The Monsoon has begun!

The rains have come to Indonesia in style. Our roof held up to last night's 5 hour storm...until this morning's downpour, which proceeded to flood our room...we pushed the bed into the corner and have found many and various receptacles for the rain...not happy...nowhere to go...island full...fingers crossed for a spare room to come up or the sun to come out!...It turns out that 4 pounds 30 does not get you a waterproof roof!
Can't upload pics...crap connection.
Happy New Year to any still reading.
J and K

Back in Gili Air

I have injured my finger playing a game with the natives! I have creatively named the game "Catch the Coconut". It happened while trying to display my more advanced one handed catching skills. They were temporarily impressed by my skills before I began my elaborate jig of pain. (This dance is similar to 'the jig of fear' taught to me by Karen. She performs this amazing dance when she finds a cockroach about her person. I have also seen this dance performed by Ian Farrell when he discovered and enormous cockroach on his hand...and Vicky Bennett, when she discovered an enormous leech under her boob!)

I was slightly disappointed to return to Salabose to discover all but one of my windmills destroyed by a storm. But there was good news...we managed to secure a discount on our room of 5000 rupiah which is nearly 35p off a night!...Back of the net!
J

Making windmills with some beach urchins!

Salabose cottages. Gili Air

A few snaps of our modest dwelling in Gili Air...going back on the 27th.

I've gone a bit Lord of the flies!

I haven't tried to kill any fat kids yet, but I have thrown away all my clothes! Meanwhile...Karen has gone a bit 'Lord of the Dance'!

Gili Air

K and I have been having a great time doing very little on this small island...no roads, no cars, no motorbikes, no noise. I have been spending my time making things out of old crap I have found on the beach. There is hardly anyone here and is very sleepy. We have a hut on the beach, with a little veranda and a day bed...only cold, salt water showers...you can't complain for 4.50 a night. Off the booze for a few days...will have a beer on Christmas eve on the beach.
Will try and post some photos in the next few days. I am even too lazy to take any!

By the way Ian...you have just lost the game!

J

Dolphins

Forgot to say on the last post, that we took the Perama boat from Bali to the Gilis and it is usually quite a bore. After 2 or so hours a shout went up from the crew..."dolphin! dolphin!' K was asleep but I rudely shook her awake. There was a pod of 30 or more dolphins passing the boat in the opposite direction, but about 5 broke away from the main group and turned for the boat, leaping out of the water as they came over. For about 3 or so minutes, 2 beautiful dolphins played in the bow wave just below us...unfortunately, our cameras were packed away. Really lovely moment. Awesome.
J

Gili Air

Stayed in Bali for 2 nights and then made for the Gilis...had a really crap room for one night and now have got a really nice beach hut for about 4 quid a night...bargain. On Gili Air at the moment. feels good just chilling out...place is deserted. Love it. Weather not too bad...monsoon season, but still quite a bit of sun each day. Cold salt water showers are the only drawback...and the fact beer is more expensive than last time.

Jakarta...'the big durian"

Arrived in Jakarta after many delays in Kuching...eventually arrived at 2 in the morning...to a cab to the centre and headed for a place recommended in the Lonely planet...neither of us have ever seen such a shit hole...eventually found a place a bit cleaner for a sum...decided to get out of Java quick...bought a flight to Denpasar this morning, fly this afternoon. We are a bit down at the moment...a mixture of bad hotel, no sleep and rattling through far too much money...Hoping the Gilis can cheer us up. I forgot how much hassle you get in Indonesia! Borneo was no hassle.

Since we started travelling, we started several lists in K's diary. They include appointed responsibilities to those travelling in our group (Ian was in charge of losing things!...A role that I have now absorbed!) I shall try to borrow the diary and update you fully on resposibilities. Another very important list is the list of Ailments. These are monitored on a daily basis and the diary kept up to speed. Karen has not yet recieved a bott fly...but I am looking forward to her getting one (look it up on youtube if you don't know what one is) She did get bitten by fire ants which was funny for others to observe! Currently there are few ailments in the party...only myself suffering from a mild cold and sore throat...I shall let you know how it develops.

J

Orang Utan

An old one from Sipadan

Karen and I having our photo taken with a patient turtle...I like being upside down!

Scorpion at Uncle Tan's Jungle camp and a wild Orang Utan (mum and baby) click on the photo to see their faces looking down at us! And a silverred leaf monkey feeding Karen some long beans!

Some old ones from Labuk Bay

Here is a cute little silverred leaf monkey and some Pied Hornbills on our balcony at Labuk Bay Proboscis monkey Sanctury.

Kuching

Hi everyone,
we are currently holed up in Kuching for a few days...we had some emergency paperwork to attend to, as our stuff arrived early in freemantle and because they didn't have our visa details, they said they were charging us 44 dollars a day!
Anyway, I think we have sorted that one and logged our housing application etc.
We have a flight to Jakarta on thursday and plan to travel overland through Java, Bali, Lombok and on to Flores. That should take us a month and round up our trip........starting...to...run...out...of...money!
A random medly of my favourite fotos to follow soon.

