Hello, sorry it's been such a while, but we have been the other half way round the world! We are now in Melbourne, but not for long....

Can't say we've done much really for the last week or so! Shocking hey! The last few days in Borneo just rained and rained and rained. And we thought rainy season was a lie! We did have a little look around Kota Kinabalu, but we wanted to go and visit some of the islands around and about, but with the weather being so horrible, we figured it was probably better to wait till Oz. So we had lots of lazy days. We were pretty glad to be leaving by the end cos we got a tad bored of the inside of a hostel! Went off to the airport for our flight to KL to then catch the Melbourne flight .... only to find that we had got the date wrong and had arrived 24 hours early! We were just about to buy a flight to KL when we realised we were 24 hours early for the Melbourne flight too! Doh!! Being the smallest airport in the world, with quite possibly the most uncomfortable plastic seats in the world, we decided to head back to KK to kill the time! Just as well we did really that's when the food poisoning hit in! I wouldn't recommend cold seafood curry, let alone 5 different varieties in one go! Wouldn't have wanted to suffer that, or let anyone else suffer it, in an airport possibly with the Asian [squat] toilets .... mustn't dwell!

So, we are in Melbourne. Been staying in a hostel that likens to a great big student union and halls (600 beds) all rolled into one. I was lucky enough to share with 4 boys and the smell was tremendous! Spent a few days getting well again and then a few sorting out visa's, tax file numbers [would you want to pay 47% tax on your fruit picking dollars??], bank accounts and of course the trip to Tasmania.

Today we have checked out of the hostel and fly to Tas later on. We have hired out a car and plan to have ten days road trip, sit on the beaches, walk the mountains, catch some devils and of course visit the Cadbury factory, Brewery and the Jam factory! All in the name of Dietetic research I tell you!

Have put some new jungle photo's up to keep you all interested. Hope you like them. Anyway, the flight is definately today so we better head. Hope you are all well.

Take Care xx

Just thought I'd let you know some of my highlights from the jungle too!

The elephants were a definate highlight, its so different seeing these things in the wild. Probiscos Monkeys were cool too as they are native to Borneo so it's the only place you can see them. Also the mangrove snake we saw on our night trek was really good, it was also pretty scary as it was swimming across the water as we were wading through water just below our waists! I was glad that Kate and Remy the guide were in front of me then! Even the guide was scared of snakes, he said he wouldn't sleep for three days now! Oh and monitor lizards are cool!

There was sooooooooooooo much other wildlife to, too much to bore you with here, if I get chance I'll put up a bit of a list.

Also wanted to just point out that there are photo's that you may have missed if you haven't visited in a while, including those of Orangutan's etc, all the photo's can be found here and you can view them in a slideshow. http://www.flickr.com/photos/rclark - remember you can cycle through the pages at the bottom, we hope to get some more from the Kinabantagan up soon.

Take it easy

Rich

Hey, so we made it in and out of the jungle and I think the chillis must have worked cos we don't have too many mosquito bites. I will tell you about the other bites in a bit!!! We almost didn't make it in as the lady booked our flight for the day we bought it instead of the day we wanted to fly! Bless her, anyway....

Before we left for the camp we were lucky enough to visit the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre, which was fantastic. Definately a highlight. We have lots of photos that will go on the blog soon no doubt. The Orang Utans are generally orphaned or they have been rescued from areas which are made too small for them to live in by deforestation. They have them at different stages and the ones we saw were wild but could come back for fruit and milk up to twice a day if they want. There were about 10-12 that came for feeding. There were babies (so cute) and older ones too (so human like!). Did you know that you are all 96.4% Orang Utan (genetically speaking)???!!

