Selamat datang, and an immensly warm welcome, Malay style, to our journey so far in S E Asia. Having flown into Singapore on 25th February, it is incredible to think Lee and I have already been in SE Asia for nearly a whole month! I have to say it did come at the right time, as much as we adored Australia, we were starting to find our time in NZ was dragging a little, and we were itching to step up the pace and ready to be culturally challenged.

Up early the next morning, we decided to walk to the nearest MRT (Mass Rapid Transport - clean and very efficient metro system) and head into the main city. Immediately our senses were overwhelmed by the combination of humidity, street hawker food smells and general city traffic noise and pollution, all of which we had not come across in such abundance in all of our travels so far. Luckily buying a couple of train tickets proved to be a really easy task and so we were soon on our way into town. We decided to alight at Raffles Mall so we could get some breakfast and then orientate ourselves for our days sightseeing. Thankfully we had done our research so we had a pretty good idea about the places we wanted to go to and see, which was useful as we were able to get around to all the places within the city in the 1 day. We were both really impressed by the beautiful buildings, the mixture of old colonial, and the many varied Asian style buildings. The fact that everything is written in English helped iron out our anxieties about struggling with a foreign language so soon. Highlights for our city tour (for me) was having a nosey around Raffles Hotel. The grandeur of the place was even more exquisite than I imagined it would be, although I have to say that some of the hotels in Las Vegas would give Raffles a run for its money. At nearly $20 each, Lee and I resisted the urge to slurp on the obligatory Singapore Sling whilst perched at 1 of the many fancy bars within the complex. In fact at this point we had seen enough of the place and decided to head down the road a bit further to The Swisshotel and head for the top floor to the Asia Bar, to engage in a slightly cheaper cocktail whilst enjoying the fab 360 views of the city. A storm that had been rumbling for the previous hour or so had finally passed out to sea and then it gave way to a fantastic dusky sunset. Much as we were enjoying the potent cocktails and soaking up the cool ambience of the bar, we decided it best to go, and to remind ourselves that we are backpackers and not on a frivolous holiday/city break. Wandering back to our hotel that evening we were curious as to why there were so many glammourously dressed ladies in all the doorways, in amoungst the hustle and bustle of the many Singaporeans who congregate on the streets and roadside cafes every afternoon and evening. Our suspicians were confirmed a few days later when we were told by the Manager of a guest lodge we were staying at, that we had in fact been staying slap bang in the middle of the red light district! It didn't come as the biggest suprise to us.

Our second day in Singapore we decided to take an original 'bumboat' over to a small island called Pulau Ubin, which had been described in our guide book as being "like Singapore was 50 years ago". As soon as we stepped off the jetty we were being jumped all the different bicycle hire people, all trying to get us to hire one of their bikes for the day. We had read that this was the best way to explore the island, and so we decided to opt for something a bit different and go for a tandem as we thought it might be more fun. The 'fun' lasted about 30 seconds up the stoney, uneven trail, and Lee and I were soon feeling the frustrations of each others contrasting peddaling efforts, which when you add extreme humidity and a completely useless map to, only made things more tense. Half an hour later we arrived at a so called look out point which we were hoping would be a suitable reward for the amount we had sweat and the bickering we had exchanged but even this turned out to be a real disappointment. We scanned the small area of gritty sand and realised that it was completely infested with thousands of hornets flying all around and then disappearing into their sandy nests. The water was murky and the squat toilet block just next to the beach was kicking out a right pong! We got back on the bike and decided to ride back to the cycle hire shop and abandon the idea as it kept failing at each point. After 10 minutes back towards base we suddenly decided that there was no point in getting annoyed with each other and then started to find the whole situation quite amusing. Just as we were heading up a trail I warned Lee that I thought I had just seen a dog cross our path in the distance and then disappear into the jungle. A second glance then revealed that it was a monkey and so we peddled really fast to catch up with it. We stopped the bike and stood still a while and soon realised that there were actually about 5 or 6 monkeys all around us in the trees. We stood there a while admiring what we thought was a cute looking monkey just over to our left in a brach not far from our heads. He didn't seem to mind us taking lots of pictures of him. There was suddenly a loud rustle in the tree to our right which distracted us. Another monkey that had been sitting quietly in that tree until this point was suddenly scrambling down the tree straight towards us, bearing all his teeth and screaching really loudly at us. I then screamed and Lee and I got back on the bike fast as lightning and peddled as fast as we could away from the crazed animal. We've since discovered that the monkeys were Long Tail Macaques and are known for their aggressive behaviour.

