The thrill of Danum tubing ! :) Yiipeeee...

I'm back already... boy, we had heaps of fun. We even enjoyed the trek to our starting point as the scenery was so spectacular and then we got into this (very) brown water and had to follow our guide and paddle with our arms here & there to avoid the strongest currents. I got stuck in a tree root once or twice but eventually got the knack of it. It took us about 45mns to float down the Danum River and it was just breathtaking. We were with another 4 US tourists, who also agreed that Disney World just did NOT come close to this. To see the river from the river, offered such a different perspective, far more interesting than looking down on it. The tall, tall trees seemed even taller ! We were all totally in awe, soooo much green all around, sooo many shades of green and soooo many types of trees. I was just absolutely gutted that I couldn't take my camera on this particular activity (since it's not water proof) as we could have taken such fun, fun shots of us with our bum inside this big buoy... Roberto found it a bit unnerving that you couldn't see the bottom of the river at all, so you had no idea if you were just above the soil or had a lot more room to manoeuvre. He reckoned he needed to do the ride twice to be a bit more relaxed. But I instantly enjoyed it... I mean, once you've swum in the Amazon, nothing is as scary. At least here you have no piranahs and no crocodiles... ok, we could have had a python I guess, and every time I was sent floating towards the lower branches my first thought was like 'how will I cope if a snake falls right on my lap ???'.... but it's the kind of thought I tried to dismiss as fast as I could.

We could have happily gone on for hours but a storm was coming, the clouds were gathering, the wind was picking up (more and more leaves were dancing in the air) and it was time to call it quit. We'd only just been at the lodge for 5 minutes no more when the heavens opened. And I mean, it bucketted it down if you can say this in English? It was like a wall of rain... the sound was incredible. I tried to record it, I hope it worked.

Just before the storm really broke out Roberto was keen to go back on the canopy walk and hike some more... I said 'but can't you feel a storm is coming?', he was like 'yeah but I don't want to go back to my room, it's boring, and I don't want to go on the internet either, I can do this in London'... I asked our guide whether it was sensible at all and he agreed that it really wasn't advisable as anything could fall on his head and the tracks would become even more muddy. As I said, we had barely finished the conversation that he was left with no option... I personally don't even fancy going on the night walk tonight, because it will be incredibly slippery. But I understand that he'll want to do it because he's never been in a jungle before. I'm slightly more blase... but only because I know full well it's next to impossible to take any decent shots at night and I'm too frustrated when I see something I can't picture. He was telling me that he already found it hard to think of going back to London 'where the main way people have fun is to go to the pub and get drunk'.... yeah, I know what he means. He felt that here, because we eat such healthy food and do regular exercise, we look healthier too (and we get a free sauna daily !). I told him that the best way to get over a holiday is to start planning the next one ! He agrees. He's now convinced that going to Belize with me in November sounds like a great plan ! :) (another superb mix of rainforests and reefs, since we're now both hooked on both habitats).

I still wish I'd managed to get a shot of the beautiful civet last night. Our guide said we were unlucky that it was so shy because usually they don't mind the car engines so much and can even show off in the spot light. But it was full moon last night and he said that animals are always shyer when it's full moon. He also said that last week he saw wild orang utangs every day, but there aren't as many fruits now as they've eaten all the ones around the lodge so it's harder to see them, they've kind of moved on somewhere else.

He mentioned that if we are very lucky, we might see a herd of wild pygmy elephants when we set off as it will be 5am and early morning is the best time to see them. They tend to come to this lodge about once a month.

5am is going to mean at 4:30am wake up call. Painful. Roberto has given me some sleeping pills that his mother uses daily and they are brilliant. At least I get a full 5 hours' sleep with half of one, and 7-8 hours with a full one. It does pay off to travel with a doctor, hey... Like earlier, I'd managed to 'break' half our bathroom door (the bottom half fell off, I swear I didn't kick it !!!) and within seconds he managed to fix it back. Brilliant! I'm starting to think that it's a lot more convenient to travel with a boy friend than a boyfriend. You get all the advantages of a male brain [compensating where the female brain lacks power to solve challenges - ok, at least mine, sorry, I don't mean to generalise too much and offend my smarter female friends] but without the arguments because there's no sexual tension. Perfecto !

