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