Singapore Visa Run

At the end of January it was time for our second visa run. This time Naomi and I were both meeting family and had planned to meet them in Kuala Lumper airport, then fly down to Singapore together. Naomi and I caught the 8 hour night bus from the bus terminal by our house to Kota Kinabalu, arriving at 5.30am! The bus journey spans the width of Sabah and has to go over mount Kinabalu. Unfortunately the roof of the bus had a leak, so the wet weather combined with the winding road meant that water kept pouring through the roof onto the floor next to our seats, not much sleep was had! 

We arrived at the bus terminal on the outskirts of the city and like always every single local person tried to help us and tell us where to go, but we knew that we needed some breakfast and then we were going to catch the hop on hop off bus for 1 ringgit (less than 20 pence) into the city. The bus was full and negotiating it with our backpacks and rucksacks without hitting people who just stared blankly at us wasn’t easy. The next issue was deciding which stop was the closest to the city, we ended up getting off when everyone else piled off, landing us at another city bus terminal and luckily where we wanted to be! After the hassle of getting to this next bus terminal we decided that we would head straight for the airport instead of going into the centre of the city with our bags and caught a minibus for 2 ringgits each to the airport. So total for 2 bus journeys = 60p! 

With a few hours to kill in the airport we got a 6 pack of donuts, such a novelty after Malaysian food, and waited to check in and go through to the plane. The photograph shows 4 of the 6, we were too excited to eat them to get a photo of all 6!

4 of the 6 doughnuts... too tasty to wait for a picture of all of them!

In KL airport we waited for my mum and Naomi’s parents who were arriving after us and had a rapid terminal change from their flight from Heathrow. They met us at the gate to our Singapore flight, where we had just enough time for a quick hello before jumping on the plane again.

We arrived in Singapore in the evening and after saying a very sad goodbye to Naomi, who I had spent every minute with since the end of October and wasn’t going to see for a whole week, mum and I grabbed a taxi to our hotel. It was Chinese New Year so after checking in we headed out for some food by the river. We found a lovely Mexican restaurant and shared a portion of nachos and quesadillas, it was such a nice change from rice and veg and unlimited refills of lemonade just topped of the meal! After dinner it was fairly late so we decided to have a wander, the wide bridge walls in Clarke Quay were packed with groups of people sat drinking and socialising in the warm evening heat, all awaiting the Chinese New Year fireworks.

Over the next few days in Singapore we went took a boat trip to visit the bay, went for a walk in the botanic gardens and did some shopping. The 'bumboats' on the river were previously used as cargo carriers along the rivers before the bridges were built, they are wooden barges with red and green stripes on and eyes on the front which were thought to protect the boats from danger, now they are used for tours and as water taxis along the river, they have a commentary and video highlighting all the interesting buildings and history along the river and around the bay. 

There is a rule for new builds in Singapore stating that they have to offset their carbon footprint with the same area of greenery, this means that all the hotels have areas of trees and flower beds at various levels and on their roof tops. But along with greenery on top of one of the hotels in the bay  they have managed to place a giant ship model, it is balanced across three towers of the hotel with the front end projecting out of the final tower. The design and appearance of this hotel was absolutely amazing and very in keeping with all the other spectacular shaped hotels in Singapore. The hotel was linked to the neighbouring shopping centre by and underground river system with wooden paddleboats along it. It was in this shopping centre that Mum and I saw our first Chinese new year Lion performance, the groups with their lion and drummers visit many of the Chinese shops and offer oranges and money packets. The performances are very loud and can be heard through the whole shopping centre, so after seeing a few more in various places we tended to avoid them.

The Ship Model topper of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel! 

One morning Mum and I visited the Singapore Botanic Gardens, the year of the Horse had just begun so the gardens were littered with brand sculptures of horses, the business of the city centre was turned into quiet meandering paths in the gardens and around the large lake full of turtles and giant fish.

The use of renewable energy and offsetting of carbon footprints in Singapore was amazing, Along with the greenery in hotels rule,  the edge of the bay was lined were solar panel powered fans, large sculptures of pipes which were actually a sprinkler system for super hot days and of course the streets were immaculate due to the no chewing gum law. What amazed Mum and I even more was that at night the street stalls were not cleared away but were just covered with a blanket to prevent the weather and insects getting to the produce. Severe punishments for stealing and littering make this a very safe and super clean place to visit.