The poor thing is having a toothache, it does worry me a bit. He could see it coming and had taken with him with some anti-biotics for that (that he could self-prescribe) but with the anti-malaria tablets too, it can make him slightly queasy (not that you'd notice as his energy level is still pretty phenomenal). I just hope it won't get worse... it'd be such a shame on his first big adventure.

I think that's all I can say for tonight. I'll just go back to the bar where he's reading a magazine on diving, and then we can have dinner.

I trust I'll have internet access at our next destination (whose name I can never remember, it's too long... the K River I call it). Everybody we've met here who had been there told us that it's even more beautiful, with even more wildlife. I must say that the wildlife aspect of things has been slightly disappointing here in the Danum... though R&I did spot a flying squirrel on the way to reception just a few minutes ago. Shriek of delight on both parts :) Even the conference centre is broken so we can't even view a slide show to learn more about the place.

Bisous to you all, I'll try to send some sun over (I've just spoken to my sister who said the UK weather is dire still)... oh, I haven't written a post card yet because I just cannot find one that I like as much as my photos, so, I'm staying put till I can find one that does this place justice. Sorry... be patient.

Danum Valley, a green oasis (27 June 07)

We regretfully bid farewell to Sipadan at 7:00am and hopped back on a boat for 45mns to get back to Sempora. Once on the other side, our driver was nowhere in sight (he was waiting on another peer!) and so another driver took us to the bus station and was planning to hook us up in a local bus with women, children, pets and all sorts, but no room for 2 white tourists with 2 big suitcases. We declined, asked him to drive us back to the peer, and we called our emergency number from his mobile phone. Thankfully, we soon located our said driver and off we were....

2 hours through absolutely majestic rainforest... Roberto had his head out of the window the whole time, breathing it in as much as visually taking it in .... He was as enthralled as I'd hoped he would be. The rainforests had stolen his heart too, in just 30 seconds flat. We didn't see any monkeys or birds on the way but the sheer height of the trees and the lushness of it all was wild enough to excite us.

The Borneo Rainforest Lodge is very nice indeed, with spacious lounges with no windows, and all decent facilities to make life easier (incl. internet). We were given the best chalet they have with the best view of the river and we spend every moment that we have to be in our room on our little balcony, enjoying the beautiful view.

I've taken lots of lovely pictures and we are trying different settings on my camera to saturate the greens and show the true colours. As I unpacked, Roberto was off swimming already, with his googles, looking for fresh water fishes... He saw 4 species that he 'has in his aquarium back home'. He also noticed many plants that are in the office in London, in flower pots ! :)

That afternoon we went on a canopy walk, 27m high, and it was quite exiting but we didn't really see anything of interest. Our guide was pretty useless, he was more like a baby-sitter than a guide, he didn't explain anything to us about anything much.. be it plants, animals, etc. So this blog is going to be pretty boring. I did read up on leeches though, because they call the Danum Valley 'Leech City' and Roberto got 'eaten' 4 times.... but remained cool as a cucumber, bless him. He was like 'no point being OTT about it, if you don't like leeches, you don't come to these places'..(said with an Italian accent, of course). We were told that they are actually very good to regulate the blood pressure and all and that 'to know them is to love them' (hear that, Janet?). The longest one in the world is indeed from Borneo (30cms / 1 foot) but doesn't like human blood, thankfully, only lives on worms. Oh, Roberto also got his photo taken with a 20cm millipeed (spelling?).

After our hike we enjoyed a lovely walk by the river and at night we had a nocturnal safari drive where we managed to catch a glimpse of a civet... they are BEAUTIFUL creatures... they have the face of a kangaroo / mangoose, and the body of a cat (striped below the head, spotted nearer the tale). No time to take a photo but I was SO excited. The leopard cat is the one I really wanted to see too, with the clouded leopard, the latest species of cats to be discovered, here in Borneo, just last year ! They've captured it, checked his DNA and it is a different species and has a different coat. I've seen pictures and it looks glorious - I'm sure there's heaps of coverage on the internet as it was big news at the time.

