Right, so I may aswell start again from the end of Batu Puteh I guess, as my last 2 blogs weren't so successful!
The morning of the 26th we got up very early to leave to go to Sepilok. Sam and Emma were leaving us so that was quite emotional! It took a few hours to get there, and was probably the most ridiculously bumpy car journey I've ever been on! We met Howard when we got there and were given a brief tour of the sun bear sanctuary where we were going to be working. They also have a Pygmy elephant there, who got shot on a palm oil plantation, but wasn't killed. They didn't know what to do so gave the elephant to the sanctuary to look after. I think he's going to be moved somewhere better more permanently at some point before too long! The walk up to our jungle camp was pretty difficult with all our big bags! Lots of up and down hills, in the jungle.. So quite slippy and muddy! The camp had a kitchen area with a cooker and a big table with benches, a store room and then our beds were two rows of kind of semi-permanent hammocks, with blocks of wood to keep them in place at either end. There was a roof but no walls. Showers were a little bit away - bucket showers (which I think I'm actually really gunna miss when I'm in England!) with a kind of canvas tent around us. The toilet we had to dig! We went back down to Sepilok later on and were shown a video about sun bears - it was pretty upsetting.
We headed down to Sepilok pretty early, and it's about a 45 minute to an hour walk so we got down there for about 8. As it had rained loads and there was no cover over their bio gas converter, it was full of water! So our first job was to try and remove all the water from there..... not particularly nice as there was loads of stagnant water around, so loads of mosquitoes! I started to feel pretty ill again so I went back to camp and slept for pretty much the whole of the rest of the day!
We got up at about 6 again, as that was when it got light, and were down at the sanctuary for about half 7. The sun bear is actually right next to the Orangutan sanctuary, so we always walk through the Orangutan sanctuary to get there. Quite cool cause they're always taking the babies for walks and stuff! Bella, Phil and I got to work designing some ramps for the sun bears. They've just moved in to a new building, but need some ramps to get outside as it's a few metres above ground level. They had to be strong enough to hold a sun bear (who are sooo cute!) but also light enough to be able to be moved if need be... After lunch, Charlie, Tash and I went to do some shopping in Sandakan, as we were cooking that evening. The shop was probably one of the funniest afternoons of my life, but you probably had to be there! We only had socks on for a start, as our shoes were too muddy to wear, so we left them in the van. Don't think the staff thought too much of Charlie asking to have the Teryaki sauce opened so he could smell it, or him dropping a pack of beansprouts on the floor! Charlie went off to the loo... and he had some issues first with the lady not letting him take his bag in, and then that he had to buy some tissue paper! He got back to us, and then realised he needed to go again... So he left his bag (with tissues!) with Tash and went off again.... It was a squatting loo and he apparently had explosive diarrhoea all over the wall and then had no tissue paper! He had to clean up the toilet muslim style, with a bucket and water, and used his boxers on himself and then left them behind!! After the shop, we tried to go and find an internet cafe. A security guard told us if we turned left we would find one.... So we walked along the main road for a while, in our socks, before stopping to ask again where it was. The man clearly had no idea what we were talking about and pointed us toward a palm oil plantation! A bus stopped on the other side of the road, and said he could take us to the internet cafe, so we hopped on. It was a bit longer than we'd anticipated, it took us about half an hour to get in to Sandakan (which we later learned is quite a dangerous place, but I guess as we looked like tramps anyway it was fine!). We eventually found an internet cafe and managed about 20 mins before Mel and Fendy came to pick us up!
The rest of Sepilok was kinda similar, seems silly writing about every single day! We made 7 ramps in total for the sun bears, and on the last day saw one of the braver ones coming out - quite rewarding! (And I might add that we had to hand drill most of the bolt holes, quite difficult!) We also made a bit of a boardwalk that will be used to get to the sunbear centre once it is open for tourists. They estimate that being about 2 years time. There was one evening that we were walking back through the jungle and Bella saw a 4m snake! I can't remember what they decided it must be, but pretty deadly I'm sure! There was also a Sumatran Spitting Cobra that we saw - can kill you within 20 minutes if it bites! We had a little bit of a lie in on our day off.... we didn't get up until about 7! We went to the rainforest discovery centre, which had a few 150ft observation towers, and a rainforest canopy walkway that was not much lower! It was pretty cool, but not brilliant for someone who doesn't really like heights!