A visit to Singapore wouldn’t be complete without a Singapore sling.. or two! Unfortunately the cocktail is really nice so many were consumed over the week, although after 6 months of no alcohol one each day was plenty for me! The week of sightseeing, walking, shopping, relaxing by the pool and enjoying normal food went so quickly that before I knew it it was time to pack my bag again, this time half full with chocolate. Our flight from Singapore to Kuala Lumper was an early morning one so on the short flight we were able to watch an amazing sunrise before Mum and I landed and said our farewells for another 6 months and caught our connecting flights. For me it was back to the pothole roads and jungle and for mum is was back to the trains on strike and a very flooded uk!.. I think I had the better deal! 

December Expedition

Whilst the boys took their week holiday at the beginning of December Naomi and I were in the forest where we enjoyed more thunderstorms, did some more running and went in search of banteng! One morning we decided to walk along an old logging road where we often find fresh banteng tracks and dung. We had only walked about 500 meters along the track when we caught onto some fresh prints, having seen banteng twice I was super keen to find some more or Naomi to see so we very quietly walked along the rest of the old road, cameras poised in case we saw a banteng. About 1km down the road we heard a rustling in the trees on our left and after a few more steps the rustling turned into crashing as a large black animal crashed its way through the trees away from us, the size and amount of noise only suggested one animals, a banteng! Unfortunately it all happened so quickly that we didn’t manage to get a photograph but Naomi was very happy to get a glimpse of her first Banteng.

When the boys came back off holiday it was time for Naomi, Jo, Rusdi, Lee and I to head off on expedition. No that all the camera trap grids have been taken down we are undertaking the state-wide survey funded by Sime Derby to locate any remaining population of Banteng. We currently have camera tarps set up in Maliau Basin Conservation Area, Sipitang Forest Reserve and Sapulut Forest Reserve. First we headed to Sapulut, this forest was only visited or the first time in November sour mains aim while we were there was to establish more camera trap stations in different areas of the forest and in areas where there have been possible banteng sightings.

A combination of steep old logging roads and the rainy season meant that driving into locations in the dry morning was reasonably uneventful but getting back out in the rain of the afternoon was often more interesting. On our first day in Sapulut the rains turned the muddy track into and slippery mess and it took 5 of us giving the car some gentle encouragement to gain enough traction to get her up the hill!.. which we then had to try and walk up without falling or getting a tonne of mud caked onto the bottoms of our shoes!

Picture of Naomi and I testing the waterproofing in our raincoats!

On the second day we headed to a different area where there had been more recent banteng reports, as we started to walk along the old road we came across a vehicle parked up, we knew exactly what this meant, hunters were out hunting somewhere on the path ahead of us. Just as we expected we encountered the hunters a few hours later, returning to their cars with their days catch, a bearded pig stuffed in bags on their backs!

To help prevent our cameras being seen and stolen we have become more inventive at hiding them, being the tallest person on the Banteng team it has become my job to put the cameras as high as I can in the trees! This often involves balancing on a log for a bit of extra height whilst drilling in bolts above me!.. I just hope the boys can reach them next month t check them!

Next we went to Sipitang forest reserve, this is about 600km from our house in Lahad Datu and another 7 hours drive from Sapulut. We were staying in the plantation worked base camp, which has the luxury of television, but is at higher altitude to the other forests we visit so is a bit chilly.

On the first day we decided to head to our highest camera stations in an area that is currently being logged. When we arrived at the point on the GPS which stated ‘walk from here’ we found ourselves to not be at the bottom of an old logging road as expected but to be in the middle of a freshly logged area! Thank goodness for the GPS, because without it we would have had no bearings at all. Thankfully the cameras were in an area that is too steep to log so the trees and cameras were still there! No searching through the pile of logsto find it!!

