Wow, even more timehas flown and i have even left malysia and now
sunning my self and surfing in kuta bali (which is absolutely amazing
and so beautiful)!

Anyway, back to taman negara, we stayed in a place just away from the
little town, and the sounds of the jungle that could be heard there
were fantastic. what we werent as impressed about was the name, the
durian chalets. For whoever doesnt know whata durian is or smells
like, it is a whole new experience. my friends alix and de hasd
warned me about them and de had had an encounter with them in vchina
toewn in paris. her and her friend had ordered a durian milkshake ad
had asked beffore, what does it taste like. the guy had ytold them,
fart, and you would have thought that they would have been put off at
this point, but no, and they confirkmed that it is the most vile thing
that you can taste, and smell as well. so we were staying with a
whole load of durain trees around us, luckily not ripe, alothough the
owner did warn about our heads!, passing the surian stalls in the
streets tho in kl, and singapore (the singaporians go absoltuely crazy
for them) you actually start to feel physically sick sometimes. They
become ripe in august and i am so glad to not have to go through that!

Anyway the jungke- we did a canopy walk, 40m abouve the ground and it
made us apprecite the trees hights and beauty (weell de had her eye
shut most of the tike, or fixed right ahead, trtying to combat her
fear of vertigo!) and the the number of trees that we saw felled by
termites/ants that were about 150 years old, and the long lines of
ants going all the way up the tree was incredible. our guide told us
it took them 50 years to eat out the inside of the tree, beofre it fell.

In the afternoon we went for a 'rapids' boat ride, which in fact didnt
have many rapids, but in the long boats that we were in along with the
moter, we were absoltuely soaked, before gong to visit an orang asli
village, the local tribe people, the only ones who could actually live
wihtin the forest. It was very interesting about the poepole and how
they are surving westernistion, but what made us angry was how the
other people, mainly the asians in our group, walked in abd out of the
huts, like they owned the place, taking pictures of the people like it
was a zoo.

Anyway the next day was the best (my birthday) and what an experience.
We went caving- sadly helen slipped right at the beginning and had
to sit oput (in the prtocess getting a massive leech on her back from
sitting on the ground..ooops!) But the caves were amazing, and quite
narrow, full of bats and massive frogs, a fish?! but also in seeing
all the bats, it stank to high heaven and we got bat crap everywhere
...it did make a very memborable 21st tho!

We then left the jungle to return back to KL and all we seemed to do
was eat adn shop- little india we found amazing rugs and sari
material. de bought a camera and is now the true japenese tourist,
tyaking pictures of everythihng and anything, having not had one for
ages. we then to singapore and more shopping....thats all there seems
to be...indoor theme parks, cinemas, sports clubs and shopping. There
we met up woith my frienbd alix and helen sadly left us. What was
aloso very mnice about singapore was having salad...having had rice
and noodles for the last 4 weeks rabbit food was a welcome change.

Now we have moved on to bali indonesia, surfing, party central,kites flying in the air,
mpore shopping, crammedinto the tiny streets and also tailors. Alix and i have had
dresses made for a 21st, de is
having a jacket made thsankfully we didnt have it done in singapore
for 150 pounds, here its 20...amazing!) The food here is also
fantastic, so much fresh fish. Alix's dad has joined us here for the
weekend...kindly taking us out for two amazing meals, one where we
chose the fish, crabs and prawns we wanted to eat, made even more
excitng as dsitting on the beach our food arrives and the heavens
opened adn everyone had to make a mad dash for the indoor part of the
restaurant. We have now moved to ubud, which has beautiful temples, monkeys, padi fields
and spas...a very peaceful place, in whoch the guyide book takes the piss because
apparently this is where the travellers come to find themselves. Tomorrow were off to
the gili islands to scuba dive, see turtules, before moiving onto lombok.


What i havent talked about are the fellow travelers that you meet
around the place. There are the asian- trigger happy with the camera,
the single alone travellers, groups, couples- i think they're pretty
brave, a pair were going to be gone for two years, brothers and sisters ( i dont know how
that works, no offence
anna, but i think we would drive each other nuts!) and then the
slightly stanger ones....hippies, that are finding themselves. One
guy up in the cameron highlands, flowing grey hair, platted beard,
staff in the shape of a snake with rattles in adn long flowing shirts
and trousers, accompanied by a woman, who seemed to be slightly
younger than him- maybe it was teacher, pupil situation, anyway they
were weird. There also seem to be a number of middle aged women, who i am sure are
perfectly lovely but appear to be slightly gaga...
bali hoewever is aussie central- bali seems to be their
version of spain as the flights are only aus$100 return and in their
winter it must be perfect. that means that the same sort of people come with it
too....enough said. bali also appears to be a much more
gapyear related area as the everyone here seems to have only just left
school.

Anyway thats all i caan think of for the moment. Hope you're all well and speak soon xxxx