BORNEO 24 hours of taxis, a plane, buses, tuk tuks, vans, 4x4s and boats found us floating to our destination on the Kinabatangan river in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The accomodation claimed to be basic. Spartan doesnt even cover it; Unsanitary is a far more apt description. Wooden sheds with no sides, windows, or doors containing a mouldy mattress on the floor, linked together via a series of low lying boardwalks a foot above a swamp with riverwater for brushing ...

Crossing the border into Malaysia the difference in people and attitudes was instant. People suddenly werent trying to sell us things, but were simply happy to say Hello. And even though we had travelled on just an overnight train the faces grinning at us were completely different, a mixture of Chinese, Indian and Malay faces, many adorned with headscarves with not an inch of skin on show. Kates wardrobe suddenly became very limited in an attempt to not offend an...