Day 2 in Sipitang took us back to the area where the hunters had to help us get the car unstuck last time I visited this forest, a new gate stops vehicles from getting to this area now unless they have a key. Although as we headed through the gate we could see the condition of the road had deteriorated further and the heavy rain had caused huge crevices to form in the road. With some careful directing, great driving and a bit of road rebuilding (!!) we managed to get quite far along the road before having to abandon the car and walk the remainder of the way. Our decision to abandon the car and walk was an easy one when Lee and I jumped out to inspect one of the bridges to find that it half of it had collapsed and been replaced with two branches!

Rebuilding the road as we go

The bridge of branches

Unfortunately despite the poor road condition and the new gate being established we were shocked to find that at the location of our first two cameras not only the cameras had been stolen but the entire trees had been chopped down. Thankfully the rest of the cameras were intact.

The next day we headed to another area which is in the process of being logged, here we have had exciting signs of banteng but as we arrived.. after getting stuck in the mud.. we could see that the logging had moved closer towards our cameras. The old logging road that we walked along to set the cameras up had become a new logging road in the middle of a large cleared area and the nice easy walk had been turned into an obstacle course of felled trees! Let’s hope banteng like open areas more than closed canopy!

Practicing my circus skills!

On the final day in Sipitang we headed for an area that we couldn’t access last time i visited, due to a landslide. We had been assured that this road was now clear and we could get to our cameras but the previous nights rain meant that another part of the slope had fallen onto the road below preventing us from even getting close to or cameras. Time for plan B. Instead, we decided to head to some other cameras that needed checking, these cameras were over an old broken bridge that when the water is low, you can cross the river bed to get on the bridge and cross the river. As we were driving to the old bridge and discussing what we thought the water would be like we were suddenly stopped as a whole herd of grazing Buffalo appeared on the side of the road. I didn’t even know buffalo existed here so was very pleasantly surprised! As we reached the river our thoughts were confirmed a the quiet flowing river had been turned into a raging monster by the rain, pouring over the broken bridge and around the end of the break where we normally cross.. if only I had my kayak! So these cameras were not getting checked either... time for plan C... back to the room to do some work!

Despite all the logging, broken roads and heavy rain the pictures from the camera traps revealed there to be lots of wildlife in Sipitang including at least two families of Banteng with calves. Yay!

Our final forest to visit was Maliau Basin Conservation Area, this is near Sipitang forest reserve so around 6 hours drive from Sipitang, although the drive gets quicker every time as more and more of the road is tarmaced. We only spent 2 nights in Maliau Basin as all the cameras there can be checked in one day, thankfully we didn’t have any visits from the Malay civet this time! The cameras photographs revealed there to be lots of banteng, elephants with calves and sambar deer with fawns around. This provided great entertainment for everyone while we were going through the photos on the second night, as every cute photo caused me to automatically say ‘aaaaawwww’ even when I tried my best not to!.. the photos were really cute though!

After lots of walking and eating packed lunch’s it was time to head back to the house in Lahad Datu for a Christmas break!

January, I'm half way already!

As nothing ever runs to plan, especially on New Year’s Eve I was silly expecting to have an uneventful journey into the Jungle house on the evening of December31^st!

We were picked up by forestry staff as Jo was still on Holiday and headed for our jungle house. It was about 8pm by the time we got near the house and the afternoons rain had caused the river to swell.. this is where we were faced with the choice.

      1.Walk the remaining mile to the house and risk encountering Mr Elephant the lone bull elephant with long tusks that had been around the house for the past week.

2    2. Sit in the car and wait for the river to go down.. ie sleep in the car until morning and hope Mr Ele doesn’t come!

3    3.Drive back out to the check point house where there is electric, gas and beds?!

I think it was an obvious winner, so we drove an hour back out to the gate where there was a house for the gate staff. The 3 Malaysian guys in the house were very welcoming and gave Naomi and I their room to sleep in and they laid out their mattresses on the floor in the main room. After Mi Goreng (fried noodles) for dinner we sat in the main room and watched tv... yes an actual TV with signal!.. and tucked into our box of cookies! As it was already late it seemed silly not to see the new year in, the New Years countdown was quite funny as the screen countdown reached zero before the presenters counting... ooops and after some interesting dancing and lots of fireworks we’d had enough of tv and headed to bed. A very memorable new years eve!