We can rent binoculars here which is great, though we haven't had the chance to see much with them, sigh. I think Roberto is a bit disappointed in that sense, he was hoping it'd be a cafarnaum of sounds and sights and it's relatively quiet actually. But for the sound of the river that sounding like pouring rain in the middle of the night... hence, we slept in and skipped the 6:30am hike as we assumed it'd be cancelled, ooops. They saw 5 monkeys so Roberto was gutted.

Today, we had a trek up the burial site, in intense humidity. We got soaked in no time. Roberto was the first to reach the top (true to his energic self), I was panting behind... as was our guide. We got to a view point that was quite worth it though. Trees as far as the eye could see with a river meandring through it.

Our guide told me that when the first explorers ever came to Borneo they assumed that the orang utangs were the tribal men and they went back to their respective lands stating that the 'man from Borneo is orange and hairy'... he also said that the reason Borneo is called Borneo is because when a later expedition found the actual tribes and asked them 'what is the name of this island?', as they didn't speak English / French / Dutch, they assumed they were asking them 'What are you eating?'. As they were eating coconuts, they said 'Bo eeo', or something to that effect that means 'coco nut' in their native language. The explorers wrote down 'Borneo'... :)

On the way back, we stopped at a natural jacuzzi pool with a water fall to supposedly cool us down, but I didn't have my swimming costume with me as I thought it would happen after lunch... Roberto, as always, was prepared and went in for a dip. I was gutted till he had to flick off 3 leeches as he tried to change though and then I felt better! My guide said that he'd qualify for a 'Blood Donor Certificate' that they issue to all tourists who got 'done' by a leech ! :) There is at least a humourous side to everything I guess.

Righteeo, I must sign off, I've been trying to convince him to go water tubing. The river is more muddy today as it did rain quite a bit last night and so our guide was going to check if there were any risks of getting injured by floating dead wood, etc. I really wanted to do this, so I keep it crossed. I think that if we wear pants and long sleeves and water shoes, we should be protected against most scratches ? We might accumulate a few leeches on the way though... that won't be as much fun.... but not enough to deter me totally. To be cont.

Glorious Sipadan - cont. (27 June 07)

I'll start today's update with an extract from our guide book on Borneo that says it all "the venerable French marine biologist, Jacques Cousteau, 'discovered' Sipadan in 1989 and after spending 3 months diving around the island from his research vessel Calypso had this to say: "I have seen other places like Sipadan... 45 years ago... but now, no more. Now we have found an untouched piece of art". Since then, Sipadan has become a sub-aqua shangri-la for serious divers. It is regularly voted one of the top dive destinations in the world by leading scuba magazines. The reef is without parallel in Malaysia. But Sipadan is not just for scuba divers, it is a magnificient, tiny tropical island with pristine beaches and crystal clear waters and its coral can be enjoyed by even the most amateur of snorkellers".

Yep, that is an accurate description alright, I'll vouch for that. This morning the sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky, not a ripple on the lagoon, it was just picture perfect. I set off on my bike and headed for the furthest point on the peer and took some award winning photos (even if I have to say so myself (!) but they are truly my best beach shots ever, even better than the ones I took in India in 2005). I mean, I had corals in the foreground, the fisherman's boat (typical shape for here) floating over crystal clear waters and the lovely island in the background, with white sand beach and palm trees. I mean, how much more 'post card' like would you like it to be? I was in awe. I haven't seen ONE post card that looks as good (be it of the resort or of the island) than the shots I have taken myself. I just pray to God that my memory card doesn't get faulty over the next 2 weeks otherwise I'll weep buckets.

