Hi all!!

So after 1.5 weeks of visiting family on the transfer from South America to Asia we are now in Malaysian Borneo whoop whoop! I would like to say a quick thank you to both sets of parents and Lærke for making our time at home so amazing with great food, activities and weather for the most part!!

The first thing to say about Borneo is we love it! It's boiling, the food is yummy and insanely cheap, everyone speaks English and we have seen so many cool things in such a short space of time that we are both super excited for the next week we have here.

We arrived in Kuching on Thursday night after 3 planes and what felt like a very very long journey from Copenhagen. We arrived at our hostel and immediately tried to sleep because it was past midnight here. Unfortunately neither of us was able to sleep until the very early hours because of the jet lag and then I accidentally turned off both alarms when they went off the following morning and we ended up sleeping until 1pm....!!! Let's just say I was less than popular with the Dane as this was meant to be our first day of overcoming the jet lag before undertaking any activities haha. He soon forgave me though and we were very fresh for the afternoon.

The first day, well half day :-), we spent relaxing, exploring Kuching and trying some of the local food. Some of you may have seen the picture of my £1.80 lunch on Facebook. Delish!

Obviously as we had got up at 1pm we were fresh until late into the evening and took to drinking to try and speed up the sleep process....! After a few g&t's, a glass of wine (with another delicious meal) and a grand marnier (Esben drank more blokey drinks) we started to feel we could drift off so headed back for another fitful nights sleep.

On Saturday we were up at 7am, both a little spaced out, and started the bus and boat journey to Bako national park where we were to spend the weekend.

Once we reached the park, which is effectively jungle, we checked into our jungle lodge. This was a huge but basic room with all the windows and doors sealed to stop the monkeys getting in and taking your stuff! The monkeys were outside the hut to greet us when we arrived and I thought they were brilliant. The park consists of a number of trails that take you to beaches, waterfalls and monkey spotting sights. On the Saturday we decided to take a trek to a viewpoint and a beach which was only about 6km but felt like 100km because of the heat and humidity which caused us to sweat bucket loads!! The dip in the sea was a welcome relief, the scenery absolutely fantastic and walking through the jungle was an amazing experience! I saw a snake on our first walk.

In the afternoon, after a questionable canteen lunch, we went on a shorter walk to another beach which again was amazing and there were big hermit crabs everywhere :-).

In the evening we took a guided night walk through the jungle and saw loads of huge spiders, frogs, insects and a flying Lema. I was slightly terrified that a spider or scorpion was going to land on me but other than that it was really cool and spooky.

On Sunday we were lucky enough to see so many proboscis monkeys up close with long noses and very red penises that are constantly erect!! Cheeky. We hiked to a waterfall and beach 4km away from camp, which was ambitious given the heat, but we made it and we had the beach to ourselves for a swim in the very warm water.

After a late lunch in the canteen it was time to head back to Kuching to take a shower and get out of our sweat sodden clothes.

Monday saw us get up at 6.30am after another bad nights sleep to take the 2 hour trip to Gunung Gadin national park to see the worlds biggest flower. We were thrilled to find out there was one in full bloom when we arrived as they are very rare and the life cycle includes a 9 month growing period before they bloom for just 5 days. We were shown three flowers by a guide which were very bizarre and almost looked fake. After this we took a very sweaty walk uphill to a waterfall for a swim before heading back to the bus terminal and back to Kuching for a relaxing afternoon.

On Tuesday we thought about trying to get to the beach but after a lie in, breakfast and coffee it was already midday and we were too sleepy to bother. It was also by far the hottest day so far and sweat dripped from us even if we sat still (even the guy who runs the hostel said it was really humid!). Instead we took a boat across the river to the orchid park which was spectacularly beautiful with hundreds of orchids of different size and colour. I have never seen so many in one place and it was nice to wander around and relax in. In the afternoon the heavens opened so we went for a massage by some lovely Malaysian ladies before heading to the cinema to see 'Lucy', a ridiculous film about a drug that allow you to use 100% of your brain....

Wednesday was to be our last full day in Kuching and in the morning we took the bus to a National Park where you can sometimes see Orangutangs but unfortunately it is fruiting season in the rainforest and they only come to the park headquarters when they are hungry. They were not hungry that morning so we headed back to Kuching and hope to see them in Sabah nearer the end of our time in Borneo. The weather was fantastic in the afternoon so we took the shuttle bus the 45 minutes to Damai Beach and spent the afternoon sunbathing and swimming in the sea. Jungle meets the beach here and the scenery was lovely, the sea was very cloudy though and I was scared of jelly fish haha. The sea was also about 200 degrees above the temperature of the Kattegat sea I swam in with Bente in Denmark ;-)!!

Today we are flying to Kota Kinabala as tomorrow we are being picked up to start our 2 day hike up Kinabalu mountain, the highest in Borneo.

So far so wonderful on the Asian front :-D!

I will blog again soon.

Alice