Photos of Namibia

I'm back in UK now, catching up with the photo backlog. Here's photos of Windhoek town..

Windhoek

.. and some animal shots from a game farm nearby.

Ukapuka

Hong Kong

Wah! Hong Kong was a shock after Borneo and Cambodia - so busy, so crowded. Brilliant. Expensive. Baffling to think of this as part of China - very different atmosphere, and many more freedoms. Maybe the mainland will be like this oneday...

Hong Kong

We spent a few days here, before taking the very long flight to Namibia, where we are at the moment. Coming next - photos of deserts, lions and elephants..

Temples of Angkor

After 6 weeks in Borneo, it was time for a change - we swapped jungle for temples by taking an AirAsia budget flight to Angkor, Cambodia. A week was all too short for this lovely country, with smashing people - we saw a lot of ruins, but would have loved to stay and explore the rest of the country. One to come back to.

Angkor, Cambodia

Kinabatangan River, Borneo

Photos from our stay at Uncle Tan's - a really great jungle adventure.

Uncle Tan's on Kinabatangan

Mount Kinabalu

We spent a few days walking in the foothills of Mount Kinabulu. Climbing to the top sounded like too much of a maul, so we pottered around the lower jungly slopes. We saw rain, amazing plants, birds and leeches.

Mount Kinabalu

Niah Cave

A huge cave in Borneo.

Niah Cave

Travelling the Rejang River

We spent a while travelling along the Rejang river, Borneo. It's huge - immensely wide where it meets the sea, and very long. It acts as a shipping superhighway into the interior.

We visited Mukkah, in the mangrove swamps near the coast - a very pleasant market town.

Mukkah

Around here, people grow sago (and sago grubs) rather than rice.

Sago Factory

Then we headed upriver to Sibu, a friendly city of christian chinese colonists.

Sibu

And then went further upriver again to Kapit, where we mistakenly entered a raft race. 5 hours hard work, and we came last.

Raft Racing down the Rejang

Bako National Park

Bako National Park is on an peninsula near Kuching, Borneo. It can only be reached by boat, and feels like a lost world. We spent a day trekking here - through mangrove swamps, thick jungle, and scrubland. There's plenty of proboscis monkeys here - they've got an amazing nose, and a pot belly causd by their hard-to-digest diet. Also saw pitcher plants and all sorts of butterflies.

Bako National Park

More Orangutans

Brace yourself - these are very very cute..

Semmengoh

Kuching

Photos from Kuching, capital of sarawak, borneo.

Kuching

We visited the nearby Sarawak cultural village - touristy, sure, but very good with it.

Sarawak Cultural Village

Kuala Lumpur

KL is a big sprawling city, lots and lots of shopping malls. It's a travel hub that we passed through a few times. There's not much to see, apart from a few colonial buildings (centered around the old cricket pitch in the middle of the city), and the huge Petronas Towers.

Kuala Lumpur

Orangutans

Carrie thinks orangutans are very very sweet. We visted Sepolok rehabilitation centre for three feeding times. Which apes turn up for feeding time is down to luck - we saw 4 juveniles one time, 3 the other, and another time a mother and toddler. They all seem very keen on the porridge. And bananas of course.

Sepilok

Sandakan

Sandakan is the first city we flew into in Borneo, and we returned twice afterwards. We stayed in a smashing little hotel, spotless, with large-screen TV and a DVD collection (including a 'Gigantic Monster Movies' category). There's not a great range of things to eat in the town, but who cares when you have scones!

Sandakan

Taman Negara National Park

Some photos of our adventures in the jungle.

Taman Negara

Penang

We spent 1 rainy day in Penang..

Penang

Langkawi

Langkawi

Birds Nest Drink

How could I resist? - bird's nest drink in a can.

I bought it and scurried back to my room as quickly as possible - thinking it's probably at it's best drank very very cold. Trying new drinks is a serious business - I keep tasting notes. As I opened the can, poured and drank, I wrote..

7% bird's nest

Oh no, Oh no

bits - brown bits

v sweet - can't finish

It doesn't taste of much other than sugar really - what flipped my stomach was the bits floating in the liquid. The transparent bits are ok (I'm used to that with Malaysian drinks), it's the brown bits that got to me. I hope you can see what I mean from this photo:

For reference, here's a swiftlet nest - the sort harvested for bird's nest soup (and I guess, this drink). Yum.

Luckily I had a couple of cans of beer handy too, as the taste needed washing away urgently.

Rose flavoured Soya

You can find a lot of odd canned drinks in Malaysia. Why settle for sprite or coke, when you can have delights like this:

The pink milky liquid looks like a stomach remedy, and tastes like rose-flavoured rubber. Best of all, the label says 'with Selasih', which I'm guessing are the little black tapioca blobs at the bottom - they're gloopy as they slide down the throat, but are also crunchy in the middle.

This drink is one of many wonders made by 'F & N Seasons'. We've been speculating what this stands for. Carrie reckons 'F***ing Nauseating', while I suspect it's 'Foul & Nasty'.

Funnily, I quite liked it, but couldn't get Carrie to try a sip. She said even the sight made her want to heave.

Malacca

Malacca is an old port on the straits between Malaysia and Indonesia. Everyone has settled here - Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, British - and the city is great for a wander around - all sorts of shops, galleries, crafts, and great food.