We left Sepilok on May 6th, and had a 6 hour coach journey before reaching Kota Kinabalu (KK) for a few days chilling. We ate at the night market each night - amazingly cheap and so much more than you can eat! My plate of noodles cost RM3 (about 60p) and was at least twice as much as I could manage! We also had a few nights out at Bed (a club!) and were of course re-united with Emma! As what she was meant to be doing in Thailand was cancelled... We also did some pretty amazing karaoke, went down so well with all the locals!
Charlie, Phil and I stayed on for a few days after the others went to Kipouvo, as we'd decided to do the mountain climb. Our extra day in KK was spent wandering round and a few hours in a cafe pulling faces! Hilarious, but we may have scared off all the other customers! We met a guy at the hostel called Khalil, who we found out was also doing the mountain climb the next day, so we decided we'd all do it together. We went to the night market with Khalil and a lady called Clare that night, before an early night!
We were up at about 6am on sunday, to do the mountain climb. We left Step-In at 7 and got to the bus station just after. On the bus to the base of the mountain we met another guy called Tom, who joined our crew for climbing the mountain! We got there at about 10 and took a few pictures at the bottom. We paid and sorted out all the forms etc - I was our guide, responsible for everyone! We got assigned a mountain guide - she was called Adi and was about 4ft3... we were suspicious as to whether her legs were long enough to climb a mountain! Once we got going, at about 11.30, our suspicions were confirmed! She was soon a long way behind us and not very much use as a guide! Luckily I was amazing as a guide, and the path up was very obvious. I struggled a bit with the altitude up there, found it very difficult to breathe, but it all went OK in spite of that! We made it to Laban Rata, where you spend the night (in order to acclimatise to the height), for about 2.45.. Not bad going! It's a 6km walk in total, and we were then at 3,300m above sea level! Dinner was a buffet that you had to have - very nice! We all went to our dorms by about 8.30, but there were some very noisy germans next door, so I think I only managed about 2 hours sleep! We were up again at 1.30am, for 'supper' at 2 before setting off up to the top, hopefully in time for sunrise, at about 3. We were worried at the start as we were behind so many slow people that we may not make it up to the top in time for the sunrise, but, once again taking on my role as tour guide, we orer-took and were second up to the top! I felt pretty light-headed and had no balance because of the altitude though! 4,095metres above sea level! It was raining so much at the top, and was only about 5degrees. None of us were really prepared properly for this and froze! It was windy, wet, cold, and we could see about 2 metres in front of us! Not surprisingly, we saw no sun rise. It just got light. Having waited for over an hour for it to clear up we gave up and headed back down. The first kilometre of the walk down is on flat rocks, with ropes to hold on to. This wasn't so good as I'd fallen over earlier and sprained my wrist and you really had to rely on the ropes as the rocks were so slippy and wet! Charlie had decided he probably didn't need to hold on to the rope, and when he slipped was only a few metres away from about a 40ft drop! This convinced him that the ropes were quite a sensible idea and we all made it back to Laban Rata for breakfast in one piece. We made it back down to the bottom of the mountain in 2 hrs 45 minutes, and had stopped to chat to loads of people. Going back down gave you so much energy after not being able to breathe! And we didn't even struggle with our knees. We ate lunch and bought postcards and headed back to KK. Mel picked us up to take us to Kipouvo at 5. The kids there did some dancing as it was the groups last evening there. Charlie and Phil then went back to KK, as Charlie was going home and Phil was going to Vietnam. It was quite an emotional goodbye from everyone!
We headed off to Utan Paradise at a very reasonable 10am the next day. Utan Paradise is where we were doing the jungle trek. We spent a few days in the jungle, staying in hammocks and washing in the river! The trekking was very slippy as we are now apparently in their rainy season - expecting rain every day for a few hours! We were in the Crocker range, Mt. Kinabalu is the highest in the range. We didn't actually see that much wildlife - just a few monkeys and a few snakes, and Jason got bit on the bum by a Lepan! (A poisonous centipede) The first night in the hammock was probably the worst nights sleep I've ever got - I was drenched! And it gets quite cold in the middle of the night.. The guides went out and picked jungle vegetables to go with our rice and beans meals, which were..... interesting! Swimming and washing in the river was pretty cool, though. The leeches were not so cool! They don't hurt, it's just annoying how long they bleed for! And a couple of sneaky ones got in under my rucksack straps.. The mosquitoes also weren't so much fun. I got about 25 bites just on one hand! I look like I have some sort of odd disease.. maybe chicken pox! I also must have got stung by something as one of my toes swelled up ridiculously and was really hard to walk on! We got back to the Utan Paradise base at about 11am on Thursday and spent the day chilling there. Yesterday we came back to KK, where we lost Emma again, and this time she won't be back! We went out in the evening as it was Jason's last night with us, too! Quite sad times.... Had an interesting day around KK though, and we found somewhere that sells pizza and cheap beer! First time I have had cheese since I've been out here! Definitely one of the things that I miss the most! We went for manicures, pedicures and massages yesterday, too. I feel sorry for the people that had to deal with our feet after being in the jungle!! And the massage was pretty painful! RM75 for the whole lot, though - about 15 pounds. So I think that brings me pretty much up to date! We're off to Mantanani Island for 3 weeks tomorrow, to do some diving. I'll be doing my advanced diving award, and everyone else is doing the open water diver. No phone or internet there, though, so this will be the last one till we're back in KK before I leave Borneo! Hope everyone back home is doing good!
