sorry to have been a bit out of touch last few days- ive only just seen the news that our hannah rout is getting married!! but theres a good excuse for me being lax- ive been living out my own nature documentary!! within the last few days ive been chased by an adult orangutan and helped a nest load of baby turtles find their way to the sea. first of all huge congrats to hannah. im sure mum wont have heard for hopefully shes reading this im sure she'l be soon adding her congrats to my message for hannah. shes just the loveliest person and she deserves every happiness im sure marrying this andy will bring her (who ive never met by the way!! has anyone??) as for my nature documentary. well ur not gonna believe it. so i left brunei on monday after a crazy night out in miri with phoebes mates, getting in around half 4 which nearly killed me- so hungover. Im such a lightweight after barely drinking for a few months!! got a ferry round the coast to pulau labuan, a duty free island where i stocked up on milka!! and got another ferry to kota kinabalu, the capital of malaysian borneo, of the sabah part of the island. this partof malaysia is semi autonomous and pretty different to peninsular malaysia from the get-go- haardly any infrastructure in the way of roads for a start. theres literally one road in and one out of every town. and kk itself is hardly a booming city, more like a smaller version of oxford. but its nice, its on the waters edge, the poeple are friendly, beaches are pretty, hostels are cheap, lots of shops and u can walk everywhere. so i stayed here one night monday and met up with neil and glenny, the dentists from the thailand trip. tuesday am i tried to change my flight to give myself a few more days hee but everything going out of bangkok was full so i suddenly had just a week to do a few bits i could and head back to brunei for my tuesday flight. so off i went. found a mini bus for ranau, which went thru kinabalu national park (big mountain-volcano type thing. beautiful to hike up if u have time aparently) and to poring hot springs (hot baths, in the jungle). i say i found a mini bus and very happy about it because buses only run in the mornings here and altho its a small country it takes hrs to get everywhere. there only one express bus per day from kk going north east and i wanst up early enuff for that- 7 am. minibuses are fairly frequent but not to a timetable, they literally go when theyre full. so u can be waiting 2-3 hrs if ur unlucky. i was lucky enuff to walk up and be directed onto one that left 20mins later. or so i thought i wa slucky, it broke down an hr later!! we were crammed onto a teeny tiny mini bus with a local family- minibus was made for 6people but there was 9 of us plus the driver in it! plus rucksacks.... anyways, scenery on the drive was beautiful, great to see kinabalu up close and much more unspoilt jungle than i thought id be seeing. got into ranau and had to chat to some locals to figure out how to get to the hot springs. my malay is not great! its such an odd language! found a cheap hostel at hot springs and went for a dip. also climbed up into the canopy walking on rope bridges which was cool. then there was a huge storm and unfortunately it was then that my battle against insects began! i am very very bitten, needless to say, despite repellant, a mozzie net for the nights and anti mosquito coils burning next to me. and wearing trousers. they still get thru! how is that, if only they could use that intelligence for good instead of evil. left poring early weds and headed for sepilok, home of the famous orangutan sanctuary which i was v keen to get to. this bus broke down too. hmph. luckily they fixed it while we waited and there was a kindly local next to me explaining what was happening (he spent most of the time exclaiming in wonder "ur travelling on ur own?"" and asking what my husband thought about it.)but he also told me wheere to get off the bus. after some negotiating and rejecting some places on sight i found somewhere lovely to stay at sepilok, the sepilok b&b. which was empty apart from me so effectively i had a private room and bathrom, score!! luckily some people did eventually turn up to stay at the hostel, ironically one of them was cleversons boss from intrepid!! goodness knows how much trouble i got him into, but i found out more about the job in case i decide to persue it, so i spent that night chatting to jeff and jo. thursday was my orangutan day. for anyone who gets the chance u must must must go to sepilok and see this amazing place.its a sanctuary that rescues abandones and orphaned orangs, teaches them life skills, rears them and eventually returns them all to the jungle.to raise money tourists are encouraged to visit the centre at feeding times- 10am and 3pm . i went to both thursday because it was amazing. u have to put all ur posessions in lockers because otherwise the orangs will try and take it. u walk about 10mins into the jungle to a big platform near to a feeding platform. (its just one of many platforms, set further and further away from the first, used to wean them off human contact) and as soon as we got there one of the orangs was walking towards the platform thru the throng of tourists. soon there were around 10 swinging towards the platform looking for bananas and milk. so lucky because its rare so many come back at feeding time- theres 600 or so been released but its good news if they dont come back too often. some were very young tho, clearly only recently released. i cant describe how amazing it was being close to these animals, watchig them eat, interact and be silly, enjoying the attention of us looking. they really are so human and their faces are beautiful. i was actually pretty moved by the whole thing. and then later i came back for the 3 pm feeding time and hung around alone watching them all fora while and ended up being chased by an adult orang all the way back to the entrance. theyre pretty scary, tho im sure it wouldnt have hurt me i didnt want to get too close- u can pass diseases to them really easily apart from anything. after that amazing expereince i got very lucky again. id wanted to go to turtle island, a protected island off the coast of sabah which was a nesting site of turtles, protected as such and a hatchery to promote their survival. the malaysians have turned this into an eco tourist site. ttrips are really expensive and u usually have to book ages in advance but i asked on the off chance the day before and they had spaces! yay! and i got a cheap deal too. within the next 24hrs id watched the hatching of two-yep two- natural nests of eggs, into hundreds of babies, and helped them make their way to the sea. truly amazing, i cant even say how that feels. then we saw a mother turtle who'd accidentally come into lay in day time (turtles are pretty dumb i found out) and we had to help her back out to sea at low tide. that night we witnessed a turtle laying her eggs, watched the rangers collect them and transfer them to the hatchery and then we all had the opportunity to hold baby turtles before a bunch of new hatchlings were taken to the sea. wow. in the morning the beach was littered with turtle tracks and nests. never thought id see anything like that in my lifetime and i feel incredibly incredibly lucky rite now. and im ready to come home now. back in kk. got another day here to shop-bought some jeans and had a pedicure this afternoon, what luxury! maybe ill go to the beach tomorrow. and then back to brunei. flying out on tuesday. chris, thanks for pics of new house, looks eerily empty but im sure ur mum and eric will have made it nice before i get there. looking forward to seeing u all soon! congrats hunny,i heard liverpool won. arent i good!! see u in a few days. to my poor long suffering family. im coming home, on tues. im putting off more dangerous destinations for another trip. so ill see u guys weds sometime hopefully. itd be lovely if mum, dad and gilly could be together in the same place for one night that week so i can see u all??? emma, see u very soon.... ill call next week when ive had a bit of a rest and im gonna come see u if thats ok? kelly, alicia, jodie also would love to see u and lucy if ur back atall in sept lemmie know. amy, will u be around or will i miss u totally? everyone else, im keen to catch up with everyones news and that when i get back so expect an annoying phone call sometime soon.