Naomi and I were in the jungle until the middle of January and we spent our time trying to avoid being soaked, trying to avoid the lightening and trying to avoid the elephant. Failing to avoid both the rain and the elephant! On one evening the weather was quite cool so we decided to go for a run, we were about 2 minute into our run when we spotted Mr Elephant standing right next to the track. This put a very rapid end to our run, making the run a total of 5 minutes long!

The elephant decided that it liked that area around the forest house and was around for the whole time we were in the forest, we encountered him again one afternoon when we were walking, again putting an end to our walk and sending us rapidly back to the house. Next he decided he’d pay us a visit, I was sat on the sofa with headphones on watching a film and Naomi comes running into the room to tell me that about 6ft away from me by the steps to the house was Mr Ele!!.. he obviously wanted to be our friend!

Lots of Rain resulted in a full, brown river to cross

Along with Mr. Elephant we also saw an Orangutan feeding on the fruits in the trees behind the house.

So after seeing the elephant for 2 days in a row and then seeing the orangutan feeding in the trees for two days I jokingly said that  the following day  would be a day of seeing banteng!... So when Naomi went for our morning walk the next day and Naomi suddenly stopped I thought she was messing about. But as I looked to where she had pointed I could see a small group of Banteng were foraging in the middle of the pathway about 50 meters away. This was super exciting and we had been quiet enough that they had not seen us, so we managed to sit where we were and get some photographs and watch them graze. This is what our placement has been about, saving the Banteng populations in Sabah so to actually see them in the middle of the forest happily grazing was magnificent.   

My first Banteng Pics

At the middle of January we headed to Danau Girang Field centre (DG) for the annual meeting and to catch up with the other PTYs. Unlike our other quick visits to DG we were there for 3 nights this time. It was great to learn about all the projects that everyone else is doing and to hear about all the events in the jam-packed schedule for the coming year, welcoming volunteers and students from all over the world for placements, visits and field trips. It was also great to learn about the PTY’s who will be filling our boots, when us current PTYs head back to the UK ready to take on the final year of our courses, time is going so quickly. The three days at DG flew by, but I have promised the guys there that we will be back before we head for home in July.

Naomi and I in the rain on the Boat to DG

We left DG and headed for our house in Lahad Datu for the final week of January. There was lots of sorting to be done at the house, broken cameras needed testing and a general tidying up of equipment after January’s expedition needed to be done, of course apple pie had to be baked to help the process along!

The end of January sees our next Visa run and the halfway point of our placement... already!

Festive Fun

For Christmas, Naomi and I were home alone in our house in Lahad Datu, with strict orders that we were not to spend that whole time doing work! For the first few days this was easy, it was the lead up to Christmas, and having not had internet for a few weeks, we had lots of catching up to do with the outside world and a bit of Christmas shopping to do... for each other!

After dropping Jo at the bus on the first morning we decided that the house wasn’t looking very Christmassy, so we set about making the DIY decoration that Claire had sent me, these included mini Christmas trees complete with glitter, baubles and tinsel, a super long paper chain and Merry Christmas bunting. Once the decorations were made we decided that we didn’t want to string them up on the wall and that they would look better on a tree.. but we didn’t have a tree, ironic considering we spend most of our time in the forest. With our creative heads on, we next made a tree out of a green jungle kit bag, 2 green hammocks, a box, an empty bin, a towel and a sleeping bag, topped off, of course, with a star.

Homemade Christmas Tree

Christmas Eve was a day of baking and Christmas carols, we set the Itunes Christmas playlist going and made cookies and apple pie. An old glass jar became our rolling pin and the worktable our counter top. We cut the cookies into all sorts of Christmas related shapes, including Naomi’s miniature nativity, and finished them with icing and chopped up jelly babies. The apple pie making doesn’t need explaining but in true homemade apple pie fashion it was topped with some hand cut leaves and eaten with a large scoop of ice cream! On Christmas Eve instead of putting on all our layers and headed out into the snow, we put on our sandals and insect repellent to attend the local Christmas carol service. Despite not really understanding what was going on the carol service was good with the Malaysian versions of well known Christmas carols and a kind gesture of a take away box of food being distributed to everyone at the end.

