Raleigh Case Study

I've had a case study performed on me..... nothing to worry about though, it was all performed by my lovely sidekick (erm, my PR mentor, the one who kept me on the straight and narrow in Borneo) Kate. My case study is on the Raleigh International website.  Note it may not be exactly word for word what I said....   (it probably reads better than what I said though)

Perhentian Kecil pictures

Here's a selection of pics from the Perhentian islands (apologies for the formatting!).

Me on the Long Beach :

A deserted Long Beach :

View from Mohsin chalets :

You transfer from the 'big' boats to one of these to get you to the islands :

How clear (and warm) is this water?

Painting Perhentian Style (guess this was more profitable than taking us climbing) :

Almost guaranteed a good night on this (although one bottle is very small!) :

..and we all had a good night (hopefully the folk not on the monkey whisky too!) :

And that was the Perhentians....hopefully I'll be back sometime...

From the Perhentians to Bangkok

Just a quick update as just arrived in Bangkok. I've spent a few days on Perhentian Kecil just before they pretty much close up for the season. A few days more would have been good but I had to get up to Bangkok to try and get a Myanmar visa on Monday.

I did a dive on the island and saw a blue spotted Ray, turtle, and many more. We went snorkelling the following day and saw a load of stuff, despite the visibility not being too great - razorfish, and then went swimming with a turtle and ray...particularly the turtle - didn't want to freak out the ray after recent news! Absolutely amazing. We met a decent bunch on the island which meant more folk to eat and drink with, and share the boat trip costs for snorkelling trips. We stayed on Long Beach and also walked over to Coral Bay to snorkel around there. Climbing was planned for one day, but some late night booze put paid to the others, but hey, we managed to get swimming with the turtles. I never realised there was rock climbing on the Perhentians, but someone has bolted a few sports routes on the sea cliffs from french 4a to 7b. I made a few enquiries about doing a divemaster there next season...'just in case'. I was also told you can stay there off season for next to nothing sometimes if you are willing to help repaint the places.

I seem to be having a few issues about leaving stuff around recently. I've left my travel speakers somewhere (Labuan I think) which is really annoying. I left my shirt somewhere yesterday, but amazingly found it again on the beach today, next to the taxiboat station we used yesterday! How many places would you manage to that in nowadays! There were only a handful of folk on the island now though. Apparently it can be great surf there off season - 3-4metres, but no-one has cottoned onto it yet!

I'm already experiencing some of the 'issues' of travelling with company. Its great to catch up with folk though, but I was on the budget side and Tracy was on the 'lets get up there with least hassle', so our procrastination ended up in us paying £150 to fly from KL to Bangkok at the airport. Kerching!! I preferred the 'up through the thai border' option but the guidebooks warn you about the area so I had quite a bit of convincing to do for that option!

Anyway, Tracy's mate Jeff very kindly picked us up from Bangkok's flashy new mega airport and took us into town to find accommodation, so we have a night in a hostel at Sukhumvit before heading to rather quirky Atlanta Hotel tomorrow.

Hopefully Monday will see me get a Myanmar visa issued so we can head off there for 7-10 days on Tuesday or Wednesday.

One of the ongoing Raleigh goodbyes

Well, you just can't escape Raleigh folk, but I guess now everyone can be called friends rather than referring to them as 'Raleigh folk' - the Raleigh bubble has burst just now, but we're all spreading ourselves across Asia for the moment. Here's me just after having my few welcoming drinks in KL with Mia, and waving her and Kevin off on the bus to Singapore, with some ex-participants - Mia's blog post.

Labuan - The Garden Island of Borneo - who locked the frickin' gates?

Well when you look at any Tourism Malaysia brochure, or any diving websites, you'll read about Labuan...a strange offshore financial centre run from KL. Why was I heading here? Good question, but to be honest, it had a bit to do with (ducks my head) ticking off a country for once...I mean Brunei is so close to Kota Kinabalu and I decided to take the ferry there, which means via Labuan. Now I had heard horror stories of this ferry journey from a fellow Raleigh staffer, but I was branching out on my own, so it was a time for an adventure. Also, to be honest, a large part of it had to to with three of four amazing WWII wrecks which sit just off the coast, and a really cool sounding Marine Park as well - I'd be able to snorkel at the very least. Although...when I went looking for dive operators to take me here it wasn't an easy task. My faithful friends at Borneo Divers had suspended operations there, and the Tourism 'Action' Council for Labuan never responded to my emails.
Anyway, my flight from Brunei to KL was booked so off I went. The hotel desk couldn't even tell me where to find the boats to the marine park so I never bother asking them about the diving. I took this as a sign and had my one long lie in four months and sacked off the visit, to waste away a day killing time and catching up with myself.

Just as well...I went to Tourism Malaysia and they told me where to get the boats, but not the price. I found the boats, fully stocked with life jackets but "no-one is booked tomorrow, and its 250RM to hire the boat" - around 36 quid. No way for a snorkel and a sunbathe. I went to the dive operator who's leaflet I found in the tourist place...and they were locked up, despite having a dive shop with kit in it. Incase you stumble on this post trying to arrange the same thing - do it with a group and try contacting Borneo Star Dive in Labuan.

Anyway, I had no interest in seeing war or chimney museums or heading to a deserted beach on the other side of the island, so I went for a haircut, and caught up with a few things at the deserted Sheraton Hotel pool. They're not wasted days though - I would have always wandered what it was like if I didn't go.