Melakka

Tioman Island

When we first arrived in Malaysia, we spent 2 weeks on Tioman island. We lived in a 'chalet' (more like a garden shed, but only £6 a night), Carrie wrote up her thesis, and I learned to scuba dive. There's amazing coral reefs all around the island (sorry, no photos of that, or the fish and turtles, as I've not got an underwater camera).

Tioman

Singapore

Singapore is great. We've been there 3 times so far - we keep popping back after being in Malaysia for a while. It's a small country - only a city really. Singaporeans are friendly to us, and seem to want to be nice to each other. The food is smashing, and the whole place seems to be looked after.

Singapore

A weekend in Sydney.

We flew from New Zealand to Singapore, stopping over for a weekend in Sydney. We had just enough time to do the typical tourist stuff - and enjoy being warm after shivering through the NZ autumn in our campervan.

Sydney

South Island, NZ

Photos of our last week in New Zealand:

South Island

Two weeks of Sticky Breaks

Photos from our campervan tour of the North Island of New Zealand. It's nearly winter here, so at times it was cold, windy, and wet. But we managed to counteract this with plenty of stops for coffee and cakes (a sticky break).

North Island

Teahupoo Surfing Contest

By fluke we were in Tahiti for a big international surf competition. Even flukier we watched the final from a little boat - we got really close. This competition is tough as the wave breaks onto a razor sharp coral reef- mess up and you pay. Can't remember the name of the guy who won - but it wasn't Kelly Slater.

Tahiti

Luckily when we were watching, the wave wasn't at it's biggest - here's a movie of what it can do.

Moorea

Moorea is an tropical island in French Polynesia. It's surrounded by a coral reef which encloses a warm, shallow lagoon full of coral and fish. We spent a lot of time snorkelling - Carrie got snuggled by a ray, while Noel had his leg hugged by an octopus. Here's some photos of the island (above water)

Moorea

Easter Island

After a long delay (caused by my laptop having a wobbly), here's some more photos - Easter Island / Rapa Nui - the most remote airport (and inhabited island) in the world. The place with the stone heads (Moai).

Easter Island

Its a lot more pleasant and warm than we expected. We managed a morning on the beach, between visiting all the Moai.

Valparaiso

.. is a jumbly old sea port that covers the hills with multi-coloured houses and very steep streets.

Valparaiso

It's nice to wander around for a few days - unlike Trinidad it's very pedestrian friendly. In fact, Chile seems to combine some of the best of Spain and Germany - certainly it feels more like Europe than South America.

We've been filling up on lots of good food (argentinian steak, fish, wine, beer, coffee, cakes). Off to Easter Island tomorrow, where the eating is less varied, and then to Tahiti, where everything costs a fortune, and we'll be living on jam sandwiches.

I Like Turtles

Watching Leatherback turtles nesting on the north coast of Trinidad.

Can't keep still

I'm heading off again - on Monday, Carrie & I fly back to Trinidad. We're only going to be there for 2 weeks, but Carrie's going to be doing some work with the people she was volunteering with before my accident interrupted it all.

My knee is doing much better now, thanks for asking. NHS has been, frankly, wonderful. Next time you're sitting in a waiting room, just think what we in the UK get, and take for granted - for free. I'm now walking around without a stick, just a bit slow at the moment. Can't think of a better way to build the muscles up than wandering round the world.

So we're resuming our round-the-world trip. We've had to shorten the time we're spending in some places, and I shan't be trekking up Machhu Pichu this year, but we're still going to do it. We're dead chuffed - this seemed like it was never going to happen when I was having knee-surgery in January.

From Trinidad, it's on to Chile (no mountains for me - just coast and vinyards). Then Easter Island; Tahiti; New Zealand (22nd May - 11th June, in case anyone wants to meet up); Malaysia (where Carrie hopes to be volunteering 1 month near KL then 1 month in Miri (on Borneo)); Hong Kong; and finally Namibia (more volunteering).

We'll be back mid-November - see you then! Or come out and see us - Malaysia or Namibia are where we're spending most time.

Ouch!

(apologies to folk who I've already told about this).

Well, I'm back in the UK earlier than I'd planned. :(

I got hit by a wave while paddling in the sea on Tobago at the start of January, and it broke my leg. It was an unlucky fluke. Carrie also got mashed up, but thankfully she didn't break, just bruised.

I spent the night in the local hospital, and then was told that I had to come back to the UK for surgery - I had a 'depressed tibial plateau fracture' which needs advanced equipment to mend properly. We we're gutted, but there was nothing for it, we had to come home. All the people we know in Trinidad were wonderful in helping us get everything sorted.

I had the op at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham the following week - the staff there were all amazing. That was now 6 weeks ago. I seem to be recovering nicely - hobbling around, and being looked after really well by Carrie.

At the moment we're staying in Stourbridge. I've got another 6 weeks on crutches to go, and then it will be some more months to regain the full strength of my leg.

So, that's my news. I've just uploaded photos of our last few days in Trinidad & Tobago - before the accident happened, we'd been getting in some serious beach time. So, I've still not managed to try diving. Maybe it's just not meant to happen.

Tobago