Back in Malaysian Borneo, the next few days were about spotting primates and stuffing ourselves full of food. Arriving in Kota Kinabalu an hour after sunset, we made our way straight to the night market for dinner, meandering past rows and rows of fresh produce to arrive at the dining tables. We took a good 20 minutes to work out which of all the delicious-looking food we'd eat, deciding on a huuuuuuuuuge barbecued parrot fish, some prawns and a giant bowl of mee goreng, prepared by a guy proficient in the art of tossing a full pan of noodles high in [View Full Entry]

---

---

We didn't have much luck with transport or bureacracy in Brunei. The ferry from Limbang wasn't running and the taxi drivers wanted ridiculous sums of money at exchange rates that didn't make sense. We eventually made it to the border, and were pleased to be finally assigned transit visas - a short-term visa for those moving on in the next few days which costs about half as much as a 30 day visa. We were in Bandar Seri Begawan by mid afternoon, sweating our way from the bus stop to our hotel. We spent the afternoon in air-conditioned comfort, washing ourselves [View Full Entry]

---

---

Three weeks off work. Two for holiday, one for study. Somewhere to hike, and somewhere to try out my new camera. Not too far away. A couple of Christmases ago, I bought Justin a book called 'Trek', which has beautiful photos of some of the world's best hikes and has proven a winner at selecting spectacular holiday destinations. So, it was to this we turned again to decide where next. Borneo definitely ticked all the boxes. We debated whether to climb Mt Kinabalu or hike the Headhunters' Trail, settling on the latter to spend some time in a jungle and decide [View Full Entry]

---

---

Amongst the list of things I really hate, right up there with parking tickets in front of your own house and hot cross buns, is the animal game. Or the animal game disguised as something else. It's just not that entertaining to think of every animal (or band or insert other topic here) you can beginning with a certain letter on long journeys. It's especially not entertaining when you play against people whose repertoire of remembered animals includes the cookie-cutter shark, but I suspect that just illustrates that I don't like to lose. Luckily, given Justin and Whitley are of the [View Full Entry]

---

---

Nearly 3 months after arriving back in Australia, it feels like we've never been away. I finished up my project in the lab, and started back doing clinical work - this time a neonatal intensive care job. A couple of weeks of night shifts was enough to get me over my initial thoughts of 'oh holy crap, they're so tiny and so sick and I haven't done any med for a year!!' and just leave me pretty exhausted and ready for a holiday! Yes, I know after the year we've just had that it'll be a fair while before we actually [View Full Entry]

---

---

It is perhaps a measure of the depth of the appreciation we have developed over the year for efficiency, having learnt to make do with precious little of it, that the excitement of our hassle-free and very fast check-in for our domestic flight from Johannesburg almost overshadowed our arrival in Cape Town, probably the most beautiful city I've seen so far. Buoyed by this, the lovely sun with its dry heat and the ability to explore the streets safely, we spent the first full day in Cape Town wandering Long Street, with its book shops and funky little clothing stores. After [View Full Entry]

---

---

A week ago we left Kilifi, spending our last morning there at Upendo. Some of the kids were clingy, some showed more fascination than normal with my watch as we counted down the minutes we had left there, and some were oblivious to our impending departure, and we raced around and sang songs like any other day. In the end, we left hurriedly as a traffic jam on the Mombasa Road meant our trip to the airport would be a slow one. Mama Rachel and most of the kids escorted us part of the way home to sneak in a last [View Full Entry]

---

---

It's hard to believe our time in Kilifi is almost over - we fly to Johannesburg tomorrow. After eight months here, we've developed a lot of affection for the place and its people and, for a while, especially when we've returned from other east African travels, it's felt almost like home. But, the excitement of 2 weeks in South Africa and then back to our real home to see family and friends for Christmas has certainly made it easier to say goodbye. We have thousands of memories of Kilifi that we'll bore our grandchildren silly with one day, I'm sure! Highlights [View Full Entry]

---

---

The travels of September and October now behind us, we've settled back into Kilifi life and are now fast approaching the end of our time here. The mild weather we'd been enjoying a couple of months back has well and truly made way for the season of steam - Kilifi is now a hot-bed of sweat, with only an average of ten minutes of relief from the heat (just after the rain stops in the morning). Turning up the fan full blast so that it sounds like you're sleeping next to a chopper is really the only way to guarantee a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Many countries in Africa have titles extolling the virtue of their people and land - Uganda is ‘the pearl of Africa’, Malawi the ‘warm heart of Africa’ - presumably both an example of national pride and a marketing catch-cry for tourists. Rwanda’s is a little less ambiguous than the above examples - it is the ‘land of a thousand hills’. Rumoured to be a country of amazing beauty and one that has made remarkable headway into peacefully moving forward after the horrors of the genocide in 1994, we were curious to see for ourselves this small east African [View Full Entry]

---

---