There are a few good things I found though - a cheap food market, cheap beer, and generally a place cheaper than KK due to it's Duty Free status.

Labuan, Malaysia

Well I'm now sitting in Labuan wandering WTF I'm doing here. You see I posted a load of stuff home this morning as I figured I wouldn't need it til NZ. I then realised I still had my trekking poles, and my bag was way too ridiculously heavy. In my quest to do something different though I opted for the adventure to Brunei via Labuan, whereas I should have flown to my sister's in Manila, dumped a load of stuff like erm, waterproofs, and headed back there in Jan to collect it all. I also remembered that my sister was in Singapore this weekend so should've hooked up with her there really, but I wanted to have a few nights in KL. I also posted home my Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore guidebook before I realised that the SE Asia in a Shoestring only has half a page on Labuan.....

It was quite hard leaving KK this morning, but I think that was as much to do with the weight of my backpack than anything. The ferry here was nothing like the horror stories I had heard, and I caught up on some sleep.

I watched the news for the first time in four months tonight. Another wonderful twist in my travel planning - the holy month of Ramadan started yesterday...yes, a couple of days before I decided to head to frickin' Brunei. According to the Brunei Government website : "The Brunei government also shows its respect during the fasting month of Ramadan..... while all entertainment and sport activities are temporarily suspended." Looks like I'm in for a whale of a time.

Anyway, the one good thing about Labuan is that it is duty free. A large bottle of Tiger is only 3.50RM (50 pence) here which is less than half of what it is in KK. A 1L bottle of Bombay Sapphire is 7.50 UKP! A pack of Malboro Lights, 65pence. I went a wander around town tonight - not much happening but I stumbled on a local market of food stalls selling noodles, bbq'd meat and fish, so a box of noodles was 15pence :-)

Their tourism industry could be done with a kick in the nuts though - everywhere you read about here it mentions the fantastic wreck diving, but it's not easy to find anyone to take you there. The two people I asked here about where to get the ferry to the Marine Park (yes, the National Park!) for snorkelling didn't know, and one of them was the hotel. I think I'll head to the tourism office first thing and decide from there. I thought I may just end up heading to Brunei if I can't go snorkelling but the thought of maybe not being able to sit around and have snacks during the day doesn't really turn me on.

But the main thing? All this doesn't really matter. Apart from the weight of my rucksack nothing else matters - I don't have to be anywhere at any time before MOnday morning. I spoke to my mate I'm meeting in KL who has looked into Myanmar quite a bit and it turns out she knows someone there the start of October who knows their way around, so I think it may be up to Bangkok, grab a Myanmar visa, take a few pictures of tanks in the streets, dump all my electronic gear at her mates in Bangkok (to save the immigration sending me back, or keeping it at the border), then hot foot it to Myanmar for a short spell.

Apart from all that, all is well, except missing not having a compact camera!

Last night in KK

Well it feels like I've been writing this all the time - 'last night in KK', 'moving on soon','my own phase 2' and all that crap. But as long as I can get my bombsite of a hostel room in a better state tomorrow and post a couple of boxes home, I should be on the ferry to Labuan tomorrow lunchtime, and Brunei a day or so later. After a few failed emails, a quick handphone call (thats what they call mobiles here) to Brunei and I do believe I may have a room booked in one of the very rare cheap accommodation places in Brunei.

I finished my Rescue Diver course today and it was weird saying bye to the crowd at Borneo Divers. They've been so good to everyone on the expedition and getting us all through so many courses, and the head honcho is so interested in the expedition work (ok, I've bigged him up as he liked my end of expedition slideshow ;->).

Anyway, it's on a sad note to leave Kota Kinabalu. A few days ago I was flying here from Tawau (where you fly to Mabul / Sipadan) and I didn't want to come back here, but after four months it starts to mean a bit more I guess. Sabah rocks as a destination....KK is like any big city (although if I came here for a weekend I'd think it was sh!t) but around it there is so much to do, and you can anything here from fancy hotels to the lively filipino market and their amazing peanut pancake thingies you get there.

Last night I was so pleased I had only spent two pounds all day and thought I had got into 'travellers mode'...then I bumped into someone and blitzed 25 quid on beers at the fancy bars.

I ended my time here well though - I bumped into a tour guide from another country who just landed and went out for beers and food with him talking about travels, Sabah, the differences and how to relate to people back home (in a non-wanky way), gave him a whistle stop tour of KK so he can pretend he knows the place in a few weeks, and then he threw the whole night on his expenses. If Nod, Rich, Phil, Jane or Jade reads this I made sure I ended it the way I started it.... at BB Cafe like my first night here...

Diving pictures from Sipadan

Here's a couple of my diving pics from Sipadan taken at White Tip Avenue, and Barracuda Point (before the camera flooded!!). There's a shot of one of many turtles and a couple of a large 3 foot cuttlefish, and one of a school of barracudas starting to spiral down in a tornado formation.

I spent today at Mamutik Island again getting bitten by the mossies and the sand flies...those of you from Raleigh will understand that well. I expected to do more skills for my Rescue Diver but I ended up just doing the exam, and accompanying people on two dives around the island. I saw another turtle today. I then flew through my exam and will finish off the practical skills tomorrow.

