot of people this close ..the mother was kissing and cuddling her baby.  and swiping at the Macaques trying to steal her food..  a wonderful moment. soon after the alpha male arrived and loped along the rope to get his breakfast, as the tiny monkeys were hanging under the platform with their little fingers grabbing onto the planks , he kept thumping his hand down on there fingers like a game, just the way we would , ( or I would have done to Kate .) it was an absolute delight to see them , and so exciting waiting for them .. a real privilege, and  a once in a lifetime experience.

Brian with sarong in pants doh !!

sunset in jungle

crocodile !!!

O tang in jungle

We were then taken to the jetty and into a boat for a very speedy journey across the sea and up the river to out Jungle  Lodge, It was beautiful, bougainvillea archways, all wooden bungalows on stilts, board walks joining the  buildings to the restaurant and a 1000m board walk into the jungle, with watchtowers to view the wildlife and river.. we dumped the bags and Brian was so hot he laid down for a while.. me being the explorer set off into the jungle on my own !!! I was really scared, the only one out there, but on a board walk so safe enough... well I heard a rustling in the trees and stopped to look up .. my heart was really thumping, it was so exciting and scary , I saw a mass jump from one tree to another and grunting ... No it wasn't Brian, it was a family of Proboscis monkeys, the alpha male, a mother with her baby and a juvenile ... I could not believe it and promptly burst into tears ... another couple  of guests came along and I very excitedly showed them and wandered off again on my own .. I then heard fruits dropping to the ground and looked up to find an Orangutan hanging upside down in a tree... I was absolutely speechless.... and wished I could share it with someone !!! I raced back to tell Brian. it was then time for our river trip.. all 6 of us got into an open boat and set off. it was utterly wonderful, the anticipation was as great as the actual seeing, our guide was very enthusiatic and was always pointing things out... too much to name, sea eagles, kingfishers, monitor lizards,hornbills about 60 proboscis monkeys all sitting in trees , they are the monkeys with the really long noses ... which look like .. you  know ... dick heads ... apparantly it helps to keep them cool .... it was wonderful to see them, grooming each other, mothers breast feeding , babies fighting, men shagging on branches.. yep .. it was like monkey porn in that jungle  .... it was back to lodge for dinner then out on a night  cruise to spot birds sleeping !! it was so dark, and the stars were like diamonds in the sky , no light pollution , wonderful , it was eerie but exciting travelling down the river by spotlight shining on trees and seeing tropical birds sleeping...  we eventually stopped by a tree and when the torch was switched off the whole thing lit up with fireflies ... like a christmas tree flicking on and off, with that and the stars it was a truly magical night and overwhelming ...

After a wondeerful sleep it was a very early start for our morning cruise , the river mist was disappearing as the sun was rising over the river, wonderfully serene and glass like  we saw so many amazing birds, even Brian was excited and was getting really good at spotting birds and monkeys, we cruised down the river stopping to spot things, then had coffee and biscuits in an ox bow lake in the wild hyacinth ... not everyday you do that.... back to the lodge for breakfast in the middle of the jungle where we were joined by monkeys and Brian saw the orangutan ... I was soooo excited ... after lunch we headed upstream  to another lodge for the night, we had another river cruise where we spotted a huge  crocodile with the most beautiful markings slip into the water and just disappear without a trace... stealth like ..
and a night trek where we saw sleeping birds and huge spiders and chameleons .. too much to mention, back for a shower then into our sarongs... everyone had to wear one left in their room for the night, which was amusing, Brian really liked his and kept tucking the back in his pants on purpose coming out of the loo, which made me laugh... not the Germans.. a great night, but wearily we headed back to our lodge.. I am so happy if I died right now I would have a smile on my face.. I love it here, don't want to leave the jungle ... we have to leave early in the morning for Turtle island and I cant wait ......