We got up at about 6 again, as that was when it got light, and were down at the sanctuary for about half 7. The sun bear is actually right next to the Orangutan sanctuary, so we always walk through the Orangutan sanctuary to get there. Quite cool cause they're always taking the babies for walks and stuff! Bella, Phil and I got to work designing some ramps for the sun bears. They've just moved in to a new building, but need some ramps to get outside as it's a few metres above ground level. They had to be strong enough to hold a sun bear (who are sooo cute!) but also light enough to be able to be moved if need be... After lunch, Charlie, Tash and I went to do some shopping in Sandakan, as we were cooking that evening. The shop was probably one of the funniest afternoons of my life, but you probably had to be there! We only had socks on for a start, as our shoes were too muddy to wear, so we left them in the van. Don't think the staff thought too much of Charlie asking to have the Teryaki sauce opened so he could smell it, or him dropping a pack of beansprouts on the floor! Charlie went off to the loo... and he had some issues first with the lady not letting him take his bag in, and then that he had to buy some tissue paper! He got back to us, and then realised he needed to go again... So he left his bag (with tissues!) with Tash and went off again.... It was a squatting loo and he apparently had explosive diarrhoea all over the wall and then had no tissue paper! He had to clean up the toilet muslim style, with a bucket and water, and used his boxers on himself and then left them behind!! After the shop, we tried to go and find an internet cafe. A security guard told us if we turned left we would find one.... So we walked along the main road for a while, in our socks, before stopping to ask again where it was. The man clearly had no idea what we were talking about and pointed us toward a palm oil plantation! A bus stopped on the other side of the road, and said he could take us to the internet cafe, so we hopped on. It was a bit longer than we'd anticipated, it took us about half an hour to get in to Sandakan (which we later learned is quite a dangerous place, but I guess as we looked like tramps anyway it was fine!). We eventually found an internet cafe and managed about 20 mins before Mel and Fendy came to pick us up!
The rest of Sepilok was kinda similar, seems silly writing about every single day! We made 7 ramps in total for the sun bears, and on the last day saw one of the braver ones coming out - quite rewarding! (And I might add that we had to hand drill most of the bolt holes, quite difficult!) We also made a bit of a boardwalk that will be used to get to the sunbear centre once it is open for tourists. They estimate that being about 2 years time. There was one evening that we were walking back through the jungle and Bella saw a 4m snake! I can't remember what they decided it must be, but pretty deadly I'm sure! There was also a Sumatran Spitting Cobra that we saw - can kill you within 20 minutes if it bites! We had a little bit of a lie in on our day off.... we didn't get up until about 7! We went to the rainforest discovery centre, which had a few 150ft observation towers, and a rainforest canopy walkway that was not much lower! It was pretty cool, but not brilliant for someone who doesn't really like heights!
We left Sepilok on May 6th, and had a 6 hour coach journey before reaching Kota Kinabalu (KK) for a few days chilling. We ate at the night market each night - amazingly cheap and so much more than you can eat! My plate of noodles cost RM3 (about 60p) and was at least twice as much as I could manage! We also had a few nights out at Bed (a club!) and were of course re-united with Emma! As what she was meant to be doing in Thailand was cancelled... We also did some pretty amazing karaoke, went down so well with all the locals!
Charlie, Phil and I stayed on for a few days after the others went to Kipouvo, as we'd decided to do the mountain climb. Our extra day in KK was spent wandering round and a few hours in a cafe pulling faces! Hilarious, but we may have scared off all the other customers! We met a guy at the hostel called Khalil, who we found out was also doing the mountain climb the next day, so we decided we'd all do it together. We went to the night market with Khalil and a lady called Clare that night, before an early night!
