Orang Utans and Rainforests

After three days of diving at the wonderful Mabul and Sipadan Islands, and buying the T-shirts, we headed north to Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre where visitors can watch the monkeys being fed. It was interesting to see them and the work done there but it was essentially just a zoo so we decided to venture in to the rainforest a couple of hours away.

The buses are by no means regular here and we again waited over two hours in the blistering heat for one! The drivers try their luck with us when they see our fair skin.

Time to write some long overdue postcards.

The long bus journeys send us both a bit loopy. We don't speak much. Just sweat. When we have to stop the heat becomes instantly unbearable! Although I read (now reading Celine), listen to a lot of Bob Dylan and look out at the amazing landscapes of green jungle, huge palm plantations, sea, dusty villages, mountains, there's a lot of time to let thoughts swirl about one's head. I keep thinking about my childhood. Perhaps because this transience and lack of concrete plans is like being on a long school holiday in a way. I think how the years are flying by. I resolve again and again to change my ways, to behave in this way and that, to be happy, to be kinder to myself etc. I'm going round in circles quite a lot. 'Why am I doing?' is a familiar question!

I think the heat and lack of sleep (a lot of 6am wake up calls) is affecting my memory as I've now lost my sunglasses, a towel and a jumper. Ah well. Lightens the load. I am taking the Larium as I can't find anything else in Borneo, but am doing so with caution!

So we went to the jungle. Hot, noisy, humid and dark. My ears are still blocked form diving.
Stayed in a travellers lodge where Monitor lizards roam about eating butterflies. The only way to the lodge was by boat on which we flung our trusty bulging backpacks. The bugs are big in these parts and the chorus of insects is deafening! They took us for two river cruises in a small boat and we saw all sorts of monkeys and birds and Mangrove snakes and a crocodile. Good to see them in the wild and not behind a cage. The rains here fall hard and in huge heavy drops and the rivers are chocolate colour, partly due to the heavy showers which stirs up all the red soil.

I write a lot of wafffle in my book while Ric designs games and T-shirts in his.