Family time! Whoop! So after all night on a bus from Miri, Tom and I were incredibly relieved to arrive at our hotel come 10am. My Mum, Dad and brother weren't arriving until the evening so we had until then to have a nap (as you never really sleep properly sat bolt upright on a bus), explore our hotel, find a nice place for lunch, go for a bit of a walk around to scope out the area and then later excitedly await their arrival. 
 
They finally arrived at 9:15pm and we had a catch up over a couple of nice cups of tea for an hour or so. Yey! Then we let them go to bed. They had been travelling for around 24hrs so it was only fair!
 
Our hotel was preeeetty nice compared to what we've been used to. We had rooms which looked right out over the river with the beautiful golden roofed Sarawak State Assembly immediately opposite. Lovely! We met for breakfast on the first morning and my goodness, what an incredible buffet breakfast. Absolutely spoilt for choice! 
 
Our first proper exploration involved going on a boat trip down the river in a small traditional boat. No fidgeting otherwise the boat tipped wildly from side to side! The breeze on the water was welcome as it was incredibly hot (as per). Lots of lovely views and interesting buildings along the way. It was so hot in fact that it was only fitting to spend the afternoon in the pool to cool off a bit! 
 
As I have previously mentioned my Grandad was a prisoner of war in Kuching during WWII. He was in Changi jail for a time in Singapore and was then moved to a camp called Batu Lintang in Kuching. He was a Prisoner Of War for three years in total. The Batu Lintang camp was turned into a teachers training college immediately after the war and remains a college today. My Mum was interested in going to see where he used to be imprisoned and there was a memorial there too. Apparently one of the original huts the prisoners were housed in still remained as well as a small museum. So we headed over there only to discover that it was closed that day for some reason. Doh! 
 
Instead we spent the day at Sarawak Museum. An interesting collection of cultural artefacts, the history of the people of Borneo and their indigenous culture – including the gruesome practice of headhunting and an exhibit about the traditional longhouse (type of hut) and a natural history section amongst lots of other things. I had a slightly embarrassing incident where I started chatting away to Tom about how hugely painful the process of tattooing with sharp sticks must be...only it wasn't Tom at all. A bemused German guy who just happened to be wearing exactly the same colour T-shirt and shorts as Tom wondering why this girl was chatting so openly to him. He responded with “Uuummm yes”. Instantly cringing upon realising but managing to style it out as if I just chat to ANYONE...kind of...I ran away to find the real Tom! There was another building to visit which held archaeological exhibits. You had to pay to go in but we thought we may as well as it could be interesting. How we were wrong! We'd just paid to see two floors and numerous rooms full of excavated, thousand+ year old....tree trunks. Brilliant. Needless to say we called it a day. Time for some more pool action!
 
So after discovering that we in fact needed an appointment to visit Batu Lintang we headed over there for a second time. We'd called ahead yet couldn't find anyone for ages who could help us. We found the small museum which was all locked up and someone told us that the remaining original hut had been demolished sadly. This wasn't going well. Finally after getting someone to phone around for us someone came over. Apparently we hadn't been specific on the phone that we wanted to see the museum too! How were we supposed to know it's always closed and they only open it if for you if you ask, huff! They didn't mention on the phone that the last hut had been demolished either so what else would we be doing! 
 
Anyway, they opened up the small museum. Unfortunately a little disappointing as most of the history was all about the college post WWII. Most of the information relating to the POWs, first hand accounts etc all seemed to be from POWs who had been in Sandakan, not Batu Lintang. Still their harrowing tales gave an insight as to what my Grandad would have experienced here. It can't help but make you feel pretty darned angry. There was a scaled down model of the camp as it was during the war which was interesting and a few photos. Outside the museum was the remains of the Japanese flagpole, in the same place it was when the area was an allied POW camp. Further along was the WWII Sarawak Borneo Memorial. We took a walk around the college in the blistering sun. My Mum noted that my Grandad would have been made to work day in day out in this heat, just unbearable. We came across a former Punjabi barrack which had been renovated. You couldn't go in but still interesting to see. We'd also been told that there was an ammunition bunker still standing which we found. Though we had been advised not to go in as it would more than likely contain cobras! A thought provoking morning and particularly emotional for my Mum. We were glad we came though. 

Bako National Park. We discussed for a while whether we should all go to Bako or not. Mum and Dad were a bit worried that the walks would be a bit much in the heat. So me, Tom and my brother headed off for the day to hopefully see some Proboscis monkeys and do some walking. Mum and Dad were happy to chill out at the hotel as well as going to explore the waterfront nearby. 

The park itself is on the coast and has many beaches, secret bays, sculpted cliffs, large stretches of mangrove swamp as well as classic rainforest. The only way we could get there was by boat along a river flowing out to sea and then along the coast. We'd heard that this journey could be a bit hairy too as the boat drivers liked to go fast and against the waves could get quite bumpy! (Mum didn't like the sound of this either hehe!). It was fine though as it was low tide and we were there after about half an hour pulling up on a very large deserted beach. After a quick wade ashore we were at the park headquarters.

