We are very grateful to introduce our new helper, Ailene, who joined us yesterday. Thank you to Papa for insisting on a helper to make our lives easier. Ailene is, in a nutshell, just super and very sweet and capable. It is hard for me to guess all that she already knows but so far, Ailene seems to be very much on the ball! I interviewed her on the phone and then afterwards in person and to each of my scenarios, she replied exactly as I had hoped. I tested her today at the mall. I went into the bathroom and Frunty went into the men's. Ailene immediately waited outside the men's in close range of Frunty without me saying a word which is what I normally do. She could read my mind! As usual, she did not want me to buy anything at the supermarket for her to eat or drink...but I insisted she tell me and we came home with the following:
bread
kaya spread (an egg jam)
coffee
apples
Very interesting, our new helper with the tiny tattoo!
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Monday, 28 March 2011
Raining Buckets
The sky went really, really dark and the wind picked up. All of a sudden, it started pouring like you wouldn't believe. I was so proud of Frunty and Pit as they yelled, "Close the windows!!!" and ran around the house doing just that. And then, with the river swirling by in front of our home, we jumped out of the door and into the wet where we played, splashed, ran around and enjoyed the relief brought on by the rain! In fact, I got pretty chilly as the boys and I took turns scooping up buckets of water and pouring them over each other's heads. It was fun! But chilly. And then lightning cracked the air and when it does in Singapore, for some reason it is louder than anywhere I have ever heard it before. So we ran inside and warmed up while Pit read us a story about Jan on a sled after Frunty taught him some new words during a spelling game. What a perfect afternoon!
Friday, 18 March 2011
Sepilok Forest Edge Resort
After Uncle Tan's river and jungle adventure, we stayed in the port city of Sandakan for two nights at the Mayfair. It might sound like a fancy hotel by its name but it is actually a low-budget backpackers run by a grumpy guy and his wife! It was recommended to us by other backpackers on our trip and it was indeed clean and centrally located and the appeal of over 1000 cds and our own dvd player was strong. We had a fun two nights but moved back into nature but just to the forest edge. We are now staying in a chalet with a jacuzzi tub and wildlife all around us but not too close. We went for a jungle trek on our first day and the children ran screaming out of the bushes with several leech wounds. Pit yelled, "No more nature walks! I want our jacuzzi." It was funny but I hid my laugh because he sounded so tortured and desperate and it was hard to see him with blood dripping off of his ankle. I don't know how a leech got in Frunty's underwear but luckily I pulled it off his hip before it caused too much damage. As Grampa would say, it was NASTY.
The following day we rented our own car and Papa drove us to the Gomantong Caves near Sukau so we could explore them. This cave is the most famous as it houses special sparrows which produce nests eaten by humans for enhanced health. They make their nests with their saliva and men live in the smelly caves ready to collect these nests. We drove into Sukau (a tiny village "kampong" with no Pizza Hut, much to Frunty's chagrin) to eat lunch and returned to the caves later in order to watch the exodus of the bats, which also inhabit the cave, at dusk. It was incredible. Just picture smoke coming out of a chimney. Millions of bats left the cave for the evening meal by exiting a hole at the top and it looked like smoke as they swirled in unison in the early evening air. At one point, it looked like a tornado of bats. We really enjoyed watching the flying foxes later in the parking lot and even saw an orangutan high up in a tree.
Today we hiked as far as a restaurant down the road and paid to use their swimming pool. Luckily we had a lot of sunshine so it was nice to sit by the pool. Gramma recommended the Stieg Larsson books to us and I found the first of the series for 2 ringgits at the Mayfair. As much as we love exploring nature, once in awhile it sure feels great to sit by the pool with a good book and watch Mr. Bean later on dvd. Like Grampa also says, "What the heck!?"
The following day we rented our own car and Papa drove us to the Gomantong Caves near Sukau so we could explore them. This cave is the most famous as it houses special sparrows which produce nests eaten by humans for enhanced health. They make their nests with their saliva and men live in the smelly caves ready to collect these nests. We drove into Sukau (a tiny village "kampong" with no Pizza Hut, much to Frunty's chagrin) to eat lunch and returned to the caves later in order to watch the exodus of the bats, which also inhabit the cave, at dusk. It was incredible. Just picture smoke coming out of a chimney. Millions of bats left the cave for the evening meal by exiting a hole at the top and it looked like smoke as they swirled in unison in the early evening air. At one point, it looked like a tornado of bats. We really enjoyed watching the flying foxes later in the parking lot and even saw an orangutan high up in a tree.