I think next time I'll get 2 x 1GB instead of 1 x 2GB because the thought of potentially losing 700 photos in one go sounds incredibly painful. And the main reason this comes to mind is because it's exactly what happened to Roberto this morning. He'd gone on the 5:30am dive (even more spectacular at sun-rise as all the big predators are out trying to eat the smaller fish) and his camera case (supposedly water-proof) had cracked and it totally drowned his camera. There was water even in the battery compartment and even on the contact bits of the memory card adaptor. So we can only *hope* that all the beautiful pix that I took yesterday of the reef and fishes (and the video of the turtle swimming) will still be intact. So now we are relying solely on my camera to capture all the best memories of the trip...

I skipped the 5:30am boat trip myself (you need a lot more light to appreciate the corals) and even the 7:45am. I tried to have a lie-in but the chambermaid woke me up at 8:00am... I'd forgotten to put the 'Do not disturb' sign on the door. BIG mistake. So, at 9:00am I just hopped on my bike and cycled across the resort (such a fab feeling, cycling over a lagoon... I mean, where else in the world can you DO that I wonder ???). The colour of the water was just mesmerising... and I don't use the word lightly.... but I cannot think of a better adjective. That stunning soft green that totally enthralls me, whilst another side of the lagoon looked turquoise. I enjoyed taking more beautiful shots....

Lunch-time was as relaxing as ever, simple but great food, beautiful setting, overlooking the lagoon... then I went to take a few more pix whilst Roberto had a nap to catch up on his lack of sleep... and by 4pm the winds rose up again, the sea became choppy and the whole ambience changed completely. It still looked gorgeous in a strange kind of way... but this is why I'm now back on line, since I'm not one for watching TV or reading books.

Tomorrow we'll leave this place behind... our boat transfer is at 7am... the next few days will be packed with all sorts of adventures... jungle treks, Sepilok orang utang sanctuary (the first and largest sanctuary in the world), capony walks, water tubing, river cruises, nocturnal walks, train ride among spectacular gorges, white water raftling, hot springs, mountain gardens with over 1,000 species of orchids, mountain climbing (the highest peak in South East Asia, no less), and more snorkelling... what more could you want out of a holiday? :) And to think that we are only exploring just a fraction of Borneo (the 3rd largest island in the world), it's like: surreal...

Righteeo, I'd better sign off, my internet time is up, and if I go above my 15mns, I'll be charged another 15mns, even for 30 seconds... I wish you were all here ! I know that a lot of you badly need a holiday and I feel guilty enjoying it all so much myself when I have so few problems compared to most of you... But I have taken you with me in spirits, honest ! :)

Sipadan is an underwater wonderland !!! 25 June 07

Well, I know I said I wouldn't log on for 3 days, but what I saw today was just so amazing that I thought I'd correct my previous statement... our first day of snorkelling wasn't as great as I'd hoped, true, but today was just breathtaking.

To see a reef in such good condition is such a rarity these days (the impact of global warming can wipe out a whole reef in a few weeks, fishermen usually couldn't care less and anchor their boats all over them, not to mention the countless tourists who are ignorant or selfish and stand on these fragile masterpieces, etc). I took 20 photos in 1H and only because I ran out of film, otherwise, I probably would still be clicking away. So many different types of soft and hard corals, lots of huge fans, and countless fishes, thousands of them, it was like being in a massive aquarium. I was just really frustrated because I couldn't duck dive (i.e. I pretty much missed 2/3 of what the reef had to offer in terms of diversity as many fish like to stay under rocks) and Roberto never has time to teach me as such because we have quite a hectic schedule with 3 boat trips per day and then just enough time for lunch in between.