Remember...Macaques are not cute and should be considered 'the enemy'!

J

Mulu N.P.

Sleeping bus driver. Kuching

Stop Thief!

We had a little shock...Our room was robbed and trashed. The perpetrators escaped with 2 biscuits and 2 packs of malaria pills. Those filthy little macaques are nothing but common criminals. They ripped one of K's bags and tried to eat some of her makeup. At the time the little shits were in our room, we were laughing at one stealing cakes from the crappy canteen.

Kapalai

K and V on the Sand bar.

More Sipadan

Another turtle swimming into the blue!

Good News from WA

We have just found out that we are to be posted in Esperance, which is excellent news. This is exactly where we wanted to go. We are over the moon. Our visas are apparently due soon and things are dropping into place.
A big hello to all Sackville blog followers and to all family and friends. Please to continue to check in and continue to leave comments, it's really nice to hear from you all.
J

Our underwater camera is okay, but we hired a camera for Sipadan and Karrie was pretty good with it...she snapped this Maroon? Clown.

Hello all,
we are now in Kuching...we flew in some clapped out prop plane to Mulu from Tawau and went to the national park HQ and stayed there a few nights. Went to the caves...Deer cave was just breathtaking and just too big to fit in a photo

Turtle

Sorry...couldn't rotate it...you'll have to rotate your heads instead.

Kapalai and Sipadan

We have just come back from our few days of luxury at Kapalai. The resort is all on stilts in the ocean...really beautiful. 4 dives a day...we were lucky and dived Sipadan 2 days (7 dives) Really incredible. Turtle, Shark, Turtle, turtle, shark shark shark, Big school of Barracuda etc etc etc. Saw mandarinfish spawning on sunset dive. Awesome is all I can say. I would post pics but they just crashed..bummer...awesome photos to follow.
Now off to Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak.
Laters all
J

Welcome to the Jungle

We have just come back from 'Uncle Tan's Jungle camp' which to Karen's horror was just a camp in the middle of the jungle...only reachable by boat and a short muddy trek. Wildlife was amazing...we were lucky and saw 4 Orang Utans in the wild...the sanctury was cool but this was amazing. We went on boat safaris in the morning and at night, and did short treks during the day and at night. Saw: Reticulated Python, mangrove snake, Scorpion, several species of tree frog, several species of monkey, wild pig (in camp) and big monitors (in camp) and loads of bird species and insect species. At night, you could get real close to roosting birds, like the Stork billed kingfisher in the picture.

Borneo

We have collected Vicky Bennett from KL and flown to Sandakan. We spent 2 great days at Sepilok and visited the Orang Utans at the rehab centre...we got trapped on a boardwalk between 2 warring groups of macaques (a near death experience). We have had some leeches...the best one latched onto Vicky on her body and went unnoticed for at least an hour and was huge by the time she spotted it. There was some screaming...mostly by me and Karen! From Sepilok, V had arranged for us to go to Labuk bay where there is a little known Proboscis monkey sanctury. These monkeys are only found in Borneo and we were very lucky to be the only tourists there (it was expensive but worth every penny). We saw loads of Proboscis monkeys, Silverred Leaf Monkeys and pied Hornbills. On a night walk with our guide, we saw a tree full of fire flies, a Tangulung (malay civet) and Leopard cat. Seriously cool.

J

Still Ao Nang

Here is a shot of the 'snack boat' plying its trade on Phra Nang cave beach. And also of some hot air ballons being released over the sea.

Last night was cool...but everyones little floaty candle offering thingys all got blown out or swamped...so it wasn't much of a spectacle...but there were thousands of mini hot air balloons which were lit and released over the sea, that looked really cool.
We are just lounging on the beach and trying not to spend too much...food here is not much cheaper than the UK. Thai street food is still reasonably cheap, but there is only so much we can eat.
J

Ao Nang

There is some kinda festival of light thingy kicking off tonight down at the beach...everyone lauches decorated floaty candle things onto the sea...sounds really cool...will phot graph the best I can without a tripod....come back Ian!
Feeling better by the way...can eat now!
J

Ao Nang

A beach just a 5 min longtail ride from Ao Nang....really cool.

Ao Nang

I haven't been feeling 100% so we have moved down near Krabbi and will chill out here and then fly to KL on the 15th (Air Asia...nice and cheap) I cannot face a 22 hr bus ride at the moment. Weather here a little crappy at mo. Considering this part of Thailand has just gone into high season, that is a bit dissapointing. Plus, everything is just so bloody expensive, mind you, we have wandered off the backpacker trail and into package tour territory. It is still nice to be incredibly lazy and kick around the beach when it is dry.
We had a beautiful room in Khao lak...massive and really posh with a pool for just 20 quid!
J

Leopard Shark

K on an empty beach in the Similans (dropped off by the dive boat for an hour!) and a cool little turtle just off the boat!

Similans

Check out the colour of that water!