We were up at about 6am on sunday, to do the mountain climb. We left Step-In at 7 and got to the bus station just after. On the bus to the base of the mountain we met another guy called Tom, who joined our crew for climbing the mountain! We got there at about 10 and took a few pictures at the bottom. We paid and sorted out all the forms etc - I was our guide, responsible for everyone! We got assigned a mountain guide - she was called Adi and was about 4ft3... we were suspicious as to whether her legs were long enough to climb a mountain! Once we got going, at about 11.30, our suspicions were confirmed! She was soon a long way behind us and not very much use as a guide! Luckily I was amazing as a guide, and the path up was very obvious. I struggled a bit with the altitude up there, found it very difficult to breathe, but it all went OK in spite of that! We made it to Laban Rata, where you spend the night (in order to acclimatise to the height), for about 2.45.. Not bad going! It's a 6km walk in total, and we were then at 3,300m above sea level! Dinner was a buffet that you had to have - very nice! We all went to our dorms by about 8.30, but there were some very noisy germans next door, so I think I only managed about 2 hours sleep! We were up again at 1.30am, for 'supper' at 2 before setting off up to the top, hopefully in time for sunrise, at about 3. We were worried at the start as we were behind so many slow people that we may not make it up to the top in time for the sunrise, but, once again taking on my role as tour guide, we orer-took and were second up to the top! I felt pretty light-headed and had no balance because of the altitude though! 4,095metres above sea level! It was raining so much at the top, and was only about 5degrees. None of us were really prepared properly for this and froze! It was windy, wet, cold, and we could see about 2 metres in front of us! Not surprisingly, we saw no sun rise. It just got light. Having waited for over an hour for it to clear up we gave up and headed back down. The first kilometre of the walk down is on flat rocks, with ropes to hold on to. This wasn't so good as I'd fallen over earlier and sprained my wrist and you really had to rely on the ropes as the rocks were so slippy and wet! Charlie had decided he probably didn't need to hold on to the rope, and when he slipped was only a few metres away from about a 40ft drop! This convinced him that the ropes were quite a sensible idea and we all made it back to Laban Rata for breakfast in one piece. We made it back down to the bottom of the mountain in 2 hrs 45 minutes, and had stopped to chat to loads of people. Going back down gave you so much energy after not being able to breathe! And we didn't even struggle with our knees. We ate lunch and bought postcards and headed back to KK. Mel picked us up to take us to Kipouvo at 5. The kids there did some dancing as it was the groups last evening there. Charlie and Phil then went back to KK, as Charlie was going home and Phil was going to Vietnam. It was quite an emotional goodbye from everyone!
We headed off to Utan Paradise at a very reasonable 10am the next day. Utan Paradise is where we were doing the jungle trek. We spent a few days in the jungle, staying in hammocks and washing in the river! The trekking was very slippy as we are now apparently in their rainy season - expecting rain every day for a few hours! We were in the Crocker range, Mt. Kinabalu is the highest in the range. We didn't actually see that much wildlife - just a few monkeys and a few snakes, and Jason got bit on the bum by a Lepan! (A poisonous centipede) The first night in the hammock was probably the worst nights sleep I've ever got - I was drenched! And it gets quite cold in the middle of the night.. The guides went out and picked jungle vegetables to go with our rice and beans meals, which were..... interesting! Swimming and washing in the river was pretty cool, though. The leeches were not so cool! They don't hurt, it's just annoying how long they bleed for! And a couple of sneaky ones got in under my rucksack straps.. The mosquitoes also weren't so much fun. I got about 25 bites just on one hand! I look like I have some sort of odd disease.. maybe chicken pox! I also must have got stung by something as one of my toes swelled up ridiculously and was really hard to walk on! We got back to the Utan Paradise base at about 11am on Thursday and spent the day chilling there. Yesterday we came back to KK, where we lost Emma again, and this time she won't be back! We went out in the evening as it was Jason's last night with us, too! Quite sad times.... Had an interesting day around KK though, and we found somewhere that sells pizza and cheap beer! First time I have had cheese since I've been out here! Definitely one of the things that I miss the most! We went for manicures, pedicures and massages yesterday, too. I feel sorry for the people that had to deal with our feet after being in the jungle!! And the massage was pretty painful! RM75 for the whole lot, though - about 15 pounds. So I think that brings me pretty much up to date! We're off to Mantanani Island for 3 weeks tomorrow, to do some diving. I'll be doing my advanced diving award, and everyone else is doing the open water diver. No phone or internet there, though, so this will be the last one till we're back in KK before I leave Borneo! Hope everyone back home is doing good!
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