flyingnelson

Not had chance to update for a bit. We stayed at the forest retreat in Sepilok for two nights. It was nice and peaceful. We visited the Orangutan sanctuary and rainforest discovery centre on the first full day there. We had to wait on a platform for about 30 mins until the orangutans started to appear for feeding. Oh my it was bl**dy hot, we were dripping. It was really nice when they swung onto the platform and started eating the food the rangers put out. After this we had a walk through the rainforest to see if we could find any orangutans swinging through the trees but we only saw some monkeys. We then walked over to the rainforest discovery centre and walked over some canopies, did a little bit of bird and lizard spotting. ... read more

Today we left Kota Kinabalu and went by mini van to Kinabalu park where the largest mountain in South East Asia is. We had a walk through the rainforest, walked across a canopy and afterwards went to a waterfall. We took our shoes off and put our feet in the water. There were lots of little fish in there which after a few moments started to eat the dead skin off our feet! Such a strange feeling! As we were walking back it starting raining cats and dogs and didn't stop for about 5 hours. We also went to the Poring Springs which has lots of Japanese tubs which you fill up with hot water which is pumped up from the ground (the water is enriched by the sulphur from the volcano below which also heats ... read more

11th August - Today we took a train to the "Batu caves". This was a great experience. You walk up loads of steps up to the cave temples situated at the top of a limestone hill. There is a massive hindu statue in front of it. As you walk up the steps there are lots of monkeys all hoping to snatch someone's food. I made the mistake of looking in my bag for some water. The monkey heard the rustling and grabbed at my bag. I held on to it and we had a bit of a tug of war. Cheeky beggars they are. I won! In the afternoon I wanted to see a mall as I'd heard they were worth a visit. The mall we chose was very impressive with a total of 10 floors ... read more

Today is our last full day in Sri Lanka. It has been lovely here. Our last hotel was so nice, it was a shame to leave it. We packed our stuff together and loaded it into our new guide's minivan and set off to Uda Walawe National park at 4am. It took 3 hours to get there. It was nice to see the sun coming up; its not often I get to do that. The park opened at 7am and it's best to get there early to avoid the midday sun. We hired a jeep with driver once there and drove all around the park for about 3 hours. The animals are totally wild and are not fed by anyone. We saw herds of elephants with their young, crocodiles, birds, water buffaloes .. When we saw ... read more

Today we hired some snorkelling gear and went to the beach. We were told where the corals are and where it is best to snorkel. As soon as we got near the beach we were asked if we wanted to go on a glass bottom boat. We preferred to try out some snorkelling first but actually ended up going on a boat as we were the only white people on the beach and I didn’t fancy being looked at in my bikini and snorkelling stuff. The beach was full of locals. They all get in the water fully clothed. So anyway we paid 1000 rupees (about £6) for half an hour on the boat. The water was very choppy and it felt at times like the boat was going to tip over. They drove us near ... read more

On our final day in Negombo our travel guide took us to see a “toddy tapper”. We drove to a neighbourhood nearby and went into a local man’s garden. He used coconut husks which were tied to a palm tree to climb up the tree. He climbed the tree in no time at all like a ladder. Once he’d reached the top he cut into the palm tree with the blade he was carrying and collected the juice that came out of it inb a bucket. He walked between the trees on ropes. He collected the “toddy” from about 4 trees.This is a Sri lankan tradition. We had a chance to taste some of it but neither of us actually liked it!! Can’t describe the taste for the life of me. To our surprise our guide ... read more