A short ride back over to the mainland and we were soon in Changi. We took the bus to Changi Prison where we hopped off to have a look around the War Musuem within the grounds of the old Changi Prison. It's difficult to know what to say about a place like that as it is obviously very harrowing to see pictures and read stories and accounts of what happened within that awful period, but it did have a big impact on Lee and I and we both came away with mixed feelings, both thinking it was a very good and interesting place, yet temporarily depressed on reflection of all it stood for. Not wanting to dwell on such sad things on our happy travels we decided to pop back to our hotel for a shower and change, and then head back into town to see Singapore by night. We had a little wander around China Town and then parts of Little India before heading to the extremely lively Clarkes Quay and Harbourside area. We were quite blown away by the vast array of stylish restaurants, bars and shops dotted along both sides of the river. The colourful lights alongside the water and the bridges and buildings are all very tasteful and eye catching. Although we didn't eat or drink there, it was really exciting just strolling and taking it all in. We did decided to go on a half hour river cruise to see all the famous landmarks and buildings all lit up.

The next day we headed to the bus terminal too catch the bus that crosses the Causeway from Singapore into Malaysia. We weren't really sure what to expect as Lee and I up to this point had not really done the whole backpacker thing as we had been used to getting ourselves around under our steam in our campervans. We were on the bus about an hour when it suddenly stopped at the checkpoint and everyone clambered off. Thankfully we managed it all ok and we were soon back on another bus heading for the first major town in Malaysia, Johor Baharu, (or JB as it is more commonly known) feeling pleased with ourselves that our first real dealings with public transport had been a success. We had read that there was little of interest to stop at JB for so we only had already only planned to stay for the 1 night so we could continue our travels northwards in Malaysia. When we arrived to the budget hotel and saw, or rather smelled our room, we pretty much dumped our bags and got the hell out of there. Luckily there was a huge modern shopping mall just over the road from our hotel, so we ducked in there for the rest of the afternoon, just to escape being in the stinky room. We came to the conclusion that it smelled like a cross between a really old dog's bad breath and a rotten dog corpse! The mall over the road became our little sanctuary for the rest of the afternoon and evening. It's amazing how comforting and relaxing a really busy mall can be when faced with a stinking room or a humid, busy city. Our stresses were soon quashed when we spotted a Kenny Rogers Chicken Hut followed by a Will Smith movie at the flicks.

The next day we were on another coach, which I must mention really as they are something quite special here in Malaysia. Before we got to SE Asia, we had been advised to always ask if the coach/bus has a/c, if it's non-stop etc. I think any concerns over the coaches here are never likely to be an issue. For a start all the coaches are pretty much brand new and they are nearly all like luxury liners. We've been on a few now and they all have so much leg room and seats that practically recline to a horizontal position. We've seen some with tv's in the seat backs, and absolutely all of them are decorated with the most colourful (in a garish way) seat covers, curtains and drapes. Not that we are moaning, far from it in fact - Malaysian coaches rock! Anyway back to the main point, we enjoyed lounging on our onwards journey from JB to our next destination, the lovely and extremly culturally diverse city of Melaka. A kind man called Ng who we had met on the bus arranged for his cousin to drop us at Dutch Square right in the centre of town, where we would then have to find our own way to the guest lodge. We were relieved to find that the guest lodge, which we had booked in advance, was a far cry from the hole we had stayed in in JB. We headed straight out to the main centre and both knew instantly that we were going too really like Melaka. Melaka has a rich history of colonial rule and this is evident all over the place, from the styles and architecture of the buildings, to the mosques, temples and churches dotted all around. I was particularly impressed by Bukit St Paul, the ruins of an old church that was originally built by the Portuguese, then altered by the Dutch when they took over rule from the Portuguese in the 1700's, before being altered again and added to by the British when they took over rule in the 1800's. The church sits at the top of hill overlooking the city, but what makes it so special is that it has no roof or windows and has a really surreal feel about it. Lee particularly liked the Chinese New Year light garden which hosted lots of associated new year festivities in the form of theme park style illuminated statues. Again Lee and I packed in loads of things in the 3 days we spent in Melaka. We really enjoyed the river cruise we did up the Sengei Melaka river, as it takes in views of the traditional run down buildings on one side and the newer, re-developed buildings and areas on the other side. It was interesting to see the contrast in the older Malay style traditional stilt houses mixed with the newly built stilt houses. When you're in Melaka, its impossible to miss one of the many colourful, and visually and audibly staggering tri-shaw bikes being ridden around. You're never far from a bell ringing and an old man cycling towards you with his bike adorned with hundreds of brightly coloured flowers and flashing lights. For 40 Ringits (Malay currency, equal to about $8) you can get an hours sightseeing ride round the town. We ended up chatting to a rider the night before we took our ride as he seemed to be really knowledgeable and friendly, and assured us that he would only take us to the very best places worth seeing. The next day we met up with Alec our rider and were soon on our way around some of the many charming back streets, being given a personal service. Fair play to Alec, he did take us to some really lovely and interesting places and absolutely bombarded us with lots of history and information, but after 2 and a half hours we were starting to want to stretch our legs a bit, and were worried that Alec would have kept going and going and going if we had not asked him to stop. One place he did take us to that was particularly interesting was a place called Villa Sentosa. It is an old Malay house still owned by the elderly grand-daughter of the man who used to own it originally back in the last century. Everything inside the house has been kept preserved and in its original state so you can see a bit of Malay history and culture within family life at the same time.

