The beach last Sunday afternoon was really nice, although a little cloudy! Not ideal... But was still nice! As far as I remember Sunday evening was pretty uneventful although it seems like it was about 3 years ago now!
On monday I went to the local school to teach for the morning. This one had two classes - 3-4 year olds and 5-6 year olds and went from 8-12. I was teaching the younger class and it happened that there were only 4 of them then! With 2 teachers and also me, so maybe a little bit pointless.... We did some letters to start with, some were really, really good, and knew all of their letters (which considering they're 3 and 4 was not bad going!). We had breakfast at about half 9 - biscuits and milo (like watered down hot chocolate, can be cold too though). After breakfast they played with some stuff that they had to make shapes with, and it clicked together - not bricks, I don't really know how to describe it! Then the kids did some colouring in of a hat, top, socks, shoes and trousers, and had to cut them out and stick them to another bit of paper. There were a fair few upside down people! Then it was time to go back to the longhouse. We had lunch and then organised a dance we'd been asked to perform for the community that evening, of our culture...... we did Grease, ha. We were also going fancy dress that evening so we got all that sorted, too. There were a fair few pirates (me included), gypsies, army, and jesus and baby jesus. Lots of people from the village arrived at about 8 and there were speeches and prizes for sports day and then we got on to the rice wine rounds! I wasn't doing too badly until I was the one taking it round to everyone, where it seems to work on an 'I drink when you drink' basis.... It was after we'd done a fair few rounds of rice wine that we did our dance, which went surprisingly okay! The rest of the night was lots more rice wine, and we exchanged bracelets - they all gave us one and we'd made some for them too. I think we went to bed at about 3 in the end.
Woke up feeling a little the worse for wear on Tuesday! Wasn't really appreciating the hour drive to the beach but felt fine by the time we got there! Was much nicer looking in the bright sun. We swam around a bit and went for a walk along the rocks. Lunch was a barbecue and rice which was nice, although I didn't have the barbecue part, I had some vegetables in a nice sauce that they'd cooked for me - delicious. We left the beach for Kudat at about 3, so we could all get some money out etc. Got back at about 5 and had to pack up and stuff.....
Wednesday we were supposed to be leaving at 7, but by the time we'd all said goodbye it was more like 8! We had a big coach for us, which was pretty good to spread out on, but got a bit boring by the end of the 6 hour drive - past hundreds of miles of palm oil plantations - to Batu Puteh (translation white rock, apparently). We were given refreshments and then went to our 'homestays'. Here we were each staying with a local family, although we were all expecting something a little different, more remote. We were under the impression that we were in the middle of a jungle and had electricity for only 2 hours a day, where this is definitely not the case! We had dinner - sitting on the floor and eating with out hands, definitely an experience - and then went to a 'culture show', dressed as the locals were - they gave us clothes to wear. This was lots of traditional dancing and music but I think we were all a bit too tired to appreciate it properly!
On thursday we left for the jungle on a boat at about 8. We went on a mini 'trek' (not actually much of a trek, more of a gentle stroll!) to collect seeds and to look at all the cool bugs etc. We had lunch by a lake and a few of us went for a wander. We were just on our way back having not really seen anything when wild Phil spotted a monitor lizard. We were looking at it and trying to get closer for a while but had to back off when we realised it was probably getting a bit freaked out and we didn't actually fancy being attacked by it... Was probably about 2ft body and 3ft tail we reckon. We went back to the village where we went to the nursery to plant the seeds we'd picked up, as part of a forest regeneration programme. Dinner at the homestay again - still haven't mastered eating rice with my hands. Then we all hung around for a while before an early night.
We were up at 5.30 on friday, for an early morning river cruise. We saw a few monkeys (mainly long-tailed macaws - not sure on spelling!) and a crocodile, and lots of kingfishers. We went back for breakfast and then had a morning at the nursery, moving the seedlings to bigger pots etc. We went back for lunch and packed up our stuff ready for 2 nights in the jungle! We went by boat again and set up our hammocks before going on an evening river cruise. We saw another monitor lizard, lots of long-tailed macaws, some pig-tailed macaws, some silver somethings (monkeys), proboscis monkeys and lots more kingfishers. In the evening we went on a night walk, where we saw a massive spider, some big bugs, a cavat cat in the trees, a snake and a load of other bugs and smaller spiders - pretty cool. We went back and had a fire by the side of the river for a few hours, and then bed in our hammocks. They were actually really, really comfortable. I saw a few cavat cats when I got up for the loo in the night, looking through the trees.
The hammocks were so comfortable that despite how noisy the jungle was I managed to sleep through until about 7 on saturday! Probably the latest so far on the trip! We had breakfast and then walked to where we were clearing vines so that they didn't kill the recently planted trees. We used parangs - basically machettes that are longer and thinner, quite fun but had some nasty blisters! Was around then that I started to feel a little bit ill. We walked back to the camp and hung around a bit before going for another river cruise. Unfortunately still no orangutans, just the monkeys and a few black squirrels. We went over to the other side of the river for a barbecue but I just lay infront of the fire - was so, so cold enen though I was practically lying on top of the fire! Saw a crocodile on the beach while we were still on the water but it'd gone by the time we got there. Went straight to hammock when we got back.
I was feeling a bit better on sunday morning. We left at 6am for a 'solo hike'. We were left in a little patch of jungle for half an hour to see what we saw. I saw a family of the black squirrels and a monkey swinging through the trees. After going back for breakfast we walked through the jungle to where we would be planting some trees. I wasn't a whole lot of use so I tried to sleep - far too many annoying flies for that though! Was pretty glad when we walked back.. although we went a longer way in hope of finding orangutans - wasn't massivley happy about that as the chances of seeing an orangutan up a tree from the ground are pretty much zero! Went straight to bed in my hammock when we got there, only waking up for about an hour to pack up my hammock and go back to the village to sleep again! So I slept pretty much the whole day in the end.... I think a few of the others went to a wedding reception in the evening which they said was good, but I still wasn't feeling well so stayed in bed!
This morning we had to get up at about half 6, and although I'm feeling better today, still not brilliant! And haven't managed to eat hardly anything yet..... Bad times. Today so far we've been to a Sandakan POW memorial park - for the Australians and British that were sent on death marches in the area by the japanese in WWII. Horrible reading about what they went through. Then we went to a buddhist temple, very pretty. This afternoon we're going to Sepilok Orangutan sanctuary, and although I'm gutted about not seeing one in the wild, seeing them here is better than none at all! :)
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