Our last few days in Borneo were spent in Sarawak, in the south, and we based ourselves in the Old Chinatown of Kuching, the state's capital. From here we took a trip to the Semenggoh Nature Reserve, which claims to be the best place to see orangutans in their natural jungle habitat. Having seen them in the wild already, you may wonder why we would choose to then go and see them in a sanctuary, but the opportunity to see these wonderful creatures at close(r) range was something I was dying to do, and besides, they are 'semi-wild' here, so that's ok no? At least they were 'wild' until the 3pm feeding time when these lovely beasts turned up to the delight of us all, and swung onto a feeding platform to feed on bananas and other fruits, cradling their young ones or just acting all human-like as they catch up on the day's news amongst one another. Being so close to them was amazing, and I am sure our photos do the experience better justice than I could!

Keen to up our trekking mileage, we also spent a couple of days in Bako National Park, Sarawak's oldest national park. The park is a 27sq-km peninsula jutting into the South China Sea, 40km from Kuching, but feels another world away when you get there, particularly as we were dropped off by boat on an empty beach, leading us to wonder if we had just been unwittingly dropped off on a desert island / backpacker reality TV show.

After checking in to the park's HQ - lodgings were simple wooden cabins, monkey-proofed from the park's cheeky macaques who show no fear in trying to relieve visitors of their plastic bags or anything they think might contain food - we set off for the first day's hike, lasting about 6+ hours, taking us underneath rainforest canopies housing our old friends the proboscis monkeys, and eventually to a beach at the northern end of the park, passing many a waterfall and stream on the way. The park is known for its amazing biodiversity, which includes almost every vegetation type in Borneo - I wouldn't be able to name any of them here, but let's just say we saw some absolutely massive trees again, with the hiking trails taking us over huge vines once more, providing some wonderful walks through scenery which changed from lowland rainforest to sandstone plateaus (that much I do know). Once we had reached the almost deserted beach that first day, hot and tired from the trek, but without our swimmers, we took a wee siesta on a cool boulder, with tiny crabs scuttling around us. It was a steep ascent back up to the largest waterfall we had passed, and this time temptation to jump in was too much so off went some of the clothes and in we went, not too worried about any passers by - the beauty of this national park being that the camp's headquarters could be full but so extensive are the hiking trails that you feel as if you are the only ones there. After jumping off the log into the water like kids and acting out scenes from 'Dirty Dancing' (the dancing on the log bit at least) we headed back to HQ, walking amongst the brazen monkeys and some strange bearded pigs as we neared the base.

Our trekking efforts that day were duly rewarded by a beautiful sunset on the beach where, refreshed after a cold shower, we sank a couple of even colder beers, toasting to the day but also to the fact that we had been away for 3 months to the day…once again pinching ourselves as to how fortunate we were to be doing such a trip J

The next day took a similar form, again with about 6+ hours of hiking through the park to reach a secluded bay on the other side, famous for the 'sea stack' you can see from the beach, a towering stack of rock looming high up from the sea. This beach was more beautiful than the last one, with wonderful views from the top of the jungle overlooking the azure blue waters, and this time we had been sensible enough to bring our swimming stuff and dived into the surprisingly warm water - trying not to complain that it could have been cooler to aid refreshment!

Later that afternoon we headed back by boat to Kuching, getting soaking wet in the suddenly choppy waters (maybe we are not made for boat trips!) and arriving back in to Kuching looking like drowned rats. 24 hours later and we were on our way to the airport to fly to Kuala Lumpur, where we were having to pull an 'all-nighter' before our early morning flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia - I am sure 10 years ago this would have involved finding the nearest airport bar and arriving at the next destination with a steaming hangover, but in your 30s apparently this means finding a wifi connection to do 'trav-min' and the only thing steaming was the hot chocolate we drank J