I'm kinda sad to be leaving KK now but it has to be done, although that depends on how well I get on in packaging up my boxes to send home - a task that seems a lot bigger than it actually is.

Second phase...starts Monday!

Well that's the loose plan. The second phase of my non-Raleigh adventure starts Monday as I plan to leave my 'home' that is Kota Kinabalu to take the ferry to Labuan (still Malaysia) off the coast of Brunei, spend a night or two there, then a couple of days in Brunei before flying up to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. This will give me a few nights there before meeting my mate. Of course, the only thing I've booked is my flight from, Brunei - not the ferries or anything...hey one step at a time!!

Unfortunatly it doesn't look like the wreck dives will happen in Labuan as hoped - probably a good thing for the 'budget' but not so good for the experiences. There's a distinct lack of cheap accommodation in both those places so I'm fighting the urge to go upmarket in one of them....guess I need to buy a new camera sometime!

Rescue Diver and planning next move

Well still no new pictures as I don't have my laptop online. I've been back in KK saying yet more goodbyes, often to the same people. I'm now the only Raleigh staff in the hostel so it's starting to change a bit, with several flying to KL and Cambodia tomorrow.

I spent today and yesterday doing my PADI Rescue Diver course, and will finish it off tomorrow or the next day. I'm trying to make some plans for next week but failing miserably. I thought I'd head to Brunei just to see what it's like, and get the ferry from KK via Labuan to see some of these amazing wrecks that all the tourism promotions go on, and on, and on about.....but it seems it's quite difficult to sort out a trip - a google search doesn't give me any details, the tourism board doesn't give me any dive schools, and the agent in KK says hardly anyone goes there now, despite teh tourism board still pumping out information about it. I then tried to find out cheap accommodation there and ran into another stumbling block.

Hey ho I may just take the chance, but it looks like the diving is out. It also looks like the dive operators have started to wrap up in the Perhentians already which is a bit of a pain as I am heading there on 3rd October....

It's strange to know I'll be leaving KK next week. When I came back here from Sipadan I didn't want to make the trip as I wanted to move on elsewhere, however now I'm here it's great having a place I know my way around, and I look at all the Orang-putees (dodgy spelling, but basically white folk) and wander what they're doing in 'my town'.

I'll be in KL by the end of next week, meanwhile I 'm off to try and sort out some luggage I have to send home.....! Maybe a night out with a staffer who is back in town tonight, but it depends if I hear from him or not - maybe tomorrow instead....

Oh yeh, and I saw a massive stonefish today (just after one had to be moved from the beach area), and a blue spotted stingray today...luckily I didn't tease it like some other famous folk recently...

Hmm...my camera's not switching on in this dive....and more sharks

It's the last day's diving today, so three to finish it off. This morning we were back to Sipadan at 0745. Yesterday the diving didn't look promising as we had to transfer in pretty rough seas, but it turned out ok. Last night there was a tropical storm (evidence by the trashed house in the stilted village we saw later), so it looked even worse today. I had a mad moment during the night thinking I had left my rash vest and shorts outside...and they had disappeared. Just as I was about to head out on a search in the middle of the storm, around 3am, I remembered I had hung them up in the bathroom. Quite an amazing acheivement really as I was so knackered after heading back last night, and had consumed a tiger and several 'specially imported' (ahem) shots of Filipino Tanduay Rum obtained from the local village next to the resort.

So the first dive went a bit like this.... hmmm...my camera's not switching on - weird. I had put new batteries in this morning and had resealed the o-ring on the waterproof housing. I gave it several attempts then gave up. It was then I started to see the mist forming on the inside, closely followed by a rapidly increasing bubble of water filling up the inside of the casing......not much I could do at this point apart from sack off the dive in the hope I rescued it. We had got dropped off at White Tip Point though so I knew there should be more sharks down below (albeit not that huge)......so I did the only thing that was right.....continue the dive, watching the water seeping in, and rapidly trashing my camera. I quickly calculated that Raleigh staff seem to have around a 20% hit rate on trashing cameras on this trip....... never mind, it'll give me an excuse to buy these Sony's I've been eyeing up, despite their trashed count sitting at two.

It was a weird feeling coming in and washing down my camera in fresh water. I'm currently holding out the memory card dries out successfully as I was too lazy and relaxed to download the pictures of turtles and sharks last night...arrrggg.

Anyway, the dive continued and we saw more huge turtle elegantly cruising by and a few more white tipped sharks. The second dive at Coral Reef Garden had quite a current which was hard work after a while, but loads of coral to be seen.

Anyway, my last or second last dive beckons...I must dash...

Swimming with the sharks and barracuda on Sipadan

It was a fantastic day's diving today, managing to squeeze in four dives. Two dives were on Mabul island, including a night dive, and we did two dives at Sipadan. There was an amazing amount to see including umpteen turtles, cuttle fish, thousands of other fish I had no idea what they were, and also several white tipped sharks. At one of the dive sights (imaginatively called Barracuda Point) we amanged to witness an amazing formation of thousands of barracuda creating a tornado formation about us before swimming away. It was quite a site with a bunch of divers having around so they would approach us, rather than scaring them off, but it was fantastic to see them in formation. On my last dive, my fins were also bitten by a trigger fish when surfacing which was a bit unsettling at first, then quite amusing.