We both felt a tinge of sadness leaving Melaka as we had both enjoyed our time there so much, and we would both certainly recommend anyone thinking of coming to Malaysia to stop off at for a couple of days or so. I think more than anything, the real stand out point about Malaysia, is its people. Lee and I both keep saying just how nice a people they are, always smiling, and so polite.

After our few days in relaxing Melaka we caught a coach to Kuala Lumpa, or KL as everyone refers to it as. As we approached the city centre our hearts sank, as we watched the dirty skyscrapper appartment blocks and grid locked city unfold before us. The coach driver even kicked us all of the bus round the corner from the bus station as he had had enough of just sitting in solid traffic and couldn't move much further towards the station. Luckily we grabbed a nearby taxi and were soon headed in the other direction towards the guest lodge we were staying in. KL makes London seem like a breeze to drive in and around, and you are never more than 2 seconds away from someone beeping there horn in frustration, or because another crazy driver has just cut straight infront of them. As our taxi rounded the corner we looked up at the slum looking buildings with big piles of rotting rubbish on the streets, we wondered why some people really raved about KL. Thankfully we received a very friendly welcome from the owner of the guest lodge, or else we may have just been tempted to get into another taxi and head back to the bus station to get away from the chaos. It is strange but we have both said that we get a feeling of almost paralysis when we get to a big overcrowded city. We sat in the room for the rest of the afternoon and started to plan how we could see the main things as quickly as possible so we could then move on to our more favoured quaint towns and villages.

Luckily for us, Lee's best friend Steve and his lovely wife Natalie were over in Krabi, Thailand at the same time and had kindly invited us to come over and join them for a few days if it wasn't too complicated for us to get to them. Although we were technically in another country to them, we were practically so close to them in terms of being in the same part of the world.

The following day Lee and I were in a taxi to KL's low cost airport (LCCT) to take our budget airline, Air Asia flight to pop over to Krabi. The sense of relief to be leaving KL, even if it was only for 4 days was much appreciated. I have to mention this too having worked for a couple of budget airlines, Air Asia absolutely knocks spots off any similar European competitor. Everything from the point of entering the terminal and checking in, to the actual efficiency and level of service on the flight, to the baggage collection runs so smoothly - very impressive stuff!

A couple of hours later and Lee and I were being wowed again as we checked into the gorgeously extravagent (for a couple of backpackers) hotel that Steve and Nat had arranged for us to stay at. We dropped our bags and headed over the road to their hotel and met up for a late lunch and an afternoon of a couple of drinks and lots of catching up. It was so good to catch up with them that we weren't even deterred when the rain started to fall really heavily, and just stayed by the lovley infinity pool. This is where Lee and I had our first introduction to the resident elephant that gets brought out twice a day to be fed and for the guests to enjoy stroking and getting to sit on.

The next day we chartered a long tail boat to take us over to some of the small islands in the Ko Hong archipelago for some snorkelling and island explorations between the giant limestone karsts. The weather was gorgeous and it was especially nice to see the sun instead of just clouds and intense humidity. We spent an hour or so snorkelling before heading off to a beautiful green, ankle/shin depth lagoon, and then onto another island for a short walk and some more snorkelling. On our way back to Steve and Natalie's hotel pool, we were all chuckling at how we realised our driver was steering the boat. He was stood up with the long pole that steers the boat and is attached to the engine, with it in between his legs right against his groin area. As you can imagine, the boats are fairly noisy and there must be lots of vibrations from the engine!

Later that afternoon we all ventured onto the beach to watch the lovely baby elephant being fed and walked in the sea. The handlers were encouraging people to let the elephant lift them up onto his back by using his trunk, where you must then turn yourself around so you are facing the same way as the elephant. When the man gestured to me to come forwards I hesitated for a while, concious that I was only in my bikini with all my wobbly flesh on display, and that there were lots of people all stood round watching. I then thought to myself that its not everyday that you get the chance to be lifted up by an elephant on its trunk whilst in the sea and so took a step forwards to face the front of the elephant. In a quick flash the elephant had accomplished its task of flipping me up, trunk between my legs, so I was now resting, arms and legs all splayed out on top of its forehead. This is the point where you are supposed to manoevure yourself forwards to its neck area and then spin yourself around, only I had severe difficulty doing this. Time seemed to stand still as I struggled in vain to shuffle even a little way forwards. Concious that there was an equal amount of people trying to encourage me as well as laugh at my plight, not to mention the fact that I was probably really giving poor Nelly a real bad headache, I somehow managed to move forwards a little, and then almost ripping the coarse hairs from the elephants scalp, drag myself a bit further up and then turn myself around and face the sea of onlookers. Between Lee and Steve alone, all manner of embarassing photo's were taken of me in my moment of humiliation, so I am dreading the prospect of ending up on U-Tube one day. Lee decided to have a go after me, and to further my humiliation, got flipped up and spun himself around in a matter of seconds, although he did have a sideways wobble and nearly fell off backwards.

