Let's go to the beach beach.

On the 26th October, 200 Malaysians and 4 white boys went to camp on a beach. It went quite well- minor mishaps like leaking tents and not putting on sun cream did not dampen the mood, a good time was had by all.

After a 3 hour journey on a tightly squeezed bus where not everyone had a seat, we arrived at the camp site in Kuala Penyu. Just like any other camp I've been to, the first job was chop down bamboo trees. Turns out it takes a bit more skill than flailing a knife wilfully in the direction of the branch, something I learnt a bit too late in the day. We built up our camp, devoured some coconut fresh from the tree, then hit the sea. It was strange not beginning with a tame sea paddle to get acclimatised to the water (a standard procedure up in Northumberland). The water is a more pleasant experience to the freezing temperatures I'm used to it has to be said. We played lots of games: rugby, piggy back wars in the sea, climbing the slippery pole (a giant bamboo stick covered in margarine), tug of war and building a raft, all of which led to the gradual destruction of my neck and shoulders, with the accompaniment of a rather sore sun burn. As we went out rafting at sunset, we watched the rain and thunder gradually drift across the beach towards us, and we knew we were in for a wet night. Inevitably, our tent failed to withstand the demands of the environment, and we abandoned ship to seek refuge with the boy by the fire. Not the best night sleep I've had, and not the longest either. For the first time so far, I woke up genuinely cold. It felt wrong. But luckily the next night was far more pleasant and after more of the same during the day we were able to sleep out on the beach under the moon and the stars. I just wish I could have kept my eyes open for a better look, but I couldn't stop drifting off. 

All in all, a challenging but thoroughly enjoyable weekend. Taking a shower hasn't yet taken off the rather thick layer of dirt on my feet, but I'll be happy to update you all on my foot cleaning progression in due course.

Striking a pose mid- coconut peel. 

You can use a knife to cut them open, but when in Rome...

Turns out using a knife is a lot better.

This is just a pure gap year photo.

Rugby on the beach!

I think I'll stick to football...

Building a raft, doing some serious lashings.

The boys having a ball with the beach games!

"Although no one understood, we were holding back the flood, learning how to dance  the rain"

More lashings.

"They said we'd never dance again"

Three proud raft sailors.

Teaching snapshots/top notch wildlife photography

Sitting at the children's level to seem more approachable- I know my tricks of the trade.

Perplexed by the Primary school elephant comprehension sent by Mother...

But I worked it out in the end.

I'm still working on my outside, jungle wildlife snap shots, so for now here is the best and worst side of wildlife within our house...

I've tried to make this bigger to make it a bit more scary, but this is a baby tarantula chilling in our sink.

And this is a rather beautiful butterfly on our front door. 

Wedding Crashers

Here are some pictures of my first Malaysian wedding experience. Most of the pictures are of me trying to fit in and take on their culture by doing the local Sabahan dance, the "Sumazau". The pictures don't, however, represent the wedding towards the end of the afternoon where me and Hugo share some of our dancing culture with the masses. John Travolta was undoubtedly the inspiration behind the majority of the moves as we fused Grease with some of his finest moves from the great Pulp Fiction, but the crowd favourite seemed to be the front crawl. In seconds everyone was doing their lengths, and our deed was done. A joyous and groovy time was had by all.

The Mandarin shirt, craghopper trousers (lightweight of course) and  the boat shoe combo is one to be seriously questioned, but somehow I'm still absolutely beaming.

The traditional Sabah dance, the "Sumazau". Not my strong point I have to admit.

Once again proving my dancing is as questionable as my fashion sense.

My wingman wedding crasher- ready to close. 

As graceful as Big Bird from Sesame Street.

Open House

7th October, me and the Sabah gang set up our "Orang Puteh Corner" (White People Corner) and helped to fundraise in the annual Open House event in Kinarut. Despite the half 5 start, it turned out to be a very pleasant day. We were selling homemade flapjacks that we had all made the day before, and were selling fresh pancakes with a variety of toppings. In retrospect, buying 20 lemons was a bit of an over- estimate as we only used one and a half, but other than that our margins were good and our products were being snatched up. The last 3 years of watching the Apprentice finally came into it's own- as front of house salesman and pancake toppings man, my salesmanship charm and desire for a quality product steered me well clear of the board room. With killer lines such as "this is very popular in the UK" and "sadap! sadap!" (delicious), we were never going to fail. After a long, hard day of grafting and other business jargon words to indicate effort, we managed to sell out of everything, making about 750RM from 130RM. Margins margins margins! A satisfying effort, and the ultimate reward was to go up to the jumble sale to find some outstanding local garments which cost me less than a pound. Happy days all round! Finishing the day with a Doctor Who session and some air con was possibly the finest way to end an otherwise tiring but rewarding day.

Bonnie Tyler- Total Eclipse of the Heart

We are just over a month in now, and I feel truly settled in now. Life is good and there are plenty of things for me to look forward to in the coming months, including camping on the beach, white water rafting, travelling to Vietnam and Cambodia, Christmas on the beach and climbing Mount Kinabalu. So many more blog entries to come, don't worry about that.