Cookies and Apple Pie

On Christmas Day Naomi and I decided that we wouldn’t cook a roast as the weather was hot and it would never live up to a home roast. We woke up on Christmas morning and santa had been so we sat and opened our stockings with the Christmas songs playing again. We decided that giving each other their presents would be too easy,  so we made treasure hunts around the house for each other. Naomi went first and was doing well at finding her clues and gifts until I gave her a clue which said ‘Sudah charged, Belum charged, so many batteries’...  in other posts I have said about how many batteries we have to charge for expedition and in the house we have 3 boxes full of batteries, but where was the clue! After much laughing and rummaging and a tiny bit of help as to which box the next clue was in, Naomi finally found the clue! With a bit of extra help from Naomi I managed to complete my treasure hunt and we sat and opened our presents. The best present from Naomi was a recorder, we had talked a lot about getting recorders before Christmas but we hadn’t been able to find any. Whilst Christmas shopping Naomi had managed to find some, so luckily had got herself one too, we spent the rest of the morning playing Christmas carols and duets on them. In the afternoon the family from the house next door invited us around to theirs to celebrate Christmas with them, so we wondered over. There was an assortment of dishes of meats, rice, noodles and veg out on the table and they insisted on us helping our selves, which we did later in the afternoon. We were in the process of getting some food when one o the children said ‘have you had squirrel before?’, I thought he was joking until he lifted the lid off one of the dishes and I looked to see fried squirrels heads! The family were very welcoming but every member wanted their photo taken with Naomi and I, this wasn’t just the small family who live in the house, this was the whole extended family and all the children, unfortunately we didn’t get a photo of our own!  Later in the afternoon we headed to Secret Recipe, this is a chain restaurant that does western and asian food, amazing cakes and drinks and has free wifi. We had decided that we would eat dinner here, fish and chips seemed an appropriate choice of dinner, and chat to our families who were just getting out of bed!

Catching up with the Family!

The few days between Christmas and New Year were spent having much needed lay ins, watching films and eating our second apple pie with a second tub of ice cream. We also forgot we were meant to be on holiday so did a bit of work and charged all the batteries ready for the next expedition!

So Naomi and I survived our first Christmas away from home and were sufficiently stuffed with homemade apple pie and Secret Recipe's slices of cake, time to get back to work!

November... rainy season is upon us

After Thailand we headed to Danau Girang for the night, it was lovely to have another catch up with the other PTY’s and her about what they had been doing and what they had decided to do for their placement projects. The next day we met Mark from the field centre who was going to test our driving in Sabah on the lovely, civilised roads!! Naomi went first and drove us safely on the two-hour trip to Sandakan although here sense of direction was entertaining, once there we had a few bits and pieces we needed to collect before lunch. For lunch Mark took us to a little English tea garden, where they had a croquet set laid out on the lawn and English country decorations, we didn’t have any tea but we had amazing pink lemonade, gooey chocolate brownies and cheese cake. On the way home it was my turn to drive, despite the roads looking lethal with cars over taking and under taking everywhere and big holes in the road, it was quite nice to be driving again and I got my sleeping passenger back to Batu Puti safely!

The next few days we spent at the house in Lahad Datu sorting photographs and seeing how many of my itunes songs we could play, I think we made to 140 songs in one day. After a few days Naomi and I headed back into the forest. Whilst in the forest we went to clear some vegetation by one of the salt licks, I went ahead in the car with one of the boys to clear vegetation at the end of the road. As we got to the end of the road, I looked up and disappearing into the vegetation at the other side of the clearing was 3 banteng! A male, a female and a juvenile! It was amazing and my first sighting of banteng in day light but my second sighting of these very elusive creatures, am I the Banteng whisperer?!