Our last day with Steve and Nat which was also their last proper day, we spent lounging around the pool and making the most of our time together before saying goodbye for another 3 and a half months. Steve and Nat, know you will be reading this, we just want you to know that we had the best time ever with you guys too and only wish we could have spent longer together with you both. Thanks for inviting us to join you's! We'll have to sort out the photo's when we get back now.

The following morning Lee and I were bracing ourselves for our return to KL, thankful to have had such a lovely holiday style mini-break, but slightly anxious as to what was lying ahead in terms of our next mini adventure. It turned out to be quite useful being back in KL for a day as it gave us chance to do some last minute shopping in getting prepared for our trip over to the Malaysian state of Sabah in Borneo. Back to KL's LCCT for another Air Asia flight over to Borneo and we were both feeling a mixture of nerves and excitement as to what lay ahead. We booked our trip in advance with a company called Intrepid, feeling more confident that it would be someone elses responsibility to arrange all the transport, accommodation and activities whilst we were there for 10 days. We nearly put ourselves off of some of the activities before flying over there from reading the associated trip notes, as they specifically warned that it was going to be both a physically and culturally demanding trip. We took a taxi from Kota Kinabalu Airport to the meeting hotel, and were both suprised at how much more developed it was than we had imagined. At 6 o'clock our group of 11 were all introducing ourselves to each other and being briefed by our group leader, Hairy, about all the activities we would be par-taking in over the next week and half. We then headed off to a local cafe for a traditional Malay meal and shown how to eat in the traditional way, as that was to be the way we would be eating for the next 2 days. As the banana leaf curries started appearing before us, we were all wondering how we would be placing the small piles of food and rice into our mouths without the aid of knife and fork. We had been told to go and wash our hands after ordering the food and then explained to about only using our right hands (as it is a Muslim country, and the left hand is used for other purposes!) to eat our meals. Firstly you mix little piles of all the different kinds of food on your banana leaf together, and then you basically use your 2 forefingers on your right hand as a kind of scoop and then use your thumb to kind of flick the mixture into your mouth. As you can probably imagine it was a very messy affair, and I don't think 1 of us felt completely comfortable getting their food all over their hands and then consequently on their faces and laps. It was however a good introduction to the way things would be going for the next few days. Early the next morning we were all on a coach to a place called Mengaris Village to a place called the MESCOT Centre, which is basically like a community hall in typical Malay style, on stilts open sided. This is where we were to be based for the next couple of days. We had a brief introduction from some of the staff who are also local villagers as to the purpose of their jobs and to explain some of the activities we would be engaging in with them. The purpose of their jobs is to educate other local villagers and tourists like ourselves about the ecological benefits and how to preserve them, in the area they live in (i.e, wildlife and jungle, not chainsaws!) We dropped off our main backpacks and quickly packed a small overnight bag of absolute essentials only before heading off in a boat for an evening river cruise up the Kinabatangan River for some wildlife spotting and then onto the jungle for our overnight jungle stay. This was one of the 2 things about this trip that I had been equally dreading as well as hugely excited about. As we all stepped out of the boat we all sank into the deep squelchy mud and realised immediately that this was not a place to be worrying about appearances. All with our socks rolled up over our trousers and tops tucked into waistbands, we were all highly anxious about the likeliness of getting leeches attach themselves to us. The camp area was not too far into the jungle, and the main camp table eating/briefing table had already been set up under a huge canopy. We were soon all taking a rolled up hammock each and trying to source a good spot that we would be erecting our beds for the night. Nervously rocking various trees to test their strength and suitability, I was on constant tenterhooks that some sort of horrid insect or snake would try to climb in our hammocks, but Lee reassured me that it would be virtually impossible for anything to get in through the mozzie net as long as it was tucked in inside the hammock. Thankfully no harm or incident came to either Lee or I, but for 1 of the unlucky guys on our trip, he woke up in the morning having found his third leech attached to him. He got the first one the night before when we must have been treking to our spot after getting off the boat. We were all sat around the camp table when he suddenly leapt up from his seat and kind of yelped, as he saw the source of the irritation. He said he felt something inside his shirt drop down to his belly and thats when he undid his shirt and a massive, blood filled leech, the size and width of your little finger dropped off of him. It lieterally dropped off of him because it was so full of blood and couldn't hold on any longer. We all squirmed as we saw the disgusting thing wriggle on the floor. Whilst it slightly reassured us that it is true that you cannot feel a leech on you, it completely freaked us all out that we could all be infested with them and not know until the next day when we finally got a chance to get out of our clothes and have a shower. I'm convinced a small leech was on the inside of my forearm but fell off when I screamed at Lee to pull back my sleeve and check. Lee did not see it and so is a bit more sceptical than I.

