Uncle Tans Borneo

Black kingfisher ( I think)

One of those scary bat things!

After Brunei we headed back into Borneo for Kota Kinbalu on the coast.  A fairly large resort it was a nice place to spend some time in a great hostel and catch up on some internet surfing.  A bit of a street fair added to the laid back atmosphere although some of the singing made me sound good and I don't!  A night out along the waterfront led to Kirsten and Roberta trying to break the world record in marching back to the hostel.  This was twarted however by their clear lack of training and preparation and both hit the wall after 800 meters muttering something about too much gin!  Most amusing to watch.

An early flight saw us arrive in Sepilok.  This is the home of another Orang Utan sanctuary which whilst not as good as the first one we visited was still very worthwhile.  We also stayed at a great jungle resort with a swimming pool which most of us made use of.  The main reason for visiting Sepilok for us was to visit Uncle Tans wildlife adventure park.  This does exactly what it says on the tin.  A initial boat ride along  the river Kinabatangen to the park gave us sighting of numerous macaque monkeys, hornbills,egrets and probiscus monkeys.  With very basic accomodation the park is devoted primarily to the objective of spotting as much wildlife as possible.  This is achieved with a program of boat rides and trekking both day and night and delivers perfectly.  It's quite hard to recall everything we saw as there was so much, but for me the highlight was the large crocodile just slipping into the water as we passed it.  The gibbons playing amongst the trees were also great to see.  I missed out on seeing the orang utan in the wild due to an appointment with my pillow but was assured by the others that it was fantastic.  The whole park is staffed by young boys/men who put every effort into making sure you have a great time.  The only thing unfortunately they cannot control are the mossies which are everywhere.  Still a brilliant time was had by all even Ben who was extremely worried beforehand that he would die from sweating!  Turns out he didn't.

So we're currently back in KK for our last night together before returning to KL and each going our separate ways.  Well nearly separate, myself, Roberta, Heather and Ben are heading for Indonesia. Kirsten and Simon have got Africa to look forward to and Barry and Pauline are heading home to NZ. Borneo has been brilliant, I feel very lucky to have been here and seen all the things I have.  One thing that will always stick is my mind is Kirstens uncanny knack of negotiating a discount amongst male taxi drivers.  This involved a lot of smiling, dare I say flirting and a bit of chat "Oh yes, this is my job".  This worked briliantly and Kirsten has now apparently become a pin up girl amongst Borneos finest!

It's been a fantastic 6+ months for me with the Odyssey Overland group. I've had the time of my life and cannot speak highly enough of Pete and Kirsten for all the effort they put into the trip.  Every problem and I'm sure there have been a lot that we travellers were not aware of was dealt in a extremely professional way and made our lives easy. Even problems like Simon announcing to all and sundry that he had had his bag stolen in KK only to remember hours later after waking the poor nightwatchman that he had left it in KL.  I don't want to lavish the praise too highly in case anyone reads this and they get so booked up I cannot get on future trips!  Suffice to say I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the company to everyone I know. A fantastic group of fellow travellers also made life very enjoyable.  It's very hard to pick out highlights as there have been so many so I'll just say I feel privileged to have seen and done the things I have in the last 6 months and the memories will last forever.  We've had some great laughs.

So our time with Odyssey is nearly over and  after a few drinks together tonight it's time to look forward to our future travels.  I've took over the role of tour leader for one night only and booked us into a hostel in Jakarta, someone elses turn next.

This time I've sussed it.  They'll never see me in this small clear carrier bag!!

See Ben we're invisible!

Although our time together is nearly up Simon managed to get a couple of sneaky games of cupboard hiding in.  He still hasn't got the hang off it though.  Keep practising Simon!