Arrived in the camp which is in the Lower Kinabatangan River Basin. The journey to the camp was a safari enough - we saw wild pigs, birds and monkeys on the way in! We stayed in a hut which has wire mesh type stuff over the doors and windows to (supposedly) keep things out. It was up on sticks so no water got in there, although the water level kept rising even though it barely rained. We were downstream and just kept getting more water from upstream. The path to our hut was knee deep in water by the time we left. Thank the lord for wellies! We had a mattress and a mosquito net for a bed. Quite cosy in there and nothing got in, so that was good. Not sound proof though, so the monsters of the jungle could be heard all night long! No sleep for me! The food was really good, all cooked for us and some of it was jungle food. They treated us to huge freshwater prawns which were about 15-20cm long head to tail, lush. There were not many people there so we got to go on some extra tours. We did day and night safaris in the boats, day and night treks on foot and through the river. We saw lots of wildlife.....pigs, bats, snakes, spiders, scorpions, monkeys, birds, frogs, lizards, owls, crocodile, insects. But the biggy had to be the elephants that were early in the season (normally only seen there April and August). They got us out of the boat and told us that we might get trampled on if the dominant male elephant got aggressive, and then said we might get enclosed by them. At this point I nearly passed out....but they took us in further and flashed lights so that we could take photos. Unfortunately the anti shake doesn't compensate for fear and they are all crap!! Not such highlights were the non-existent showers, washing my hair over a bucket of river water, the lovely Aisan toilets and the rats that ate our bags for chewing gum and malaria tablets.All part of the fun.....

Anyway, the photos will be up as soon as we have a better internet connection. Hop ethis finds you all well. Take care xx

This one was put up last week as well but got lost, so here it is again!

Ok I'm back for another quick update on KL, we got here on Wednesday (1st Feb) after getting the bus up from Singapore it was a longish journey (abour 6 hours) but comfortable enough.

So we check into our hostel that we'd booked before leaving here the first time and go out for something to eat.

For those of you that have been travelling (or even just on holiday) you know how you always seem to bump into people that you know .............................................. well I had one of those experiences that first night, we'd just ordered our food and this guy walks round the corner, I think I recognise him from somewhere, then it comes to me and I jump up to go and say hi, he turns round and says something like "S**t, no way, Clarky, how you doing?" who is it? Unfortunately its not someone that many of you will know because its a guy called Kieran (or the Dark Horse as he's more commonly known) from my last little travelling adventure 4 1/2 years ago!!!!!!!!! (Ben, Kieran says hi) Ben and I met and travelled with him and a bunch of others in New Zealand for about a month. Anyway so we had a few beers, exchanged stories, caught up and talked footy (he even remembered that I was a Man Utd fan!) I don't think Kate was too bored (only maybe the footy bit) Ain't it crazy, of all the bars in all the world ............... :)

Ok on with KL, while we've been here we've been up both the Menara (KL) Tower (4th biggest telecoms tower in the world) and the Petronas towers (452m high and now 2nd biggest building in the world). On the Petronas you can only get to level 41 out of 88 but thats still high! The weird thing is when the skybridge that goes between the towers moves when you're on it. Don't think Kate was too keen on it moving around!

We've also been wandering round and seen some more of KL's landmarks, national Mosque, Railway Station, Sultan Abdul (I forget the rest) building etc. Also been to a bird park and seen lots of exotic birds which was good (will try to put some photo's up). Had a massive curry as well last night that cost about 3 pounds between us! Have been trying to eat lots of chilli too in the hope of staving off mosquitoes when we go to Borneo.

Anyway, I've rambled on loads now so I'll shut up, take it easy whatever you're up too, it'd be great to hear from you all!

Take care.

This was posted up last week but seems to have been lost (I think blogger.com have been having some troubles!)

Anyways please see the below..............

So since our last post we've had a few days in Singapore, what have we been doing I here you cry?

Well here's what we've been doing - in a nutshell (I won't dwell), we went to this little Island called Sentosa that we got to by cable car, on Sentosa are many attractions and things to do. It reminded us a bit of Alton Towers or something similar (not that there were rides just that it was laid out like a theme park). There's a beach there too but we decided against swimming cos of the big trawlers out in the bay making the water pretty scummy!

Also in SGP we visited a local reservoir (as recommended by Daryl and Woan Lin) Lower Peirce Reservoir and a walk through the jungle after filling ourselves with Prata (great Indian food!) and saw some Monkeys, Squirrels, Lizards, a Snake etc. We then headed to the Singapore Night Safari (a zoo by night - meaning you can't see the electric fences keeping the animals in!) which was cool, saw lots of wildlife, you can go on a tram ride but they rush you round a bit, so its best to walk as well. No flash photography also so we don't really have any pics from there.

Other than that we just had a wander round and saw a few of the sights, walked along the expensive quaysides and chilled.Oh and we ate more Prata (including for breakfast!), hmmmmmmmm!

Now onto Kuala Lumpur...........