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Published: March 13th 2008
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Back at good blogging pace again. Unfortunately it's been a depressing few days for Hannes instead of Erik, but the travelling goes on!
This Tuesday Erik went diving on Sipadan and Hannes was supposed to go to Sandakan. He went up early, packed all his things and when the time came to say goodbye to Erik and Semporna he noticed his glasses were gone! After looking everywhere, asking a lot of people and pestering the reception he had to realize they were gone. But who would steal a pair of glasses? Accepting his fate, he spent the day sulking and reading.
Erik had a spectacular day. He got to see a wonderous world below the surface and he could really understand why it was said to be one of the world's ten best diving sites. Only 30 minutes away from the dive sites he acquired his diving certificate at, it was a bit like a new world. Here he saw more turtles than he could count, white- and black-tipped sharks, a barracuda and an especially beautiful Nudibranch. He also got to see a Cuttlefish changing colours.
We had an especially expensive dinner consisting of tuna filet, Tiger prawns, calamari and
spring rolls. Hannes thought the tuna filet was far too overcooked, though the other things were ok, but Erik appreciated it.
Yesterday we made a last attempt at finding the glasses, with negative results. We got on the bus to Sandakan where Erik spent the 6 hour drive in agony. His auditory canal felt like it was being squeezed by a clamp and at arrival in Sandakan we immediately took a taxi to the hospital. The Malaysian Duchess of Kent hospital was surprisingly almost up to Swedish standards, and with even better/faster service. For only 50 RM in registration fee he was examined by a physician and also got antibiotics, pain-killers, eardrops and some other pill he can't remember what it's for. It seems to be a common ear infection. The eardrops were very relieving but to this hour he's still in some pain.
Later we checked into a hostel with very helpful staff, just by the sea side. We also confirmed our suspicions that this part of the world really likes very sweet hamburgers.
Today we went up early and took a bus to the Sepilok Orang-utan Sanctuary. The bus didn't take us all the way but
with more luck than usual we managed to hitch a ride with two Malaysian women. Seeing the monkeys and how agile they are was magnificent. Besides Orang-utans there were also two different sorts of Macaques at the feeding. Unfortunately they were a bit too domesticated, though some of the larger males attacked quite a lot of tourists.
After the feeding we decided to do some trekking in the sanctuary, eager to see more wildlife. We got some exclusive close-up views of many different types of leeches. All together we got about 40 leeches though most of them didn't actually get a chance to suck our blood. The entire trek took about 2 hours of unrelenting sweating and tons of mud. No creature bigger than small lizards were seen, except the passing bird Erik glimpsed through some branches.
We hurried back to the toilets to look for leeches in the groin area, our guide book said special type of leech jumped from trees and fastened itself in that sacred region.
At lunch Erik found a very satisfied leech in his shoe which we consequently killed by elaborate torture (nothing is sweeter than revenge!). Hannes also managed to push the wrong button
on his camera and erase all the pictures. He was nearly ready to kill himself but Erik talked him off the edge. Fortunately we had copied our pictures in the Philippines so most were safe in our backpacks.
At three o'clock we saw the second feeding of the day. Sadly no Macaques appeared.
We managed to hitch a ride with a schoolbus to a crocodile farm which we really hadn't intended to visit. It was cool to see real crocodiles but more sad than anything. The worst was when the keepers held a "show" where they humiliated the poor crocs by dancing with them and poking them with sticks. It was also very sad to see the beautiful little jungle cat among other poor animals they kept in cages.
Tomorrow Hannes will get his new glasses, which he ordered yesterday, and we will look on last minute trips to Kuala Lumpur. Hopefully Erik's ear pains will subside.
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Father E.
non-member comment
Like to chock parents?
Hej pojkar! Please - can't you be more careful with your things? Hearing you losing stuff all the time makes us nervous - what will happen next???? Good to see you doing exciting things all the time - this vill surely be a true memory foravundsjuk life. Hope Erik get rid of the pain in the ear soon, and Hannes getting good glasses. At home Mother E. got an inflammation in an ear, but otherwise everything is good. ErikĀ“s sisters are probably envious of your world trip as they didn't want to go school yesterday! Take a lot of photos from Petronas Towers!!! Have a good time, Father E