There were numerous walks you could do of differing lengths around the park. We decided to do an hours walk out to one of the beaches and an hour back. Boy was it a hot day!! It became quickly apparent that the paths through the forest were by no means easy. Lots of climbing up and over huge tree route formations, squeezing between/climbing over rocks. We also only had one litre of water each when we should definitely have had two. It was so hot after half an hour we were all completely soaked with sweat. At least we were mostly walking under the cover of the trees. I was desperate to see a Proboscis monkey up close so I was stopping every time I heard a rustle in the trees. You couldn't really walk and look up at the same time as you'd end up falling over something. The boys became tired of my stopping every five minutes and I was told to get a move on! We arrived on the beach, a very picturesque secluded bay to find a wild boar snuffling for things in the sand. Took some snaps and we headed back.

We only had limited time before we'd arranged to catch the last boat back at 3:30pm and it was decided we'd try and fit in another walk, hour and a half there, hour and a half back. I had a quick wander around the park headquarters in search of Proboscis monkeys. They were known for coming down at lunchtime but sadly didn't find any. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the canteen and headed off again. But wait! Some rustling in the trees! A large male proboscis monkey! He came all the way down to a low branch to feed too so managed to get lots of great shots of him. A couple of his pals came down too. Super chuffed!!

This however put us very behind for our walk. We marched on and reaching the middle of the day it got hotter and hotter if that was even possible. After walking uphill for a while we came out of the forest into the open. On the ground our path was white sand which just reflected all the sun's heat straight back up into our faces. Double whammy heat from above and below. After a while of this I was struggling. I've honestly never felt so hot and uncomfortable during all the walks we've done and hot places we've been to. My brother had turned into some kind of boot camp leader and was determined we'd get to the end of the walk and back in time for the boat. "You've got to hurry up or we'll never make it!". Gaaargh! I was going as fast as my stubby legs would take me but this was now full on torture. All the while knowing that we still had an hour and a half walk back too. All I could think to do was put up my brolly! This did genuinely help. Though the boys did look at me as though I was a massive loser. Nearing the coast we remembered that somewhere nearby it was possible to catch a boat back around the coast to the park's headquarters as we'd seen it on a map. Our hopes were quickly dashed when we met the guys we were due to catch our boat back with returning from the coast. No way of getting down to the beach they said. Eeeeeeeeurrrgh the blaaaazzzzing suuuunn!! Gutted. We reached the cliff edge overlooking a beautiful secluded deserted beach. Don't get me wrong the scenery was spectacular it was just that by now I was utterly delirious with the heat. We were about to head on back when we spotted that there were in fact some steps down to the beach. We were pretty high up where we were and the steps down to the beach and back were going to take a while. I shouted to Matt that we didn't have time but he'd already gone with Tom following quickly behind. Dammit. So I just sat at the top in the shade to wait for them to return. After about ten minutes I heard what I thought was the glorious noise of a boat engine. I thought I'd better start walking down and then heard shouts of "Hannah!!!" in the distance. Climbing over rocks and tree roots I followed the path down and around until I could see the beach. There was my brother in the middle of the beach battling with the waves trying to keep hold of a boat whilst frantically waving at me to hurry up and come down. Tom was also frantically waving at me. Ok ok jeez I was coming...after a quick photo op! Hurrah for the boat man! Boy was I relieved to see him. The waves were pretty big here as it was very windy on this side so it was fun bouncing on the big waves to get back. Though a little unnerving when going back up river given that the water contains salt water crocs! 

What an exhausting day! Mum and Dad definitely made the right decision! We got the boat back around the coast and up the river and we were relieved to be back on the bus. Some great scenery and so happy to see some proboscis monkeys up close but I'm certain I don't ever want to be that hot again! 

We wanted to take a trip out to one of the beaches on the coast so caught the bus to Damai. A lovely little place with a small beach at the base of rainforest climbing up the hillside. As it was low season it was pretty quiet here with most places having shut up shop. So we chilled out on the beach, dipped our toes in and had lunch. My brother, Tom and I noticed there was an afternoon boat trip you could do along the nearby Santubong river where you could see various wildlife and hopefully spot some rare Irrawaddy dolphins. We decided to do that and meet Mum and Dad later.

We were on the boat about four hours from around 4pm. Nice to relax on the front of the boat keeping our eyes peeled for dolphins whilst chugging past the mangroves. I really wasn't expecting for us to see any at all but we did! Only a few glimpses on a few occasions as they only surfaced a couple of times before diving down again. Managed to grab a few pics and Tom managed to get a video though so happy with that. Later on along the river we saw Proboscis monkeys in the trees. The sun was just going down so you couldn't see them that well but they were there never the less. We left the mouth of the river and travelled along the coast for a bit before returning. On the way back we were looking for crocodiles! We passed a small village on the water that had been connected up with electricity only four months previous. We stopped the boat a couple of times near the shallow banks, engine off, very quiet and scanned the water with big torches looking for their eyes reflecting back at us. Very eeerie sat listening to all the noises of the forest surrounding us, loved it. Sadly no crocs today though. Then a nice little highlight as we returned to our starting point...our driver stopped the boat right next to a particular tree where there happened to be lots of fireflies! So that was pretty cool having not seen those before :). A fun boat ride and nice for my brother to see some typical wildlife and jungle surroundings I think. He said he could definitely get back into the travelling thing again :).