The night dive was pretty special as well with us seeing several large turtles elegantly coasting along, and again some of them were massive. It's something pretty special to be swimming alongside them, lit up by torchlight. We also saw a number of crabs that looked as though the coral was growing on them (although I'm sure it wasn't), a miniature octopus, and loads more I can't remember. Mabul is famous for it's macro life, so lots of tiny things were pointed to us by the divemaster.

Borneo Divers have it pretty sorted here - a relaxed dive resort with pool (and bar) and a nice little beach bar open later on. The food is great as well which is just what you need. It's taken a bit of time for the folk I'm with to adjust to other people carrying our bags for us, but it's bloody brilliant at the same time.

Turtles on Mabul Island

Most of the staff attended the Malaysian Merdeka Day celebratons last night at Likas Stadium in KK. I think they rotate it around all the different regions in Malaysia and this year was Sabah's turn. Our VIP tickets had us sitting almost within spitting distance of the King. It was a pretty full on event with a shedload of dancing, singing and music but we were all too knackered to take full advantage of it and were struggling to keep our eyes open. If it wasn't for the uncomfy stadium chairs....

We were up at 5.30am today to get to the airport and fly to Tawau, then got a boat transfer to Mabul Island. You know those desert islands that people talk about? They really do exist - not Mabul, but on the way we passed a pristine island that consisted of only sand and four or five palm trees.

Soon after arriving we had two boat dives. They were both great dives, but utterly ruined by foggy goggles, so I spent most of my time clearing them - not what you want! On the second dive we saw several turtles, very close to the island. Without exaggerating one of them was about the same length as me - the divemaster reckoned it could weigh up to 100kg.

We did hear some stories about the permit limitations for access to Sipadan diving though, and some folk were turned back today, so fingers crossed for tomorrow as my name's on the list.

Oh yeh....I'm sitting here on my laptop, using wireless internet, sitting on the outside decking of the resort, and away to help myself to the buffet. Hard living ;-> But it is costing me a month in Thailand for a few days probably!

More updates tomorrow no doubt. I'll have my camera out tomorrow, I just hope I see through the goggles to work the bloody thing.

Last night in field base

The last couple of days have been very hectic as we are all preparing to leave field base at ridiculous o'clock to fly to Tawau, then get the boat to Sipadan for three days of diving. I never even found time to sort out my luggage so when I come back to KK next week for the dive course, I'll be doing that in the evenings!

One of the in-country staff, Mia, left to travel today so it was a last night out with her yesterday (there's some of my pics and a mention in her blog). All the staff that are left in KK made a return visit to Cafe Tutu at the Shangri La for a slap up buffet on seafood night. We then move to town to a salsa club, then Bed nightclub in KK watching a Malaysian trio of Spice Girl wannabees inbetween the music. We tried to stay on after they had put the chairs up and were brushing the floor but it didn't work....

This morning some of us were up at 545 to help with a fundraiser for a local stroke group, but I didn't make it until later on. In a few moments I'm off for the final 'do' which is for independence day celebrations at Likas Stadium in town, with VIP invites from the Ministry of Youth and Sport. Although everyone is extremely tired, it could be in interesting event with fireworks etc...unfortunately for the last few hours we've been subjected to some of the worst rainstorms there's been since our arrival......

I think everyone is ready for the end of the trip now and it'll be superb to get a few days on the island outside the Raleigh 'bubble'.

It's been a complete blast, and if any of you on the expedition read this, thanks for all the fantastic times and memories, and hopefully we'll be able to keep in touch afterwards.

Expedition Wash-up

It's that time already and it seems to be flying by. We had our staff party at Gayana Island Resort last night. It was a pretty well behaved affair on the whole, but was a good laugh with late night swims etc in a lovely pool that was fenced off from the sea, and staying in a nice stilted set of cabins. When we arrived we were greet with around 20 long tailed makak monkeys playing around the water, including one with two babies being carried around. Underneath us was a monitor lizard swimming in the sea.

Staff have started to leave now with our last big night out tomorrow before we head off to Sipadan which I'm really looking forward to. I've completed my post expedition report and have a long list of stuff to wrap up before heading home. I've booked flights back to KK from there to do my dive course before heading up to KL to start the second leg of the travels, or over to Brunei for a night or so. I could do with getting out of KK for a change, but the price I got for diving was irresistable.

End of expedition!

It's pretty much that time already!

The last few days were spent at the final expedition wash up, and a closing ceremony with the Minister if Youth and Sport, and his Permanent Secretary (and others) in attendance. My slideshow of the three months went down a storm, and it had a (if I may say so) cracking soundtrack from Greenday to Hieroglyphics.

We all went to a small basic resort by the beach and had a good party, with a cracking sunset, then were in the sea in the dark watching a distant thunderstorm, stuffed full of BBQ food and non alcoholic cocktails.

All the participants went home today, or we dumped them in KK to go on their merry ways. Quite a sad day, but the end of a good time, and there's definitely folk out of the group I'll miss (but hey, not a lot of you ;-> ). A few tears were shed at the airport (not mine, thank god!), a few bits of gear were left behind.

We then returned to fieldbase, then a slab of beer was cracked open and we went out for a meal.

I'm sure there are loads more I could write about the last few days but I need my bed. It's the staff party tomorrow and I'm determined to make it snorkelling before the madness kicks in. If you are checking this out after having got back to the UK, I hope you settle back in ok, and don't get too down. Just think of all the good times, and the things you've done that none of your mates will ever do.