The next morning we awoke early for a daylight jungle trek. One of the guides lead us through some of the jungle pointing out various creepy crawlies and different types of tree and bush, and explained how they are used for medicinal purposes still. There are said to be wild Pygmy Elephants that sometimes roam around that part of the jungle, but alas we did not see any such animal. The only 'wildlife' we spotted of note, was a giant red centipede. It wasn't the biggest variety in the world, but we were warned that if we were to get bitten by one, that it would cause great pain. Lee took a snap of it with my hand hovering (safely) just above it so you can see how big it was! After the jungle trek, we were all back onboard the small boat heading back along the Kinatangan River to have one last chance at seeing the various monkeys and other wildlife in the trees. The boat driver was just about to turn out boat round and head back to base when he suddenly spotted a wild orang-utan in the trees, sitting up high in the branches, looking down at us all. The boat stopped and we all sat in awe at being so lucky to spot this wonderful, yet horrifically endangered species. It might not sound very interesting being as you can see orangutans in most big zoo's these days, but to see one in its own natural environment, was not only very rare, but just so special knowing it was free to live exactly how nature intended.

We all headed back to the MESCOT centre on a high from our jungle stay and from spotting the wild orangutan, but no sooner had we dropped our overnight packs, we were collecting our main backpacks and being shipped off to various local villager's houses for our overnight stay. Luckily Lee and I were put together, and we were told we would be staying with a lady called Rose and her family in a house just at the back of the centre in the village. We walked the short distance round the corner, crossing muddy puddles and various strewn bits of wood and other materials to the main dirt road that lead through the village. Rose was at the top of the stairs and welcomed us into her lovely traditional Malay house on stilts. Although her English was fairly broken (and being that Lee and I don't speak a word of Malay), we still all managed friendly basic conversation. She made us feel at home straight away and kindly offered us the use of her bathroom for a 'shower' and freshen up before she cooked and served us some lunch. I hopped in the bathroom first whilst Lee used the toilet. It wasn't our first encounter with a squat toilet, but it was our first encounter with a 'wadi'. Basically Rose's bathroom is a very typical Malaysian bathroom, which is pretty much more of a wet room than your traditional western style bathroom. In the corner of the small tiled room, was a bucket (the wadi) of cold water and has a big scoop immersed in it. The idea is that you scoop some of the water onto yourself, then you lather yourself up, and then rinse yourself with more scoops of water. You never add soap/shower gel to the water in the wadi, just use the scoop for pouring purposes only. It was a bit of a shock to the system at first pouring a big mass of cold water over your head and down your back, but your body soon adjusts to it and after a while, I actually started to enjoy the experience, in a back to basics kind of way. The waste water drops to the floor and then runs out of a hole in the floor to a big muddy stream under the house. There is a sink in the other corner off the bathroom, but this is only a sink bowl that rests on 2 pieces of wood. Again it is not plumbed in to anything, and any water you pour down it comes straight out where the plug would be, and then also drains to the hole in the floor. After our wadi washes, Lee and I joined Rose and her young son Akim on the floor of her living room and tucked into some of the lunch she had prepared us. Our eyes scanned the various bowls of food and then to the water pot and tissues besides them. Lee and I knew instantly that this was going to be another hand fed meal, which we were a little concerned about as we didn't want to get a mess all over Rose's floor. As she took the lids of the various bowls of food, I shot Lee a look when she introduced the green bean and baby octupus combo. This for me was never going to be a problem as I really like all things sea-food, but Lee on the other hand would generally steer well clear of anything like this. Fair play to Lee, he politely accepted some on his plate, and later went for second helpings. After our brief introduction time with Rose, she brought out a bag with a couple of traditional costumes for Lee and I, as we would be joining the others in our group, and quite a few of the local villagers later that night for a cultural show. We would be returning to stay at Rose's house later that night. As we walked back to the MESCOT centre, Lee and I peeked into the bag and almost fell about laughing when we saw what we would have to be wearing, but figuring everyone else was in the same boat, didn't dwell on it too much. The afternoon consisted of us learning how to play a few basic jingles on the traditional Malaysian instruments, in preparation for the show we were to partake in later that evening. This consisted mostly of intermittently banging a couple of gongs each, so nothing to testing. After our music lesson a few of us headed back to the village area to have a game of volleyball with some of the locals, who I have to say absolutely whipped our little a@ses. After lots of running around and getting sweaty and muddy it was time to head back to the centre once more for our group cookery lesson. We were all split up into little groups and had to pick one dish to prepare each, that would then be served with everyone elses dishes, buffet style for our dinner that evening. Lee and I chose to cook the main dish, chicken in dark soy sauce. There were enough of the full time cooks from the centre to be allocated to each of our groups, and Lee and I were assigned Pipi. All was going well, and Lee was enjoing getting involved with a bit of culinary learning, when Pipi suddenly brought a big box of raw chicken wings over. The sauce Lee had made was looking and smelling delicious, but as Pipi started dropping all of the chicken wings, about 100 of them, into the giant wok, everyone started coming over and showing concern about the chicken being cooked properly. Pipi obviously knew his stuff as he demonstrated pouring lots of water into the chicken and sauce to boil it at the same time as still frying it. Dinner was served later and everyone tucked into some lovely typical Malaysian dishes and desserts - another fantastic cultural experience for us. After dinner the table was cleared and the Cultural Show began. Halim the MESCOT Leader started the show by explaining to us the significance of the traditional dances and a little about the costumes the dancers would be wearing. We were soon being entertained by the dancers and watching the pro's on the muscial instruments that we had been practising on earlier that day. Next up was our turn to entertain them, and although we were a little nervous at even daring to show ourselves in the costumes we had been loaned, the ice was broken and we were all joining in. It was the perfect end to our time at MESCOT and we had by this stage been really involved in all sorts of cultural activities.

