Me again, still on holiday and somehow managing to keep up this blog, I hope you are impressed.
Well true to form since the last post I have had a couple of typical Kate moments. The first one struck me about 30 minutes after writing about the mountain. You might remember that I wasn't very impressed with the accommodation at the hot springs, well it gave me food poisoning! I'll not give you all the gory details but it was pretty nasty. Luckily we have a nurse in our group, Vivian (Auntie Viv, who is actually a Farrell, mum we need to check it out because her dad is from Liverpool!) had some wonder drugs that manage to sort me out in the space of 12 hours. I was so grateful because I had visions of missing the rest of the tour; thankfully not.
The other moment is the ridiculous sun burn and tan lines from our first proper day of sun at Turtle Island today. When will I learn!?
But before I tell you about the turtles, I need to fill you in on the jungle.....
After Poring not so hot springs we headed for a one night stay in some jungle bungalows. Very rainy to start with and lots of Mosquitos but then what do you expect in the actual jungle!?
We had two trips down the jungle river where we saw loads of wild monkeys in the trees, which was brilliant. At one point we literally mounted the river bank and had to run after the tours guides who had spotted an Orang-utan in the distance, I didn't get any pictures but did see the shape swinging down the tree! Heart was racing and adrenalin pumping at that point, fabulous.
Seeing monkeys in the wild is quite surreal, they are so human like and they watched us as much as we watched them... I loved it.
The next day we had a cooking class, I was in charge of peeling mango for the spicy sauce and then we had to eat the whole meal with our hands; not great after a bought of Delhi Belly but I did my best.
And then yesterday (Monday) we headed to Sandukan for a night at a rooftop bar/cocktails before our early morning boat trip to turtle island. You will be pleased to know I was well enough for a cosmopolitan.
The weather has finally stared to improve today after a week of non stop rain. Thank goodness because we have had a great day on Turtle Island which is a conservation site to stop turtles from becoming extinct. It's basically a desert island where turtles come to lay their eggs, the Rangers collect the eggs, keep them safe and then release the baby turtles into the sea. After spending the day snorkelling and frazzling on the beach, we had to wait a few hours this evening for a turtle to arrive and then we were allowed to watch her laying the eggs; 60 in one go. But the icing on the cake today has been watching the tiny baby turtles be released into the wild, cute isn't the word! I kept thinking of Finding Nemo and the surf dude turtles. Got some good photos of that bit.
I had some mixed feelings about whether we should have been watching and if we were interfering with nature but then remembered that it's a conservation site and tourism pays for the upkeep and contributes massively to helping the turtles, so my conscience felt a bit clearer.
So overall another packed few days...and more magical memories made. Next stop Orang-utan sanctuary in Sepilok, let's hope the don't mistake me for one with the ridiculous patchy tan!
Kate x