Blogs from Sabah, Malaysia, Asia - page 117

We left Kota Kinabalu a little later than we had planned as we were not quite ready, so after a visit to the bakery we finally left. We arrived at Sepilok Jungle resort, which is a five minute walk from the Orang Utan Sanctuary, around 3pm. The resort was covers quite a lot of land and has several lakes and the are currently building a swimming pool. It is beautiful here but unfortunately other than visit the orangutans there is not a great deal to do here other than relax, so we spent the rest of the day chilling. We even had an alcohol free early night! On Monday we were up early to see the orangutans at feeding time. There must have been at least ten of them all together, of various ages, they ... read more

After an awful night in Pulua Labuan we were grateful to arrive back in Borneo, but this time in Sabah. We had bought first class tickets so managed to get a bit of sleep on the boat, but as the air con was turned up full pelt we were freezing. They also had a film on but it was the cheesiest kung fu film ever, with Holly Valance and some other flakes in it. We stopped at a cafe on the pier for breakfast before the ten minute walk to our hostel. As out lonely planet is a few years out of date it was no longer there but we did find a little gem of a place called the step up lodge. Very nicely decorated, clean and cheap, a right touch! We decided to ... read more

17th March 2007 Kuala Lumpur (by flight, 2.5 hours) - Tawau (by taxi, 1 hour) - Semporna (by speed boat, 45 minutes) - Sipadan Water Village, Mabul Island (SWV). Arrived at SWV was about 1.00pm, we have received a great welcome from the resort’s staffs and enjoyed a lunch before checked into our room. The resort is built above the sea water therefore in any time you can see the fishes swimming around and coral surrounded the room unit in a close distance. We have surprised that the room is big, clean and comfortable. The design is adopted the “open concept” hence there is no air-conditioner unit attached but a ceiling fan is available. The best thing is the big balcony, it provide you a great place to enjoy the sea view without any building ... read more

Selamat Datang! The 3 weeks of Phase 1 of our Programme have now come to a successful close. How time flies! Our teams have spent the best part of the last month living and working in small rural communities, in remote environmental conservation areas or trekking through remote jungle. They’ve started building the infrastructure for much-needed village or forestry facilities, taught English, organised sports tournaments, learned how to cook local food and much more besides. Most importantly perhaps they’ve learned to adapt to life without the things that many of us take for granted: running water, electricity, beds to sleep in and the other material and psychological comforts of home. The highlight of last week was undoubtedly Monday, when the 9 groups arrived back from their project sites and then stayed for a couple of nights ... read more

Hello all ( Sorry no pics, do not have the facilities or the time to add any pictures today so you will have to wait for those.) N e way, i was sent on my community phase to a small village called Sosondoton, just in the foot hills of Mont Kinabalu, it is am amazing little village, and not quite so hot as we were based quite high up. The project was to build a water graviety system,so as to increase the pressure to the original system. we therefore had to build a dam at the new source - 2.5 km up a massive hill from the orginal source. it was am amazing project, the dam was made from 3 gabions (-which we had to fill with rocks very heavy work 100 meters up a ... read more