A trip to Yowie Land.

For those who don't know, much of my childhood was spent collecting toys called Yowies. They were little figurines of different animals from around the world, and they came in animal shaped pieces of chocolate- nature's answer to a Kinder Egg if you like. My collection was (and still is) my pride and joy. Every time we had roast chicken on a Sunday and I conquered one of the weaker members of the family on the snapping of the wishbone (sorry Laura), I would wish that my Yowies would come to life. Now I'm sure you're thinking "you just told us your wish so it will never come true now!".  Wrong my friends. Borneo just so happens to be the home of a whole host of Yowies! So far I've only scratched the surface, and I'll be honest a lot of these were in a Wildlife Centre, but you have to start somewhere. 

This is the Hornbill- Borneo's national bird. Number 90 if I'm not mistaken (each Yowie had a number at the bottom- I spent a lot of my time memorising these numbers. Spouting out an animal at the sound of a number was my primary school playground party trick).   

The Malaysian Sun Bear- the smallest bear in the world. I reckon even I could beat it up. I once buried my  Sun Bear Yowie in a flowerpot for camouflage purposes as part of a wider game and I ended up spending a good hour looking for it. What can I say, it was good camouflage.

Reticulated Python- not strictly a Yowie, but I had another type of python that I believe to be number 67. It's a snake, I'll take it. 

Craig the Croc (yes, they all had names as well, and all of them were alliterative)- number 36, could be wrong. Found Craig at the Crocodile Farm. There were many Craigs. None were as lively as my Craig back home, turns out real life crocs don't do movement.   

This is a skink- not my favourite Yowie but worth a mention.

Visual evidence of my amazement after seeing so many Yowies.

 The wildlife centre is actually quite close to home, but Hugo and I had our eyes on the main prize- monkeys. More specifically, orangutans. Sandakan, on the east coast of Sabah, is the home of the Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre as well as a Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary so a few days there was an absolute must. We managed to see almost all there is to see in the area, including a moving War Memorial commemorating the Death Marches, a crocodile farm, a Buddhist temple, and the Rainforest Discovery Centre. But certainly the orangutan sanctuary was the highlight. We got there for feeding time (this unfortunately isn't the kind of feeding time where the cute orangutans come and hug your neck while gently taking food from your hand, life just isn't that good), and soon enough the apes were swinging in one by one, joined also by macaques, but it became swiftly apparent that the two species don't get along too well. The orangutans dominated for a while but the macaques soon chased them away to get their share of the food. All in all, it was great to see some monkeys in their natural habitat, and it has whetted my appetite for some serious Yowie hunting.    

You try doing that with your leg!

With orangutans having hands for feet, it means they're very good at the circle game, so this particular ape owes me a punch when he gets the chance. 

Absolute poser. 

This macaque got bored of the feeding area and decided to come right up to where we were standing. It was all I could do not to go and give it a hug.

This fine specimen is a male proboscis monkey. Can't get enough of that nose. Nature is jokes.

Just to show just how close I came to these monkeys! The silver leaf monkeys enjoyed the shade of the observatory so they were milling around with us watching the proboscis monkeys. You'll go a long way to find a pose more awkward than what I've produced here. 

This is a giant squirrel that I spotted in the Rainforest Discovery Centre. It is just a big squirrel, if it wasn't the only live thing I saw in the Centre it wouldn't have made the cut. 

This is a view from the canopy walk. 

A sample of the views we had on a bus ride. Behind the clouds is Mount Kinabalu, one of the highest mountains in South East Asia, but I'll have better pictures than this after I climb it in March.

Completely unrelated picture to anything that has gone before. This is from  a Cultural Evening at the Monfort Centre where the boys dressed in their tribal gear. That's what I plan to look like when I step of the plane next August.

A day in KK, a fond farewell and the village people.

 This is a rather strange collection of photos from the last two weeks that I've tried to put in some kind of order but as you might gather from the title of this post, there is absolutely no interlinking theme here, no intricate interweaving of events, I'm just not that good. But hopefully the following paragraphs will provide some much needed context to give you some idea of what's going on.
On the 3rd November, me and the Sabah boys went to stay the night in KK. We struck a fine balance between taking in more of the Sabahan culture (the pictures from the KK Sunday market being a perfect example) and resorting back to our western ways- drinking at a bar whilst mulling over the Manu Arsenal match. The latter was a particularly pleasing activity due to the fact that the Cock'n'Bull are apparently the home of the Sabahan Red Devil community, so half time was filled not with inane adverts and the appalling ESPN analysis by the infamous "no nonsense" pundit, but was instead replaced with a slideshow of Man United fans getting drunk to the song "Glory Glory Man United". Like the football hooligan I am I of course joined in with the chant, much to Hugo's displeasure who sat slumped in his chair (Arsenal fan- had every right to be miserable).
The following weekend saw the end of the line for some of the San Damiano Boys who were finishing at school, so a farewell party was in order. It perhaps wasn't a party as I know it, but I suppose any party that begins with the Warden telling the boys that "this is not a party" is unlikely to equate to any of my my past experiences. However, there was a solid spread of food and a bit of karaoke on the go so one can hardly complain. By one in the morning (many chicken legs later), I was just about finished with what the barbecue had to offer me, and that was that.
The next day, we were to follow one of the boys back to is village, Kampong Raganan. It was my first taste of the real kampong lifestyle, and whether you like it or not Mother, it happened to involve getting high off strange plants and drinking rice wine (I must add that I'm using the term "getting high" quite lightly. I didn't feel high at any point, I felt dizzy and distinctly low). A few of the boys live in the same village so we did the rounds, visited all of the homes, and polished off some more chicken wings along the way. Lots of fun was had by all. And with that context, you are now equipped for trawling through my bundle of photos. Enjoy!

This picture still has no context and is only here for the benefit of a certain animal loving veterinary nurse that I know. These two rascals were found in the cupboard of one of the boys, the spawn of the local stray cat. All of them have now gone missing. The popular rumour that I've fully endorsed in is that Hugo has eaten them.

The following are all creatures that can all be purchased for a fair price in the KK Sunday Market (again for the benefit of that certain animal freak that I know): Fish.

Rabbit.

Chicks. Many chicks.

A pondering dog with a phenomenally round head.

A particularly fluffy cat.

And knives. Not a creature I know. But Jason likes knives. 

This is the day I spent cooking pancake after pancake for the boys (about 80 pancakes all in all). They went down a storm, and I think I  consumed enough sugar to keep me going for a month. 

All the lads at the farewell party. Fradaus is about to say his farewells to the chicken wing he foolishly decided to present in front of me. 

My Form 1 boys.

A typical house in Kampong Raganan

What I thought to be quite a striking view from the peak of Raganan. 

Walking through Kampong boy band style.

The entrance to Kampong Raganan, not a bad welcoming it has to be said.

A vital aspect of Kampong lifestyle- rice wine called Tapai.

Me and my state of being "high". Supposedly putting that leaf on the forehead helps the dizziness to fade. I'm pretty sure I just had a leaf on my forehead. 

Getting abused from all angles with little exploding things. Can't remember what they're called. 

Managed to bag myself a local village girl. She's a bit demanding but we're both happy and that's what counts.

She does abuse me though. Love is a rocky road indeed.