The beginning of November meant that it was time to take on Dad in the Plank Challenge! You can’t put a challenge in front of Naomi and I and not expect us to complete it, so starting with a very easy 20 seconds of plank and building through the month. We finally managed 4 minutes 33seconds on day 30, I think you won dad. As rainy season is now upon us, torrential rain and spectacular thunder and lightning are a daily occurrence, sometimes so close that the floors in the house shake and the night sky lights up just like day time. When we were not working, and in the evenings when we were escaping from the lightening, we had time to get on with our project proposals. I have decided to look at the foraging behaviour and the diet of the banteng. In order to do this I am going to use the camera trap pictures of banteng eating that we have collected. From these pictures I will look at when and where banteng forage ad then try and identify what they are eating! 

In the evenings between work I also had time to do some running, which was a nice change from walking around in smelly jungle clothes and a great chance to see the wildlife, which one night included Bobby the resident one eyed pig that lives around the house and a snake which was crossing the track.

A photograph of a misty sunrise in the jungle.

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Phuket Visa Run

After 3 months of jungle life Naomi and I headed to Phuket, Thailand for a much-needed week off. We had arranged to meet my dad, Lisa and Katie in Phuket and Dad had booked the hotel, arranged an airport pick up and forwarded the information, as we were in the jungle, so all we had to do was to get ourselves there, thanks Dad. We caught the bus to Sandakan in the north of Sabah, the bus was nothing like I had expected, with two levels, a tv and complimentary water, we even had extra entertainment from a little girls playing peek-a-boo through the seats. The taxi to the airport was a bit more like I had expected, the car was like an old Nissan, but in red with a white bonnet and boot. The driver’s seat was so low it looked like he should be scraping on the road, but the car ran perfectly and we made it to the tiny airport safely and checked in at the desk for our flight.

After a ten-hour stopover in Kuala Lumpur Airport, where we used the internet to catch up with the world, we hopped on another flight to Phuket. The plane was very empty but in the flight of just over an hour Air Asia still managed to serve us a fantastic meal, yes I ate aeroplane food! We arrived in Phuket at 4.50 am and went to find our hotel transfer whilst avoiding the other pestering taxi drivers.

We were welcomed into the hotel's huge lobby where we were given complimentary cookies J before being shown to our room. Having been up since 6.30am the previous day we thought we’d catch up on some sleep and then head out to get some brunch, but after 2 hours of trying to sleep we were both wide awake, so got up and went for  walk to the sea front. After rice and noodles for 3 months, we were very glad to find a little restaurant on the edge of the beach that served fresh juice and pizzas and had the bonus of free wifi. After this we headed back to our room for an afternoon of making the most of more internet, aircon and an amazing hot shower, before heading back out to the beach for gourmet burgers and a beer!

With body clocks still on jungle time Naomi and I were awake with the sun and excited about the buffet breakfast. The breakfast was amazing, we had pancakes and bacon, pastries, juices, fresh fruit, cereal and bread and butter pudding! Later in the morning Lisa, Katie and the Birthday Boy arrived, they were not quite as alive as Naomi and I after there long haul flight so the rest of the day was spent by the swimming pool.

The next morning the beach and the sea were calling and the Ironman wanted to show me his swimming, so we all headed down to the beach for a swim in the sea and a run on the beach before another monstrous breakfast and the heat of the day. In the afternoon we headed across to Phuket town to do some shopping and get some dinner, yes breakfast kept me full until dinner!

On Wednesday there was a scuba diving taster session in the hotel swimming pool, being a person who likes to try everything and a lover of water I was keen to give it a go! It was amazing and resulted in us booking onto a day of scuba diving for the Friday, this I was very excited about. In the afternoon we thought it would be rude to go all the way to thailand and not to have a thai massage on the beach front, mine was soo nice that I struggled to get back off the bed once the lady had finished!

On Thursday after our morning exercise on the beach and breakfast, Naomi, Katie and I decided to do some sight-seeing so headed to the south of the Island, guided by our lovely taxi driver. We first went to the Chalong temple a huge Buddhist temple covered in intricate red, green and gold detailing and colourful murals showing the life of Buddha. The temple is said to have a piece of Buddha bone in the top of the high tower and is very popular with tourists who go to pay the respects to the monks who have protected the locals in the past. After the temples we headed to the Big Buddaha, this is an unfinished 45m tall monument of Buddha that was started in 2004 and is built primarily from donations, it is situated on the top of a hill giving a great view out over Chalong bay.

