15th March 2009 I had a terribly night; at about 3:00am my inner ear started pounding and became blocked and very sensitive. I think it’s been irritated by the snorkelling and maybe has some water and sand trapped in their. At one point I thought I might have to cancel today’s trip to Sandakan and on to the Sepilok Orang-Utan Rehabilitation Centre. Thankfully when we met the girls (Monika & Hilary) for breakfast at 7:00am, Hilary had some very good eardrops in here medical kit. That with a couple of powerful painkiller washed down with two cups of black coffee and [View Full Entry]

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5th March 2009 Today we stayed in the apartment with Zana & Hadeeqa. Pili sorted out the flight changes, she’s a star and I started work updating the blog. When Azher came home we all decided to order pizza, excellent! We also had a quantity left over for a cold pizza breakfast which repulsed Zana, she doesn’t know what she’s missing, anyway she eats cold baked beans so how am I the gross one! 6th March 2009 Today we visited Bukit Timoh Nature Reserve. This is 166 hectres of the last remaining primary rain forest on the island. It’s a great [View Full Entry]

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31st January 2009 For the last couple of days I’ve felt really weak and lethargic, apart from a brief walk with Pili I’ve more or less stay in the apartment. Today I was committed to go and photograph Mike’s (the Pheonix Bar owner) football team play one of the local Goan sides. It was really hot and humid, thank god I wasn’t on the pitch because while watching the guys in Mike’s team I was expecting at any moment for one of them to drop down dead from a heart attack. It did get some pretty good photos for Mike though. [View Full Entry]

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8th February 2009 Today we met John and Gemma at 9:30am so that we could meet up with a couple who were introduced to us the other night when we went to the Punjabi Dabah. Richard and Jenny had asked me to go along to a local orphanage which they help sponsor. It’s called St Josephs and is in Candolin. The wanted me to photograph the boy’s football match. Their son had sent over a new football kit for the boys and they wanted the photos to take back for him to see. Of course I was happy to help out [View Full Entry]

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15th February 2009 Gemma left early this morning so John was at the door by 10:00am. We’d decided to walk to Fort Aguada which is a good 7km along the beach. While walking we filled three bags full of plastic rubbish. This is a regular routine for John & I, it really pissing us off the mindless lack of respect people have for the people, animals and the environment. John and I constantly remind people that it’s OUR India as well as theirs. I know we’ve set a good example with many of the tourist as we’ve seen people also collecting [View Full Entry]

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24th February 2009 Our train to Hampi (Hospet) leaves from Vasco de Gama at 7:20am so we leave for the hour taxi ride at 5:30am. We’d had a pretty sleepless night; I’d been awake since 3:00am. We eventually arrive at the train station via a moment of insanity from our driver who first took us to the airport!! After some confusion at the platform as to actually where we board the train for our eight hour journey in the normal sleeper carriage with no air conditioning, the train arrived dead on time. We were all a little apprehensive as to what [View Full Entry]

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27th February 2009 Today would be our last to say goodbyes to some of our friends. We went into Calangute and I bought some new shorts as my old ones were falling off me. I also bought a couple of pairs of light cotton trousers. We then did the rounds saying goodbye, Mike and Jenny at The Pheonix, we had another long conversation with Nisar and spent the rest of the evening at the Sports Bar. We’ve made some amazing friends and have never been made so welcome anywhere. It was an emotional day for all of us; everybody gave us [View Full Entry]

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15th January 2009 I was woken by David at 8:00am, he was in a complete panic. He just received a phone call from relatives who were arriving today to visit him. He’s forgotten all about it. Obviously it was time to move on, I felt sorry for David as he was very embarrassed by the situation. David had been very generous and kind during our brief stay, we were going to miss him. After waking to girls and telling them the situation, we packed quickly and I took them to The Phoenix Bar for breakfast. We met John Hutchinson there and [View Full Entry]

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27th January 2009 Today I was determined to find and photograph the Indian Pitta. This is a forest bird a little larger than our Song Thrush but very brightly coloured. It behaves very similar to our native Thrush, running around underneath bushes turning over leaves looking for insects and invertebrates. I told Pili this was my plan so she left me to it and headed for the beach and her waiting throng of children. Instead of heading out at dawn when all the other birdwatchers seem to be out I thought I’d change tack and head out late afternoon and stay [View Full Entry]

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13th January 2009. We had a 7:30am breakfast, said our goodbyes and hit the road. The roads were better but not by much. The journey to Shimoga took eight sweating and cramped hours. We did manage to get a little sleep along the way but we were all relieved to finally arrived in the city. We found our hotel, and unpacked in our 900Rs room before heading out to find the Tiger Rehabilitation Reserve. After a lot of question asking we found the Reserve but it turned out to be another Government run place with very little information available. The reserve [View Full Entry]

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