I've confirmed my Emergency First Response and Rescue Diver courses before I leave Sabah, I only need to book return flights from the Sipadan trip. I think I'm binning the idea of heading up to Sandakan for the orangutans and turtle island due to the cost, but hey ho, plenty more adventures to come...

Trekking to the office

This morning I watched the sunrise at the top of Mount Kinabalu again. This second time seemed a lot harder than the first - probably because I hadn't warmed up trekking the Crocker Range for a week like I did the last time. I had sore knees, and my head was spinning a bit. It was quite an 'interesting' trip with two of the leaders turning back as one was ill, then we had to arrange someone to be stretchered down 6km from 11000 feet along a really rocky and 'steppy' path, with a suspected ankle injury. All in all it was a hard, but enjoyable end to the expedition. Almost everyone made it to the summit and I was almost in tears looking down to the mountain's shadow cast by the rising sun (I missed this the last time as I had my camera pointed towards the sun and never looked over the back). I summitted a bit later than the last time as I waited at the checkpoint for the tail end of the group, but this just meant I saw the sun rise from a different angle.

After a very sleepy trip back to KK in the land rover I was straight back into the office and doing final prep for the end of expedition. I can't beleive that 3 months have passed, and tomorrow all the project teams arrive back in KK for the final expedition wash up and the end of expedition parties.

On Sunday I'll be showing my slideshow at the closing ceremony in front of all the participants and some guests from the Ministry of Youth and Sport, and everyone will get a copy of the expedition CD. I'm looking forward to seeing the reactions when it's shown on the big screen with the 'funky?' soundtrack I've put onto it. It's taken me far too long to put it together but also very enjoyable realising everything that's happened across the project sites. As ever I've got last minute additions from two projects to put in.

Anyway, gotta go and pack for the next few days.....

More pictures published!

Popped out last night and got my hands on a copy of the new Sabah Tourism's Sabah Magazine last night. On the back page was a Raleigh article written by our resident PR Officer, and 6 of my pictures were accompanying the article on the back and contents pages! Unfortunately my name wasn't credited but it was great to see them in print.

This Sabah map on Sabah Tourism's website it pretty reasonable and by the end of this month I'll have travelled to most corners of it.

Well some stresses and strains are coming out as everyone is starting to get ready in the head for the end of expedition. Just as I was about to pack my bag for Mount Kinabalu, I returned to field base with the end of expedition magazine (looks good) and the CD's. The magazine is great and it's brilliant seeing even more of my images (and some others) in full colour print. Unfortunately I proudly popped the CD into the tray of the deputy expedition leader's PC, only to find out the wrong CD contents had been burned!! Arrrggg. Luckily it was through no fault of our own, but there was definitely some smoothing over as to not upset the supplier too much.

Oh well, got some more stuff to do, and as usual, a later than normal bedtime before Mt K, as I know I'll be up at 2am tomorrow night to summit in the dark to see the sunrise up there again.

My blogging will be quiet as we then roll into the end of expedition parties. Oh yeh, I also slid down some of that slippery slope I mentioned a few blogs ago, and walked out a dive shop today with a mask and snorkel...it's maybe only a matter of temptation before I buy the fins, but I'm fighting it hard as they'd be a pain in the arse to carry around the world! The hire ones are pretty abysmal though, and it looks like I'll be doing the rescue diver course before leaving Sabah.

Mount Kinabalu again...and staff party

Had a fantastic day off yesterday and did two dives as mentioned earlier. Sulu Reef by Sulu Island, and Mid Reef by Manukan Island. Although not spectacular dives in the grand scheme of things they were by far the best I've done here so far, and the second one had a small wreck of a trawler type boat. There were loads of fish around here and we saw a sea snake of some kind, a cuttle fish (or whatever it's called), large stonefish and quite a bit more that I don't know the names of.

Anyway, today and tomorrow is finishing off the slideshow and prepping some images for the final wash-up as I've been asked to go up Mount Kinabalu again as they are a mountain leader short. It's no big deal to do it again, but I do hate paths like the one at the start up until the overnight rest point. It will also mean I'm a bit more hurried as I'll come back from there and straight to the wash up, venturers party and staff party. Looking forward to the staff party as we've found out it's at the Gayana Resort - check it out - very nice water villa style accommodation. Better buy that snorkelling gear....

Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar tips needed

In a month's time or less I'll be wandering around SE Asia so please send on any tips from previous travels.....

Google Maps - Kota Kinabalu and dive sites

I've arranged a diving day on Monday just off the coast from KK. As I was looking into it I found this great site wannadive.net which integrates with google maps and shows KK and the surrounding Tunku Abdul Rahman park.

Manukan Reef was the area I was snorkelling around last week. The island shown above South Reef is Mamutik where the group stays for a week of their adventure phase. Raleigh obviously wasn't there when the photograph was taken as you can't see the waterproof tarp up when you zoom in! KK is pretty detailed as well but I can't work out how to mark field base yet.

It still makes me more excited when I read the wannadive sections on Sipadan.


I'd love to fit in some diving on Labuan as there are great wrecks there, but time is making it look unlikely.

A slippery slope - I visited a dive shop today.....

I 'popped' into KK today to get pictures printed for a wee exhibition, and to be used at promotional events in the future. It's a bit of a hassle not having command of your own transport here (and the travellers mentality is hitting me trying to justify the two pound taxi in and out), so I had a good few hours to kill waiting for them to be ready.

