Simon at Sepilok

We had the services of John today, a professional tour guide who showed us around the main town of Sandakan. It's about 25km away from our base at Sepilok which was about 30 mins drive in the small, ageing coach we had at our disposal today.

Highlights and lowlights included:
1) Crocodile Farm (didn't go in myself, but some of the others confirmed the appalling conditions they and other animals were being kept in. I don't really see why we would be expected to go there when we are here to do animal conservation work! Thankfully we didn't have to stay to endure the so-called "show"...)
2) War Memorial (a park deidcated to the 2700 allied mainly Australian and British POWs who lost their lives towards the end of WWII either in the camps or during the "Death Marches" of 1945. We only know of the suffering they endured at the hands of the Japanese because 6 out of the whole number managed to escape and survive. Quite a sobering story...
3) Town Centre for supermarket (nuts, crisps, bikkies etc), phone shops (SIM cards and top-up cards), KFC (public toilets!), veggie noodle bar (lunch)
Our coach needed a bump start after this - a pity no-one managed to get a photo of John, me and half a dozen tiny schoolboys trying to get the bus rolling at enough speed to bump it. We managed it on the 3rd go for the record.
4) Chinese Buddhist Temple - very elegant building and some lovely Buddha statues inside. That reminds me Russ, i hope you are doing ok...?!

5) Water Village - these houses are built on stilts right out into the sea. They are actually very comfortable inside, we were able to browse around inside one of them (as long as we perused the trinkets for sale as well of course!). Yvonne, Ruth and Elle fell in love with a little boy while they were there although i'm sure he'll be forgotten once the baby orangutans are cuddling up to them next week! This guy managed to catch a coupl of small fish and a tiny crab while we were there...


6) Chinese Cemetary (not sure why we went here, but apparently Albert really wanted John to take us to see this......)
7) English Tea House (very lovely views over Sandakan and some fancy tea and scones. Ok-yaah!)

After that it was back to the Resthouse to make a few phone calls home and for a bit of relaxation ahead of the 2-day induction at Sepilok which starts tomorrow.
It has hardly stopped raining for the past 24 hours. Outside the Croc farm it absolutely threw it down and i'll never complain about English rain being heavy again and now I can understand why there have been mudslides in the Sandakan area over the past few days. But I guess that's why it is called a RAINforest after all!!

Just had our first powercut since arriving at Sepilok but the generators kicked in ok so i didn't need to crack open the first lightstick yet.

Well, i'm off to dinner in a mo.
Junper Lagi (that's "see you soon" in Malay...)

PS message to Mum, Dad, Paul, James and Raychel - have a great holiday in Tenerife.