I followed some turtles around and they move so majestically... Roberto did a little movie and it was just so relaxing to watch, as if they are swimming in slow motion... I also saw a few moray eels (but didn't get too close as though they are mostly harmess, they can launch a vicious attack if they feel threatened) and sting rays. But it's the setting that did it for me, to have so many beautiful coloured corals as a back-drop was quite something... (most corals don't have colours). I was truly moved to tears - I am kidding you not - if I hadn't had my snorkel in my mouth, it would have actually dropped open. It was a jaw-dropping kind of experience. Roberto went in first and within 2 seconds of having his head under water came right up again and said 'oh my Goooood, this is AMAZING'.... He had been on a recent diving trip to the Red Sea (another hot spot for divers as it's hugely diverse too) but he reckons that Sipadan probably holds 3 times the amount of species of corals and fish that they have in Egypt/Israel. And he knows far more about fish than I do, he can name most of them; whereas to me, they just look fascinating simply because they are all such different shapes and colours. I even found myself in front of a whole wall of grey fish with yellow eyes, it was incredible... not scary at all. Even reef sharks are harmless.

Anyway, I'm surely glad I went on all 3 trips. I must say that I wasn't up to it at 9am this morning when I'd had another sleepless night (I tend to wake up at 3am on the dot, still totally jet-lagged), with another almighty storm for 4 hours too (sounded like a hurricane with torrential rain). It was certainly wild ! but it meant I was a pitiful sight when I woke up, boy... I had got sun-burnt yesterday as it was SO hot and had been up every hour putting more moisturing after-sun on my raw skin (cooked skin more likely) and drinking yet more glasses of water to re-hydrate myself inside out. I'm even sure I had a slight fever in the morning... and it was raining still, very dull day... and I thought to myself 'my bed is seriously tempting... warm, cosy, DRY'..... but then my heart argued over my head as in: 'for Godness' sake Sylvie, get a grip, this is just a mild sun stroke, you love snorkelling and you are in Sipadan, do you know how many divers would give an arm and a leg to BE here? How could you possibly miss out? Won't you kick yourself later when Roberto comes back with tales that will make you turn green'..... and so, of course, I felt I had no option left by then. My heart won - it always does.

I was half asleep on the boat going over though, it was raining still, and I wasn't even sure if I was shivering or not. At that point, I have to confess that the thought of going in the water truly didn't seem appealing AT ALL. BUT I swear the moment I put my head under the water and opened my eyes it was like... wow.... wow... wow... I felt instantly better. As if I had been healed through sheer "beauty-power"... I was so shell-shocked, for all the right reasons, that the ONLY sense I could feel was my sight... I only existed through my eyes, my whole body didn't seem to matter anymore.... I just hope that God will let us have coral gardens in Heaven, I'd miss them soooo much. I was praising Him endlessly as I was in awe... pondering, as I often do, on the length of time it had taken for all of these wonders to actually take shape... millions of years... and to think that it was MY time to witness all of this. It was just incredibly moving. Another reminder that our life span is SO tiny in the scheme of greater things.... I think that after just one day here in paradise, Roberto has already understood my philosophy completely.

He made me smile because we usually go over on a secluded island to have a coffee break and he spotted a tree with huge roots sticking out and he was like 'look, look, look, what's that?', I said 'Oh, it's just a mangove tree'... and he was like 'How incredible is that ??! Please take a photo of me in front of it, it's so beautiful and unusual'... and in a way it kind of reminded how I felt when I saw my very first mangove tree... and I have told him that the day after tomorrow, when we enter the rainforest he will see SO many types of trees he's never seen before, it will take his breath away, that if he liked that one tree so much, he will totally fall in love with rainforests and their incredibly rich habitat. Our biggest common denominator is that we both adore nature and respect it and get re-energised by it.

Like this morning, we were on our balcony and though it was cloudy and spitting with rain the ocean still looked perfectly still and still had its soft green tone, as if we were standing over an emerald mirror. And he said, quite rightly 'isn't it luminous?'.... and it was. As if we were above a pool that was lit from the inside. It had such a remarkable quality to it. A case of, 'you have to see it to believe it'.

Oh, he's also cool when he comes to insects, thank God... because last night a huge cockroach climbed on his hair in the middle of the night. And he was so calm, like 'Sylvie, are you awake? Do you have your torch ? something has just crawled on me'... and when we turned on the light, it was a coachroach as big as my thumb. He said 'oh yeah, I saw it in the bathroom earlier but I didn't want to kill it... I don't like to kill things'. But since the said coachroach was not keen to stay in the bathroom we had to kill him as I worried he might end up in our suitcase !