KK doesn't have many places to just go and chill in unless you are eating or drinking (at least I haven't found them), or having a massage (again, I couldn't justify the cheap cost of this!?!) so I ended up bumming around a few shops trying not to spend any money.

Unfortunately I stumbled across the shop at o2 Diver in KK and before I knew it I had rang the bell and was wandering around their well equipped store. I had to run away before buying a dive mask, snorkel and potentially fins...but I think I'll probably be back before the trip to Sipadan, for the first two anyway. I've also made semi serious enquiries about doing my Rescue Diver and Emergency First Response course before I leave Sabah, as I'm hoping to get it for a price that would be stupid to resist....

Durian

I finally had a taste of the infamous Durian fruit today. I've meant to many times before so the boss took one into the office, and we all had a taste. The smell wasn't as bad as I expected and the taste of it was......different. Quite a weird texture, but again, not nearly as bad as I had anticipated, and I never had that look of horror some of the other staff or participants had.
Apart from that a pretty uneventful day, probably because I hid in a room with my laptop and worked on the end of expedition slideshow.

Another article about Raleigh International in Panaitan appeared the New Straits Times yesterday.

Slideshow of my work as a Raleigh International expedition photographer

I've removed the previous slideshow and added some more images...still none of them show the jungle, the camps, the kampongs etc, but it's a start. This is a sample of some of the photographs I've taken over the last two months - mostly in the last few weeks.

Manukan Island snorkelling

I managed to take some time out today. I was all relaxed, finished my book during breakfast and was all ready to order a taxi to the ferry terminal. I then made the mistake of walking into the office and had 10 minutes of stress after walking into a discussion about a photo exhibition in 3 days time, that appeared from nowhere... after snapping at people for a while we came to the conclusion it wasn't worth it, then I went and called a cab.
I went to the ferry terminal to get the inter-island ferry to Sapi Island and arrived just in time for the last place on the boat. The expensive ferries leave from Sutera Harbour, but then you're paying what I refer to as the 'Sutera tax' - it's a lovely resort hotel, but it's cheaper to get the ferry from the town centre at Jesselton Point. This is the area I was trying to take photos of several weeks ago, and there's been a huge difference in the area, and going to look pretty smart by the end of the refurbishments. If you take a cab here though just ask for the ferry terminal.
I was a total tourist though and ended up at Manukan Island in the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park... I was on the boat waiting for it to dock at the Sapi jetty, then it pulled away. I was on my way to Manukan. What I didn't realise, is the boat stops for long enough for people to walk off the front, but doesn't actually dock.
Anyway, Manukan was nice, and if you asked me yesterday, this is where I was originally plannig to go. For 51RM (seven pounds) I had my return ticket, park entry fees, and a mask and snorkel for the day.
I had a great hours snorkelling, a bit of reading, and before I was ready for it waws on the boat back to KK. The snorkelling wasn't the best in the world, but it was really relaxing and there was plenty to see, as shown by the pictures.
When I arrived on the island I took a 1.5km walk along a path to 'sunset point. It would have been absolute comedy to be walking behind me. Despite spending the best part of 3-4 weeks in jungle terrain, the dry leaves on and around the path amplified every sound you heard in the surrounding overgrowth. There were so many small lizards around, yet every time I heard something scuttle through the leaves, my heart rate shot and and I occassionaly jumped. The dryness of the leaves makes every noise sound like it's something huge moving around. I didn't feel quite so much of a woose when I saw that two of them were around 4 foot long monitor lizards crossing the path with feet of me. To give you an idea of what they look like, over the last two weeks we've had two reports of 'crocodile' sitings from project sites over the radio. The next day they ate some humble pie... 'erm, it was a monitor lizard'

I submitted a few pictures of Sabah to a request from an online picture agency, but considering there are hundreds of other submissions I won't be holding my breath too much.

Life as a Raleigh International expedition photographer

I was sending an email the other day, first thing in the morning, still tired from the night before, and ended up ranting. The funny thing is, it's probably the most realistic account of my life as the expedition photographer. I've edited it a bit as it originally formed part of an email, and more has happened over the last few days.....this is a summary of some of my last phase when I was hopping around projects. If I get the chance I'll edit it again to make it read better and make more sense!

Before you read it, don't let it put you off Raleigh, or wonder about your kids going on it - some projects have very few incidents, and when you read the stuff below, it probably reads worse than it actually is.


....when you're in a tiny kampong you finally realise you got there after
bouncing along the roughest roads you've seen for several hours, only covering 70km. You get dropped at one side of the river (where you soon find out all your supplies will be dumped) and have to wade across, then walk 1km to end up in a 15 house kampong (village) which is your home for the next 10 days until the loop (resupply) vehicle comes to move you on. The kampong has one car that keeps breaking down, and your only contact with the outside world is the
daily, crackly, hard to make out HF radio contact, and your only chats with
the locals are through an 18 year old Malaysian participant who can speak 80% of their lingo. The only washes you have are in the river you cross every day, (usually carrying the pipes for the gravity water feed system), and upstream you sometime swim or play frisbee. Home is the local community hall, overlooked by the JKKK's house (the head of the village).