Today we hiked as far as a restaurant down the road and paid to use their swimming pool. Luckily we had a lot of sunshine so it was nice to sit by the pool. Gramma recommended the Stieg Larsson books to us and I found the first of the series for 2 ringgits at the Mayfair. As much as we love exploring nature, once in awhile it sure feels great to sit by the pool with a good book and watch Mr. Bean later on dvd. Like Grampa also says, "What the heck!?"
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Fun on the River
Frunty left me with his fishing rod while he ran off for another game of soccer with the guys. I enjoyed the sunshine and peacefulness on the river and did not mind a lack of nibbles. Pit tried on numberous pairs of sunglasses on one of the boat safaris on the Kinabatangan River. Our two boys became the camp's aodrable mascots sometimes distracting us from looking for wildlife! Mabul Resort: Scuba Junkies up in Smoke
Papa just came back from the tourist office in Sandakan with information on the area and asked if there was a Scuba Junkies on Lankayan Island. There is only a very expensive resort and since we are unsure of the weather conditions, we prefer to stay put on Borneo island itself. The woman at the tourist office showed Papa a newspaper article. Since they were on the topic of Scuba Junkies. It turns out that at the end of February, Scuba Junkies' Mabul resort, where we stayed for a week before just before the incident, was set on fire and cabins 13-24 were completely destroyed. Luckily no one was hurt and the fire did not spread to the local villages or other resorts.
At the time of our visit, our family commented on the astonishing number of smokers and wished there was a no-smoking area in the dining hall. We were annoyed by the smokers on the porches because their fumes wafted onto our porch and thought about writing Scuba Junkies after talking to the manager about it. She said they could not stop smokers or segregate them. I wonder what their no-smoking policy will be now. The article does not talk about how the fire started, by the way, and so maybe it was not cigarette related. But maybe it was. I am just happy to know that everyone survived it.
We have fond memories of our time at Scuba Junkies where we stayed in cabin #16 which no longer exists. Good luck re-building such a fun place!
At the time of our visit, our family commented on the astonishing number of smokers and wished there was a no-smoking area in the dining hall. We were annoyed by the smokers on the porches because their fumes wafted onto our porch and thought about writing Scuba Junkies after talking to the manager about it. She said they could not stop smokers or segregate them. I wonder what their no-smoking policy will be now. The article does not talk about how the fire started, by the way, and so maybe it was not cigarette related. But maybe it was. I am just happy to know that everyone survived it.
We have fond memories of our time at Scuba Junkies where we stayed in cabin #16 which no longer exists. Good luck re-building such a fun place!
Team Gibbon: 2 years in a row!
Papa, Mama, Pit, Frunty, Marie Louise (Holland), Dom (England), and Caroline (Ireland), made up Team Gibbon with the best team spirit at Uncle Tan's this year! Check out the flood: how do we get to the bathroom at night!!? By canoe?
Borneo Adventure: back to Uncle Tan's!
Pit and I had such a good time with the Simpsons at Uncle Tan's last year that we booked for another visit for the 4 of us this year! Hoping that it would be a bit drier this time around and that Papa and Frunty would love it as much as we did! The trip started out with the stressful news that the tsunami in Japan might affect Borneo...which it did not. The day after, a big storm hit though and there was a traffic accident on the way from Uncle Tan's Base Operations to the boat that would take us along the river to the jungle. Luckily we made it safely to Uncle Tan's only to wake up the next morning with the path from our cabin to the dininghall completely flooded!! 5 days of rain prior to our arrival plus the heavy rains on the day we joined caused severe flooding in the area and we were almost evacuated on our second night. Most of our fellow campers spent their second night in tents in the dining cabin while our family of four were given a cabin on higher stilts because of fear for the children's safety.
We had, in short, an incredible time and despite the floods, an amazing chance to see orangutan, proboscis monkeys, silver tails and various exotic birds. Our fellow travellers were very friendly and played endlessly with Frunty and Pit. It was a great time and although the river kept rising, the sun started shining and exploring the area by boat was very peaceful and beautiful. It's a race against time as illegal loggers take down the rainforests here in Borneo and the animals with them. We are grateful to have been able to enjoy Borneo now and hope it will be preserved in the future.
We had, in short, an incredible time and despite the floods, an amazing chance to see orangutan, proboscis monkeys, silver tails and various exotic birds. Our fellow travellers were very friendly and played endlessly with Frunty and Pit. It was a great time and although the river kept rising, the sun started shining and exploring the area by boat was very peaceful and beautiful. It's a race against time as illegal loggers take down the rainforests here in Borneo and the animals with them. We are grateful to have been able to enjoy Borneo now and hope it will be preserved in the future.