Last night we tried out my tripode and took some great shots of the lodge at night, with all the side lamp-shades and various lights. They came out quite nicely.

Anyway, we've got one more full day here = 3 more snorkelling / diving trips in Mabul and Sipadan, then we'll be leaving at 7am the day after, to head for the Rainforest Lodge, which, according to our book on Borneo is 'highly recommended'.... and it'll take us 2h30 over track roads to get there... which hopefully means that the journey will be as beautiful as the destination.

So, another case of 'watch this space'... Lastly: thanks for all your emails, much appreciated :)

Borneo, here I come....

What a looooong journey that was. Problably was one my longest ever... I left work on Friday afternoon at 4pm, swang by my place to pick up my suitcase, hasted off to my local tube station to meet Roberto and then it was the usual 1h10 to Heathrow, then painless check-in (I'd already reserved aisle seats on line), and 12h for the first flight to Kuala Lumpur (where I managed to sleep about 7 hours) then 45mns wait for the connection, a further 2h30 in the air (because we had a stop-over of 30mns to travel an extra 15mns in the air !)... then our driver picked us up, drove us to our (rather past-its-date hotel) and we checked in at 11:00pm. It was very hot and humid, the room temperature was about 30C and the air conditioning was blowing right on Roberto's bed so he couldn't have it on all night... and then as soon as it was off, my temperature would zoom right up again, my throat would get dry and I'd be wide awake. I can see we're going to have a problem at night... he hates air-conditioning, and I can't sleep without it. And usually, the guys always win ... it's a tough one to compromise on I have to say. That, plus the jet-lag, and it's a killer. We couldn't even buy more bottled water from the hotel (or I had left over was what I'd grabbed on the plane) as we hadn't had time to change our currency yet.

Oh, and I forgot the best bit.... when we eventually reached our bedroom, I realised that I had lost the key for my suitcase. I had it in my money belt but it must have fallen off when I took my passport out at Customs. I don't know... so if it wasn't for a man being around, I tell you, I wouldn't have managed to open it again without destroying it. And with a flight to catch again the next day, it'd have a complete disaster. In all my travels I have NEVER lost the key that opens my suitcase... and then I couldn't work the shower, because it was a weird system but Roberto worked it out in no time... so, I guess that men *can* be useful at times, hey ? :)
The next day, we were both fully awake as of 4am (make that 3 hours of sleep, if that) and so we had a quick breakfast and went into town to try and buy a few useful things because being stranded on a secluded island... I wanted to find a tripod (and found one, super light weight, with all the right features for a bargain of $10, yipee, a treat from Roberto to thank me for organising all this), and bought a new watch too as my strap had broken. We didn't see / think much of KK (the capital), it was a smelly fishing port really. Then back at the hotel for our pick-up, and then another flight to Tawau. 45mns later, we landed. We then had a 2h drive in a car (which was very scenic actually, palm trees everywhere, whole plantations of them), another 1h on a boat, and then we eventually made it... Almost 48H later, door-to-door after I'd left my office. Phew.

We are staying at the Sipadan Mabul Resort which is just off a secluded island. The bungalows on the water are quite gorgeous, with a spacious terrace where you can sun-bath, or hang your clothes to dry, etc. We had requested a twin bedroom but they didn't have any left, so they gave us one of these really long pillow that we could put in the middle of the bed ! And yet everybody here (staff, I mean) refer to him as 'my husband' so they must think we are having a very weird honeymoon !!!

Roberto, being very emotional, was true to his word and was overwhelmed to tears when he saw the terrace. He was always thinking he will hate going back to London after being SO close to nature and the ocean, that he loves so much. Within minutes he was off swimming... the water looked deliciously tempting... not just the colour but the temperature - just like bath water.

