SO I've not written for a fair while - have been sooooo busy!! Went on a day trip with the volunteers to the Gomantong caves - was an experience! We had a short walk down a board walk to this cave - with lots of ropes hanging from the roof. It was so high, and there were birds and bats swooping round the ceiling. We walked across the cave floor, and it took a few minutes and the overwhelming stench for us to realize that the soft peaty ground we were standing on was actually the most insane amount of bat poo! Lovely. It was at least 5 feet deep, and alive with cockroaches and little black beetles. was quite an incredible sight! The workers were hanging off high ropes on the roof collecting the birds nests (swiftlets nests for chinese birds nest soiup - apparently worth an absolute fortune!) anchored down by bundles of sticks - did not look safe at all! We went for a clamber up the steep rocky slope at the other end of the cave to find the huge wall of guano that Sir David Attenborough apparently famously rolled around in! From there we went on a short cruise down the kinabatangan river - was great, the weather was gorgeous and we saw loads of groups of proboscis monkeys, and crocs and gorgeous birds, as well as a family of macaques with lots of babies! V cute! There was a bit of a scary moment when our (extremely low, kayak like boat) got stuck on a log just at the moment that we spotted a huge croc about 5 feet away, and the driver decided that the way to get us unstuck was to rock us back and forth to try and dislodge us - we were all rather nervous, but we made it out alive!

Since then, I've finished my lab project, and said bye to the lab staff, amid many photos being taken by the students - they're all very sweet, but have been so annoying throughout my project watching my every move and asking incessant questions!

New Years Eve was one of my most memorable and best yet! I spent it with the volunteers and we went to 7th Heaven for dinner - a dessert parlour that serves western food, but they have this rather amusing system of bringing out the drinks, mains and dessserts in any random order - one milkshake, then your pudding then an hour and a half later you may get your burger! The food was really good - very wester and sooooo cheap! After dinner we went to Melody, the same karaoke bar that we went to on Christmas Eve ( there's not an abundance of options around here!) amd spent the first hour or so singing such classics as ghostbusters, total eclipse of the heart and octopus's garden. By about ten thirty, when the malaysians ahd taken over the mic, we were all wondering how we were gonna stay awake until midnight, but then the gay malay compere took charge and turned the whole night around! We had games and competitions, and a 'quiz' that included questions such as ' there are 26 letters in the alphabet. ET fly away - how many left?' - I'll leave you to ponder that until my next entry! and competitions like drinking a bottle of beer through 5 feet of rubber tubing, the 'blow job' game which i took part in involving blowing balloons up to make a 'large but beautiful bosom' for our male partners. As midnight approached, the party packs came out; horns, flashing whistles, party poppers and various percussion instruments. The music became dancy, and there was the biggest buiild up to midnight i've ever seen! Was amazing atmosphere, and then, being in a karaoke bar, we even had the words to auld lang syne on the screens, so could actually sing rather than the usual humming! After midnight was the selection of Mr Melody - which Mark, our tattooed volunteer won, by pole dancing and flashing his head to toe tattoos - was so funny, but so wrong! My moment of glory - or something, came soon after! The Miss Melody from Christmas Eve was brouht out and it was announced that she had size 38 boobs and they were searching for someone who could beat her. Despite my trying to shrink into the crowd, John the gay one forced me up on stage saying I had to do it for the team (we were on a mission to get as many tacky prizes as possible!) and I was then dragged up on stage, luckily having had just enough tiger to make the amusement factor outweigh the embarassment, and the crowd had to cheer for their winner. I got the biggest cheer, and as John put it, I won ' the booby prize'! Which, was an ever so useful thermos flask! So that was an eventful new years eve!

I spent New Years Eve saying goodbye to the orangs, which was very sad, but I was leaving for the Danum Valley on the 2nd so was unaviodable. Had some more time in the (cold) hot tub, and had a beautiful hot sunny day, so was a nice day to remember Sepilok by. After dinner and saying goodbye to the volunteers, I packed up all my stuff, and went to bed ready for a very early morning to head off to Lahad Datu - had to be early as there's no bus timetables here, so the earlier you get to the bus station, the more likely you are to get a bus!