Ten days later, you head from the kampong in the loop vehicle, moving around projects for the next few days, covering up to 600km
on a road trip - more than half of it off road, shaking up your inside as you bounce
along the road to the next destination for a night in another wee kampong where they are building a kindergarten, met by 25 kids running towards the land rover. On the way back out at early o'clock the next morning, you bounce along the road back out again, and spend a night in the jungle after trekking in to the BBC's old camp at Imbak Canyon, trying to beat the dark, having just rushed to pass logging trucks spewing out dust for 0.5km behind them, so you can make the river before the pending storm makes it too high to drive across. Once there you are pestered by the group for mail, have to pester them for PR quotes, and smile happily and pretend you are really up for the special quiz they have organised for their welcome guests - the only new faces they see in 3 weeks. As to not miss an opportunity, you then fight the temptation to crash out to do a night trek. 5am beckons before you're ready for it, and at 6am you're trekking back out to the land rover with someone who's had sad family news so you can send them back to base on a bus, but while trekking you're constantly wondering if the river is still low enough to drive back over... then bounce along to the next destination.
After a rare treat of a hotel for a few hours sleep at night in a stopover town (Lahad Datu), it's up early again to greet the party from the Ministry of Youth and Sport who have flown in to visit the project site at Danum Valley, which is 60km from any other human habitation. You have lunch with them, trek in with them, trek back with them, have dinner, take pics of them tree planting, attend a science talk with them, then feel obliged to stay up and sing karaoke with them, before grabbing 4hrs sleep and getting up to watch the sunrise with them, leaving at 0430, then dumping pics on your laptop (specially requested on the land rover) so they can be taken back to the PR person for press releases while you stay there to help build a suspension bridge. A few days later after lugging stones and concrete up steep banks, up a river, or across a river to build bridge foundations, you are settling down for a last relaxing night at the camp. Before you know it, you're acting as a runner between the radio and the PM acting as medic, as someone has got a fever and you are trying to contact field base on one radio, and have another person walking to the rangers camp to radio a boat to come up the river incase we move the person to the hospital. Within 10 minutes my last night is cancelled, and I'm packing my kit, stuffing dinner down my throat (as I don't know when I'll next eat), and heading down the river on the ranger's boat from the camp, guided by spotlight (and headtorches when they cut the engine as the river was low), then bussing it the next morning to Lahad Datu hospita, 2.5hrs away, with with someone who is about to have a temperature of 40.8c taken. Then you try and discharge them (much to the frustration of the staff as a doctor hasn't seen them yet, so they rapidly find the time for a quick consultation) so you can try and pick up a ticket for them at the airport so they can join my prebooked flight back to fieldbase, as they switch rapidly between a pale white, and deep red face. Meanwhile you try and convince the ticket agent, who is questioning whether they should fly, that they have been checked out at hospital and they are ok to fly, and "don't worry, I'll
have him back in hospital in KK within 2 hours"...

Arriving back in field base a day before changeover to catch up with pictures, and see what you've taken 4 weeks ago, you then have to juggle with requests to help
organise games to keep participants occupied the following afternoon at changeover, cope with 6 conversations going on at once in the office, and all the time, 24x7, the white noise of the radio coming across over the loudspeakers incase there is an incident (of which there are several - 3 people were hauled out of Danum for fevers while I was there), and jumping up every time someone sends a fax, as the beeping sounds identical to a radio call from a group.

I was straight into selecting about 40 pics from thousands to go in a magazine, other folk being taken off islands ill, trying to help book flights for 15 staff for a post expedition dive trip, while I should be looking out pics for an
exhibition and CDROM etc etc...

When I was in Danum my journal was almost up to date (except 2 weeks from initial jungle training) and I've written nothing in it since arriving back at field base (which staff on projects seem to think the easy life is).

By the time I get back to field base, any letters I received at changeover seem like they were months ago as so many things have happened, and in reality, it was 5 weeks between getting one letter and me being back in field base I think. I've got 6 postcards I was going to write, and I've had them for weeks, and never had a chance to write them. The only one I've written was to a mate, and that was in Chinese, written by someone on my behalf, to see if he could understand it.

The last week's I've been shitting in deep holes (or maybe not deep, depending how long we stopped for), getting leeched on the way back from them, but only finding out once I've returned to my sleeping liner in my hammock, bathing in rivers (or sometimes a trickle of water flowing down a craftily placed bit of bamboo), trying to remember to put on sandals all the time as we saw a small scorpion kicking around, or boots in the jungle for the same reason (or snakes), carrying a water pipe under the 'bat cave' logs etc etc. I got off lightly with the leeches - threw hundreds off, but only 4 'bleeders' - several have been leeched on their nuts!

I've been trying to keep my head down recently as a trek leader has been hauled off the island to hospital so I'll be doing anything to avoid being selected as a stand in (since I've done my mountain leader training) as that'll mean I'm trekking for a week or so rather than doing the photo stuff. I'm still rushing on with the photo stuff, but I may be back in the Crocker Range trekking again before I know it.


BUT...don't let this put you off, it's bloody great fun, and all an adventure!!
While I was browsing around I also found the blog of a previous expedition's PR Officer.