So as has been tradition for the last I don't know how many birthdays my brother and I (as our birthdays are a week apart) usually end up having one big night out together at some point. With me usually ending up much worse off! So after we got back from our boat trip, had dinner and several drinks with Mum and Dad, come 11pm it was decided that this was the night. Matt had already decided where we were going before he'd even left the UK! So we ended up in this club with crazy German DJ playing. Got to be honest, it was definitely a bit bizarre being in a club in Kuching...in Borneo. Club etiquette was somewhat different. For a start no one was dancing, just standing politely at their tables, no one on the dance floor (though we would remedy this later). Next thing you notice is that on every single table are large bottles of spirits and mixers. No no you couldn't just buy a vodka and coke at this place. You HAD to buy a whole bottle of vodka or whatever spirit you wanted and large bottle of mixer to go with it. Sorry what?! So seeing as it was getting on for 11:30pm I made the sensible suggestion that buying a whole bottle of vodka at this stage was probably a bit silly. So we continued with the beers. The music actually wasn't too bad though perhaps over time this notion was related to alcohol consumption! After a couple of hours we were on the dance floor and everyone was loving us!! We were the only white folks in the place and this apparently meant that everyone wanted to dance with us. Ok at first and then it just all started to get a bit weird! A whole hour before closing a bottle of vodka was purchased. Come the end of the evening (4am) my brother was on stage with the DJs demanding he have his photo taken with them and telling them how amazing they were (haha!). I think I actually had to drag him off the stage in the end to get us out of there! Tom and I were also preeeetty worse for wear. The next two hours involved Tom disappearing to McDonald's on the way home, my brother talking incessantly about music and making me agree with him (making the 20 minute walk back to the hotel take about 40), Matt going in search of Tom and then them both returning with huge amounts of McDonald's whilst playing music very loudly on Matt's phone, waking up my parents in the next room and probably most of the hotel. Matt then decided jumping up and down on me whilst I was in bed trying to sleep was a good idea (yes he is 27), smearing burger sauce all over me (the three of us were sharing a room). To say I wasn't amused by this doesn't really cover it. This was quickly followed by a decision by Tom to go for a swim in the hotel pool. At least they were somewhere else making a racket as I had had enough by now! Somewhere around 6:30am they returned after their swim. I explained to my brother in no uncertain terms that if he didn't shut up and go to bed he would be lucky to catch his flight home (I perhaps wasn't quite so polite) and finally we got some sleep! A fun night that ended in usual silliness plus I didn't vom for a change! Ha!

Our final full day was going to be Orangutan day :). I couldn't let my family come to Borneo without seeing the ginger one! We were to see these beautiful beasts at Semenggoh wildlife centre at Semenggoh nature reserve. The centre is home to a number of semi wild orangutans who have been brought here after rehabilitation of varying degrees. We arrived for the afternoon feeding due to us not being able to surface before midday that day. We were in for a treat as a number of orangutans came down to feed. For a good hour we stood and watched as they came down. Though by now Matt and Tom weren't doing so well so were finding it hard to be enthusiastic. There was also a mother and her baby. Super cute! We were a good way into the forest and it was also bucketing it down which was awesome as you got a real feel for the forest. The ranger got a call on his walkie talkie to say that a large male had been spotted at one of the other platforms so we hurried over there. We all hadn't seen a large male like this before so it was pretty exciting, he was huge! We followed him for a bit as he went from tree to tree around the parks headquarters but making sure we kept our distance. He held his arm out from high up in a tree to one of the rangers as he saw he was holding a coconut. The ranger threw it up and he caught it with one hand. He then smashed it three or four times to break off the outside husk, drink what was inside and eat some of it. They're so strong, it would take me all day to get into a coconut with my bare hands! We managed to get pretty close to him in the end and got some great photos. So happy my family were able to experience being in the forest and see these great apes up close!

My Mum, Dad and brother had been enjoying eating out in the evenings the way Tom and I are usually used to eating out i.e cheap local places! Meaning they'd been able to try lots of tasty curries and traditional Malaysian dishes sat in little local restaurants. On our last night in Kuching it was time for them to experience “The food Court”. This in general means a large seating area in the middle surrounded by lots of small food stalls/food outlets cooking different things. You walk around have a look, decide on what you want, they cook it in front of you and then you take it back to your table to eat it, or they bring it over. A great way to eat. This particular neon-lit food court was right next to our hotel and specialised in seafood. It all looked incredible. Huge tanks full of live crabs, lobsters, gigantic prawns, squid and all sorts. Super fresh. So we did the only thing we should do – order loads of dishes between us and tuck in to everything! I've literally never seen prawns that big before, delicious! 

After a busy week in Kuching our next stop was Singapore. We couldn't wait!