Before we had dinner that night he took me on a 'snorkelling by night' tour around the peer. We didn't see anything spectacular as such but it was a strange feeling swimming in the dark, with just the torch... sometimes he'd duck dive and go down 8-10 meters on free diving and I could just about see the torch in the darkness. Spooky, but nice. I was just reassured knowing there are no nasty sharks around ... there are hundreds of star fishes though.

That night, we even had a storm, no thunder and lighning as such, but very windy and the whole chalet shook enough to make us think we were in a tiny earth-quake... I had a vision of the chalet floating away in the distance, never to be seen again. We are up on very high stilts but they are not very wide, I have to say. But they survived, and therefore... so did we. Roberto was so excited that this force of nature that he had to put his swimming trunks back on and stand on the balcony for 30 seconds to experience it full blast... and you thought I was odd ? :)

That night, we hardly slept. He was far too excited and had to take 2 sleeping pills by 4am and I was too hot, even with the air conditioning on, the system struggled to go below 26C and I'm happier sleeping at 20C.

The next morning, he was off swimming again... We woke up at 7:30am and he said 'I'll just go for 30mns'... I reminded him that we had our buggy pick-up at 8:45am, had to have breakfast, had to hire equipment, and so he really shouldn't be late... so he said 'ok, 20mns then'... but I know him better than he knows himself already and come 8:30am I look ed all around the peer area and just could not see him at all. I refused to freak out and worry because he's such a strong swimmer, I just figured he'd try to excel and go beyond the reef. Which is pretty much what he had done. When the staff member came to pick us up, I explained I had no idea where Roberto was and that there was no point waiting as he might be an hour late for all I knew...

We took all his diving equipment just in case, I got him his weight off the hire shop, just in case... and lo and behold, he turned up 1mn before the boat was about to set off. He had returned at 8:58am, and jumped on a bike and cycled quickly across the peer and onto the jetty area. These bikes are great... I love cycling but I had NEVER cycled "on" the water as such... it's just fabulous with stunning views on each side (they also have beautiful pink and red flowers all across the balconies) so you have this beautiful mixture of soft green / deep green from the palm trees in the background + white soft and red and pink from the flowers in the foreground).

I have taken quite a few nice photos so far, but as usual, I just know that when they are printed they will look nothing like reality... reality is almost always 10 times better.

This afternoon we went on 3 different snorkelling sites and I must confess I was a bit disappointed and felt Sipadan was slightly over-rated. I'm not sure in what way it's supposedly the top diving spot on the planet because the coral gardens are just as incredible in the Red Sea or on the Great Barrier Reef and I have seen just as many fishes in Surin National Park in Thailand, say. But I'm not complaining, I mean, it is still quite spectacular and the quality of the reef itself is quite pristin actually... which makes a nice change from most places. I swam with turtles (there are lots in Sipadan) and even saw a small shark. The one thing that really bothered me most during my snorkelling though is that there was no one at all to keep an eye on me. Everybody else had gone diving and so I was left all alone, floating... with no life jacket and just relying on my lung and muscles to get me places safely. And after 30mns I couldn't even tell which boat was mine, nobody seemed to care... so I just had to call it a day and swim back to a boat in the distance before I ran out of energy. I was really NOT impressed. Especially as, when you check in, they make sure you sign a disclaimer form stating that they are in no way responsible for anything that could cause you death or injury, be it a result or something I did wrong, or that THEY did wrong. I just hate this piece of paper. They always make you sign it but I cannot believe it's even legal...

Righteeo, I'd better sign of. Roberto's just turned up from his night diving and we are both starving. The food here is excellent by the way. Buffet style, but we are trying not to pig out ! :) Honest! :)

Gotta dash, I'll next be on line in about 3 days I guess. Unless something drastic happens, I will save the next post for when we are in the rainforest. Here, the next 3 days should be more or less the same and the internet access is about 20 times what it would be on the mainland so, I'd better be careful. Won't have time to proof-read, sorry...

Just wanted to let you know that we are well, a bit sleepy but quite happy in this delightful and beautiful part of the world...

Bisous, Sylvie xxx