Ta Prohm

A little announcement!!

A little bit of exciting news - Dene and I got engaged yesterday and I am proudly sporting a plastic flower ring on my left hand!!! In Siem Reap in Cambodia and staying at a beautiful hotel which is a traditional Khmer house. He got down on one knee on the veranda - after deciding Angkor Wat is too touristy! We're loving Cambodia - been temple visiting so much that we are both suffering from 'temple leg'- a phrase thatwe made up to describe the aching in our legs after a days temple walking! The temples are fantastic - especially as you're able to climb in and all around them - thereby developing temple leg. Went to the Bayon and Angkor Wat yesterday as well as the Angkor Thom city. This morning we went to Ta Phrom and Ta Keo. They are all just magnificent and I have taken screeds of photos. Hoping to go to Angkor Wat at sunset tonight.

Siem Reap is great although there is a street that is a bit Cambodia del Sol (lots of pubs and sunburnt westerners)! Mog and Graeme, Khmer Kitchen is fab - we got starters, mains, drinks all for 6 pounds and it was delicious - Dene just reminded me that he was particularly chuffed because he got a pint of Angkor beer for 35p! Staying here for 4 nights then heading down to Phomn Penh for 4 nights. Currently debating whether to take the sick inducing boat for 6 hours or the sick inducing bus which also takes in a pit stop where they offer you deep fried tarantula - I've been having nightmares about it since we arrived so the boat is looking appealing! I have however managed to overcome many fears so far - allowed Dene to take a photo of a gargantuan spider at Ta Phrom this morning, climbed the temples in flip flops in a monsoon that was a sheer stony drop and have been to a restaurant where your dinner is swimming in big tanks and served to you face and all - and ate the fish!!! I'm quite proud! I wouldn't however have quite gone to the lengths of ordering the 4 foot long lobster that the waiter has to wrestle with (and got injured in the process) before he was able to show it off to the group of people who had ordered it, it was still clapping its tail - gross.

That's probably enough to bore you with for the moment - hope everyone is well!

Nic x

Gomantong Caves

A rushed photo of inside the Gomantong Caves taken before I bailed for the entrance! The black piles are bat poo which literally move with cockroaches....

Kinabatangan River

End of our trip in Malaysia

Well, that's us reached our final destination in Malaysia. We're now in Sandakan, Sabah, in Malaysian Borneo. We fly out to Cambodia from here on Thursday, so we plan on spending the next 2 days here. However, the only thing you can do here is take a boat out and spend a night on turtle island to see the turtles laying their eggs and do a bit of snorkelling. Only problem is that only 50 people are allowed on per night and it is fully booked out until Friday, so we're having to give it a miss. It's not so bad because we've spoken to other people and they say it is quite touristy, only problem is is that there is nothing else to do here. So, we spoke to the lovely, but crazy, woman at the tourist information and we have arranged a private tour of the Proboscis Monkey Centre outside of town tomorrow, which should keep us going. We've also found this beautiful wee colonial tea room and restaurant (English Tea Room!!) on the top of the hill overlooking the town, so we're going for dinnerthere tomorrow night, before we fly out on Thursday for Cambodia.

Dene

Kinabatangan River and Gomantong Caves

Yesterday we travelled to the Kinabatangan River and stayed overnight in a jungle lodge which was really basic but very rustic. We did a river tour yesterday in monsoon rains and got completely soaked through - I've never ever seen rain that heavy! This morning we did another river tour at 5.30am and it was fantastic - we saw crocodiles, kingfishers, proboscis monkeys, lizards. This afternoon we went to the Gomantong Caves which if anyone has seen Planet Earth, they will know the ones that I mean - loads of bat droppings covering the floor of the caves, followed by a layer of cockroaches and other insects eating the bat droppings! I cannot explain the smell, Dene was about to throw up - even the walkways that you use to get into the caves are covered in droppings and cockroaches - if you stand still there is a serious risk that they will crawl up your leg. I actually managed to make it half way round the caves before giving up and running back for the entrance! Totally amazing but totally disgusting at the same time!

Orangutan with a hat!

Orangutans

Sepilok Jungle Resort and Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre

We are now staying in Sepilok Jungle Resort which is beautiful and about 5 minutes walk from the Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. We visited the Centre a couple of days ago and fell in love with all the orangutans so I had to adopt a baby orangutan whose name is Sen and he's only 1 year old. Unfortunately didn't get a picture of him because he's still in the nursery but have got a stupid amount of photos of the other orangutans!

Kota Kinabalu

Well we're now in Borneo and loving it! Arrived in Kota Kinabalu and while quieter than Kuala Lumpur, still mental! Visited a night food market which I was very proud of given that there were dead hanging fried things all over the places and fish being gutted over the pathways - chaos! Had to get some photos though - although Dene's video taping of it probably is a better indicator of what it is actually like!