The next day we went to Sepilok, to the Orangutan Rehabilitation Reserve. This was the one place we had wanted to come to in Borneo, which lead us to booking the trip. The aim of the place is to rehabilitate orphaned or mis-treated or neglected wild orangutans, so that once they have completed their rehabilitation, they can be released back into the wild. This can take anything from 6 years to 10 years + depending on how well the individual learns their 'natural' skills again. Firstly all new orangutans brought into the reserve must be kept in quarantine (as must all the human carers who are to have direct with them) to ensure the risk of passing or catching disease is minimised. Once the orangutans have passed the first stage of their rehabilitation, the level of human contact is lowered. Once they have proved that they can deal with the reduced level of human contact, they then progress to the next stage which is really minimul contact, maybe just the odd observation. From then on in, if they have proved they can cope and are showing signs of their natural instincts and behaviours, they are then released into the wild. The viewing platform at Sepilok is open to the public, and is for the orangutans on their second stage of rehabilitation, i.e, they have stopped being fed at regular intervals by their round the clock carers, and are now able to build their own nests in the tree's. A feeder will come to the feeding platform everyday for 2 feeding sessions, which the orangutans body clocks are finely tuned into. People spectating get to view the platform directly but are at a safe enough distance not to disturb the orangutans. We waited in silence (as instructed) for the first feeding session at 10am, when all of a sudden the jungle came alive with deafening frenzied screams from all the various breeds of monkeys who had also tuned their body clocks to the feeding time and place. In every direction, monkeys could be seen swinging through the trees, clambering up onto the spectator boardwalk fencing, and up onto the feeding platform, trying to steel whatever they could lay their hands on when the feeder wasn't looking. Eventually an orangutan appeared and made his way familiarly up to the top of the platform and started eating from the big bucket of fruit. We had a nice direct view of the orangutan, but sadly the event seemed to be over before it got started properly. We walked away, pleased to have seen an orangutan, but slightly disappointed that we hadn't seen more. On our way back we heard someone say that there was a real likelihood of seeing even more orangutans at the later feeding session in the afternoon, as like humans, they had not slept well the night before due to heavy rain, and were making the most of the sunny morning to have a lay-in to catch up on their sleep. True enough, we returned at 3pm and were delighted to find that about 5 or 6 orangutans had surfaced and were making their way up to the feeding platform, or were jumping about on the vines leading to the platform. We stood and watched in complete awe for a good 40 minutes or so, over the moon to see such reward for our trip over. Even better was that one of the orangutans had a little baby with it (not sure if it was it's mother, or if it was a fellow youngster but older than the little one, who it had attached itself). I was fascinated to watch the human like expressions on their adorable little faces and see the gestures they made to each other. It was almost like you could reach out and join in with whatever it was they were communicating to each other. Every now and then, the young, plucky baby reached out and gave a gentle swipe to the cheeky monkeys who were trying to steel their food. As the adorable apes started to have their fill of fruit, they then dispersed back into the jungle. Ecstatic we had seen such a special sight we started to walk back to the exit. As we were walking along the boardwalk, we were aware of a commotion up ahead. A group of people had formed a circle around a man, who at first sight, looked like he had somehow got hold of an orangutan and put it on his back so his wife could take some photo's. It then became obvious that the orangutan had appeared from the jungle and sat on the boardwalk handrail, curious by the man who wanted to take its photo. The curious orangutan then reached out to grab the mans cigarettes that were in his top pocket, and as the man went to stop him from getting them, the orangutan had kind of launched himself onto the man and put his arms around him in an embrace. The man was actually trying to gently get the orangutan off of him and place him back onto the fencing. He did eventually manage to do this, but then the orangutan reached up and latched onto a woman and flung his arms around her. He was looking up into her eyes with the most gorgeous melting eyes, and whilst she was somewhat taken aback to have the animal attach itself to her, you could see she was over the moon to get the chance to hold the adorable creature. Soon enough a carer came running through the crowds to the rescue of the confused orangutan, and lead him off by the hand. We were all concerned about the risk of disease spreading, but I couldn't help but think I wish it was me the orangutan had reached for! I have to say that none of this would have been possible without the lovely, adorable, irreplaceable man in my life, so Lee, thank you so much honey for making a dream come true!!

