Mother nature does it again. I reach the end of my final day totally exhausted, my mind totally boggled. First was Gumantong caves (I need to check that spelling). This was something off the set of an Indiana Jones film. Imagine that you are standing in cave as big as a cathedral, in the dark. As you walked in you had to battle with the stench of the droppings from the thousands of little bats that line the roof. There are funny bits of rope used by the farme...

Is it me? It isn't me is it? It must be the world. If you are wondering why the photo is of a bare piece of floor, it is because this is one of the many places in the world where my luggage is not. That list may or may not include Kota Kinabalu International Airport's Left Luggage Services Department, but I cannot tell. 16 calls it took to get KKIA Left Luggage Service on the phone. Numbers not in service. Numbers unanswered. Numbers redirected. Numbers su...

So, let me start with a confession. I'd never heard of Sandakan before this trip. If you had, and you knew of what happened here during the war, forgive me. If not, please remember this name. Lest we forget. It's written all over the war memorial, which leaves a skulking embarrassment as you begin to understand what happened here. In my defence, I hadn't forgotten, I just never knew. Because my mate from Mabul, Chris, had recommended I visited the PoW camp...

Imagine my joy when I heard a French voice at the Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. Under my breath I muttered, "Le singe est dans l'arbre". (if this means nothing to you, don't worry) The Orangutan, meaning man of the forest, is utterly beautiful. Mysterious and human-like, this ginger ape has 96.4% of our DNA, and it shows in their every facial movement. You can see in an instant why people entirely devote their lives to protecting them. There's little that ...

I have not died, but I have gone to heaven. This morning I left the scummy diving backpacker outfit behind and piled aboard an Executive Coach cross country from Semporna to Sandakan. Sandakan, and it's smaller nearby sister village of Sepilok, are famous for one thing: orang utans. Once a day, the world's most loved red heads knuckle out of the jungle to be fed to be fed by humankind, and every backpacker for hundreds of miles around is there to capture it on...