PADI Advanced Open Water

Yaaah, I managed to get two dives in today to complete my PADI Advanced Open Water I started in the Philippines last year. I found out a few things during the dive today, some good, some bad :

• I don't panic too much when it all goes a bit pear shaped
• Even in exotic locations, the visibility can still be piss poor
• My watch was only waterproof to 30m (although now I could take it to any depth)
  

I joined a Raleigh group that had done their Open Water, and moved on to their Advanced this week. We went to 30ish metres, sat on the seabed and wrote A-Z then Z-A on the slate, and it was all hunky-dory. I thought visibility would improve as we descended, but it was that bad you had to be inches away from someone's mask to see their eyes at times. We then sat around for 10 mins or so.....which seemed to last longer than that. I checked the time on my watch, and it was all ok. An instructor came round counting us off, then I wondered whether we should have followed him. Some more time passed so I looked around to see what I could bang my tank with to attract attention...the only thing being my plastic watch, but it did make a noise.
This went on for a while, the other two in my group wondering what the hell I was doing, but I knew it made sense. I heard the bells from the instructor was wasn't confident enough of the exact direction to move towards it. Eventually my air started to get low, so I signalled to my group we'd surface, with a stop on the way (using their depth gauge as mine was wonky). As I rose from the seabed I kept tapping away on the tank, the out of the blue (boom, boom) my instructor appeared. I signalled to her about my air, then took her second regulator as my intake, then slowly headed up with the compulsory stop.
So I felt ok, and afterwards asked the instructor if I did the right thing, and had indicated the correct stop depth to the group I was in, so I was quite pleased with that. It turns out they were doing a quick search for someone...unless I lost a bit in translation.
On the boat back I checked my watch which had a little bit of the South China Sea inside it. Not good. I rapidly calculated that it cost me the equivalent of a month's worth of the beach hut accommodation in Krabi I was looking at last night.

On the plus side, my navigation dive went better than I thought, despite not having too much on the seabed to use for my natural features navigation part.

Raleigh International Press Coverage

There's been loads of articles published, largely due to our ever efficient PRO Kate. This article in The Star is about the gravity water feed system in Kampong Linapasan I was on for 10 days at the start of the month. There's another article about the Opening Ceremony in The Star with more general coverage of Raleigh. I'm trying to work out if the picture online is mine or not, but it's probably just that the photographer was crouching next to me.

I've decided I'm slowly starting to show signs of being a 'traveller' although I'm nowhere near being a real one (yet?). The following are only the first signs :

• I cringe when the shop bill gets close to 30 RM (under a fiver)
• I am wearing a friendship band (rapidly pleated from camping twine!) on my wrist given by one participant at Danum Valley, and I have another one in my pocket, but I haven't got round to burning the ends of the cord yet.
• I leave the town centre of KK and go back to fieldbase as I'll only spend money on things I don't need.
• I've only got a couple of travel dates planned (although I do have flights)

Over the next few days I'll post a no-holds barred account of what it's like to be a Raleigh International Expedition Photographer (come Project Manager, come Admin person, come Logistics person, come Medic etc etc - you don't think you apply for one role and stick to that role do you? That's half the fun!). It'll sound manic (it is) but it's all great fun, and highly recommended.

Photography news

Was just killing time browsing around about photography when I stumbled upon this article about an IPTC image tags mishap by Lothian and Borders police during the G8 summit - a word of caution for learning photographers in there!!

I also discovered that Olympus are about to launch a 10MP consumer camera featuring an image stabalisation feature for 330 UKP in October! Bummer because I bought a Canon A540 before I headed on my travels and it's shit - usual story, in a rush, needed a half decent manual compact camera that I could get a waterproof casing for. The flash takes bloody ages to, well...flash in that time of need. To add insult to injury, the little box of metal is 100 UKP cheaper over here. Actually it's not too bad a camera, but that feature is very annoying. Maybe I'm just doing something wrong. Or wishing I had just said 'bugger the manual features' and bought one of the dinky little IXUS's.

Post Expedition Plans

I was about to say nothing much to report again - I went for a two pound haircut this morning then continued sifting through pictures again. Being in the office is driving us all a bit mental. Raleigh fever has hit bad - I've got a habit of loosing everything that I've put in a safe place - which was usually my hands five minutes earlier. Today I topped it all, after looking for my toiletries bag (for 4 days) in my pile of stuff lying around my bed in 'Stigs Dump' (yes that's what we call one of the 'boys' rooms) I found it.... Hanging up in a safe place - in the bloody bathroom. This scenario can be played back on things like USB pen drives, sunglasses, wallets and anything else I leave in 'safe places'.

The main news today is several of us have booked a dive trip to Sipadan Island after the end of the expedition. Like being at the top of Mount Kinabalu, this was one of the moments that got me bouncing around the office with joy....that topped with the fact that I have started to make plans for October. I say plans, but it's only the initial destination - everything else will hopefully just fall into place at the time, after a few days on Perhentian Islands, just the way I like it. It's a bit like my trip to Sipadan - I've only booked a one way ticket to Tawau from KK just now as I can't decide whether, or how, to head up to the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary and Turtle Islands National Park, head back to KK, do a dive course, visit my sister in Manila, or head to Peninsular Malaysia...and the best thing? It doesn't bloody matter, they're all good. Good ol' AirAsia - 12UKP flights around Sabah and peninsular Malaysia, 20 UKP to Philippines.

I must be impressed at that as I've just spend 90 minutes pissing about on their website trying to book flights for folk. While I was typing this post I got an email in so I've now also booked a flight from KL to Kota Bahru.....but I've no idea how I'm getting to KL yet. Ahhh, the joys...

Some Pictures Uploaded!