Cute little Yellow boxfish

Dog faced? Puffer

Similan Islands

have just got back from our trip to the Similans...it was really cool...but 4 dives a day was hard on us...the night dives were scary but really fun...we saw so much stuff but unfortunately no whale sharks or mantas! we saw a Moray eel as big as me! scary! A bad bug hit the boat and I got real sick on the last night...wiped me out big time, vomiting and crapping myself at the same time...real bad, I just kinda collapsed!...missed the last 2 dives...have been in bed for 2 days...just starting to eat again...our photos just can't do the diving justice, vis wasn't great but the marine life was just amazing, huge schools of fish, barracuda etc, amazing hard and soft corals...my favourite aminal we saw has to be the ornate ghost pipefish...kinda like an upside down seahorse, evolution gone mad...the one we saw matched the coral perfectly and was only 5cm long max! couldn't quite get a great pic but check it out anyways, you can just see him on the right of the coral!We are heading for the malaysian border next so we can meet vicky in KL on the 15th.

Of course you have to photograph the clowns when you see them. Feisty for a small fish!

K looking cool underwater

coral fans

Coral Grouper?

We tried to take as many photos underwater as we could...I will post the better ones. Saw a seahorse and a teeny tiny yellow box fish very cute. Thanks for the camera in-laws!

Sunset

Sunset from our little bungalow on Phi Phi don. We went diving yesterday with the hope of seeing a whale shark...no such luck. We have now booked on a liveaboard dive trip to the Similan islands...well I needed to spend the tax rebate somehow!

Koh Phi Phi

If anyone is reading any of this crap I am writing, then please leave a comment, cos I am getting no emails except from me Mum and people who want to sell me porn and Viagra. Unfortunately for me, in this part of Thailand, beer is more expensive than coke, which is a huge disappointment. Phi Phi is really lovely, but busier than I expected and loads more expensive than anywhere else so far. We are going to dive tomorrow...and we are secretly hoping to see a whale shark...several have been spotted on local dive sites in the past week. Went snorkelling today...saw a few nice fish around the rocks including a baby black tip reef shark about 3 ft long and some feisty clown fish in a very isolated anenome. More pics soon. internet is 3 times more expensive here than BKK. Got to go.
J

I forgot to mention that for some reason, many Cambodian men seem to lovingly cultivate the tufts of hair which poke from moles on their face! It was quite exceptional in some cases and I could not help myself from talking to moles which had numerous hairs about 4 to 5 inches in length!

The 'Tomb Raider' Tree...has to be seen to be believed.

This dude was one of the 'caretakers' at Ta Prohm. I did try and snap some other Cambodian dudes having some lunch, but they chucked a bit of a mental and I ran away!

I don't know why I posted the picture of the horse! that was ages ago in Vietnam. I have not managed to fill Ian's shoes very well as official photographer...but thanks for your encouragement Ian. Ian would have had a fit at the temples...particularly Ta Prohm which is falling down and you could wander into most corners and passageways...It was loads less crowded than I thought it would be. Angkor wat was the biggest, but by no means the best.

Back in Bkk now after mammoth bus journey.

Siem Reap

Hello,

Have been in Siem Reap for a few days now...the time has been mainly spent avoiding tuk tuk drivers and beggars of various sorts. Hung out at the pool yesterday and just relaxed. We bit the bullet today and hired a tuk tuk to drag us around some temples...apparently to spend just one day exploring the temples is 'sacriledge', but for us, it is quite enough. For me Angkor Wat was my least favourite, but perhaps that had something to do with the really loud groups of Japanese and Korean tourists! The others were seriously cool and very quiet. I did rip my favourite shorts trying to ascend one particular temple which did expose more anatomy than I am normally comfortable with!

K and I have various ailments to report...I have a bad neck, which is amusing for other people trying to attract my attention. K has a cold, which is always a bummer!

I will post some pics when we get back to Bangkok which is our next stop tomorrow. The internet here is as slow as the buses.

J

We had to say goodbye to Ian back in Saigon. I can no longer copy his ideas for photos...never mind...thanks Ian, Ive learnt quite a bit in the last few weeks!
We are now in Phnom Penh in Cambodia...not the nicest city...really dirty but the people are really nice...most cheap hotels are rat infested shit holes...mostly without windows, but we found an okay place with the brighton boys. Went to the Killing fields and S-21 torture prison today where Pol Pot ordered the murder of over 8000 people (just one of many centres around the country apparently). It was very hard but a real eye opener...it was certainly sobering to see all of the skulls. and as we walked around the mass graves, there were still bits of clothing poking out of the soil...also small bones and lots of human teeth just under your feet. The graves were excavated by hand and they have only pulled up the big bits...none of it was really recorded properly or identified...there are still many undisturbed mass graves. Many of the victims were battered to death or their skulls hacked with machetes. the small children were killed by smashing the heads against a tree...all too gruesome...
The prison, where they were tortured first is pretty much exactly how it was and I cannot begin to tell you what it is like...not touristy but incredibly moving...All within my lifetime!not a lot more to say...off to Siem Reap tomorrow to see Angkor Wat...then who knows!
More pictures when I can find a faster connection.
J

Ian and Karen on the white dune.

K on the beach in Mui Ne (sorry couldn't straighten the image...no editing software...please excuse)

Beard on tour

Pretty little fishes!