Today was an amazing day. An epic day. I got to do something that few people in the world will ever get to do. I spent my day wrangling orang-utans. Last week I arrived in Borneo to start my 2 months volunteering at the Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre near Sandakan, Sabah. After a week of quarantine (primates are very susceptible to human diseases, and do not have the anti-bodies to defend themselves against most of what we give them), today was the first day the real work began. While here, I will do 4 different rotations, each one helping with a different aspect of the work done at Sepilok. My first rotation is in the outside nursery. The outside nursery is where the 2 to 6 year olds live, and they are taught critical tree climbing and ... read more

There are some things you don't plan in your travels. Participating in 3 seperate new year celebrations (western, Chinese, and SE Asia) was never something I anticipated. But my 3rd, surprise new years party is probably one of the most fun times I have ever had. Not just on this trip, but in my life. So, a quick primer for those at home who have no idea what SE Asian New year is (I was one of your masses until recently. I'm going with the Thai New Year (Songkran) explanation, as that where this blog takes place: Per Wikipedia: The Songkran festival (Thai: สงกรานต์, Khmer: សង្រ្កាន្ត; from the Sanskrit word saṃkrānti, or literally "astrological passage") is celebrated in Thailand as the traditional New Year's Day from 13 to 15 April. It coincides with the New Year ... read more

Long before getting to Vang Vieng, I was hearing stories about Vang Vieng. I had heard stories about other places too, but the Vang Vieng stories were unique as they revolved around the (in)famous tubing pub crawl. I was excited to experience it, although I never planned to go all out as I'm a firm believer that drunkennes and water are a recipe for disaster, especially if you are as accident prone as I am. So when I arrived in Vang Vieng and learned that there was so much more to do that tubing I was pleasantly surprised. While the tubing was fun, and I will never forget it, I think that the other experiences that I had while in Vang Vieng are what made the town so memorable. Everything in Vang Vieng is about the ... read more

I have tried a lot of food in the last three and a half months - much I have not blogged about becuase I have been without camera or too distracted by the yumminess to take pictures. But I have to say that Vietnamese food has been my favourite thus far. Which is a big surprise, because in all my years of going for pho and other dishes back home, the cuisine has never really caught my attention. Fortunately, it has it now. So why have I fallen in love with Vietnamese? Simple - the flavour. While other countries get the flavour of food talked up, I think Vietnamese is marginalized because so many people think of pho when they think of the cuisine. As that flavour is partly DIY, the lack of spice you choose ... read more

So I have to say, I think this was one of the coolest days I've had since I began this trip. While in Hoi An, I went on a day trip to go repelling at Marble Mountains in Da Nang. We were told that the repelling would involved one cave drop (10m), one cliff drop (25m) and a drop into a temple at the bootom of a cave (55m). It sounded awesome, and turned out to be better than expected because what we were neglected to be told was the temple we would be repelling into was unique. The day started out drizzly and overcast, but fortunately not enough to stop us from repelling. We completed some basic training on how to reppel before trying the 10m drop into a cave, and completed that successfully twice. ... read more