Most of my 2 days at the Hyatt have been spent horizontally - either in the extremely comfy bed watching films or on a sun lounger by the pool. I did get up temporarily for a swim, a spot of dinner and to attack the breakfast buffet. Talking of buffets, I was lured away from a perfectly good steak and mash (mmm mash :) dinner from the a la carte menu by the Mexican(?!) themed buffet purely due to the French crepes on the dessert station. Big mistake. They didn't...

Most of my trip mates were departing so said our sad farewells before a few of us headed into town in the hope that sunshine would replace the crazy wind by the time we got there so we could go to the island of Sapi. Success - after surviving the kamikaze boat journey over we spent a lovely few hours chilling on the beach and snorkelling. After my up close and personal encounter with the monitor lizard on turtle island I opted to observe those on Sapi from a dist...

Our leader sure loves Flying Lemurs! We came across a very excited Han on our way into the Sepilok rainforest discovery centre, this morning, - rushing to get his camera to snap the one he spotted from the canopy walkway. Luckily being daytime, and it being nocturnal, it hung around for him rather than gliding off. We had a good oggle at it for a while from the lofty walkway. The view of the surrounding rainforest from up there was superb, as were all the sounds....

Today was an exciting one - our visit to the orangutan sanctuary at Sepilok, where 50 rehabilitated, plus some wild, orangs live in the 4000 protected hectares of jungle/rainforest. At morning feeding, of the currently more dependant ones, we saw Ronnie (7), Mimi (older), Charlie (1) with mum Brit, and the dominant male Miscam. Ronnie in particular hung and swung in some amazingly acrobatic positions. Tons of monkeys, or macaques, also tried their luck at the fee...

Jealous? I would be! Boated over to Turtle Island (aka Selingaan - one of 3 dedicated to conservation) an hour from Sandakan. I got the roller coaster seat at the front :0 Greeted by this gorgeous palm tree. We were treated to a day of snorkelling and lolling around on the beach. We were well 'looked after' - we seemed to accumulate an extra 'lifeguard' every 1/2 hour. I got a little sting on my neck from a tiny jellyfish :( and lots of bites from pesky sandfl...