The day after Sepilok our group made the coach trip to the other side of Sabah, ready to check in to a guest house ready for the big one the next day. The overnight jungle stay had been 1 of the things that I whad been freaking out about, and the other was the big summit climb of Mount Kinabalu - Malaysia's highest mountain, standing at 4095 metres, which is basically half the height of Everest. Before we arrived in Borneo, we had read the trip notes issued by the travel company which went into detail about how we should all be at a certain fitness level before considering the climb, and suggested fairly regular fitness training at least 3-6 weeks beforehand. It also warned of the signs and dangers of altitude sickness. Whilst the pictures and accounts we had read and heard from other people about the climb sounded amazing, I was seriously starting to doubt my abilities, especially as Lee and I haven't really done anything fitness wise for the last 8 months, except for the odd walk/trek of our own accord, and even then it hadn't been anything like on this level. I was also concious that I'm carrying lots of extra weight which I thought would guarantee altitude sickness, but once we realised that we would have proper mountain guides with us all the way up and down, going at our pace, and would even carry our bags (at a cost), I started to gain some confidence and was then ready to face the challenge. The next morning the 7 out of 11 in our group who were going to do the climb gathered for breakfast in the trail start restaurant in Mesilau. The breakfast was buffet style and it was quite a posh restaurant, so we each took full advantage and stocked up on the carbs (cereals, toast, pancakes, omlettes, noodles, fruit and muffins) until we were nearly to full to be able to start the walk. We all opted to purchase a walking stick, which turned out to be a sound investment and saved even more strain on joints, and actually got used to drag/hoist ourselves up some of the really steep steps and rocks. Day 1 of the trek involved climbing just over 6KMS up, which we were told should take us around 6 hours to complete. The climb itself can be started and finished via 2 different trails, 1 of them being the Mesilau Trail, which is the one we all left from. This is the far more challenging of the 2 trails, so although it was really tough, we were all pleased we were taking this trail at the start of our climb. The trail itself is basically a naturally trodden path which climbs very steeply at times, up bolders, rocks, stream stepping stones, rickety old step laders or tree roots, basically anything in its path would be used to lever oneself up to the next 'step'. After copious amounts of sweat and sometimes swearing and cursing, we eventually made it to the day 1 stop-off point. The stop-off is a place called Laban Rata, which has a fully stocked buffet restaurant and a number of grotty hostels. Again, we all tucked into a big dinner and admired the gorgeous sunset from above the clouds. Although our group of 7 started the walk out together, it was inevitable that some would push on ahead, and others would plod behind. Lee and I arrived at Laban Rata as numbers 4 and 5 of the 7. Unfortunately a younger lad had really struggled from early on and was showing all the classic signs of altitude sickness (vomiting, stomach pains, dodgy tummy) and so he and his girlfriend did not make it to Laban Rata until another hour later than us. It came as no suprise to hear that he would not be able to continue the climb the next day, and so they settled themselves in for the night, him not even being able to keep any food or liquid down to make up for lost fluids. The rest of us struggled another 300metres up the trail to our hostel for the night, exhausted, and wanting to get as much sleep in before being woken up the next morning at 2.00AM for the summit walk to catch sunrise. The hideous, cold, rat infested hostel was not enough to put any of us off of wanting to just lay down and close our eyes.