On the way back to the hotel the taxi driver suggested we should visit other places like Fantasia- the elephant circus show, and Tiger Kingdom, little did he know that he was trying to persuade Ecology and Zoology student to pay money to go and see elephants and tigers locked in cages and on chains... i think not! He did however suggest we went to see the Simon Cabaret show which is where we headed that evening! The lady boys of the Simon cabaret show were scarily feminine and left me a little bit shocked and confused, how could guys look so girly?! After the show we went to into a nearby town for dinner and to look around the evening market, we ate in a busy little restaurant, where Lisa ordered a glass of wine and one of the young waiters accidently poured her a glass of fruit syrup! Whoops!

Friday was the day of Scuba diving, we were picked up from the hotel and taken down to the boat in the south of the Island. Once on board we met Simon our diving instructor and he went through the basics of diving with us! We went to two dive locations around the Racha Island and on the first dive we spent 45 minutes at 11.5 meters! When we came up and Simon told us this I was amazed as I thought we’d only been in the water about 10 minutes and I thought we were only just under the surface!!  The water was very clear and the plants and sea creatures were incredible, on the first dive we focused on regulating the pressures in our ears and trying to swim in a straight line.. not as easy as you think.. but on the second dive we were able to look around more and we saw a sea snake, rays and thousands of fish. The boat went to a third dive site where we had the chance to go snorkelling, dad and I thought this would be fun, until I jumped in and got stung by jelly fish! Ouch! On the boat the wonderful staff kept us fed, with breakfast, lunch and amazing pineapple and banana fritters. We also met a lovely couple from Australia who were holidaying in Phuket and when we got talking we discovered that ‘Tegan Jones’ was of welsh ancestry; well she had to be with a name like that!

Saturday was our last day in Thailand, so we decided to have a relaxing day by the beach and the pool. After a game of water polo we headed for the water slide... on the water slide there was a Chinese lady wearing denim shorts, these shorts were not slippery at all so she gave up trying to slide down the slide and walked down it instead. After she’d gone around the last bend of the slide Katie and I waited a while before racing down, as I got near the last bend I caught a glimpse of the lady still walking.. uh oh.. but I was going soo fast that I couldn’t stop and before either of us knew it I knocked her legs from underneath her and took her flying off the end of the slide with me, unfortunately getting her hat wet!!

In the evening we headed to the weekend evening market just outside the old Phuket town, the market was bustling with locals and tourists wandering the lines of stalls selling clothes, CD’s and food. Dad was quite content when he found himself a little bar that sold beers and had a tv and fan, so we left him there while we girls shopped! As this was our last night in Thailand dad thought it was only fitting that we tried one of the delicacies.. deep fried insects! I opted for a grasshopper and it just tasted like any other crunchy deep fried food really, it was just the thought of ts little legs that creeped me out!  We finished our holiday with dinner and cocktails by the beach before packing up, saying goodbye to the family and heading for the Airport.

We landed in Sandakan Airport on Sunday at 12.15pm and the last bus back to Lahad Datu was at 1pm.. it was going to be tight! The airport is tiny so we thought it might be okay but the bags took an age to come through and the taxi queue was long! When we finally got in the driver looked at us as if we were crazy as it was 12.50! eek. We arrived at the bus station and the bus was still there Phew.. but now we had another problem as there as only 1 seat left! The guys on the bus must have felt sorry for us as they let me sit in the seat on the steps and Naomi sat in the one empty seat at the other end of the bus. Time to head back to work!

That was meant to be a brief summary of our week but so much happened that it turned into more of an essay. oops!

A few of my favourite team pictures

Me out on expedition at Sipitang forest reserve (September)

Lee and I sitting out a thunderstorm under an old water trough!

Lee and Rusdi on the Canopy walkway at Maliau Basin (August)

Check out the muscle as the Banteng girls put their weight lifting to good use!!... ok maybe we got the car stuck by trying to go around a lorry that was stuck (Maliau Bain September)

Naomi still managing to smile and navigate while knee deep in mud on expedition in Malua Forest Reserve!

11am = lunch time in the jungle!