The alarms started to go off at 2.00 and we all pretty much leapt out of our beds, not even considering it was such a disgusting time of the morning to be getting up. We were all high on adrenalin for wanting to complete the climb. After chomping on little energy snacks, we were all soon snaking our way once again up the mountain, this time in the pitch black, except for the line of head torches, and now up slippery, almost verticle in parts side of the mountain. I knew there were going to be sections of this bit of the climb that would involve holding onto ropes, but I never anticipated it would be a case of cling on for dear life and pull yourself up, or risk falling off the side of the mountain down towards the distant twinkling lights of Kota Kinabalu, far far off in the distance. At this stage I was pretty panicky, but the fact that it was black was almost a good thing as I forced myself not to look towards my right, and in any case could not make out much anyway due to the lack of light. An hour and a half into the climb I had to keep stopping after every 10 metres or so, just to get breath back before hobbling penguin stylee the next 10 metres. Finally, nearly 3 hours later, the summit was in reaching distance, just as the sun was starting to show its first ray of golden light above the clouds. When Lee and I reached the very top, we weren't suprised to see the other 3 already there. In fact Bev, one of the ladies in our group was the very 1st person in all of the 175 climbers on the mountain that day to reach the summit. Unfortunately the downside to reaching the summit so soon is that you then start to feel the chill as your inside body temperature still burns, but the outside temperature is near to freezing. One of the other girls hand was starting to show signs of frostbite which was a bit of a concern. This meant that Lee and I only got to bask in the glory of completing the climb and admiring the sunset for much less time than we would have preferred. As we stood at the top, it seemed that every single minute that passed the beautiful sky had turned another shade of colour and pattern. In the distance an electric storm flashed away adding even more drama to the amazingly stunning outlook. Lee and I both agreed without hesitation this was by far the most special sunrise we had ever seen, and were totally mesmorised by our surreal surroundings. Sadly our group had to start the descent as the 2 girls were nearly hyperthermic and a few people were showing slight signs of altitude sickness, i.e headaches, sinus pains etc. Even the descent posed some stunning views at every opportunity up until Laban Rata again. Once again this was the stop-off point so get another huge buffet style energy boosting breakfast for the final 6KM descent, this time via the Timpahon Gate Trail. The whole descent took us all about 6 hours from top to bottom, and needless to say, by the end of it we were all pretty much hobbling, as our achy joints started to feel the constant pressure of our weight bearing down with each decline. There was a particularly hairy moment for me on the rope section again, which did end in tears as my feet kept slipping and I was convinced I would fall off. My wonderful Lee never stopped encouraging me and re-assuring me, and that and one of the other mountain guides words of guidance, I was able to negotiate the dreaded section.

Once at the bottom, we were all shattered beyond belief, but totally elated to have achieved such a feat. The last few days of the trip were all about relaxation to rest our weary bones and chill out on a lovely beach on an island called Sapi, part of the Tunku Abdul Raman Marine Park. We weren't sure if our bodies would be able to sustain us whilst we snorkelled in the gorgeous turquoise waters, but it wasn't an issue.

Lee and I left Borneo the next day on a flight bound for KL once again. We both said how much we had thoroughly enjoyed the trip and how much we loved Borneo. It has pretty much been a highlight of our whole travels so far. This didn't do much to help us try to mentally re-adjust to going back to the all too familiar suffocating KL, but we had to stop there to do a spot of sightseeing before we rocked onto the next place any how.

The next day we headed out to the Petronas Towers and queued early for some of the free tickets that get issued so that you can go up to the viewing platform between the 2 towers at an allocated time for 10 minutes. There is some interesting information displays and videos to give you info on the design and the actual building of the towers which was pretty good, but actually being up inside the tower viewing platform was not as spectacular as seeing the towers themselves from a distance. They look particularly attractive at night all lit up against KL's high rise sky line.

From KL, Lee and I caught a bus to Penang where we spent a day and a half looking around. We found it to be charming in a rustic kind of a way, very much like Melaka, but only not so glammed up as Melaka. We spotted all the guest houses and tourist points displaying their prices for a Thai visa, but unfortunatley Lee and I thought we'd hang on until we got to Langkawi, our last stop off point in Malaysia before entering Thailand to purchase our visa's there. The next morning we took the 2 hour boat ride up to Langkawi, only to discover that Penang was the nearest place to get a tourist visa. Very annoyingly we realised that we would have to purchase another couple of boat tickets back to Penang, then buy the visa's and then more boat tickets to get us into Thailand. We weighed this up against the prospect of getting a flight from Langkawi to Phuket in Thailand, where we would be able to get an automatic 30 day visa as we had flown in. More drawbacks when we realised that we could not fly directly from Langkawi to Phuket - we would have to fly there via the backwards journey to KL! Its seems we are destined to not get away from that place, but hey ho, 7 hours later, and we have arrived in Phuket. We are currently walking around, pleased as punch as we are now guests of the Marriott Hotel in Patong, Phuket! Whilst Patong gets a bit of bad press for being trashy, we don't care 1 iota as we shall be living like king and queen for the next 3 days. The lovely lady we met when we did our white water rafting in NZ kindly invited us over and said she would get us staff discount if we wanted to stay at her hotel. Whilst it is costing much more than our usual backpacking accommodation budget, it is still costing less per night than you would pay for a basic room in say, the Travel Lodge!

We're going to do a bit of island hopping now we're in Thailand and have a basic route mapped out and expect to be here for pretty much the whole 30 days of our visa.

If you read this blog up to 2 days earlier, you would have seen my frustrations at not being able to finish it to this point. So sorry if it's confused you seeing this extra bit that wasn't there earlier.

Til next time.......